XI. 1553. electoral Maurice having only left one daughter, who was after- BOOK wards married to William prince of Orange, by whom she had a son who bore his grandfather's name, and inhe- Maurice's rited the great talents for which he was conspicuous, a vio- brother Augustus lent dispute arose concerning the succession to his honours succeeds and territories. John Frederick, the degraded elector, him in the claimed the electoral dignity, and that part of his patri- dignity. monial estate of which he had been violently stripped after the Smalkaldic war. Augustus, Maurice's only brother, pleaded his right, not only to the hereditary possessions of their family, but to the electoral dignity, and to the territories which Maurice had acquired. As Augustus was a prince of considerable abilities, as well as of great candour and gentleness of manners, the states of Saxony, forgetting the merits and sufferings of their former master, declared warmly in his favour. His pretensions were powerfully supported by the king of Denmark, whose daughter he had married, and zealously espoused by the king of the Romans, out of regard to Maurice's memory. The degraded elector, though secretly favoured by his ancient enemy, the emperor, was at last obliged to relinquish his claim, upon obtaining a small addition to the territories which had been allotted to him, together with a stipula tion, securing to his family the eventual succession, upon a failure of male-heirs in the Albertine line. That unfortunate, but magnanimous prince, died next year, soon after ratifying this treaty of agreement; and the electoral dignity is still possessed by the descendants of Augustus. Countries. During these transactions in Germany, war was carried Hostilities on in the Low Countries with considerable vigour. The in the Low emperor, impatient to efface the stain which his ignomini ous repulse at Metz left upon his military reputation, had an army early in the field, and laid siege to Terouane. Though the town was of such importance, that Francis used to call it one of the two pillows on which a king of France might sleep with security, the fortifications were in bad repair. Henry, trusting to what had happened at Sleid. 587. Thuan. 409. Struv. Corp. Hist. Germ. VOL. VL 3 B XI. 4553. June 21. BOOK Metz, thought nothing more was necessary to render all the efforts of the enemy abortive, than to reinforce the garrison with a considerable number of the young nobility. But D'Essé, a veteran officer who commanded them, being killed, and the imperialists pushing the siege with great vigour and perseverance, the place was taken by assault. That it might not fall again into the hands of the French, Charles ordered not only the fortifications but the town itself to be razed, and the inhabitants to be dispersed in the adjacent cities. Elated with this success, the imperialists immediately invested Hesden, which, though defended with great bravery, was likewise taken by assault; and such of the garrison as escaped the sword were made prisoners. The emperor entrusted the conduct of this siege to Emanuel Philibert of Savoy, prince of Piedmont, who on that occasion gave the first display of those great talents for military command which soon entitled him to be ranked among the first generals of the age, and facilitated his re-establishment in his hereditary dominions, the greater part of which having been over-run by Francis in his expeditions into Italy, were still retained by Henry P. The pro gress of the imperialists disquiets the French king. The loss of these towns, together with so many persons of distinction, either killed or taken by the enemy, was no inconsiderable calamity to France, and Henry felt it very sensibly; but he was still more mortified at the emperor's having recovered his wonted superiority in the field so soon after the blow at Metz, which the French had represented as fatal to his power. He was ashamed, too, of his own remissness and excessive security at the opening of the campaign; and in order to repair that error, he assembled a numerous army, and led it into the Low Countries. Roused at the approach of such a formidable enemy, Charles left Brussels, where he had been shut up so closely during seven months, that it came to be believed in many parts of Europe that he was dead; and though he was so much debilitated by the gout that he could hardly bear the motion of a litter, he hastened to join his army. The Thuan. 411. Haræi Annales Brabant. 669. eyes of all Europe were turned with expectation towards those mighty and exasperated rivals, between whom a decisive battle was now thought unavoidable. But Charles having prudently declined to hazard a general engagement, and the violence of the autumnal rains rendering it impossible for the French to undertake any siege, they retired, without having performed any thing suitable to the great preparations which they had made 4. XI. 1553. rialists un The imperial arms were not attended with the same suc-The impe cess in Italy. The narrowness of the emperor's finances successful seldom allowed him to act with vigour in two different in Italy, places at the same time; and having exerted himself to the utmost, in order to make a great effort in the Low Countries, his operations on the other side of the Alps were proportionally feeble. The viceroy of Naples, in conjunction with Cosmo di Medici, who was greatly alarmed at the introduction of French troops into Siena, endeavoured to become master of that city. But, instead of reducing the Sienese, the imperialists were obliged to retire abruptly, in order to defend their own country, upon the appearance of the Turkish fleet, which threatened the coast of Naples; and the French not only established themselves more firmly in Tuscany, but, by the assistance of the Turks, conquered a great part of the island of Corsica, subject at that time to the Genoese ". and in The affairs of the house of Austria declined no less in Hungary during the course of the year. As the troops Hungary. which Ferdinand kept in Transylvania received their pay very irregularly, they lived almost at discretion upon the inhabitants; and their insolence and rapaciousness greatly disgusted all ranks of men, and alienated them from their new sovereign, who, instead of protecting, plundered his subjects. Their indignation at this, added to their desire of revenging Martinuzzi's death, wrought so much upon a turbulent nobility impatient of injury, and upon a fierce people prone to change, that they were ripe for a revolt. At that very juncture, their late queen Isabella, together XI. 1553 гOOK with her son, appeared in Transylvania. Her ambitious mind could not bear the solitude and inactivity of a private life; and repenting quickly of the cession which she had made of the crown in the year one thousand five hundred and fifty-one, she left the place of her retreat, hoping that the dissatisfaction of the Hungarians with the Austrian government would prompt them once more to recognise her son's right to the crown. Some noblemen of great eminence declared immediately in his favour. The basha of Belgrade, by Solyman's order, espoused his cause, in opposition to Ferdinand; the Spanish and German soldiers, instead of advancing against the enemy, mutinied for want of pay, declaring that they would march Ferdinand back to Vienna; so that Castaldo, their general, was obliobliges to abandon ged to abandon Transylvania to Isabella and the Turks, Transyl- and to place himself at the head of the mutineers, that by his authority he might restrain them from plundering the Austrian territories through which they passed. vania. Solyman's domestic distresses. Ferdinand's attention was turned so entirely towards the affairs of Germany, and his treasures so much exhausted by his late efforts in Hungary, that he made no attempt to recover this valuable province, although a favourable opportunity for that purpose presented itself, as Solyman was then engaged in a war with Persia, and involved besides in domestic calamities which engrossed and disturbed his mind. Solyman, though distinguished by many accomplishments from the other Ottoman princes, had all the passions peculiar to that violent and haughty race. He was jealous of his authority, sudden as well as furious in his anger, and susceptible of all that rage and love which reigns in the east, and often produces the wildest The tragi- and most tragical effects. His favourite mistress was a cal history Circassian slave of exquisite beauty, who bore him a son Mustapha. called Mustapha, whom, both on account of his birth of his son right and his merit, he destined to be the heir of his crown. Roxalana, a Russian captive, soon supplanted the Circassian, and gained the sultan's heart. Having *Thuan, 430, XI. 1553. the address to retain the conquest which she had made, BOOK she kept possession of his love without any rival for many years, during which she brought him several sons and one daughter. All the happiness, however, which she derived from the unbounded sway that she had acquired over a monarch whom one half of the world revered or dreaded, was embittered by perpetual reflections on Mustapha's accession to the throne, and the certain death of her sons, who, she foresaw, would be immediately sacrificed, according to the barbarous jealousy of Turkish policy, to the safety of the new emperor. By dwelling continually on this melancholy idea, she came gradually to view Mustapha as the enemy of her children, and to hate him with more than a step-mother's ill-will. This prompted her to wish his destruction, in order to secure for one of her own sons the throne which was destined for him. Nor did she want either ambition to attempt such a high enterprise, or the arts requisite for carrying it into execution. Having prevailed on the sultan to give her only daughter in marriage to Rustan the grand visier, she disclosed her scheme to that crafty minister, who perceiving that it was his own interest to co-operate with her, readily promised his assistance towards aggrandising that branch of the royal line to which he was so nearly allied. As soon as Roxalana had concerted her measures with this able confidant, she began to affect a wonderful zeal for the Mahometan religion, to which Solyman was superstitiously attached, and proposed to found and endow a royal mosque, a work of great expence, but deemed by the Turks meritorious in the highest degree. The mufti, whom she consulted, approved much of her pious intention; but having been gained and instructed by Rustan, told her, that she being a slave could derive no benefit herself from that holy deed, for all the merit of it would accrue to Solyman, the master whose property she was. Upon this she seemed to be overwhelmed with sorrow, and to sink into the deepest melancholy, as if she had been disgusted with life and all its enjoyments. Solyman, |