XII. 1558. The splen effect of Thus, in a few days, during the depth of winter, and BOOK at a time when the fatal battle of St Quintin had so depressed the sanguine spirit of the French, that their. utmost aim was to protect their own country, without dour and dreaming of making conquests on the enemy, the enter- these cenprising valour of one man drove the English out of quests. Calais, after they had held it two hundred and ten years, and deprived them of every foot of land in a kingdom, where their dominions had been once very extensive. This exploit, at the same time that it gave an high idea of the power and resources of France to all Europe, set the duke of Guise, in the opinion of his countrymen, far above all the generals of the age. They celebrated his conquests with immoderate transports of joy; while the English gave vent to all the passions which animate a high-spirited people, when any great national calamity is manifestly owing to the ill conduct of their rulers. Mary and her ministers, formerly odious, were now contemptible in their eyes. All the terrors of her severe and arbitrary administration could not restrain them from uttering execrations and threats against those, who, having wantonly involved the nation in a quarrel wherein it was nowise interested, had, by their negligence or incapacity brought irreparable disgrace on their country, and lost the most valuable possession belonging to the English crown. The king of France imitated the conduct of its former conqueror Edward III. with regard to Calais. He commanded all the English inhabitants to quit the town, and giving their houses to his own subjects, whom he allured to settle there by granting them various immunities, he left a numerous garrison, under an experienced governor, for their defence. After this, his victorious army was conducted into quarters of refreshment, and the usual inaction of winter returned. During these various operations Ferdinand assembled Feb. 24 the college of electors at Franckfort, in order to lay before them the instrument whereby Charles V. had resigned the BOOK Χ.Ι. 1558. resigna tion of the imperial imperial crown, and transferred it to him. This he had hitherto delayed, on account of some difficulties which Charl's had occurred concerning the formalities requisite in supplying a vacancy occasioned by an event to which there was no parallel in the annals of the empire. These being at length adjusted, the prince of Orange executed the commission with which he had been entrusted by Charles; the electors accepted of his resignation, declared Ferdinand his lawful successor, and put him in possession of all the ensigns of the imperial dignity. crown. The pope refuses to acknow ledge Fer dinand as Imperor. But when the new emperor sent Gusman, his chancellor, to acquaint the pope with this transaction, to testify his reverence towards the holy see, and to signify that, according to form, he would soon dispatch an ambassador extraordinary to treat with his holiness concerning his coronation; Paul, whom neither experience nor disappointments could teach to bring down his lofty ideas of the papal prerogative to such a moderate standard as suited the genius of the times, refused to admit the envoy into his presence, and declared all the proceedings at Frankfort irregular and invalid. He contended that the pope, as the vicegerent of Christ, was entrusted with the keys both of spiritual and of civil government; that from him the imperial jurisdiction was derived; that though his predecessors had authorised the electors to choose an emperor, whom the holy see confirmed, this privilege was confined to those cases when a vacancy was occasioned by death; that the instrument of Charles's resignation had been presented in an improper court, as it belonged to the pope alone to reject or to accept of it, and to nominate a person to fill the imperial throne; that, setting aside all these objections, Ferdinand's election laboured under two defects, which alone were sufficient to render it void; for the Protestant electors had been admitted to vote, though, by their apostacy from the catholic faith, they had forfeited that and every other privilege of the electoral office; and Ferdinand, by ratifying the concessions of several diets in favour of heretics, had rendered himself unworthy of the imperial dignity, which was instituted for the protection, not for the destruction, of the church. But, after thundering out these extravagant maxims, he added, with an appearance of condescension, that if Ferdinand would renounce all title to the imperial crown, founded on the election at Frankfort, make professions of repentance for his past conduct, and supplicate him, with due humility, to confirm Charles's resignation, as well as his own assumption, to the empire, he might expect every mark of favour from his paternal clemency and goodness. Gus man, though he had foreseen considerable difficulties in his negociation with the pope, little expected that he would have revived those antiquated and wild pretensions, which astonished him so much, that he hardly knew in what tone he ought to reply. He prudently declined entering into any controversy concerning the nature or extent of the papal jurisdiction, and confining himself to the political considerations which should determine the pope to recognise an emperor already in possession, he endeavoured to place them in such a light, as he imagined could scarcely fail to strike Paul, if he were not altogether blind to his own interest. Philip seconded Gusman's arguments with great earnestness, by an ambassador whom he sent to Rome on purpose, and besought the pope to desist from claims so unseasonable, as might not only irritate and alarm Ferdinand and the princes of the empire, but furnish the enemies of the holy see with a new reason for representing its jurisdiction as incompatible with the rights of princes, and subversive of all civil authority. But Paul, who deemed it a crime to attend to any consideration suggested by human prudence or policy, when he thought himself called upon to assert the prerogatives of the papal see, remained inflexible; and, during his pontificate, Ferdinand was not acknowledged as emperor by the court of Rome'. * Godleveus de Abdicat. Car. V. ap. Gold. Polit. Imper. 392. Pallav, lib. xiii, 189. Ribier, ii, 746, 759. BOOK XI. 1558. BOOK 1558. Henry endeavours to excite the Scots against England. Marriage of the dauphin queen of Scots. While Henry was intent upon his preparations for the approaching campaigu, he received accounts of the issue of his negociations in Scotland. Long experience having at last taught the Scots the imprudence of involving their country in every quarrel between France and England, neither the solicitations of the French ambassador, nor the address and authority of the queen-regent, could prevail on them to take arms against a kingdom with which they were at peace. On this occasion, the ardour of a martial nobility and of a turbulent people was restrained by regard for the public interest and tranquillity, which, in former deliberations of this kind, had been seldom attended to by a nation always prone to rush into every new war. But though the Scots adhered with steadiness to their pacific system, they were extremely ready to gratify the French king in another particular which he had given in charge to his ambassador. The young queen of Scots had been affianced to the dauphin in the year one thousand five hundred and fortywith the eight; and having been educated since that time in the court of France, she had grown up to be the most amiable, and one of the most accomplished princesses of that age. Henry demanded the consent of her subjects to the celebration of the marriage; and a parliament which was held for that purpose, appointed eight commissioners to represent the whole body of the nation at that solemnity, with power to sign such deeds as might be requisite before it was concluded. In settling the articles of the marriage, the Scots took every precaution that prudence could dictate, in order to preserve the liberty and independence of their country; while the French used every art to secure to the dauphin the conduct of affairs during the queen's life, and the succession of the crown on the event of her demise. The marriage was celebrated with pomp suitable to the dignity of the parties, and the magnificence of a court at that time the most splendid in Europe. Thus April 14. Keith's History of Scotland, p. 73. Append. 13. Corps Diplom. v. XII. 1558. Henry, in the course of a few months, had the glory of BOOK recovering an important possession, which had anciently belonged to the crown of France, and of adding to it the acquisition of a new kingdom. By this event, too, the duke of Guise acquired new consideration and importance; the marriage of his niece to the apparent heir of the crown, raising him so far above the condition of other subjects, that the credit which he had gained by his great actions, seemed thereby to be rendered no less permanent than it was extensive. opened. When the campaign opened, soon after the dauphin's The cammarriage, the duke of Guise was placed at the head of Paign the army, with the same unlimited powers as formerly. Henry had received such liberal supplies from his subjects, that the troops under his command were both numerous and well appointed; while Philip, exhausted by the extraordinary efforts of the preceding year, had been obliged to dismiss so many of his forces during the winter, that he could not bring an army into the field capable of making head against the enemy. The duke of Guise did not lose the favourable opportunity which his superiority afforded him. He invested Thionville in the duchy of Luxemburg, one of the strongest towns on the frontiers of the Netherlands, and of great importance to France, by its neighbourhood to Metz; and, notwithstanding the obstinate valour with which it was defended, he forced it to capitulate after a siege of three weeks". The ed at But the success of this enterprise, which it was expect- June 22. ed would lead to other conquests, was more than counter- French arbalanced by an event that happened in another part of my defeatthe Low Countries. The marechal de Termes, governor Gravelines. of Calais, having penetrated into Flanders without opposition, invested Dunkirk with an army of fourteen thousand men, and took it by storm on the fifth day of the siege. Hence he advanced towards Nieuport, which must have soon fallen into his hands, if the approach of the count of Egmont with a superior army had not made Thuan. lib. xx, 690. |
