1558.

BOOK renounce all title to the Imperial crown, founded on the XII. 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. Gusman, 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 recognize 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 ".

Henry endeavours

to excite the Scots against England.

WHILE Henry was intent upon his preparations for the approaching campaign, 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 ad

s Godleveus de Abdicat. Car. V. ap. Gold. Polit. Imper. 392. Pallav. lib. xiii. 189. Ribier, ii. 746. 759.

XII.

1558.

dress and authority of the Queen-regent, could prevail on B O O K 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.

of the Dau

of Scots.

THE young Queen of Scots had been affianced to the Marriage Dauphin in the year one thousand five hundred and forty- phin with eight, and having been educated since that time in the court the Queen 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 April 14. of the parties, and the magnificence of a court at that time the most splendid in Europe. Thus Henry, in the course of a few months, had the glory of 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

t Keith's History of Scotland, p. 73. Append. 13. Corps Diplom. v. 21. 2 U

VOL. III.

BOOK gained by his great actions, seemed thereby to be rendered no less permanent than it was extensive.

XII.

1558.

The cam

paign opened.

June 22.

The French army defeated at

Gravelines.

WHEN the campaign opened, soon after the Dauphin's marriage, the Duke of Guise was placed at the head of 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 dutchy of Luxemburg, one of the strongest towns on the frontier 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".

BUT the success of this enterprise, which it was expected would lead to other conquests, was more than counterbalanced by an event that happened in another part of the LowCountries. The Marechal de Termes, governor 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 it prudent to retreat. The French troops were so much incumbered with the booty which they had got at Dunkirk, or by ravaging the open country, that they moved slowly; and Egmont, who had left his heavy baggage and artillery behind him, marched with such rapidity, that he came up with them near Gravelines, and at tacked them with the utmost impetuosity. De Termes, who had the choice of the ground, having posted his troops to advantage in the angle formed by the mouth of the river Aa

Thuan. lib. xx. 690.

XII.

1558.

and the sea, received him with great firmness. Victory re- BOOK mained for some time in suspense, the desperate valour of the French, who foresaw the unavoidable destruction that must follow upon a rout in an enemy's country, counterbalancing the superior number of the Flemings, when one of those accidents to which human prudence does not extend, decided the contest in favour of the latter. A squad-. ron of English ships of war, which was cruizing on the coast, being drawn by the noise of the firing towards the place of the engagement, entered the river Aa, and turned its great guns against the right wing of the French, with such effect, as immediately broke that body, and spread terror and confusion through the whole army. The Flemings, to whom assistance, so unexpected and so seasonable, gave fresh spirit, redoubled their efforts, that they might not lose the advantage which fortune had presented them, or give the enemy time to recover from their consternation, and the rout of the French soon became universal. Near two thousand were killed on the spot; a greater number fell by the hands of the peasants, who, in revenge for the cruelty with which their country had been plundered, pursued the fugitives, and massacred them without mercy; the rest were taken prisoners, together with De Termes their general, and many officers of distinction *.

opposed to

THIS signal victory, for which the count of Egmont was The duke afterwards so ill requited by Philip, obliged the Duke of of Guise Guise to relinquish all other schemes, and to hasten towards the victorithe frontier of Picardy, that he might oppose the progress ous army. of the enemy in that province. This disaster, however, reflected new lustre on his reputation, and once more turned the eyes of his countrymen towards him, as the only general on whose arms victory always attended, and in whose conduct, as well as good fortune, they could confide in every danger. Henry reinforced the Duke of Guise's army with so many troops drawn from the adjacent garrisons, that it soon amounted to forty thousand men. That of the enemy, after the junction of Egmont with the Duke of Savoy, was

x Thuan. lib. xx. 694.

BOOK not inferior in number. They encamped at the distance of . XII. a few leagues from one another; and each monarch having 1558. joined his respective army, it was expected, after the vicissitudes of good and bad success during this and the former campaign, that a decisive battle would at last determine which of the rivals should take the ascendant for the future, and give law to Europe. But though both had it in their power, neither of them discovered any inclination to bring the determination of such an important point to depend upon the uncertain issue of a single battle. The fatal engagements at St. Quintin and Gravelines were too recent to be so soon forgotten, and the prospect of encountering the same troops, commanded by the same generals who had twice triumphed over his arms, inspired Henry with a degree of caution which was not common to him. Philip, of a genius averse to bold operations in war, naturally leaned to cautious measures, and was not disposed to hazard any thing against a general so fortunate and successful as the Duke of Guise. Both monarchs, as if by agreement, stood on the defensive, and fortifying their camps, carefully avoided every skirmish or rencounter that might bring on a general engagement.

Both mo

narchs be

WHILE the armies continued in this inaction, peace began gin to de- to be mentioned in each camp, and both Henry and Philip sire peace. discovered an inclination to listen to any overture that tend

ed to re-establish it. The kingdoms of France and Spain had been engaged during half a century in almost continual wars, carried on at great expense, and productive of no considerable advantage to either. Exhausted by extraordinary and unceasing efforts, which far exceeded those to which the nations of Europe had been accustomed before the rivalship between Charles V. and Francis I. both nations longed so much for an interval of repose, in order to recruit their strength, that their sovereigns drew from them with difficulty the supplies necessary for carrying on hostilities. The private inclinations of both the Kings concurred with those of their people. Philip was prompted to wish for peace by his fond desire of returning to Spain. Accustomed from his infancy to the climate and manners of that coun