The King who Sent his Sons to Prison in Order to Release Himself

Francis I. of France, Henry VIII. of England, and Charles V. of Spain, are known in history as "the three boy kings," they having all assumed their crowns before reaching their majority. They were in their time the three mightiest sovereigns of Europe; contemporary with them was Solyman the Magnificent, Sultan of Turkey; Gustavus Vasa, of Sweden, and Pope Leo X. Their age, the early part of the sixteenth century, is known as the beginning of the Renaissance (q.v.), and the Reformation. On the death of the German Emperor Maximilian, Francis and Charles became bitter rivals for the Imperial throne; Charles was the successful candidate, and an enmity ensued which was life-long, and which led to desolating wars. The battle of Pavia (1525) was in all respects disastrous to the French cause, ten thousand of their best soldiers being slain, and their King, Francis I., being taken prisoner. Charles V. feigned to regret the capture of the King. At the same time overestimating the advantage which the capture of so great a personage gave him, he believed that the result of the battle of Pavia laid the kingdom of France at his feet. He therefore refused to listen to his Council, who advised him to act with magnanimity and to signalize his victory by restoring the royal prisoner to his crown and kingdom. Charles refused to do so unless the whole of Burgundy was surrendered to him, Provence and Dauphiny given to him in independent sovereignty, and Bourbon made Constable of France. Of course Francis rejected these conditions with scorn; he was accordingly confined as a prisoner in the castle of Cremona. After a season he was conveyed to Spain, where he was reimmured and treated with much severity. Charles turned a deaf ear to all the overtures made by France and England for his release, until the captive King fell sick, when Charles at once relaxed his rigor. He allowed the Princess Margaret (q. v.), sister of Francis, to visit him in prison, and finally paid a visit himself to his emaciated captive. After a confinement of more than a year, Francis once more opened negotiations for his release. Charles, however, would listen to no other terms than those already tendered; and to these the heart-sick King finally assented. A treaty was signed at Madrid, in March, 1526, by which the French monarch surrendered Burgundy, Milan, and Naples; agreed to marry Eleanor, sister of Charles V., and to restore Constable Bourbon. As a pledge for the fulfillment of these hard conditions, the two sons of Francis were to be sent to the Spanish capital as prisoners until all was fulfilled. Francis was then conducted to the Bidassoa, a small stream dividing France from Spain. He met his sons in the middle of the stream, hastily embraced them, bade them adieu, and was rowed to the other side. A horse awaited him there, which he quickly mounted, and exclaiming, "I am once more a King!" rode off at full speed. At Bayonne he was joined by his mother and sister, and the company moved on to Paris. The Emperor now demanded his ransom; Francis accepted Eleanor in marriage, but refused to fulfil the other conditions, on the ground that the promises were exacted of him while in prison. Even the knowledge that his sons were subjected to the harshest treatment and almost starved in the prison of Madrid, failed to move him. Finding that the treaty was fated to be a dead letter, Charles renewed the war on France (1526), which was ended in 1529 by the treaty of Cambray--the "Ladies' Peace." (See Vol. I.) By the conditions of this treaty, the princes were to be released on the payment of twelve thousand crowns ($14,400), and Francis was to retain his kingdom. But the finances of France were at such a low ebb that several months elapsed before the ransom for the princes could be raised. When at last the sum was secured it was packed in forty-eight chests and conveyed to Bidassoa, where it was handed over to the Spanish authorities in exchange for the captive princes. The long-broken household of the King was thus reunited, and the country being at peace for a time, Francis gave himself up to the cultivation of literature and the arts, in which he excelled any other ruler of that period.