ll their might, even to the risk of body and goods,
the marriage which had just been decided upon by the common advice of all
those who represented France.'" [_Histoire des Etats Generaux_ from 1355
to 1614, by George Picot, t. i. pp. 352-354].

Francis d'Angouleme was at that time eleven years old, and Claude of
France was nearly seven.

Whatever displeasure must have been caused to the Emperor of Germany and
to the King of Spain by this resolution on the part of France and her
king, it did not show itself, either in acts of hostility or even in
complaints of a more or less threatening kind. Italy remained for some
years longer the sole theatre of rivalry and strife between these three
great powers; and, during this strife, the utter diversity of the
combinations, whether in the way of alliance or of rupture, bore witness
to the extreme changeability of the interests, passions, and designs of
the actors. From 1506 to 1515, between Louis XII.'s will and his death,
we find in the history of his career in Italy five coalitions, and as
many great battles, of a profoundly contradictory character. In 1508,
Pope Julius II., Louis XII., Emperor Maximilian, and Ferdinand the
Catholic, King of Spain, form together against the Venetians the League
of Cambrai. In 1510, Julius II., Ferdinand, the Venetians, and the Swiss
make a coalition against Louis XII. In 1512, this coalition, decomposed
for a while, re-unites, under the name of the League of the Holy Union,
between the pope, the Venetians, the Swiss, and the Kings of Arragon and
Naples against Louis XII., minus the Emperor Maximilian, and plus Henry
VIII., King of England. On the 14th of May, 1509, Louis XII., in the
name of the League of Cambrai, gains the battle of Agnadello against the
Venetians. On the 11th of April, 1512, it is against Pope Julius II.,
Ferdinand the Catholic, and the Venetians that he gains the battle of
Ravenna. On the 14th of March, 1513, he is in alliance with the
Venetians, and it is against the Swiss that he loses the battle of
Novara. In 1510, 1511, and 1512, in the course of all these incessant
changes of political allies and adversaries, three councils met at Tours,
at Pisa, and at St. John Lateran with views still more discordant and
irreconcilable than those of all these laic coalitions. We merely point
out here the principal traits of the nascent sixteenth century; we have
no intention of tracing with a certain amount of detail any i