rt in the suppression of the Genoese revolt
(1507) and contributing to the victory over the Venetians at Agnadello
(May 14, 1509). Shortly after the accession of Francis I. Bourbon
received the office of constable of France, and for his brilliant
services at the battle of Marignano (September 1515) he was made
governor of the Milanese, which he succeeded in defending against an
attack of the emperor Maximilian. But dissensions arose between Francis
and the constable. Grave, haughty and taciturn, Bourbon was but ill
suited to the levities of the court, and his vast wealth and influence
kindled in the king a feeling of resentment, if not of fear. The duke
was recalled from the government of the Milanese; his official salary
and the sums he had borrowed for war expenses remained unpaid; and in
the campaign in the Netherlands against the emperor Charles V. the
command of the vanguard, one of the most cherished prerogatives of the
constables, was taken from him. The death of his wife without surviving
issue, on the 28th of April 1521, afforded the mother of the king,
Louise of Savoy, a means to gratify her greed, and at the same time to
revenge herself on Bourbon, who had slighted her love. A suit was
instituted at her instance against the duke in the parlement of Paris,
in which Louise, as grand-daughter of Charles, duke of Bourbon (d.
1456), claimed the female and some of the male fiefs of the duchy of
Bourbon, while the king claimed those fiefs which were originally
appanages, as escheating to the crown, and other claims were put
forward. Before the parlement was able to arrive at a decision, Francis
handed over to his mother a part of the Bourbon estates, and ordered
the remainder to be sequestrated.

Smarting under these injuries, Bourbon, who for some time had been
coquetting with the enemies of France, renewed his negotiations with the
emperor and Henry VIII. of England. It was agreed that the constable
should raise in his own dominions an armed force to assist the emperor
in an invasion of France, and should receive in return the hand of
Eleonora, queen dowager of Portugal, or of another of the emperor's
sisters, and an independent kingdom comprising his own lands together
with Dauphine and Provence. He was required, too, to swear fidelity to
Henry VIII. as king of France. But Bourbon's plans were hampered by the
presence of the French troops assembling for the invasion of Italy, and
for this reason he was unable to