effect a junction with the emperor's
German troops from the east. News of the conspiracy soon reached the
ears of Francis, who was on his way to take command of the Italian
expedition. In an interview with Bourbon at Moulins the king endeavoured
to persuade him to accompany the French army into Italy, but without
success. Bourbon remained at Moulins for a few days, and after many
vicissitudes escaped into Italy. The joint invasion of France by the
emperor and his ally of England had failed signally, mainly through lack
of money and defects of combination. In the spring of 1524, however,
Bourbon at the head of the imperialists in Lombardy forced the French
across the Sesia (where the chevalier Bayard was mortally wounded) and
drove them out of Italy. In August 1524 he invested Marseilles, but
being unable to prevent the introduction of supplies by Andrea Doria,
the Genoese admiral in the service of Francis, he was forced to raise
the siege and retreat to the Milanese. He took part in the battle of
Pavia (1525), where Francis was defeated and taken prisoner. But
Bourbon's troops were clamouring for pay, and the duke was driven to
extreme measures to satisfy their demands. Cheated of his kingdom and
his bride after the treaty of Madrid (1526), Bourbon had been offered
the duchy of Milan by way of compensation. He now levied contributions
from the townsmen, and demanded 20,000 ducats for the liberation of the
chancellor Girolamo Morone (d. 1529), who had been imprisoned for an
attempt to realize his dream of an Italy purged of the foreigner. But
the sums thus raised were wholly inadequate. In February 1527 Bourbon's
army was joined by a body of German mercenaries, mostly Protestants, and
the combined forces advanced towards the papal states. Refusing to
recognize the truce which the viceroy of Naples had concluded with Pope
Clement VII., Bourbon hastened to put into execution the emperor's plan
of attaching Clement to his side by a display of force. But the troops,
starving and without pay, were in open mutiny, and Spaniards and
Lutherans alike were eager for plunder. On the 5th of May 1527 the
imperial army appeared before the walls of Rome. On the following
morning Bourbon attacked the Leonine City, and while mounting a scaling
ladder fell mortally wounded by a shot, which Benvenuto Cellini in his
_Life_ claims to have fired. After Bourbon's death his troops took and
sacked Rome.

See E. Armstrong, _Charles V._ (London,