On the death of Maximilian in 1519, Francis became a .candidate for the imperial crown; but chiefly through the recommendation of Frederick the Wise of Saxony the choice fell on Charles I. of Spain, from that time known as Charles V. The success of Charles was prophetic of the relative positions which the two rivals were thenceforth to occupy, for the resolute and persevering ambition of the emperor, and his hitherto wholly unsuspected abilities both in war and in diplomacy, were to prove themselves more than a match for the headstrong valour and showy accomplishments of the French monarch. War between them could scarcely have been avoided, even if the materials for kindling it had not been already prepared; but inherited disputes in regard to Navarre, Milan, Burgundy, and Arles would in any case have sooner or later rendered an appeal to the decision of the sword almost inevitable. With a view to such possibilities, the great aim of both was to secure the alliance of Henry of England and the pope, and here fortune again ultimately smiled on Charles. Francis, elated by his previous achievements on the battlefield, and chagrined at the overthrow of his hopes of obtaining the imperial crown, was naturally eager to strike the first blow; and the request of Henry IT. of Navarre to aid him in regaining his kingdom came opportunely to second his wishes. Accordingly, in April 1521 he sent an army to the aid of Henry. Charles at once retaliated by an invasion of France, and in May concluded a treaty with Pope Leo X. for the expulsion of the French from Italy. Navarre after beingalmost won was again lost by Henry; and in Italy the French, chiefly through the blunders of Lautrec, the brother of the king’s mistress, lost Milan, Genoa, and all their conquests with the exception of the stronghold of Cremona; but the attempt of the imperialists to enter France was pushed back, and Francis, following in pursuit, only by unaccountable negligence missed the opportunity of inflicting a crushing defeat on Charles between Cambray and Valenciennes. After this, difficulties continued to thicken round the French king; on the 9th January 1522 the papal throne was mounted by Adrian VI., who had formerly been tutor to Charles V., and in May Henry VIII. declared war against France; in August 1523 a coalition was formed against her which included the pope, the emperor, the king of England, the archduke of Austria, the duke of Milan, and the principal Italian republics; and about the same time Charles Constable Bourbon, having been unjustly used by Louise of Savoy, withdrew from France, and offered his sword to Charles V. The Spanish troops crossed the French frontiers at Bayonne; the English entered Picardy, and advanced to within 11 leagues of Paris; and after the repulse of the French army despatched against Milan, the imperialists passed over into Provence and laid siege to Marseilles. Through cautious but stubbornly defensive tactics, however, both the Spanish and English incursions were foiled, and Francis was thus able to advance to the relief of Marseilles with a large army. The imperialists did not wait his approach; but, determined on retaliation, he crossed the Alps and laid siege to Pavia, where a strong Italian force had taken refuge. Here he was attacked, 24th February 1525, by a relieving army under Bourbon and Pescara. The attack was unsuccessful; but, flushed with the victory which he believed already in his grasp, he rashly left his impregnable position, and so blundered in his manoeuvres as to render his overwhelming defeat inevitable. His army was speedily either cut down or dispersed in flight, and he himself, after a desperate attempt to rally, was made prisoner and conveyed by Charles to Madrid. He only regained his liberty, 21st February 1526, by signing a treaty whereby he ceded to Charles both Burgundy and Milan. Its stipulations were guaranteed by the retention of his two sons in the emperor’s hands; but he nevertheless resolved to disregard it, and in this he was supported by Pope Clement VII. and also by Henry of England, whom jealousy and alarm at the emperor’s success had induced to change sides. Though formal war was not declared, a French army was despatched to Italy, but the supineness with which the campaign was prosecuted enabled the imperialists to have it all their own way; and an army of mercenaries under Bourbon, who perished in the assault, marching unopposed to Rome, captured and sacked the city, and took the pope prisoner. On this Francis and Henry at once declared war against the emperor; but the army sent into Italy under Lautrec almost melted away before the walls of Naples; and Genoa, by suddenly declaring for the emperor, completed the ruin of the French cause in Italy. The pope soon thereafter saw it to be his interest to be reconciled with Charles; and in August 1529, Charles andFrancis agreed to the treaty of Cambray,by which Francis retained Burgundy and obtained by a ransom the release of the French princes, but renounced his claims in Italy and ceded Artois and Flanders to his rival. He also agreed to fulfil the promise entered into at Madrid to marry Eleanor of Portugal, sister of Charles, ħis first wife having died in 1524. During the years of peace that followed this treaty, Francis, though he had encouraged the Smalkald League in Germany, persecuted with great vigour the adherents of Protestantism in his own kingdom; but when war was again declared, he issued an edict of toleration. The pretext for the renewal of the war was the murder of the French ambassador by Duke Sforza of Milan in 1533, but hostilities were delayed till 1535, when, emboldened by the weakened condition of the emperor after his war against the Turks, Francis overran Savoy and took possession of Turin. His advantages were, however, followed up with so little energy that Charles, after driving the French out of Italy, began an invasion of Provence; and his progress was only checked by the barbarous destruction of the country before him by Anne of Montmorency.- Meantime Francis attacked Flanders, and entered into an alliance with Sultan Soliman II., whose invasion of Hungary induced Charles in 1538 to consent to the ten years’ truce of Nice. In 1540 Charles, while the guest of the French monarch, held out to him the hope of a complete satisfaction of his wishes through the investiture of the duke of Orleans with the duchy of Milan; but the promise, if definitely made, was never fulfilled, and Francis, finding a favourable opportunity after the disastrous issue of the emperor’s expedition against Algiers, renewed on a flimsy pretext the war in 1542. An offensive alliance was formed with the Turks, the duke of Cleves, and Denmark and Sweden; separate armies attacked at various points the Spanish, Flemish, and Italian frontiers; and the united French and Turkish forces captured and burned Nice. The monotony of the indecisive conflict was relieved in April 1544 by a brilliant French victory at Ceresole, but the success came too late to permit of its being followed up by an advance into Italy; for in the July following, the emperor from Champagne and the king of England from Picardy were marching to join their forces before the w alls of Paris. The siege of Boulogne by the English gave Francis, however, sufficient time to make a show of defence such as convinced Charles of the doubtful nature of the enterprise; and without consulting the king of England he sent to Francis from Crespy terms of peace, which were signed 17th September. By this treaty France retained Burgundy and resigned its claims on Flanders, Artois, and Naples, while the duchy of Milan was promised to the duke of Orleans on his marrying one of the imperial princesses—an arrangement, however, which his death in 1545 rendered nugatory. For some time afterwards the English king continued the war in Picardy, but a treaty of peace was signed in June 1546. As soon as peace was concluded with the emperor, the prosecution of the Protestants in France was renewed, and in 1545 an edict was passed for the expulsion of the Waldenses from Provence. The health of Francis had for several years been completely undermined, and he succumbed to an acute attack of disease, 31st May 1547.

In the reign of Francis were combined most of the faults and excellences which have been specially prominent in the subsequent history of his country. He was in a sense the creator of a new political and intellectual era. As regards government, he was virtually the founder of the “ancient régime,” whose final result and overthrow was the great Revolution; he gave its death blow to feudalism; he deprived the parlements of all independent power; under the auspices of the minister Du Prat he confirmed and extended the system of corruption in civil and ecclesiastical appointments; and he turned the efforts of statesmanship away from the paths of constitutional progress, and into those of military renown. His reign in its social and intellectual results was more beneficial, for if he sanctioned by his example licentiousness of manners, he at the same time gave a great impulse to refinement in taste and to intellectual progress by fostering in his country the offshoots of the Italian Renaissance. He founded in 1530 the college of France for the study of the three languages; he was himself a writer of verses, and a special friend and benefactor of artists and men of letters; and by the purchase of the great masterpieces of Italian painting and sculptur'^., and in the magnificent structures of Chamford, Azai-le-Redeau, Amboise, and Fontainebleau he left behind him a permanent influence on French art. Compared with his great rival Charles V., he was open, impulsive, and generous, but he was less actuated by consistent principles; he was hopelessly inferior in diplomacy, and in sagacity and comprehensiveness of purpose; he had perhaps equal abilities as a general, but his occasional victories were more than counterbalanced by the results of his own indolence and by the blunders of his subordinates; and while able to defend France against all external attacks, he was compelled to content himself with a place second to that of the emperor in the sphere of European politics.

See, besides the usual French histories, La Vic de Chevalier Bayard, Bouchet’s La Vie et les Gestes de Louis de la Tremoille and Les Triomphes du roi très chrétien François L., Vielleville’s Mémoires, Fleurange’s L'Histoire des choses mémorables advenues de 1499 à 1531, and Du Bellay’s Mémoires historiques de 1513 à 1547, —all contained in the Collection universelle ; Montluc, Commentaires (1st ed. 1592, afterwards printed both in Italian and English); Varillas, Histoire de François I., 1685; Gaillard, Histoire de François I., 1766-1769, 7 vols.; Röderer, Louis XII. et François I. 1825; Cape- ⅛ue, François I. ct la Renaissance, 1844; De La Barre-Duparcq, François I. et ses actions de guerre, 1872; Mignet, Rivalité de François I. et de Charles-Quint, 2 vols., Paris, 1875; Herman, Franz I., Leipsic, 1825; Life and Times of Francis the First, London, 1829.

FRANCIS I. (1708-1765), head of the Holy Roman Empire, the eldest son of Leopold, duke of Lorraine, was born on the 8th of December 1708. His full name was Francis Stephen. At the age of fifteen he ∙was sent to Vienna, where he received the Silesian duchy of Teschen. In 1735, in return for Lorraine, which Charles VI., at the end of the war of the Polish succession, gave to Stanislaus Leszczynsk’, Francis Stephen obtained the reversion to the duchy of Tuscany, to which he succeeded in 1737. The year before the latter date he married Maria Theresa, the daughter of the emperor Charles VI., and after the emperor’s death in 1740 he was declared by his wife joint regent of her dominions. He was elected emperor after the death of Charles .VII., and crowned at Frankfort on the 4th of October 1745. He carried on extensive trading operations, and was an enthusiastic collector of works of art; but he had no energy of character, and was quite willing that the empress-queen, Maria Theresa, should do all the real work of government. When Austria and France, laying aside the animosities of two centuries, were coming to an understanding before the Seven Years’ War, he was shrewd enough to see the difficulties which would inevitably arise from such an alliance. Maria Theresa, however, although she sincerely loved him, had no respect for the political judgment of her ∙ good-natured husband, and he quietly acquiesced in her will. He suddenly died at Innsbruck on the 18th of August 1765, falling into the arms of his second son Leopold, who succeeded him as duke of Tuscany, and ultimately (after the death of Joseph II.) became emperor.

Varillas, Histoire de François II.; Mémoire de Condé ; Hénault, François II. roi de France, 1748; De La Barre-Duparcq, Histoire de François II., 1867.

FRANCIS II. (1768-1835), the last Holy Roman Emperor, and, as Francis I., first emperor of Austria, was born in Florence on the 12th Feburary 1768. He was the son of the emperor Leopold II., after whose death, in 1792, he succeeded to the hereditary dominions of the house of Austria, being crowned emperor in the same year. Before this time he had gained some experience of war during the conflict of the emperor Joseph II. with the Turks, ∏e was immediately involved in the first of his famous wars with France, in which, till 1795, he had the support of the king of Prussia. In 1794 he himself was with the Austrian army which defeated the French at Tournay; but when fortune turned on the side of France he went back to Vienna. He was compelled, mainly in consequence of the victories of Napoleon, who pressed northward from Italy into Carinthia, to conclude, on the 17th October 1797, the treaty of Campo Formio, whereby the empire lost the greater part of the left bank of the Rhine, and Austria had to give up the Netherlands and Lombardy. Austria received in return Venetia, Friuli, Istria, and Dalmatia. In 1799 war broke out afresh, the emperor having on this occasion England and Russia as allies. During the first campaign the French were everywhere defeated; but in the following year Napoleon gained the brilliant victory of Marengo, while Moreau was equally successful at Hohenlinden. The shock of these two battles made it impossible for Austria to continue the war, and on the 9th February 1801 she concluded t’.ie treaty of Lunéville, which confirmed that of Campo Formio, besides exacting fresh sacrifices. France now obtained the whole of the left bank of the Rhine. Once more in association with Russia and England, the emperor began another war with France in 1805. The capitulation of tslm and the battle of Austerlitz, great as were these disasters, did not make the case of Austria hopeless, for she still had large forces, Russia was willing to continue the war, and the power of France had been seriously crippled at Trafalgar. But Francis was dispirited, and craved peace. On December 25, 1805, was concluded the treaty of Presburg, which deprived Austria of Venetia and Tyrol. In 1806, after the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine, he formally resigned the imperial crown, thus bringing to an end the ∣Holy Roman Empire and the kingdom of Germany. 'Forgetting the true meaning of the word emperor, he had in 1804 proclaimed himself, as Francis I., hereditary emperor of Austria; and this title has been retained by his successors. He took no part in the war of Prussia with France in 1806, but after some time began to make preparations for a determined struggle, by which he should regain all the advantages lost in previous wars. The new conflict broke out in 1809, and the whole of Germany awaited the result with intense anxiety. Austria was unfortunate at first; but the highest hopes were excited by her thorough victory of Aspern. It was followed by the battle of Wagram, which enabled Napoleon to dictate peace from the palace of Schönbrunn, where he had once before taken up his quarters. By the treaty of Schönbrunn (October 14, 1809) he transferred the allegiance of about four millions of Austrian subjects to other rulers; but as in the following year he married Maria Louisa, the eldest daughter of Francis, it seemed probable that the two sovereigns would in future be on friendly terms. Francis was the ally of Napoleon in his war with Russia in 1812; and when, after the retreat from Moscow, France found herself confronted by Russia and Prussia, Austria at first remained neutral, and in the summer of 1813 acted as mediator. In August of the same year she joined the allies; and, like the sovereigns of Prussia and Russia, Francis accompanied his troops in the war which followed. The settlement of Europe which resulted from the final defeat ’of Napoleon made Francis a more powerful sovereign than he had been at the beginning of his reign; and from this time forward he lived at peace, except that he had to put down a rising in Lombardy in 1821. He was a well-meaning ruler, but had been so alarmed by the successes of the French Revolution that he detested modern ideas of government. The aspirations of his various states for some measure of independence he regarded as criminal, and in Prince Metternich he found a willing agent for his policy of stern repression. Thus a large amount of discontent was excited, which prepared serious, troubles for the emperors who came after him. Francis was married four times, having by his second wife, Maria Theresa, princess of Sicily, thirteen children. He died on the 2d March 1835, and was succeeded by his son Ferdinand.