The Battle of Pavia was a continuation of "The Italian Wars" which began in 1494. Renaissance Italy was divided into several rival states, hostage to European powers, principally France and Spain. Swiss mercenaries held the balance between two great civilizations, that of the south and that of the north. (A relic of this historic position is the continuation of the Pope's Swiss guard down to our day.)François I, Marguerite's brother, in alliance with Venitians, had achieved a great victory over Swiss mercenaries in the Battle of Marignano, near Milan, on Sept. 13-14, 1515. This "romantic" battle excited "all Europe", representing the last stand of the old chivalry against the newfangled canon.
In 1525, Pope Clement became alarmed at the control of Naples and Lombardy by Emperor Charles V. So the Pope formed an alliance with the victor at Marignano, François I, who returned over the Alps with a new army of 26,000 French, Italian, Swiss, and German. The campaign began brilliantly with the capture of Milan and François' triumphal entry. Marching on to Pavia (20 miles south of Milan), François dawdled in laying siege to the city. The Hapsburg Emperor retaliated by sending a 23,000-man Habsburg army under Fernando Francisco de Avalos, Marchese di Pescara, to support the 6,000-man garrison in lifting the siege.
Pavia (ancient Ticinum), in northern Italy, is capital of Pavia Province, Lombardy Region, on the Ticino River near its confluence with the Po River. An industrial center, it specializes in manufacturing sewing machines, agricultural machinery, toys, chemicals, synthetic fibers, and processed food. Its most famous landmark is the Certosa Monastery founded by the Carthusians in 1396. Pavia has a university, established in 1361.
Pavia was a municipality (Ticinum) of the Roman Empire, occupied successively by the Goths, the Byzantines, and the Lombards, who made it their capital. Late in the 11th century it became an independent commune. At various times thereafter Pavia was controlled by the powerful Visconti family and by Spain, France, and Austria.
The attack came on the night of Feb. 23, 1525. In the first assault, the Emperor's troops were routed, François distinguishing himself bravely. His coat-of-arms and white-plumed helmet appeared in the thickest of fighting. His faithful nobles accompanied him, notably, Admiral Bonnivet. The Admiral mistakenly advised François to make a rally, and they found themselves attacked from the rear. Alençon, Marguerite's husband, acquitted himself creditably; but his actions led the King into imprudent conduct.
THE SIEGE OF PAVIA, FEBRUARY, 1525. The climax and crisis of the battle came when Pescara surprised the French with 1500 Basque cross-bowmen. All of the enemy's onslaught concentrated on the French center, where François rode, but Alençon seemed to be missing on the left wing, a failure he never lived down.Gathering his scattered forces as best he could, François tried to save the remnants of his army. His bravest officers, dismayed by the failiure of the left flank, fought their way toward their King. The bravest and noblest of France were falling. The Duc de La Tremouille, fell from his horse, shot through the heart. The Marechal de la Foix died at the King's side. The King's horse was shot by a crossbow-dart, but he fought on, hand-to-hand.
The enemy was determined to kill the King. But the Constable of Bourbons Equerry rushed forward, shouting, "C'est le noble Roi ... respect epargnez-le", and the weapons dropped. On his knees, the Equerry begged François to wield his sword. But François would only wield his sword to the Italian generalissimo, Don Carlos, the Marquis of Lannoy, who handed François his own sword, saying, "It is not fitting that one of the Emperor's officers should look upon a disarmed King, even though that King may be a captive."
Thus ended the Battle of Pavia (in which the French army was virtually annihilated), on the Emperor's birthday. His birthday gift was the person of the King of France. Spanish hegemony in Italy dates from this battle.
FREEING THE KING OF FRANCE The King was not the only prisoner. Among the others was the King of Navarre, soon to be Marguerite's husband. And Montmorency, another companion of the youth of François and Marguerite at Amboise Castle. All of France's nobility was depleted by the Battle of Pavia. François sent the message to his mother, Louise, the Queen-Regent: "All is lost save honor."France was in an uproar over "Les Fuyards de Pavia" ("The Runaways of Pavia") who had failed the King. The "runaway" Duke of Alençon reached Lyon in March, taking to his bed with pleurisy. At first, neither Marguerite nor Louise would visit him. Finally, realizing he was dying, Marguerite relented and, by request, wrote a letter to François, begging his forgiveness. Alençon died on April 11, 1525, during Passion Week.
Louise, as Regent, sent Marguerite to Spain where François was imprisoned, ill from a fever. Granted plenipotentiary power, Marguerite embarked from Lyon in August, 1525, on a long, arduous, perilous journey.
Marguerite was attended by a large retinue, including Madam Le Senechale, grandmother of the writer, Pierre Brantôme (1540?-1613). As maid-of-honor, she held Marguerite's writing desk when, as was her custom, Marguerite composed poetry and such in her litter.
Many people saw Marguerite off on her trip, among them Clement Marot, who had just returned to France after being captured, and released, following the Battle of Pavia. However, after the departure of Marguerite, Marot was thrown into prison for his religious views. Upon her arrival in Spain, Marguerite procured a royal order for Marot's release.
Queen-Regent Louise accompanied daughter Marguerite for the first five days down the Rhone River. Marguerite then traveled to Aigues-Morte, waiting two weeks for a safe-conduct pass.
Despite raging storms, Marguerite finally set off in September, escorted by a French Fleet under the command of Admiral Andria Doria. Marguerite first landed at Palamos on the coast of Cataluna, only to learn that François had been transferred to Madrid, imprisoned in a tower of the fortess, Alcazar. The French king was confined in a narrow room of the Alcazar, under rigorous surveillance, his only freedom riding a mule near the fortress, under watch of mounted armed guards.
Emperor Charles sent Don Ugo de Moncada to meet Marguerite at Barcelona.
Writing as she journeyed, Marguerite composed, during this period Chanson Faicte par Margarite d'Angoulême dans sa litiere pendant la maladie du roy in 17 stanzas of unmistakable intensity. (Marguerite needed prayer, which, for her, took the form of poetry.)
The Princess could endure the trip because of the companionship of her maid-of-honor, Madame de Chastaingneraye, the Senechale of Poitou. Besides holding the writing board, she read to Marguerite and acted as amanuensis and confidante.
Nearing Madrid, Marguerite sent Guillame du Bellay ahead with two letters, one for Montmorency, the other for François. In the Montmorency letter, Marguerite said she would be willing to "scatter to the winds the ashes of my bones" if it would help her brother. She also said, among other things, "To obtain your deliverance, I should esteem captivity as a welcome liberty."
Returning to Madrid from his country estate, the Emperor visited (against the advice of his minister) François in prison, finding him emaciated. François raised up on one elbow to say: "Ah! So you have come to see your prisoner die!" Emperor Charles retorted that he was François' brother and his friend.
The next day, Wednesday, September 10, Marguerite dressed herself as she thought the impressionable Spanish would like. She wore black, with neither jewelry nor ribbons, head covered with a white veil falling from her shoulders to the ground. Emperor Charles and the entire court received her. Charles bowed low and delivered a welcome speech to which Marguerite replied. Then Charles and Marguerite went to see François, who seemed so weak and haggard that Marguerite thought that her brother failed to recognize her.
Later François called for The Last Sacrament and quoted the Bible about the last days of Hezikiah. But he did not die.
This made the Emperor realize the worldwide criticism the Emperor would provoke if he allowed the King of France to languish and die in a Spanish prison.
Brantôme tells us: "When the King was ill in Spain, being a prisoner there, Marguerite went to see him like the good sister and friend that she was, at the Emperor's pleasure and under the latter's safe conduct. She found her brother in such a piteous condition that, had she not come, he would have surely died. He, himself, said that had she not come, he would have surely died. But she visited him daily and read to him. And it even seems that she told him some stories that would later appear in the Heptameron."
People in Paris believed that the King's death was imminent, rumoring that the King had had a stroke of apoplexy and then he had recovered and that the treaty had been signed. This, of course, was false.
Marguerite had to go to Toledo to negotiate the King's release, which was becoming so complicated that she decided to return to France.
During the first stage of her two day trip to Toledo, she had written, "I beseech you, my Lord, to be of good cheer and to permit nothing to vex you; for I trust that He who has delivered you from death will confer upon you at last so great a degree of liberty that you will be under a double obligaion to love and praise Him above all others."
Her litter, escorted by Don Ugo De Moncada's guard of honor, was met by the Primate of Spain, the Viceroy of Naples, and Marguerite displayed her most scintillating talents. Here was the perfected courtly art advocated by Castiglione (in his classic book, The Courtier), a favorite with Emperor Charles and his court. (A Venetian ambassador of that time praised Marguerite as knowing all the secrets of diplomatic art, hence to be treated with deference and circumspection.)
Charles limited the interviews to himself and Marguerite, despite Marguerite's complaint. But she was allowed to have a lady-in-waiting accompany her to the conference room door.
The treaty included Henry VIII of England and the Pope, among other dignitaries. Marguerite had instructions from her brother that his kingdom was not to be divided, keeping Burgundy for France. There was a plan for him to marry Eleanor of Portugal (Queen Claude had died the previous year), including Burgundy as Eleanor's wedding portion. Marguerite cultivated a friendship with Eleanor.
Others tried to make deals. Finally, Marguerite wrote François, "They are trying to satisfy me without making any concessions." Charles abruptly sent Eleanor of Portugal from Toledo.
Brantôme wrote about this: "From what I have heard, that time she was in Spain, she spoke to the Emperor so fearlessly and so to the point regarding the latter's treatment of the King, her brother, that Charles was quite astonished by it, as she reproached him for the criminal ingratitude of which he had been guilty and added that because of the Emperor's harsh treatment the death of the King of France would not go unpunished, since he had offspring who would some day exact a memorable vengeance once they came to Man's estate. These words uttered so fearlessly ... gave the Emperor cause for thought and he visited the king, making many fine promises which, for all of that, he did not keep."
Among the negotiations were arrangements for the marriage of the widower King François and Eleanor of Portugal, hoping to include Burgundy as Eleanor's marriage portion. Ownership of the provinces of Naples and Milan, as well as the ransom, were on the agenda.
French envoys traveled to Madrid to present to François the unreasonable demands of Emperor Charles, which would make France a second-rate power. François rejected these conditions. He also sent instructions for Marguerite to leave Toledo at once unless something more favorable happened. Marguerite asked the Emperor for a final conference, which resulted in a stormy session.
This was one of the most dramatic moments in history. The world's eyes were fixed upon this royal brother and sister in a hostile land. Marguerite received daily bulletins from Europe urging her to be strong. In Paris, people were in a state of anxiety and panic, and people in other parts of the continent followed the events.
It was even planned for François to escape, disguised as a Moor who regularly delived firewood. The whole French delegation, Marguerite included, would imprisoned for this, but the King would be free to return to France. But the plot was revealed to Emperor Charles by his chamberlain, the Seur Clermont Champion, and twarted.
The next plan was for François to abdicate in favor of his eldest son, the Dauphin, with Louise remaining as Regent until the boy-King could come of age. If anything happeneed to Louise, Marguerite would succeed her as Regent.
The safe-conduct pass for Marguerite and her delegation was about to expire and Emperor Charles would not renew it. Annoyed by discovery of the escape-plot, Charles also blamed Marguerite for failure of the nogotiations. But the safe-conduct pass was valid until January, so Marguerite left Madrid on November 19. She planned to go through Navarre on her way to France. But the Emperor would not allow this. So Marguerite stopped in Guadalajara to visit the family of the Duke of Infantado, French sympathizers. On the way, Marguerite wrote or dictated in her litter and wrote letters when she stopped for the night.
However, before Marguerite reached the border of Spain, Charles and his ministers learned of the plans for abdication of François in favor of his son, the Dauphin. The Emperor made a show of changing his attitude toward François, hoping to entice Marguerite to return to Madrid. Marguerite's discouragement is shown by letters to her brother at this time: "I have not been able to be of service to you and am less able than ever", signing the letter, "your very humble and obedient servant."
Fearing she could not meet the January deadline on safe-conduct via litter transport, Queen Marguerite rode by horseback in the dead of winter, sometimes riding as much as 12 hours a day, writing letters wherever she spent the night. Frightened of arrest if she could not comply with the January deadline on the safe-conduct pass, Marguerite nevertheless reached Norbonne (near the Spanish border, on an inlet of the Mediterranean) about seven days before January 1. She met her mother, Louise, at Rousillon in the Province of Isere on January 8th or 9th.
Back in Madrid, after much discussion, The Emperor negotiated a treat with François in which François' sons, the Dauphin and his younger brother, the Duke of Orleans, were to be brought to Spain as hostages, after the relase of François. This treaty was signed on January 14. The King remained in prison, even though a fire erupted and spread to his room. And later he fell ill again.
One Sunday morning, François was surprisingly visited by the Viceroy of Naples and a Bishop. On the Emperor's orders, they informed the widower King that he was to be married to Eleanor of Portugal, whom he had never met. Finally, the Treat was ratified, and the marriage took place. Eleanor became Queen Eleonore of France.
King François was released and set out on January 21 for the French border. There he was exchanged for his two sons, the Princes of France. He was escorted under close surveillance to Fuenterrabbia.
The exchange had taken place in the middle of the Bidassoa River on March 17. François stepped from one boat to another and the Princes did the same. The King was not allowed to embrace his sons, for fear of treachery.
According to legend, the King reached the other side of the river, mounted a waiting horse and shouted, "Once more a King!"
The young princes were later freed in what came to be known as La Paix de Dames ("Ladies Peace") of Cambrai. The "ladies" consisted of Louise of Savoy, grandmother of the princes, and Margaret of Austria, the Regent of the Netherlands, who was François's aunt. The ransom demanded by Emperor Charles V, equivalent to 36 tons of solid gold, was raised from various sources and, after four years of captivity, the royal princes returned to France, with stories of cruel treatment which "enraged France".
REFERENCE: Marguerite of Navarre, First Modern Women, Samuel Putnam, Coward-McCann, NY, 1935.
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