Charles de Bourbon was born on 17 February 1490, the son of Gilbert de Bourbon, comte de Montpensier and Clara Gonzaga. Gilbert would serve as viceroy of Naples for the king Charles VIII but would die of plague after his army had surrendered in November 1496. Through his mother, Charles was the grandson of the marquis of Mantua, an Italian polity. His parents had married in 1481.
Charles was the second son of his parents. His elder brother Louis de Bourbon, succeeded their father as comte de Motnpensier before his early death in 1501. Charles also had a sister Louise de Bourbon who would live until 1561 and who married the prince de La Roche-sur-Yon. This represented the foundation of the second house of Bourbon-Montpensier after the extinction of the first with the death of Charles in 1527.
Charles de Bourbon was a prince du sang (prince of the royal blood). This term denoted legitimate male descendants of Hugues Capet (or more practically speaking of Louis IX) through the male line. During Charles’ lifetime the concept was still not entirely without alternative conceptions, and it would not be until 1560 that it was definitively established. At the birth of Charles de Bourbon in 1490, the royal house of France was the Valois proper. There were several cadet houses of Valois. The last Valois king, Charles VIII would die in 1498 without son and would therefore be succeeded by the head of the cadet branch of the Valois-Orléans, the duc d’Orléans who took the regnal name Louis XII. Louis XII would also lack a male heir, and thus the Valois-Orléans in turn became extinct in 1515 upon his death and the line of Valois-Angoulême unified with the crown in the figure of the comte d’Angoulême who took the throne as Francis I (otherwise known as François I). Finally for the Valois was the Valois-Alençon whose last head, the duc d’Alençon died without children in 1525.α
The House of Bourbon descended from Robert de Bourbon, comte de Clermont, a younger son of Louis IX. Several branches of the Bourbon family existed in the sixteenth century: the Bourbon-Beaujeu (otherwise known as Bourbon proper) which became extinct with the death of Suzanne de Bourbon, Charles’ wife, in 1521, the Bourbon-Montpensier (of which Charles de Bourbon was a member) and the Bourbon-Vendôme.
On 10 May 1505, the fifteen year old Charles de Bourbon married the fourteen year old Suzanne de Bourbon. Suzanne was the daughter and heiress of the duc and duchesse de Bourbon (the sister of king Louis XI). The historian Hamon describes Suzanne as ‘self effacing’.
Bourbon would in his life hold the comté de Montpensier, the duchés (duchies) de Bourbon and Auvergne, the comtés (counties) de Forez, La Marche, Beaujolais, and Clermont-en-Beauvaisis, the dauphiné d’Auvergne and the principality of Dombes. Bourbon enjoyed a great deal of independence in his various territories. He was able to raise soldiers, enjoyed his own fiscal and judicial officers, and held many fortresses. This would be alarming to the French king Francis.
By the unification of the Bourbon-Beaujeu and Bourbon-Montpensier branches of the royal house an immense territory in the heart of the French kingdom was consolidated. Control of this bloc brought its holder a power that was troubling to the crown.
Bourbon’s wife was granted special permission (first in 1488 and then declared again in 1498) to transmit the inheritance of the royal appanages of the comté de Clermont-en-Beauvaisis and the duché d’Auvergne, which would have typically reverted to the crown in the absence of a male heir. By this means the lands came into the hands of Charles de Bourbon.
One of the territories in Bourbon’s possession was the principality of Dombes which was located on the left bank of the river Saône to the south of the Franche-Comté. This territory was part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a sovereign domain, with the rights to mint its own money, levy taxes and enjoy separate justice (a parlement for the little territory was established in Lyon in 1523). The territory would be confiscated by Francis I, but returned to the Bourbon-Montpensier family in 1560.
Dissatisfied with the 1484 marriage contract they had secured, the house of La Trémoille brought a lawsuit against Gilbert de Bourbon. In 1489, Gilbert agreed to compensate the family with the receipt of three seigneuries in lower-Auvergne (Fromental, Saurier and Champeix). The Montpensier would have the right to redeem these territories from the La Trémoille for a period of 20 years for the sum of 30,000 livres tournois. Charles de Bourbon would redeem the territories in September 1508 for 30,000 livres.
He also held the patrimonies of Forez and the Beaujolais.
His château de Moulins was home to a brilliant court life. The households of the greats in this era could be extensive, with many dependants including chambellans, écuyers and maîtres d’hôtel (chamberlains, squires, masters of the house) among others. Charles de Bourbon enjoyed a household of several hundred people.
Of the many fortresses in his domains, that of Chantelle was the most formidable.
The administration of Bourbon’s territories is described by the historian Jouanna as ‘quasi-royal’. His territories were governed by many councils, a chief cour des comptes (court of accounts) with secondary courts in Montbrison for the Forez, Villefranche for the Beaujolais, Riom for the Auvergne and Moulins for the duché de Bourbon. There was also a high court of justice whose appeals went straight to the parlement, and many other officers.
In terms of incomes, at one point in Charles de Bourbon’s life, he would enjoy an income of between 250,000 and 300,000 livres, of which around 75,000 was composed of pensions and wages. Bourbon would devote significant financial resources towards the French campaigns in Italy. The historian Hamon puts the amount he devoted towards this cause at 280,000 livres. In the same way, in the fighting on the northern frontier in 1521, Bourbon would offer up his silver collection. Despite this, as relations between Bourbon and Francis deteriorated after 1515, the king ceased to pay Charles his pensions or wages. In part due to his financing of the foreign expeditions, and in part due to the cutting off of royal funds, Charles would experience cash flow troubles. The royal fiscal officer Jehan Sapin (who was the receveur général for the province of Languedoc) would serve as Charles de Bourbon’s trésorier and receveur général (treasurer and receiver general). Bourbon would become indebted to his trésorier to the sum of 50,645 livres.
The baptism of their son transpired on 29 October 1517. The court, and king Francis were at Moulins for the occasion. Francis being the young boy’s godfather. According to the contemporary historian (and secretary of the duc de Bourbon) de Marillac jousts and other festivities commemorated the occasion. In the actual ceremony, Bourbon’s uncle, the vicomte de Thouars carried the gold basin. After the baptism, the court departed down the river Allier to the Loire.
Their child would die young in 1519.
After the death of their child, Suzanne drew up her will which was in universal favour of her husband on 15 December 1519.
Charles was orphaned early in his life.
After his marriage on 10 May 1505, the comte de Montpensier assumed the title of the duc de Bourbon, by which name he would be known in the coming years.
For the occasion of the marriage of the comte d’Angoulême to Claude de Valois (the daughter of Louis XII)[citation needed](prove it) in May 1506, the duc de Bourbon appeared for the occasion with a hundred nobles, all dressed in sumptuous style.
At this time Bourbon had no significant position to speak of, and therefore set about looking to acquire royal blessings on the battlefields of Italy. To this end he raised soldiers on his own expense.
Bourbon participated in the 1507 French reconquest of Genoa. Control of Genoa was important as a facilitator of French control of the duchy of Milan, this at least was the view of many contemporaries, including Bourbon’s secretary de Marillac.
For the Italian campaign of 1509, Bourbon commanded those soldiers he had raised personally with the two companies the king. The French army, numbering some 27,000 men of which 7,000 were cavalry, with 30 artillery pieces made contact with the smaller Venetian army which was in retreat at the battle of Agnadello. The French vanguard was under the command of the maréchal de Chaumont and boasted 8,000 Swiss, 2,000 Gascons, 615 lances and 20 pieces of the artillery defended by 500 Gascons. The battle of the army was under the command of the duc de Bourbon, and contained also the king. Here were to be found 532 archers, 800 lances, 6,500 infantry and the remainder of the artillery with pioneers. Several hundred lances of the battle were with the vanguard to reinforce them. The rear-guard contained 3,500 infantry and a further 580 lances. This French column caught the Venetian rear-guard by surprise. They took the defence behind a ditch and succeeded in breaking the first attack led by the maréchal de Chaumont. It was now the turn of the king to lead an attack, and his gendarmes broke the Venetian cavalry, then fell upon the infantry. The battle lasted around three to four hours. Bourbon’s conduct during the battle credited himself. The historian Quilliet credits him with being the origin of ‘initiatives and wise advice’ which brought the French the victory on the field. Venetian casualties were estimated at around 6,000 to 8,000 by Guicciardini while the French lost 400. The battle devastated the Venetians. Despite this triumph, little royal reward immediately appeared for Bourbon, and it would take time for the benefits to flow his way.
On 7 May 1510, Louis made his Joyous Entry into the city of Dijon, the capital of the vicomte de Thouars’ governate of Burgundy. For the occasion Dijon offered wine to the whole court. Their king was afford a hundred barrels of wine, their governor twenty, the heir to the French throne the comte d’Angoulême ten, and the duc de Bourbon six.
For a brief period from April to June 1512, the duc de Bourbon would serve as the king’s lieutenant for the duchy of Milan.
Bourbon would be appointed as lieutenant-général of the army of Languedoc.
In September 1512, the duc de Bourbon was made governor of Languedoc, one of the largest provinces of France, due to the pressing demands of military circumstances. This appointment came with a pension of 24,000 livres. The office of governor of Languedoc had been in the hands of the Bourbon family with a brief interlude since 1466 (the charge lay vacant from 1503 to 1512 at the request of the Estates of Languedoc). He would not immediately inform the estates of the province of his new charge however, knowing them to be hostile to the office. Therefore, during the crisis that gripped the kingdom in these months, with the threat of invasion looming, the cardinal de Briçonnet took the lead in Languedoc.
In addition to the dispute with the Estates, there was also a long running disagreement over jursidiction between the governors of Languedoc and the parlement of Toulouse which stretched back through the fifteenth-century. Bourbon’s father-in-law, the late Pierre de Beaujeu’s appointment to the charge in 1488 had led to acrimony between his procureur (attorney) Jean de La Roche-Aymon and the procuruer-général of the parlement. It would only be with a new royal mandate in 1490 that his authority had been unconditionally registered. For his part, Bourbon’s provisions were not ratified by the parlement of Toulouse, as such their contents are unknown.
In April 1513, a truce was secured with the Spanish for a year, after their successful conquest of Navarre. Nevertheless, it was a delicate peace, and Briçonnet worked to heighten the defences of Narbonne, which was close to the border. Briçonnet saw to the supply of powder, complained about the paltry reinforcements he was receiving, and also bemoaned the delays in the arrival of the duc de Bourbon’s companies.
Several events allowed for Louis to consider a new Italian campaign in 1513. This included the truce with the Aragonese king Ferdinand allowing for a reduction in the border defences; the new alliance with Venice secured in March, and the death of pope Julius II in February which allowed for peace with the Papacy. For the occasion of this campaign, there would be 1,375 lances, 613 light horse, 7,486 landsknechts and 6,500 foot soldiers. This large army would be under the command of the maréchal de Trivulzio and the vicomte de Thouars (Bourbon’s uncle).
Bourbon himself had originally meant to enjoy the command allocated to Thouars, and aggrieved at the prospective ‘insult’ of having to serve under his uncle, he resolved not to take up his place in the army. Instead, Bourbon left court, excusing himself on the grounds of making a pilgrimage to Notre Dame du Puy.
The French army in Italy would suffer defeat the battle of Novara in June at the hands of the Swiss. Louis learned of the terrible defeat on 9 June. The vicomte de Thouars, who had retreated back into France, did not make it to court, arriving only at Lyon before he was ordered to head to his government of Burgundy to stave off a new attack by the Swiss. This represented somewhat of a disgrace for Thouars. According to Bourbon’s contemporary biographer de Marillac, Louis now much regretted choosing Thouars as a head of the expedition over the duc de Bourbon.
By the Swiss victory at Novara, Burgundy was opened to them. Bourbon would help save the territory from the depredations of the Swiss.
During this year he would also fight against the Imperials and the English.
Bourbon would fight in Navarre against the Spanish.
In August 1513, Bourbon finally notified the Estates of Languedoc of his appointment as governor of the province. Despite this step, it would still be Briçonnet who was the king’s chief commissioner at the estates held at Nîmes on 16 November.
In June 1514, the vicomte de Thoaurs tried to engineer the re-election of the mayor of Dijon, Bénigne de Cirey, who had commended himself during the siege of the city. Cirey did not wish to stand for mayor however, and looked to see a certain Pierre Sayve elected. To this end he appealed to various royal officials such as the duc de Bourbon.
The king remained interested in the reconquest of Milan. To this end in 1514 he began the assembling of a new army, with landsknechts recruited. He envisioned a force of almost 42,000 men for the invasion. The Venetians were eager to see this expedition come to pass, as they hoped they might recover territories lost to them in 1509. The king was of two minds as to who should lead this new expedition, the vicomte de Thouars, or the duc de Bourbon. By August 1514, the troops were ready, and according to du Bellay, it was to be Bourbon who commanded the expedition. An alternate account has it that the king had resolved on choosing Thouars. Bourbon was at this time serving as the king’s lieutenant in Burgundy, a responsibility he chafed under.
Despite his ambitions, Louis XII was getting old, being 52, he also suffered from gout. Before this expedition could come to pass, Louis XII died on 1 January 1515.
With the advent of a new monarch came a significant injection of new blood in the royal entourage. Francis introduced to ascendency young men of his generation such as the Gouffier brothers – the seigneur de Boisy made Grand Maître (Grand Master of France) on 7 January, and the seigneur de Bonnivet established as first the premier gentilhomme de la chambre (first gentleman of the king’s chamber) in 1516 and then Admiral de France a year later. Antoine Duprat was established as the new Chancellor. The duc de Bourbon was also a beneficiary of this process, being made the Constable of France (connétable de France) on 12 January, as a reward for his exemplary military service for the crown.
It would be codified by king Henri III in 1582 that the constable was the most senior of the grand officiers de la couronne (great officers of the crown), above even the chancellor. The office of constable was held for life, and was meant to be the king’s closest council who was always consulted before the declaration of any act of war. The constable was the head of the French armies, and excluding the king was above all nobles on the battlefield whatever their titles. He worked alongside the maréchaux (marshals) who were his “collaborators and coadjudicators”. By tradition there were only at most four marshals at any one time, however this was violated in 1516 with the appointment of the maréchal de Coligny. The maréchaux were also grand officiers de la couronne and jointly judged matters of honour alongside the constable. The commissares des guerres (war commissars – responsible for logistics, military administration and accounting) and the prévôts des maréchaux (marshals provost – magistrates responsible for monitoring the offenses of soldiers and maintaining order on the roads) were under the joint authority of the constable de Bourbon and the maréchaux.[53][55]
The office afforded its holder significant powers. Le Roux argues that the granting of this office to Bourbon was an acknowledgement of his strength. Francis could through the conferment of this title, be assured of Bourbon’s loyalty.
Between 1488 and 1515 the office had lay vacant. After Bourbon’s death it would again lay vacant until 1538.
There were only two lineages in the kingdom at this time which could offer a threat to Francis: that of Albret and that of Bourbon. The former was neutralised through a 1527 marriage which tied the house to the royal one by pairing Francis’ widowed sister with Henri II d’Albret, king of Navarre. Bourbon would represent a greater challenge to deal with.
On 12 January, Francis confirmed Bourbon as governor of Languedoc, by the same terms as those granted to his uncle-in-law in 1483 and father-in-law in 1488. The duc de Bourbon’s lieutenant, Just de Tournon would present these provisions to the parlement on his behalf. He took a different tact to that which had been taken in 1488 with the court, seeking to sooth passions , assuring them that Bourbon did not wish for conflict with the body. While Bourbon would enjoy the rights of pardon and remission he would have no cognisance over private litigation, which remained devolved to the parlement.
The new constable de Bourbon would issue an ordinance on 20 January.[59] Bourbon sought to expand upon the provisions made under Charles VIII and Louis XII. Soldiers on the march were only to stay at a place one day and one night. They were not to get their hosts to find them foodstuffs from other cities, but to be content with what was in the place they were staying in.[53]
On 25 January, Francis would undertake his coronation.
No sooner had the death of Louis been announced, than the Venetians were assured Francis intended to lead a new expedition into Italy. Francis was eager to conquer his wife’s dowry, the duchy of Milan. By agreement with the Venetians, he assured them Verona would be restored to them from Imperial occupation. Imperial neutrality in turn was bought by the treaty of Paris on 24 March 1515 which organised a marriage between Renée de Valois and the lord of the Netherlands (future Emperor Charles V). Francis would give the couple the chief towns of Picardy. On 8 May, an alliance with England was confirmed. With all these pieces in place, the king’s mind could turn to preparing an invasion.
For this campaign, Bourbon would enjoy a deal of autonomy in its design, with little involvement from the royal council. Francis meanwhile feigned that he had other priorities to the reconquest of Milan.[61]
In early 1515, units of light horse that Bourbon had raised were serving as garrisons at the perimeter of the Alps and the Rhône.[62]
Francis established his mother Louise in the regency, and declared the duke of Milan to be an usurper. Bourbon supervised the assembling of the troops, which were to convene at Moirans in Dauphiné, other troops gathered at Heyrieux taking advantage of preparations already made during the reign of Louis XII for this campaign.[63] His participation in the campaign alongside the king was to be at his own expense. Bourbon arrived in Lyon on 23 or 30 June to an elaborate greeting from the people, with scaffolds erected in which performances were given, with characters representing his courageous qualities. He was analogised to a John the Baptist preparing the way for the Christ king.[61]
Soon thereafter, on 12 July, Francis arrived in the city. He was also greeted with elaborate spectacles. In these spectacles, Bourbon was analogised to the Arthurian figure of Galahad. Though Bourbon had received a warm reception from Lyon, this would not mean the city escaped the responsibility of supporting the royal army, which it was to do with the provision of of food and wine. Le Roux puts the size of the army at around either 40,000 or 30,000 infantry and 2,500 lances. He further argues that the army was likely the largest assembled so far in the Italian Wars. Of the royal guard it contained 400 archers, 200 mounted crossbowmen and 200 gentleman of the hôtel; for cavalry 2,500 lances (a lance was a unit that in its initial conception included a gendarme, two archers, a cutler a page and a valet); for infantry 10,000 French and Navarrese and 22,000 Landsknechts. There were also six piece of artillery. This army was divided into three principal blocks. The constable de Bourbon held command of the vanguard of the army as was customary right of the constable for an army in which the king was present. Under his authority were the maréchaux de La Palice and de Trivulzio, the admiral de Bonnivet, the vicomte de Thouars and the engineer Pedro Navarro.[59]
The duke of Milan raised 35,000 Swiss infantry to oppose a French invasion of Italy. The opponents of France had not been idle as the French preparations for an invasion proceeded. Back in February 1515, an alliance of Pope Leo X, the duke of Milan, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, the king of Aragon and the Swiss had been formed. The Swiss controlled Milan in the name of its duke.
The Swiss moved into Piedmont so that they might guard the typical passages through the Alps that the French used. Meanwhile the condotierri Prospero Colonna assembled the Papal army in Bologna.
Bourbon, and the maréchaux de Lautrec, de La Palisse and de Trivulzio departed Lyon for Grenoble. Here they discussed the campaign and utilised spies to appraise themselves of the preparations being made to greet them by the Swiss over the mountains.[69]
In August, the French army got underway. As the army moved, a system of staged advance was used to ensure the army remained fed by proceeding through specific locations which were to prepare food for the army.[70] Bourbon gave the order for the equipment of several places on the journey to the border.[71] Frustrating the beliefs of the Swiss as to the route they would take, on 14 August Bourbon led the vanguard down the little used Guillestre – Cuneo road through the Col de Vars (Pass of Vars) and Col de Larche (now known as the Maddalena pass).[72] This pass was a challenging one, and required the disassembling of the cannon, with narrow paths against precipices that forced riders to dismount and lead their horses by the bridle.
Bourbon, and the vanguard of the army arrived at Cuneo on 16 August, and awaited the arrival of the king there.[69] At this point in the campaign, Francis was to be found with the royal rear-guard, and he arrived in Cuneo on 17 August.[72][63]
A coup came for the French army, when a force under the command of the maréchal de La Palice and the maréchal d’Aubigny succeeded in pushing ahead and surprising Colonna who was with the Papal cavalry. The cavalry was thus seized. By this blow, the coalition army was denied its cavalry. The Swiss, disheartened, retreated back to Milan, sacking Chivasso, Novara and Vercelli as they withdrew.[75]
The army then made for Turin, where Francis was received by his maternal uncle, the comte de Tende. After Turin came the crossing of the river Sesia and then by the end of August, the river Ticino.[75]
An allied Venetian force, numbering less than 10,000 made for Lodi. Francis now opened negotiations with the Swiss through his uncle, the comte de Tende and the maréchal de Lautrec. This negotiation proved fruitful, and an agreement was signed on 8 September by which the Swiss were to vacate Milan in return for 1,000,000 écus (crowns) of which 150,000 would be due immediately. The royal camp was looked through to provide this up front sum. The Swiss cantons of Bern, Fribourg and Solothurn who boasted a combined force of 10,000 soldiers indeed accepted this agreement.
On 10 September, the French army established itself at Marignano, where it was to be joined by their Venetian allies. From here, the Spanish-Papal army in Piacenza, under the command of Cardona could be prevented from uniting with the Swiss. Cardinal Schinner arrived in Milan on 12 September to rally the motivation of the Swiss to continue the fight.
Bourbon’s vanguard was fortified behind an embankment with the Gascon arquebusiers, 10,000 of the 22,000 landsknechts and half of the royal cavalry on each of its flanks. Galiot de Genouillac had charge of the artillery. With the vanguard were many young seigneurs.
A kilometre to the south of Bourbon’s vanguard, near Santa Brigida the battle of the army was to be found under the king’s command. This portion of the army contained the soldiers of the royal household, the remainders of the cavalry and the landsknechts of the Black Band. The royal rear-guard was strung out another three kilometres further south under the command of the duc d’Alençon seconded by the seigneur de Montpoupon and the maréchal d’Aubigny.
On 13 September, this force faced off against a Swiss force numbering around 20,000, with only 200 Papal cavalry and 20 artillery pieces to face the French preponderance of cavalry and artillery. Their famous pikeman were divided into three groups of roughly 6-7,000 which marched one behind the other. The battle began at 15:00, with the Swiss cracking the infantry of Bourbon’s vanguard who were forced back under the cover of the French artillery. Losing heart, some landsknechts abandoned the fight. Bourbon meanwhile led cavalry charges into the sides of the Swiss pike squares hoping to dislocate them. The battle was going well for the Swiss. It was only with the arrival of the cavalry of the battle of the army under Francis that their advance was stopped. The stemming of the damage allowed Galiot de Genouillac to relocate the artillery in batteries on some heights. To bolster the resolve of the landsknechts, Francis supposedly offered them a third of the booty from Milan.
Unusually, the battle continued through the evening into the night. With the moon disappearing behind the clouds around 23:00 the soldiers began to regroup, with the fighting pausing as the sides separated. Nevertheless Navarro’s artillery continued to fire, targeting Swiss campfires throughout the night. With a ditch separating the two armies, the king supposedly spent the night in the saddle, at least according to the letter he wrote his mother Louise. His soldiers would also remain at arms.
At dawn on 14 September, combat resumed. The ferocity that had typified the prior evening was to be found once again. The Swiss again made their way across the ditch and succeeded in bending the landsknechts backwards. The right wing of the army under the command of the constable de Bourbon managed to cause one of the Swiss squares to bend. By 08:00 the first of the Venetian army arrived on the field. The Swiss abandoned the field a few hours later at 11:00.
The city of Milan opened its gates to the victorious French on 16 September. After a couple more weeks, on 4 October, the castle in which the duke of Milan was held up capitulated on 4 October. The duke of the territory was granted a pension by the French king and exiled.
Facing a victorious French king, Pope Leo became more pliant to dealing with his former enemy. The king reached an agreement with the Pope in the Concordat of Bologna by which the Papacy regained its supremacy over the French church in return for the king’s control of benefices being expanded. In the negotiations with the Pope, Bourbon extracted concessions from the Pontiff in a bull dated to 17 February 1516. In this declaration, the Sainte-Chapelle d’Aigueperse (Holy Chapel of Aigueperse) was afforded certain privileges by the Pope.
In December, the Venetians sent an ambassador to the constable de Bourbon, who they held in great esteem. This was done with the goal of allowing them to proceed with their reconquest of the territory of Brescia, as Bourbon could stand in the way of the Emperor. Francis departed from Italy in January 1516. At this time, Bourbon was appointed as both lieutenant of the king in Italy and as governor of the conquered duchy of Milan. A large force was left under his command in the city.
The contemporary Italian historian Guiccardini alleges that Francis considered leaving his French army in the peninsula under the command of the constable de Bourbon.
In January 1516, the Aragonese king Ferdinand II died. With his death, Francis could imagine the reconquest of Naples, and set to work organising an investigation of the Angevin claim to the throne. However, a more pressing priority emerged in the attempt of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I, to seize the duchy of Milan. To this end he had raised a powerful army. Francis, in Lyon, sent more soldiers to support Bourbon in Milan.
In March, Maximilian was to be found besieging the town of Asola. For want of money for his soldiers however, he would abandon his ambitions to take Milan. Thereby freeing Francis’ hands.
Duc describes Bourbon’s tenure as ‘short but memorable’ and that one ‘could not find a better lieutenant’ judging by his correspondence, noting that he re-established order in the territory and proffered support for the Venetians in their quarrel with the Habsburgs. When difficulties emerged with Cremona over the paying of taxes, he approached the situation with flexibility and understanding, something that would contrast with his brutal successor in the charge. By this means, relations were pacified between the French administration and its new subjects.
Despite his successes, Bourbon was desirous to return to France. He noted that the acquisition of Milan cost the lives of many French nobles, and that they were driven out of the place every ten years. Italy was indeed the place of burial for both his brothers (Louis and François) and his father Gilbert.
Bourbon would not remain the governor of Milan for long, being replaced by the vicomte de Lautrec, his ‘polar opposite and rival’ according to Duc, in May 1516.
By the terms of the 1516 treaty of Noyon, French rights to Milan, and Habsburg rights to the kingdom of Naples, were affirmed by the Habsburg king of Castile (future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V). In addition to the reconquest of Milan, in November 1516 a new perpetual peace was established between France and the Swiss. Going forward the two would be allies, and the Swiss would withdraw from their prior held role in Italian affairs.
In February 1518, the court was to be found at Thouars, having recently been at Bourbon’s domains in Moulins for the baptism of his son. The vicomte de Thouars organised hunts around his eponymous town. Both the king and the constable de Bourbon participated in these hunts.
In 1519, the young king of Castile, Charles succeeded in his bid to succeed to the Holy Roman Empire, thereby becoming Emperor Charles V. The constable de Bourbon would open communications with the new Emperor so that he might receive compensation for the losses his father had suffered in south Italy. The Emperor awarded Bourbon a pension.
With the death of first Bourbon’s wife Suzanne on 28 April 1521 without any children, and then her mother Anne a year later, Francis moved to reclaim the royal appanages of the duché d’Auvergne and comté de Clermont-en-Beauvaisis. This was despite the fact that Suzanne had declared her husband to be her heir for all her lands. Meanwhile, Francis’ mother Louise (the first cousin of Suzanne) asserted herself as the late duchesse’s heir for those territories she held as patrimonies on the grounds of being her closest living relative. The future Chancellor Guillaume Poyet would serve as her instrument in the prosecution of this lawsuit, as would the famous financier the baron de Semblançay. This hunger for Suzanne’s land represented a betrayal of the agreements made with the Bourbon’s by Francis’ royal predecessors.
Francis first moved to reclaim the comté de La Marche, and vicomté de Carlat, two cases where the law was clear that these reverted to the royal domain. Two separate lawsuits were then brought before the parlement concerning the inheritance. They came to the parlement as Bourbon was a peer of the realm, and thus the case could not go before any other court. One was brought by the king, the other by his mother.
Louise’s lawsuit was prejudiced on 7 October 1522, when the king accepted his mothers’ homage for the duché de Bourbon and Auvergne in addition to the comté de Clermont, Forez, Beaujolais and La Marche, and the vicomtés de Carlat and Murat. By this means, even before the parlement had come to any decision, almost the whole patrimonial inheritance was recognised as falling to Louise.
While the constable was likely in contact with segments of the parlement that chafed at royal ‘tyranny’, he never sought to employ them towards a general cause.
The parlement first issued an ambigiously worded arrêt (decree) in the matter of the inheritance dispute. The body had often expressed its disquiet at the way the case was being handled.
On 30 August 1523, the parlement likely ruled for the sequestering of his property, despite what Hamon describes as “obvious reluctance”. The decision itself does not survive, but it is referenced in several contemporary sources. This decision of the parlement was a godsend to Francis, as it allowed him to take advantage of the duc de Bourbon’s revenues, at a sensitive time for royal cash-flow.
Now without a wife, Bourbon looked to find a new marriage. Imperial agents suggested for him a sister of the Holy Roman Emperor. Hamon suggests that these efforts may have even begun before the death of Suzanne, as a means of illustrating his vexation with the king. In this period, marriages represented strategic alliances. Thus, Francis’ anxieties were piqued, and according to the English ambassador, at one point Francis burst in on the constable and demanded he explain his marriage plans. With the threat of such a marriage on the cards, it has been suggested that plans to have Bourbon marry the king’s mother, or her sister Philiberte were also floated around this time. This would have the advantage of tying Bourbon to the royal family.
French control of Milan was lost in 1521. Francis arranged for a new campaign into Italy. Command of this army was the most prestigious military posting. Bourbon would be snubbed for the role, which was granted to the vicomte de Lautrec.
In 1521, the Imperials laid siege to Mézières on the northern French frontier. During this campaign, Bourbon would not have command of the French vanguard, which was instead granted to the duc d’Alençon.
After the anti-climactic conclusion of the showdown between Francis and the Emperor, desultory smaller combats continued. Francis captured Bouchain the day after the Emperor’s withdrawal, the vicomte de Thouars established himself in the suburbs of Douai with a few soldiers hoping to put the place to siege, but the weather would not allow it. The French army began a retreat to the Somme. The final military act of the campaign for the year was to be found with the constable de Bourbon’s capture of Hesdin.
Bitter at the usurpation of ‘his command’ of the vanguard by the duc d’Alençon, Bourbon is supposed to have spread the rumour that the mediocre results of the campaign followed from the king’s poor choices of favourites.
This happy end to the campaign was soured by the capitulation of Tournai to the army of the count of Nassau on 16 December after a siege of five months. The bad news was compounded by the fact England had committed itself some weeks earlier on 24 November, to join the war against France alongside the Emperor in the next year.
No military commands would be forthcoming to Bourbon in 1522. In the summer of 1522, Bourbon opened communications with the Emperor. Two of his associates (the seigneur de La Vauguyon and the seigneur de Lurcy) met with the Imperial chamberlain the count of Rœulx on the northern frontier. Bourbon made it clear he was willing to assume arms against Francis, but Charles V did not take up the offer. During the Autumn these contacts redoubled, now with both the Emperor and with the English king Henry VIII.
These negotiations reached the ears of Francis. It appears they were fostered with the intention of pushing the king towards a recognition of his constable’s services, but this backfired. Francis was not interested in having a ‘dialogue with an equal’ but rather a compliant subject.
The loss of Milan was compounded in 1522 by the defeat of Bicocca and then the loss of Genoa.
Bourbon’s defiance of the French king, and negotiations with the Emperor were little kept secrets by the spring of 1523. The Emperor was now prepared to explore more serious negotiations
In the summer of 1523, Francis had been preparing to undertake a new campaign into Italy. To this end the large majority of the soldiery was concentrated for the purpose, leaving provinces such as Picardy thinly defended. The defection of the constable would frustrate this ambition.
The count of Rœulx, Imperial chamberlain, was dispatched to directly negotiate with the duc de Bourbon. The two men met on 11 July at Montbrison. By its terms 10,000 Imperial landsknechts would cross the French frontier in the south into Languedoc, while a simultaneous invasion of the kingdom from the north would be launched by the English. Bourbon would command the landsknechts of the south. England would subsidise the campaign, and Bourbon would receive a matrimonial alliance with a sister of Charles V. Jouanna argues that the intent for Bourbon of entering into this arrangement was to improve his bargaining position with Francis. Hamon suggests similarly that the constable tried in vain to indicate to Francis that he was open to some sort of settlement. The negotiations with the Emperor were intentionally a poorly kept secret, as they were in reality intended to be known by Francis, their true target. By worrying the French king to a strong enough degree, he would re-establish dialogue with his vassal. Jouanna makes further note that this stratagem of dialogue had achieved success before, and would achieve success in the coming decades of the French Wars of Religion and the regency of Anne in the seventeenth-century. It was the particular character of Francis that doomed the project.
In the final months and weeks before his defection, Bourbon had been assembling arms at his strongholds of Chantelle and Carlat. Cannons were introduced and certain levies of men conducted. Some of his young advisors and bishops in his party counselled him to raise the standard of revolt. Nothing would come of these preparations. Quilliet speculates that there was a real risk of civil war that was only narrowly avoided.
According to du Bellay, Francis was suspicious of the allegiance of the duc de Vendôme in the case of a betrayal by the constable de Bourbon. He therefore delegated the vicomte de Thouars to the province of Picardy (over which Vendôme was governor) with the powers of lieutenant-général. This displeased Vendôme who travelled to court to protest his loyalty. Satisfied by his protestations, the king sent Vendôme off to see to the defence of Champagne.
At the start of August the possibility of reaching an arrangement between Bourbon and Francis still appeared to be open.
Two Norman seigneurs who were aware of Bourbon’s plans, appraised the bishop of Lisieux of what they knew. The bishop appraised the comte de Maulévrier, who was the sénéchal of Normandy. Maulévrier informed Francis in turn, the king receiving his letter on 16 August. Though the king now had proper confirmation of his vassal’s betrayal, this had long been suspected. Francis tried to invite Bourbon to join with him in Lyon several times to no avail. Francis looked to receive an explanation from Bourbon, and went to meet with him at Moulins on 20 August, where Bourbon was holding up with a supposed sickness. The meeting was filled with mutual suspicion. Francis assured his constable that he did not believe any of what Maulévrier had told him, and invited the constable to head his army for the coming march into Italy. Bourbon pretended to accept. The next day, Francis departed for Lyon, and around this time, Bourbon withdrew to his fortress of Chantelle.
On 5 September, Francis ordered the arrest of Bourbon.
On 7 September, Bourbon withdrew his allegiance to Francis while holding up in Chantelle. Yet even at this late hour, he wrote letters to the principal personages of the court, including Francis and Louise in which he made assurances of his service if only his properties would be returned to him. In his letter to Louise he implored her to intervene on his behalf with the king to restore him to Francis’ good favour and begged that his goods be left unmolested so that he could devote them to the service of the king. During the night of 8 September he made his flight from the kingdom, only accompanied by a handful of servants, arriving in Imperial territory at Saint-Claude where he declared himself to be at the service of the Emperor.
The historian Sournia describes Bourbon’s grievances as “well-founded”, and notes that the desertion of such a great prince du sang was unprecedented in times of such tension. Duc and Rizzo note that his disgrace by the king betrays the latter’s poor understanding of political and strategic affairs as concerned Italy. The historian Jouanna cautions against using the term ‘treason’ to describe Bourbon’s departure from allegiance to Francis in favour of that of the Emperor, arguing that not only would it to be anachronistic for the period, which lacked much in the way of a national sentiment, but also that Bourbon was a subject of both the king of France, and the Emperor (for his Imperial territories including the principality of Dombes). The duc de Bourbon was thus a member of the ‘international nobility’. The Emperor, was a descendant of the last duke of Burgundy who also had experience being despoiled by the French crown.
The flight of Bourbon would have a small impact on France. The crown remained in a position of strength, with his new enemy isolated. Bourbon tried to bring along other great seigneurs into his defection. This wish would be in vain, and his defection would be an isolated one. Unlike the great rebellions of the prior century, that of the Mad War and the War of the Public Weal, Bourbon offered no manifesto that might provide a political character to his rebellion. For Jouanna, the fact that Bourbon was unable to induce the kind of noble rebellion in the vein of the Mad War of the previous century, speaks to the strong bond between the king and the wider nobility in this period. While he had few collaborators, Hamon notes that it is liable that many nevertheless sympathised with his revolt.
The general population in his various holdings, would not rise up for his cause. Quilliet considers the various reasons for this failure of subjects to follow the lead of Bourbon. He suggests that feudal ties in this period were not quite as tightly bound as they had been in the past and that a cautious hesitancy to involve oneself in adventure were the chief factors. He notes that others have drawn from this non-event the advent of a ‘national consciousness’, with the people in Bourbon’s lands displaying a higher loyalty to France.
On 11 September, the arrest of Bourbon for the crime of conspiracy would be officially proclaimed. Francis would portray Bourbon as a disloyal subject.
In 1523[citation needed](when), the duke of Suffolk invaded Picardy with an army of 30,000 men. While this invasion would be of alarm to the Parisians, it lacked the kind of coordination required to deliver more than a scare.
Bourbon’s trial in absentia at the hands of the parlement of Paris would begin in Paris on 8 to 9 March 1524. The vicomte de Thouars was one of the présidents for the royal lit de justice session.
The parlement wished to maintain the forms of justice, while the king looked for vigorous prosecutions for Bourbon’s accomplices.
One of the witnesses at Bourbon’s trial was a certain financial official responsible for the province of Languedoc named Jehan de Poncher. Poncher had become a prisoner of the duc de Bourbon and spoken with him several times in early 1525.
Francis and the parlement quibbled over his rights and powers. On 24 July 1527, the king held a lit de justice in the parlement. For the occassion the whole court was gathered in the Grand-Chambre for a session presided over by the king. During this royal session, the parlementaire Charles Guillart argued that while the king was above and not bound by the law, it was nevertheless desirable that he not use this absolute authority when it was not necessary. Francis and his council shot back that afternoon that the court should only concern itself with justice, and it had no cognisance over matters of state. Three days later, on 27 July 1527, Francis had the parlement declare Bourbon guilty of lèse majesté, rebellion and felony, with his assets and territories taken over by the crown. The exemplary posthumous punishment of the duc de Bourbon served as an illustrative warning to the nobility at large.
Bourbon’s principal accomplices included the following men. The bishop of Autun, the bishop of Le Puy, the seigneur de Saint-Vallier (capitaine de deux cents archers de la garde du roi – captain of two hundred archers of the royal guard), the seigneur de Montpoupon (capitaine de cent hommes d’armes – captain of a hundred men-at-arms) and seigneur de La Vauguyon (maréchal and sénéchal du Bourbonnais (marshal and seneschal of the duchy of Bourbon).
Those accomplices he did have were put on trial, which would feature men such as Pantaléon Joubert (a président in the Toulouse parlement) on the jury. Jouanna feels the treatment of those who had gone along with Bourbon in his defection was of a more moderate nature than that delivered against Bourbon himself. On 8 September, a certain d’Argouges was questioned, and replied that when approached by a representative of the duc de Bourbon he had rebuffed the envoy, arguing that he was loyal to his king and country. The seigneur de La Vauguyon, one of his accomplices would be kept under house arrest from 1524 to 1526 before being rehabilitated. The seigner de Saint-Vallier who had been condemned to death for his role in Bourbon’s enterprise received a pardon on the scaffold in February 1524. Contemporary chroniclers reported a lurid tale by which his daughter, the future mistress of king Henri II Diane, gave herself to the king so that he might spare her father.
Bourbon’s betrayal left a lasting impression upon Francis. Nawrocki suggests that even decades later, the king may have been reticent to place a relative like the comte de Saint-Pol in a place of paramount favour, due to the persistent memory of Bourbon’s acts.
For a brief period, the famous knight Bayard would experience a kind of disgrace, being viewed as having been too proximate to the constable de Bourbon by the crown. However he would soon be back on campaign in Italy under the admiral de Bonnivet.
Some of the of the fruits of the duc de Bourbon’s despoilment made their way as royal gifts into the hands of the great financiers like the baron de Semblançay.
This rebel for the Imperial cause enjoyed fiscal support from the duke of Savoy, who lent him money. This was despite the fact that Savoy was the uncle of the French king. This was one of the episodes that alienated Francis from his uncle.
In Italy, the French army under the command of the admiral de Bonnivet had initially enjoyed success in their invasion of Lombardy. The duc de Bourbon joined with the Imperial command in this theatre, alongside the marquis of Pescara and the viceroy of Naples de Lannoy. Troubles with the Swiss allies, the enthusiasm of the duc de Bourbon to repel the French army and the fiscal support of the kingdoms enemies by the Pope saw the reversal of the French fortunes. Bonnivet was forced onto the backfoot, and engaged in a retreat towards Novara in March 1524. The French infantry began to desert, and their Swiss allies made clear their intention to withdraw back to Switzerland.
The Imperial pursuers pounced on the retreating French as they retreated across the river Sesia on 29 April. The admiral de Bonnivet, commander of the army, was wounded and forced to go ahead of the army back to France. Meanwhile, the famous knight Bayard was fatally wounded while leading a charge against the Imperials. According to the contemporary narrative of Symphorien Champier, who published biographies of Bayard in the 1520s a meeting is supposed to have occurred between the fatally wounded Bayard and the duc de Bourbon. Bourbon assured the wounded Bayard that he would ensure the best surgeons treated him, and cautioned the man against falling in to depression. Bayard is then supposed to have retorted that he had faith in god, and that his only cause for grief was that he might no longer be able to serve Francis. Bayard is then supposed to have requested that Bourbon leave him be, so that he might pray to god for forgiveness for his sins. Du Bellay recounts Bayard’s remarks in more pointed terms. In his narrative the dying man addresses Bourbon ‘Do not have pity for me for I die as a good man, but I pity you who have served against your prince, against your country [citation needed](check) and have broken your oath’.
On 24 May 1524, a great conflagration consumed the city of Troyes. Though the fire was likely an accident, it was attributed to Bourbon and ‘Imperial agents’. Fear of a fifth column in the province inspired the vicomte de Thouars’ brother Georges de La Trémoille, who was the lieutenant-général of Burgundy to keep a close eye on the wine growers of the territory.
The possibility now seemed to loom of an Imperial invasion into Burgundy. Bourbon, who had been established as lieutenant-general of Italy by the Emperor, had other plans though. The duc intended instead to invade Provence while an English invasion into the Somme was led in parallel. It had been centuries since an invasion was launched from Italy outwards across the Alps.[75] Provence was a recent addition to the kingdom of France, having been united with the French crown only a few decades earlier in 1481. Bourbon therefore imagined he might be greeted as a liberator of the territory. Bourbon’s invasion would represent a personal affront to the French king Francis.
Bourbon conducted an invasion of Provence with eight hundred men-at-arms, fifteen hundred light horse, twenty thousand German/Spanish infantry among which were landsknechts and heavy artillery. This army took the Col de Tende as its passage through the Alps then crossed the Var to enter Provence on 1 July. The coastal route via Nice was followed with resistance only being found at Brégançon, the tower of Toulon and Cassis.[75] the undefended capital of Provence, Aix, fell to him on 7 or 8 August. Bourbon took the title of comte de Provence the next day, which was to be one of the titles which fell to him by the division of France. Having conquered Aix, Bourbon made to take Marseille, where much of the Provençal nobility had withdrawn, and which had received a garrison of Gascons, French and Italians.[75] The Imperial light horse had arrived before the city on 4 August. Provençal nobles from Grasse came to the condotierri commander da Ceri to report to him the imminent arrival of Bourbon. The main body of the Imperial army under the command of Bourbon and the marquis of Pescara arrived before the walls on 13 August. The first artillery shots against the walls were fired six days later, on 19 August, marking the beginning of the siege.[145]
Bourbon’s army would stall out before the walls of the city which was vigorously defended by da Ceri and the French commander the seigneur de Brion. Brion represented Francis in the city, but da Ceri called the shots.[147] Bourbon established himself on the heights overlooking Marseille. The city was well served for gunpowder and victuals, with a militia (numbering some 9,000) and population involved in the cities defence. In addition to these boons, the French fleet was in the cities harbour, enabling the city to resist a complete blockade. Bourbon by contrast found himself in want of funds and facing an opponent making use of a scorched earth policy. Meanwhile, the French king was assembling a relief army. The artillery bombardment brought forth by Bourbon’s army was intense, with three hundred shots sent against the walls on 23 August alone. This bombardment succeeded in opening a breach in the walls near the convent of the Observance. While an assault through the breach was greatly feared by the inhabitants, none came. Da Ceri oversaw the building of earthworks and trenches near the breach and it was sealed.[147] Beginning on 27 August, the Marseillais began leading sorties against their besiegers. Bourbon asked for prisoner exchanges, and while this was refused by da Ceri, the defending captain asked for the trade of the corpse of a captain named Vincentio Romano (who had died in a sortie) in return for the remains of three Imperial officers. This proved agreeable and a brief truce transpired in which the bodies were traded.
The siege then resumed, but it was not a constant affair, with attacks only being launched every couple of days, the rest of the time being devoted to trench work.
Throughout these months, the French king was moving south: from Bourges on 25 July to Vienne which he departed on 12 August to before the walls of Avignon on 14 August.[citation needed](date contradiction) He was now able to assume a more tight command over operations against the duc de Bourbon.[145]
The occupation of the Papal enclave of Avignon was looked to for the aid it could provide to the supply and concentration of the French army. Avignon was not keen to afford entry to the French, and had to be written to by Francis to yield to occupation. Francis arrived at Avignon on 14 September before continuing the march south with the maréchal de La Palice commanding the vanguard and the vicomte de Thouars the battle. La Palice utilised reconnaissance so as to best organise his defence against the duc de Bourbon.[149]
On 16 September, the Imperial bombardment resumed. The situation was frustrated for the attackers on 17 September, when 1,500 reinforcements slipped into the city, bringing supplies with them. Bourbon was keen to take Marseille before the royal army reached the place. A new breach was made by the Imperial’s on 24 September, however no assault would come through it.[147]
The French army would remain largely inactive after its advance south, and would only enter action again once Bourbon resolved on 28 or 29 September to abandon the siege. The camp of the besiegers abandoned, the population of Marseille descended upon it, taking everything they could find. The French army now pursued the retreating duc de Bourbon. The royal army tarried for a few days in Aix, which had capitulated to Bourbon. Here, the maréchal de Montmorency massacred the Spanish contingents of the routed Imperial army. With the encouragement of the admiral de Bonnivet, Francis resolved to make the passage over the Alps himself so that they might also receive the benefit of reconquering Milan. According to Le Roux, Bonnivet likely hoped by this means to bury the memory of his dismal campaign of the previous year, while the king imagined a new Marignano.
Despite Bourbon’s defeat before Marseille, the siege was a wake up call to improve the defences of the city. The crown resolved to establish two new fortified complexes near the city.[151]
Bourbon’s rear-guard, under the command of the marquis of Pescara was snapped at by the pursuing French under the command of the maréchal de Montmorency as it retreated down the road to Nice. Bourbon re-crossed the river Var in the first days of October.[147]
Francis and the French army, numbering over 30,000 men, invaded Italy again in Bourbon’s wake. Their crossing over the Alps went smoothly, and was followed by the successful occupation of Milan. The Imperial’s in the area were outnumbered and took refuge in Lodi and Pavia. Instead of going to besiege Lodi as he was being advised by the maréchal de Montmorency, seigneur de Fleuranges and comte de Saint-Pol; Francis followed the recommendation of Bonnivet and the duc d’Alençon, and looked to starve out the city of Pavia. Pavia was a more glorious target for Francis.
The city of Pavia was defended by the Imperial commander de Levya. While Pavia was under siege, the Emperor and the duc de Bourbon were not idle. They raised a polyglot force of Germans, Italians, Swiss and Spaniards. On 22 January 1525, the Imperials made an attack against the French camp. This assault was easily rebuffed. Proper battle was felt to be an inevitability, something the French hungrily anticipated. Venetian forces were placed on the road to Lodi in the hopes of preventing any further Imperial reinforcements. Bourbon meanwhile camped at Torretta, in front of the French royal army. On 4 February, an Imperial assault on the gates of the park was rebuffed. More successful was a mission to cross the siege lines into the besieged Pavia on 7 February, the soldiers bringing enough gunpowder brought to allow de Levya to make more sorties. The French besiegers of Pavia were transformed into the besieged. They lost steady streams of their mercenaries as the days passed. On the night of 19 February, the marquis of Pescara assaulted the French camp with 3,000 Spaniards, succeeding in putting several hundred men out of action. With limited resources themselves, Bourbon, Pescara, and de Lannoy resolved on 23 February to launch a camisado (a surprise night attack) against the French. Francis was not unaware of a coming Imperial attack that night. To this end the Imperial army broke camp at 22:00 that night, with the plan of seizing Mirabello castle in the park which had been abandoned by the French. From here, reinforcements could be brought into Pavia. The Imperial pioneers set to work on the walls of the park around midnight. After five hours the various holes in the wall they had made were wide enough for the Imperial soldiers to make their way through. A force under the marquis del Vasto hurried for Mirabello castle, a kilometre away from the breaches. Mirabello was conquered for the Imperials by about 06:30.
Around 06:00, the alarm was sounded in the French camp, soldiers soon armed and saddled up. At about 07:00, the Swiss mercenaries of the French army succeeded in seizing the Imperial artillery. This coup was followed up twenty minutes later by the unleashing of the French artillery on the Imperials, who had yet to form up. Francis believed the appropriate course was a grand knightly charge to smash into the Imperials. This charge, compromised the French cannons which had to cease firing. According to the contemporary Imperial memoires of a certain Macquériau, Bourbon was almost killed in this charge by his uncle, the vicomte de Thouars. Thouars’ efforts were in vain, and Bourbon’s men felled the vicomte in this narrative. The modern historian Vissière puts little stock in this story. Though they had the jump on the Imperial cavalry, they were surprised by Spanish arquebusiers, which cleaved through the French landsknechts and isolated the French cavalry. A sortie of the garrison of Pavia into the French rear completed the disaster for the French. The battle was over in less than an hour.
In the carnage of the battle of Pavia, the cream of the French command was wiped out: the admiral de Bonnivet, the maréchal de La Palice, and the vicomte de Thouars dead; the maréchal de Lescun, the comte de Saint-Pol, the king of Navarre and the king of France captured. There was much competition for the capture of Francis among the Imperials, and the French king would in the end surrender to the viceroy of Naples, de Lannoy. According to the contemporary historian Guiccardini, French losses were 8,000 men to the Imperial loss of 700 men.
Bourbon permitted those captive French prisoners who appeared to lack the means to pay a ransom to return to France. He attempted to convince François de La Trémoille, the new vicomte de Thouars (grandson of the dead Thouars of Pavia) to join his service, but Thouars preferred to pay his ransom. To ensure the defeated and unarmed soldiers were not troubled by robbers on their return to France, Bourbon had them conducted to the French border by two companies of soldiers.
In his report to emperor Charles V, de Lannoy noted that Bourbon had commended himself in the battle. He also found praise for Pescara, del Vasto, de Leyva and Alarcon. He advised Charles to write congratulatory missives to all these men. In addition to this advice, Lannoy counselled that the Emperor come to Italy so that he might be crowned by the Pope now that he had no more enemies in the peninsula.
With France absent a king and an army, the Emperor was in a position of great strength. He received feelers from the English king Henry VIII. Henry proposed to him that they jointly invade the weakened kingdom of France in the model of their 1521 plan. The English army would land in the north while the Imperial army would cross the two southern frontiers of the French kingdom. These spearheads would link up in Paris, where Henry would be crowned king of France. This joint force would then proceed to Rome so that the Emperor might receive the Imperial crown. The Imperial-Spanish army would be under the command of the duc de Bourbon, and he would be rewarded with the return of all his confiscated lands, in addition to those lands he claimed as his own (such as the comté de Provence). The Emperor had those in his council who were less keen on this project, feeling that it gave too much power to the English, who would surely throw themselves against Spain or Flanders in the future. Therefore instead, the Emperor resolved to secure peace with France, by which means the kingdom could be dismembered without the need to fire a shot.
The Emperor therefore looked to extract an extensive treaty from the captive Francis. He demanded receipt of the Burgundian inheritance: the duché de Burgundy, the comté d’Auxerre, the Mâcon, the vicomté d’Auxonne, the seigneurie de Bar-sur-Aube among other territories France had secured by the treaty of Arras, Conflans and Péronne. In addition to this, France was to abandon their claims to overlordship over Flanders and Artois; renounce their claims to Milan, Naples, Asti and Genoa; and restore the duc de Bourbon to all his former territories (while also affording him the comté de Provence) allowing him to constitute an independent presence in the kingdom. Those who had joined with Bourbon in his betrayal were to be pardoned and restored to their property. Further to this, the English king was to be granted those parts of France that rightfully belonged to him (Aquitaine, Guyenne and Normandy) and have his Imperial debts paid off by France. Finally the French king was to marry his son and heir to the Portuguese princess Maria, a niece of the Emperor.
Francis was not in a position to offer a strong reaction to this extensive proposal. He assented to the elimination of the French claims over Italy, control of the town of Hesdin in Picardy, a marriage between his son and Maria, and the resolution of the lawsuit between Bourbon and Louise in Bourbon’s favour. He also proposed a marriage between himself and the Habsburg princess Éléonore (sister of the Emperor). All the other proposals of the Emperor were rejected by the French king. Despite this rejection, he did offer a compromised proposal as concerned Burgundy. The duché would be a dowry to his new Habsburg wife, and the (male) children of the marriage would inherit it. If the couple lacked any male children, Burgundy would go to the Emperor’s second son. If the Emperor did not have a second son it would go to Francis’ second son the duc d’Orléans, who would have to marry a daughter of the Emperor to inherit it. If none of these came to pass the territory would revert to the dauphin.
Francis’ proposal was not what the Emperor had in mind. The captive king was transported to Spain. Meanwhile, the Emperor made preparations to lead a war into France. Invasions into Languedoc and Provence were to be undertaken. The duc de Bourbon would be at the head of this army, as Henry VIII had envisioned. However, the Emperor was short of funds, and therefore looked to secure a rich marriage with Isabella of Portugal. This came as an insulting blow to Henry, whose daughter the Emperor was supposed to marry. Therefore, the scorned English sovereign entered into an alliance with France. By the terms of the treaty of the More on 30 August 1525 he accepted an indemnity of 2,000,000 crowns in return for peace between the kingdoms. By this turnaround, the Emperor’s bargaining position was not what it had been.
Possession of Burgundy continued to represent the impasse between the two parties. Even with England on side, France’s position remained the more delicate one, and therefore in December, Francis agreed to a treaty that was broadly in the mould of the proposals made in spring. Francis voided his claims to sovereignty over the counties of Flanders and Artois. Both Bourbon and his accomplices were to be rehabilitated. Most importantly, the duché de Burgundy would be granted to the Emperor. Despite this, by a secret declaration, Francis swore off the surrendering of Burgundy. Francis was permitted to be released before the full implementation of the terms agreed, on condition of the provision of hostages. In February 1526, the king returned to France, with his two eldest son’s going into Imperial captivity as a trade. The exchange transpired on the banks of the Bidasoa on 17 March. The treaty of Madrid delivered to Bourbon the goals he had sought in his betrayal of Francis. Bourbon was however to be bitterly disappointed, as the released king quickly ripped up all the terms of the treaty he had assented to in captivity, refusing to provide Burgundy to the Emperor, and getting his refusal validated by an Assembly of Notables and the provincial estates of Burgundy.
Six days after the king’s return from captivity, the governorship of Languedoc, which the duc de Bourbon had occupied, was granted to the maréchal de Montmorency. Rentet contends that between 19 June 1524 and 23 March 1526 it had been occupied on an interim basis by Francis’ son, the dauphin. The appointment of Montmorency to the charge was hoped by the king to reduce the turbulence caused by Bourbon’s defection.
Not receiving the restoration promised to him by the treaty of Madrid, the duc de Bourbon remained in the service of the Holy Roman Emperor. Charles V granted Bourbon the duchy of Milan if he would take control of the territory.
The Emperor’s predominance inspired opposition: England, France and the Italian principalities were united against him. The Italian states had initially offered their congratulations after the battle of Pavia, but this congratulation had quickly transformed into feelings of trouble about the unchallenged dominance of the Imperial party in the peninsula. On 22 May 1526, France entered into a ‘league of Cognac’, an agreement orchestrated by the Pope and containing Florence, Venice, the Papacy and England. In theory, this alliance was open to the Emperor. However, to join it he would have to restore the Italian states to their pre-1525 state, restore Sforza to Milan and provide a reasonable ransom for Francis’ two captive sons.
The Emperor was not about to back down to such conditions. He resolved to fight the coalition, with the Imperial army under the command of the duc de Bourbon. Bourbon would face off with the league army which was under the command of the duke of Urbino. The Imperial position in Italy was a tenuous one, and Cloulas contends that with the distractions of Protestantism in the Empire and the Ottomans, had the French committed fully it might have collapsed. Francis was however slow to provide support to his new allies (the Papal and Venetian forces in the duchy of Milan). On 25 July 1526 Sforza was forced to abandon Milan to the duc de Bourbon.
The Pope fought against the Emperor to the south, though with negotiations conducted in parallel. At the end of September, the Colonna family and Moncada came up to the Vatican from Naples, and partially sacked the city. This was the Emperor’s punishment for the Pope’s allegiance to the league of Cognac. The chastened pope Clement accepted a truce with the Imperials towards a more general peace in the future. He also agreed to pull his forces out of Milan, galleys from before Genoa and pardon the Colonna. No sooner pardoned, did Colonna depart from Rome.
Pope Clement would not hold long to his capitulation. He was keen to exercise his revenge on the Colonna and had fourteen of their castles and villages razed. Those who resided in their domains were slaughtered, including women and children.
French forces finally arrived in the peninsula at the end of September, though only to defend their interests in Genoa. Bourbon departed Lombardy in January 1527, reinforced by the soldiers of von Frundsberg his army numbered around 20,000. 12,000 of these were landsknechts, between 4 and 5,000 were Spanish soldiers, and around 2,000 were Italians. The Imperial cavalry was under the command of the prince d’Orange. The duc de Bourbon was by this point feeling that he was kept at a distance by the other Imperial captains, moreover he was having financial troubles. Bourbon conquered Bologna and then made to move south against Florence and Rome. As Bourbon’s army made its way through Tuscany, the enemies of the Medici took the opportunity to rise up in Florence, with an assault being led against the palazzo di Signoria. The subsequent sack of Rome in May would see the Medici exiled from the Republic. For the Pope, a pincer now loomed as Bourbon approached from the north, and his southern flank was menaced by de Lannoy who looked to support Bourbon’s invasion from the kingdom of Naples. After the Pope’s recent assaults on the Lannoy, the Emperor hoped to make an example of him. The invading army contained up to 16,000 Protestants.
The Pope made and broke several truces with the Imperials, his morale buoyed by successes against de Lannoy.
Lannoy had invaded Papal territory from the south and put the place of Frosinone to siege. Frosinone held a strategic position controlling the road towards Rome. On 2 February, the assault on Frosinone was rebuffed, and the pendulum swung against de Lannoy. The Papal army, under the command of da Ceri who had previously faced off against Bourbon in the siege of Marseille several years prior, now invaded the kingdom of Naples. By now Bourbon was approaching Florence, and therefore pope Clement looked to secure his southern flank. Other the objections of the Papal commander da Ceri, an extension of the earlier September truce was agreed with de Lannoy for eight months on 15 March. By its terms, the Pope would pay off the landsknechts of Bourbon’s subordinate Frundsberg with 60,000 écus in return for Imperial armies vacating the Papal states. With this done, the Pope disbanded the Papal army. The Emperor anticipated a quick peace would be forthcoming with the Papacy.
Uninterested in abiding by the truce that Clement had reached with de Lannoy, the duc de Bourbon’s mutinous army crossed the Po on 28 March and entered central Italy. This force invaded the Papal states and put the territories of Bologna to the sword. His army then crossed the Apennines and from the end of April began to trace the route of the Tiber towards Rome. Le Roux imagines that Bourbon was motivated by a need to capture the Pope, so that he might extract pay for his soldiers. Rivero Rodríguez suggests Bourbon was motivated by a desire to maintain his hold over Milan that the Emperor had granted him, and the mutinous nature of his soldiery was a pretext for ignoring the truce.
Charles allowed the two contradictory policies of de Lannoy and Bourbon as regarded Italy to coexist with one another, permitting time to determine which of the two would be followed. Indeed, he would write to Bourbon when the latter was before Rome to ensure that the Pope agreed to a ‘good peace’.
Bourbon’s army arrived before the city of Rome on 5 May and was immediately set upon by the cannons of the defenders. Assaults of the city began early in the morning on 6 May with attacks against the Borgo and Trastevere. The defence was led by the Papal commander da Ceri, but he had only 3,000 men at his disposal. During the second assault of the walls Bourbon would be fatally shot. He had been climbing the walls, dressed in white, when he was hit by an arquebus bullet supposedly fired by the Florentine sculptor Benvenuto Cellini. By the end of the day, Rome was open to the Imperial army, which had lost a thousand men in the days fighting. The city was subject to a terrible eight day sack, with thousands murdered, many raped, and the city pillaged and burned by the army angry at their lack of pay. Cloulas estimates the value of the loot at 1,000,000 ducats. The Pope and the cardinals were to be found locked up in the Castel Sant’Angelo. Bourbon was succeeded as head of the Imperial army by the prince d’Orange. Orange was only able to redirect the fury of the soldiers from an assault on Sant’Angelo with difficulty. On 6 June, Clement capitulated, agreeing to pay a ransom for his freedom. Nevertheless, Clement would remain a prisoner in Sant’Angelo until November.
The shock of the sack of Rome would reverberate through the Christian world. The particularly brutal nature of the capture of the city by Bourbon’s army was picked up on by the enemies of the Habsburgs. Bourbon himself, responsible for the cities capture, had been punished for it by divine providence In his rhetorical battles with Charles V in the 1540s, Francis I used the sack of a Rome as a verbal cudgel to dismantle the emperor’s profession of his pro-papal credentials.
Bourbon’s body first resided in the Sistine Chapel where he was embalmed and installed in a coffin. The prince d’Orange then saw to the removal of his body back south to Neapolitan territory, where he would be buried in the chapel of the castle of Gaeta.
Bourbon’s authority in Italy was transferred to the viceroy of Naples, de Lannoy, thereby uniting Imperial command in the peninsula under one man.
The office of constable, which Bourbon had ceased to occupy by his defection to the Imperial camp, would remain vacant until 10 February 1538, when it was bestowed on Montmorency, who had succeeded to Bourbon’s governorship of Languedoc back in 1526. In a symbolic step, the ceremony of conferment took place in the core of the old Bourbon territories at Moulins.
Bourbon’s death left control of Milan vacant. The matter of Milan would be a priority for the Spanish courtiers of the Emperor, more so than what had transpired in Rome. The archduke don Fernando claimed the duchy for himself. Meanwhile the emperor’s chancellor Gattinara counselled the territory be given to Charles’ eldest son Philip.
Bourbon’s lands, which (with the exception of Auvergne) had been taken over by the queen mother Louise, were united with the French crown in 1531 upon her death. In the following decades the second house of Bourbon-Montpensier (which was a cadet branch of of the house of Bourbon-Vendôme) would see the comté de Montpensier and dauphiné d’Auvergne returned to them in 1538 in return for renouncing their rights to the rest of Bourbon’s lands. By this means, it would be Bourbon’s maternal nephew Louis de Bourbon who would become the first duc de Montpensier.
By the terms of the treaty of Cambrai in 1529, the Emperor attained from Francis a rehabilitation of Bourbon’s memory. This rehabilitation would be pronounced in May 1530. Nevertheless, come the 1540s, Francis would decry how the emperor had corrupted Bourbon in service of seeking imperial supremacy.
The treatment of Bourbon by Francis would arouse some disapproval in sections of the nobility. These nobles saw him as a casualty of Francis’ actions. Bourbon’s destruction did not represent a subjugation of the nobility. Nobles continues to enjoy a central place in the halls of royal power. Rather, the supremacy of royal arbitration was illustrated, but even this was not a permanent demonstration, and relied on the strength of the crown. Quilliet argues that Bourbon’s defiance was only a brief blip in a period in which the ability of the king to conduct hostilities was an exclusive monopoly.
Bourbon was celebrated in the verse of a popular Flemish song, which had traction inside France.
Jouanna discusses the personal character of the duc de Bourbon. She describes him as being prideful, imperious and with a keen sense of his own importance. This complicated his relationship with king Francis.
In Nawrocki’s biography of the admiral d’Annebault, the historian discusses the lack of durability in that figures historical reputation. He compares Annebault to Bourbon among other figures, noting that through his betrayal, the constable ‘marked history forever’.
^α Quilliet erroneously describes the year as being 1524, but Alençon died in April 1525.
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