intrigues for the purpose by means of an agent that lay incognito, whom I privately conveyed into the king’s chamber not long before his death. The Venetians were ready to join with us against the Duke of Milan, and our negociations with Spain were as you have heard; the King of the Romans desired nothing so earnestly as the friendship of our king, and that they two might manage their own affairs in Italy by themselves. This King of the Romans was called Maximilian, and he was a mortal enemy to the Venetians, because they had taken and kept several places belonging to the house of Austria, of which he was next heir, and heir to the empire besides. The king had also resolved within himself to live a more strict and religious life than he had formerly done, to regulate the laws, to reform the Church, and so to rectify his finances that he would not raise above one million two hundred thousand francs upon his subjects by way of annual tax, which was the sum given him by the three Estates at their convention at Tours, upon his accession to the throne. He intended the said sum should be employed in the defence of the kingdom, and for himself he would live upon his crown lands, as his predecessors had done before him; which he might easily have done if it had been well managed, for his private revenue (comprehending his duties and customs) came to above a million a year. Had he done as he resolved, it would have been a great ease to the people, who pay now above two millions and a half. He was very earnest likewise to have reformed the abuses in the order of St. Benedict and others. He got good preachers about him, and was a constant hearer of them. He would fain have ordered it so that a bishop should have enjoyed but one bishopric, a cardinal two, and that all should have been obliged to be resident upon their benefices; but he would have found it a difficult task to have persuaded the clergy to it. He gave alms liberally to the poor not many days before his death, as I was since informed by his confessor the Bishop of Angers[504], who is a very eminent prelate. He had erected also a place for public audience[505], where he heard and dispatched causes, especially for the benefit of the poor; in which place I saw him for two hours together, not above a week before he died; after which time I never saw him again. Matters of great moment were not dispatched at these audiences, but he had set up that court to keep people in awe, and especially his officers, some of whom he suspended for bribery and corruption.