After the consummation of this marriage, which our King had so earnestly desired, the Flemings were perfectly at his command: Bretagne (which he hated so bitterly) was at peace with him, but he kept them in great awe and terror by the number of his forces, which he quartered upon their frontiers. Spain was quiet, and her king and queen desired nothing more than to live in peace and amity with him, for he kept them, likewise, in perpetual fear and expense about the country of Roussillon, which he held of the House of Arragon, and which had been given him by John King of Arragon, father to the present King of Castile, as security for some conditions[125] which have never yet been performed. The princes of Italy all courted his friendship; and some of them had entered into alliance with him, and sent ambassadors often to his court. In Germany the Swiss were as obedient to him as his own subjects. The Kings of Scotland[126] and Portugal[127] were his allies. Part of Navarre[128] was perfectly at his disposal. His subjects trembled before him; whatever he commanded was instantly executed, without the least difficulty or hesitation. Whatever was thought conducible to his health[129], was sent to him from all corners of the world. Pope Sixtus[130] (who died lately) being informed of the King’s illness, and that he, in his devotion, desired to have the corporal, or vest, which the Apostle St. Peter used when he sung mass, sent it immediately, and several relics[131] besides, which were returned to him. The holy vial at Rheims, which had never been moved before, was brought to his chamber at Plessis, and stood upon his buffet when he died, for he designed to be anointed with it again, as he was at his coronation. Some were of opinion that he designed to have anointed himself all over, but that was not likely, for the vial is but small, and there is no great store of oil in it.[132] I saw it myself at the time I speak of, and also when our Lord the King was interred in the church of Notre Dame de Clery.[133] The Great Turk[134] that now reigns, sent an ambassador[135] to him, who came as far as Riez, in Provence; but the King would not hear him, nor permit him to proceed any farther, though he brought him a large roll of relics which had been left at Constantinople in the hands of the Turk; all which, and a considerable sum of money besides, he offered to deliver into the king’s hands, if he would keep guard over a brother[136] of the Turk’s, who was then in France, in the custody of the Knights of Rhodes, and is now at Rome, in the hands of the Pope. From all which one may be able to judge of the wisdom and greatness of our King, and of the great esteem and character he bore in the world, when spiritual things, dedicated to devotion and religion, were employed for the lengthening of his life, as well as things temporal and secular. But all endeavours to prolong his life proved ineffectual; his time was come, and he must needs follow his predecessors.