The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part C.: From Henry VII. to Mary
David Hume · en
During the course of this siege, Charles had taken St. Disier; and
finding the season much advanced, he began to hearken to a treaty of
peace with France, since all his schemes for subduing that kingdom were
likely to prove abortive. In order to have a pretence for deserting
his ally, he sent a messenger to the English camp, requiring Henry
immediately to fulfil his engagements, and to meet him with his army
before Paris. Henry replied, that he was too far engaged in the siege of
Boulogne to raise it with honor, and that the emperor himself had first
broken the concert by besieging St. Disier. This answer served Charles
as a sufficient reason for concluding a peace with Francis at Crepy,
where no mention was made of England. He stipulated to give Flanders as
a dowry to his daughter, whom he agreed to marry to the duke of Orleans,
Francis’s second son; and Francis, in return, withdrew his troops from
Piedmont and Savoy, and renounced all claim to Milan, Naples, and
other territories in Italy. This peace, so advantageous to Francis, was
procured partly by the decisive victory obtained in the beginning of the
campaign by the count of Anguyen over the imperialists at Cerisolles in
Piedmont, partly by the emperor’s great desire to turn his arms against
the Protestant princes in Germany. Charles ordered his troops to
separate from the English in Picardy; and Henry, finding himself obliged
to raise the siege of Montreuil, returned into England. This campaign
served to the populace as matter of great triumph; but all men of sense
concluded, that the king had, as in all his former military enterprises,
made, at a great expense, an acquisition which was of no importance.