Kings & rulers > History of the reign of the Emperor Charles V. > Volume 1

$ 2. STATE OF EUROPE. 99
tories which they had loft. The native valour
of the French nobility, heightened to an enthu-
fiaftic confidence by a fuppofed interpofition of
Heaven in their behalf; condufted in the field
by flcilful leaders ; and directed in the cabinet
by a prudent monarch ; was exerted with fuch
vigour and fuccefs, during this favourable junc¬
ture, as not only wrefted from the Englifti their
new conquefts, but ftript them of their an-
s cient poffdfions in France, and reduced them
1 within the narrow precinfts of Calais, and its
petty territory.
As foon as fo many confiderable provinces
Iwere reunited to their dominions, the kings of
France, confcious of this acquifition of ftrength,
i began to form bolder fchemes of interior policy,
K as well as of foreign operations. They irnmedi-
fi ately became formidable to their neighbours, who
11 began to fix their attention on their meafures and
a motions, the importance of which they fully per-
□ ceived. From this sera, France, pofteffed of the
S advantages which it derives from the fituation
a and contiguity of its territories, as well as from
1 the number and valour of its people, rofe to new
il influence in Europe, and was the firft power in
a condition to give alarm to the jealoufy or fears
i of the ftates around it.
Nor was France indebted for this increafe of
I importance merely to the reunion of the pro¬
vinces which had been torn from it. A circum-
ftance attended the recovery of thefe, which,
t though lefs confiderable, and lefs obferved, con-
t tributed not a little to give additional vigour and
i decilion to all the efforts of that monarchy.
. During the obftinate ftruggles between France
k 2 and