Series 3 > Foreign correspondence with Marie de Lorraine, Queen of Scotland, from the originals in the Balcarres papers > Volume 7

INTRODUCTION
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disorders of the Empire. In 1552 Charles v., pursued by-
Maurice of Saxony, took refuge in Carinthia, while his
brother Ferdinand opened negotiations with the princes,
and by the treaty of Passau on 2nd August 1552 granted
their demands, with the result that Charles v. was able in
September of that year to turn against his enemy. He
marched against Metz, fortified by Francois, Duke of Guise,
with the help of the engineers Piero Strozzi and Camillo
Marini and many of the nobility of France ; but his efforts
to take the town proved fruitless, and on the 26th December
1552 he raised a siege which had lasted three months,
during which his troops had suffered severely both from the
defenders and the hard winter, and withdrew to Lorraine.
In April 1553, hostilities were renewed by the Emperor
with an attack on Picardy, in which his troops captured
Hesdin and Therouanne. The inactivity of the French
army during that campaign was attributed to Mont¬
morency, whose desire for peace, and possibly also to
prevent his rival Francois de Lorraine from achieving any
further success, was held the cause of keeping an army
of forty thousand men on the defensive. The battle of
Renty, in August 1554, was the outstanding point of the
following campaign ; an indecisive battle, it was claimed
as a victory by both sides, for, while the attack of Francois
de Lorraine was successful, the lack of support, due to
Montmorency, allowed the Emperor’s troops to hold their
ground and afterwards retire towards the Netherlands.
But both countries were now ready for peace : the King
of France required rest for his troops, and money ; the
Emperor, aged and ill, was considering his abdication,
which took place on the 3rd October 1555, leaving his
brother Ferdinand as Emperor, and his son Philip as ruler
of Spain and the Netherlands ; and the Truce of Vaucelles,
in 1556, gave peace for a time on the basis of the status
quo, an arrangement pleasing to Henri n., who reserved