The Italian War of 1542–1546 pitted Francis I of France and Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Henry VIII of England. The war arose from the failure of the Truce of Nice to resolve the long-standing conflict between Charles and Francis. Charles and Henry then proceeded to invade France, but the long sieges of Boulogne-sur-Mer and Saint-Dizier prevented a decisive offensive against the French.
About Italian War of 1542–1546 in brief
The Italian War of 1542–1546 was a conflict late in the Italian Wars. It pitted Francis I of France and Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Henry VIII of England. The war arose from the failure of the Truce of Nice to resolve the long-standing conflict between Charles and Francis. Charles and Henry then proceeded to invade France, but the long sieges of Boulogne-sur-Mer and Saint-Dizier prevented a decisive offensive against the French. Charles came to terms with Francis by the Treaty of Crépy in late 1544, but Francis’s younger son, the Duke of Orléans, died less than a year afterwards. The deaths of Francis and Henry in early 1547 left the resolution of the Italian wars to their successors. The conflict was inconclusive and ruinously expensive for the major participants. It also led to the formation of the Franco-Ottoman alliance, which lasted until 1546. Francis sought an alliance with the Schmaldic League as well, but it was demurred by the remaining potential French allies in northern Germany. In 1541, the French ambassador to the Ottoman court, Antoine de Rincon, was killed by Imperial troops near Pavia, leading Francis to deny all responsibility to Charles. In response, Charles sought to distract Francis from Ottoman advances in Hungary, seeking to distract the French king from all responsibility for the affairs of that country. The French king denied all responsibility, leading Charles to all but deny Francis’s responsibility to all responsibility in Pavia.
The Franco-Imperial alliance ended in 1546, when France and the Ottomans agreed to an end to the war and a peace treaty. The Treaty of Ardres restored peace between France and England and ended the Italian War. It was also the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, which ended in 16th century. The Italian War was fought between Italy, France, and the Low Countries, as well as attempted invasions of Spain and England. Francis continued to harbor a desire for the Duchy of Milan, to which he held a dynastic claim. Charles, for his part, insisted that Francis comply at last with the terms of the treaty of Madrid, which had been forced on the FrenchKing during his captivity in Spain after the Italian war of 1521–26. Other conflicting claims to various territories—Charles’s to Burgundy and Francis’s to Naples and Flanders, among others—remained a matter of contention as well. Negotiations between the two powers continued through 1538 and into 1539. Francis soon began gathering new allies to his cause, and were abandoned in June 1540. In March 1540, Charles proposed to settle the matter by having Maria of Spain marry Francis’s youngest son. The two would then inherit the Netherlands, Burgundy, and Charolais after the Emperor’s death. Francis, considering the loss of Milan too large a price to pay for future possession of the Netherlands and unwilling to ratify the treaties in any case, made his own offer; on 24 April, he agreed to surrender the Milanese claim.
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