The Treaty of Cambrai, also known as the Paz de las Damas or Paix des Dames ('Ladies' Peace'), was an agreement made on August 3, 1529 that ended the French involvement in the War of the League of Cognac between the French king Francis I and the Spanish Habsburg emperor Charles V. The treaty temporarily confirmed Spanish (Habsburg) hegemony in the Duchy of Milan and in Southern Italy. [1]
The peace was negotiated and signed at Cambrai by two ladies: Margaret of Austria for the emperor, and Louise of Savoy for the king.
The treaty renewed the Treaty of Madrid (1526), except that it did not exact the surrender of Burgundy to Charles.
The Peace of Cambrai ended France's involvement in the War of the League of Cognac, which had lasted since 1526. It was signed in the city of Cambrai, the center of the principality-bishopric in the Netherlands (now the French department Nord).
This treaty is also called "Ladies' Peace", since women played an important role in its preparation: the mother of Francis I Louise of Savoy and the aunt of the emperor Margaret of Austria. They represented both monarchs in negotiations, helping them not to lose face. [2] Marguerite of Navarre was also instrumental in this achievement. [3]
Under the terms of the peace signed in Cambrai, Francis renounced his claims to Italian lands, Artois and Flanders, but retained Burgundy, which Charles V had abandoned. The treaty provided for the return of Dauphin François and Prince Henry, the future Henry II, to France in exchange for a ransom of 2 million écu. Francis I confirmed his consent to marry Charles V's sister Eleanor and married her on July 7, 1530. [4]
The Treaty of Cambrai together with the Treaty of Barcelona (between the emperor and the Pope), which was concluded in June, [5] meant the disintegration of the Cognac League; only the Florentine Republic continued to fight against Charles V, leading to the siege and surrender of Florence in 1530. Nevertheless, the terms of peace did not satisfy Francis I. In 1536, a new conflict began between France and the Habsburg Empire.
Year 1529 (MDXXIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law Louis XII, who died without a legitimate son.
The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between 1494 and 1559, mostly in the Italian Peninsula, but later expanding into Flanders, the Rhineland and Mediterranean Sea. The primary belligerents were the Valois kings of France, on one side, and their opponents in the Holy Roman Empire and Spain on the other. At different points, various Italian states participated in the war, some on both sides, with limited involvement from England, Switzerland, and the Ottoman Empire.
Duke of Burgundy was a title used by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, from its establishment in 843 to its annexation by the French crown in 1477, and later by members of the House of Habsburg, including Holy Roman Emperors and kings of Spain, who claimed Burgundy proper and ruled the Burgundian Netherlands.
The Duchy of Milan was a state in Northern Italy, created in 1395 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, then the lord of Milan, and a member of the important Visconti family, which had been ruling the city since 1277.
Margaret of Austria was Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1507 to 1515 and again from 1519 until her death in 1530. She was the first of many female regents in the Netherlands. She was variously the Princess of Asturias, Duchess of Savoy, and was born an Archduchess of Austria.
Eleanor of Austria, also called Eleanor of Castile, was born an Archduchess of Austria and Infanta of Castile from the House of Habsburg, and subsequently became Queen consort of Portugal (1518–1521) and of France (1530–1547). She also held the Duchy of Touraine (1547–1558) in dower. She is called "Leonor" in Spanish and Portuguese and "Éléonore" or "Aliénor" in French.
The Burgundian Wars (1474–1477) were a conflict between the Burgundian State and the Old Swiss Confederacy and its allies. Open war broke out in 1474, and the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was defeated three times on the battlefield in the following years and was killed at the Battle of Nancy in 1477. The Duchy of Burgundy and several other Burgundian lands then became part of France, and the Burgundian Netherlands and Franche-Comté were inherited by Charles's daughter, Mary of Burgundy, and eventually passed to the House of Habsburg upon her death because of her marriage to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Louise of Savoy was a French noble and regent, Duchess suo jure of Auvergne and Bourbon, Duchess of Nemours and the mother of King Francis I and Marguerite of Navarre. She was politically active and served as the regent of France in 1515, in 1525–1526 and in 1529, during the absence of her son.
The War of the League of Cognac (1526–30) was fought between the Habsburg dominions of Charles V—primarily the Holy Roman Empire and Spain—and the League of Cognac, an alliance including the Kingdom of France, Pope Clement VII, the Republic of Venice, the Kingdom of England, the Duchy of Milan, and the Republic of Florence.
The Italian Wars of 1499–1504 are divided into two connected, but distinct phases: the Second Italian War (1499–1501), sometimes known as Louis XII's Italian War, and the Third Italian War (1502–1504) or War over Naples. The first phase was fought for control of the Duchy of Milan by an alliance of Louis XII of France and the Republic of Venice against Ludovico Sforza, the second between Louis and Ferdinand II of Aragon for possession of the Kingdom of Naples.
The Italian War of 1521–1526, sometimes known as the Four Years' War, was a part of the Italian Wars. The war pitted Francis I of France and the Republic of Venice against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Henry VIII of England, and the Papal States. It arose from animosity over the election of Charles as Emperor in 1519–1520 and from Pope Leo X's need to ally with Charles against Martin Luther.
The term French–Habsburg rivalry describes the rivalry between France and the House of Habsburg. The Habsburgs headed an expansive and evolving empire that included, at various times, the Holy Roman Empire, the Spanish Empire, Austria, Bohemia and Hungary from the Diet of Augsburg in the High Middle Ages until the dissolution of the monarchy following World War I in the late modern period.
The Black Bands, sometimes referred to as the Black Bands of Giovanni, was a company of Italian mercenaries formed and commanded by Giovanni de' Medici during the Italian Wars; their name came from their black mourning colours for the death of Pope Leo X. Composed primarily of arquebusiers—including Europe's first mounted arquebusiers—the company was, by the Italian War of 1521, considered to be the finest Italian troops available. Initially in the service of Charles de Lannoy and the Pope, the company fought at Bicocca in 1522 and the Sesia in 1523. A pay dispute led to it transferring its allegiance to Francis I of France; it took part in the Battle of Pavia under the command of Richard de la Pole, known as the "White Rose". In addition to the Italian units, German mercenaries in service of Francis I were called the "German black bands".
The siege of Florence took place from 24 October 1529 to 10 August 1530, at the end of the War of the League of Cognac. At the Congress of Bologna, the Medici Pope Clement VII and Emperor Charles V agreed to restore the Medici family in Florence. A large Imperial and Spanish army under Philibert of Châlon, Prince of Orange and Pier Maria III de' Rossi surrounded the city and after a siege of nearly ten months, captured it. They overthrew the Republic of Florence and installed Alessandro de' Medici as the ruler of the city.
The Treaty of Senlis concerning the Burgundian succession was signed at Senlis, Oise on 23 May 1493 between Maximilian I of Habsburg and his son Philip "the Handsome", Archduke of Austria, and King Charles VIII of France.
Habsburg Netherlands was the Renaissance period fiefs in the Low Countries held by the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. The rule began in 1482, when the last Valois-Burgundy ruler of the Netherlands, Mary, wife of Maximilian I of Austria, died. Their grandson, Emperor Charles V, was born in the Habsburg Netherlands and made Brussels one of his capitals.
The Battle of Landriano took place on 21 June 1529, between the French army under Francis de Bourbon, Comte de St. Pol and the Imperial–Spanish army commanded by Don Antonio de Leyva, Duke of Terranova in the context of the War of the League of Cognac. The French army was destroyed and the battle's strategic result was that the struggle between Francis I of France and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor for control of northern Italy was temporarily at an end.
The Empire of Charles V, also known by the umbrella term Habsburg Empire, included the Holy Roman Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Burgundian inheritance, the Austrian lands, and all the territories and dominions ruled in personal union by Charles V from 1519 to 1556. It was the first to be labelled as "the empire on which the sun never sets", a term used to describe several global empires throughout history. The lands of the empire had in common only the monarch, Charles V, while their boundaries, institutions, and laws remained distinct. Charles's nomenclature as Holy Roman Emperor was Charles V, though earlier in his life he was known by the names of Charles of Ghent, Charles II as Duke of Burgundy, and Charles I as King of Spain and Archduke of Austria. The imperial name prevailed due to the politico-religious primacy held by the Holy Roman Empire among European monarchies since the Middle Ages, which Charles V intended to preserve as part of his project to unite Christendom under his leadership.