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The Truce of Nice, painted by Taddeo Zuccari.
18 June 1538: The Truce of Nice
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18 June 1538: The Truce of Nice

On 18 June 1538, archenemies Charles V of Spain and Francis I of France negotiated a fragile peace treaty with the help of Pope Paul III

LAURENCE CRUMBIE

Friday, 18 June 2021, 15:39

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Some hatreds run too deep to be solved by the pen. After Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, annexed the Duchy of Milan in 1535, it provided Francis I of France with the perfect pretext for launching another war against his perpetual adversary. This bellicose rivalry arose originally in 1519, when the German princes elected Charles over Francis as emperor, and over the next 25 years it would contribute to the eruption of four Italian Wars waged between the two monarchs.

The third of these, fought between 1536 and 1538, exacerbated this animosity and saw Francis secure an unexpected alliance with the Ottoman Empire in the hope of finally defeating his archenemy. They planned a joint attack by land and sea on Genoa, but when the Franco-Turkish fleet arrived there in August 1536, the Spanish forces had already reinforced the city's defences. And a raid on Corfu the following year by Hayreddin Barbarossa, better known as Red Beard, aided the legendary corsair more than the French as he enslaved nearly the entire rural population of the island.

With the war in a deadlock, Carlos and Francis sat down on 18 June 1538 to sign the Truce of Nice and put an end to the fighting.

History has its fair share both of children who became kings and of kings who never ceased to be children. Due to their intense mutual disdain, Carlos and Francis refused to sit in the same room as each other during the peace negotiations, forcing Pope Paul III to relay messages between them.

They eventually reached an agreement destined not to last: just four years later, Francis, who acquired the nickname of 'knight king' because of his personal vendetta against Charles, allied with Suleiman the Magnificent again and declared war against the Holy Roman Empire. This time, England's Henry VIII sided with Charles against the Franco-Turkish forces.

This fourth Italian War between Charles and Francis would end in 1546 with another treaty, followed by Francis' death a year later. However, the blood feud would continue with his son, Henry II, who commenced what would become known as the Last Italian War (1551-1559), eager to see Charles fall from his throne once and for all.

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