The History of England, Volume III Henry VIII Charles, king of Spain, chosen emperor
by David Hume
Francis and Charles made profession from the beginning of carrying on this rivalship with emulation, but without enmity; and Francis in particular declared, that his brother Charles and he were, fairly and openly, suitors to the same mistress: The more fortunate, added he, will carry her; the other must rest contented.z Charles, king of Spain, chosen emperor.But all men apprehended, that this extreme moderation, however reasonable, would not be of long duration; and that incidents would certainly occur to sharpen the minds of the candidates against each other. It was Charles who at length prevailed, to the great disgust of the French monarch, who still continued to the last in the belief, that the majority of the electoral college was engaged in his favour. And as he was some years superior in age to his rival, and, after his victory at Marignan, and conquest of the Milanese, much superior in renown, he could not suppress his indignation, at being thus, in the face of the world, after long and anxious expectation, disappointed in so important a pretension. From this competition, as much as from opposition of interests, arose that emulation between those two great monarchs; which, while it kept their whole age in movement, sets them in so remarkable a contrast to each other: Both of them princes endowed with talents and abilities; brave, aspiring, active, warlike; beloved by their servants and subjects, dreaded by their enemies, and respected by all the world: Francis, open, frank, liberal, munificent, carrying these virtues to an excess which prejudiced his affairs: Charles, political, close, artful, frugal; better qualified to obtain success in wars and in negociations, especially the latter. The one, the more amiable man; the other, the greater monarch. The king, from his oversights and indiscretions, naturally exposed to misfortunes; but qualified, by his spirit and magnanimity, to extricate himself from them with honour: The emperor, by his designing, interested character, fitted, in his greatest successes, to excite jealousy and opposition even among his allies, and to rouze up a multitude of enemies, in the place of one whom he had subdued. And as the personal qualities of these princes thus counterpoised each other, so did the advantages and disadvantages of their dominions. Fortune alone, without the concurrence of prudence or valour, never reared up of a sudden so great a power as that which centered in the emperor Charles. He reaped the succession of Castile, of Arragon, of Austria, of the Netherlands: He inherited the conquest of Naples, of Granada: Election entitled him to the empire: Even the bounds of the globe seemed to be enlarged a little before his time, that he might possess the whole treasure, as yet entire and unrifled, of the new world. But though the concurrence of all these advantages formed an empire, greater and more extensive than any known in Europe since that of the Romans, the kingdom of France alone, being close, compact, united, rich, populous, and being interposed between all the provinces of the emperor’s dominions, was able to make a vigorous opposition to his progress, and maintain the contest against him.
Henry possessed the felicity of being able, both by the native force of his kingdom and its situation, to hold the balance between those two powers; and had he known to improve, by policy and prudence, his singular and inestimable advantage, he was really, by means of it, a greater potentate than either of those mighty monarchs, who seemed to strive for the dominion of Europe. But this prince was, in his character, heedless, inconsiderate, capricious, impolitic; guided by his passions or his favourite; vain, imperious, haughty; sometimes actuated by friendship for foreign powers, oftener by resentment, seldom by his true interest. And thus, though he exulted in that superiority which his situation in Europe gave him, he never employed it to his own essential and durable advantage, or to that of his kingdom.
