Treaty of Cambrai

Treaty of Cambrai, (French: “Peace of the Ladies”; Aug. 3, 1529), agreement ending one phase of the wars between Francis I of France and the Habsburg Holy Roman emperor Charles V; it temporarily confirmed Spanish (Habsburg) hegemony in Italy. After a series of successes, Charles had defeated the French forces at Pavia in Italy in 1525 and forced Francis to sign the punitive Treaty of Madrid. Fearful of Charles’s growing power, England, Venice, and Pope Clement VII, who had been allied with Charles, then changed sides. In 1528, after Charles’s Protestant mercenaries had sacked Rome, France declared war and invaded Milan and Naples. The defection of the Genoese fleet to the empire, however, made victory impossible, and both sides were exhausted and short of funds. The subsequent treaty is called the Paix des Dames because it was negotiated by Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis, who had acted as regent during his absences, and Margaret of Austria, aunt of Charles and regent of the Netherlands. Francis renounced his claims in Italy and his rights as overlord in Flanders and Artois. In exchange, Charles agreed not to advance his claims to Burgundy at that time but instead accepted money as ransom for the two French princes he held. Francis abandoned his allies and received the possessions of Charles de Bourbon and the prince of Orange. The Italian Wars resumed, however, as France made three unsuccessful invasions of Italy in an attempt to replace Spain as the dominant power in the peninsula. France finally abandoned the effort in 1559, with the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis.