Cal._, ii., 1085, 1088; _cf._ Shakespeare, _Henry VIII_.] [Footnote 249: _L.

and P._, ii., 4468, 4483, 4564, 4669.] [Footnote 250: _Ibid._, ii., 4540.] * * * * * This general peace, which closed the wars begun ten years before by the League of Cambrai, was not entirely due to a universal desire to beat swords into ploughshares or to even turn them against the Turk.
That was the everlasting pretence, but eighteen months before, Maximilian had suffered a stroke of apoplexy; men, said Giustinian, commenting on the fact, did not usually survive such strokes a year, and rivals were preparing to enter the lists for the Empire.
Maximilian himself, faithful to the end to his guiding principle, found a last inspiration in the idea of disposing of his succession for ready money.

He was writing to Charles that it was useless to expect the Empire unless he would spend at least as much as the French.[251] "It would be lamentable," he said, "if we should now lose all through some pitiful omission or penurious neglect;" and Francis was "going about covertly and laying many baits,"[252] to attain (p.

099) the imperial crown.

To Henry himself Maximilian had more than once offered the prize, and Pace had declared that the offer was only another design for extracting Henry's gold "for the electors would never allow the crown to go out of their nation".[253] The Emperor had first proposed it while serving under Henry's banners in France.[254] He renewed the suggestion in 1516, inviting Henry to meet him at Coire.