The price of a vote was a hundredfold more than the most corrupt parliamentary elector could conceive in his wildest dreams of avarice.

There were only seven electors and the prize was the greatest on earth.

Francis I.said he was ready to spend 3,000,000 crowns, and Charles could not afford to lag far behind.[256] The Margrave of Brandenburg, "the father of all greediness," as the Austrians called him, was particularly influential because his brother, the Archbishop of Mainz, was also an elector and he required an especially exorbitant bribe.

He was ambitious as well as covetous, and the rivals endeavoured to satisfy his ambitions with matrimonial prizes.

He was promised Ferdinand's widow, Germaine de Foix; Francis sought to parry this blow by offering to the Margrave's son the French Princess Renee; Charles bid higher by offering his sister Catherine.[257] Francis relied much on his personal graces, the military renown he had won by the conquest of Northern Italy, and the assistance of Leo.