How much more would he dread those claims in the hands of Francis or Charles! One threatened the papal States from Milan, and the other from Naples.

Of the two, he feared Francis the less;[260] for the union of Naples with the Empire had been such a terror to the Popes, that before granting the investiture of that kingdom, they bound its king by oath not to compete for the Empire.[261] But a third candidate would offer an escape from between the upper and the nether mill-stone; and Leo suggested at one time Charles's brother Ferdinand,[262] at another a German elector.

Precisely the same recommendations had been secretly made by Henry VIII.

In public he followed the course he commended to Leo; he advocated the claims (p.

102) of both Charles and Francis, when asked so to do, but sent trusty envoys with his testimonials to explain that no credence was to be given them.[263] He told the French King that he favoured the election of Francis, and the Spanish King the election of Charles, but like Leo he desired in truth the election of neither.