Francis succeeded both in crossing the Alps and in beating the Swiss army.

His victory in the greatest battle of the age, the battle of Marignano, at once gave him the Milanese and laid the rest of Italy at his feet.

The work of the Holy Alliance was undone, and the dominion which England had dreaded in the hands of Lewis the Twelfth was restored in the younger and more vigorous hands of his successor.

Neither the king nor the Cardinal could hide their chagrin when the French minister announced his master's victory, but it was no time for an open breach.

All Wolsey could do was to set himself secretly to hamper the French king's work.