ABSTRACT

This was the treaty which Venice broke when six years later, on 29 July I523, it concluded an agreement with the Emperor Charles V, with the King of England, Henry VIII, with Archduke Ferdinand and with Francesco Sforza, who, in con.- sequence of Spanish victories over the French, had been re.- established as Duke of Milan. 6 Two clauses of this treaty were significant. Venice obtained from the Emperor and the Archduke recognition of all its territorial possessions, but agreed to pay to the Emperor 200,000 gold ducats in eight annual instalments of 25,000 ducats. Moreover, Venice and Charles V were to provide an equal number of troops to the defence of Milan; if Naples were attacked by a Christian ruler, Venice would send fifteen galleys to support the Neapolitans. 4 Printed in DuMont, Corps Universe[ Diplomatique (Amsterdam, 1726),

The conclusion of this treaty had been urged on Venice by Pope Hadrian VI. The Pope was no partner of this treaty, how" ever, but concluded on 3 August 1523 a special agreement with Charles V for reciprocal defence. 7 A clause of this agreement stated that the treaty would remain in force one year beyond the death of either of the partners; payment for the troops which the signatories had agreed to provide would have to be renegotiated every three months. These arrangements are of importance for the events in the autumn of 1524. Hadrian VI died on I4 September 152 3, one month after the conclusion of his agreement with Charles V. In the autumn of 1524, one year after Hadrian's death, the strange situation had come about that the Church ... State, whose ruler had urged the Venetians to ally themselves with Charles V, was no longer tied by an alliance treaty to Spain because Hadrian's alliance with Charles V was no longer binding on Hadrian's successor, Clement VII. 8 The Venetians, however, remained allies of Charles V. Thus, when after the fall of Milan to the French in October 1524 Clement VII urged the Venetians to break with Spain and to join him in an alliance with the King of France, the Venetians were legally less free than the Pope. This represented an additional problem for the Venetian policy ... makers when they began to deliberate about abandoning Charles V and allying themselves with Francis I in 1524.