London, treaty of

London, treaty of, 1518. The victory of Francis I, the young king of France, over the Swiss at Marignano in 1515 threatened the balance of power in western Europe. Wolsey and Henry VIII began constructing an anti-French alliance which soon collapsed. In 1518 they switched policy to a rapprochement with Francis and the treaty of London followed. Tournai, captured by the English in 1513, was to be handed back for compensation; Mary, Henry's 2-year-old daughter, was to marry the dauphin; France was not to support the anti-English party in Scotland; there was to be a treaty of universal peace and a crusade against the Turks. Though endorsed by the meeting of Francis and Henry in 1520 at the Field of Cloth of Gold, the peace did not hold and the rapprochement did not prosper. By 1521 Wolsey was negotiating for a marriage between Mary and Charles V, the Habsburg emperor, and a visit by Charles in 1522 agreed plans for an attack upon France.

J. A. Cannon