54: Sa France très-chrétienne. The kings of France were officially denominated «Most Christian» and those of Spain «Most Catholic».
55: Ah! la part est pourtant belle, et vaut qu'on s'y tienne. «Ah! but that is a portion grand enough and worth holding to», meaning that France was enough for Francis.
56: Au roi Louis. Louis XII (1498-1515), predecessor of Francis I.
57: C'est un victorieux. Francis had since his accession to the throne of France, in 1515, crossed the Alps, beaten the Swiss at Marignan (Ital. Melegnano), and conquered the territory of Milan. He did in fact dispute the claims of Charles to the imperial crown, but by no means victoriously, for he was beaten and taken prisoner at the battle of Pavia, in 1525. After the treaty of Madrid and his release he entered into an alliance with Henry the Eighth, of England, and the Italian states against Charles, and recommenced hostilities. This war, however, ending in the peace of Cambrai in 1529, gave Italy definitely into the hands of the Emperor. Francis' unsuccessful wars against Charles continued until the peace of Crépy, in 1544.
58: Il faudrait tout changer. «Everything would have to be changed», meaning that the election of Francis would be contrary to the constitution of the Empire.
59: La bulle d'or. The Golden Bull (so called because of the pendent gold seal, bulla aurea) was a decree of the Emperor Charles IV, issued at the diet in Metz, in 1336, determining the choice of emperors by a majority of the seven electors, whom it designated. The bulla aurea is still preserved in the «Römer» at Frankfort.
60: A ce compte, seigneur, vous êtes roi d'Espagne! «In that case, my lord, you are King of Spain!» Don Ruy speaks with suppressed exultation. The old nobility of Spain, and patriotic Spaniards generally, looked with reluctance upon Charles' candidacy for the imperial crown. Robertson, in his «History of the Reign of Charles the Fifth», says: «The Spaniards were far from viewing the promotion of their king to the imperial throne with the same satisfaction which he himself felt. To be deprived of the presence of their sovereign, and to be subjected to the government of a viceroy and his council, a species of administration often oppressive and always disagreeable, were the immediate and necessary consequences of this new dignity. To see the blood of their countrymen shed in quarrels wherein the nation had no concern, to behold its treasures wasted in supporting the splendor of a foreign title, were effects of this event almost as unavoidable. From all these considerations they concluded that nothing could have happened more pernicious to the Spanish nation; and the fortitude and public spirit of their ancestors, who, in the Cortes of Castile, prohibited Alfonzo the Wise from leaving the kingdom in order to receive the imperial crown, were often mentioned with the highest pride, and pronounced to be extremely worthy of imitation at this juncture.»
61: Je suis bourgeois de Gand. As a native of Ghent he claimed citizenship in the Empire, Ghent being in Austrian Flanders.
62: On le dit un rude compagnon. «He is said to be a tough customer.»
63: Galice, Galicia, a mountainous province in Spain, just north of Portugal.