King Francis I of France Receiving Emperor Charles V at Aigues-Mortes, 1538

This engraving by Charles-Nicolas Cochin the Elder, produced in the eighteenth century to illustrate a work of French history, depicts the meeting of King Francis I of France and Emperor Charles V off the coast of Aigues-Mortes on 14 and 15 July 1538. This encounter followed the Truce of Nice, signed on 18 June 1538 under the mediation of Pope Paul III, which brought an end to the third Italian War fought between the two rulers since 1536. The two rivals, who had never met in person despite years of diplomatic and military confrontation, exchanged ceremonial visits aboard their respective galleys in a carefully staged display of reconciliation. This meeting, remembered as a rare moment of détente between the two great rival powers of sixteenth-century Europe, was nonetheless to offer only a brief respite before hostilities resumed a few years later.