Though he was personally brave, he did not like war and its unforeseen issues.

He belonged to the class of ambitious despots who prefer stratagem to force.

But the very ablest speeches and artifices, even if they do not remain entirely fruitless, are not sufficient to reduce matters promptly to order when great interests are threatened, passions violently excited, and factions let loose in the arena.

Between the League of the Common Neal and Louis XI.

there was a question too great to be, at the very outset, settled peacefully.