Treaty of Madrid
Francis, however, had no intentions of complying with the remaining provisions of the Treaty of Madrid. On 22 March, with the Pope's blessing, he proclaimed that he would not be bound by the Treaty of Madrid because it had been signed under duress. Clement VII, who had meanwhile become convinced that the Emperor's growing power was a threat to his own position in Italy, sent envoys to Francis and Henry VIII suggesting an alliance against Charles. Henry, having received nothing from the Treaty of Madrid, was receptive to the offers. In May, Francis and the Pope launched the War of the League of Cognac in an attempt to reclaim the territory the French had lost; Henry, rebuffed in his attempt to have the alliance signed in England, would not join until 1527. The war would prove unsuccessful; but Francis and his successor, Henry II, would continue to assert their claims to Milan through the remainder of the Italian Wars, only relinquishing them after the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559.