League of Cognac. The Italian Wars continued for another three decades, ending with France having failed to regain any substantial territories in Italy. Prelude Following the Treaty of London (1518), the major European powers (France, England, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire) were outwardly friendly towards each other. The treaty pledged them all to come to the aid of any signatory that was attacked, and to unite against any state that broke the peace. They were divided on the question of the Imperial succession; the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I—intending for a Habsburg to succeed him—campaigned throughout 1518 on behalf of his grandson Charles I of Spain, while Francis I of France put himself forward as an alternate candidate. The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire were forced to cooperate in dealing with the rising influence of Martin Luther, who found support among some Imperial nobles when he opened the way for them to assume authority over their local churches. At the same time, Francis was faced with Henry's able, efficient and intelligent chief advisor Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the "power behind the throne" who interposed himself into the quarrels of the continent in an attempt to increase both England's influence and his own. Maximilian's death on 12 January 1519 brought the Imperial election to the forefront of European politics. Pope Leo X, threatened by the presence of Spanish troops from the Vatican, supported the French candidacy. The election was not a foregone conclusion; with the exception of Frederick of Saxony and Joachim I of Brandenburg, all the electors accepted large bribes from Charles to obtain their votes. Maximilian had already promised sums of 500,000 florins to the prince-electors in exchange for their votes, but Francis offered up to three million florins, and Charles retaliated by borrowing vast sums from the Fugger banking family. The prince-electors all eventually voted for Charles, and he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on 23 October 1520, by which point he already controlled both the Spanish crown and the hereditary Burgundian lands in the Low Countries. During the autumn of 1521, the English became involved in arbitrating between Spain and France. Henry entertained the emperor in Kent for three days, in a meeting that achieved little, although the Treaty of Windsor (16 June 1522) reaffirmed the alliance between England and Aragon. Henry and Francis staged an extravagant meeting at the Field of the Cloth of Gold