| Summary/Abstract |
The traditional description of the 1559 Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis that marked the end of the Italian Wars is that it was the logical culmination of a generation’s worth of warfare. However, this interpretation dismisses the fact that most contemporaries feared that the 1558–1559 negotiations could produce no peace more permanent than other recent treaties between the Spanish Hapsburgs and French Valois, and that the actual process of negotiation happened along several parallel channels. In particular, the new English government under Queen Elizabeth I used the negotiations, and the services of an unofficial diplomatic agent, to explore the possible terms of peace and to begin establishing relations with both France and Spain.
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