Chapter IV: , VII (133)

With the death of Lorenzo de Medici, which occurred at
Florence in the spring of 1492, "the power vanished which had
hitherto kept Naples and Milan quiet, and which, with subtle
diplomatic skill, had postponed the breach of the peace in
Italy. We find the comparison used, that Florence with Lorenzo
at her head stood like a rocky dam between two stormy seas.
Italy was at that time a free land and independent of foreign
policy. Venice, with her well-established nobles at her head;
Naples under the Aragonese, a branch of the family ruling in
Spain; Milan, with Genoa, under Sforza—all three able powers
by land and sea—counterbalanced each other. Lorenzo ruled
central Italy; the small lords of the Romagna were in his pay,
and the pope was on the best terms of relationship with him.
But in Milan the mischief lay hidden. Ludovico Sforza, the
guardian of his nephew Gian Galeazzo, had completely usurped
the power. He allowed his ward to pine away mentally and
bodily; he was bringing the young prince slowly to death. But
his consort, a Neapolitan princess, saw through the treachery,
and urged her father to change by force their insufferable
position. Sforza could not alone have resisted Naples. No
dependence was to be placed on the friendship of Venice;
Lorenzo mediated as long as he lived, but now, on his death,
Naples was no longer to be restrained. The first thing that
happened was [Piero de Medici's] alliance with this power, and
at the same time Ludovico's appeal for help to France, where a
young and ambitious king had ascended the throne. The death of
Innocent VIII., and the election of Alexander Borgia to the
papacy, completed the confusion which was impending. Long
diplomatic campaigns took place before war actually broke out.
The matter in question was not the interests of nations—of
this there was no thought—nor even the caprices of princes
alone. The nobles of Italy took a passionate concern in these
disputes. The contests of corresponding intrigues were fought
out at the French court. France had been robbed of Naples by
the Aragonese. The exiled Neapolitan barons, French in their
interests, whose possessions the Arngonese had given to their
own adherents, ardently seized the idea of returning
victoriously to their country; the cardinals, hostile to
Borgia—foremost among these stood the Cardinal of San Piero
in Vincula, a nephew of the old Sixtus, and the Cardinal
Ascanio Sforza, Ludovico's brother—urged for war against
Alexander VI.; the Florentine nobles, anticipating Piero's
violent measures, hoped for deliverance through the French,
and advocated the matter at Lyons, where the court was
stationed, and a whole colony of Florentine families had in
time settled. Sforza held out the bait of glory and his just
claims to the old legitimate possession. The Aragonese, on the
other hand, proposed an accommodation. Spain, who would not
forsake her belongings, stood at their side; the pope and
Piero dei Medici adhered to Naples, and the French nobility
were not in favour of an expedition to Italy. Venice remained
neutral; still she might gain by the war, and she did not
dissuade from it; and this opinion, that something was to be
gained, gradually took possession of all parties, even of
those who had at first wished to preserve peace. Spain was a
direct gainer from the first. France ceded to King Ferdinand a
disputed province, on the condition that he would afford no
support to his Neapolitan cousins. Sforza, as lord of Genoa,
wished to have Lucca and Pisa again, with all that belonged to
them; the Visconti had possessed them of old, and he raised
their claims afresh. We have said what were the hopes of Piero
dei Medici [that he should be able to make himself Duke of
Florence]. Pisa hoped to become free. The pope hoped by his
alliance with Naples to make the first step towards the
attainment of the great plans which he cherished for himself
and his sons; he thought one day of dividing Italy among them.
The French hoped to conquer Naples, and then to drive away the
Turks in a vast crusade. As if for a crusade, the king raised
the loan in his own country, which he required for the
campaign. The Venetians hoped to bring the coast cities of the
Adriatic Sea as much as possible under their authority. In the
autumn of 1494, Charles of France placed himself at the head
of his knights and mercenary troops, and crossed the Alps;
whilst his fleet and artillery, the most fearful weapon of the
French, went by sea from Marseilles to Genoa."

_H. Grimm,
Life of Michael Angelo,
chapter 3, section 2 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN:
_T. A. Trollope,
History of the Commonwealth of Florence,
book 8, chapter 5._

ITALY: A. D. 1492-1503.
The Papacy in the hands of the Borgias.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1471-1513.

ITALY: A. D. 1494-1496.
The invasion by Charles VIII.
His triumphant march, his easy conquest of Naples,
and the speedy retreat.
Effects of the expedition on France and Europe.

"On the 1st of March [1494] Charles VIII. made his state entry
into Lyons, to assume the command of the expedition; an
advanced guard under the Scotchman d'Aubigny was already
pushing towards the Neapolitan frontier, and the Duke of
Orleans was at Genoa. The Neapolitans on their side sent the
Prince of Altamura with 30 galleys towards Genoa, while the
Duke of Calabria, an inexperienced youth, entered the
Pontifical States, under the guidance of tried generals. …
The Pope seemed to have lost his head, and no longer knew what
course to adopt. … Charles the VIII., having passed the
Monginevra, entered Asti in the first days of September. He
soon received intelligence that Don Federico and the
Neapolitan fleet had been repulsed with heavy losses before
Porto Venere, and that the Duke of Orleans and his Swiss had
entered Rapallo, sacked the place, and put all the
inhabitants, even the sick in the hospital, to the sword,
thereby striking terror into the Italians, who were
unaccustomed to carry on war in so sanguinary a fashion. On
reaching Piacenza, the king learnt that Gio. Galeazzo, whom he
had recently seen at Pavia, had just died there, poisoned, as
all men said, by the Moor [Lodovico, the usurping uncle of
Gio. Galeazzo the young Duke of Milan, was so called], who,
after celebrating his obsequies at Milan, had entered St.
Ambrogio, at the hour indicated by his astrologer, to
consecrate the investiture already granted to him by
Maximilian, King of the Romans. All this filled the minds of
the French with suspicion, almost with terror; they were
beginning to understand the nature of their closest ally's
good faith.
{1832}
In fact, while Ludovico with one hand collected men and money
for their cause, with the other he wove the threads of a
league intended to drive them from Italy, when the moment
should arrive. … Nevertheless the fortunes of the French
prospered rapidly. The Duke of Calabria, having entered
Romagna, withdrew across the Neapolitan frontier at the first
glimpse of D'Aubigny's forces; and the bulk of the French
army, commanded by the King in person, marched through the
Lunigiana without encountering obstacles of any kind. After
taking Fivizanno, sacking it, and putting to the sword the
hundred soldiers who defended it, and part of the inhabitants,
they pushed on towards Sarzana, through a barren district,
between the mountains and the sea, where the slightest
resistance might have proved fatal to them. But the small
castles, intended for the defence of these valleys, yielded
one after the other, without any attempt to resist the
invaders; and hardly had the siege of Sarzana commenced than
Piero dei Medici arrived, frightened out of his senses,
surrendered at discretion, and even promised to pay 200,000
ducats. But on Piero's return to Florence, on the 8th of
November, he found that the city had risen in revolt, and sent
ambassadors to the French King on its own account to offer him
an honourable reception; but that at the same time it was
making preparations for defence in case of need [see FLORENCE:
A. D. 1490-1498]. So great was the public indignation that
Piero took flight to Venice, where his own ambassador,
Soderini, hardly deigned to look at him, having meanwhile
declared for the republican government just proclaimed in
Florence, where everything had been rapidly changed. The
houses of the Medici and their garden at St. Mark had been
pillaged, exiles had been recalled and acquitted; a price put
on Piero's head and that of his brother, the Cardinal. … The
fabric, so long and so carefully built up by the Medici, was
now suddenly crumbling into dust. On the 17th November Charles
VIII., at the head of his formidable army, rode into Florence
with his lance in rest, believing that that fact sufficed to
make him master of the city. But the Florentines were armed,
they had collected 6,000 soldiers within the walls, and they
knew perfectly well that, from the vantage posts of towers and
houses, they could easily worst an army scattered through the
streets. They therefore repulsed the King's insolent
proposals, and when he threatened to sound his trumpets, Piero
Capponi, tearing up the offered treaty, replied that the
Florentines were more ready to ring their bells. Through this
firmness equitable terms were arranged. The Republic was to
pay 120,000 florins in three quotas; the fortresses, however,
were to be speedily restored to her. On the 28th November the
French left the city, but not without stealing all that
remained of the collection of antiquities in the Medici
Palace. … Nevertheless the citizens were thankful to be
finally delivered alike from old tyrants and new invaders.
Having reached Rome, Charles VIII., in order to have done with
the Pope, who now seemed inclined for resistance, pointed his
guns against the Castle of St. Angelo, and thus matters were
soon settled. … Scarcely encountering any obstacles, Charles
led his army on to Naples." Ferdinand I., or Ferrante, had
died on the 25th of January, 1494, and had been succeeded by
his son Alfonso II, a prince more cruel and more hated than
himself. The latter now renounced the throne in favor of his
son, Ferdinand II., and fled to Sicily. "Ferdinand II., or
Ferrandino, as he was called, after vainly seeking aid from
all, even from the Turk, made a fruitless stand at Monte San
Giovanni, which was taken, destroyed, and all its population
put to the sword. … Naples rebelled in favour of the French,
who marched in on the 22d of February [1495]. The following
day Ferrandino fled to Ischia, then to Messina. And shortly
the ambassadors of the Italian States appeared to offer
congratulations to the conqueror. Now at last the Venetians
were aroused, and having sent their envoys to Milan to know if
Ludovico were disposed to take up arms to drive out the
French, they found him not only ready to do so, but full of
indignation. … He advised that money should be sent to Spain
and to Maximilian, to induce them to attack France; but added
that care must be taken not to call them into Italy; 'since
having already one fever here, we should then have two.' A
league was in fact concluded between the Venetians, Ludovico,
the Pope, Spain and Maximilian. … The Neapolitans, soon
wearied of bad government, had risen in revolt, and Charles
VIII. after a stay of only 50 days in Naples had to make his
departure with excessive haste, before every avenue of retreat
should be cut off, leaving hardly more than 6,000 men in the
kingdom, and taking with him a numerous army, which however
only numbered 10,000 real combatants. On the 6th of July a
pitched battle took place at Fornuovo near the river Taro. The
allies had assembled about 30,000 men, three-fourths of whom
were Venetians, the rest composed of Ludovico's soldiers and a
few Germans sent by Maximilian. … The battle was bloody, and
it was a disputed question which side obtained the victory;
but although the Italians were not repulsed, remaining indeed
masters of the field, the French succeeded in cutting their
way through, which was the chief object they had in view. …
Ludovico, taking advantage of the situation, soon made an
agreement with the French on his own account, without
concerning himself about the Venetians. … The fortunes of
the French now declined rapidly in Italy, and all the more
speedily owing to their bad government in the Neapolitan
kingdom, and their abominable behaviour towards the few
friends who had remained faithful to them. … Ferdinand II.,
with the aid of the Spaniards under Consalvo di Cordova,
advanced triumphantly through Calabria and entered Naples on
the 7th of July, 1496. In a short time all the Neapolitan
fortresses capitulated, and the French who had held them
returned to their own country, more than decimated and in an
altogether deplorable condition. On the 6th of October
Ferdinand II. breathed his last, worn out by the agitation and
fatigues of the war, and was succeeded by his uncle Don
Federico, the fifth King [counting Charles VIII. of France]
who had ascended the Neapolitan throne within the last five
years. … Naples was now in the absolute power of the
Spaniards, who were already maturing their iniquitous designs
upon the kingdom; these, however, were only discovered at a
later period."

_P. Villari,
Machiavelli and his Times,
volume 1, chapter 4, section 2._

{1833}

"In spite of its transitory character the invasion of Charles
VIII. … was a great fact in the history of the
Renaissance. It was, to use the pregnant phrase of Michelet,
no less than the revelation of Italy to the nations of the
North. Like a gale sweeping across a forest of trees in
blossom, and bearing their fertilizing pollen, after it has
broken and deflowered their branches, to far distant trees
that hitherto have bloomed in barrenness, the storm of
Charles's army carried far and wide through Europe
thought-dust, imperceptible, but potent to enrich the nations.
The French, alone, says Michelet, understood Italy. … From
the Italians the French communicated to the rest of Europe
what we call the movement of the Renaissance. There is some
truth in this panegyric of Michelet's. The passage of the army
of Charles VIII. marks a turning point in modern history, and
from this epoch dates the diffusion of a spirit of culture
over Europe."

_J. A. Symonds,
Renaissance in Italy: The Age of the Despots,
chapter 9._

ALSO IN:
_P. Villari,
History of Savonarola and his Times,
book 2, chapters 1-3 (volume 1)._

_J. Dennistoun,
Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino,
chapters 14-15 (volume 1)._

_P. de Commines,
Memoirs,
books 7-8._

_L. von Ranke,
History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations
from 1494 to 1514,
book 1, chapter 1._

See, also, FRANCE: A. D. 1492-1515.

ITALY: A. D. 1494-1503.
The growing power of Venice and the jealousies excited by it. See

VENICE: A. D. 1494-1503.

ITALY: A. D. 1424-1509.
The French deliverance of Pisa.
The long struggle and the Florentine reconquest.

See PISA: A. D. 1494-1509.

ITALY: A. D. 1499-1500.
Invasion and conquest of the Milanese by Louis XII. of France.
His claim in right of Valentine Visconti.

Charles VIII. died in April, 1498, and was succeeded by Louis
of Orleans, who ascended the throne as Louis XII. On his
coronation, Louis XII. "assumed, besides his title of King of
France, the titles of King of Naples and of Jerusalem, and
Duke of Milan. This was as much as to say that he would pursue
… a warlike and adventurous policy abroad. … By his policy
at home Louis XII. deserved and obtained the name of 'Father
of the People;' by his enterprises and wars abroad he involved
France still more deeply than Charles VIII. had in that mad
course of distant, reckless, and incoherent conquests for
which his successor, Francis I., was destined to pay by
capture at Pavia and by the lamentable treaty of Madrid, in
1526, as the price of his release. … Outside of France,
Milaness (the Milanese district) was Louis XII.'s first
thought, at his accession, and the first object of his desire.
He looked upon it as his patrimony: His grandmother, Valentine
Visconti, widow of that Duke of Orleans who had been
assassinated at Paris in 1407 by order of John the Fearless,
Duke of Burgundy, had been the last to inherit the duchy of
Milan, which the Sforzas, in 1450, had seized. When Charles
VIII. invaded Italy in 1494, 'Now is the time,' said Louis,
'to enforce the rights of Valentine Visconti, my grandmother,
to Milaness.' And he, in fact, asserted them openly, and
proclaimed his intention of vindicating them so soon as he
found the moment propitious. When he became king, his chance
of success was great. The Duke of Milan, Ludovic, the Moor,
had by his sagacity and fertile mind, by his taste for arts
and sciences and the intelligent patronage he bestowed upon
them, by his ability in speaking, and by his facile character,
obtained in Italy a position far beyond his real power. …
Ludovic was, nevertheless, a turbulent rascal and a greedy
tyrant. … He had, moreover, embroiled himself with his
neighbours, the Venetians, who were watching for an
opportunity of aggrandizing themselves at his expense." Louis
XII. promptly concluded a treaty with Venice, which provided
for the making of war in common upon the Duke of Milan, to
recover the patrimony of the king—the Venetians to receive
Cremona and certain forts and territory adjacent as their
share of the expected spoils. "In the month of August, 1499,
the French army, with a strength of from 20,000 to 25,000 men,
of whom 5,000 were Swiss, invaded Milaness. Duke Ludovic
Sforza opposed to it a force pretty near equal in number, but
far less full of confidence and of far less valour. In less
than three weeks the duchy was conquered; in only two cases
was any assault necessary; all the other places were given up
by traitors or surrendered without a show of resistance. The
Venetians had the same success on the eastern frontier of the
duchy. … Louis was at Lyons when he heard of his army's
victory in Milaness and of Ludovic Sforza's flight. He was
eager to go and take possession of his conquest, and, on the
6th of October, 1499, he made his triumphal entry into Milan
amidst cries of 'Hurrah! for France.' He reduced the heavy
imposts established by the Sforzas, revoked the vexatious
game-laws, instituted at Milan a court of justice analogous to
the French parliaments, loaded with favours the scholars and
artists who were the honour of Lombardy, and recrossed the
Alps at the end of some weeks, leaving as governor of Milaness
John James Trivulzio, the valiant Condottiere, who, four years
before, had quitted the service of Ferdinand II., King of
Naples, for that of Charles VIII. Unfortunately Trivulzio was
himself a Milanese and of the faction of the Guelphs. He had
the passions of a partisan and the habits of a man of war; and
he soon became as tyrannical and as much detested in Milaness
as Ludovic the Moor had but lately been. A plot was formed in
favour of the fallen tyrant, who was in Germany expecting it,
and was recruiting, during expectancy, amongst the Germans and
Swiss, in order to take advantage of it. On the 25th of
January, 1500, the insurrection broke out; and two months
later Ludovic Sforza had once more became master of Milaness,
where the French possessed nothing but the castle of Milan.
… Louis XII., so soon as he heard of the Milanese
insurrection, sent into Italy Louis de la Trémoille, the best
of his captains, and the Cardinal d' Amboise, his privy
councillor and his friend. … The campaign did not last long.
The Swiss who had been recruited by Ludovic and those who were
in Louis XII.'s service had no mind to fight one another; and
the former capitulated, surrendered the strong place of
Novara, and promised to evacuate the country on condition of a
safe-conduct for themselves and their booty." Ludovic
attempted flight in disguise, but fell into the hands of the
French and remained in captivity, at the castle of Loches, in
Touraine, during the remainder of his life,—eight years.
"And 'thus was the duchy of Milan, within seven months and a
half, twice conquered by the French,' says John d' Auton in
his 'Chronique,' 'and for the nonce was ended the war in
Lombardy, and the authors thereof were captives and exiles.'"

_F. P. Guizot,
Popular History of France,
chapter 27._

ALSO IN:
_A. M. F. Robinson,
The End of the Middle Ages:
Valentine Visconti; The French claim to Milan._

_E. Walford,
Story of the Chevalier Bayard,
chapters 3-4_.

{1834}

ITALY: 15-16th Centuries.
Renaissance.
Intellectual advance and moral decline.

"At the end of the fifteenth century, Italy was the centre of
European civilization: while the other nations were still
plunged in a feudal barbarism which seems almost as far
removed from all our sympathies as is the condition of some
American or Polynesian savages, the Italians appear to us as
possessing habits of thought, a mode of life, political,
social, and literary institutions, not unlike those of to-day;
as men whom we can thoroughly understand, whose ideas and
aims, whose general views, resemble our own in that main,
indefinable characteristic of being modern. They had shaken
off the morbid monastic ways of feeling, they had thrown aside
the crooked scholastic modes of thinking, they had trampled
under foot the feudal institutions of the Middle Ages; no
symbolical mists made them see things vague, strange, and
distorted; their intellectual atmosphere was as clear as our
own, and, if they saw less than we do, what they did see
appeared to them in its true shape and proportions. Almost for
the first time since the ruin of antique civilization; they
could show well-organized, well-defined States; artistically
disciplined armies; rationally devised laws; scientifically
conducted agriculture; and widely extended, intelligently
undertaken commerce. For the first time, also, they showed
regularly built, healthy, and commodious towns; well-drained
fields; and, more important than all, hundreds of miles of
country owned not by feudal lords, but by citizens; cultivated
not by serfs, but by free peasants. While in the rest of
Europe men were floundering among the stagnant ideas and
crumbling institutions of the effete Middle Ages, with but
vague half-consciousness of their own nature, the Italians
walked calmly through a life as well arranged as their great
towns, bold, inquisitive, and sceptical; modern
administrators, modern soldiers, modern politicians, modern
financiers, scholars, and thinkers. Towards the end of the
fifteenth century, Italy seemed to have obtained the
philosophic, literary, and artistic inheritance of Greece; the
administrative, legal, and military inheritance of Rome,
increased threefold by her own strong, original, essentially
modern activities. Yet, at that very time, and almost in
proportion as all these advantages developed, the moral
vitality of the Italians was rapidly decreasing, and a
horrible moral gangrene beginning to spread: liberty was
extinguished; public good faith seemed to be dying out; even
private morality flickered ominously; every free State became
subject to a despot, always unscrupulous and often infamous;
warfare became a mere pretext for the rapine and extortions of
mercenaries; diplomacy grew to be a mere swindle; the
humanists inoculated literature with the filthiest refuse cast
up by antiquity; nay, even civic and family ties were
loosened; assassinations and fratricides began to abound, and
all law, human and divine, to be set at defiance. … The men
of the Renaissance had to pay a heavy price for …
intellectual freedom and self-cognizance, which they not only
enjoyed themselves, but transmitted to the rest of the world;
the price was the loss of all moral standard, of all fixed
public feeling. They had thrown aside all accepted rules and
criteria, they had cast away all faith in traditional
institutions, they had destroyed and could not yet rebuild. In
their instinctive and universal disbelief in all that had been
taught them, they lost all respect for opinion, for rule, for
what had been called right and wrong. Could it be otherwise?
Had they not discovered that what had been called right had
often been unnatural, and what had been called wrong often
natural? Moral teachings, remonstrances, and judgments
belonged to that dogmatism from which they had broken loose;
to those schools and churches where the foolish and the
unnatural had been taught and worshiped; to those priests and
monks who themselves most shamefully violated their teachings.
To profess morality was to be a hypocrite; to reprobate others
was to be narrow-minded. There was so much error mixed up with
truth that truth had to share the discredit of error."

_Vernon Lee,
Euphorion,
volume 1, pages 27-29, 47-48._

"The conditions under which the Italians performed their task
in the Renaissance were such as seem at first sight
unfavourable to any great achievement. Yet it is probable
that, the end in view being the stimulation of mental
activity; no better circumstances than they enjoyed could have
been provided. Owing to a series of adverse accidents, and
owing also to their own instinctive preference for local
institutions, they failed to attain the coherence and the
centralised organisation which are necessary to a nation as we
understand that word. Their dismemberment among rival
communities proved a fatal source of political and military
weakness, but it developed all their intellectual energies by
competition to the utmost. At the middle of the fifteenth
century their communes had lost political liberty, and were
ruled by despots. Martial spirit declined. Wars were carried
on by mercenaries; and the people found itself in a state of
practical disarmament, when the neighboring nations quarrelled
for the prize of those rich provinces. At the same time
society underwent a rapid moral deterioration. When
Machiavelli called Italy 'the corruption of the world,' he did
not speak rhetorically. An impure and worldly clergy; an
irreligious, though superstitious, laity; a self-indulgent and
materialistic middle class; an idle aristocracy, excluded from
politics and unused to arms; a public given up to pleasure and
money-getting; a multitude of scholars, devoted to trifles,
and vitiated by studies which clashed with the ideals of
Christianity—from such elements in the nation proceeded a
widely-spread and ever-increasing degeneracy. Public energy,
exhausted by the civil wars and debilitated by the arts of the
tyrants, sank deep and deeper into the lassitude of
acquiescent lethargy. Religion expired in laughter, irony and
licence. Domestic simplicity yielded to vice, whereof the
records are precise and unmistakable. The virile virtues
disappeared. What survived of courage assumed the forms of
ruffianism, ferocity and treasonable daring. Still,
simultaneously with this decline in all the moral qualities
which constitute a powerful people, the Italians brought their
arts and some departments of their literature to a perfection
that can only be paralleled by ancient Greece. The anomaly
implied in this statement is striking; but it is revealed to
us by evidence too overwhelming to be rejected. … It was
through art that the creative instincts of the people found
their true and adequate channel of expression.
{1835}
Paramount over all other manifestations of the epoch,
fundamental beneath all, penetrative to the core of all, is
the artistic impulse. The slowly self-consolidating life of a
great kingdom, concentrating all elements of national
existence by the centripetal force of organic unity, was
wanting. Commonwealths and despotisms, representing a more
imperfect stage of political growth, achieved completion and
decayed. But art survived this disintegration of the medieval
fabric; and in art the Italians found the cohesion denied them
as a nation. While speaking thus of art, it is necessary to
give a wide extension to that word. It must be understood to
include literature. … We are justified in regarding the
literary masterpieces of the sixteenth century as the fullest
and most representative expression of the Italian temperament
at the climax of its growth. The literature of the golden age
implies humanism, implies painting. … It is not only
possible but right to speak of Italy collectively when we
review her work in the Renaissance. Yet it should not be
forgotten that Italy at this time was a federation, presenting
upon a miniature scale the same diversities in her component
parts as the nations of Europe do now. … At the beginning of
such a review, we cannot fail to be struck with the
predominance of Florence. The superiority of the Tuscans was
threefold. In the first place, they determined the development
of art in all its branches. In the second place, they gave a
language to Italy, which, without obliterating the local
dialects, superseded them in literature when the right moment
for intellectual community arrived. That moment, in the third
place, was rendered possible by the humanistic movement, which
began at Florence. … What the Lombards and Venetians
produced in fine art and literature was of a later birth. Yet
the novelists of Lombardy, the Latin lyrists of Garda, the
school of romantic and dramatic poets at Ferrara, the group of
sculptors and painters assembled in Milan by the Sforza
dynasty, the maccaronic Muse of Mantua, the unrivalled
magnificence of painting at Venice, the transient splendour of
the Parmese masters, the wit of Modena, the learning of the
princes of Mirandola and Carpi, must be catalogued among the
most brilliant and characteristic manifestations of Italian
genius. In pure literature Venice contributed but little. …
Her place, as the home of Aldo's Greek press, and as the
refuge for adventurers like Aretino and Folengo, when the rest
of Italy was yielding to reactionary despotism, has to be
commemorated. … The Romans who advanced Italian culture,
were singularly few. The work of Rome was done almost
exclusively by aliens, drawn for the most part from Tuscany
and Lombardy. After Frederick II.'s brilliant reign, the
Sicilians shared but little in the intellectual activity of
the nation."

_J. A. Symonds,
Renaissance in Italy: Italian Literature,
chapter 17._

ITALY: A. D. 1501-1504.
Perfidious treaty for the partition of Naples between Louis
XII. of France and Ferdinand of Aragon.
Their joint conquest.
Their quarrel and war.
The French expelled.
The Spaniards in possession.

"In the spring of 1501, the French army was ready to pursue
its march to Naples. King Frederick, alarmed at the storm
which was gathering round his head, had some months before
renewed the propositions formerly made by his father Ferdinand
to Charles VIII.; namely, to acknowledge himself a feudatory
of France, to pay an annual tribute, and to pledge several
maritime towns as security for the fulfilment of these
conditions. Louis, however, would not hear of these liberal
offers, although Ferdinand the Catholic [of Aragon] undertook
to guarantee the payment of the tribute proffered by
Frederick, and strongly remonstrated against the contemplated
expedition of the French King. Ferdinand finding that he could
not divert Louis from his project, proposed to him to divide
Naples between them, and a partition was arranged by a treaty
concluded between the two monarchs at Granada, November 11th,
1500. Naples, the Terra di Lavoro, and the Abruzzi were
assigned to Louis, with the title of King of Naples and
Jerusalem; while Ferdinand was to have Calabria and Apulia
with the title of Duke." This perfidious arrangement was kept
secret, of course, from Frederick. "Meanwhile the forces of
Ferdinand, under Gonsalvo of Cordova [the 'Great Captain,' as
he was styled after his Italian campaign], were admitted as
friends into the Neapolitan fortresses, which they afterwards
held as enemies. Frederick opened to them without suspicion
his ports and towns, and thus became the instrument of his own
ruin. The unhappy Frederick had in vain looked around for
assistance. He had paid the Emperor Maximilian 40,000 ducats
to make a diversion in his favour by attacking Milan, but
Maximilian was detached from the Neapolitan alliance by a
counter bribe, and consented to prolong the truce with France.
Frederick had then had recourse to Sultan Bajazet II., with as
little effect; and this application only served to throw an
odium on his cause. … The French army, which did not exceed
13,000 men, began its march towards Naples about the end of
May, 1501, under the command of Stuart d'Aubigny, with Cæsar
Borgia [son of Pope Alexander VI.] for his lieutenant. When it
arrived before Rome, June 25th, the French and Spanish
ambassadors acquainted the Pope with the treaty of Granada,
and the contemplated partition of Naples, in which the
suzerainty of this kingdom was guaranteed to the Holy See; a
communication which Alexander received with more surprise than
displeasure, and he proceeded at once to invest the Kings of
France and Aragon with the provinces which they respectively
claimed. Attacked in front by the French, in the rear by
Gonsalvo, Frederick did not venture to take the field. He
cantoned his troops in Naples, Averso, and Capua, of which the
last alone made any attempt at defence. It was surprised by
the French while in the act of treating for a capitulation
(July 24th), and was subjected to the most revolting cruelty;
7,000 of the male inhabitants were massacred in the streets;
the women were outraged; and forty of the handsomest reserved
for Borgia's harem at Rome; where they were in readiness to
amuse the Court at the extraordinary and disgusting fete given
at the fourth marriage of Lucretia. Rather than expose his
subjects to the horrors of a useless war, Frederick entered
into negociations with d'Aubigny, with the view of
surrendering himself to Louis XII. … In October, 1501, he
sailed for France with a small squadron, which remained to him.
{1836}
In return for his abandonment of the provinces assigned to the
French King, he was invested with the county of Maine, and a
life pension of 30,000 ducats, on condition that he should not
attempt to quit France; a guard was set over him to enforce
the latter proviso, and this excellent prince died in
captivity in 1504. Meanwhile Gonsalvo of Cordova was
proceeding with the reduction of Calabria and Apulia. … The
Spaniards entered Taranto March 1st, 1502; the other towns of
southern Italy were soon reduced, and the Neapolitan branch of
the House of Aragon fell for ever, after reigning 65 years. In
the autumn of 1501, Louis had entered into negociations with
the Emperor, in order to obtain formal investiture of the
Duchy of Milan. With this view, Louis's daughter Claude, then
only two years of age, was affianced to Charles [afterwards
the Emperor, Charles V.], grandson of Maximilian, the infant
child of the Archduke Philip and Joanna of Aragon. A treaty
was subsequently signed at Trent, October 13th, 1501, by
Maximilian and the Cardinal d'Amboise, to which the Spanish
sovereigns find the Archduke Philip were also parties. By this
instrument Louis engaged, in return for the investiture of
Milan, to recognise the pretensions of the House of Austria to
Hungary and Bohemia, and to second Maximilian in an expedition
which he contemplated against the Turks. It was at this
conference that those schemes against Venice began to be
agitated, which ultimately produced the League of Cambray. The
treaty between Louis and Ferdinand for the partition of Naples
was so loosely drawn, that it seemed purposely intended to
produce the quarrels which occurred." Disputes arose as to the
possession of a couple of provinces, and the Spaniards were
driven out. "In the course of 1502 the Spaniards were deprived
of everything, except Barletta and a few towns on the coast of
Bari. It was in the combats round this place that Bayard, by
his deeds of courage and generosity, won his reputation as the
model of chivalry, and became the idol of the French
soldiery." The crafty and unscrupulous king of Aragon now
amused Louis with the negotiation of a treaty for the
relinquishment of the whole Neapolitan domain to the lately
affianced infants, Charles of Austria and Claude of France,
while he diligently reinforced the "Great Captain." Then
"Gonsalvo suddenly resumed the offensive with extraordinary
vigour and rapidity, and within a week two decisive battles
were fought"—at Seminara, in Calabria, April 21, 1503, and at
Cerignola, near Barletta, April 28. In the last named battle
the French army was dispersed and almost destroyed. On the
14th of May, Gonsalvo entered Naples, and by the end of July
the French had completely evacuated the Neapolitan territory.
The king of France made prompt preparations for vigorous war,
not only in Naples but in Spain itself, sending two armies to
the Pyrenees and one across the Alps. The campaign of the
latter was ruined by Cardinal d'Amboise, who stopped its march
near Rome, to support his candidacy for the papal chair, just
vacated by the death of Alexander VI. Malaria made havoc in
the ranks of the French, and they were badly commanded. They
advanced to the seat of war in October, and forced the passage
of the Garigliano, November 9. "Here their progress was
arrested. … The seasons themselves were hostile to the
French; heavy rains set in with a constancy quite unusual in
that climate; and the French soldiers perished by hundreds in
the mud and swamps of the Garigliano. The Spanish army,
encamped near Sessa, was better supplied and better
disciplined; and at length, after two months of inaction,
Gonsalvo, having received some reinforcements, assumed the
offensive, and in his turn crossed the river. The French,
whose quarters were widely dispersed, were not prepared for
this attack, and attempted to fall back upon Gaeta; but their
retreat soon became a disorderly flight; many threw down their
arms without striking a blow; and hence the affair has
sometimes been called the rout of the Garigliano [December 29,
1503]. Peter de' Medici, who was following the French army,
perished in this retreat. … Very few of the French army
found their way back to France. Gaeta surrendered at the first
summons, January 1st, 1504. This was the most important of all
Gonsalvo's victories, as it completed the conquest of Naples.
The two attacks on Spain had also miscarried. … A truce of
five months was concluded, November 15th, which was
subsequently converted into a peace of three years."

_T. H. Dyer,
History of Modern Europe,
book 1, chapters 5-6 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN:
_L. von Ranke,
History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations, 1494-1514,
book 1, chapter 4,
and book 2, chapter 1._

_T. A. Trollope,
History of the Commonwealth of Florence,
book 9, chapters 8-9 (volume 4)._

_M. J. Quintana,
The Great Captain
(Lives of Celebrated Spaniards) _

_G. P. R. James,
Memoirs of Great Commanders,
volume 1: Gonzalvez de Cordoba._

_L. Larchey,
History of Bayard,
book 2._

ITALY: A. D. 1504-1506.
The Treaties of Blois.
Tortuous diplomacy of Louis XII.
His double renunciation of Naples.

"There was danger [to Louis XII. of France] that the loss of
the Milanese should follow that of the kingdom of Naples.
Maximilian was already preparing to assert his imperial rights
beyond the Alps, and Gonsalvo de Cordova was marching toward
the northern part of the peninsula. Louis XII. divided and
disarmed his enemies by three treaties, signed at Blois on the
same day (1504). By the first Louis and Maximilian agreed to
attack Venice, and to divide the spoil; by the second Louis
promised the king of the Romans 200,000 francs in return for
the investiture of the Milanese; by the third he renounced the
kingdom of Naples in favor of Maximilian's grandson Charles,
who was to marry Claude,' daughter of Louis XII., and receive
as her dowry three French provinces,—Burgundy, Brittany, and
Blois. A more disastrous agreement could not have been made.
Charles was to obtain by inheritance from his father, Philip
the Handsome, the Netherlands; from his mother, Castile; from
his paternal grandfather, Austria; from his maternal
grandfather, Aragon. And now he was assured of Italy, and
France was to be dismembered for him. This was virtually
giving him the empire of Europe. France protested, and Louis
XII. seized the first occasion to respond to her wishes. He
found it in 1505, when Ferdinand the Catholic married Germaine
de Foix, niece of Louis XII. Louis by treaty made a second
cession of his rights over the kingdom of Naples to his niece,
thus breaking one of the principal conditions of his treaty
with Maximilian. He convoked the States-General at Tours in
order openly to break the others (1506).
{1837}
The Assembly declared that the fundamental law of the state
did not permit alienations of the domains of the crown, and
besought the king to give his daughter in marriage to his heir
presumptive, Francis, Duke of Angoulême, in order to insure
the integrity of the territory and the independence of France.
Louis XII. found little difficulty in acceding to their
request. Maximilian and Ferdinand were at the time unable to
protest."

_V. Duruy,
History of France,
chapter 38._

ITALY: A. D. 1508-1509.
The League of Cambrai against Venice.
The continental provinces of the Republic torn away.

See VENICE: A. D. 1508-1509.

ITALY: A. D. 1510-1513.
Dissolution of the League of Cambrai and formation of the Holy
League against France.
The French expelled from Milan and all Italy.
Restoration of the Medici.
Recovery of Venetian territories.

As the League of Cambrai began to weaken and fall in pieces,
the vigorous republic of Venice "came forth again, retook
Padua, and kept it through a long and terrible siege, at last
forcing the Emperor to withdraw and send back his French
allies. The Venetians recovered Vicenza, and threatened
Verona; Maximilian, once more powerless, appealed to France to
defend his conquests. Thus things stood [1510] when Julius II.
made peace with Venice and began to look round him for allies
against Louis XII. He negotiated with the foreign kings; but
that was only in order thereby to neutralise their influence,
sowing discord among them; it was on the Swiss mercenaries
that he really leant. Now that he had gained all he wanted on
the northern frontier of the States of the Church, he thought
that he might safely undertake the high duty of protecting
Italy against the foreigner: he would accomplish what Cæsar
Borgia had but dreamed of doing, he would chase the Barbarian
from the sacred soil of culture. … He 'thanked God,' when he
heard of the death of the Cardinal of Amboise, 'that now he
was Pope alone!' … He at once set himself to secure the
Swiss, and found a ready and capable agent in Matthew
Schynner, Bishop of Sion in the Valais. … Bishop Schynner
was rewarded for this traffic with a cardinal's hat. And now,
deprived by death of the guiding hand [of Cardinal d'Amboise],
Louis XII. began to follow a difficult and dangerous line of
policy: he called a National Council at Tours, and laid before
it, as a case of conscience, the question whether he might
make war on the Pope. The Council at once declared for the
King, distinguishing, as well they might under Julius II.,
between the temporal and the spiritual in the Papacy, and
declaring that any papal censure that might be launched would
be null and void. Above all, an appeal was made to a General
Council. … Meanwhile war went on in Italy. A broadly-planned
attack on the Milanese, on Genoa, and Ferrara, concerted by
Julius II. with the Venetians and Swiss, had come to nothing.
Now the warlike pontiff—one knows his grim face from
Raphael's picture, and his nervous grasp of the arms of his
chair, as though he were about to spring forward into
action—took the field in person. At Bologna he fell ill; they
thought he would die; and Chaumont of Amboise was marching up
with the French at his heels to surround and take him there.
But by skilful treating with the French general Julius gained
time, till a strong force of Venetians had entered Bologna.
Then the Pope rose from his sick-bed, in the dead of winter,
1511, and marched out to besiege Mirandola," which
capitulated. "Bayard soon after attacked him, and all but took
him prisoner. A congress at Mantua followed: but the Pope
sternly refused to make terms with the French: the war must go
on. Then Louis took a dangerous step. He convoked an
ecclesiastical council at Pisa, and struck a medal to express
his contempt and hatred for Julius II. … The Pope had gone
back to Rome, and Bologna had opened her gates to the French;
the coming council, which should depose Julius, was proclaimed
through Northern Italy. But, though the moment seemed
favourable, nothing but a real agreement of the European
powers could give success to such a step. And how far men were
from such an agreement Louis was soon to learn; for Julius,
finding that the French did not invade the States of the
Church, resumed negociations with such success that in October
1511 a 'Holy League' was formed between the Pope, Venice,
Ferdinand of Aragon, and Henry VIII. of England. Maximilian
wavered and doubted; the Swiss were to be had—on payment. At
first Louis showed a bold front; in spite of this strange
whirl of the wheel of politics from the League of Cambrai to
the Holy League, he persevered, giving the command of Milan to
his nephew, Gaston of Foix, Duke of Nemours, a man of 23
years, the most promising of his younger captains. He relieved
Bologna, seized Brescia, and pillaged it [1512]; and then
pushed on to attack Ravenna; it is said that the booty of
Brescia was so great that the French soldiers, having made
their fortunes, deserted in crowds, and left the army much
weakened. With this diminished force Gaston found himself
caught between the hostile walls of Ravenna, and a relieving
force of Spaniards, separated from him only by a canal. The
Spaniards, after their usual way of warfare, made an
entrenched camp round their position. The French first tried
to take the city by assault; but being driven back, determined
to attack the Spanish camp." They made the assault [on Easter
Day, 1512] and took the camp, with great slaughter; but in his
reckless pursuit of the retreating enemy Gaston de Foix was
slain. "The death of the young Prince more than balanced the
great victory of the day: for with Gaston, as Guicciardini
says, perished all the vigour of the French army. … Though
Ravenna was taken, the French could no longer support
themselves. Their communications with Milan were threatened by
the Swiss: they left garrisons in the strong places and fell
back. The council of Pisa also had to take refuge at Milan.
When the Swiss came down from their mountain-passes to restore
the Sforza dynasty, the harassed council broke up from Milan,
and fled to Lyons; there it lingered a while, but it had
become contemptible; anon it vanished into thin air. The Pope
retook Bologna, Parma, Piacenza; the Medici returned to
Florence [see FLORENCE: A. D. 1502-1569]; Maximilian Sforza
was re-established [see MILAN: A. D. 1512], while the Grisons
Leagues received the Valteline as their reward: the English
annoyed the coast without any decisive result. … Ferdinand
seized Navarre, which henceforward became Spanish to the
Pyrenees.
{1838}
Before winter, not one foot of Italian soil remained to the
French. Julius II., the formidable centre of the Alliance,
died at this moment (1513). … The allies secured the
election of a Medicean Pope, Leo X., a pontiff hostile to
France, and certain not to reverse that side of his
predecessor's policy. … Louis, finding himself menaced on
every side, suddenly turned about and offered his friendship
to Venice. … Natural tendencies overbore all resentments on
both sides, and a treaty between them both guaranteed the
Milanese to Louis and gave him a strong force of Venetian
soldiers. Meanwhile, Ferdinand had come to terms with
Maximilian and boyish Henry VIII., who … had framed a scheme
for the overthrow of France. The French king, instead of
staying at home to defend his frontiers, was eager to retake
Milan, and to join hands with the Venetians. … But the Swiss
round Maximilian Sforza defended him without fear or
treachery; and catching the French troops under La Trémoille
in a wretched position not far from Novara, attacked and
utterly defeated them (1513). The French withdrew beyond the
Alps; the Venetians were driven off with great loss by the
Spaniards, who ravaged their mainland territories down to the
water's edge. For the short remainder of his life Louis XII.
had no leisure again to try his fortunes in Italy: he was too
busy elsewhere."

_G. W. Kitchin,
History of France,
volume 2, book 2, chapter 3._

ALSO IN:
_P. Villari,
Life and Times of Machiavelli,
book 1, chapters 12-14 (volume 3)._

_M. Creighton,
History of the Papacy,
book 5, chapters 15-16 (volume 4)._

_L. von Ranke,
History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations
from 1494 to 1514,
book 2, chapter 3._

_Sir R. Comyn,
History of the Western Empire,
chapters 37-38 (volume 2)._

_L. Larchey,
History of Bayard,
book 2, chapters 21-44._

H. E. Napier,
Florentine History,
book 2, chapter 9 (volume 4).

ITALY: A. D. 1515-1516.
Invasion and reconquest of Milan by Francis I.
His treaty with the Pope.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1515; and 1515-1518.

ITALY: A. D. 1516-1517.
Abortive attempt against Milan by the Emperor, Maximilian.
His peace with Venice and surrender of Verona.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1516-1517.

ITALY: A. D. 1520-1542.
Early Reformation movements
and their want of popular support.
The Council of Trent.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1537-1563.

ITALY: A. D. 1521-1522.
Re-expulsion of the French from Milan.
The treason of the Constable Bourbon.
His appointment to the command of the Imperial army.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1520-1523.

ITALY: A. D. 1523-1527.
The double dealings of Pope Clement VII.
Invasion of Milanese by Francis I. and his defeat and capture
at Pavia.
The Holy League against Charles V.
The attack on Rome by Constable Bourbon.

Giulio de' Medici, natural son of Guiliano de' Medici, and
cousin of Leo X., had succeeded Adrian VI. in the Papacy in
1523, under the name of Clement VII. "Nothing could have been
more unfortunate than the new Pope's first steps on the
zig-zag path which he proposed to follow. Becoming alarmed at
the preponderating power of Charles [the Fifth, Emperor, King
of Spain and Naples; Duke of Burgundy, and ruler of all the
Netherlands, in 1524 be entered into a league with Francis
[the First, king of France];

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1496-1526;
and GERMANY: A. D. 1519.

but scarcely had this been concluded when the memorable battle
of Pavia resulting in the entire defeat of the French, on the
24th of February, 1525, and the captivity of the French king,
frightened him back again into seeking anew the friendship of
Charles, in April of that year.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1523-1525

Each of these successive treaties was of course duly sworn to
and declared inviolable; but it could hardly be expected that
he who exercised the power of annulling other men's oaths
would submit to be bound by his own, when the observance of
them became inconvenient. Clement accordingly was not
prevented by the solemn treaty of April, 1525, from conspiring
against his new ally in the July following. The object of this
conspiracy was to induce Ferdinando Francesco d'Avalos,
Marquis of Pescara, who commanded the army of Charles V.
before Milan, to revolt against his sovereign, and join the
Italians in an attempt to put an end for ever to Spanish sway
in Italy. … But the Spanish general had no sooner secured
clear evidence of the plans of the conspirators, by pretending
to listen to their proposals, than he reported the whole to
Charles. The miscarriage of this scheme, and the exposure
consequent upon it, necessarily threw the vacillating and
terrified Pontiff once more into the arms of Francis. 'The
Most Christian'—as the old Italian historians often
elliptically call the Kings of France—obtained his release
from his Madrid prison by promising on oath, on the 17th of
January, 1526, all that Charles, driving a hard bargain, chose
to demand of him.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1525-1526.