| Notes |
- During the first three decades of the 16th century Italy is the
scene of almost ceaseless warfare between local contenders
(particularly Venice and the papacy) and foreign claimants (France and
Spain), with occasional interventions from north of the Alps by
Habsburgs and by armies from the Swiss cantons.
The Italian adventures of the French king Charles VIII are
continued by Louis XII, his cousin and successor. To the long-standing
French claim to Naples, Louis adds a new demand - he believes himself
to be duke of Milan, by descent from his Visconti grandmother.
French armies seize Milan for Louis XII in 1499, and the French
occupy part of the kingdom of Naples in 1501. The Spanish soon recover
full control of Naples (by 1504), but the presence of the French in
Milan causes an ambitious new pope, Julius II, to intervene in the
unstable affairs of northern Italy. He marches north and captures
Bologna in 1506.
Julius believes Venice and the French to be the two main threats to
the papal states of central Italy. With ruthless diplomatic skill he
organizes two different alignments of the principal players, to deal
with each of his enemies in turn.
The pope forms first the league of Cambrai, in 1508, in which he
persuades France, Spain and the Austrian Habsburgs to join him against
Venice. The Venetians are defeated at Agnadello in 1509, after which
Julius and the Habsburgs appropriate much of Venice's mainland
territory.
With this achieved, the pope moves on to his second objective. He
organizes the Holy League of 1511. Again there is a single enemy, but
this time it is France. Venice, recently humbled, is enrolled with
Spain and the Habsburgs on the papal side; and there is useful support
from the Swiss, now considered Europe's most formidable fighters. Even
Henry VIII of England joins in, at a distance.
In 1512 a joint army of papal, Spanish and Venetian forces weakens
the French in a battle near Ravenna, after which the Swiss are able to
sweep through Lombardy and drive the intruders from Milan.
At this stage Venice and France are the clear losers. But this has
only been round one. In the next bout, the contest becomes much more
clearly a clash between Spain and France - and in particular a
personal rivalry between two young kings. Francis inherits the throne
of France in 1515. Charles, a Habsburg, becomes king of Spain in the
following year on the death of Ferdinand II.
A new mood of youth and enthusiasm enters France with the accession
in 1515 of the 20-year-old Francis I. The centre of a glamorous young
group of courtiers, he is a cousin of the previous king, Louis XII,
and is married to Louis' daughter.
In a spirit of adventure, Francis takes up his father-in-law's
ailing and expensive cause in northern Italy. In the summer of 1515 he
rides south to recover Milan from the forces of the Holy League. In a
two-day battle at Marignano in September, the French defeat the ranks
of Swiss infantry - mercenaries, fighting in the pope's cause, whose
pikes and halberds have previously seemed invincible.
French artilllery plays its part in the victory at Marignano, but
the French cavalry also cuts a dash - with the young king prominent in
person. In a mood of medieval chivalry, Francis is knighted on the
battlefield by a famous French warrior, Pierre de Bayard, the brave
victor in many past encounters and known in his own lifetime as the
chevalier sans peur et sans reproche ('knight without fear or
reproach').
The rapid capture of Milan, in the first year of his reign, makes
Francis the most glamorous monarch in Europe. Leo X, the Medici pope
who was funding the defeated Swiss mercenaries, entertains the victor
of Marignano in lavish style at his papal court in Bologna.
Francis, liking what he sees of the Italian Renaissance (the pope
offers him a madonna by Raphael), determines to enjoy these
splendours. He invites Italian artists to France, including even the
aged Leonardo da Vinci. By the spring of 1517 Italy's most versatile
genius has moved to Amboise, where a rocky fortress has recently been
adapted as a royal residence.
Leonardo lives the last two years of his life with the title 'first
painter and engineer and architect' of the French king. But in the
year of Leonardo's death, 1519, there is a serious challenge to the
status now enjoyed by Francis as the premier monarch of Europe.
Charles, the even younger head of the Habsburg dynasty, emerges as a
rival.
Charles succeeds in 1516 to the throne of Spain and in 1519 - on
the death of his grandfather Maximilian I - to all the Habsburg
territories including Burgundy. The result is that he rules much of
the land to the immediate south and north of France. There is every
chance that Charles (now aged nineteen) will also be elected to his
grandfather's crown as German king and Holy Roman emperor - an office
which has been held by the Habsburgs since 1438.
If that happens, north Italy and Germany will also owe allegiance
to this powerful young ruler. Alarmed at the prospect of France being
encircled, the French king, Francis, decides to contest the imperial
election.
There is perhaps little chance of a French king being elected to
rule an empire which in its origin included France but which has not
done so for centuries. But Charles is taking no risks. He clinches the
election by dispensing vast sums in bribes (borrowing the money from
the Fuggers, to their great advantage and his lasting inconvenience).
He is elected in June 1519 and crowned as German king at Aachen in
1520.
This is the first encounter in a rivalry between Charles and
Francis which comes to dominate the politics of western Europe. It
involves a large measure of personal animosity.
|
1490 - 1567 (77 years)