360 



I T A L V. 



HUtory. only waited till the arrival of the troops sent by the 

 >-1 -V~ 1 * ' ouiJH-ror to liis assistance ; and his general Gonsalvo de 

 Cordova then iiii.-ieked the French troops of the duke 

 of Nemours at Cerignola, and completely defeated and 

 expelled tlu-in from Naples. Louis' declining health 

 put a stop to his plans of invading Spain in revenge ; 

 and the Spaniards, on the conclusion of a peace, remain- 

 A U. 1SOJ. ed in possession of Naples. Louis, however, conferred 

 on Francis, count of Angouleme, the hand of his daugh- 

 ter Claude, which had before been promised to Charles 

 prince of Spain, son of the late archduke Philip of Aus- 

 tria ; and a foundation was thus laid for the personal 

 hostility of these distinguished princes. The pope hav- 

 ing now succeeded in overthrowing the power of Bor- 

 gia in Romagna, still found a check to his ambition, in 

 the cities possessed in that, country by the Venetians. 

 The wealth and ambition of that republic, had been 

 long objects of jealousy to the oilier states of Europe ; 

 the emperor Maximilian was actually engaged in a war 

 with it ; and the intrigues of the pope soon produced 

 the League of Cambray, in which the kings of France 



uie i_<eaguc 01 ^ouiuntjr, 111 wuiiaj uic nmga ui *'iiuii;t; uiuwu; imt cue cieuiurs, partial lu LUGIJUUBC ui /\ubina, i,. u 



and Spain joined themselves to the confederacy. The preferred Charles V. now by the death of his grandfa- A.O. 1519, 



League of 



Cambray 



mjainst 



Venice. duke of Ferrara, and the marquess of Mantua, embra- 

 A. O. 1508. ced with eagerness the opportunity of throwing off the 

 yoke; and, after considerable delay, Charles VIII. 

 duke of Savoy, also joined the alliance. The first con- 

 flict was decisive, and the defeat at Ghiana d'Adda pla- 

 ced the Venetians at the mercy of the confederates ; 

 but, fortunately for them, the seeds of discord were al- 

 ready sown among these ill-assorted allies. Julius es- 

 pecially, having now recovered the whole of Romagna, 

 and whose ambition now embraced a wider field, ex- 

 erted himself to bring about a peace ; and the Venetian 

 republic, though stript of its conquests, was left invio- 

 late. 



The Holy The pope, thwarted in his projects against Ferrara 

 League. jjy t ne interference of Louis, now set on foot an alliance, 

 termed the Holy League, for the purpose of expelling 

 the French from Italy. The new confederates were 

 Ferdinand of Spain, the Venetians, and the Swiss. 

 Powerful as were these antagonists, the army of France, 

 commanded by Gaston de Foix, duke of Nemours, suc- 

 ceeded in raising the sieges of Brescia and Bologna, and 

 at Ravenna completely routed the troops of the League ; 

 but this last victory was dearly bought, by the loss of 

 their gallant general, who fell in a skirmish, after the 

 battle, in his 21st year. The death of Foix was fatal 

 to the French interest ; dissensions arose in the army ; 

 Milan was seized by the Swiss, who reinstated the fa- 

 mily of Sforza, in the person of Maximilian, son of Lu- 

 dovieo ; and France, invaded by the emperor and Hen- 

 Death of ry VIII. of England, became now the theatre of the 

 Tope Julius W ar ; when the death of Julius, whose restless spirit 

 A.D 1313 had animated the contest, gave a promise of repose to 

 ' the nations. John di Medici, who assumed the name 

 Leo X. now ascended the papal chair. The death of 

 his brother Peter, in 1 505, had left him the represen- 

 tative of his family ; and a revolution in Florence, had 

 raised him to the influence enjoyed by his ancestors in 

 that state. On his accession to the pontificate, the 

 French had gained considerable successes in the Milan- 

 ese; but the exertions of the Swiss again replaced 

 Sforza at Milan, and once more expelled the French 

 from Italy. The League, however, was weakened by 

 the defection of the king of England, who bestowed on 

 Louis, now a widower, the hand of his young and beau- 

 tiful sister. _ The aged monarch did not long survive 

 this connection. His successor, Francis I. eager to re- 

 cover Milan, and wipe off the stain on the glory of the 



French arms, soon crossed the Alps, and advanced History. 



against the Swiss troops of Sforza, posted at Morignano, S ""Y"*TJ 



a few miles from Milan. The Swiss defended them- Battle of 



selves with obstinate valour for twoMays, and at length Marignano 



retreated in good order, although weakened by the loss 



of 10,000 men. The French loss amounted to 6000: 



but their victory was decisive ; Maximilian Sforza sur- 



rendered Milan, and, accepting a pecuniary considera- 



tion, resigned his claim to the duchy, and retired to 



France. The pope, alarmed at the progress of Fran- 



cis, hastened to reconcile himself to him ; and at a per- 



sonal interview, contrived, by his flattery, to gain over 



to his own plans the unsuspecting generosity of the 



king. 



Soon after his return to France, the emperor Maxi- 

 milian invaded the Milanese with a large army, and laid 

 siege to Milan ; but was repulsed by Charles of Bour- 

 bon, constable of France, and obliged to return to Ger- 

 many, where he died. The king of France immedi- Heath of . 

 ately declared himself a candidate for the imperial the 1 P cr ; 

 crown ; but the electors, partial to the house of Austria, 



ther Ferdinand king of Spain and Naples, in his own ,. 



right, duke of Austria and lord of the Netherlands, and "^d of " 



enriched by the spoils of the new world. Francis, jea- Spain. 



lous of his fortunate rival, soon found a pretext for a 



war, which was in the end to be attended with conse- 



quences so fatal to himself; and the power and influ- 



ence of the combatants soon involved all Europe in the 



quarrel. For the general history of this important 



struggle, seethe article FRANCE, Vol. IX. p. 557, where 



it is related at such length, as to render it unnecessary ( 



for us to give any more than a short sketch of the 



transactions in Italy. Leo X. who had formerly favour- 



ed Francis, chit-fly in order to use his influence for the 



aggrandizement of his nephew Lorenzo, duke of Urbi- 



no, had now his hopes of raising his family blasted by 



his death. Lorenzo left only one daughter, the cele- 



brated Catherine, and an illegitimate son Alexander. 



The chief aim of the pope was now to obtain Parma 



and Placentia, which were held by the French. He 



therefore entered into an alliance with Charles, who pro- 



ceeded to invade Lombardy. The troops of Francis 



were engaged in other quarters; and the Swiss, to 



whom he had trusted the Milanese, being ill paid, were 



easily gained over by Prosper Colonna, the papal ge- 



neral ; and the short struggle was ended by the com- 



plete expulsion of the French. Francis Maria Sforza, 



brother to Maximilian, was invested with the dukedom 



of Milan. Parma and Placentia had already been sur- A. D. 1522 



rendered to Leo ; but that pontiff had not long survi- 



ved the success of his intrigues, having died at Rome in 



the end of the year 1521. He was succeeded by Adrian 



VI. a Fleming, who had been preceptor to Charles V. 



and regent of Spain. 



The undecided character and unpopular manners of 

 Adrian formed an unfavourable contrast with the po- 

 lished urbanity of his predecessor, and he died at the 

 end of the year very little regretted by the Italians. 

 After a long contest, the cardinals united in favour of 

 Julio di Medici, natural son to Juliano, who was mur- 

 dered by the Pazzi. This pope, who took the name of 

 Clement VII. had acted as prime minister to Leo X. 

 but his conduct as a sovereign disappointed the hopes 

 entertained from his success in a lower situation. The 

 defection of Charles of Bourbon, who fled to Italy, was 

 a severe blow to Francis ; and the misconduct of Bon- 

 nivet, to whom he entrusted the invasion of the Milan- 

 ese, ruined his affairs in Italy : and his army, com- 

 6 



