 CHAPTER XXVI. The Wars of Italy, Charles VIII, 1483-1498, Part V. Charles VIII was wise to treat his brave men well, for the day was at hand when he would need them and all their bravery. It was in the Duchy of Parma, near the town of Fornovo, on the right bank of the tarot and affluent of the Po, that the French and Italian armies met, on the 5th of July 1495. The French army was nine or ten thousand strong, with five or six thousand camp-followers, servants, or drivers. The Italian army numbered at least thirty thousand men, well supplied and well rested, whereas the French were fatigued with their long march and very badly off for supplies. During the night between the 5th and 6th of July a violent storm burst over the country. Rain, lightnings and thunder so mighty, says Coleman, that none could say more, seemed that heaven and earth would dissolve, or that it pretended some great disaster to come. Next day at six in the morning, Charles VIII heard mass, received the communion, mounted on horseback, and set out to join his own division. I went to him, says Coleman, and found him armed at all points, and mounted upon the finest horse I have ever seen in my life, called Savoy. Duke Charles of Savoy, or the Duchess of Savoy, had given it to him. It was black, and had but one eye. It was a middle-sized horse of good height for him who was upon it. Seemed that this young man was quite other than either his nature, his stature, or his complexion bespoke him, for he was very timid in speaking, and is so to this day. That horse made him look tall, and he had a good countenance, and a good color, and speech bold and sensible. On perceiving Coleman, the king said to him, Go and see if yonder folks would feign parley. Sir, answered Coleman, I will do so willingly, but I never saw two so great hosts so near to one another, and yet go their ways without fighting. He went, nevertheless, to the Venetian advance posts, and his trumpeter was admitted to the presence of the Marquis of Mantua, who commanded the Italian army. The skirmishing had already commenced in all quarters, and the first boom of the cannon was heard just as the mark was was reading Coleman's letter. It is too late to speak of peace, said he, and the trumpeter was sent back. The king had joined the division which he was to lead to battle. Gentlemen, he said to the men at arms, who pressed around him, you will live or die here with me, will you not? And then raising his voice that he might be heard by the troops. They are ten times as many as we, he said, but you are ten times better than they. God loves the French, he is with us, and will do battle for us. As far as Naples I have had the victory over my enemies. I have brought you hither without shame or blame, and with God's help I will lead you back into France, to our honour and that of our kingdom. The men at arms made the sign of the cross, the foot soldiers kissed the ground, and the king made several knights, according to custom, before going into action. The Marquis of Mantua's squadrons were approaching. Sir, said the bastard of Bourbon, there is no longer time for the amusement of making knights. The enemy is coming on in force, go we at him. The king gave orders to charge, and the battle began at all points. It was very hotly contested, but did not last long, with alternations of success and reverse on both sides. The two principal commanders in the king's army, Louis de la Tramoy and John James Trevolzio, sustained without recoiling the shock of troops far more numerous than their own. At the throat, at the throat, shouted la Tramoy, after the first onset, and his three hundred men-at-arms burst upon the enemy and broke their line. In the midst of the melee the French baggage was attacked by the Stradio, a sort of light infantry composed of Greeks recruited and paid by the Venetians. Let them be, said Trevolzio to his men, their zeal for plunder will make them forget all, and we shall give the better account of them. At one moment the king had advanced before the main body of his guard, without looking to see if they were close behind him, and was not more than a hundred paces from the Marquess of Mantua, who seeing him scantily attended, bore down at the head of his cavalry. Not possible, is it, says Coleman, to do more doubly than was done on both sides. The king, being very hard-pressed, defended himself fiercely against those who would have taken him. The bastard Matthew of Bourbon, his brother-in-arms and one of the bravest knights in the army, had thrown himself twenty paces in front of him to cover him, and had just been taken prisoner by the Marquess of Mantua in person, when a mass of the royal troops came to their aid, and released them from all peril. Here it was that Peter de Tyrell, the Chevalier de Bayard, who was barely twenty years of age, and destined to so glorious a renown, made his first essay in arms. He had two horses killed under him, and took a standard, which he presented to the king, who after the battle made him a present of five hundred crowns. Charles VIII remained master of the battlefield. There were still to be seen, says Coleman, outside their camp, a great number of men-at-arms, whose lances and heads only were visible, and likewise foot-soldiers. The king put it to the council whether he ought to give chase to them or not. Some were for marching against them, but the French were not of his opinion. They said that enough had been done, that it was late, and that it was time to get lodged. That was coming on, the host which had been in front of us withdrew into their camp, and we went to get lodged a quarter of a league from where the battle had been. The king put up at a poorly built farmhouse, but he found there an infinite quantity of corn and sheaves, whereby the whole army profited. Some other bits of houses were hard by, which did for a few, and every one lodged as he could, without making any cantonment. I know well enough that I lay in a vineyard at full length on the bare ground, without anything else and without cloak, for the king had borrowed mine in the morning. Whoever had the wherewith made a meal, but few had save a hunch of bread from a varlet's knapsack. I went to see the king in his chamber, where there were some wounded whom he was having dressed. He wore a good mean, and every one kept a good face, and we were not so boastful as a little before the battle, because we saw the enemy near us. Six days after the battle, on the twelfth of July, the king wrote to his sister, the Duchess Anne of Bourbon, Sister, my dear, I commend myself to you right heartily. I wrote to my brother how that I found in my way a big army that Lord Ludovic, the Venetians, and their allies had got ready against me, thinking to keep me from passing, against which with God's help such resistance was made that I am come hither without any loss. Furthermore, I am using the greatest diligence that can be to get right away, and I hope shortly to see you, which is my desire, in order to tell you at good length all about my trip. And so God bless you, sister, my dear, and may he have you in his keeping. Both armies might and did claim the victory, for they had each of them partly succeeded in their design. The Italians wished to unmistakably drive out of Italy Charles VIII, who was withdrawing voluntarily, but to make it an unmistakable retreat he ought to have been defeated, his army beaten, and himself perhaps a prisoner. With that view they attempted to bar his passage and beat him on Italian ground. In that way they failed. Charles, remaining master of the battlefield, went on his way in freedom, and covered with glory he and his army. He certainly left Italy, but he left it with the feeling of superiority in arms, and with the intention of returning thither better informed and better supplied. The Italian allies were triumphant, but without any ground of security or any lester. The expedition of Charles VIII was plainly only the beginning of the Foreigners' ambitious projects, invasions, and wars against their own beautiful land. The King of France and his men of war had not succeeded in conquering it, but they had been charmed with such an abode. They had displayed in their campaign nightly qualities more brilliant and more masterful than the studied duplicity and elegant effeminacy of the Italians of the fifteenth century. And after the Battle of Fornovo they returned to France justly proud and foolishly confident, notwithstanding the incompleteness of their success. Charles VIII reigned for nearly three years longer after his return to his kingdom, and for the first two of them he passed his time in indolently dreaming of his plans for a fresh invasion of Italy, and in frivolous abandonment to his pleasures and the entertainments at his court, which he moved about from Lyon to Moulin to Paris to Tour and to Amboise. The news which came to him from Italy was worse and worse every day. The Count de Montpensier, whom he had left at Naples, could not hold his own there, and died a prisoner there on the eleventh of November 1496, after having found himself driven from place to place by Ferdinand II, who by degrees recovered possession of nearly all his kingdom, merely himself also to die there on the sixth of October, leaving for his uncle and successor, Frederick III, the honor of recovering the last four places held by the French. Charles ordered a fresh army of invasions to be formed, and the Duke of Orléans was singled out to command it. But he evaded this commission. The young Dauphin, Charles Orlando, three years old, had just died. A fine child in bold of speech, says Coman, and one that feared not the things that other children are want to fear. Duke Louis of Orléans, having thus become heir to the throne, did not care to go and run risks at a distance. He nevertheless declared his readiness to obey and express command from the King if the title of Lieutenant General were given him. But I will never send him to war on compulsion, said Charles, and nothing more was said about it. Whilst still constantly talking of the war he had in view, Charles attended more often and more earnestly than he hitherto had to the internal affairs of his kingdom. He had gotten it into his head, says Coman, that he would feign live according to God's commandments, and set justice and the church in good order. He would also revise his finances in such sort as to levy on the people but twelve hundred thousand francs, and in that form of tallyage, besides his own property on which he would live, as did the kings of old. His two immediate predecessors, Charles VII and Louis IX, had decreed the collation and revision of local customs, so often the rule of civil jurisdiction, but the work made no progress. Charles VIII, by a decree dated March 15, 1497, abridged the formalities, and urged on the execution of it, though it was not completed until the reign of Charles IX. By another decree, dated August II, 1497, he organized and regulated, as to its supreme powers as well as its composition, the King's Grand Council, the supreme administrative body, which was a fixture at Paris. He began even to contemplate a reformation of his own life. He had inquiries made as to how St. Louis used to proceed in giving audience to the lower orders. His intention, he said, was to henceforth follow the footsteps of the most justice-loving of French kings. He set up, says Coman, a public audience, whereat he gave ear to everybody and especially to the poor. I saw him thereat, a week before his death, for two good hours, and I never saw him again. He did not much business at this audience, but at least it was enough to keep folks in awe, and especially his own officers, of whom he had suspended for some extortion. It is but too often a man's faith to have his life slip from him just as he was beginning to make a better use of it. On the 7th of April, 1498, Charles VIII was pleased, after dinner, to go down with the queen into the fosses of the Castle of Amboys to see a game of tennis. Their way lay through a gallery, the opening of which was very low, and the king, short as he was, hit his forehead. Though he was a little dizzy with the blow, he did not stop, watched the players for some time, and even conversed with several persons. But about two in the afternoon, whilst he was a second time traversing this passage on his way back to the castle, he fell backwards and lost consciousness. He was laid upon a paltry palace in that gallery where everybody went in and out at pleasure. And in that wretched place, after a lapse of nine hours, expired he, says Coleman, who had so many fine houses and who was making so fine and wanted amboids. So small a matter is our miserable life, which giveth us so much trouble for the things of the world, and kings cannot help themselves any more than peasants. I arrived at Amboys two days after his decease. I went to say mine Orison at the spot where was the corpse, and there I was for five or six hours. And of a verity there was never seen the like morning, nor that lasted so long. He was so good that better creature cannot be seen. The most humane and gentle address that ever was was his. I trod that to never a man spake he ought that could displease, and at a better hour could he never have died for to remain of great renown in histories and regretted by those that served him. I trod I was the man to whom he showed most roughness, but knowing that it was in his youth, and that it did not proceed from him, I never bore him ill-will for it. Probably no king was ever thus praised for his goodness, and his goodness alone, by a man whom he had so maltreated, and who, as judicious and independent as he was, said of this same king, he was not better off for a sense than for money, and he thought of nothing but pastime and his pleasures. End of Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Part 1 of Volume 3 of A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Julie K. Rose. Volume 3 of A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times by François Guizot, translated by Robert Black. Chapter 27 The Wars of Italy, Louis XII, 1498-1515, Part 1 On ascending the throne, Louis XII reduced the public taxes and confirmed in their posts his predecessors' chief advisers, using to Louis de la Tramoye, who had been one of his most energetic foes, that celebrated expression, the King of France avenges not the wrongs of the Duke of Orléans. At the same time, on the day of his coronation at R.M., May 27th, 1492, he 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 to say that he would pursue a Pacific and conservative policy at home in a war-like and adventurous policy abroad. And, indeed, his government did present these two phases so different and inharmonious. 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. Let us follow these two portions of Louis XII's reign each separately, without mixing up one with the other by reason of identity of dates. We shall thus get at a better understanding and better appreciation of their character and their results. Outside of France, Milanese, 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, Valentin 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 his forces in 1450 had seized, when Charles VIII invaded Italy in 1494. Now is the time, said Louis, to enforce the rights of Valentin Visconti, my grandmother, to Milanese. 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. Leonardo da Vinci, one of the most eminent among the noble geniuses of the age, lived on intimate terms with him. But Ludovic was, nevertheless, a turbulent rascal and a greedy tyrant, of whom those who did not profit by his vices or the enjoyments of his court were desirous of being relieved. He had, moreover, embroiled himself with his neighbors, the Venetians, who were watching for an opportunity of aggrandizing themselves at his expense. As early as the 20th of April, 1498, a fortnight after his accession, Louis XII addressed to the Venetians a letter most gracious, says the contemporary chronicler, Marino Sanuto, and testifying great goodwill. And the special courier who brought it declared that the king had written to nobody in Italy except the Pope, the Venetians, and the Florentines. The Venetians do not care to neglect such an opening, and they at once sent three ambassadors to Louis XII. Louis heard the news thereof with marked satisfaction. I have never seen Zorsi, said he, but I know him well. As for Lord Dano, I like him much, but he has been at this court before some time ago. He gave them a reception on the 12th of August at Etomp, not in a palace as one of the Senate's private correspondents, but at the Fountain Inn. You will tell me that so great a king ought not to put up at an inn, but I shall answer you that in this district of Etomp, the best houses are as yet the inns. There is certainly a royal castle in the which lives the queen, the wife of the deceased king. Nevertheless, his majesty was pleased to give audience in this hostelry, all covered expressly, with cloth of Alexandrine Velvet, with lilies of gold at the spot where the king was placed. As soon as the speech was ended, his majesty rose up and gave quite a brotherly welcome to the brilliant ambassadors. The king has a very good countenance, a smiling countenance. He is 40 years of age and appears very active in make. Today, Monday, August 13th, the ambassadors were received at a private audience. A treaty concluded on the 9th of February, 1499, and published as signed at Blois no earlier than the 15th of April following was the result of this negotiation. It provided for an alliance between the king of France and the Venetian government, for the purpose of making war in common upon the Duke of Milan, Ludovic's Forza, on and against everyone, save the Lord Pope of Rome, and for the purpose of ensuring to the most Christian king restoration to the possession of the said Duchy of Milan as his rightful and olden patrimony. And on account of the charges and expenses which would be incurred by the Venetian government whilst rendering assistance to the most Christian king in the aforesaid war, the most Christian king bound himself to prove and consent that the city of Cremona and certain forts or territories adjacent, specially indicated, should belong in freehold and perpetuity to the Venetian government. The treaty, at the same time, regulated the number of troops and the military details of the war on behalf of the two contracting powers, and it provided for a diverse political incidents which might be entailed, and to which the alliance thus concluded should or should not be applicable according to the special stipulations which were drawn up with a view to those very incidents. In the month of August 1499, the French army, with a strength from 20 to 5 in 20,000 men, of whom 5,000 were Swiss, invaded Milan S. Duke Ludovic's Forza opposed to it a force pretty nearly equal in number, but far less full of confidence and of far less valor. 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 traders or surrendered without a show of resistance. The Venetians had the same success on the eastern frontier of the Duchy. Milan and Cremona alone remained to be occupied. Ludovic's Forza appeared before his troops and his people like the very spirit of lethargy, says a contemporary unpublished chronicle, with his head bent down to the earth, and for a long while he remained thus pensive and without a single word to say. Howbeit he was not so discomfited, but that on that very same day he could get his luggage packed, his transport-train under orders, his horse's shod, his ducats, with which he had more than thirty mules laden, put by, and in short, everything in readiness to decamp next morning as early as possible. Just as he left Milan, he said to the Venetian ambassadors, You have brought the king of France to dinner with me. I warn you that he will come to supper with you. Unless necessity can strain him there, too, says Machiavelli, Trades de France, chapter twenty-one. A prince ought never to form alliance with one stronger than himself in order to attack others, for the most powerful being Victor, thou remainest thyself at his discretion, and princes ought to avoid, as much as ever they can, being at another's discretion. The Venetians allied themselves with France against the Duke of Milan, and yet they might have avoided this alliance which entailed their ruin. For all his great and profound intellect, Machiavelli was wrong about this event and the actors in it. The Venetians did not deserve his censure, by allying themselves in 1499 with Louis XII against the Duke of Milan. They did not fall into Louis's hands, for between 1499 and 1515, and many times over, they sided alternately with and against him, always preserving their independence and displaying it as suited them at the moment. And these vicissitudes in their policy did not bring about their ruin, for at the death of Louis XII their power and importance in southern Europe had not declined. It was Louis XII who deserved Machiavelli's strictures for having engaged by means of diplomatic alliances of the most contradictory kind, at one time with the Venetian support and at another against them, in a policy of distant and incoherent conquests, without any connection with the national interests of France and in the long run without any success. Louis was at Lyon when he heard of his army's victory in Milaness and of Ludovic's force's flight. He was eager to go and take possession of his conquest, 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 this force's, revoked the vicissitudes game laws, instituted at Milan a court of justice analogous to the French parliaments, loaded with favors the scholars and artists who were the honor of Lombardy, and recross the Alps at the end of some weeks, leaving as governor of Milaness John James Travolzio. The valiant condottieri, who four years before, had quitted the service of Ferdinand II, King of Naples, for that of Charles VIII. Unfortunately, Travolzio was himself a Milanese and of the faction of the gulfs. 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 favor of the fallen tyrant who was in Germany expecting it and was recruiting during expectancy among 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's Forza had once more become master of Milaness where the French possessed nothing but the castle of Milan. In one of the fights brought about by this sudden revolution the young Chevalier Bayard carried away by the impetuosity of his age and courage pursued right into Milan the foes he was driving before him without noticing that his French comrades had left him and he was taken prisoner in front of the very palace in which were the quarters of Ludovic's Forza. The incident created some noise around the palace. Ludovic asked what it meant and was informed that a brave and bold gentleman younger than any of the others had entered Milan pel mel with the combatants he was pursuing and had been taken prisoner by John Bernardino Casaccio one of the leaders of the insurrection. Ludovic ordered him to be brought up which was done though not without some disquietude on the part of Bayard's captor, a courteous gentleman who feared that Lord Ludovico might do him some displeasure. He resolved himself to be his conductor after having dressed him in one of his own robes then made him look like a gentleman. Marvelling to see Bayard so young, come hither my gentleman said Ludovico who brought you into this city? By faith my lord answered Bayard who was not a wit abashed. I never imagined I was entering all alone and thought surely I was being followed of my comrades who knew more about war than I for if they had done as I did they would like me be prisoners. Now be it after my mishap I laud the fortune which caused me to fall into the hands of so valiant and discreet a knight as he who has me in holding. By your faith asked Ludovico of how many is the army of the king of France? On my soul my lord answered Bayard so far as I can hear there are 14 or 1500 men at arms and 16 or 18,000 foot but they are all picked men who are resolved to busy themselves so well this bout that they will assure the state of Milan to the king our master. And me seems my lord that you would surely be in as great safety in Germany as you are here for your folks are not the sort to fight us. With such assurance spoke the good night that lord Ludovico took pleasure therein though his say was enough to astound him. On my faith my gentleman said he as it were in the railery I have a good mind that the king of France's army and mine should come together in order that by battle it may be known to whom of rights belongs this heritage for I see no other way to it. By my sacred oath my lord said the good night I would that it might be tomorrow provided that I were out of captivity. Verily that shall not stand in your way said Ludovico for I will let you go forth in that presently moreover ask of me what you will and I will give it you. The good night who on bended knee thanked lord Ludovico for the offers he made him as there was good reason he should then said to him my lord I ask of you nothing save only that you may be pleased to extend your courtesy so far as to get me back my horse and my arms that I brought into the city and so send me away to my garrison which is twenty miles hence and you would do me a very great kindness for which I shall all my life feel bound into you and barring my duty to the king my master and saving my honour I would show my gratitude for it in whatsoever it might please you to command me. In good faith said lord Ludovico you shall have presently that which you do ask for. And then he said to the lord John Bernardino at once sir captain let his horse be found his arms and all that is his. My lord answered the captain it is right easy to find it is all at my quarters. He sent forth with two or three serve who brought the arms and led up the horse of the good young knight and lord Ludovico had him armed before his eyes. When he was accoutred the young knight leaped upon his horse without putting foot to stirrup and then he asked for a lance which was handed to him and raising his eyes he said to lord Ludovico my lord I thank you for the courtesy you have done me please god to pay it back to you. He was in a fine large courtyard then he began to set spurs to his horse the which gave four or five jumps so gaily that it could not be better done. Then the young knight gave him a little run in which he broke the lance against the ground into five or six pieces where at lord Ludovico was not over pleased and said out loud if all the men at arms of France were like him yonder I should have a bad chance. Nevertheless he had a trumpeter told off to conduct him to his garrison. Histoire du bon javelier sans peur et sans reproche page two and two to two and six. For Ludovic the Moor's chance to be bad it was not necessary that the men of arms at France should all be like Javelier Bayard. Louis XII so soon as he heard of the Milanese insurrection sent into Italy Louis de la Tremoy the best of his captains and the Cardinal d'Ambois his privy counselor and his friend the former to command the royal troops French and Swiss and the latter for to treat about the reconciliation of the rebel towns and to deal with everything as if it were the king in his own person. A campaign did not last long. The Swiss who had been recruited by Ludovic and those who were in Louis XII 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, in extreme anxiety for his own safety was on the point of giving himself up to the French but whether by his own free will or by the advice of the Swiss who were but lately in his pay and who are now withdrawing he concealed himself amongst them putting on a disguise with his hair turned up under a quaff, a colorect around his neck, a doublet of crimson satin scarlet hose and a halberd in his fist but whether it were that he was betrayed or that he was recognized he on the 10th of April 1500 fell into the hands of the French and was conducted to the quarters of La Tremoy who said no more than, Welcome, Lord! Next day, April 11th Louis XII received near Lyon the news of this capture where it he was right joyous and had bonfires lighted together with devotional processions giving thanks to the Prince of Princes for the happy victory he had by the divine aid obtained over his enemies. Ludovic was taken to Lyon. At the entrance into the city a great number of gentlemen from the King's household were present to meet him and the provost of the household conducted him all along the high street to the castle of Pierre-En-Cise where he was lodged and placed in security. There he passed a fortnight. Louis refused to see him but had him questioned as to several matters by the lords of his Grand Council and granted that he had committed not but follies still he spoke right wisely. He was conducted from Pierre-En-Cise to the castle of La Chintorraine where he was at first kept in very strict captivity without books, paper or ink but it was afterwards less severe. He plays at tennis and at cards says a dispatch of the Venetian ambassador Dominique of Treviso and he is fatter than ever. La diplomatique vientienne by M. Armand Bache 1862, page 363. He died in his prison at the end of eight years having to the very last great confidence in the future of his name for he wrote they say on the wall of his prison these words services rendered me will count for inheritage. And thus was the Duchy of Milan within seven months and a half twice conquered by the French says John Dotton in his clarinique and for the nonce was ended the war in Lombardy and the authors thereof were captives and exiles. End of Chapter 27, Part 1 Recording by Julie K. Rose San Jose, California JulieKRose.blogspot.com Chapter 27, Part 2 of Volume 3 of a popular history of France from the earliest times. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Julie K. Rose. Volume 3 of a popular history of France from the earliest times by Francois Guizot translated by Robert Black. Chapter 27, The Wars of Italy Louis XII, 1498-15, Part 2 Whilst matters were thus going on in the north of Italy Louis XII was preparing for his second great Italian venture the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples in which his predecessor Charles VIII had failed. He thought to render the enterprise easier by not bearing the whole burden by himself alone. On the 11th of November 1500 he concluded at Granada with Ferdinand and Isabella king and queen of Castile and Aragon a treaty by which the kings of France and Spain divided by anticipation between them the Kingdom of Naples which they were making an engagement to conquer together. Terra de Lavoro and the province of the Abruzzi with the cities of Naples and Gaeta were to be the share of Louis XII who would assume the title of king of Naples and of Jerusalem. Calabria and Puglia, Apuglia with the title of Duchies would belong to the king of Spain to whom Louis XII in order to obtain this chance of an accessory and precarious kingship gave up entirely Roussillon and Sardagne that French frontier of the Pyrenees which Louis XI had purchased a golden bargain from John II king of Aragon. In this arrangement there was a blemish and a danger of which the superficial and reckless policy of Louis XII made no account. He did not hear as he had done for the conquest of Milanese joined himself to an ally of far inferior power to his own and of ambition confined within far narrower boundaries as was the case when the Venetians supported him against Ludovic's Forza. He was choosing for his comrade in a far greater enterprise his nearest and most powerful rival and the most dexterous rascal amongst the kings of his day. The king of France said for an N1 day complains that I have deceived him twice. He lies, the drunkard. I've deceived him more than 10 times. Whether this bare-faced language were or were not really used it expressed nothing but the truth. Mediocre men who desire to remain pretty nearly honest have always the worst of it and are always dupes when they ally themselves with men who are corrupt and at the same time able indifferent to good and evil to justice and iniquity. Louis XII, even with the Cardinal d'Amboise to advise him, was neither sufficiently judicious to abstain from madly conceived enterprises nor sufficiently scrupulous and clercided to enmasque and play off every act of perfidy and wickedness. By uniting himself for the conquest and partition of the kingdom of Naples with Ferdinand the Catholic he was bringing upon himself first of all hidden opposition in the very midst of joint action and afterwards open treason and defection. He forgot moreover that Ferdinand had at the head of his armies a tried chieftain, Consolvo of Cordova already known throughout Europe as the Great Captain who had won that name in campaigns against the Moors, the Turks, and the Portuguese and who had the character of being as free from scruple as from fear. Lastly, the supporters who at the very commencement of his enterprises in Italy had been sought and gained by Louis XII Pope Alexander VI and his son César Borgia were as little to be dependent upon in the future as they were compromising at the present by reason of their reputation for unbridled ambition, perfidy, and crime. The King of France, whatever sacrifices he might already have made and might still make in order to ensure their cooperation could no more count upon it than upon the loyalty of the King of Spain in the conquest they were entering upon together. The outset of the campaign was attended with easy success. The French army under the command of Stuart de Bonny of Valiant Scott arrived on the 25th of June, 1501 before Rome and there received a communication in the form of a bowl of the Pope which removed the crown of Naples from the head of Frederick III and partitioned that thief of the Holy See between the Kings of France and Spain. Fortified with this authority, the army continued its march and arrived before Capua on the 6th of July. Consolvo of Cordova was already upon Neapolitan territory with the Spanish army which Ferdinand the Catholic had hastily sent thither at the request of Frederick III himself who had counted upon the assistance of his cousin the King of Aragon against the French invasion. Great was his consternation when he heard that the ambassadors of France and Spain had proclaimed at Rome the alliance between their masters. At the first rumor of this news, Consolvo of Cordova, whether sincerely or not treated it as Calumni, but so soon as that certainty was made public he accepted it without hesitation and took, equally with the French, the offensive against the King, already dethroned by the Pope and very near being so by the two sovereigns who had made alliance for the purpose of sharing between them the spoil they should get from him. Capua capitulated and was nevertheless plundered and laid waste. A French fleet commanded by Philip de Ravenstine arrived off Naples when Doubonnier was already a master of it. The unhappy King Frederick took refuge in the island of Ischia and unable to bear the idea of seeking an asylum in Spain with his cousin who had betrayed him so shamefully he begged the French admiral himself to advise him in his adversity. As enemies that have the advantage should show humanity to the afflicted, Ravenstine sent word to him. He would willingly advise him as to his affairs. According to his advice, the best thing would be to surrender and place himself in the hands of the King of France and submit to his good pleasure. He would find him so wise and so debonair and so accommodating that he would be bound to be content. Better or safer counsel for him he had not to give. After taking some precautions on the score of his eldest son, Prince Ferdinand, whom he left at Toronto, in the kingdom he was about to quit, Frederick III followed Ravenstine's counsel, sent to ask for a young gentleman to be his guide to France, put to sea with 500 men remaining to him and arrived at Marseille where their Louis XII sent some lords of his court to receive him. Two months afterwards and not before, he was conducted to the King himself who was then at Blois. Louis welcomed him with his natural kindness and secured to him 50,000 livres a year on the Duchy of Anjou, on the condition that he never left France. It does not appear that Frederick ever had an idea of doing so, for his name is completely lost to history up to the day of his death, which took place at tour on the 9th of November, 1504, after three years, oblivion and exile. On hearing of so prompt a success, Louis XII's satisfaction was great. He believed and many others no doubt believed with him that his conquest of Naples, of that portion at least, which was assigned to him by his treaty with the King of Spain, was accomplished. The Senate of Venice sent to him in December 1501, a solemn embassy to congratulate him. In giving the Senate an account of his mission, one of the ambassadors, Dominic of Treviso, drew the following portrait of Louis XII. The King is in stature tall and thin and temperate in eating, taking scarcely anything but boiled beef. He is by nature miserly and retentive. His great pleasure is hawking. From September to April, he hawks. The cardinal of Rouen, Georges D'Amboise, does everything. Nothing, however, without the cognizance of the King, who has a far from stable mind, saying yes and no. I'm of opinion that their lordships should remove every suspicion from his Majesty's mind and aim at keeping themselves closely united with him. Armand Bache, La Diplomatique, Nonetienne, page 362. It was not without ground that the Venetian envoy gave his government this advice. So soon as the Treaty of Alliance between Louis XII and the Venetians for the conquest of Milanese had attained its end, the King had more than once felt and testified some displeasure at the demeanor assumed towards him by his former allies. They had shown vexation and disquietude at the extension of French influence in Italy, and they had addressed to Louis certain representations touching the favor enjoyed at his hands by the Pope's nephew, César Borgia, to whom he had given the title of Duke of Valentinois on investing him with account ships of Valence and of Di in Dauphiny. Louis, on his side, showed anxiety as to the conduct which would be exhibited towards him by the Venetians if he encountered any embarrassment in his expedition to Naples. Nothing of the kind happened to him during the first month after King Frederick III's abandonment of the Kingdom of Naples. The French and the Spaniards, Daubigny and Gonzalo of Cordova, at first gave their attention to nothing but establishing themselves firmly, each in the interest of the king his master in those portions of the kingdom which were to belong to them. But before long, disputes arose between the two generals as to the meaning of certain clauses in the Treaty of November 11th, 1500, and as to the demarcation of the French and Spanish territories. Daubigny fell ill, and Louis XII sent to Naples with the title of viceroy, Louis d'Amagnac, Duke of Nemours, a brave warrior, but a negotiator inclined to take Umbridge and to give offence. The disputes soon took the form of hostilities. The French assayed to drive the Spaniards from the points they had occupied in the disputed territories, and at first they had the advantage. Gonzalo of Cordova, from necessity or imprudence, concentrated his forces within Barletta, a little fortress with a little port on the Adriatic. But there he endured from July 1502 to April 1503, a siege which did great honor to the patient firmness of the Spanish troops and the persistent vigor of their captain. Gonzalo was getting ready to sally from Barletta and take the offensive against the French when he heard that a treaty signed at Lyon on the 5th of April 1503 between the kings of Spain and France made a change in the position reciprocally of the two sovereigns and must suspend the military operations of their generals within the kingdom of Naples. The French general declared his readiness to obey his king, said Guichardini. But the Spanish, whether it were that he felt sure of victory or that he had received private instructions on that point, said that he could not stop the war without express orders from his king. And sallying forthwith from Barletta, he gained on the 28th of April 1503 at Ciaranola, a small town of Puglia, a signal victory over the French commanded by the Duke of Nemor who together with 3,000 men of his army was killed in action. The very day after his success, Gonzalo heard that a Spanish corps, lately disembarked in Calabria, had also beaten on the 21st of April at Seminara, a French corps commanded by Dobigny. The great captain was as eager to profit by victory as he had been patient in waiting for a chance of it. He marched rapidly on Naples and entered it on the 14th of May, almost without resistance. And the two forts defending the city, the Castel Nuevo and the Castel del Nuevo surrendered one on the 11th of June and the other on the 1st of July. The capital of the kingdom having thus fallen into the hands of the Spaniards, Capua and Aversa followed its example. Gaeta was the only important place which still held out for the French and contained a garrison capable of defending it. And thither the remnant of the troops beaten at Seminara and at Cerniola had retired. Louis XII hastened to Levy and sent to Italy under the command of Louis de la Tromoye, a fresh army for the purpose of relieving Gaeta and recovering Naples. But at Parma, La Tromoye fell ill, so crushed by his malady and so despairing of life, says his chronicler, John Boucher, that the physician sent word to the king that it was impossible in the way of nature to recover him and that without the divine assistance he could not get well. The command devolved upon the Marquis of Mantua who marched on Gaeta. He found Gonzalvo of Cordova posed with his army on the left bank of the Galliano, either to invest the place or to repulse reinforcements that might arrive for it. The two armies passed 50 days face to face almost with the river and its marshes between them vainly attempting over and over to join the battle. Some of Gonzalvo's officers advised him to fall back on Capua so as to withdraw his troops from an unhealthy and difficult position. But I would rather said he have here for my grave six feet of earth by pushing forward than prolong my life a hundred years by falling back though it were but a few arms lengths. The French army was dispersing about in search of shelter and provisions and the Marquis of Mantua disgusted with the command resigned it to the Marquis of Salutzo and returned home to his marquiset. Gonzalvo who was kept well informed of his enemy's condition through on the 27th of December a bridge over the Galliano attacked the French suddenly and forced them to fall back upon Gaeta which they did not succeed in entering until they had lost artillery, baggage and a number of prisoners. The Spaniards says John Doton halted before the place made as if they would lay siege to it and so remained for two or three days. The French who were there in great numbers had scarcely any provisions and could not hold out for long. However they put a good face upon it. The captain, Gonzalvo, sent word to them that if they would surrender their town he would on his part restore to them without ransom all prisoners and others of their party and he had many of them. James de la police, Stuart de Bonille, Gaspar de Colony, Anthony de la Fayette, et cetera all captains. The French captains seeing that fortune was not kind to them and that they had provisions for a week only were all for taking this offer. All the prisoners, captains, men at arms and common soldiers were accordingly given up, put to see and sailed for Genoa where they were well received and kindly treated by the Genoese which did them great good for they were much in need of it. Nearly all the captains died on their return some of mourning over their losses others of melancholy at their misfortune others for fear of the king's displeasure and others of sickness and weariness. At the news of these reverses the grief and irritation of Louis XII were extreme. Not only was he losing his Neapolitan conquests but even his millenesse was also threatened. The ill will of the Venetians became manifest. They had revictualed by sea the fortress of Barleta in which Consolvo of Cordova had shut himself up with his troops and when the king presented complaints of this sucker afforded to his enemies the senate replied that the matter had taken place without their cognizance that Venice was a republic of traitors and that private persons might very likely have sold provisions to the Spaniards with whom Venice was at peace without there being any ground for concluding from it that she had failed in her engagements toward France. Sometime afterwards four French galleys chased by a Spanish squadron of superior force presented themselves before the port of Otranto which was in the occupation of the Venetians who pleaded their neutrality as a reason for refusing asylum to the French squadron which the commander was obliged to set on fire that it might not fall into the enemy's hands. The determined prosecution of hostilities in the Kingdom of Naples by Consolvo of Cordova in spite of the treaty concluded at Lyon on the 5th of April, 1503 between the kings of France and Spain was so much the more offensive to Louis XII in that this treaty was the consequence and the confirmation of an enormous concession which he had two years previously made to the king of Spain on consenting to a faience his daughter Princess Claude of France, two years old to Ferdinand's grandson Charles of Austria who was then only one year old and who became Charles the Fifth Emperor. Lastly about the same time, Pope Alexander VI who had rendered Louis XII so many services died at Rome on the 12th of August, 1503. Louis had hoped that his favorite minister Cardinal Georges D'Amboise would succeed him and that hope had a great deal to do with the shocking favor he showed César Borgia that infamous son of a demoralized father but the candidature of Cardinal D'Amboise failed. A four weeks pope, Pius III, succeeded Alexander VI and when the Holy See suddenly became once more vacant Cardinal D'Amboise failed again and the new choice was Cardinal Giulia de la Rivera Pope Julius II who soon became the most determined and most dangerous foe of Louis XII already assailed by so many enemies. The Venetian Dominic of Treviso was quite right. Louis XII was of unstable mind saying yes and no. On such characters discouragement tells rapidly. In order to put off the struggle which had succeeded so ill for him in the Kingdom of Naples, Louis concluded on the 31st of March, 1504 a truce for three years with the King of Spain and on the 22nd of September in the same year in order to satisfy his grudge on account of the Venetian's demeanor towards him he made an alliance against them with Emperor Maximilian I and Pope Julius II with the design, all three of them of resting certain provinces from them. With those political miscalculations was connected a more personal and more disinterested feeling. Louis repented of having in 1501 a fianced his daughter Claude to Prince Charles of Austria and of the enormous concessions he had made by two treaties one of April 5th, 1503 and the other of September 22nd, 1504 for the sake of this marriage. He had assigned his dowry to his daughter first the Duchy of Milan then the Kingdom of Naples, then Brittany and then the Duchy of Burgundy and the Countship of Blois. The latter of these treaties contained even the following strange clause. If, by the default of the most Christian King or of the Queen his wife or of the Princess Claude the aforesaid marriage should not take place the most Christian King doth wail in consent from now that the said Duchies of Burgundy and Milan and the Countship of Asty do remain settled upon the said Prince Charles Duke of Luxembourg with all the rights therein possessed were possibly to be possessed by the most Christian King. It was dismembering France and at the same time settling on all her frontiers to East, West and Southwest as well as to North and South a power which the approaching Union of two crowns the Imperial and the Spanish on the head of Prince Charles of Austria rendered so preponderating and so formidable. End of chapter 27 part two. Recording by Julie K. Rose San Jose, California. JulieKRose.blogspot.com Chapter 27 part three of volume three of a popular history of France from the earliest times. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Julie K. Rose. Volume three of a popular history of France from the earliest times by Francois Guiseaux translated by Robert Black. Chapter 27, The Wars of Italy, Louis XII. 1498 to 1515, part three. It was not only from considerations of external policy and in order to conciliate to himself Emperor Maximilian and King Ferdinand that Louis XII had allowed himself to proceed to concessions so plainly contrary to the greatest interests of France he had yielded also to domestic influences. The queen, his wife, Anne of Brittany, detested Louise of Savoye, widow of Charles d'Orléans, count of Angoulême, and mother of Francois d'Angoulême, heir presumptive to the throne since Louis XII had no son. Anne could not bear the idea that her daughter, Princess Claude, should marry the son of her personal enemy. And, being more Breton than French, say her contemporaries, she, in order to avoid this disagreeableness had used with the king all her influence, which was great in favor of the Austrian marriage, caring little and perhaps even desiring, that Brittany should again be severed from France. Louis, in the midst of the reverses of his diplomacy, had thus to suffer from the hatreds of his wife, the observations of his advisors, and the reproaches of his conscience as a king. He felt so ill that he was supposed to be past recovery. It were to do what would be incredible, says his contemporary, Jean de Saint-Jolais, to write or tell of the lamentations made throughout the whole realm of France by reason of the sorrow felt by all for the illness of their good king. There were to be seen night and day at Blois, at Amboise, at Tours, and everywhere else, men and women going all bare throughout the churches and to the holy places in order to obtain from divine mercy grace of health and convalescence for one whom there was as great fear of losing as if he had been the father of each. Louis was touched by this popular sympathy and his wisest counsellors, Cardinal d'Amboise, the first of all, took advantage thereof to appeal to his conscience and respected the engagements which through weakness he had undertaken contrary to the interests of the realm and the coronation promises. Queen Anne herself, not without a struggle, however, at last gave up her opposition to this patriotic recoil. And on the 10th of May, 1505, Louis XII put in his will a clause to the effect that his daughter, Princess Claude, should be married so soon as she was old enough to the heir to the throne, Francis, Count of Angoulême. Only it was agreed in order to avoid diplomatic embarrassments that this arrangement should be kept secret till further notice. When Louis had recovered, discreet measures were taken for arousing the feeling of the country as well as the king's conscience as to this great question. In the course of the year 1505, there took place throughout the whole kingdom amongst the nobility and in the principal towns, assemblies at which means were proposed for preventing this evil. Unpleasant consequences might have been apprehended from these meetings in the case of a prince less beloved by his subjects than the king was. But nothing further was decided thereby than that a representation should with submission be made to him of the dangers likely to result from this treaty that he should be entreated to prevent them by breaking it and that a proposal should be made to him to assemble the estates to deliberate upon a subject so important. Histoire de France by Le Père Daniel, Table 8, Page 427, Edition of 1755. The state's general were accordingly convoked and met at tour on the 10th of May, 1506. And on the 14th of May, Louis XII opened them in person at Plessis-les-Tours, seated in a great hall in the royal seat between Cardinal d'Amboise and Duke Francis of Valois and surrounded by many archbishops and all the princes of the blood and other lords and barons of the said realm in great number, and he gave the order for admitting the deputies of the estates of the realm. Far from setting forth the grievances of the nation as the spokesmen of the estates had always done, Thomas Bricot, Canon of Notre Dame de Paris, delivered an address enumerating in simple and touching terms the benefits conferred by Louis XII in describing to him the nation's gratitude. To him they owed peace and the tranquility of the realm, complete respect for private property, released from a quarter of the taillage, reform in the administration of justice, and the appointment of enlightened and incorruptible judges. For these causes the speaker added, and for others which it would take too long to recount, he was destined to be known as Louis XII, father of the people. At these last words loud cheers rang out, emotion was general and reached the king himself who shed tears at hearing the title which posterity and history were forever to attach to his name. Then the deputies having dropped on their knees, the speaker resumed his speech, saying that they were come to prefer a request for the general good of the realm. The king subjects in treating him to be pleased to give his only daughter in marriage to my Lord Francis, here present, who is every wit French. When this declaration was ended, the king called Cardinal D'Amboise and the chancellor with whom he conferred for some time. And then the chancellor turning to the deputies made answer that the king had given due ear and heed to their request and representation, that if he had done well, he desired to do still better, and that as to the request touching the marriage, he had never heard talk of it. But as to that matter, he would communicate with the princes of the blood so as to have their opinion. The day after this session, the king received an embassy which could not but crown his joy. The estates of the Duchy of Burgundy, more interested than any province in the rupture of the Austrian marriage, had sent deputies to join their most urgent prayers to the entreaties of the estates of France. On Monday, May 18th, the king assembled about him his chief counselors to learn if the demand of the estates was profitable and reasonable for him and his kingdom. Thereon continues the report. The first to deliver an opinion was my Lord the Bishop of Paris, and after him the premier president of the parliament of Paris and of that of Bordeaux. Their speeches produced such effect that quite with one voice in one mind, those present agreed that the request of the estates was sound, just and reasonable, and with one consent entreated the king to agree to this said marriage. The most enlightened counselors and the princes of the blood found themselves in agreement with the commons. There was no ambiguity about the reply. On Tuesday, May 19th, the king held a session in state for the purpose of announcing to the estates that their wishes should be fully gratified and that the betrothal of his daughter to the heir to the throne should take place next day but one, May 21st, in order that the deputies might report the news of it to their constituents. After that, the estates had returned thanks. The chancellor gave notice that as municipal affairs imperatively demanded the return of the deputies, the king gave them leave to go, retaining only one burges from each town to inform him of their wants and their business. If such there be in any case wherein the king will give them good and short dispatch. The session was brought to a close by the festivities of the betrothal and by the oath taken by the deputies who before their departure swore to bring about with all their might, even to the risk of body and goods, the marriage which had just been decided upon by the common advice of all those who represented France. Francis d'Angoulême was at that time 11 years old and Claude of France was nearly seven. Whatever displeasure might have been caused to the emperor of Germany and to the king of Spain by this resolution on the part of France and her king, it did not show itself either in acts of hostility or even in complaints of a more or less threatening kind. Italy remained for some years longer the sole theater of rivalry and strife between these three great powers. And during this strife, the utter diversity of the combinations, whether in the way of alliance or of rupture bore witness to the extreme changeability of the interests, passions and designs of the actors. From 1506 to 1515, between Louis XII's will and his death, we find in the history of his career in Italy five coalitions and as many great battles of a profoundly contradictory character. In 1508, Pope Julius II, Louis XII, Emperor Maximilian and Ferdinand the Catholic King of Spain formed together against the Venetians, the League of Cumbria. In 1510, Julius II, Ferdinand, the Venetians and the Swiss make a coalition against Louis XII. In 1512, this coalition decomposed for a while where he unites under the name of the League of the Holy Union between the Pope, the Venetians, the Swiss and the Kings of Aragon and Naples against Louis XII minus the Emperor Maximilian and plus Henry VIII, King of England. On the 14th of May, 1509, Louis XII in the name of the League of Cumbria gains the battle of Agnadello against the Venetians. On the 11th of April, 1512, it is against Pope Julius II, Ferdinand the Catholic and the Venetians that he gains the battle of Ravenna. On the 14th of March, 1513, he is in alliance with the Venetians and it is against the Swiss that he loses the battle of Navarra. In 1510, 1511 and 1512, in the course of all these incessant changes of political allies and adversaries, three councils met at tour at Pisa and at St. John Lateran with views still more discordant and irreconcilable than all of these Leic coalitions. We merely point out here the principal traits of the nascent 16th century. We have no intention of tracing with a certain amount of detail any incidents but those that refer to Louis XII into France to their procedure and their fortunes. Jealousy, ambition, secret resentment and the prospect of despoiling them caused the formation of the League of Cumbria against the Venetians. They're far reaching greatness on the seas, their steady progress on land, their riches, their cool assumption of independence toward the papacy, their renown for ability and their profoundly selfish but singularly prosperous policy had excited in Italy and even beyond the Alps that feeling of envy and ill will which is caused amongst men whether kings or people by the spectacle of strange, brilliant and unexpected good fortune though it be the fruits of rare merit. As the Venetians were as much dreaded as they were little beloved, great care was taken to conceal from them the projects that were being formed against them. According to their historian Cardinal Bembo, they owed to chance the first notice they had. It happened one day that a Piedmontese at Milan in presence of the resident of Venice allowed to escape from his lips the words, I should have the pleasure then of seeing the crime punished of those who put to death the most illustrious man of my country. He alluded to Carmaniola, a celebrated Piedmontese condottieri who had been accused of treason and beheaded at Venice on the 3rd of May, 1432. The Venetian ambassador at Louis XII's court, suspecting what had taken place at Cumbria, tried to dissuade the king. Sir, said he, it were folly to attack them of Venice. Their wisdom renders them invincible. I believe they are prudent and wise, answered Louis, but all the wrong way of the hair and opportunely. If it must come to war, I will bring upon them so many fools that your wise-acres will not have leisure to teach them reason, for my fools hit all round without looking where. When the league was decisively formed, Louis sent to Venice a herald to officially proclaim war. After having replied to the grievances alleged in support of that proclamation, we should never have believed, said the doge Loredano, that so great a prince would have given ear to the inventum'd words of a pope whom he ought to know better and to the insinuations of another priest whom we forebear to mention, Cardinal D'Amboise. In order to please them, he declares himself the foe of a republic which has rendered him great services. We will try to defend ourselves and to prove to him that he has not kept faith with us. God shall judge betwixt us. Father Harold and you, trumpeter, you have heard what we have had to say to you, report it to your master, away. Independently of their natural haughtiness, the Venetians were puffed up with the advantages they had obtained in a separate campaign against the Emperor Maximilian and flattered themselves that they would manage to conquer one after the other or to split up or to tire out their enemies and they prepared energetically for war. Louis XII, on his side, got together an army with a strength of 2,300 lances, about 13,000 mounted troops, 10,000 to 12,000 French foot, and six or 8,000 Swiss. He sent for Chavallier Bayard, already famous, though still quite a youth. Bayard, he said, "'You know that I am about to cross the mountains for to bring to reason the Venetians who by great wrong withhold from me the Countship of Cremona and other districts. I give to you from this present time the company of Captain Châtellard, who they tell me is dead, where at I am distressed. But I desire that in this enterprise you have under your charge men of foot. Your Lieutenant Captain Pierpont, Pierre de Pond d'Albi, a Savoyeur gentleman in Bayard's nephew, who is a very good man who shall lead your men at arms. Sir, answered Bayard, "'I will do what pleases you, but how many men of foot will you be pleased to hand over to me to lead?' "'A thousand,' said the king, "'there is no man that hath more.' "'Sir,' replied Bayard, "'it is a many for my poor wits. I do entreat you to be content that I have five hundred, and I pledge you my faith, sir, that I will take pains to choose such as shall do you service. Me seems that for one man it is a very heavy charge if he would feign do his duty therewith.' "'Good,' said the king, "'go then quickly into Delphany and take heed that you be in the Duchy of Milan by the end of March.' Bayard fourth wits set out to raise and choose his foot. A proof of the growing importance of infantry and of the care taken by Louis XII to have it commanded by men of war of experience and popularity. On the 14th of May, 1509, the French Army and the Venetian Army of nearly equal strength encountered near the village of Agnadello in the province of Lodai on the banks of the Ada. Louis XII commanded his in person with Louis de la Tramoye and James Trivulsio for his principal lieutenants. The Venetians were under the orders of two generals, the Count of Petelniano and Bartellamy Dalviano, both members of the Roman family of the Orsini, but not on good terms with one another. The French had to cross the Ada to reach the enemy who kept in his camp. Trivulsio, seeing that the Venetians did not dispute their passage, cried out to the king, "'Today, sir, the victory is ours.'" The French advance guard engaged with the troops of Alviano. When apprised of this fight, Louis, to whom word was at this same time brought that the enemy was already occupying the point toward which he was moving with the main body of the army, said briskly, "'Forward all the same, we will halt upon their bellies.'" The action became general and hot. The king, sword in hand, hurried from one core to another under fire from the Venetian artillery, which struck several men near him. He was urged to place himself under cover a little so as to give his orders thence, "'But it is no odd,' said he, "'that they who are afraid have only to put themselves behind me.'" A body of Gascon showed signs of wavering. "'Lads,' shouted Latremoy, "'the king sees you.'" They dashed forward, and the Venetians were broken in spite of the brave resistance of Alviano, who was taken and brought, all covered with blood, and with one eye cut out into the presence of the king. Louis said to him courteously, "'You shall have fair treatment and fair captivity. Have fair patience.'" So I will, answered the Condottieri. If I had won the battle, I had been the most victorious man in the world. And though I have lost it, I still have I the great honor of having had against me a king of France in person. Louis, who had often heard talk of the warriors and trepid presence of mind, had a fancy for putting it to further proof, and, all the time chatting with him, gave secret orders to have the alarm sounded not far from them. "'What is this prey, sir Bartolome?' asked the king. "'Your folks are very difficult to please. Is it that they want to begin again?' "'Sir,' said Alviano, "'if there is fighting still, "'it must be that the French are fighting one another. "'As for my folks, I assure you, on my life, "'they will not pay you a visit this fortnight.'" The Venetian army, in fact, withdrew with a precipitation which resembled a route. For, to rally it, it's general, the Count of Patelliano, appointed for its gathering point the ground beneath the walls of Brescia, 40 miles from the field of battle. "'Few-minute arms,' says Guicciardini, "'were slain in this affair. "'The great loss fell upon the Venetian's infantry, "'which lost, according to some, 8,000 men. "'Others say that the number of dead on both sides "'did not amount to more than 6,000. "'The territorial results of the victory "'were greater than the numerical losses of the armies. "'Within a fortnight, the towns of Caravaggio, Bergamo, "'Brescia, Cremma, Cremona, and Pizzigatoni "'surrendered to the French. "'Picheria alone, a strong fortress "'at the southern extremity of the Lake of Garda, "'resisted and was carried by assault. "'It was a bad thing for those within,' "'says the loyal servitor of Bayard. "'For all, or nearly all, perished there. "'Amongst the witch was the governor of the scenery "'and his son, who were willing to pay good and heavy ransom. "'But that served them not at all, for on one tree "'were both of them hanged. "'Witch, to me, did seem great cruelty. "'A very lusty gentleman called the Lorraineur "'had their parole, and he had big words about it "'with his Grand Master, Lieutenant General of the King. "'But he got no good thereby.' "'The memoirs of Robert de la Marque, Lord of Florange, "'and a warrior of the day, confirm, as to this said incident, "'the story of the loyal servitor of Bayard. "'When the French volunteers,' says he, "'entered by the breach into the Castle of Picheria, "'the cut to pieces all those who were therein, "'and there were left only the captain, the provitatore, "'and the pudesta, which stowed themselves away in the tower, "'surrendered to the good pleasure of the King, "'and, being brought before him, "'offered him for ransom a hundred thousand ducats. "'But the King swore, if I ever eat or drink, "'till they be hanged and strangled, "'nor even for all the prayer they could make, "'could the Grand Master Chommot, "'and even his uncle, Cardinal D'Amboise, "'find any help for it, "'but the King would have them hanged that very hour.'" Some chroniclers attribute this violence on Louis XII's part to a low-end course reply returned by those in command at Picheria to the summons to surrender. Guicciardini, whilst also recording the fact, explains it otherwise than by a fit of anger on Louis's part. The King, he says, was led to such cruelty in order that, dismayed at such punishment, those who were still holding out in the fortress of Cremona might not defend themselves to the last extremity, so that the Italian historian is less severe on this act of cruelty than the French knight is. End of chapter 27, part three. Recording by Julie K. Rose, San Jose, California. JulieKRose.blogspot.com. Chapter 27, part four of volume three of a popular history of France from the earliest times. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Julie K. Rose. Volume three of a popular history of France from the earliest times by Francois Guizot, translated by Robert Black. Chapter 27, The Wars of Italy. Louis XII, 1498 to 1515. Part four. Louis XII's victory at Agnadello had for him consequences very different from what he had no doubt expected. The king says Guicardini, departed from Italy, carrying away with him to France great glory by reason of so complete and so rapidly won a victory over the Venetians. Nevertheless, as in the case of things obtained after hope long deferred, men scarcely ever feel such joy and happiness as they had at first imagined they would. The king took not back with him either greater peace of mind or greater security in respect of his affairs. The beaten Venetians accepted their defeat with such a mixture of humility and dignity as soon changed their position in Italy. They began by providing all that was necessary for the defense of Venice herself. Foreigners, but only idle foreigners, were expelled. Those who had any business which secured them means of existence and received orders to continue their labors. Mills were built, cisterns were dug, corn was gathered in. The condition of the canals was examined, bars were removed, the citizens were armed. The law which did not allow vessels laden with provisions to touch at Venice was repealed and rewards were decreed to officers who had done their duty. Having taken all this care for their own homes and their fatherland on the sea, the Venetian Senate passed a decree by which the Republic, releasing from their oath of fidelity the subjects it could not defend, authorized its continental provinces to treat with the enemy with a view to their own interests in order to its commandants to evacuate such places as they still held. Nearly all such submitted without a struggle to the Victor Vagnadello and his allies of Cumbrai. But at Treviso, when Emperor Maximilian's commissioner presented himself in order to take possession of it, a shoemaker named Caligaro went running through the streets shouting hurrah for St. Mark. The people rose, pillaged the houses of those who had summoned the foreigner and declared that it would not separate its lot from that of the Republic. So Treviso remained Venetian. Two other small towns, Marano and Osopo, followed her example, and for several months this was all that the Venetians preserved in their continental possessions. But at the commencement of July, 1509, they heard that the important town of Padua, which had fallen to the share of Emperor Maximilian, was uttering passionate murmurs against its new master and wished for nothing better than to come back beneath the old sway. And in spite of the opposition shown by the doge, Loredano, the Venetians resolved to attempt the venture. During the night between the 16th and 17th of July, a small detachment, well-armed and well-led, arrived beneath the walls of Padua, which was rather carelessly guarded. In the morning, as soon as the gate was opened, a string of large wagons presented themselves for admittance. Behind one of these, and partially concealed by its bulk, advanced six Venetian-men at arms, each carrying on his cropper a foot soldier armed with an archibus. They fired on the guard. Each killed his man. The Austrian garrison hurried up and fought bravely, but other Venetian troops arrived and the garrison was beaten and surrendered. Padua became Venetian again. This surprise, all says Monsieur Donne, caused inexpressible joy in Venice. After so many disasters, there was seen a gleam of hope. The Venetians hastened to provision Padua well and to put it in a state of defense. And at the same time, published a decree promising such subjects of the Republic that should come back to its sway, complete indemnity for the losses they might have suffered during the war. It blazed forth again immediately, but at first between the Venetians and the Emperor Maximilian almost alone by himself. Louis XII, in a hurry to get back to France, contented himself with leaving in Lombardy a body of troops under the orders of James de Charbonne, sire de la police, with orders to take 500 of the lustiest men at arms and go into service of the emperor who was to make a dissent upon the district of Padua. Maximilian did not make his dissent until two months after the Venetians had retaken Padua and provisioned it well. And it was only on the 15th of September that he had sat down before the place. All the allies of the League of Cambrai held themselves bound to furnish him with their contingent. On sallying from Milan for this campaign, la police fell in with the good knight Bayard to whom he said, my comrade, my friend, would you not like us to be comrades together? Bayard, who asked nothing better, answered him graciously that if he was at his service to be disposed of at his pleasure. And from the 15th to the 20th of September, Maximilian got together before Padua an army with a strength that is said of about 50,000 men, men at arms or infantry, Germans, Spaniards, French and Italians sent by the Pope and by the Duke of Ferrara or recruited from all parts of Italy. At the first rumor of such a force there was great emotion in Venice but an emotion tempered by bravery and intelligence. The doge, Leonardo Laredano, the same who had but lately opposed the surprise of Padua, rose up and delivered in the Senate a long speech of which only the essential and characteristic points can be quoted here. Everybody knows, excellent gentleman of the Senate said he, that on the preservation of Padua depends all hope, not only of recovering our empire but of maintaining our own liberty. It must be confessed that, great and wonderful as they have been, the preparations made and the supplies provided here, there too, are not sufficient either for the security of that town or for the dignity of our republic. Our ancient renown forbids us to leave the public safety, the lives and honor of our wives and children entirely to the tillers of our fields and to mercenary soldiers without rushing ourselves to shelter them behind our own breasts and defend them with our own arms. For so great and so glorious a fatherland which has for so many years been the bulwark of the faith and the glory of the Christian Republic, will the personal service of its citizens and sons be ever to seek, to save it, who would refuse to risk his own life and that of his children? If the defense of Padua is the pledge for the salvation of Venice, who would hesitate to go and defend it? And though the forces already there were sufficient, is not our honor also concerned therein? The fortune of our city so wielded that in the space of a few days, our empire slipped from our hands. The opportunity has come back to us of recovering what we have lost. By spontaneously facing the changes and chances of fate, we shall prove that our disasters have not been our fault or our shame, but one of those fatal storms which no wisdom and no firmness of man can resist. If it were permitted us all in one mask to set out for Padua, if we might without neglecting the defense of our own homes and our urgent public affairs, leave our city for some days deserted, I would not await your deliberation. I would be the first on the road to Padua. For how could I better expend the last days of my old age than in going to be present at and take part in such a victory? But Venice may not be deserted by her public bodies, which protect and defend Padua by their forethought and their orders, just as others do by their arms, and a useless mob of graybeards would be a burden much more than a reinforcement there. Nor do I ask that Venice be drained of all her youth, but I advise, I exhort, that we choose 200 young gentlemen from the chiefest of our families, and that they all, with such friends and following, as their means will permit them to get together, go forth to Padua to do all that shall be necessary for her defense. My two sons, with many a comrade, will be the first to carry out what I, their father and your chief, am the first to propose. Thus Padua will be placed in security, and when the mercenary soldiers who are there, see how prompt are our youth to guard the gates and everywhere face the battle. They will be moved thereby to zeal and alacrity and calculable, and not only will Padua thus be defended and saved, but all nations will see that we, we too, as our fathers were, are men enough to defend at the peril of our lives the freedom and the safety of the noblest country in the world. This generous advice was accepted by the fathers and carried out by the sons with that earnest, prompt, and effective ardor which accompanies the resolution of great souls. When the Paduans, before their city was as yet invested, saw the arrival within their walls of these chosen youths of the Venetian patriciate, with their numerous troop of friends and followers, they considered Padua as good as saved. And when the Imperial Army, posted before the place, commenced their attacks upon it, they soon perceived that they had formidable defenders to deal with. 500 years it was since in Princess Camp had ever been seen such wealth as there was there, and never was a day but there filed off some 300 or 400 Lanzneks who took away to Germany oxen and kine, beds, corn, silk for sowing, and other articles, in such sort that to the said County of Padua was damaged down to the amount of two millions of crowns and movables and in houses and palaces burnt and destroyed. For three days, the Imperial artillery fired upon the town and made in its walls three breeches knocked into one. And still the defenders kept up their resistance with the same vigor. One warning says the loyal servitor of Bayard, the Emperor Maximilian, accompanied by his princes and lords from Germany, went thither to look, and he marveled and thought it great shame to him with the number of men he had that he had not sooner delivered the assault. On returning to his quarters, he sent for a French secretary of his whom he bade right to the Lord of La Pallice a letter whereof this was the substance. Dear cousin, I have this morning been to look at the breach which I find more than practicable for whoever would do his duty. I have made up my mind to deliver the assault today. I pray you, so soon as my big drum sounds, which will be about midday, that you do incontinently hold ready all the French gentlemen who are under your orders at my service by command of my brother, the King of France, to go to the set assault along with my foot. And I hope that with God's help we shall carry it. The Lord of La Pallice continues the chronicler, thought this is somewhat strange manner of proceeding. How be it he hid his thought and said to the secretary, I am astounded that the Emperor did not send for my comrades and me for to deliberate more fully of this matter. How be it you will tell him that I will send to fetch them, and when they are calm I will show them the letter. I do not think there will be many who will not be obedient to that which the Emperor shall be pleased to command. When the French captains had arrived at the quarters of the Lord of La Pallice, he said to them, gentlemen, we must now dine for I have somewhat to say to you, and if I were to say it first per adventure you would not make good cheer. During dinner they did nothing but make sport of one another. After dinner everybody was sent out of the room save the captains to whom the Lord of La Pallice made known the Emperor's letter which was read twice for the better understanding of it. They all looked at one another laughing for to see who would speak first. Then said the Lord of Imbacore to the Lord of La Pallice, it needs not so much thought my Lord, send word to the Emperor that we are all ready. I am even now aware of the fields for the nights are cold, and then the good wines are beginning to fail us, where at every one burst out a laughing. I'll agreed to what was said by the Lord of Imbacore. The Lord of La Pallice looked at the good night, Bayard, and saw that he seemed to be picking his teeth as if he had not heard what his comrades had proposed. Well, and you said he, what say you about it? It is no time for picking one's teeth, we must at once send speedy reply to the Emperor. Galey the good night answered, if we would all take my Lord of Imbacore's word, we have only to go straight to the breach. But it is a somewhat sorry pastime for men at arms to go afoot, and I would gladly be excused. How be it, since I must give my opinion I will. The Emperor bids you in his letter to set all the French gentlemen afoot for to deliver the assault along with his landsnecks. My opinion is that you, my Lord, ought to send back to the Emperor a reply of this sort, that you have had a meeting of your captains who are quite determined to do his bidding, according to the charge they have from the king their master. But to mix them up with the foot, who are of small estate, would be to make them of little account. The Emperor has loads of counts, lords and gentlemen of Germany. Let him set them afoot, along with the men at arms of France, who will gladly show them the road. And then his landsnecks will follow if they know that it will pay. When the good night had thus spoken, his advice was found virtuous and reasonable. To the Emperor was sent back this answer, which he thought was right honourable. He incontinently had his trumpet sounded and his drums beaten, for to assemble all the princes and lords and captains as well of Germany and Burgundy as of Aenot. Then the Emperor declared to them that he was determined to go within an hour and deliver the assault on the town, whereof he had notified the lords of France who were almost desirous of doing their duty therein right well, and prayed him that along with them might go the gentlemen of Germany to whom they would gladly show the road. Wherefore, my lords, said the Emperor, I pray you as much as ever I can to be pleased to accompany them and set yourselves afoot with them. And I hope with God's help that at the first assault we shall be masters of our enemies. When the Emperor had done speaking, on a sudden there arose among his Germans a very wondrous and strange uproar which lasted half an hour before it was appeased. And then one amongst them, Bidden to answer for all, said that they were not folks to be set afoot or so to go up to a breach and that their condition was to fight like gentlemen, a horseback. Other answer the Emperor could not get, but though it was not according to his desire and pleased him not at all, he uttered no word beyond that he said, good my lords, we must advise them how we shall do for the best. Then forthwith he sent for a gentleman of his who from time to time went backwards and forwards as ambassador to the French and said to him, go to the quarters of my cousin, the Lord of La Police. Commend me to him and to all my lords, the French captains you find with him and tell them that for today the assault will not be delivered. I know not, says the chronicler, how it was nor who gave the advice. But the night after this speech was spoken the Emperor went off all in one stretch more than 40 miles from the camp and from his new quarters sent word to his people to have the siege raised, which was done. So Padua was saved and Venice once more became a power. Louis XII having returned victorious to France did not trouble himself much about the check received in Italy by Emperor Maximilian for whom he had no love and but little esteem. Maximilian was personally brave and free from depravity or premeditated perfidy but he was coarse, volatile, inconsistent and not very able. Louis XII had amongst his allies of Cambrai and in Italy a more serious and more skillful foe who was preparing for him much greater embarrassments. Julian Bella Rivera had before his elevation to the pontifical throne but one object which was to mount it. When he became Pope he had three objects, to recover and extend the temporal possessions of the papacy, to exercise to the full his spiritual power and to drive the foreigner from Italy. He was not incapable of doubling an artifice. In order to rise he had flattered Louis XII and Cardinal D'Amboise with the hope that the king's minister would become the head of Christendom. When once he was himself in possession of this puissant title he showed himself as he really was ambitious, audacious, imperious, energetic, stubborn and combining the egotism of the absolute sovereign with the patriotism of an Italian pope. When the League of Cambrai had attained success through the victory of Louis XII over the Venetians Cardinal D'Amboise in course of conversation with the two envoys from Florence at the king's court let them have an inkling that he was not without suspicion of some new design. And when Louis XII announced his approaching departure for France the two Florentines wrote to their government that this departure might have very evil results. For the power of Emperor Maximilian in Italy, the position of Ferdinand the Catholic, the despair of the Venetians and the character and dissatisfaction of the pope seemed to foreshadow some fresh understanding against the most Christian king. Louis XII and his minister were very confident. Take Spain, the king of the Romans, or whom you please, said Cardinal D'Amboise to the two Florentines. There is none who has observed and kept the Alliance more faithfully than the king has. He has done everything at the moment he promised. He has borne upon his shoulders the whole weight of this affair and I tell you, he added, with a fixed look at those whom he was addressing that this army is a large one which he will keep up and augment every day. Louis, for his part, treated the Florentines with great good will as friends on whom he counted and who were concerned in his success. You have become the first power in Italy, he said to them one day before a crowd of people. How are you addressed just now? Are you most serene or most illustrious? And when he was notified that distinguished Venetians were going to meet Emperor Maximilian on his arrival in Italy, no matter, said Louis, let them go wither they will. The Florentines did not, the less, nourish their mistrustful presentiments and one of Louis the 12th's most intelligent advisers, his finance minister, Floremon Robertet, was not slow to share them. The Pope, he said to them one day, July 1st, 1509, is behaving very ill towards us. He seeks on every occasion to sow enmity between the princes, especially between the emperor and the most Christian king. And some weeks later, whilst speaking of the money aides, which the new king of England was sending, it was said to Emperor Maximilian, he said to the Florentine Nazi, it would be a very serious business if from all of this were to result against us a universal league in which the Pope, England and Spain should join. End of chapter 27, part four, recording by Julie K. Rose, San Jose, California. JulieKRose.blogspot.com. Chapter 27, part five of volume three of a popular history of France from the earliest times. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Volume three of a popular history of France from the earliest times by Francois Grisot, translated by Robert Black. Chapter 27, The Wars of Italy. Louis XII, 1498 to 1515, part five. Next year, 1510, the mistrust of the Florentine envoys was justified. The Venetians sent a humble address to the Pope, seated to him the places they but lately possessed in the Romagna and conjured him to relieve them from the excommunication he had pronounced against them. Julius II, after some little waiting, accorded the favor demanded of him. Louis XII committed the mistake of embroiling himself with the Swiss by refusing to add 20,000 Libras to the pay of 60,000 he was giving them already, and by styling them wretched mountain shepherds, who presumed to impose upon him a tax he was not disposed to submit to. The Pope conferred the investiture of the Kingdom of Naples upon Ferdinand the Catholic, who at first promised only his neutrality, but could not fail to be drawn in still farther when the war was rekindled in Italy. In all these negotiations with the Venetians, the Swiss, the Kings of Spain and England, and the Emperor Maximilian, Julius II took a bold initiative. Maximilian alone remained for some time at peace with the King of France. In October 1511 a league was formally concluded between the Pope, the Venetians, the Swiss, and King Ferdinand against Louis XII. A place was reserved in it for the King of England, Henry VIII, who on ascending the throne had sent word to the King of France that he desired to abide in the same friendship that the King his father had kept up, but who, at the bottom of his heart, burned to resume on the continent an active and a prominent part. The coalition thus formed was called the League of Holy Union. I, said Louis XII, am the Saracen against whom this league is directed. He had just lost, a few months previously, the intimate and faithful advisor and friend of his whole life, Cardinal Georges D'Amboise, seized at Milan with a fit of the gout, during which Louis tended him with the assiduity and care of an affectionate brother, died at Lyon on the 25th of May 1510 at 50 years of age. He was not one of the greatest, but one of the most honest ministers who ever enjoyed a powerful monarch's constant favor, and employed it, we will not say, with complete disinterestedness, but with a predominant anxiety for the public wheel. In the matter of external policy, the influence of Cardinal D'Amboise was neither skillfully nor salutarily exercised. He, like his master, indulged in those views of distant, incoherent, and improvident conquests, which caused the reign of Louis XII to be wasted in ceaseless wars, with which the Cardinal's desire of becoming pope was not altogether unconnected, and which, after having resulted in nothing but reverses, were a heavy heritage for the succeeding reign. But at home, in his relations with his king and in his civil and religious administration, Cardinal D'Amboise was an earnest and effective friend of justice, of sound social order, and a regard for morality in the practice of power. It is said that, in his latter days, he, virtuously weary of the dignities of this world, said to the infirmary brother who was attending him, ah, Brother John, why did I not always remain Brother John? A pious regret the sincerity and modesty whereof are rare amongst men of high estate. At last, then, I am the only pope, cried Julius II, when he heard that Cardinal D'Amboise was dead. But his joy was misplaced. The Cardinal's death was a great loss to him. Between the king and the pope, the Cardinal had been an intelligent mediator who understood the two positions and the two characters, and who, though most faithful and devoted to the king, had nevertheless a place in his heart for the papacy also, and labored earnestly on every occasion to bring about between the two rivals a policy of moderation and peace. One thing you may be certain of, said Louis' finance minister, Robert Tate, to the ambassador from Florence, that the king's character is not an easy one to deal with. He is not readily brought round to what is not his own opinion, which is not always a correct one. He is irritated against the pope and the Cardinal to whom that causes great displeasure does not always succeed in spite of all influence in getting him to do as he would like. If our Lord God were to remove the Cardinal, either by death or in any other matter from public life, there would arise in this court and in the fashion of conducting affairs such confusion that nothing equal to it would ever have been seen in our day. Negotiation diplomatique de la France avec la Tuscane pages 428 and 460. And the confusion did in fact arise and war was rekindled, or to speak more correctly, resumed its course after the Cardinal's death. Julius II plunged into it in person, moving to every point where it was going on, living in the midst of camps, himself in military costume, besieging towns, having his guns pointed and assaults delivered under his own eyes. Men expressed astonishment, not unmixed with admiration, at the indomitable energy of this soldier pope at seventy years of age. It was said that he had cast into the Tiber the keys of St. Peter to gird on the sword of St. Paul. His answer to everything was, the barbarians must be driven from Italy. Louis XII became more and more irritated and undecided. To reassure his people, says Bousset, to which we may add, and to reassure himself, he assembled a tour in September 1510, the prelates of his kingdom, to conduct them as to what he could do at so disagreeable crisis without wounding his conscience. Thereupon it was said that the pope, being unjustly the aggressor, and having even violated an agreement made with the king, ought to be treated as an enemy, and that the king might not only defend himself, but might even attack him without fear of excommunication. Not considering this quite strong enough yet, Louis resolved to assemble a council against the pope. The general council was the desire of the whole church since the election of Martin V at the Council of Constance, November 11, 1417. For though that council had done great good by putting an end to the schism which had lasted for forty years, it had not accomplished what it had projected, which was a reformation of the church in its head and in its members. But for the doing of so holy a work it had ordained, on separating, that there should be held a fresh council. This one opened at Pisa, November 1, 1511, with but little solemnity by the proxies of the cardinals who had caused its convocation. The pope had deposed them and had placed under interdict the town of Pisa, where the council was to be held, and even Florence, because the Florentines had granted Pisa for the assemblage. Thereupon the religious brotherhoods were unwilling to put in an appearance at the opening of the council, and the priests of the church refused the necessary paraphernalia. The people rose, and the cardinals, having arrived, did not consider their position safe, in so much that, after the first session, they removed the council to Milan, where they met with no better reception. Gaston de Foy, nephew of Louis XII, who had just appointed him governor of Milanese, could certainly force the clergy to proceed and the people to be quiet, but he could not force them to have for the council the respect due to so great a name. There were not seen at it, according to usage, the legates of the holy sea. There were scarcely fifteen or sixteen French prelates there. The Emperor Maximilian had either not influenced enough, or no inclination to send to it a single one from Germany. And in a word, there was not to be seen in this assembly anything that savored of the majesty of a general council, and it was understood to be held for political purposes. Boussée, abrage de l'histoire de France pour l'education de Dauphin, l'ouvre complète, 1822, pages 541 and 548. Boussée had good grounds for speaking so. Louis XII himself said, in 1511, to the Ambassador of Spain, that this pretended council was only a scarecrow which he had no idea of employing, save for the purpose of bringing the pope to reason. Amidst these vain attempts at ecclesiastical influence the war was continued with passionateness on the part of Julius II, with hesitation on the part of Louis XII, and with some disquietude on the part of the French commanders, although with their wanted bravery and loyalty. Chaman d'Amboise, the cardinal's nephew, held the command and chief in the King's army. He fell ill. The pope had excommunicated him, and Chaman sent to beg him, with instance, to give him absolution, which did not arrive until he was on his deathbed. This is the worst, says Boussée. Of wars against the Church, they caused scruples not only in weak minds, but even at certain moments in the very strongest. Afonso d'Est, Duke of Ferrara, was almost the only great Italian Lord who remained faithful to France. Julius II, who was besieging Ferrara, tried to win over the Duke, who rejected all his offers, and instead won over the negotiator, who offered his services to poison the pope. Bayard, when informed of this proposal, indignantly declared that he would go and have the traitor hanged, and warnings sent to the pope. Why? said the Duke, he would have been very glad to do as much for you and me. That is no odds to me, said the Knight. He is God's Lieutenant on earth, and as for having him put to death in such sort, I will never consent to it. The Duke shrugged his shoulders, and, spitting on the ground, said, Odd's body, Sir Bayard, I would like to get rid of all my enemies in that way, but since you do not think it well, the matter shall stand over, whereof unless God apply a remedy both you and I will repent us. Assuredly, Bayard did not repent of his honest indignation, but finding about the same time, January 1511, an opportunity of surprising and carrying off the pope, he did not care to miss it. He placed himself in an ambush before daybreak, with a hundred picked-minute arms, close to a village from which the pope was to issue. The pope, who was pretty early, mounted his litter, so soon as he saw the dawn, and the clerics and officers of all kinds went before without a thought of anything. When the good night heard them he sallied forth from his ambush and went charging down upon the rustics, whose sword is made, turned back again, pricking along with loosened rain and shouting, Alarm, alarm! But all that would have been of no use but for an accident very lucky for the Holy Father, and very unfortunate for the good night. When the pope had mounted his litter, he was not a stone's throw gone when there fell from heaven the most sharp and violent shower that had been seen for a hundred years. Holy Father, said the cardinal of Pavia to the pope, it is not possible to go along this country so long as this lasts. Miss Eames, you must turn back again. To which the pope agreed. But just as he was arriving at St. Felix, and was barely entering within the castle, he heard the shouts of the fugitives whom the good night was pursuing as hard as he could spur. Whereupon he had such a fright, that suddenly and without help, he leapt out of his litter, and himself did aid in hauling up the bridge, which was doing like a man of wits, for had he waited until one could say a paternoster, he had been snapped up. Who was right down grieved? That was the good night. Never man turned back so melancholic as he was to have missed so fair a take, and the pope, from the good fright he had got, shook like a palsy the lived long day.