HISTORY / ИСТОРИЯ
ИТАЛЬЯНСКИЕ ПОХОДЫ ФРАНЦУЗСКИХ КОРОЛЕЙ ITALIAN CAMPAIGNS OF FRENCH KINGS AUTHOR: Nathali Jeron (Continuation. Beginning in Issue 25) Charles VIII of France found a pretext and claimed his rights to Naples. At that time Naples was ruled by Ferdinand of Aragon, hated by both the Pope and Ludivico il Moro. Charles was convinced he had strong allies in Italy. In addition, his plans resonated with the ordinary folk in Naples. Savonarola had foretold the advent of angels who would free Italy from papal repressions. However, the "angels" were so brazen that soon those "liberators" started to be seen as cruel invaders. It was the hatred of the French that rallied Italy: the Pope, Venice, Ferdinand of Aragon, and Ludivico il Moro united their armies against Charles VIII.
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PAST / ПРОШЛОЕ
Charles’s successor, Louis XII, picked up the idea of Italian conquest. The king declared himself heir to the Dukes of Milan, invaded Italy, but was beaten. His successor, Francis I, sparked conflict over the Duchy of Milan, crossed the Alps, and defeated the Swiss who were occupying it. On his return, Francis invited Leonardo da Vinci to France. The arrival of the Italian artist marked a new stage in the development of French art. Francis had to abandon the Italian lands after he was utterly defeated by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. Therefore, the Italian campaigns did not bring new lands to France, but this fact pales in comparison to their main conquest: under Italian influence, France got a powerful impulse to develop its own culture.
