Editing Louis XII (section)

===Early wars===
The French Kingdom under Charles VIII [[First Italian War|invaded Italy in 1494]] to protect the [[Duchy of Milan]] from the threats of the [[Republic of Venice]]. At the time, the Duchy of Milan was one of the most prosperous regions of Europe.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=40}} Louis, the current Duke of Orleans and future King Louis XII, joined Charles VIII on this campaign. The French Kingdom was responding to an appeal for assistance from [[Ludovico Sforza]], Duke of Milan. The invasion set off a series of wars that would last from 1494 until 1559 and would become known as the "[[Italian Wars]]".

[[File:Bronze cannon of Louis XII with emblem 172mm&nbsp;305cm 1870kg Algiers recovered in 1830.jpg|thumb|Bronze cannon of Louis XII, with [[porcupine]] emblem. Caliber: 172mm, length: 305&nbsp;cm, weight: 1870kg. Recovered in [[Algiers]] in 1830. [[Musée de l'Armée]].]]
[[File:Voyage Gênes Marot Louis XII 2.jpg|thumb|Louis XII leaving [[Alessandria]] to attack [[Genoa]], by [[Jean Bourdichon]]]]

In 1495, Ludovico Sforza betrayed the French by changing sides in the war and joining the anti-French [[League of Venice]] (sometimes called the "Holy League").{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=46}} This left Louis, the Duke of Orleans, in an awkward and inferior military position at the [[Battle of Fornovo]] on 6 July 1495. As a result, Louis had come to hate Ludovico Sforza.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=105}} Accordingly, even before he became King of France, Louis began to claim the Duchy of Milan as his own inheritance, which should have come to his by right of his paternal grandmother [[Valentina Visconti, Duchess of Orléans|Valentina Visconti]].

On this occasion he tried to conquer the Duchy of Milan, weakened by an [[economic crisis]], and on 11 June 1495 he occupied with his troops the city of [[Novara]], which was given to him by [[treason]]. He was on the verge of subjugating "il Moro", who proved unable to cope with the situation, but clashed with the fierce opposition of Sforza's wife [[Beatrice d'Este]], who forced him to a long and exhausting siege from which he finally came out defeated.<ref>Marin Sanudo, ''La spedizione di Carlo VIII in Italia'', Mancia del Commercio di M. Visentini, 1883, pp. 438, 441.</ref><ref>Bernardino Corio, L'Historia di Milano, Giorgio de' Cavalli, 1565, pp. 1095–1099.</ref>

After becoming king in 1499, Louis XII pursued his ambition to claim Milan in what is known as the "[[Italian War of 1499-1504|Great Italian War]]" (1499–1504) or "King Louis XII's War". However, before initiating any war Louis XII needed to deal with the international threats that he faced. In August 1498, he signed a peace treaty with the Emperor [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximillian I]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]].{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=106}}

With Maximillian I neutralized, Louis wanted to turn his attention to King Henry VII of England. However, Henry was then pursuing a marriage between his eldest son, [[Arthur, Prince of Wales]], and [[Catherine of Aragon]], the Infanta of Spain.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=106}} Thus Louis needed to detach Spain from its close relations with England before he could deal with Henry VII. Furthermore, Spain was then a member of the anti-French League of Venice. [[Ferdinand II of Aragon|Ferdinand of Aragon]], king of the newly unified Spain, directed all relations between Spain and the French on behalf of himself and his queen, [[Isabella I of Castile]].{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=106}} Ferdinand was so hostile to France that he had founded the anti-French League of Venice in 1495.<ref>Rhea Marsh Smith, ''Spain: A Modern History'', (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1965), p. 113.</ref> In August 1498, Louis XII succeeded in signing a treaty with Spain that ignored all the territorial disputes between France and Spain and merely pledged mutual friendship and non-aggression.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=107}}

This allowed enough freedom for Louis XII to start negotiating with [[Scotland]] for an alliance. Actually, Louis was merely seeking to revive the [[Auld Alliance]] between France and Scotland that had been in existence since King [[Philip IV of France]] first recognised [[Robert the Bruce]] (reigned 1306–1329) as [[King of Scotland]] in 1309. In early 1499, the old alliance between Scotland and France was renewed{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=106}} and the attentions of England were drawn northwards towards Scotland rather than southwards towards [[continental Europe]].

With the major powers preoccupied or pledged to peace with France, Louis XII could attend to two other neighbours on his border: the [[Swiss Confederation]] and the [[Duchy of Savoy]]. In March 1499, Louis signed an agreement with the Swiss Confederation that promised 20,000 [[franc]]s as an annual subsidy for simply allowing the French to recruit an unspecified number of troops in the Confederation.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=107}} In exchange, Louis promised to protect the Confederation from any aggression from Maximillian and the Holy Roman Empire. Louis opened negotiations with the Duchy of Savoy and by May 1499 had hammered out an agreement that allowed French troops to cross Savoy to reach the Duchy of Milan. The agreement with Savoy also allowed France to purchase supplies and to recruit troops in Savoy.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=108}} Finally, Louis was ready to march into Italy.

The French army had been a potent force in 1494 when Charles VIII had first invaded Italy.  However, during the remainder of Charles VIII's reign, the army had been allowed to deteriorate through neglect. Ever since becoming king, Louis XII had been rebuilding the French army.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=109}} Now he could put it to use.

On 10 August 1499, after marching across Savoy and through the town of [[Asti]], the French army crossed the border into the Duchy of Milan. Contrary to the wishes of the Second Estate (the nobles and royalty of France), expressed at the Estates General in 1484, this French army was being led by a foreigner, [[Gian Giacomo Trivulzio]].{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=113}} Marshal Trivulzio had been in the service of the French throne since the reign of Louis XI, but he had been born and raised in Milan.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=113}} The French army that Marshal Trivulzio now commanded consisted of 27,000 men of which 10,000 were mounted. The French army was also supplied with 5,000 Swiss mercenaries.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=113}} In the campaign of 1499, the French army surrounded the fortified town of [[Rocca di Arazzo]] in the western part of the Duchy of Milan. After five hours of bombardment by the French artillery batteries, the walls of Rocca di Arazzo were breached and the town was taken by the French. Louis XII had ordered his army to massacre the garrison and many civilians as a message to the other towns in the Duchy against resistance to the French army.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=113}} The legal rationale for the massacre at Rocca di Arazzo was that defenders of the town were traitors because they had risen up in arms against their rightful lord, Louis XII. The French repeated the episode at [[Castello di Annone|Annone]], the next fortified town on the road to the city of Milan. This time the massacre had the desired effect, as three more fortified towns surrendered without a fight.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=114}} Marshal Trivulzio then brought the French Army up to the gates of the town of Alessandro, and his batteries began battering the walls of the town on 25 August 1499. At first, a vigorous defense was mounted by the garrison, but on 29 August 1499, the city gave up and the garrison and the governor of the city slipped out of town before dawn.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=114}}

Marshal Trivulzio now became aware that the [[Venice|Venetian]] army, allies of the Duchy of Milan, were crossing into the Duchy from the east in an attempt to aid the Milanese army before it was too late. Accordingly, Marshal Trivulzio marched his army to [[Pavia]], the last fortified town in the Duchy of Milan.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=114}} With French troops already near Pavia, a short distance west of the city of Milan, [[Lodovico Sforza]] determined that it was useless to continue resisting the French. Accordingly, on the night of 2 September 1499, Sforza and a band of cavalry fled Milan, heading northward to the Holy Roman Empire.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=114}} Louis XII, staying in [[Lyon]], heard about the surrender of Milan on 17 September 1499. He immediately left Lyon and on 6 October 1499, Louis XII made his triumphant entry into Milan. Marshal Trevulzio presented the key to the city to Louis, who in turn appointed Marshal Trivulzio as the temporary French governor of Milan. Later, Louis appointed [[Georges d' Amboise]] as the permanent governor of Milan.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=117}} In an attempt to win popularity with the public in Milan, Louis lowered the old Sforza taxes by as much as one-third.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=115}}

Meanwhile, Ludovico Sforza had been gathering an army, mainly among the Swiss, to take Milan back. In mid-January 1500, his army crossed the border into the Duchy of Milan and marched toward the city of Milan.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|pp=115–116}} Upon hearing the news of Sforza's return, some of his partisans in the city rose up. On 1 February 1500, Marshal Trivulzio decided that he could not hold the city, and the French retreated to the fortresses west of the city. Sforza was welcomed back into the city by a joyous crowd of his supporters on 5 February 1500.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=116}} Louis XII raised another army under [[Louis de La Trémoille]] and sent him to recapture Milan. By the time Trémoille reached the forts west of Milan where Marshal Trivulzio and his force were holding out, the French army had swollen to 30,000 men by recruitment along the way.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=116}} Many of these new recruits in the French army were Swiss mercenaries. The government of the Swiss Confederation heard about the coming battle and forbade any Swiss soldier from fighting against a fellow Swiss, which effectively subtracted all the Swiss from both sides for this particular battle. These troops then started to march back home to Switzerland. This had a much more damaging effect on Sforza's army, because his army was composed of a larger proportion of Swiss than the French army under La Trémoille.

Faced with the return of the French and his own greatly reduced force, Sforza decided to slip out of Milan as he had done previously. This time, however, Sforza was captured{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|pp=116–117}} and spent the rest of his life in a French prison. Despite Milan's openly warm welcome of Sforza (which Louis XII regarded as "treasonous"), Louis XII was very generous to the city in victory. While Sforza had been in charge of Milan, the export of grain had been forbidden. Now the French reopened the trade in grain, setting off a decade of prosperity in Milan.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=118}} Milan was to remain a French stronghold in Italy for twelve years.

Using Milan as his firmly established base, Louis XII began to turn his attention to other parts of Italy. The city of [[Genoa]] agreed to the appointment of [[Philip of Cleves, Lord of Ravenstein|Philip of Cleves]], a cousin of Louis XII, as its new governor.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=114}} Additionally, the French king now began to espouse his claim to the [[Kingdom of Naples]], though the legal rationale for this claim was weaker than for his claim to Milan, stemming only from his position as the successor to Charles VIII.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=119}} Nonetheless, Louis XII pursued the claim with vigor.

The presence of several French garrisons in southern Italy, the remnants of Charles VIII's first invasion of Italy, provided Louis XII with a toehold in southern Italy from which he hoped to enforce his claim to the Kingdom of Naples.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=119}} However, Louis first had to deal with a recurring problem in northern Italy. In 1406, the city of [[Pisa]] was conquered by [[Florence]] but had been in constant revolt almost ever since. In 1494, the Pisans successfully overthrew the Florentine governors of the city.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=119}} The Florentines requested aid from the French to recapture Pisa, as the city of Florence had long been an ally of France in Italian affairs. However, Louis and his advisers were miffed at Florence because in the recent fight against Sforza, Florence had chosen to abandon France and remain strictly neutral.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=119}} The French knew that they would need Florence in the coming campaign in the Kingdom of Naples – French troops would need to cross Florentine territory on their way to Naples and they would need Florentine agreement to do so. Accordingly, a French army including 600 knights and 6,000 Swiss infantrymen under the command of [[Sire de Beaumont]] was sent to Pisa. On 29 June 1500, a combined French and Florentine force laid siege to Pisa and set up batteries around the town.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=120}} Within a day of opening fire, the French batteries had knocked down 100 feet of the old medieval walls surrounding the city. Even with the breach in their walls, the Pisans put up such a determined resistance that Beaumont despaired of ever taking Pisa. On 11 July 1500, the French broke camp and retreated north.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=120}} The diversion to Pisa and the failure there emboldened opponents of the French in Italy. Pursuing the claim to the Kingdom of Naples had become politically impossible until some of the opponents were neutralized. One opponent in particular was Spain. It was at this point, in 1500, that Louis XII pursued the claim of his immediate predecessor to the Kingdom of Naples with Ferdinand II, the [[King of Aragon]] and with Queen Isabel of Castile, ruler of Spain.

On 11 November 1500, Ferdinand II and Louis XII signed the [[Treaty of Granada (1500)|Treaty of Granada]],{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=122}} which brought Spain into Italian politics in a big way for the first time. Louis XII was severely criticized by contemporary historians including [[Niccolò Machiavelli]];{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=122}} Machiavelli's criticism of Louis XII is contained in his work ''[[The Prince]]''.