Once master of Milan, Louis XII consid ered the conquest of Naples, and to ensure suc cess he made pact with Ferdinand, king of Spain, that they should together attack Naples, and divide the territory between them. The conquest was easy (1501) ; but in the division of land there arose disputes between the victorious monarchs. During the war which followed, there occurred the celebrated tourna ment combat between 13 Italians and 13 French- ' men, in which the palm of valor was awarded to the Italians. The war terminated in a sud den rout of the French on the banks of the Garigliano, 28 Dec. 1503. The Spaniards re mained masters of all of Napoletano.
Whilst the two principal regions of Italy, Lombardy and Napoletano, thus passed under foreign domination, in central Italy the family of the Bergias attempted to establish a court and sovereignty.
One of the sons of the Pope, Caesar Borgia, called Duke Valentino, of the dukedom of Valentinois, which was ceded to him by the king of France, undertook to overthrow the ruling families in the cities of Romagna and the Marches. By most cruel and dishonorable methods he captured Imola, Forli, Cesena, Pesaro, Rimini and Faenza. As his captains had rebelled he pretended to accept their claims, but when he had them in his power condemned all to die. But on 18 Aug. 1503, after a few days' illness, Pope Alexander VI died. The Duke Valentino then became ill. This deter mined the dissolution of his state. Many of the subjected cities recalled their former rulers; others were occupied by Venetians. The new Pope, Julius II, obliged him to restore to the Church the few remaining fortresses. Caesar Borgia left Rome, and died a few years later while fighting with Spain.
Pope Julius II initiated a very warlike pol icy. In 'order to retake from the Venetians the lands in Romagna which they were occupying, he formed a powerful league, which was called the League of Caznbrai, from the French city, where it was signed. In this participated the Pope, the kings of France and Spain and the emperor of Germany. They all united against Venice. Thus, the old republic of S. Marco, which just at this time was beginning to find a formidable rival in its commerce with the Orient in the Portuguese, the discoverers of the new maritime route to the Indies, saw itself menaced also on the mainland by the principal powers of Europe.
. In the spring of 1509, the French, after con quering the Venetians at Agnadello, captured Bergamo, Brescia and Peschiera. The pon
tifical troops seized the territory of Romagna. The Spaniards took from Venice the ports of Apulia, and the Emperor Maximilian, descend ing the Alps, advanced to Padua; but his re peated assaults on the city were valiantly repulsed, and he was finally obliged to return to, Germany. But the salvation of Venice was doe to the ability of its diplomats rather than to the arms of its generals. The former de tached the Pope from his alliance with the League which he had organized. Julius II, interested in preventing the extension of the French power in Italy, made peace with Venice (1510) and invited Alfonso of Este, Lord of Ferrara, to follow his example; and because he would not obey he invaded his territory. But the French hastened to aid the Duke of Ferrara, and then the Pope, carried away by the idea of succeeding in freeing Italy from for eigners, organized against France a league with Venice and Spain, an alliance which was called the "Holy League,* and was inaugurated with the battle cry of, "Away with the barbarians.* At first victory smiled on the French and their young and valiant general, Gaston de Foix. But after the battle of Ravenna, which was won by the French, and in which Gaston de Foix was killed (1512), the allies regained the advantage' and were then joined by the emperor, who had been the ally of the French. In• a few months the "League' succeeded in driving almost all the French from Italy.
The allies met in council at Mantua and assigned the dukedom of Milan to Maximilian Sforza, son of Ludovico, the Moor, and sent an army to restore in Florence the rule of the Medici, in•order to punish the republican gov ernment of Florence for having shown itself favorable to the French.
The most prominent member of the Medici family at that time was Cardinal Giovanni, who on the death of Julius II (1513) became Pope and assumed the name of Leo X. According to the traditions of his family, he protected men of letters and artists, so that this period of marvel ous development of Italian genius is called after him.
Meanwhile wars continued. The French could not reconcile themselves to the loss of Milan; but the attempt of Louis XII to re conquer it proved disastrous. His successor, Francis I, on the contrary, at the battle of Marignano (13-14 Sept. 1515) succeeded in cap turing it.