;MODERN DISTORT, During the fifteenth, six teenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, as during the Middle Ages, there is no history of Daly as such, only the culture history of the Renaissance and the individual histories of the different cities and States, their rivalries, and their combinations with foreign powers. Chief among these States were the Duchy of Milan (which came to an end in 1535), and the repub lies of Florence, Genoa. and Venice in the north: the States of the Church, stretching. a bar to political unity, across the middle of the Penin sula; and the Kingdom of Naples (soon to be come a Spanish possession) in the south. In addition to these more important political divis ions there were many minor courts distinguished throughout Europe for their lavish display and intellectual brilliance. Some families, of whom the Medici of Florence are the most notable example, having amassed great wealth in bank ing or commerce, rose to the highest power in Church and State. At the close of the Middle Ages Italy became the great battle-ground of Christendom. the scene of fierce wars waged by France, Spain. Austria, and the Italian States and princes. The policy of the House of Haps burg had always looked toward Italy, but in the last decade of the fifteenth century France, in fluenced by its community of culture with Italy, and actuated by greed for new territory by the growing rivalry with the Hapsburgs. developed an Italian policy and sought to establish its polit ical influence in the Peninsula. In 1494 Charles VIII. of France undertook to conquer the King dom of Naples. then misruled by the House of Aragon. He was tempted by Ludovieo Sforza, the Milanese usurper. and by the Florentines, who were ripe for rebellion against the tyranny of the Medici. He invaded Italy. made a treaty with Florence. which expelled the Medici. then brought the Pope to submission, and marched on Naples, which taken. Charles was, how ever, forced by a league formed against him by Venice. Spain, Milan, the Emperor Maxi milian, and the Pope. to retire from Naples and fight his way out of Italy (1495-96). This French invasion had an importance tran scending its political results. _Nlichelet has
described it as revelation of Italy to the nations of the North.'' As Italy was in the full tide of the Renaissance. this meant much in the spreading of its culture by the people who were best prepared to understand it, the French. Louis XII., the successor of Charles VIII., as sumed the titles of King of Naples and Duke of Milan, and entered upon a policy intended to support these pretensions. Allying himself with Venice, Louis invaded the Milanese in 1499, and was soon master of it. In 1501 a partition treaty was arranged between Louis and Ferdi nand of Spain. by which the latter was to have Calabria and Apulia. with the title of Duke. and the King of France was to have the remainder of the Neapolitan Kingdom, with the title of King of Naples and .Jerusalem. This treaty, which was on the part of Spain an act of the most cold-blooded treachery toward an ally, was immediately carried out by force of arms. Quar rels soon arose between the two allies, and in 1502 France and Spain were again at war on Italian soil. Through the genius of Gonsalvo de Cordova, the French were driven out and made a disastrous retreat to France. (See CERIGNOLA ; GARIGLIANO.) But France was soon in the field again in Northern Italy. In 1508 the League of Cambria was formed against Venice, which was reduced to great straits by the victory of the French at Agnadello in 1509. But now the dip lomatic kaleidoscope made another turn, and in 1511 the Holy League formed by the militant Pope, .Julius II., with Spain and Venice, was arrayed against France, whose forces were driven out of Italy in 1513. Two years later Francis I. (q.v.). continuing the policy of his predecessors, reeonquered Milan, but it was lost again in 1521, immediately after the outbreak of the great struggle between that monarch and his rival, the Emperor Charles V. Francis 1. was defeated and captured at Pavia in 1525. In 1527 the forces of the Constable de Bourbon (q.v.) took and sacked Rome, and Pope Clement VII. (Giulio de' Medici) became the prisoner of Charles V.