CHARLES VIII. (1470-98). King of France from 1485 to 1498. He was horn at Amboise, and succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, Louis XI., in 1483. For some time the Government was carried on under the re gency of his sister, Anne of Beaujeu, who displayed fine political statesmanship in defend ing the rights of the Crown against the en croachments of the States-General. in I he repression of the feudal princes, and in the an nexation to France of Brittany through the marriage of its Duchess, Anne. to the young King. When Charles attained his twenty-first year he took the royal power into his own hands. He was a high-spirited, generous youth, and a good king: but his fame rests less on his rule in France than on the part he played in the history of Italy. Solicited. in 1494, by Ludovico ii 'Moro, Duke of Milan, to help him against Alfonso of Naples, Charles revived the ancient claims of the House of Anjou to the Kingdom of Naples and achieved its conquest the following year. The Italian princes were alarmed at his success, and the League of Venice was formed against him, by the Pope. the Em
peror. Maximilian I., Ferdinand of Aragon, Venice, and Milan. An attempt was made to bar his exit from Italy; hut at Fortiovm, near Pia eenza, Charles broke through a powerful army and safely his retreat. It \VIVA with dif fieulty that he was deterred by his councilors from resuming his warlike designs on Italy. Cha•les's incursion into that country marks an epoch in the history of the peninsula. Left to itself, Italy might have attained national unity, as Spain did. or France. With the ineoming of Charles began the intrusion of the northern na tions into Italian affairs, and that play of policy which went, on for 400 years in the distracted country, and did not laid till Victor Emmanuel drove the last foreigner from Italian soil in 1S70. Consult: Memoirs of Philip dc Comines, trans lated (•ondon. 18351; Delaborde, Chan/es I M. Italie (Park, 184( S6gur, Ilixtoire de ('harks 1111. (Paris. 1884).