The French Descent into Renaissance Italy, 1494–95

Antecedents and Effects

David Abulafia

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781351889339
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

The French invasion of Italy under Charles VIII in 1494-95 has long been seen as inaugurating a new and wretched era in Italian history. The present volume, the work of an international team of contributors, seeks to question that assumption by focusing anew on the intricate politics of Renaissance Italy and the long history of Angevin attempts to impose their rule in southern Italy. It was later invasions, it is argued, that did most to reshape the politics of the Italian peninsula. These studies also look at social and economic effects of the French invasion, as well as its cultural aspects, not least the impact of Renaissance culture in France itself. Combining survey papers and research articles, this volume presents a new introduction to the history of late 15th-century Italy. The appendix, listing the Ilardi collection of microfilms, will also provide an invaluable guide to the diplomatic history of the era.

PART I
Antecedents of the French
invasion of 1494-95

The distant origins of the Italian wars:
political relations between France and Italy in
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

Georges Peyronnet

Traditional historiography presents Charles VIII’s expedition to Italy as the whim of a young King with rather vague ideas, haunted by the chivalrous visions inherited from the Middle Ages, intoxicated by the temptations of the Italian Renaissance, but incapable of understanding the true interests of France, which lay on her north-eastern borders. Such an interpretation is clearly anachronistic, dominated by the struggle which France had to sustain, first against the House of Habsburg, then against Germany, from the sixteenth century onwards. But the power of the Habsburgs was not so threatening during the reign of Charles VIII. As for the Mediterranean, it remained an important element, not only culturally and politically desirable, but also as the source of economic rivalry, even though the Portuguese were determined to find a new route to the Indies via the Atlantic, and the recent discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus aroused only the vaguest interest.¹

On the other hand, the attention of the French princes was always focused on Italy, ever since the Crown Lands had acquired the Mediterranean through the incorporation of Languedoc, and since the younger brother of St Louis, Charles I of Anjou, had become count of Provence through marriage in 1246. From that point onwards, Italy was often to be a theatre for French intervention.

1. The first French interventions (from the end of the thirteenth to the beginning of the fourteenth century)

Although St Louis was at first reluctant to offer full support to the papacy in its struggle against Frederick II, the south Italian threat to the papal lands refused to go away after the emperor’s death in 1250. Thus when two French popes offered Charles of Anjou the opportunity of conquering the Kingdom of Sicily, StLouis allowed his brother to carry out this conquest in 1266-68. Charles was authoritarian, pragmatic and ambitious. He initiated an eastern policy by buying the crown of the kingdom of Jerusalem: Frederick II had possessed it earlier, but the kingdom was destroyed by the Egyptian Mamluks in 1291. Charles was more active in the Balkans, where he prepared an expedition with the aim of reestablishing his influence in the Latin Empire of Constantinople, founded in 1204, but reconquered in 1261 by the Greeks- the Greek Orthodox, schismatics in the eyes of the Westerners.

Southern Italy thus became the French bridgehead in the Mediterranean: St Louis had died in 1270, and his son Philip III allowed himself, in effect, to be dominated by his uncle Charles. Such a situation was worrying to the Crown of Aragon, which had already conquered the Balearic Islands in 1229, and whose merchants from Barcelona were extending their interests towards North Africa and Sicily. Peter III of Aragon, known as Peter ‘the Great’ - and rightly so - wished to cement this Catalan East-West axis: through marriage he acquired the rights of the Hohenstaufen over the kingdom of Sicily, gaining support among the Sicilians who had suffered from the authoritarianism of Charles of Anjou; the uprising of the Sicilian Vespers (1282) chased the Angevins out of Sicily, replacing them with Aragonese rule. The house of Anjou was never able to retake the island; it had lost an important strategic position and a source of grain supply, while the Aragonese took possession of Sardinia in 1323-4. Thus the long conflict between the house of Anjou and the house of Aragon had its roots far back in the thirteenth century.

2. French intervention takes shape in northern Italy (first half of the fourteenth century)²

At first, the French monarchy only supported the house of Anjou from afar. Philip III had been defeated in the attack he had launched against Catalonia and Peter III of Aragon in the hope of helping Charles of Anjou after the Sicilian Vespers. Philip the Fair was enmeshed in his battle against Pope Boniface VIII and his dispute with the king of England. He left it to his brother, Charles of Valois, who had a rather more adventurous outlook, to reply to Boniface VIII’s call for help against the Ghibellines, supporters of the empire, and to wage war in Tuscany and Sicily, but without great results. Charles’ son, Philip of Valois the future Philip VI - was again called upon for help by Pope John XXII against the Ghibellines of Lombardy: he moved into Italy, but the plots of the Visconti, lords of Milan, led him to be recalled to France. These royal interventions were facilitated by the fact that the counts of Savoy, lords of Piedmont, played an important role at the French court, and so allowed the French troops to pass through their lands.

Once he had become King, Philip VI revealed himself to be much more audacious than his predecessors with regard to Italy. He negotiated with Pope John XXII for the right to occupy Parma, Modena and Reggio Emilia, which allowed the pontiff to guarantee his domination over these cities by placing French contingents there from 1322-30. And Philip VI bought the seigneury of Lucca in 1332; for him, this was the beginning of a more far-reaching enterprise in the Italian arena, since these events took place in the same year. But he was obliged to renounce both this seigneury and his future plans, for the Hundred Years War was under way by 1340. However, he had already acquired the allegiance of the republic of Genoa against England, and he bought the Dauphine in 1349.³

The Valois dynasty’s attraction to Italy was even stronger after the popes had settled in Avignon in 1309, though they still sought to maintain their authority in Italy, thanks to the support of the kings of France and Naples. John the Good, son and heir to Philip VI, continued to hold back the Ghibellines, having reached an agreement with Galeazzo Visconti, lord of Milan in 1360: it was Galeazzo who advanced the ransom money for John the Good, who had been held prisoner in England since his defeat at Poitiers (1356); and Galeazzo even obtained the hand of John the Good’s daughter Isabella for his son, Giangaleazzo.

Charles V, son of John the Good, concentrated his efforts on reconquering the French provinces that had been won by the English. Yet at the same time, he supported the papacy, which had returned to Rome from Avignon in 1377. Moreover, Pope Gregory XI, a native Frenchman, wished to check the ambitions of Giangaleazzo Visconti, who had become duke of Milan: in 1375, the pope called for the aid of Duke Louis I of Anjou, brother of Charles V and founder of a second House of Anjou. Louis accepted, but on condition that the pope obtain for him the title of king of Lombardy from the emperor. This plan was never carried out, as Louis I preferred to attempt to acquire Provence and the kingdom of Naples - which was under the power of the first House of Anjou - through various matrimonial negotiations which threatened the king of Aragon, Peter IV, and which ended in an alliance with the Sardinian rebels (1377). But the rebels never enforced this agreement.⁴

3. Problems during the Great Western Schism (1378-1417)

At the end of his life, Charles V made a decision which had a great impact on relations between France and Italy. In April1378, an Italian pope was elected, Urban VI. But his authoritarianism led a group of cardinals, a good number of whom were French, to elect another pope outside Rome in September 1378: Clement VII, who was related to the counts of Geneva. Charles V chose to recognise Clement VII.

This schism upset the whole of Europe: all of Italy recognised Urban VI, except the count of Savoy. Clement VII, quite naturally, turned towards the French monarchy, by again calling upon Louis I of Anjou, while continuing to respect the first house of Anjou which ruled in Naples. In addition, Clement VII tried to push Louis I back to northern Italy: the new pope, in 1379, promised Louis a ‘Kingdom on the Adriatic’ which would be carved out of the northern Church States, but which could not be joined to the kingdom of Naples.

These plans were spoiled by the fact that Clement VII had to take refuge in Avignon after being forced out of Italy. From that point on, he pressured the queen of Naples, Joanna I, to adopt Louis of Anjou, as she had no children: and she did so in 1380. The pope had been suzerain of the Kingdom ‘of Sicily’ since its foundation in 1130: following the death of Joanna I in 1382, Clement VII put her kingdom under the control of Louis of Anjou, but on condition that he would have no rights over any other territories belonging to the papacy. In 1381 in Rome, Urban VI had reacted by rejecting Joanna I. He placed a member of the younger branch of the house of Anjou on the throne - Charles III of Durazzo - as king ‘of Sicily’. Charles seized Naples and subjugated the greater part of the kingdom: he was suspected of having Joanna I assassinated. Louis I assembled his powerful forces and went to Italy: certain Italian states gave him free passage; he waged war in the kingdom of Naples until his death in 1384.⁵

Clement VII had supported Louis of Anjou financially: but faced with the difficulties encountered by Louis, the Avignon pope turned towards northern Italy, where he had found another champion of the French. In 1387, the brother of Charles VI, Louis of Touraine (who was to become duke of Orleans in 1392), married Valentina Visconti, the daughter of Giangaleazzo, lord of Milan. One month after this marriage, Clement VII placed a large part of Romagna under Louis’ control. All that remained to be done was to conquer it. Moving the army by land proved to be more difficult than for Louis of Anjou, for Visconti’s ambitions threatened the north of the Papal States. The sea route was safer; but the port of Genoa had to be secured.

From the twelfth century onwards, the Genoese republic had been torn apart by social factions and family feuds. This did not prevent this ‘la Superba’ from dominating the Mediterranean by eliminating Pisa and rivalling the Catalans. The republic had built a rich colonial empire with Corsica, several important islands in the Aegean Sea, trading posts on the western coast of Asia Minor, several islands in the Black Sea, as well as Constantinople. Such a coalition, which was economically powerful but without real political influence, aroused much envy, especially in the lord of Milan, for Genoa was the natural outlet to the sea for Lombardy. Giangaleazzo Visconti was plotting in Genoa, but a group of Genoese opponents asked for the protection of Charles VI, King of France, who reac...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• List of abbreviations
• Maps and illustrations
• List of contributors
• Introduction
• PART 1 Antecedents of the French invasion of 1494-95
• PART 2 The French invasion of 1494-95
• PART 3 Reaction and effects
• Index of microfilms on Italian diplomatic history, 1454-94, in the Ilardi collection at the Sterling Library, Yale University
• General index