Pope Innocent VIII, being in conflict with the Neapolitan king Fernando I, by the bull of September 11, 1489 excommunicated the latter from the church and deprived him of the throne. After that, Innocent VIII proposed the Kingdom of Naples to the French king Charles VIII, who had distant rights to him thanks to his kinship with the Anjou dynasty. Innocent VIII managed to reconcile with Fernando until his death in 1492 and granted him forgiveness, but the Neapolitan throne became the apple of discord in Italian politics. Fernando died in January 1494, and was succeeded by his son Alfonso II.
French invasion
Charles VIII had extensive plans. Having studied the political situation in Italy and the Balkans, the king and his advisers considered that the French in these places were expected to be deliverers. On the basis of this, a campaign was planned for Constantinople. Charles VIII also hoped that the Balkan people would rise up against the Turks and thereby help the French in their crusade.
In order to provide diplomatic support for the upcoming campaign, peace was concluded with Spain (Treaty of Barcelona in 1493), England and the Holy Roman Empire (Treaty of Sanliss in 1493). The neutrality of the Republic of Venice and the Papal States was ensured. Arrangements were made to get help from Savoy, Genoa, Milan and Ferrara.
In the Duchy of Milan, after the murder of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza in 1476, the crown passed to his 7-year-old son, Gian Galeazzo Sforza, and Lodovico Sforza became the actual rulers of the duchy. After the death of Gian Galeazzo Sforza in 1494 October 22, the Milanese nobility presented the ducal crown to Ludovico. This was immediately challenged by Alfonso II, who also claimed for this crown. Lodovico decided to eliminate this threat, prompting Charles VIII to recall the proposal of Pope Innocent VIII about the crown of Naples. Thus, the immediate plans of France and Milan coincided.
Before the invasion, Charles VIII concentrated between the Lyon and Grenoble 37,000 troops, which included Swiss infantry and landsknechts (6-8 thousand). 20% of the Swiss were armed with arquebus, 25% – halberds, the rest – long peaks. The army had 14 thousand French infantrymen armed with bows, crossbows and arquebuses. The heavy cavalry was 2,500 French nobles, each of whom had a squire and two servants. 200 knights were the retinue of the king. The army also included 3,500 light cavalrymen armed with bows and lightweight peaks. In addition, at the disposal of Charles VIII, there was a very expensive branch of troops, available then only to a large and rich state of artillery: the French had 136 field guns (36 bronze cannons and 100 kulevrin on wheeled carriages). To provide food for the French troops, he was accompanied by a fleet sailing along the west coast of Italy. Heavy artillery was lowered along the Rhine into the Mediterranean Sea.
At the end of August 1494, the French army crossed the Alps and descended through Mont-Genevre to Piedmont. After the occupation of Asti, the French troops merged with the Piedmontese, as a result of which the Allied forces increased to 60 thousand people. Neapolitan king Alfonso II sent two troops northward that were supposed to threaten the flanks of the advancing enemy: one detachment moved to Romagna, the other sailed the sea with the mission to land in the Genoese Riviera.
The French fleet defeated the Neapolitan, and the 10 thousandth unit of the Duke of Orleans, assigned by Charles VIII to interact with the fleet, smashed the Neapolitan landing force that had landed in Ropalo (east of Genoa); then a second Neapolitan detachment was ousted from Romagna. The Florentine Republic gave the French fortress on the coast, as well as Pisa and Livorno. Leaving the detachment of the Duke of Orleans to ensure communications in Asti, the French army in November 1494 moved into Central Italy.
After occupying Florence, the French signed an agreement with its inhabitants, which determined the amount of remuneration for military expenses. On December 31, the French occupied Rome, where they concluded an agreement on the passage through Rome with the Pope. The French fleet landed reinforcements here. On January 23, 1495, the French marched from Rome and, meeting no resistance, moved to Naples.
The Neapolitans took up a strong position for the defense of San Germano. To bypass this position, Charles VIII sent a strong convoy to Aquila with the task of moving to the rear of the enemy’s position. However, part of the Neapolitans went over to the side of the French, the other part turned into an indiscriminate flight, as a result of which the bypass maneuver was not to be completed. February 22 the French occupied Naples. King Alfonso fled from Naples and died in Sicily. The main goal of the campaign was achieved.
The campaign was marked by the fact that more than a third of the troops of Charles VIII fell ill in Naples with a new disease at the time – syphilis. Without immunity, the army quickly began to lose its combat capability, and, returning home, became the source of the global pandemic of this disease.
Venice League
The speed of the French offensive and the ease with which the French army took the fortified cities, after cracking down on their defenders, plunged the Italian states into a state of shock and showed them the importance of artillery. Ludovico Sforza realized that Karl might not be satisfied with the conquest of Naples, and that he also had claims on Milan. Pope Alexander VI, who refused to recognize the rights of Charles VIII to the Neapolitan crown, ventured into the difficult political game. On March 31, 1495, the creation of the “Sacred League in 1495” or the “Venetian League” was announced, the purpose of which was to expel the French from Italy. The League included the Pope of Rome, the Spanish king Ferdinand II of Aragon (who was also the king of Sicily ), the king of Germany Maximilian I, the duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza and the Republic of Venice; in 1496, England joined this union.
In this situation, Charles VIII made a major mistake by scattering his forces over the fortresses of the Kingdom of Naples. On May 20, 1495, he made his way out of Naples only with the 10,000th detachment and moved through Rome to Tuscany. The sluggishness of Charle’s actions enabled his opponents to gather a 30,000-strong army commanded by condottiere Francesco II Gonzaga, who barred the retreat of the French on the Tarot River.
On July 6, 1495, the French defeated their opponents in the battle of Fornovo and made their way to retreat through Asti to Briancon. The French fleet was defeated in the area of Genoa.
The French garrisons in Italy did not have a single command, and were doomed, despite some victories (the Battle of the Seminar ). In 1496, the invading Spanish troops put Ferdinand II on the Neapolitan throne, cleared the territory of Italy from the French garrisons remaining in the fortresses, and the French garrison in Naples capitulated.
Consequences
The defeat of the Neapolitan kingdom caused the collapse of the balance of power in the Apennine peninsula. There were clashes between the Italian states, which erupted into armed conflicts (the war between Florence and Pisa (from 1494), the struggle between the pope and the house of Orsini, the beginning of the seizures of Cesare Borgia communes and the seniors of Central Italy). On the other hand, the kings of France also did not want to abandon their plans to seize the Italian territories.
