Francesco II Gonzaga
Marquess of Mantua
1466 CE to 1519 CE
Francesco II (or IV) Gonzaga (August 10, 1466 – March 29, 1519) is the ruler of the Italian city of Mantua from 1484 until his death.
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Pope Innocent VIII, in conflict with King Ferdinand I of Naples over Ferdinand's refusal to pay feudal dues to the papacy, had excommunicated and deposed Ferdinand by a bull of September 11, 1489.
Innocent had then offered the Kingdom of Naples to Charles VIII of France, who has a remote claim to its throne because his grandfather, Charles VII, King of France, had married Marie of Anjou of the Angevin dynasty, the ruling family of Naples until 1442.
Innocent had later settled his quarrel with Ferdinand and revoked the bans before dying in 1492, but the offer to Charles remains an apple of discord in Italian politics.
Ferdinand dies on January 25, 1494, and is succeeded by his son Alfonso II.
Charles VIII, in order to have a free hand in Italy, has made ruinous pacts with all his neighbors, so they will not interfere.
Henry VII has been given cash, Ferdinand II of Aragon has been given Roussillon and Maximillian has been given Artois and Franche-Comté.
This handing out of territory is symptomatic of Charles' lack of foresight.
Charles is willing to do this, however, in his attempt to establish his Neapolitan base for his crusade.
The fighting between the many independent towns of Italy has been done by establishing a contract, condotta in Italian, between the town leaders and the leaders of mercenary bands, who had come to be called condottieri.
This had led to the developing of fighting tactics destined to establish field supremacy, gaining wealthy prisoners to be ransomed, and minimizing casualties, as it is basically a business.
These tactics will be put to shame when the motivated armies of France and Spain descend upon the Italian peninsula.
Rapallo is occupied by four thousand Neapolitan troops on September 3, 1494, with Giulio Orsini, Obietto Fieschi and Fregosino Campofregoso in command, their plan being to force a rebellion in Genoa; however, the Neapolitan fleet is soon forced away by bad weather.
Louis d'Orleans lands on September 5 with one thousand Swiss mercenary infantry, later reinforced overland by two thousand more Swiss mercenaries and a contingent of Genoese-Milanese infantry.
A skirmish breaks out between the Swiss mercenaries and Neapolitan forces, though the terrain does not allow for the Swiss to form up their pike squares.
The battle is mainly fought, however, between the Genoese-Milanese and Neapolitan infantry.
Following concentrated artillery fire from the French fleet, the Neapolitans are routed.
The Swiss massacre Neapolitans trying to surrender, although Orsini and Campofregoso are captured in the retreat.
After the battle the Swiss mercenaries kill the enemy wounded and sack the town of Rapallo.
Though this had been a small battle, it is seen as a significant victory that halts Neapolitan-Aragonese attempts to incite a rebellion in Genoa against the French.
Ludovico Sforza, who has long controlled the Duchy of Milan, finally procures the ducal title in October 1494, after providing a hitherto unheard-of dowry to his niece, who is marrying the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian.
He is immediately challenged by Alfonso II, who also has a claim on Milan.
Ludovico decides to remove this threat by inciting Charles to take up Innocent's offer.
Charles is also being encouraged by his favorite, Étienne de Vesc, as well as by Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the future Pope Julius II, who hopes to settle a score with the incumbent Pope, Alexander VI.
A contingent of Charles' VIII's army besieges the fortress of Mordano on October 19.
After refusing to surrender, the fortress is bombarded, taken by French-Milanese forces, and the surviving inhabitants massacred.
This shocks the Italians, who are accustomed to the relatively bloodless wars of the condottieri.
Charles VIII had been on good terms with the two powers in northern Italy, Milan and Venice, and both have encouraged him to make good his claims over the Kingdom of Naples.
Thus he assumed he would have their support when he moved against Alfonso II of Naples, especially as the rival claimant is Ferdinand II of Aragon, King of Spain.
Charles had led a powerful twenty-five thousand-man French army, including an eight thousand-strong contingent of Swiss mercenaries and the first train of artillery seen in history, into Italy at the end of August 1494 Charles VIII had l
He had been granted free passage through Milan, but is vigorously opposed by Florence, Pope Alexander VI, and Naples.
Louis d'Orleans' victory at Rapallo had allowed Charles to march his army through the Republic of Genoa.
Piero de' Medici, having assumed the mantle of family power from his late father Lorenzo, had alienated the people of Florence by siding with the French when Charles VIII of France invaded Italy.
The arrival in mid-November of 1494 of Charles's army outside Florence creates fears of rape and pillage.
The Florentines are led to exile Piero de' Medici for his act of betrayal and to establish a republican government.
Bernardo Rucellai and other members of the Florentine oligarchy then act as ambassadors to negotiate a peaceful accord with Charles.
When the Medici fall from power, the Jews of Florence and Tuscany are expelled.
Reforming Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, interpreting the French intervention as the vengeance and punishment he had earlier prophesied, establishes a constitutional republican government that is effectively a theocracy.
Savonarola becomes a virtual dictator in the city, imposing a program of sweeping moral reforms.
He also begins to regard himself as a prophet of God sent to announce judgment on Italy and on the church.
He soon comes into conflict with Pope Alexander VI, who is desperately forging alliances against the French.
Regency and Queenship of Anne of Beaujeu and Anne of Brittany (1483–1495)
Anne of Beaujeu, who skillfully governed as regent for her brother Charles VIII from 1483 to 1491, reassumed a similar role when Charles embarked upon his Italian campaigns. Trusted and politically astute, she maintained stability within France during his prolonged absences, ensuring continuity of royal authority.
Anne of Brittany, though Queen of France, had limited political influence in both France and her native Brittany, and frequently endured separation from her children during their infancy. Her life was largely defined by her residency in royal castles such as Amboise, Loches, and Plessis, as well as in major towns including Lyon, Grenoble, and Moulins, particularly when Charles VIII conducted military operations in Italy.
At Amboise, Anne of Brittany often stayed at the nearby Clos Lucé, later famed as the residence of Leonardo da Vinci, where she commissioned the construction of her personal chapel. She attained additional titles, notably Queen Consort of Naples and Jerusalem, following Charles VIII's temporary conquest of Naples, further highlighting her prominence within European dynastic affairs of the late fifteenth century.
Charles VIII, with his general Louis II de La Trémoille, enters Naples almost without opposition on February 22, 1495.
The speed and violence of the French campaign has left the Italians stunned.
Realization strikes them, especially the Venetians and the new Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, that unless Charles is stopped Italy will soon be another province of France.
Sforza, realizing that Charles has a claim to Milan as well as Naples, and will probably not be satisfied by the annexation of Naples alone, turns to Pope Alexander VI, who is embroiled in a power game of his own with France and various Italian states over his attempts to secure secular fiefdoms for his children.
The Pope forms an alliance of several opponents of French hegemony in Italy: himself; Ferdinand of Aragon, who is also King of Sicily; the Emperor Maximilian I; Ludovico in Milan; and the Republic of Venice.
(Venice's ostensible purpose in joining the League is to oppose the Ottoman Empire, while its actual objective is French expulsion from Italy.)
This alliance is known as the Holy League of 1495, or as the League of Venice, and is proclaimed on March 31, 1495.
The League is the first of its kind; there is no medieval precedent for such divergent European states uniting against a common enemy, although many such alliances will be forged in the future.
The French occupation of Naples brings new persecution against the its Jews, many of whom have come here as refugees from Spain.
Charles stays in Naples for a number of weeks, but on May 20, 1495, with the newly formed anti-French League of Venice, having gathered an army under the condottiero Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua, threatening to cut off his return through northern Italy, Charles leaves Naples to return to France, leaving Gilbert, Count of Montpensier, in Naples as his viceroy, with a substantial garrison of armed men.
After Ferdinand of Aragon had recovered Naples, with the help of his Spanish relatives with whom he had sought asylum in Sicily, ...
...the army of the League follows Charles's retreat northwards through Rome, which had been abandoned to the French by Pope Alexander VI on May 27, 1495.