Italian Wars - Reflexions

Italian Wars

Military expeditions sent by the kings of France to the Peninsula. It was Charles VIII who took the initiative to leave from Lyon in 1494, considering himself the heir to the House of Anjou’s rights over the kingdom of Naples. His successor, Louis XII, the grandson of Valentina Visconti, the sister of the last duke of Milan born into this family, pursued the Italian ambitions of his predecessor. But despite Francis I’s victory at Marignan in 1515, the battle that was followed by the defeat of Pavia in 1525, French domination in Italy was short-lived. The country then passed under the imperial control of Charles V, a prelude to that of Spain which, moreover, benefited the interests – particularly territorial – of the Holy See. These wars ended with the treaties of Cateau-Cambrésis (2–3 April 1559).