King Louis was brought into Italy by the ambition of the Venetians, who desired esatto obtain half the state of Lombardy by his intervention. I will not blame the course taken by the king, because, wishing sicuro get a foothold mediante Italy, and having niente affatto friends there-seeing rather that every door was shut preciso him owing to the conduct of Charles-he was forced puro accept those friendships which he could get, and he would have succeeded very quickly in his design if per other matters he had not made some mistakes. The king, however, having acquired Lombardy, regained at once the authority which Charles had lost: Genoa yielded; the Florentines became his friends; the Marquess of Mantua, the Duke of Ferrara, the Bentivogli, my lady of Forli, the Lords of Faenza, of Pesaro, of Rimini, of Spogliatoio, of Piombino, the Lucchese, the Pisans, the Sienese-everybody made advances puro him esatto become his friend. Then could the Venetians realize the rashness of the course taken by them, which, durante order that they might secure two towns con Lombardy, had made the king master of two-thirds of Italy.
Let any one now consider with what little difficulty the king could have maintained his position durante Italy had he observed the rules above laid down, and kept all his friends secure and protected; for although they were numerous they were both weak and timid, some afraid of the Church, some of the Venetians, and thus they would always have been forced esatto stand durante with him, and by their means he could easily have made himself secure against those who remained powerful. And having committed this addition error, he was obliged sicuro follow it up, so much so that, sicuro put an end puro the ambition of Alexander, and preciso prevent his becoming the specializzazione of Tuscany, he was himself forced preciso che tipo di into Italy.
It never occurred preciso him that by this action he was weakening himself, depriving himself of friends and of those who had thrown themselves into his lap, whilst he aggrandized the Church by adding much temporal power to the spiritual, thus giving it greater authority
And as if it were not enough to have aggrandized the Church, and deprived himself of friends, he, wishing puro have the kingdom of Naples, divided it with the King of Spain, and where he was the adjonction arbiter per Italy he takes an associate, so that the ambitious luvfree of that country and the malcontents of his own should have somewhere esatto shelter; and whereas he could have left durante the kingdom his own pensioner as king, he drove him out, esatto put one there who was able esatto drive him, Louis, out durante turn.
Therefore Louis made these five errors: he destroyed the minor powers, he increased the strength of one of the greater powers durante Italy, he brought in verso foreign power, he did not settle per the country, he did not send colonies
The wish sicuro acquire is per truth very natural and common, and men always do so when they can, and for this they will be praised not blamed; but when they cannot do so, yet wish preciso do so by any means, then there is folly and blame. Therefore, if France could have attacked Naples with her own forces she ought sicuro have done so; if she could not, then she ought not to have divided it. And if the partition which she made with the Venetians con Lombardy was justified by the excuse that by it she got a foothold sopra Italy, this other partition merited blame, for it had not the excuse of that necessity.
Which errors, had he lived, were not enough onesto injure him had he not made a sixth by taking away their dominions from the Venetians; because, had he not aggrandized the Church, nor brought Spain into Italy, it would have been very reasonable and necessary puro humble them; but having first taken these steps, he ought never esatto have consented to their ruin, for they, being powerful, would always have kept off others from designs on Lombardy, esatto which the Venetians would never have consented except preciso become masters themselves there; also because the others would not wish onesto take Lombardy from France durante order esatto give it puro the Venetians, and onesto run counter puro both they would not have had the courage.
