"1492. The horses and armour of the Italian men at arms were reckoned
superior to those of the transalpine nations against which they had
measured themselves in France, during "the war of the public weal."
The Italian captains had made war a science, every branch of which
they thoroughly knew. It was never suspected for a moment that the
soldier should be wanting in courage: but the general mildness of
manners, and the progress of civilization, had accustomed the Italians
to make war with sentiments of honour and humanity towards the
vanquished. Ever ready to give quarter, they did not strike a fallen
enemy. Often, after having taken from him his horse and armour, they
set him free; at least, they never demanded a ransom so enormous as
to ruin him. Horsemen who went to battle clad in steel, were rarely
killed or wounded, so long as they kept their saddles. Once unhorsed,
they surrendered. The battle, therefore, never became murderous. The
courage of the Italian soldiers, which had accommodated itself to this
milder warfare, suddenly gave way before the new dangers and ferocity
of barbarian enemies. They became terror-struck when they perceived
that the French caused dismounted horsemen to be put to death by their
valets, or made prisoners only to extort from them, under the name of
ransom, all they possessed. The Italian cavalry, equal in courage, and
superior in military science, to the French, was for some time
unable to make head against an enemy whose ferocity disturbed their
imaginations."


_Battle of Marignano_.

"1515.--Francis I. succeeded Louis XII. on the 1st of January; on the
27th of June he renewed his predecessor's treaty of alliance with