separate States--dukedoms such as Milan, kingdoms such as Naples, Republics
such as Venice and Florence, with the Papal dominions in their midst. In
the Spanish peninsula were the five kingdoms of Navarre, Portugal, the
Moorish Granada, Aragon, and Castile. The last two, however, were already
united, though not yet merged into one, by the marriage of their respective
sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella. Sardinia and Sicily were attached to
Aragon.

Finally we have to note that Maximilian, son of the Emperor, had married
Mary of Burgundy; but on Mary's death the Netherlanders recognised as their
Duke not Maximilian but his young son Philip--the father exercising only a
very precarious authority as the boy's guardian; while the Dowager
Margaret, the second wife of Charles the Bold, the lady whose hostility to
the House of Lancaster has been already noted, possessed some dower-towns,
and considerable influence. In 1486 Maximilian was elected "King of the
Romans," in other words his father's presumed successor as Emperor.

[Sidenote: France and Brittany]

For the time, then, the consolidation of France was more advanced than that
of any other Power; her desire was to complete the process by the
absorption of Brittany. Spain, i.e., Castile and Aragon, had made
considerable progress in the same direction, but for her the conquest of
Granada was still the prime necessity.

The absorption of Brittany, however, was opposed alike to the interests of
Maximilian, of the Spanish monarchs, and of England. To the former two, any
further acquisition of power by France was a possible menace. To the last,
France was traditionally the enemy, and if Breton ports became French
ports, the strength of France in the Channel would be almost doubled. Henry