was stimulated rather than satisfied by the martial renown he had acquired
in the Italian wars; and he was urged on by the great body of the French
chivalry, who, disgusted with a life of inaction, longed for a field where
they might win new laurels, and indulge in the joyous license of military
adventure.

Unhappily, the court of France found ready instruments for its purpose in
the profligate politicians of Italy. The Roman pontiff, in particular,
Alexander the Sixth, whose criminal ambition assumes something respectable
by contrast with the low vices in which he was habitually steeped,
willingly lent himself to a monarch, who could so effectually serve his
selfish schemes of building up the fortunes of his family. The ancient
republic of Venice, departing from her usual sagacious policy, and
yielding to her hatred of Lodovico Sforza, and to the lust of territorial
acquisition, consented to unite her arms with those of France against
Milan, in consideration of a share (not the lion's share) of the spoils of
victory. Florence, and many other inferior powers, whether from fear or
weakness, or the short-sighted hope of assistance in their petty
international feuds, consented either to throw their weight into the same
scale, or to remain neutral. [1]

Having thus secured himself from molestation in Italy, Louis the Twelfth
entered into negotiations with such other European powers, as were most
likely to interfere with his designs. The emperor Maximilian, whose
relations with Milan would most naturally have demanded his interposition,
was deeply entangled in a war with the Swiss. The neutrality of Spain was
secured by the treaty of Marcoussis, August 5th, 1498, which settled all
the existing differences with that country. And a treaty with Savoy in the
following year guaranteed a free passage through her mountain passes to
the French army into Italy. [2]