France . practical intelligence and thecounsel of his friend, the Cardinal-Legate, Georges dAm-boise. But he maintained certain obstinate preposses-sions of his own. Unfortunately, he was encouraged bythe Cardinal to prosecute the principal of these—namely,to continue the ItaUan poUcy of his predecessor, toassert the right of the House of Anjou to Naples, and hisown private claim to the Duchy of Milan. That claim,based on the marriage of Louis of Orleans with thedaughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1387), was noneof the strongest. But Lodovico Sforza was doubly hateful as a usiuperand the betra
France . practical intelligence and thecounsel of his friend, the Cardinal-Legate, Georges dAm-boise. But he maintained certain obstinate preposses-sions of his own. Unfortunately, he was encouraged bythe Cardinal to prosecute the principal of these—namely,to continue the ItaUan poUcy of his predecessor, toassert the right of the House of Anjou to Naples, and hisown private claim to the Duchy of Milan. That claim,based on the marriage of Louis of Orleans with thedaughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1387), was noneof the strongest. But Lodovico Sforza was doubly hateful as a usiuperand the betrayer of Charles VIII. Assuming the titleof Duke of MUan, and making treaties with Spain, Venice,the Swiss Cantons, and Denmark, Louis marched anarmy, in concert with the Pope and the Venetians, andunder the generalship of the Itahan condottiere Trivulzio,upon MUan. Lodovico fled to Como. Louis enteredMilan in triumph through streets decorated with fleurs-de-lis (October, 1499). But in February, Lodovico. FEANgOIS I. (1515-1547).Frovi the portrait hy Titian in the Louvre. THE LAST CRUSADE 193 appeared with an army of Swiss and Germans. Thetables were tmned for a moment. Then Louis sent afresh army across the Alps, and the day of Novara sealedthe fate of the Sforza. Lodovico, deserted by his Swissmercenaries, was taken prisoner, and ended his days ina dark and dismal dungeon, cut out of the solid rock,in the Castle of Loches. The idea of a Crusade, which had been in the air sincethe fall of Constantinople, was actually realized at thistime. In 1499 and in 1501, Louis XII. sent a fleet to actin concert with the Venetians, whose welcome to a newsea Power in the Mediterranean was not likely to be whole-hearted. The expedition, the last of the French Crusades,ended in the inevitable failure of such a , an alliance even more foolish and more fatalhad been entered into by Louis with Ferdinand ofAragon. By a treaty signed at Granada, November 11,1500, the two Sovere
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