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1508

1508

Events

- February - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor attacks Venice
- June 6 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor is defeated in Friulia by Venetian forces; he is forced to sign a three year truce and cede several territories to Venice
- December 10 - League of Cambrai formed as an alliance against Venice between Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon.
- December - Michelangelo Buonarroti begins work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
- Lebna Dengel succeeds his father Na'od as Emperor of Ethiopia. Due to his young age, his grandmother Eleni acts as regent.

Births

- June 9 - Primoz Trubar, Slovenian protestant reformer (died 1586)
- November 30 - Andrea Palladio, Italian architect (died 1580)
- December 9 - Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (died 1555)
- December 24 - Pietro Carnesecchi, Italian humanist (died 1567)
- Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, Spanish general and governor of the Spanish Netherlands (died 1583)
- Jean Daurat, French poet (died 1588)
- Marin Drzic, Croatian playwright (died 1567)

Deaths

- May 27 - Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (born 1452)
- July 31 - Na'od, Emperor of Ethiopia (killed in battle)
- October 13 - Edmund de Ros, 11th Baron de Ros, English politician (born 1446)
- December 10 - René II, Duke of Lorraine (born 1451)
- Isaac Abravanel, Portuguese statesman, philosopher, and theologian (born 1437)
- Conrad Celtes, German humanist Category:1508 ko:1508년

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

). Maximilian holds his personal emblem, the pomegranate.]] Maximilian I of Habsburg (March 22, 1459 – January 12, 1519) was Holy Roman Emperor.

Life and reign in the Habsburg hereditary lands

Maximilian was born in Vienna as the son of the Emperor Frederick III and Eleanore of Portugal. He married (1477) the heiress of Burgundy, Mary, the only daughter of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Through this marriage, Maximilian obtained the Burgundian Netherlands and the Free County of Burgundy, though France took Burgundy proper. In 1490, he bought Tyrol and Further Austria from his cousin Sigismund, the last member of the Elder Tyrolean Line of the House of Habsburg. Upon the death of his father in 1493, he inherited the remaining Habsburg possesions and thus reunified all Habsburg territories. That same year Maximilian married Bianca Maria Sforza (d. 1510), the daughter of the Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan as he had been a widower since the death of his first wife in 1482. Maximilian was a keen supporter of the arts and sciences, and he surrounded himself with scholars such as Joachim Vadian and Andreas Stoberl (Stiborius), promoting them to important court posts.

Reign in the Holy Roman Empire

Elected King of the Romans in 1486 at the initiative of his father, he also stood at the head of the Holy Roman Empire upon his father's death in 1493. The following year brought French intervention in Italy, inaugurating the prolonged Italian Wars. He joined the Holy League to counter the French. The war only ended with a success of the Empire after his death. Holy League Maximilian is possibly best known for leading the 1495 Reichstag at Worms which concluded on the Reichsreform (Imperial Reform), reshaping much of the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire. In the 1499 Treaty of Basel, Maximilian was forced to acknowledge the de-facto independence of the Swiss confereracy from the Empire as a result of the Battle of Dornach. In 1508, Maximilian, with the assent of Pope, took the title of Elected Roman Emperor (Erwählter Römischer Kaiser), and thus ended the century-old custom that the Holy Roman Emperor had to be crowned by the pope.

Tu felix Austria nube

In order to reduce the growing pressures on the Empire brought about by treaties between the rulers of France, Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, and Russia, as well as to secure Bohemia and Hungary for the Habsburgs, Maximilian I met with the Jagiellonian kings Ladislaus II of Hungary and Bohemia and Sigismund I of Poland at Vienna in 1515. The marriages arranged there brought Habsburg kingship over Hungary and Bohemia in 1526.

Death and legacy

Maximilian died in Wels, Upper Austria, and was succeeded as Emperor by his grandson Charles V, his son Philip the Handsome having died in 1506. Maximilian had appointed his daughter Margaret of Austria as the educator of his grandsons Charles and Ferdinand, and she fulfilled this task well.

Marriages

- Mary of Burgundy (1457-1482) - married in Ghent on August 18, 1477
- Bianca Maria Sforza (1472-1510)- married 1493

Children

Venice

Venice (Italian: Venezia), the "city of canals", is the capital of the region of Veneto and of the province of Venice, , population 271,663 (census estimate 2004-01-01). The city is included, with Padua (Padova), in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area, population 1,600,000. The city stretches across numerous small islands in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy. The saltwater lagoon stretches along the shoreline between the mouths of the Po (south) and the Piave (north) Rivers. The Venetian Republic was a major sea power and a staging area for the Crusades, as well as a very important centre of commerce (especially the spice trade) and art in the Renaissance.

History

See also Veneti. Veneti] The city was founded as a result of the influx of refugees into the marshes of the Po estuary following the invasion of northern Italy by the Lombards in 568. In the mid-8th century, the Venetians resisted the empire-building efforts of Pepin III and remained subject to the Byzantine Empire, at least theoretically. As the community continued to develop and as Byzantine power waned, an increasingly anti-Eastern character emerged, leading to the growth of autonomy and eventual independence. Venice was a city state (an Italian thalassocracy or Repubblica Marinara, the other three being Genoa, Pisa, and Amalfi). Its strategic position at head of the Adriatic made Venetian naval and commercial power almost invulnerable. In the 12th century the essentials for the power of Venice were laid: the Venetian Arsenal was under construction in 1104; Venice wrested control of the Brenner pass from Verona in 1178, opening a lifeline to silver from Germany; the last autocratic doge, Vitale Michiele, died in 1172. The Republic of Venice seized the eastern shores of the Adriatic before 1200, mostly for commercial reasons, because pirates based there were a menace to trade. The Doge already carried the titles of Duke of Dalmatia and Duke of Istria. Later mainland possessions, which extended across Lake Garda as far west as the Adda River, were known as "Terrafirma", and were acquired partly as a buffer against belligerent neighbors, partly to guarantee Alpine trade routes, and partly to ensure the supply of mainland wheat, on which the city depended. In building its maritime commercial empire, the Republic acquired control of most of the islands in the Aegean, including Cyprus and Crete, and became a major power-broker in the Near East. By the standards of the time, Venice's stewardship of its mainland territories was relatively enlightened and the citizens of such towns as Bergamo, Brescia, and Verona rallied to the defence of Venetian sovereignty when it was threatened by invaders. Venice became an imperial power following the Fourth Crusade, which (with Venetian aid) seized Constantinople in 1204 and established the Latin Empire. Considerable plunder was brought back to Venice, including the Winged Lion of St. Mark, symbol of Venice. Only Venetian ships could efficiently transport the men, supplies, and (especially) war horses. Winged Lion of St. Mark The Venetian governmental structure was a mix of Byzantine and Islamic systems, but the social order was entirely feudal. Church and various private properties were tied to military service, though there was no knight tenure within the city itself. The Cavalieri di San Marco was the only order of chivalry ever instituted in Venice, and no citizen could accept or join a foreign order without the government’s consent. Venice remained a republic throughout its independent period and politics and the military were kept completely separate. War was regarded as a continuation of commerce by other means (hence, the city's early production of large numbers of mercenaries for service elsewhere). The chief executive was the Doge (duke), who, theoretically, held his elective office for life. In practice, a number of Doges were forced by pressure from their oligarchical peers to resign the office and retire into monastic seclusion when they were felt to have been discredited by perceived political failure. monastic Though the people of Venice generally remained orthodox Roman Catholics, the state of Venice was notable for its freedom from religious fanaticism and it enacted not a single execution for religious heresy during the Counter-Reformation. This apparent lack of zeal contributed to its frequently coming into conflict with the Papacy. Venice was threatened with the interdict on a number of occasions and twice suffered its imposition. The second, more famous, occasion was on April 27, 1509, by order of Pope Julius II (see League of Cambrai). Venetian ambassadors sent home still-extant secret reports of the politics and rumours of European courts, providing fascinating information to modern historians. League of Cambrai After 1070 years, the Republic lost its independence when Napoleon Bonaparte on May 12, 1797, conquered Venice during the First Coalition. The French conqueror brought to an end the most fascinating century of its history: It was during the "Settecento" that Venice became perhaps the most elegant and refined city in Europe, greatly influencing art, architecture, and literature. Napoleon was seen as something of a liberator by the city's Jewish population. He removed the gates of the Ghetto and ended the restrictions on when and where Jews could live and travel in the city. Venice became part of the Austrian-held Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia when Napoleon signed the Treaty of Campo Formio on October 12 1797. The Austrians took control of the city on January 18, 1798. It was taken from Austria by the Treaty of Pressburg in 1805 and became part of Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, but was returned to Austria following Napoleon's defeat in 1814. In 1866, along with the rest of Venetia, Venice became part of Italy. After 1797, the city fell into a serious decline, with many of the old palaces and other buildings abandoned and falling into disrepair, although the Lido became a popular beach resort in the late 19th century.

Naval and military affairs

By 1450, more than 3,000 Venetian merchant ships were in operation, and most of these could be converted when necessary into either warships or transports. The government required each merchant ship to carry a specified number of weapons (mostly crossbows and javelins) and armor; merchant passengers were also expected to be armed and to fight when necessary. A reserve of some 25 (later 100) war-galleys was maintained in the Arsenal. Galley slaves did not exist in medieval Venice, the oarsmen coming from the city itself or from its possessions, especially Dalmatia. Those from the city were chosen by lot from each parish, their families being supported by the remainder of the parish while the rowers were away. Debtors generally worked off their obligations rowing the galleys. Rowing skills were encouraged through races and regattas. regatta By 1303, crossbow practice had become compulsory in the city, with citizens training in groups. As weapons became more expensive and complex to operate, professional soldiers were assigned to help work merchant sailing ships and as rowers in galleys. The company of "Noble Bowmen" was recruited in the later 14th century from among the younger aristocracy and served aboard both war-galleys and armed merchantmen, with the privilege of sharing the captain's cabin. Though Venice was famous for its navy, its army was equally effective. In the 13th century, most Italian city states already were hiring mercenaries, but Venetian troops were still recruited from the lagoon, plus feudal levies from Dalmatia and Istria. In times of emergency, all males between seventeen and sixty years were registered and their weapons were surveyed, with those called to actually fight being organized into companies of twelve. The register of 1338 estimated that 30,000 Venetian men were capable of bearing arms; many of these were skilled crossbowmen. As in other Italian cities, aristocrats and other wealthy men were cavalrymen while the city's conscripts fought as infantry. Early in the 15th century, as new mainland territories were expanded, the first standing army was organized, consisting of condottieri on contract. In its alliance with Florence in 1426, Venice agreed to supply 8,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry in time of war, and 3,000 and 1,000 in peacetime. Later in that century, uniforms were adopted that featured red-and-white stripes, and a system of honors and pensions developed. Throughout the 15th century, Venetian land forces were almost always on the offensive and were regarded as the most effective in Italy, largely because of the tradition of all classes carrying arms in defense of the city and official encouragement of general military training. The command structure in the army was different from that in the fleet. By ancient law, no nobleman could command more than twenty-five men (to prevent against sedition by private armies), and while the position of Captain General was introduced in the mid-14th century, he still had to answer to a civilian panel of twenty "wise men". Not only was efficiency not degraded, this policy saved Venice from the military takeovers that other Italian city states so often experienced. A civilian commissioner (not unlike a commissar) accompanied each army to keep an eye on things, especially the mercenaries. The Venetian military tradition also was notably cautious; they were more interested in achieving success with a minimum expense of lives and money than in the pursuit of glory.

Transport

commissar Venice is famous for its canals. It is built on an archipelago of more than 100 islands in a shallow lagoon. In the old center, the canals serve the function of roads, and every form of transport is on water or on foot. In the 19th century a causeway to the mainland brought a railroad station to Venice, and an automobile causeway and parking lot was added in the 20th century. Beyond these land entrances at the northern edge of the city, transportation within the city remains, as it was in centuries past, entirely on water or on foot. Venice is Europe's largest carfree area, unique in Europe in remaining a sizable functioning city in the 21st century entirely without motorcars or trucks. 21st century The classical Venetian boat is the gondola, although it is now mostly used for tourists, or for weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies, due to its cost. Most Venetians now travel by motorised waterbuses ("vaporetti") which ply regular routes along the major canals and between the city's islands. The city also has many private boats. The only unmotorized gondolas still in common use by Venetians are the traghetti, foot passenger ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points without bridges. Venice is served by the newly rebuilt Marco Polo International Airport, or Aeroporto di Venezia Marco Polo, named in honor of its famous citizen. The airport is on the mainland and was rebuilt away from the coast so that visitors now need to get a bus to the pier, from which a water taxi or Aliliguna waterbus can be used.

Demographics

The city is much visited by tourists, of course; but of the permanent population 3.8 % are foreigners as well: from all around the world, and especially from Asia. Istat breaks down the population as:
- 96.2% Italian
- 0.4% Turkish
- 0.3% Moldavians
- 0.2% Ukrainian
- 0.2% Romanian Other populations include Bulgarian, Tunisian, Albanian, and Macedonian.

Places of note

Sestieri

The sestieri are the primary traditional divisions of Venice. The city is divided into the six districts of Cannaregio, San Polo, Dorsoduro (including the Giudecca), Santa Croce, San Marco and Castello (including San Pietro di Castello and Sant'Elena).

Sinking of Venice

The buildings of Venice are constructed on closely spaced wood piles (under water, in the absence of oxygen, wood does not decay) which penetrate alternating layers of clay and sand. Most of these piles are still intact after centuries of submersion. The foundations rest on the piles, and buildings of brick or stone sit above these footings. The buildings are often threatened by flood tides pushing in from the Adriatic between autumn and early spring. Six hundred years ago, Venetians protected themselves from land-based attacks by diverting all the major rivers flowing into the lagoon and thus preventing sediment from filling the area around the city. This created an ever-deeper lagoon environment. During the 20th century, when many artesian wells were sunk into the periphery of the lagoon to draw water for local industry, Venice began to subside. It was realised that extraction of the aquifer was the cause. This sinking process has slowed markedly since artesian wells were banned in the 1960s. However, the city is still threatened by more frequent low-level floods (so-called Acqua alta, "high water") that creep to a height of several centimeters over its quays, regularly following certain tides. In many old houses the former staircases used by people to unload goods are now flooded, rendering the former ground floor uninhabitable. Thus, many Venetians resorted to moving up to the upper floors and continue with their lives. Some recent studies have suggested that the city is no longer sinking, but this is not yet certain; therefore, a state of alert has not been revoked. In May 2003, Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, inaugurated the MOSE project, which will lay a series of 79 inflatable pontoons across the sea bed at the three entrances to the lagoon. When tides are predicted to rise above 110 centimetres, the pontoons will be filled with air and block the incoming water from the Adriatic sea. This challenging engineering work is due to be completed by 2011.

Venice in culture, the arts, and fiction

In the 14th century, many young Venetian men began wearing tight-fitting multicolored hose, the designs on which indicated the Compagnie della Calza ("Trouser Club") to which they belonged. The Senate passed sumptuary laws, but these merely resulted in changes in fashion in order to circumvent the law. Dull garments were worn over colorful ones, which then were cut to show the hidden colors -- which resulted in the wide spread of men's "slashed" fashions in the 15th century. During the 16th century, Venice became one of the most important musical centers of Europe, with the development of the Venetian polychoral style under composers such as Adrian Willaert, who worked at San Marco. Venice was the early center of music printing; Ottaviano Petrucci began publishing music almost as soon as this technology was available, and his publishing enterprise helped to attract composers from all over Europe, especially from France and Flanders. By the end of the century, Venice was famous for the splendor of its music, as exemplified in the "colossal style" of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, which used multiple choruses and instrumental groups. Canvases (the now almost universal surface for painting) originated in Venice during the early renaissance. They were generally rough. A remarkable, and unflattering, portrait of Venetian politics appears in The Bravo, published in 1831 by American novelist James Fennimore Cooper. A bravo is an assassin under contract to the state, typically carrying out his assignments with a stilletto. Cooper's novel depicts Venice as a brutal dictatorship, governed through intrigue and murder, masked by the placid facade of the Repubblica Serenissima (serene republic). Other major works involving Venice include:
- William Shakespeare's Othello and The Merchant of Venice
- Friedrich Schiller's Der Geisterseher (The Ghost-Seer)
- Death in Venice, a 1912 novel by Thomas Mann
- Nicolas Roeg's 1973 film Don't Look Now, based on a story by Daphne du Maurier
- The Silent Gondoliers a fable told by William Goldman's S. Morgenstern
- Film:
- The Italian Job (in its 2003 remake incarnation)
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989 film) In videogames, Venice appeared in Core Design's Tomb Raider 2.

Miscellaneous

- The city's patron is St. Mark the Evangelist.
- Venice is also famous world-wide for its unique Carnival ([http://www.visitvenice.co.uk/venice-carnival.html 1]).
- Venice and its lagoon are listed as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

Famous Venetians

- Marco Polo (1254-1324), traveller.
- Titian (1477–1576), painter.
- Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), composer, musician.
- Canaletto (1697-1768), painter.
- Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798), legendary womanizer.
- Hugo Pratt (1927-1995), cartoonist and creator of Corto Maltese.
- Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793), writer
- Veronica Franco (1546-1591), poet and courtesan during the Renaissance

Foreign words of Venetian origin

- arsenal, ciao, ghetto, gondola, lagoon, lido, Montenegro.
- "Venezuela" means "little Venice".

Bibliography

Scholarship

- Chambers, D.S. (1970). The Imperial Age of Venice, 1380-1580. London: Thames & Hudson. The best brief introduction in English, still completely reliable.
- Contarini, Gasparo (1599). The Commonwealth and Gouernment of Venice. Lewes Lewkenor, trsl. London: "Imprinted by I. Windet for E. Mattes." The most important contemporary account of Venice's governance during the time of its blossoming. Also available in various reprint editions.
- Drechsler, Wolfgang (2002). "Venice Misappropriated." Trames 6(2), pp. 192-201. A scathing review of Martin & Romano 2000; also a good summary on the most recent economic and political thought on Venice. For more balanced, less tendentious, and scholarly reviews of the Martin-Romano anthology, see "The Historical Journal" (2003) "Rivista Storica Italiana" (2003).
- Grubb, James S. (1986). "When Myths Lose Power: Four Decades of Venetian Historiography." Journal of Modern History 58, pp. 43-94. The classic "muckraking" essay on the myths of Venice.
- Martin, John and Dennis Romano (eds). Venice Reconsidered. The History and Civilization of an Italian City-State, 1297-1797. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP. The most recent collection on essays, many by prominent scholars, on Venice.
- Muir, Edward (1981). Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP. The classic of Venetian cultural studies, highly sophisticated.
- Rösch, Gerhard (2000). Venedig. Geschichte einer Seerepublik. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. In German, but the most recent top-level brief history of Venice.

External links

Resources in Venice

- [http://english.comune.venezia.it// Official Site of the City of Venice]
- [http://www.comune.venezia.it/pave/index.asp Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area]
- [http://www.labiennale.org/en/ La Biennale]
- [http://www.marciana.venezia.sbn.it/ Marciana Library]
- [http://www.casino.venezia.it/ Casinò Municipale]
- [http://www.museiciviciveneziani.it/ Musei Civici Veneziani]
- [http://www.guggenheim.venice.it/ Museo Guggenheim]
- [http://www.palazzograssi.it/ Palazzo Grassi]
- [http://www.bevilacqualamasa.it/ Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation]
- [http://www.cini.it/ Cini Foundation]
- [http://www.venicemarathon.com/ Venice Marathon]
- [http://www.querinistampalia.it/ Querini Stampalia Foundation]
- [http://www.teatrolafenice.it/ Teatro La Fenice]

Venice guides

- [http://www.guida.venezia.it/ Guida a Venezia] (events calendar)
- [http://www.alberghi-a.venezia.it/veniceinfo.htm Informations and useful numbers about Venice]

Maps and Virtual Tours

- [http://lxtosh.ifsi.rm.cnr.it/SZ/superdarn/venice_map.htm Map of Venice] (at SuperDARN workshop)
- [http://www.jc-r.net/venezia/palazzi/indexe.html Architecture of Venice: palaces]
- [http://www.carfree.com/ven/index.html A virtual tour of Venice, Europe's largest carfree city]
- [http://maps.google.com/maps?q=venice,+italy&ll=45.436406,12.337475&spn=0.048061,0.164383&t=k&hl=en Satellite image from Google Maps]

Webcams

- [http://www.sionvalais.com/index/region/Venezia/ Venice Webcams]
- [http://turismo.regione.veneto.it/webcam/body.htm A real-time webcam] (Canal Grande from Palazzo Balbi toward Rialto) Category:Venice Category:Towns in the Veneto Category:Coastal cities Category:Repubbliche Marinare of Italy Category:World Heritage Sites in Italy ko:베네치아 ja:ヴェネツィア simple:Venice

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

). Maximilian holds his personal emblem, the pomegranate.]] Maximilian I of Habsburg (March 22, 1459 – January 12, 1519) was Holy Roman Emperor.

Life and reign in the Habsburg hereditary lands

Reign in the Holy Roman Empire

Tu felix Austria nube

Death and legacy

Marriages

- Mary of Burgundy (1457-1482) - married in Ghent on August 18, 1477
- Bianca Maria Sforza (1472-1510)- married 1493

Children

Venice

History

Naval and military affairs

Transport

Demographics

Places of note

Sestieri

Piazzas and Campi of Venice

- Piazza San Marco
- Campo San Polo

Palaces

- Doge's Palace
- Palazzo Grassi
- Ca' d'Oro
- Ca' Rezzonico
- Peggy Guggenheim Collection museum
- Palazzo Labia

Churches

- Basilica di San Marco
- Other churches

Other buildings

- The Arsenal
- La Fenice opera house
- Accademia

Bridges and channels

- Rialto Bridge
- The Bridge of Sighs
- Accademia Bridge
- Scalzi Bridge

Surroundings

- The Venetian Lagoon
- Islands:
- Burano
- Lido
- Murano
- San Michele
- Sant'Erasmo
- San Lazzaro degli Armeni
- Torcello
- Vignole
- Giudecca

Sinking of Venice

Venice in culture, the arts, and fiction

Miscellaneous

Famous Venetians

Foreign words of Venetian origin

- arsenal, ciao, ghetto, gondola, lagoon, lido, Montenegro.
- "Venezuela" means "little Venice".

Bibliography

Scholarship

External links

Resources in Venice

Venice guides

- [http://www.guida.venezia.it/ Guida a Venezia] (events calendar)
- [http://www.alberghi-a.venezia.it/veniceinfo.htm Informations and useful numbers about Venice]

Maps and Virtual Tours

Webcams

League of Cambrai

The War of the League of Cambrai (1508–16), sometimes known as the War of the Holy League and by several other names, was a major conflict in the Italian Wars. The principal participants of the war were France, the Papal States, and the Republic of Venice; they were joined, at various times, by nearly every significant power in western Europe, including Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, England, Scotland, the Duchy of Milan, Florence, the Duchy of Ferrara, and the Swiss. Pope Julius II had intended that the war would curb Venetian influence in northern Italy, and had, to this end, created the League of Cambrai (named after Cambrai, where the negotiations took place), an alliance against the Republic that included, besides himself, Louis XII of France, Emperor Maximilian I, and Ferdinand I of Spain. Although the League was initially successful, friction between Julius and Louis caused it to collapse by 1510; Julius then allied himself with Venice against France. The Veneto-Papal alliance eventually expanded into the Holy League, which drove the French from Italy in 1512; disagreements about the division of the spoils, however, led Venice to abandon the alliance in favor of one with France. Under the leadership of Francis I, who had succeeded Louis to the throne, the French and Venetians would, through their victory at Marignano in 1515, regain the territory they had lost; the treaties of Noyon and Brussels, which ended the war the next year, would essentially return the map of Italy to the status quo of 1508.

Prelude

In the aftermath of the First Italian War, Pope Alexander VI had moved to consolidate Papal control over central Italy by seizing the Romagna. Cesare Borgia, acting as gonfaloniere of the Papal armies, had expelled the Bentivoglio family from Bologna, which they had ruled as a fief, and was well on his way towards establishing a permanent Borgia state in the region when Alexander died on August 18, 1503. Although Cesare managed to seize the remnants of the Papal treasury for his own use, he was unable to secure Rome itself, as French and Spanish armies converged on the city in an attempt to influence the Papal conclave; the election of Pius III (who soon died, to be replaced by Julius II) stripped Cesare of his titles and relegated him to commanding a company of men-at-arms. Sensing Cesare's weakness, the dispossessed lords of the Romagna offered to submit to the Republic of Venice in exchange for aid in regaining their dominions; the Senate accepted and had taken possession of Rimini, Faenza, and a number of other cities by the end of 1503. Julius II, having secured his own control of the Papal armies by arresting and imprisoning Cesare, first in Rome and later in Madrid, quickly moved to re-establish Papal control over the Romagna by demanding that Venice return the cities she had seized; the Republic, although willing to acknowledge Papal sovereignty over them and pay Julius an annual tribute, refused to surrender the cities themselves. In response, Julius concluded an alliance with France and the Holy Roman Empire against Venice; the death of Isabella of Spain and the resulting collapse of relations between the parties soon dissolved the alliance, but not before Venice had been induced to abandon several of the cities. Julius, although unsatisfied with his gains, did not himself possess sufficient forces to fight the Republic; for the next two years he instead occupied himself with the reconquest of Bologna and Perugia, which, located between Papal and Venetian territory, had in the meantime assumed a state of quasi-independence. In 1507, Julius returned to the question of the cities in Venetian hands; once again rebuffed by the Senate, he encouraged the recently elected Emperor Maximilian I to attack the Republic. Maximilian, using his journey to Rome for the Imperial coronation as a pretext, entered Venetian territory with a large army in February 1508 and advanced on Vicenza, but was defeated by a Venetian army under Bartolomeo d'Alviano. A second assault by a Tyrolean force several weeks later was an even greater failure; Alviano not only routed the Imperial army but also proceeded to seize Trieste and Fiume, forcing Maximilian to conclude a truce with Venice.

League of Cambrai (1508–10)

Julius, humiliated by the failure of the Imperial invasion, turned to Louis XII of France (who, having been left in possession of Milan after the Second Italian War, was interested in further expansion into Italy) with an offer of alliance. In mid-March, the Republic provided a pretext for an attack on itself by appointing her own candidate to the vacant bishopric of Vicenza (an act in keeping with prevailing custom, though Julius considered it a personal provocation); the Pope proceeded to call for all Christian nations to join him in an expedition to subdue Venice. On December 10, 1508, representatives of the Papacy, France, the Holy Roman Empire, and Ferdinand II of Aragon concluded the League of Cambrai against the Republic. The agreement provided for the complete dismemberment of Venice's territory in Italy and for its partition among the signatories: Maximilian, in addition to regaining Istria, would receive Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and the Friuli; France would annex Brescia, Crema, Bergamo, and Cremona to its Milanese possessions; Ferdinand would seize Otranto; and the remainder, including Rimini and Ravenna, would be added to the Papal States. On April 15, 1509, Louis left Milan at the head of a French army and moved rapidly into Venetian territory. To oppose him, Venice had hired a condottiere army under the command of the Orsini cousins—Bartolomeo d'Alviano and Nicolo di Pitigliano—but had failed to account for the fact that the two disagreed on how best to stop the French advance. Consequently, when Louis crossed the Adda River in early May and Alviano advanced to meet him, Pitigliano, believing it best to avoid a pitched battle, moved away to the south. On May 14, Alviano confronted the French at the Battle of Agnadello; outnumbered, he sent requests for reinforcements to his cousin, who replied with orders to break off the battle and continued on his way. Alviano, disregarding the new orders, continued the engagement; his army was eventually surrounded and destroyed. Pitigliano managed to avoid encountering Louis; but his mercenary troops, hearing of Alviano's defeat, had deserted in large numbers by the next morning, forcing him to retreat to Treviso with the remnants of the Venetian army. The Venetian collapse was complete; Louis proceeded to occupy Venetian territory as far east as Brescia without encountering any significant resistance. The major cities that had not been occupied by the French—Padua, Verona, and Vicenza—were left undefended by Pitigliano's withdrawal, and quickly surrendered to Maximilian when Imperial emissaries arrived in the Veneto. Julius, having in the meantime issued an interdict against Venice that excommunicated every citizen of the Republic, invaded the Romagna and seized Ravenna with the assistance of the Duke of Ferrara, who had joined the League and seized the Polesine for himself. The newly arrived Imperial governors, however, quickly proved to be unpopular. In mid-July, the citizens of Padua, aided by detachments of Venetian cavalry under the command of the proveditor Andrea Gritti, revolted; the landsknechts garrisoning the city were too few in number to mount effective resistance and Padua was restored to Venetian control on July 17. The success of the revolt finally pushed Maximilian into action. In early August, a massive Imperial army, accompanied by bodies of French and Spanish troops, set out from Trento into the Veneto. Because of a lack of horses, as well as general disorganization, Maximilian's forces would not reach Padua until September, giving Pitigliano the time to concentrate such troops as were still available to him in the city. The Siege of Padua began on September 15; although French and Imperial artillery successfully breached Padua's walls, the defenders managed to hold the city until Maximilian, growing impatient, lifted the siege on September 30 and withdrew to Tyrol with the main part of his army. Tyrol In mid-November, Pitigliano returned to the offensive; Venetian troops easily defeated the remaining Imperial forces, capturing Vicenza, Este, Feltre, and Belluno. Although a subsequent attack on Verona failed, Pitigliano managed to destroy a Papal army under Francesco II of Gonzaga in the process. A river attack on Ferrara by the Venetian galley fleet under Angelo Trevisan failed, however, when the Venetian ships, anchored in the Po River, were sunk by Ferrarese artillery; and a new French advance soon forced Pitigliano to withdraw to Padua once again. Faced with a shortage of both funds and men, the Senate decided to send an embassy to Julius in order to negotiate a settlement. The terms insisted on by the Pope were harsh: the Republic lost her traditional power to appoint clergy in her territory, as well as all jurisdiction over Papal subjects in Venice, the Romagnan cities that had prompted the war were to be returned to Julius, and reparations were to be paid to cover his expenses in capturing them. The Senate argued over the terms for two months, but finally accepted them on February 24, 1510. Even before the Venetian ambassadors had presented themselves to Julius for absolution, however, the Council of Ten had privately resolved that the terms had been accepted under duress and were therefore invalid; and that Venice should violate them at the earliest opportunity. This reconciliation between Venice and the Pope did not stop the French from again invading the Veneto in March. Pitigliano's death in January had left Andrea Gritti in command of the Venetian forces; although Maximilian failed to reinforce Louis, the French army was nonetheless sufficient to drive the Venetians from Vicenza by May. Gritti garrisoned Padua for an expected attack by a combined Franco-Imperial army; but Louis, more concerned by the death of his advisor, the Cardinal d'Amboise, abandoned his plans for a siege.

Veneto-Papal alliance (1510–11)

Julius, meanwhile, had become increasingly concerned by the growing French presence in Italy; more significantly, he had formulated plans to seize the Duchy of Ferrara, a French ally, and to add its territory to the Papal States. His own forces being inadequate for the venture, the Pope hired an army of Swiss mercenaries, ordering them to attack the French in Milan; he also invited Venice to ally with him against Louis. The Republic, facing a renewed French onslaught, readily accepted the offer. Swiss mercenaries; excommunicated by Julius, he inflicted a number of defeats on the Papal forces.]] By July 1510, the new Veneto-Papal alliance was on the offensive. An initial attack on French-occupied Genoa failed, but Venetian troops under Lucio Malvezzo finally drove the French from Vicenza in early August; and a joint force commanded by the Duke of Urbino captured Modena on August 17. Julius now excommunicated Alfonso d'Este, thus justifying an attack on the Duchy itself; in anticipation of his coming victory, the Pope traveled to Bologna, so as to be nearby when Ferrara was taken. The French army, however, had been left unopposed by the Swiss (who, having arrived in Lombardy, had been bribed into leaving by Louis) and was free to march south into the heart of Italy. In early October, Charles d'Amboise advanced on Bologna, splitting the Papal forces; by October 18, he was only a few miles from the city. Julius now realized that the Bolognese were openly hostile to the Papacy and would not offer any resistance to the French; left with only a detachment of Venetian cavalry, he resorted to excommunicating d'Amboise, who had in the meantime been convinced by the English ambassador to avoid attacking the person of the Pope and had thus withdrawn to Ferrara. In December, a newly assembled Papal army besieged the fortress of Mirandola; d'Amboise, marching to relieve it, fell ill and died, briefly leaving the French in disarray. Alfonso d'Este, meanwhile, confronted and destroyed the Venetian forces on the Po River, leaving Bologna isolated once more. Julius, afraid of being trapped by the French, departed the city for Ravenna. Cardinal Alidosi, whom he left behind to command the defense of the city, was no better liked by the Bolognese than Julius himself had been; and when, on May 23, 1511, a French army commanded by Gian Giacomo Trivulzio arrived at the gates, they quickly surrendered. Julius blamed this defeat on the Duke of Urbino, who, finding this quite unfair, proceeded to murder Alidosi in full view of the Papal guard.

Holy League (1511–13)

By June 1511, most of the Romagna was in French hands; the Papal army, disorganized and underpaid, was in no condition to prevent Trivulzio from advancing on Ravenna. In response to this debacle, Julius proclaimed a Holy League against France. The new alliance rapidly grew to include not only Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, who abandoned any pretense of adhering to the League of Cambrai in hopes of seizing Navarre and Lombardy from Louis, but also Henry VIII of England, who had decided to use the occasion as an excuse to expand his holdings in northern France. Henry VIII of England heralded a long period of defeats for France.]] In February 1512, Louis appointed his nephew, Gaston de Foix, to command the French forces in Italy. Foix proved more energetic than Amboise had been; having checked the advance of Ramon de Cardona's Spanish troops on Bologna, he returned to Lombardy to sack Brescia, which had rebelled against the French and garrisoned itself with Venetian troops. Aware that much of the French army would be diverted to deal with the impending English invasion, Foix and Alfonso d'Este besieged Ravenna, the last Papal stronghold in the Romagna, in hopes of forcing the Holy League into a decisive engagement. Cardona marched to relieve the city in early April, and was decisively beaten in the resulting Battle of Ravenna; the death of Foix during the fighting, however, left the French under the command of Jacques de la Palice, who, unwilling to continue the campaign without direct orders from Louis, contented himself with thoroughly sacking Ravenna. By May 1512, the French position had deteriorated considerably. Julius had hired another army of Swiss mercenaries; they descended on Milan, bringing with them Maximilian Sforza, who was determined to regain control of the Duchy for his family. La Palice abandoned the Romagna (where the Duke of Urbino quickly captured Bologna and Parma) and retreated to Lombardy, where he was initially successful in halting the Swiss advance. In June, however, he was recalled to France to face the invasions launched by the Spanish and English armies; by August, the Swiss had combined with the Venetian army and seized control of Milan, where Sforza was proclaimed duke with their support. In late August, the members of the League met at Mantua to discuss the situation in Italy (particularly the partition of territory acquired from the French). They quickly came to an agreement regarding Florence, which had angered Julius by allowing Louis to convene the Council of Pisa in its territory. At the Pope's request, Ramon de Cardona marched into Tuscany, smashed Florentine resistance, overthrew the Republic, and installed Cardinal Guiliano de' Medici as ruler of the city. On the subject of territory, however, fundamental disagreements quickly arose. Julius and the Venetians insisted that Maximilian Sforza be permitted to keep the Duchy of Milan; Emperor Maximilian and Ferdinand conspired instead to have one of their cousins installed as duke. The Pope demanded the immediate annexation of Ferrara to the Papal States; Ferdinand objected to this arrangement, desiring the existence of an independent Ferrara to counter growing Papal power. Most problematic, however, was the attitude of Maximilian towards Venice. The Emperor refused to surrender any Imperial territory, which in his eyes included most of the Veneto, to the Republic; to this end, he signed an agreement with the Pope to exclude Venice entirely from the final partition. When the Republic objected, Julius threatened to reform the League of Cambrai against her. In response, Venice turned to Louis; on March 23, 1513, a treaty pledging to divide all of northern Italy between France and the Republic was signed at Blois.

Franco-Venetian alliance (1513–16)

In late May 1513, a French army commanded by Louis de la Trémoille crossed the Alps and advanced on Milan; at the same time, Bartolomeo d'Alviano and the Venetian army marched west from Padua. The unpopularity of Maximilian Sforza, who was seen by the Milanese as a puppet of his Swiss mercenaries, enabled the French to move through Lombardy without encountering any significant resistance until, on June 6, they were confronted by the Swiss at the Battle of Novara, where they were routed despite having superior numbers. Detachments of the Swiss army pursued the fleeing French over the Alps and had reached Dijon before being bribed into withdrawing. The rout at Novara inaugurated a period of continuous defeats for the French alliance. English troops under Henry VIII attacked La Palice at the Battle of Guinegate, scattered the French forces, and proceeded to sack Therouanne. In Navarre, resistance to Ferdinand's invasion collapsed; he rapidly consolidated his hold over the entire region and moved to support another English offensive in the Guyenne. James IV of Scotland invaded England at the behest of Louis; he failed to draw Henry's attention from France, and his disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field on September 9, 1513, ended Scotland's brief involvement in the war. 1513 Meanwhile, Alviano, unexpectedly left without French support, retreated into the Veneto, pursued closely by the Spanish army under Cardona. While the Spanish were unable to capture Padua in the face of determined Venetian resistance, they penetrated deep into Venetian territory and by late September were in sight of Venice itself. Cardona attempted a bombardment of the city that proved largely ineffective; then, having no boats with which to cross the lagoon, turned back for Lombardy. Alviano, having been reinforced by hundreds of volunteers from the Venetian nobility, pursued Cardona and confronted him outside Vicenza on October 7. In the resulting Battle of La Motta, the Venetian army was decisively defeated, with many prominent noblemen cut down outside the city walls as they attempted to flee. However, the Holy League failed to follow up on these victories. Cardona and Alviano continued to skirmish in the Friuli for the rest of 1513 and through 1514, fighting several inconclusive battles, but Cardona was unable to make any real progress. Henry VIII, having failed to gain any significant territory, concluded a separate peace with France. Finally, the death of Julius left the League without a leader; Julius' successor to the Papacy, Leo X, was rather less concerned with military matters. The death of Louis XII on January 1, 1515, brought Francis I to the throne. Having assumed the title of Duke of Milan at his coronation, Francis immediately moved to reclaim his holdings in Italy. By July, Francis had assembled an army in the Dauphiné. A combined Swiss and Papal force moved north from Milan to block the Alpine passes against him, but Francis, following the advice of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, avoided the main passes and marched instead through the valley of the Stura. The French vanguard surprised the Milanese cavalry at Villafranca, capturing Prospero Colonna; meanwhile, Francis and the main body of the French confronted the Swiss at the Battle of Marignano on September 13. The Swiss initially held their ground; however, Francis' superiority in cavalry and artillery, together with the timely arrival of Alviano (who had successfully avoided Cardona's army at Verona) on the morning of September 14, led to a decisive victory for Francis and the Venetians.

Aftermath

After the defeat at Marignano, the League no longer possessed the ability or the will to continue the war. Francis advanced on Milan, capturing the city on October 4 and removing Sforza from the throne. In December, he met with Leo at Bologna; the pope, who had in the meantime been deserted by the remainder of his Swiss mercenaries, surrendered Parma and Piacenza to Francis and Modena to the Duke of Ferrara. In return, Leo received guarantees of French noninterference in his proposed attack on the Duchy of Urbino. Finally, the Treaty of Noyon, signed by Francis and