of Brittany, and the address of Louis's daughter, the Lady
of Beaujeu, who was regent of the realm, prevailed to secure the hand of
the heiress for her brother, Charles VIII. Thus the crown of France had
by purchase, conquest, or inheritance, obtained all the great feudal
states that made up the country between the English Channel and the
Pyrenees; but each still remained a separate state, with different laws
and customs, and a separate parliament in each to register laws, and to
act as a court of justice.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ITALIAN WARS.

1. Campaign of Charles VIII. (1493).--From grasping at province after
province on their own border, however, the French kings were now to turn
to wider dreams of conquest abroad. Together with the county of
Provence, Louis XI. had bought from King Rene all the claims of the
house of Anjou. Among these was included a claim to the kingdom of
Naples. Louis's son, _Charles VIII._, a vain and shallow lad, was
tempted by the possession of large treasures and a fine army to listen
to the persuasions of an Italian intriguer, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of
Milan, and put forward these pretensions, thus beginning a war which
lasted nearly as long as the Hundred Years' War with England. But it was
a war of aggression instead of a war of self-defence. Charles crossed
the Alps in 1493, marched the whole length of Italy without opposition,
and was crowned at Naples; while its royal family, an illegitimate
offshoot from the Kings of Aragon, fled into Sicily, and called on
Spain for help. But the insolent exactions of the French soldiery caused
the people to rise against them; and when Charles returned, he was beset
at Fornovo by a great league of Italians, over whom he gained a complete
victory. Small and puny though he was, he fought like a lion, and seemed
quite inspired by the ardour of combat. The "French fury," _la furia
Francese_, became a proverb among the Italians. Charles neglected,
however, to send any supplies or reinforcements to the garrisons he had
left behind him in Naples, and they all perished under want, sickness,
and the sword of the Spaniards. He was meditating another expedition,
when he struck his head against the top of a doorway, and died in 1498.

2. Campaign of Louis XII.--His cousin, _Louis XII._, married his
widow, and thus prevented Brittany from again parting from the crown.
Louis not only succeeded to the Angevin right to Naples, but through his
grandmother he v