Kingdom of Sardinia Regnu Sardu (srd) Regno di Sardegna (it) Regn 'd Sardëgna (pms)
↓ 1297–1861 →
Flag (1848–1860) Coat of arms
Kingdom of Sardinia in 1815: Mainland Piedmont with Savoy, Nice, Genoa and the island of Sardinia.
Capital	Cagliari (1324-1720, 1800-1814) Turin (1720-1799, 1815-1861)
Language(s)	Arpitan, Catalan, French, Gallurese, Italian, Ligurian, Occitan, Piedmontese, Sardinian, Sassarese, Spanish
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Government	Monarchy
King
- 1297–1327	James II
- 1849–1861	Victor Emmanuel II
Prime Minister
- 1848	Cesare Balbo (first)
- 1860–1861	Camillo Benso (last)
Legislature	Stamenti (until 1848)
- Upper house	Subalpine Senate (since 1848)
- Lower house	Chamber of Deputies (since 1848)
History
- James II of Aragon is crowned King of Sardinia by Boniface VIII	April 04 1297
- Battle of Lucocisterna	Febbruary 29, 1324
- Battle of Sanluri,	June 30, 1409
- Sale of the remaining territories of Arborea	August 17, 1420
- Treaty of The Hague	Febbruary 20, 1720
- Italian unification	March 17, 1861
Population
- 1859 est.	4,650,368
Currency	Piedmontese scudo (Mainland, 1720–1800) Sardinian scudo (Island, 1720–1821) Sardinian lira (1816–1861)
Preceded by Succeeded by Republic of Pisa Sassari Giudicato of Arborea Doria Malaspina family Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)

The Kingdom of Sardinia comprised initially the island of Sardinia, first as a part of the Crown of Aragon and subsequently the Spanish Empire (1297–1720),^[1] and second as a part of the composite state of the House of Savoy (1720–1861), giving his name to the entire State. Its capital was originally Cagliari, in the south of the island, and later Turin, on the mainland. The kingdom was formed by Pope Boniface VIII from a papal claim to the islands of Corsica and Sardinia in 1297 and bestowed, as a vassal of the Holy See, on James II of Aragon.^[1] It was not until 1324 that James launched a military campaign to take control of his kingdom, and not until 1448 that the last resistance fell. In 1416 the first of a long line of viceroys was appointed, and in 1420 the main competing claim to the island was bought out.

From 1516 the Aragonese and by extension the Sardinian crown were in personal union with the Kingdom of Castile and thus formed a part of the much larger Spanish Empire.^[1] During this period the Spanish language was introduced for administration. In 1713, following the War of the Spanish Succession, the Kingdom of Sardinia was ceded to the Habsburgs by the Treaty of Utrecht for the loss of their Spanish kingdoms. By the same treaty Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy, received the Kingdom of Sicily, supplying him with the coveted royal rank.^[2] By 1720 the balance of power had shifted again and the House of Savoy was forced to exchange Sicily with the Habsburgs for Sardinia (Treaty of The Hague). At that time the Kingdom of Sardinia refers to the states of the House of Savoy from 1720 or 1723 onwards (also known as Piedmont-Sardinia), following the award of the crown of Sardinia to King Victor Amadeus II of Savoy under the Treaty of The Hague (1720).

After 1720 the kingdom became a composite state and besides Sardinia included Duchy of Savoy, Piedmont, Nice, Duchy of Aosta, Duchy of Monferrato, Vercelli and Asti, the Marquisate of Saluzzo and part of the Duchy of Milan; the Ligurian Republic, including Genoa, was added by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. All these territories became a unitary state in 1848 with the Perfect Fusion. Officially, the nation's name was Kingdom of Sardinia^[1] and his hymn was the Sardinian national anthem (Sardinian: S'hymnu sardu nationale) alongside the Marcia Reale (Royal March of Ordinance). The House of Savoy maintaining a national claim to the thrones of Cyprus and Jerusalem, although both had long been under Ottoman rule and never conquered (the title was merely a formal title). In 1860, Nice and Savoy were ceded to France in return for French consent and assistance in Italian unification. In 1861, the Kingdom of Sardinia became the founding state of the new Kingdom of Italy, annexing all other Italian states. The Kingdom thus continued in legal continuity with the actual Italian state, to which it transferred all its institutions first to Kingdom of Italy and after to Italian Republic.^[1]

Spanish rule (1297–1720)[link]

Crown of Aragon (1297–1479)[link]

In 1297, Pope Boniface VIII, intervening between the Houses of Anjou and Aragon in the war called Sicilian Vespers, established on paper a Regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae that would be a fief of the Papacy (although in the island, however, State entities already existed, called giudicati). Then the Pope offered his newly-invented fief to James II of Aragon, promising him his support should he wish to conquer the islands in exchange for Sicily. In 1323 James II formed an alliance with Hugh II of Arborea and, following a military campaign which lasted a year or so, occupied the Pisan territories of Cagliari and Gallura along with the allied city of Sassari, claiming the territory as the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica.

Aragon in the 15th century.

In 1347 Aragon made war on Genoa (who owned large areas of the Logudoro) then, starting from 1353, fought with the Arborean leader Marianus IV, but did not conquer the last surviving giudicato until 1410s when the Arborean attempts of conquering the young Kingdom of Sardinia vanished due to the heavy defeat at the Battle of Sanluri by Martin the Younger. In 1420, after the sale of rights of the Giudicato of Arborea, the Sardinian conquest of the island was nearly completed and the royal territory for the first time after almost a century of wars, coincided with almost the entire island; two little exceptions were the genoese city of Castelsardo ruled by the Doria family and called at that time Casteldoria or Castelgenovese, that was to be conquered only in 1448, and the Maddalena archipelago, often contended with the genoese Corsica.
The Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica retained its separate character as part of the Crown of Aragon and was not merely incorporated into the Kingdom of Aragon, as the other kingdoms were (Valencia, Mallorca, the principality of Catalunia, and so on). At the time of his struggles with Arborea, Peter IV of Aragon granted an autonomous legislature to the Kingdom, which had one of Europe's most advanced legal traditions^{[citation needed]}. The Kingdom was governed in the king's name by a viceroy. When in 1504 the king's wife and Castilian ruling queen, Isabella, died, the Kingdom of Sardinia passed with all kingdoms of the Castilian and Aragonese crowns to a personal union that was to be called Spain. Corsica, which had never been conquered, was dropped from the formal title. In the Catalan period, Sardinia, ruled through an effective feudalism, formed part of the so-called route of the islands^[3] and somehow flourished; nevertheless, in the Spanish period, the discovery of the Americas, and also the barbary corsairs provoked a kind of decline of the Kingdom of Sardinia. A short period of rebellion occurred under the nobleman Leonardo de Alagon, marquess of Oristano, who managed to defeat the viceroy's army in the 1470s but was later crushed at the battle of Macomer in 1478.

Spanish Empire (1479–1700)[link]

Unceasing attacks from North African pirates and a series of plagues (from 1582, 1652 and 1655) worsened the situation on the island early in the reign of the Catholic Monarchs.

In 1564 Philip II of Spain established the Reale Udienza as a tribunal for Sardinia, so that appellants would not have to go to Aragon to have their cases heard. The Udienza remained Sardinia's supreme court until 1847.

Sardinia between two powers (1700–1720)[link]

Map of the Kingdom of Sardinia

The Spanish domination of Sardinia ended at the beginning of the 18th century, as a result of War of the Spanish succession. By the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, Spain's European empire was divided: Savoy received Sicily and parts of the Duchy of Milan, while Charles VI (the Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria), received the Spanish Netherlands, the Kingdom of Naples, Sardinia, and the bulk of the Duchy of Milan.

During the War of the Quadruple Alliance, Victor Amadeus II, duke of Savoy and sovereign of Piedmont, had to agree to yield Sicily to the Austrian Habsburgs and receive Sardinia in exchange. The exchange was formally ratified in the Treaty of The Hague of February 17, 1720. Because a kingdom of Sardinia had existed since the 14th century, the exchange allowed Victor Amadeus to retain the title of king in spite of the loss of Sicily.^[4][5] Victor Amadeus initially resisted the exchange, and until 1723 continued to style himself King of Sicily rather than King of Sardinia.^[6]

Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy (1553-80), called Ironhead.

Savoyard rule (1720–1861)[link]

Early history of Piedmont[link]

Piedmont was inhabited in early historic times by Celtic-Ligurian tribes such as the Taurini and the Salassi. They later submitted to the Romans (c. 220 BC), who founded several colonies there including Augusta Taurinorum (Turin) and Eporedia (Ivrea). After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was repeatedly invaded by the Burgundians, the Goths (5th century), Byzantines, Lombards (6th century), Franks (773). In the 9th-10th centuries there were further incursions by the Magyars and Saracens. At the time Piedmont, as part of the Kingdom of Italy within the Holy Roman Empire, was subdivided into several marks and counties.

In 1046, Oddo of Savoy added Piedmont to their main segment of Savoy, with a capital at Chambéry (now in France). Other areas remained independent, such as the powerful communes of Asti and Alessandria and the marquisates of Saluzzo and Montferrat. The County of Savoy was elevated to a duke in 1416, and Duke Emanuele Filiberto moved the seat to Turin in 1563.

In 1767–1769, Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia conquered the Maddalena archipelago from the Republic of Genoa, who ruled it with the island of Corsica.

King Charles Albert

Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna[link]

In 1792, Piedmont-Sardinia joined the First Coalition against the French First Republic, but was beaten in 1796 by Napoleon and forced to conclude the disadvantageous Treaty of Paris (1796), giving the French army free passage through Piedmont. On December 6, 1798, Joubert occupied Turin and forced Charles Emmanuel IV to abdicate and leave for the island of Sardinia. The provisionary government voted to unite Piedmont with France. In 1799, the Austro-Russians briefly occupied the city, but with the Battle of Marengo (1800), the French regained control. The island of Sardinia stayed out of the reach of the French for the rest of the war.

In 1814, the kingdom was restored and enlarged with the addition of the former Republic of Genoa, now a duchy, and it served as a buffer state against France. This was confirmed by the Congress of Vienna. In the reaction after Napoleon, the country was ruled by conservative monarchs: Victor Emmanuel I (1802–21), Charles Felix (1821–31) and Charles Albert (1831–49), who fought at the head of a contingent of his own troops at the Battle of Trocadero, which set the reactionary Ferdinand VII on the Spanish throne. Victor Emanuel I disbanded the entire Code Napoléon and returned the lands and power to the nobility and the Church. This reactionary policy went as far as discouraging the use of roads built by the French. These changes typified Piedmont. The Kingdom of Sardinia industrialized from 1830 onward. A constitution, the Statuto Albertino, was enacted in the year of revolutions, 1848, under liberal pressure, and under the same pressure Charles Albert declared war on Austria. After initial success the war took a turn for the worse and Charles Albert was defeated by Marshal Radetzky at Custozza.

Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour

Risorgimento[link]

Like all of Italy, the Kingdom of Sardinia was troubled with political instability, under alternating governments. After a very short and disastrous renewal of the war with Austria in 1849, Charles Albert abdicated on March 23, 1849, in favour of his son Victor Emmanuel II.

In 1852 a liberal ministry under Count Camillo Benso di Cavour was installed, and the Kingdom of Sardinia became the engine driving the Italian Unification. The Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont) took part in the Crimean War, allied with the Ottoman Empire, Britain, and France, and fighting against Russia.

In 1859 France sided with the Kingdom of Sardinia in a war against Austria, the Austro-Sardinian War. Napoleon III didn't keep his promises to Cavour to fight until all of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia had been conquered. Following the bloody battles of Magenta and Solferino, both French victories, Napoleon thought the war too costly to continue and made a separate peace behind Cavour's back in which only Lombardy would be ceded. Due to the Austrian government's refusal to cede any lands to the Kingdom of Sardinia, they agreed to cede Lombardy to Napoleon who in turn then ceded the territory to the Kingdom of Sardinia to avoid 'embarrassing' the defeated Austrians. Cavour angrily resigned from office when it became clear that Victor Emmanuel would accept the deal.

King Victor Emmanuel II meets Garibaldi in Teano (October 26, 1860)

Garibaldi and the Thousand[link]

On March 5, 1860 Parma, Tuscany, Modena, and Romagna voted in referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia. This alarmed Napoleon who feared a strong Savoyard state on his southeastern border and he insisted that if the Kingdom of Sardinia were to keep the new acquisitions they would have to cede Savoy and Nice to France. This was done after dubious referendums showed over 99.5% majorities in both areas in favour of joining France.

In 1860 Giuseppe Garibaldi started his campaign to conquer southern Italy in the name of the Kingdom of Sardinia. He quickly toppled the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and marched to Gaeta. Cavour was actually the most satisfied with the unification while Garibaldi wanted to conquer Rome. Garibaldi was too revolutionary for the king and his prime minister.

Towards Kingdom of Italy[link]

On March 17, 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed by the Parliament, so ratifying the annexations of all other Italian states to Piedmont. The institutions and laws of the Kingdom were quickly extended to all Italy, brutally abolishing the administrations of the other regions. Piedmont would become the most dominant and wealthiest region in Italy and the capital of Piedmont, Turin, would remain the Italian capital until 1865 when the capital was moved to Florence; but in contrast, many revolts exploded through the peninsula, especially in Southern Italy. The House of Savoy would rule the country until 1946 when Italy was declared a republic by referendum.

Kings of Sardinia (1297–1861)[link]

Alfonso IV of Aragon

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Victor Emmanuel II

Dynasty of the Counts of Barcelona:

• James II of Aragon (1324–1327)
• Alfonso IV of Aragon (1327–1336)
• Peter IV of Aragon (1336–1387)
• John I of Aragon (1387–1396)
• Martin of Aragon (1396–1410)

Dynasty of the Trastámara of Castile:

• Ferdinand I of Aragon (1412–1416)
• Alfonso V of Aragon (1416–1458)
• John II of Aragon (1458–1479)
• Ferdinand II of Aragon (1479–1516)

Dynasty of the Habsburgs of Spain:

• Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1516–1556)
• Philip II of Spain (1556–1598)
• Philip III of Spain (1598–1621)
• Philip IV of Spain (1621–1665)
• Charles II of Spain (1665–1700)

Dynasty of the Bourbons of Spain:

• Philip V of Spain (1700–1713)

Dynasty of the Habsburgs of Spain

• Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1713–1720)

Dynasty of Savoy:

• Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia (1720–1730)
• Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (1730–1773)
• Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia (1773–1796)
• Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia (1796–1802)
• Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia (1802–1821)
• Charles Felix of Sardinia (1821–1831)
• Charles Albert of Sardinia (1831–1849)
• Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia (1849–1861)

Flags[link]

When the Duke of Savoy added to his States the Kingdom of Sicily in 1713 and the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1723, it maintained its traditional flag depicting a white cross on a red field. But a problem arose: if the Duchy owned the small harbour of Nice only, the union with Sicily and then Sardinia gave to the Kingdom a quite big fleet, which had the same Flag of Malta. To disambiguate the ships of the two different States, the House of Savoy added a blue border to its flag, and then it reduced the cross in a single quarter.

The flag had following minor changes until 1848, when a revolution happened: to follow the liberal revolutions which were exploding in all Europe, King Charles Albert adopted the Napoleonic Italian tricolour, surmonted by the Savoyard shield, as national flag. This flag became the flag of Italy until 1946.

Territorial evolution of the Kingdom of Sardinia[link]

1324 - 1720[link]

1720 - 1861[link]

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Casula, Francesco Cesare (1994). Breve storia di Sardegna. Sassari: Carlo Delfino. ISBN 88-7138-065-7. 
• Hearder, Harry (1986). Italy in the Age of the Risorgimento, 1790-1870. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49146-0. 
• Martin, George Whitney (1969). The Red Shirt and the Cross of Savoy. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co.. ISBN 0-396-05908-2. 
• Storrs, Christopher (1999). War, Diplomacy and the Rise of Savoy, 1690-1720. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55146-3. 
• Thuesen, Nils Petter (2002). Verdens historie i årstall. Orion. ISBN 978-82-458-0517-8. 

External links[link]

• History of the flag of Sardinia-Piedmont
• Piedmont-Sardinia on Ohio University website

Charles Albert
King of Sardinia
Reign	27 April 1831 – 23 March 1849
Predecessor	Charles Felix
Successor	Victor Emmanuel II
Spouse	Maria Theresa of Austria
Issue
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa
Full name
Carlo Alberto Amedeo di Savoia
House	House of Savoy
Father	Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Carignano
Mother	Maria Christina of Saxony
Born	(1798-10-02)2 October 1798 Palazzo Carignano, Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia
Died	28 July 1849(1849-07-28) (aged 50) Porto, Kingdom of Portugal
Burial	Basilica of Superga, Turin

Charles Albert (Carlo Alberto Amedeo; 2 October 1798 – 28 July 1849) was the King of Piedmont-Sardinia from 1831 to 1849. He succeeded his distant cousin Charles Felix, and his name is bound with the first Italian statute and the First War of Independence (1848–49). He abdicated after his forces were defeated by the Austrian army at the Battle of Novara (1849), and died in exile soon thereafter.

Biography[link]

He was born in Turin in 1798, to Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Carignano and Maria Cristina of Saxony. His father was a fifth-generation descendant of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, founder of the Savoy-Carignano line of the House of Savoy. Because none of the sons of Victor Amadeus III themselves had sons, Charles Albert was throughout his life known to be their likely successor on the throne of Sardinia.

He was educated in the intellectually liberal and Francophile atmosphere of Geneva, then in Paris during the First French Empire. Napoleon I of France named him lieutenant of the dragoons in 1814. After the fall of Napoleon, Charles Albert returned to Turin. Two mentors were entrusted with countering the dangerous ideas about national liberation Charles had learned in France. However, he continued to display some sympathies with liberals.

In 1821, as regent for the kingdom in the absence of the new king, Charles Felix (then in Modena), he conceded a constitution that was disavowed by the king, who sent him to join the French army in Spain to suppress the liberal revolution there and restore Ferdinand VII. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Trocadero in 1823, which annihilated hopes of a constitutional monarchy for Spain and also gained him the favour of Austria.

Coat of Arms of the Kings of Sardinia of the House of Savoy after 1815.

Charles Albert succeeded Charles Felix to the throne of Sardinia in 1831. Although an Italian patriot allegedly opposed to the Austrian hegemony in Northern Italy, he put down the Mazzini conspiracy. He introduced a series of reforms that abolished domestic customs barriers within the kingdom, promulgated a constitutional law code (Statuto Albertino) inspired to those of France and Belgium, and supported the arts and sciences.

During the Revolutions of 1848 he agreed to a constitutional regime that remained in place for the century that the Kingdom of Italy lasted. The same year he declared war on Austria, with the small army supported by volunteers from the whole of Italy. However, after his initial victories lost him the support of the Pope and the other Italian monarchs, he was defeated at Battle of Custoza (24 July 1848), being forced to sign an armistice at Vigevano on 9 August. When, pushed by the increasing influence of the Republicans in Piedmont, he attempted to resume the war the next year, the Piedmontese were again crushed by Radetzky's troops at Novara. Rather than redrawing the Statute, he abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel fleeing in exile to Portugal.

He died at Porto the same year. His remains were transferred to the Basilica of Superga.

Friedrich Engels said of Charles Albert:

Among the indigenous princes, the number one enemy of Italian freedom was and is Charles Albert. The Italians should bear in mind and repeat every hour the old saying: "God watch over my friends, so that I can watch over my enemies." From Ferdinand of the House of Bourbon, there is nothing to fear; he has for a long time been discredited. Charles Albert on the other hand calls himself pompously the "liberator of Italy" while on the very people he is supposed to be liberating he imposes as a condition the yoke of his rule (Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 73, 12 August 1848).

Family and children[link]

In 1817, Charles Albert married his second cousin once removed, Maria Theresa of Austria, the youngest daughter of Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Princess Luisa of Naples and Sicily. The couple had the following children:

1. Victor Emmanuel II (1820–78) married Adelaide of Austria
2. Prince Ferdinand of Savoy (1822–55), Duke of Genoa married Princess Elisabeth of Saxony
3. Princess Maria Cristina of Savoy (1826–27) died in infancy.

Ancestry[link]

See also[link]

• Statuto Albertino
• First Italian War of Independence
• Risorgimento

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Charles Albert of Sardinia

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Charles Albert.

• Royal House of Savoy
• Grand-Ducal House of Tuscany
• Carlo Alberto
• Genealogy of recent members of the House of Savoy
• Genealogy.euweb.cz

v t e Kings of Sardinia Victor Amadeus II (1720–1730) · Charles Emmanuel III (1730–1773) · Victor Amadeus III (1773–1796) · Charles Emmanuel IV (1796–1802) · Victor Emmanuel I (1802–1821) · Charles Felix (1821–1831) · Charles Albert (1831–1849) · Victor Emmanuel II (1849–1861)

Italian Wars
The Battle of Pavia by an unknown Flemish artist (oil on panel, 16th century).
Date 1494–1559 Location Southern and Western Europe Result Habsburg victory, Spain becomes the premier European power
Belligerents
France, the Holy Roman Empire, the states of Italy (notably the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, the Papal States, the Republic of Florence, and the Duchy of Ferrara), England, Scotland, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, the Swiss, Saxony, and others

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Italy Portal v t e

The Italian Wars, often referred to as the Great Italian Wars or the Great Wars of Italy and sometimes as the Habsburg–Valois Wars or the Renaissance Wars, were a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559 that involved, at various times, most of the city-states of Italy, the Papal States, most of the major states of Western Europe (France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, England, and Scotland) as well as the Ottoman Empire. Originally arising from dynastic disputes over the Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples, the wars rapidly became a general struggle for power and territory among their various participants, and were marked with an increasing number of alliances, counter-alliances, and betrayals.

Prelude[link]

Following the Wars in Lombardy between Venice and Milan, which ended in 1454, Northern Italy had been largely at peace during the reigns of Cosimo de' Medici and Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence, with the notable exception of the War of Ferrara in 1482-1484.

Spain had promised not to interfere with France's adventures in Italy in return for Roussillon and Cerdagne, which were ceded to Spain under the Treaty of Barcelona of 1492.

The wars[link]

Italy in 1494

Italian War of 1494–98[link]

Ludovico Sforza of Milan, seeking an ally against the Republic of Venice, encouraged Charles VIII of France to invade Italy, using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples as a pretext. When Ferdinand I of Naples died in 1494, Charles invaded the peninsula with twenty-five thousand men (including 8,000 Swiss mercenaries), possibly hoping to use Naples as a base for a crusade against the Ottoman Turks.^[1] For several months, French forces moved through Italy virtually unopposed, since the condottieri armies of the Italian city-states were unable to resist them. Their sack of Naples finally provoked a reaction, however, and the League of Venice was formed against them, effectively cutting off Charles's army from France. Despite a tactical victory of French armies against the League at the battle of Fornovo, the formation of the League to his rear forced Charles to withdraw to France, Fornovo itself being merely a successful fighting withdrawal. After initial reverses, most notably the disastrous Battle of Seminara, Ferdinand II of Naples, with the able assistance of the Spanish general Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, reduced the French garrison in the Kingdom of Naples. Ludovico, having betrayed the French at Fornovo, retained his throne until 1499, when Charles's successor, Louis XII of France, invaded Lombardy and seized Milan, to which he had a claim in right of his paternal grandmother Valentina Visconti.^[2]

Italian War of 1499–1504[link]

In 1500, Louis, having reached an agreement with Ferdinand II of Aragon to divide Naples, marched south from Milan. By 1502, a combined French and Spanish force had seized control of the kingdom; disagreements about the terms of the partition led to a war between Louis and Ferdinand. By 1503 Louis, having been defeated at the Battle of Cerignola and Battle of Garigliano, was forced to withdraw from Naples, which was left under the control of a Spanish viceroy, General de Córdoba.

War of the League of Cambrai[link]

Meanwhile, Pope Julius II was more concerned with curbing the territorial expansion of the Republic of Venice, and in 1508 formed the League of Cambrai, in which France, the Papacy, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire agreed to restrain the Venetians. Although the League destroyed much of the Venetian army at the Battle of Agnadello in 1509, it failed to capture Padua, and in 1510, Julius, now regarding France as a greater threat, left the League and allied himself with Venice. Following a year of fighting over the Romagna, during which the Veneto-Papal alliance was repeatedly defeated, the Pope proclaimed a Holy League against the French; this rapidly grew to include England, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire.