These foolish counselors, or, as Guicciardini calls them, ’men of low estate, body-servants for the most part of the king,’ were headed by Stephen de Vesc, who had been raised from the post of the king’s valet de chambre to be the Seneschal de Beaucaire, and by William Briconnet, formerly a merchant, now Bishop of S. Malo.  These men had everything to gain by an undertaking which would flatter the vanity of their master, and draw him into still closer relations with themselves.  Consequently, when the Count of Belgioioso arrived at the French Court from Milan, urging the king to press his claims on Naples, and promising him a free entrance into Italy through the province of Lombardy and the port of Genoa, he found ready listeners.  Anne de Beaujeu in vain opposed the scheme.  The splendor and novelty of the proposal to conquer such a realm as Italy inflamed the imagination of Charles, the cupidity of his courtiers, the ambition of de Vesc and Briconnet.  In order to assure his situation at home, Charles concluded treaties with the neighboring great powers.  He bought peace with Henry VII. of England by the payment of large sums of money.  The Emperor Maximilian, whose resentment he had aroused by sending back his daughter Margaret after breaking his promise to marry her, and by taking to wife Anne of Brittany, who was already engaged to the Austrian, had to be appeased by the cession of provinces.  Ferdinand of Spain received as the price of his neutrality the strong places of the Pyrenees which formed the key to France upon that side.  Having thus secured tranquillity at home by ruinous concessions, Charles was free to turn his attention to Italy.  He began by concentrating stores and ships on the southern ports of Marseilles and Genoa; then he moved downward with his army, to Lyons, in 1494.

At this point we are called to consider the affairs of Italy, which led the Sforza to invite his dangerous ally.  Lorenzo de’ Medici during his lifetime had maintained a balance of power between the several states by his treaties with the Courts of Milan, Naples, and Ferrara.  When he died, Piero at once showed signs of departure from his father’s policy.  The son and husband of Orsini,[1] he embraced the feudal pride and traditional partialities of the great Roman house who had always been devoted to the cause of Naples.  The suspicions of Lodovico Sforza were not unreasonably aroused by noticing that the tyrant of Florence inclined to the alliance of King Ferdinand rather than to his own friendship.  At this same time Alfonso, the Duke of Calabria, heir to the throne of Naples, was pressing the rights of his son-in-law, Gian Galeazzo Sforza, on the attention of Italy, complaining loudly that his uncle Lodovico ought no longer to withhold from him the reins of government.[2] Gian Galcazzo was in fact the legitimate successor of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, who had been murdered in Santo Stefano in 1476.  After this assassination Madonna Bona of Savoy and Cecco Simonetta, who had administered