The settlement made by Charles V. in 1530, and the various changes which took place in the duchies between that date and the end of the century, had then the effect of rendering the Papacy and Spain omnipotent in Italy.  These kindred autocrats were joined in firm alliance, except during the brief period of Paul IV.’s French policy, which ended in the Pope’s complete discomfiture by Alva in 1557.  They used their aggregated forces for the riveting of spiritual, political, and social chains upon the modern world.  What they only partially effected in Europe at large, by means of S. Bartholomew massacres, exterminations of Jews in Toledo and of Mussulmans in Granada, holocausts of victims in the Low Countries, wars against French Huguenots and German Lutherans, naval expeditions and plots against the state of England, assassinations of heretic princes, and occasional burning of free thinkers, they achieved with plenary success in Italy.  The center of the peninsula, from Ferrara to Terracina, lay at the discretion of the Pope.  The Two Sicilies, Sardinia and the Duchy of Milan, were absolute dependencies of the Spanish crown.  Tuscany was linked by ties of interest, and by the stronger bonds of terrorism, to Spain.  The insignificant principalities of Mantua, Modena, Parma could not do otherwise than submit to the same predominant authority.  It is not worth while to take into account the tiny republics of Genoa and Lucca.  Their history through this period, though not so uneventful, is scarcely less insignificant than that of San Marino.  Venice alone stood independent, still powerful enough to extinguish Bedmar’s Spanish conspiracy in silence, still proud enough to resist the encroachments of Paul V. with spirit, yet sensible of her decline and spending her last energies on warfare with the Turk.

At the close of the century, by the Peace of Vervins in 1598 and two subsequent treaties, Spain and France settled their long dispute.  France was finally excluded from Italy by the cession of Saluzzo to Savoy, while Savoy at the same moment, through the loss of its Burgundian provinces, became an Italian power.  The old antagonism which, dating from the Guelf and Ghibelline contentions of the thirteenth century, had taken a new form after the Papal investiture of Charles of Anjou with the kingdoms of Sicily and Naples, now ceased.  That antique antagonism of parties, alien to the home interests of Italy, had been exasperated by the rivalry of Angevine and Aragonese princes; had assumed formidable intensity after the invasion of Charles VIII. in 1494; and had expanded under the reigns of Louis XII. and Francis I. into an open struggle between France and Spain for the supremacy of Italy.  It now was finally terminated by the exclusion of the French and the acknowledged overlordship of the Spaniard.  But though peace seemed to be secured to a nation tortured by so many desolating wars of foreign armies, the Italians regarded the cession of Saluzzo with despondency.