Europe in the Sixteenth Century, 1494-1598, Fifth Edition: Period 4 (of 8), Periods of European History — John Shaqi
Europe in the Sixteenth Century, 1494-1598, Fifth Edition: Period 4 (of 8), Periods of European HistoryJohnson, A. H. (Arthur Henry)
History
Europe in the Sixteenth Century, 1494-1598, Fifth Edition: Period 4 (of 8), Periods of European History
Johnson, A. H. (Arthur Henry)
Europe -- History -- 1492-1648
Cambray. Meanwhile Perugia and Bologna were gained by Julius in 1506,
while the Duchy of Urbino fell to his nephew, Francesco della Rovere,
who was adopted by Guidobaldo, its late Duke. These territories
were incorporated into the papal dominions; the history of their
semi-independent princes came to an end, and Julius II., rather than
Alexander, established the papal dominion in the Romagna.
§ 5. _The League of Cambray._
The pretext for the invasion of Italy by France and Spain had been the
necessity of securing a base of operations for a crusade against the
Turk. This had been prevented by the quarrel of the robbers over their
spoil. They were now to prove by their attack on Venice--the only
power which had seriously attempted to check the Moslem advance--that
the idea, even if ever seriously entertained, had been definitely
abandoned.
| Jealousy against Venice, the result of her advance on
| the mainland.
The hostility with which that republic was viewed by the rest of
Italy dates from the beginning of the fifteenth century, when she
definitely began to aim at establishing a dominion on the Italian
mainland. A quarrel between Milan and the Carrara of Padua enabled her
to overthrow that family, to seize Padua, then, step by step, Vicenza
and Verona, and to advance to the Adige (1405). In 1427 and 1428, she
wrested Brescia and Bergamo from the hands of Filippo Maria Visconti,
Duke of Milan, and after his death secured Crema (1454). Meanwhile she
had acquired the district of Friuli from the Patriarch of Aquileia
(1420), and in 1441 had added Ravenna, hitherto an independent state
under the Polentani, to her conquests. In 1484, the peace of Bagnolo,
which closed the Ferrarese war, gave her Rovigo and the Polesine. In
1499, she gained Cremona and the Ghiara d’Adda from Louis XII., as
the price of her assistance against Ludovico. On the death of Cæsar
Borgia, she had occupied Faenza, Rimini, and Cesena; while in Apulia,
she held the four towns, Trani, Otranto, Gallipoli, Brindisi, which
she had acquired at the date of Charles VIII.’s expedition. Thus,
within the space of some hundred years, Venice had completely altered
her character. The island city had gained a large territory on the
mainland, which stretched to the neighbourhood of Milan, Florence, and
the Papal States. The change of policy has usually been attributed
to the advance of the Turk, which threatened her possessions in the
Ægean Sea, and on the coast of Greece. This no doubt was one of her
motives at a later date. But as her first advance on the mainland
occurred in 1405, some years before the Turk seriously menaced her, we
must look elsewhere for the primary cause. This is to be found in the
danger to be apprehended from the growing power of Milan. As long as
the plain of Lombardy and the approaches to the Alpine passes were in
the hands of petty princes, she could hope to purchase, or to extort,
an outlet for her commerce to the north; but, if these were to fall
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