According to the articles of the treaty agreed upon by the confederates,
the alliance was to last for five-and-twenty years, and had for
ostensible object the upholding of the majority of the pope, and the
interests of Christendom; and these preparations might well have been
taken for such as would precede a crusade against the Turks, if
Bajazet’s ambassador had not always been present at the deliberations,
although the Christian princes could not have dared for very shame to
admit the, sultan by name into their league. Now the confederates had to
set on foot an army of 30,000 horse and 20,000 infantry, and each of
them was taxed for a contingent; thus the pope was to furnish 4000
horse, Maximilian 6000, the King of Spain, the Duke of Milan, and the
republic of Venice, 8000 each. Every confederate was, in addition to
this, to levy and equip 4000 infantry in the six weeks following the
signature of the treaty. The fleets were to be equipped by the Maritime
States; but any expenses they should incur later on were to be defrayed
by all in equal shares.
The formation of this league was made public on the 12th of April, 1495,
Palm Sunday, and in all the Italian States, especially at Rome, was made
the occasion of fetes and immense rejoicings. Almost as soon as the
publicly known articles were announced the secret ones were put into
execution. These obliged Ferdinand and Isabella to send a fleet of sixty
galleys to Ischia, where Alfonso’s son had retired, with six hundred
horsemen on board and five thousand infantry, to help him to ascend the
throne once more. Those troops were to be put under the command of
Gonzalvo of Cordova, who had gained the reputation of the greatest
general in Europe after the taking of Granada. The Venetians with a
fleet of forty galleys under the command of Antonio Grimani, were to
attack all the French stations on the coast of Calabria and Naples. The
Duke of Milan promised for his part to check all reinforcements as they
should arrive from France, and to drive the Duke of Orleans out of Asti.
Lastly, there was Maximilian, who had promised to make invasions on the
frontiers, and Bajazet, who was to help with money, ships, and soldiers
either the Venetians or the Spaniards, according as he might be appealed
to by Barberigo or by Ferdinand the Catholic.
This league was all the more disconcerting for Charles, because of the
speedy abatement of the enthusiasm that had hailed his first appearance.
What had happened to him was what generally happens to a conqueror who
has more good luck than talent; instead of making himself a party among
the great Neapolitan and Calabrian vassals, whose roots would be
embedded in the very soil, by confirming their privileges and augmenting
their power, he had wounded their feelings by bestowing all the titles,
offices, and fiefs on those alone who had followed him from France, so
that all the important positions in the kingdom were filled by
strangers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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