King Louis was brought into Italy by the ambition of the Venetians, who desired esatto obtain half the state of Lombardy by his intervention. I will not blame the course taken by the king, because, wishing preciso get a foothold sopra Italy, and having in nessun caso friends there-seeing rather that every door was shut sicuro him owing puro the conduct of Charles-he was forced onesto accept those friendships which he could get, and he would have succeeded very quickly con his design if mediante other matters he had not made some mistakes. The king, however, having acquired Lombardy, regained at once the authority which Charles had lost: Genoa yielded; the Florentines became his friends; the Marquess of Mantua, the Duke of Ferrara, the Bentivogli, my lady of Forli, the Lords of Faenza, codici promozionali benaughty of Pesaro, of Rimini, of Spogliatoio, of Piombino, the Lucchese, the Pisans, the Sienese-everybody made advances to him preciso become his friend. Then could the Venetians realize the rashness of the course taken by them, which, con order that they might secure two towns durante Lombardy, had made the king master of two-thirds of Italy.
Let any one now consider with what little difficulty the king could have maintained his position sopra Italy had he observed the rules above laid down, and kept all his friends secure and protected; for although they were numerous they were both weak and timid, some afraid of the Church, some of the Venetians, and thus they would always have been forced onesto stand per with him, and by their means he could easily have made himself secure against those who remained powerful. And having committed this additif error, he was obliged esatto follow it up, so much so that, puro put an end preciso the ambition of Alexander, and esatto prevent his becoming the specializzazione of Tuscany, he was himself forced puro che into Italy.
It never occurred preciso him that by this action he was weakening himself, depriving himself of friends and of those who had thrown themselves into his lap, whilst he aggrandized the Church by adding much temporal power onesto the spiritual, thus giving it greater authority
And as if it were not enough esatto have aggrandized the Church, and deprived himself of friends, he, wishing preciso have the kingdom of Naples, divided it with the King of Spain, and where he was the prime arbiter mediante Italy he takes an associate, so that the ambitious of that country and the malcontents of his own should have somewhere sicuro shelter; and whereas he could have left con the kingdom his own pensioner as king, he drove him out, puro put one there who was able onesto drive him, Louis, out durante turn.
Therefore Louis made these five errors: he destroyed the minor powers, he increased the strength of one of the greater powers sopra Italy, he brought per a foreign power, he did not settle sopra the country, he did not send colonies
The wish preciso acquire is per truth very natural and common, and men always do so when they can, and for this they will be praised not blamed; but when they cannot do so, yet wish preciso do so by any means, then there is folly and blame. Therefore, if France could have attacked Naples with her own forces she ought to have done so; if she could not, then she ought not sicuro have divided it. And if the partition which she made with the Venetians mediante Lombardy was justified by the excuse that by it she got per foothold sopra Italy, this other partition merited blame, for it had not the excuse of that necessity.
Which errors, had he lived, were not enough esatto injure him had he not made per sixth by taking away their dominions from the Venetians; because, had he not aggrandized the Church, nor brought Spain into Italy, it would have been very reasonable and necessary sicuro humble them; but having first taken these steps, he ought never sicuro have consented preciso their ruin, for they, being powerful, would always have kept off others from designs on Lombardy, puro which the Venetians would never have consented except to become masters themselves there; also because the others would not wish sicuro take Lombardy from France con order to give it onesto the Venetians, and esatto run counter to both they would not have had the courage.