In 1495, the winds and clouds over Europe shifted and churned, and the eyes of almost every king and grand duke were fixed on the Italian Peninsula, on this heart of the Catholic World.
The army of France swept south at flying speed, racing through northern Italy and Rome in three months. Naples, reached by the spearpoint of the French advance, had already collapsed at the first touch of the vanguard's assault. France's swift cavalry corps, supported by Cannon troops for sieges, seemed so powerful that no opponent could be found!
The young French king Charles was flushed with success. Leading his corps of knights in formation, he entered the unresisting Romagna with his head held high, as if in a showy military parade. The authority of the Holy See crashed down with a thunderous fall! The flames of war that Pope Alexander VI had stirred up with greed and worldly schemes not only burned away the pope's divinity and reputation, they had long since passed beyond the range of his control.
Facing the rapid advance of the French army, the Sicilians fled at the mere rumor of its coming, while the Venetians were deeply shaken. In terror and dread, they brought out their mightiest "golden weapon"! The envoys of the City-State Republic, carrying bonds and Gold Coins, began the "summoning" to form an Alliance. The indebted Catholic Monarchs of Iberia had to be pulled in; the impoverished princes of the Holy Roman Empire had to be pulled in as well; mercenary companies everywhere had to be hired in full, the more the better. Under the Venetians' forceful "money-smashing," a Holy League against France was swiftly beginning to take shape!
And in the Holy Roman Empire, Maximilian, Grand Duke of Austria, was also watching every development of the Italian Wars