1. Italy’s Political Decline (1494-1527)
Treaty of Lodi ( ) created a balance of power among the city-states of Italy
Allied Milan, Naples, and Florence to check the power of Venice and Papal States
Worked together against foreign invaders

2. The French Invasion
Lodi shattered in 1494Naples prepared to attack Milan
Ludovico il Moro (Milan) invited Charles VIII of France to lead the French troops against Naples to reclaim former lands ( )
French invaded in 1494 and forced Florence, Naples, and the Papal states into concession

3. The pope and Venice persuaded King Ferdinand of Aragon (Spain) to come help resist the French
1490s-1590sItaly became a battleground in a war for supremacy between European monarchs
May 6, 1527, Spanish and German troops' sacking Rome that for two decades all but ended the role of the Papacy as the largest patron of Renaissance art and architecture
Ultimately led to the suppression and end of the Renaissance in Italy
leads to Italian political decline & Habsburg-Valois (Spanish-French) wars of first half 16th c., all French losses

4. Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

5. Machiavelli: A Method of Power
The struggle between pope and the Holy Roman emperor had left Italy politically shattered while Spain, France, and England under the guidance of shrewd rulers, developed powerful states.
Machiavelli, a Florentine bureaucrat and diplomat, was deeply conscious of Italian disunity
He analyzed the methods of a great ruler in his infamous, The Prince

6. Machiavelli’s View
convinced by chaos of foreign invasions that Italian political unity & independence were ends justifying any means
concluded only a strongman could impose order on a divided & selfish people (Italians)
admirer of Roman rulers & citizens
virtù: ability to act heroically & decisively for the good of one’s country

7. The Prince (1513): recommends temporary use of fraud & brutality to achieve Italian unity; hoped for strong ruler from the Medici family
NM hopes were not achieved when Emperor Charles V of Spain sacked Rome in 1527, the year of Machiavelli’s death

8. The French Invasions (1494–1527)
Pope Alexander VI: corrupt member of Borgia family, children Cesare & Lucrezia
Louis XII (r. 1498–1515): allies with Alexander and takes Milan & part of Naples
Pope Julius II: “warrior pope” drives French out again
Francis I (r. 1515–1547): third French invasion