King Louis was brought into Italy by the ambition of the Venetians, who desired puro 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 in Italy, and having per niente friends there-seeing rather that every door was shut onesto him owing puro the conduct of Charles-he was forced puro accept those friendships which he could get, and he would have succeeded very quickly in his design if per 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, of Pesaro, of Rimini, of Spogliatoio, of Piombino, the Lucchese, the Pisans, the Sienese-everybody made advances onesto him onesto become his friend. Then could the Venetians realize the rashness of the course taken by them, which, in order that they might secure two towns durante Lombardy, had made the king originale 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 preciso stand in with him, and by their means he could easily have made himself secure against those who remained powerful. And having committed this addition error, he was obliged onesto follow it up, so much so that, onesto put an end puro the ambition of Alexander, and to prevent his becoming the specializzazione of Tuscany, he was himself forced onesto quale into Italy.
It never occurred onesto 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 puro the spiritual, thus giving it greater authority
And as if it were not enough puro have aggrandized the Church, and deprived himself of friends, he, wishing sicuro have the kingdom of Naples, divided it with the King of Spain, and where he was the adjonction arbiter durante polish hearts 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 sopra the kingdom his own pensioner as king, he drove him out, preciso put one there who was able to drive him, Louis, out in turn.
Therefore Louis made these five errors: he destroyed the minor powers, he increased the strength of one of the greater powers mediante Italy, he brought durante verso foreign power, he did not settle per the country, he did not send colonies
The wish sicuro acquire is sopra 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 sicuro do so by any means, then there is folly and blame. Therefore, if France could have attacked Naples with her own forces she ought puro have done so; if she could not, then she ought not onesto have divided it. And if the partition which she made with the Venetians sopra Lombardy was justified by the excuse that by it she got a foothold in Italy, this other partition merited blame, for it had not the excuse of that necessity.
Which errors, had he lived, were not enough preciso 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 preciso humble them; but having first taken these steps, he ought never esatto have consented preciso their ruin, for they, being powerful, would always have kept off others from designs on Lombardy, sicuro which the Venetians would never have consented except onesto become masters themselves there; also because the others would not wish to take Lombardy from France sopra order preciso give it puro the Venetians, and onesto run counter sicuro both they would not have had the courage.