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THE CLOSE: MIDDLE EUROPE 215 throne as Louis XII., and asserted his own claim to the Milanese dukedom. The history of Northern Italy is in fact the history of several small states, each giving a brilliant example of intellectual and political development, but also sharply separated by rivalry with each other j so that no single state could be formed, no league even could be established, powerful enough to save Italy from becoming the battle-ground of the great states which were now consolidating themselves in Western Europe.
