VI. J THE ITALIAN WARS. 91 put forward his claim by Ludovico S/or^a, uncle of Galeazzo Sforza, duke of Milan. Galeazzo was a weak imbecile, under the rule of his uncle Ludovico (called il Moro, some say from his mulberry badge), who kept him in a prolonged minority, to the great indignation of his wife, a daughter of Ferdinand of Naples. Ludovico, willing to occupy Ferdinand at home to prevent him taking his son- in-law's part, excited Charles to put forward the Angevin claim to Naples, offering a passage through Lombard y. The Duchess of Bourbon and the parliament were both averse to the scheme, but it fired Charles's romantic brain, and his nobles thirsted for war. He marched at the head of the finest ami) Europe could show, under the command of La Tremouillc, to Florence, the free city where the Medici family had lately usurped the dominion. Though admitted peacefully, he rode in as a conqueror, with his lance in rest, to the great offence of the citizens. Galeazzo's death had made Ludovico Duke of Milan, though the Duke of Orleans laid claim to the duchy in right of his grandmother Valentina Visconti. 5. Coronation of Charles at Naples, 1495. — Rome was under Alexander VI,, whose name was a bye-M'ord for shameless vice ; he sent his illegitimate son Casar Borgia to Charles as legate. Ferdinand of Naples died just as Charles set out. His son Alfonso, who suc- ceeded him, abdicated, and his son Ferdinand, who suc- ceeded, presently fled to Ischia. On the 22nd of February, 1495, Charles was welcomed at Naples. There he was roused from'a course of amusement by finding that all Lom- bardy behind him was in an uproar, stirred up by Ludovico il Moro in dismay at the claim of the Duke of Orleans. A league had been organized between Ludovico, the pope, the republic of Venice, Maximilian, King of the Romans, and the Catholic Jiings — that is, Isabel, Queen of Castile, and her husband, Ferdinand, King of Aragon and Sicily — to cut off the retreat of the French. Charles, leaving Gilbert of Bourbon, Cotmt of Montpoisier, to command in Naples, marched through the whole length of Italy, his troops plundering by the way, so as to make their name hateful. At Fornovo, on the banks of the Toro, he found the forces of Milan and Venice. " It must have been God who gave us the victory," says Comines, "considering how little sense or order we had ; " but the king fought like a lion, and his troops were full of such fire that "the French fury" passed into a
