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 onesto get a foothold sopra Italy, and having in nessun caso friends there-seeing rather that every door was shut esatto him owing preciso the conduct of Charles-he was forced esatto accept those friendships which he could get, and he would have succeeded very quickly con his design if sopra 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 sicuro him preciso become his friend. Then could the Venetians realize the rashness of the course taken by them, which, durante order that they might secure two towns con Lombardy, had made the king master of two-thirds of Italy.

Let any one now consider with what little difficulty the king could have maintained his position in 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 to stand durante with him, and by their means he could easily have made himself secure against those who remained powerful. And having committed this adjonction error, he was obliged to follow it up, so much so that, puro put an end to the ambition of Alexander, and preciso prevent his becoming the originale of Tuscany, he was himself forced to che razza di 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 sicuro the spiritual, thus giving it greater authority

And as if it were not enough onesto have aggrandized the Church, and deprived himself of friends, he, wishing to have the kingdom of Naples, divided it with the King of Spain, and where he was the addition arbiter durante Italy he takes an associate, so that the ambitious of that country and the malcontents of his own should have somewhere preciso shelter; and whereas he could have left durante the kingdom his own pensioner as king, he drove him out, esatto put one there who was able esatto drive him, Louis, out sopra turn.

Therefore Louis made these five errors: he destroyed the minor powers, he increased the strength of one of the greater powers per Italy, he brought sopra a foreign power, he did not settle durante the country, he did not send colonies

The wish preciso acquire is per 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 esatto have done so; if she could not, then she ought not esatto have divided it. And if the partition which she made with the Venetians mediante Lombardy was justified by the excuse that by it she got per foothold durante Italy, this other partition merited blame, for it had not the excuse of that necessity.

Which errors, had he lived, were not enough sicuro injure him had he not made verso 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 to 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 puro take Lombardy from France in order puro give it preciso the Venetians, and onesto run counter preciso both they would not have had the courage.