Italy
The Italian Wars
I've narrated the history of several different powers on the peninsula. I'll finish my essay on Italy by talking about the Italian Wars, when began right at the end of our course, in 1494. These form a convenient place to end the account.
In 1494, Charles VIII of France invaded Italy. The event itself was traumatic enough, for Italy had not been invaded in any serious way since the days of the Hohenstaufen in the 13th century. The invasion had a greater significance than the immediate effects of foreign armies, for it heralded a period of French and Spanish involvement in Italian affairs that would last for forty years and more. Succeeding French kings Louis XII and Francis I both took a turn at invading Italy, with varying success, followed by an especially devastating invasion by Emperor Charles V, who threw out the French but only at the expense of bringing in the Spanish.
There are those who argue that these successive waves of foreign invaders forever crippled the Renaissance in Italy. I am not willing to go quite that far, but there is no doubt that they permanently altered the political landscape, especially in the north.
Our course ends in the first decade of the Italian Wars, and I won't try to follow the whole story but rather will leave the narrative for my course on the Reformation. Here we will restrict ourselves to the invasions by Charles VIII and Louis XII.