Spain, Its Greatness and Decay (1479-1788). (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SECTION III. SPAIN AND EUROPE, 1529?1556. Charles could at length leave Spain for Italy. He had long craved to be in the forefront of events. His advent, wrote Orange, would be worth 10,000 men. The Italians regarded it with terror; when Charles set foot on shore at Genoa they saw their country under the tyrant's heel At Bologna Charles received the iron crown of Lombardy, and Clement placed on his head the Imperial coronet (February 1530). The Emperor's generosity was unexpected. The Duke of Ferrara was pardoned for his recent change of sides. Upon Francesco Sfor/a was conferred the Duchy which he had forfeited. His health was already shattered, but the Emperor gave to him his young niece Christine of Denmark; there could be faint hope that his line would be perpetuated. Venice made her peace, restoring Ravenna and Cervia to the Pope, and her recent Apulian conquests to the kingdom of Naples. Florence alone held out: the republican party would have no surrender to the Medici. Charles was pledged to his ally; in the battle of Gavignana, which decided the fate of the Republic, the Spanish harquebusiers once more turned the fortune of the day. For a second time the Medici returned to Florence under Spanish escort (August, 1530). To outward appearance Charles had restored Italy to her previous condition before the battle of Marignano had wrestedLombardy from a native prince. Yet all men felt that all was altered. The Pope was little more than the Emperor's chaplain, with the Papal territories for his stipend. The Dukes of Florence, Milan and Savoy, married to a daughter, a niece, a sister-in-law of Charles, were lesser stars in the family constellation; the Dukes of Mantua, Ferrara and Urbino moved in the Imperial orbit. Between Florentine and Papal territory a Spanish garris...