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I hate transcribing long chapters and sections from books.
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The Swiss Defeat at the Battle of Marignano -
0ne March day in 1515, ambassadors from the Republic of Venice sought audience with King Francis I of France. At the time, Venice, nicknamed “la Serenissima,” was anything but calm or serene, since Italy was not yet a nation, but only a patchwork of warring principalities, a fact that aroused the greed of outside powers.
Wily King Ferdinand of Spanish Aragon controlled much of Southern Italy, and Leo X’s papacy straddled the central peninsula. Both were enemies of Venice. And next door to the “Queen of the Adriatic,” in the Duchy of Milan, foreign Swiss mercenaries played puppet masters to a figurehead Sforza duke.
Venice urgently needed an ally and was seeking one in the French king. Ushered into his presence shortly after their arrival in Paris, the ambassadors no doubt took stock of their royal host and had good reason to like what they saw.
To begin with, Francis was young - barely 20 - and the mask of majesty often slipped to reveal the boyish exuberance with-in. He had hooded brown eyes, light-brown hair fashioned in a “pageboy” cut, and thick lips that gave a sensual, slightly worldly cast to his features.
The young king was clean-shaven (a beard would not sprout until 1519), and his nose was so monumental he would later be dubbed “le Roy Grand Nez.” King for a scant three months, the newly minted monarch won hearts by his impulsive generosity, keen spirit and athletic prowess. Muscular and well-proportioned, at 6 feet, he towered over most contemporaries.
The Venetians now laid their case before the king, but in fact they were preaching to the converted. Le Roy Grand Nez indeed was about to stick his pointed proboscis into Italian affairs. And there were precedents, not that King Francis really needed any. France periodically had invaded Italy over the last 20 years, though under the late King Louis XII, the Gauls had met bitter defeat at the hands of the Swiss at Novara.
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That aside (and unfinished), I hope things are getting better for those of you who've been having a hard time recently.
Gerard
[Filter: Private]
The Swiss Defeat at the Battle of Marignano -
0ne March day in 1515, ambassadors from the Republic of Venice sought audience with King Francis I of France. At the time, Venice, nicknamed “la Serenissima,” was anything but calm or serene, since Italy was not yet a nation, but only a patchwork of warring principalities, a fact that aroused the greed of outside powers.
Wily King Ferdinand of Spanish Aragon controlled much of Southern Italy, and Leo X’s papacy straddled the central peninsula. Both were enemies of Venice. And next door to the “Queen of the Adriatic,” in the Duchy of Milan, foreign Swiss mercenaries played puppet masters to a figurehead Sforza duke.
Venice urgently needed an ally and was seeking one in the French king. Ushered into his presence shortly after their arrival in Paris, the ambassadors no doubt took stock of their royal host and had good reason to like what they saw.
To begin with, Francis was young - barely 20 - and the mask of majesty often slipped to reveal the boyish exuberance with-in. He had hooded brown eyes, light-brown hair fashioned in a “pageboy” cut, and thick lips that gave a sensual, slightly worldly cast to his features.
The young king was clean-shaven (a beard would not sprout until 1519), and his nose was so monumental he would later be dubbed “le Roy Grand Nez.” King for a scant three months, the newly minted monarch won hearts by his impulsive generosity, keen spirit and athletic prowess. Muscular and well-proportioned, at 6 feet, he towered over most contemporaries.
The Venetians now laid their case before the king, but in fact they were preaching to the converted. Le Roy Grand Nez indeed was about to stick his pointed proboscis into Italian affairs. And there were precedents, not that King Francis really needed any. France periodically had invaded Italy over the last 20 years, though under the late King Louis XII, the Gauls had met bitter defeat at the hands of the Swiss at Novara.
[/Filter]
That aside (and unfinished), I hope things are getting better for those of you who've been having a hard time recently.
Gerard