THE ·wESTERN MEDITERRANEAN KINGDOMS 1200-1500that made the army so fearsome, according to Guicciardini.^13
Close discipline and effective battle tactics compounded the
threat, whereas Italian troops led by mercenary captains were
famed rather for their fickleness and lack of commitment
to a great cause. Military might was bolstered by political
successes: the French king made a courtesy call on Duke
Giangaleazzo of Milan who was lying grievously ill at Pavia;
Giangaleazzo's wife, the Neapolitan princess Isabella, threw
herself in tears at the French king's feet, imploring him to
show mercy to the house of Aragon; Charles was apparently
much moved by the young princess's pleas, but insisted that
work begun must be brought to an end.^14 In the next few
days, news came that Giangaleazzo had died, and Ludovico
il Moro persuaded the ducal council to recognise himself as
duke in view of the current emergency, rather than the late
duke's infant son. So Ludovico had secured what he sought.
In a sense, he now had little need of the French king, though
his investiture by Charles with the lordship of Genoa a few
weeks later was a welcome boost to his power. Ludovico
began to fall out with Charles over small territorial questions
arising from control of the small coastal towns of southern
Liguria and northern Tuscany, and this growing unease, or
rather sense that Charles was not an agent of Milan but a
power in his own right, made Ludovico well aware that he
had unleashed in Italy forces that were beyond his own con-
trol. Even greater were the difficulties of Piero de'Medici in
Florence; tension over French aims led to a coup d'etat and
his fall from power."'
Unable to hold the French back from Rome, Alfonso's son
Ferrante duke of Calabria (generally known as Ferrandino)
fell back with his troops, while Pope Alexander VI also recog-
nised that he could not withstand Charles's might."' When
the French king entered Rome, Alexander had to promise
- History of Italy, Book 1, cap. 11; F.L. Taylor, 1ne art of war in Italy 1494-
1529 (Cambridge, 1921, repr. London, 1993); S. Pepper, 'Castles and
cannon in the Naples campaign of 1494-5', in Abulafia, French descent,
pp. 263-93. - Cloulas, Charles VIII, pp. 68-71.
- M. Mallett, 'Personalities and pressures: Italian involvement in the
French invasion of 1494', in Abulafia, French descent, pp. 151-63. - C. Shaw, 'The Roman barons and the French descent into Italy', in
Abulafia, French descent, pp. 249-61.