THE FRENCH INVASION OF ITALY, 1494-95a moot point. Some were then of the opinion that it was best
simply to let him go over a 'silver bridge' out of Italy. When
confronted by the Italian confederates at Fornovo close to
the Apennines, on 6 July 1495, Charles's army acquitted
itself well, but both sides believed they had won a victory.
Indeed, this was the signal for a return by the Aragonese
to their south Italian lands, and Ferrandino was able to win
some support from his relative and namesake Ferdinand
the Catholic, king of Aragon, who supplied him with a few
ships and men under the redoutable Gonzalo Fernandez de
Cordoba (though Ferdinand had his own ambitions in the
region, and hoped at least to obtain Calabria for himself, if
necessary from the French). Out of loyal bases in Calabria
and Apulia, Aragonese power began to expand northwards
through the kingdom once again. Several Apulian towns were
drawn under Venetian rule after Ferrandino pledged sev-
eral Apulian coastal towns to Venice, which was anxious to
create a line of defence against the Turks. Such concessions
were worthwhile if the result was an Aragonese restoration.
Ferrandino's career peaked in 1496 with his victorious return
to Naples, after which he died still young, having won a repu-
tation for bravery in battle. He was succeeded by Alfonso's
brother, Federigo, the last Aragonese king of Naples.
Like Ferrandino, Charles VIII only lived a few more years,
dying prematurely in 1498 when he cracked his large head
against a low door jamb in one of his palaces. And, like
Ferrandino, he had no direct male heir, and was succeeded
instead by the duke of Orleans, as King Louis XII. In many
ways, it was with the succession of Louis, rather than with
the invasion by Charles VIII, that the fortunes of Italy began
to change decisively. In some respects, though not of course
its massive scale, Charles VIII's invasion bears closer com-
parison with those of Rene of Anjou than historians have
allowed for; the ephemeral nature of the conquest and the
lack of long-term impact on the institutional, social and eco-
nomic structure of southern Italy distinguish Charles VIII's
brief period of rule from the long-lasting Spanish domina-
tion of the south that began in 1502. In particular, historians
have laid too much emphasis on the first French invasion
of 1494-95, too little on the second which began with Louis
XII's attack on Milan in 1499, in vindication of claims by
the house of Orleans to the duchy which Ludovico (by^1500