Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/290

266 266 ITALIAN WARS. PART II. His preteu- Bions to Naples. this exalted state of his imagination, that he gave his only son the name of Orlando, after the cele- brated hero of Roncesvalles. ^^ With a mind thus excited by chimerical visions of military glory, he lent a willing ear to the artful propositions of Sforza. In the extravagance of vanity, fed by the adulation of interested parasites, he affected to regard the enterprise against Naples as only opening the way to a career of more splen- did conquests, which were to terminate in the capture of Constantinople, and the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. He even went so far as to pur- chase of Andrew Paleologus, the nephew and heir of Constantine, the last of the Caesars, his title to the Greek empire." Nothing could be more unsound, according to the principles of the present day, than Charles's claims to the crown of Naples. Without discussing the original pretensions of the rival houses of Aragon and Anjou, it is sufficient to state, that, at the time of Charles the Eighth's invasion, the Neapolitan throne had been in the possession of the Aragonese family more than half a century, under three suc- cessive princes solemnly recognised by the people, sanctioned by repeated investitures of the papal suzerain, and admitted by all the states of Europe. •■2 Sismondi, Hist, des FrarKjais, torn. XV. p. 112. — Gaillard, Ri- valit6, torn. iv. pp. 2, 3. 13 Darn, Ilistoire de la R6pub- lique de Venise, (Paris, 1821,) torn. iii. liv. 20. — See the deed of cession, in the memoir of M. do Foncemagne. (M^moires do I'Aca- d^mie des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres, torn. xvii. pp. 539-579.) Tliis document, as well as some others which appeared on the eve of Charles's expedition, breathes a tone of Quixotic and religious en- thusiasm, that transports us back to the days of the crusades.