Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/32

Rh forget that by inheritance he was, also, through his descent from Valentina Visconti, hereditary Duke of Milan. The Sforzas, the successful usurpers, claimed possession as nine points of the law, and Maximilian the Emperor demanded Milan by right of his overlordship. Each was equally resolved to possess in that city the key of Italy. But these words, Milan, Italy, meant more to Francis than a mere political position. To his intensely artistic temperament, a corner of Italy was more precious than the whole of France. Milan to him meant beauty, poetry; gardened villas in which to pass a soft abandoned leisure; women more fair than those of his kingdom; churches and palaces which he, the great builder, knew how to value; lax and subtle Lombard art. From the first days to the last of his life the thought of Milan haunted him like a passion, and to the shadow of unpossessed Italy he constantly sacrificed his substantial realm of France. His first hazard ended in success, and made the name of the little town of Marignano a word to conjure with in France. No sooner was his reign begun, than with Lautrec and with Bayard, with the chivalry of France, the young King resolved to conquer his longed-for inheritance. He sent Bayard in advance with La Palice. No sooner did they set foot in Piedmont than they took prisoner Prospero Colonna, the general of the Swiss in the pay of Maximilian Sforza. When this news reached Francis, who was at Lyons with his mother, his sister, and his wife, nothing could restrain him from marching into Italy. He sent his wife, who was near her confinement, with Louis and Margaret, to the familiar palace of Amboise. He left Louisa—"Madame" as she was now styled—Regent of France, bade them