Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/355

XXII. CHAPTER XXII. WARS AND POLITICS OF ITALY. 1508—1513. League of Cambray. — Alarm of Ferdinand. — Holy League. — Battle of Ravenna. — Death of Gaston de Foix. — Retreat of the French. — The Spaniards victorious. The domestic history of Spain, after Ferdinand's chapter resumption of the regency, contains few remarkable events. Its foreign relations were more important. Those with Africa have been already noticed, and we must now turn to Italy and Navarre. The possession of Naples necessarily brought Ferdinand within the sphere of Italian politics. He showed little disposition, however, to avail himself of it for the further extension of his conquests. Gonsalvo, indeed, during his administration, medi- tated various schemes for the overthrow of the French power in Italy, but with a view rather to the preservation than enlargement of his present acquisitions. After the treaty with Louis the Twelfth, even these designs were abandoned, and the Catholic monarch seemed wholly occupied with the internal affairs of his kingdom, and the estab- lishment of his rising empire in Africa.* 1 Guicciardini, Istoria, torn. iii. Zurita, Anales, torn. vi. lib. 6, cap. lib. 5, p. 257, ed. Milano, 1803.— 7, 9, et alibi. VOL. III. 42