At a time when fundamental changes were taking place in Spain, the continent was also undergoing great changes, and the relatively stable situation on the continent since the end of the Hundred Years' War between England and France was about to be turned upside down with an invasion by the Kingdom of France.

……

"How beautiful a harmonious world is!" On Christmas morning in 1494, at the House of Coldon in Burgos, Ferdinand stood by the window, looking at the falling snowflakes outside the window, shaking his head and sighing.

"But why do people always want to test where the bottom line of world harmony is?"

……

Since the Kingdom of France had completely driven out the British, its self-confidence was quite inflated, and it thought that it had won even the Hundred Years' War, and that it would not be a problem to fight for a year and a half.

They don't look at who or how they are fighting—if they had fought for two years, as in the First World War, France would have wiped out the entire population of this era.

King Charles VIII of France is not only clever himself, but also stupid and cute. In January 1494, Ferdinand's relative, King Ferdinand I of Naples, died, and King Charles VIII of France declared his right to possess Ferdinand I's domain as heir to the House of Anjou.

He then gathered his army, claiming to be a Christian warrior who intended to repel the Turks, and was fooled by himself.

According to Charles VIII's own ambassador, Philippe de Comina, Charles VIII never intended to do anything so difficult—"The king, in his first invasion of Italy, spoke of his intentions toward Turkey, declaring that he had no other intention than to draw closer to Turkey and to invade it more easily; But it's all clever and deceitful......"

I can't fool myself, and I want to fool others, it's really Charles VIII who is self-hypnosis.

However, it is speechless that the European powers, including Castile and Aragon, as well as the Pope, still hoped that Charles VIII would give up his desire for the Kingdom of Naples and really attack the Ottoman Empire. In March 1494, while Ferdinand was still on the American continent, Pope Alexander VI wrote to Queen Isabella, asking her to urge Charles VIII to put aside his interests in Naples and concentrate on the threat from the East.

On April 6, the Pope simply wrote to Charles VIII himself, praising his intentions to attack the Turks.

In fact, this expedition of Charles VIII was extremely brainless. The army was poorly equipped and fed, and although it was the middle of winter when the army entered Lombardy, it did not prepare tents or tents at all.

Oh, and even the expedition funds were borrowed from the Bank of Genoa at usury......

Most of Europe's kings called it a "holiday outing of stupid youth" by "Fat Charlie", who sometimes had a big head and seemed to have the possibility of lowering his IQ?

However, Charles VIII was not without good news, the rule of the Neapolitan royal family was indeed too bad, and the local people had long wanted to get rid of them! As far as Ferdinand knew, his cousin and brother-in-law, King Ferrante, was brutal, insidious, and unpopular (the last point was the key), and even worse, he was an illegitimate child and had a relationship with the nobility.

There are two classic examples of aristocrats and tying knots, England and the king of Aragon. Needless to say, the king of England will definitely lose in the end as long as he fights with the nobles for life and death, such as the time when he tried to repentance of the Magna Carta, but he repented of the soldiers, and let England have a parliament.

As for the king of Aragon, he was forced to accept something like the Magna Carta at first, but the king of Aragon was lucky enough to fight, and later defeated all the nobles, and finally Ferdinand II became a Catholic king, and there was basically no trouble for the nobles to find him.

And King Ferrante had some special habits, such as ordering some nobles to be put to death and then making their corpses into specimens......

The death of the king of Naples was completely a careful cultivation of the rhythm of the leading party.

The thought of his cousin and brother-in-law's death made Ferdinand's mood ...... It's a pleasure!

Yes, without France, Navarre, and Naples, three stupid and lovely countries, and three stupid royal families, how could Spain annex Navarre and Naples, recover Roussilon and Perpignan (modern Spain has lost again), and achieve national unity and territorial expansion?

Queen Isabella soon received a big gift.

The self-proclaimed clever King Charles VIII thought that the arrogant, stupid and short-sighted King Ferdinand II of Aragon (Ferdinand: "......") must have taken great importance of the northernmost part of Catalonia and the Mediterranean coast of Roussilon and Perpignan that his father Juan II had lost to the Kingdom of France in the Catalan Civil War...... ）。 However, he thinks that Queen Isabella will also think about her husband's country.

He offered to return these areas to the Kingdom of Aragon free of charge, as long as Castile and Aragon did not interfere with his actions in the Italian region.

This silly and cute proposal was an unexpected surprise, and Queen Isabella quickly signed a treaty with the Kingdom of France to reclaim the lost territories of the Kingdom of Aragon.

As for the treaty stipulating that Castile and Aragon could not intervene in the situation in Italy during this time, didn't Charles VIII know that there is a word in the world called repudiation? How did his own queen, Anne, end up in his hands? Haven't self-examined?

Regardless of the attitudes of all parties, Charles VIII, the stupid boy, is going to take action anyway. At the end of August 1494, while Ferdinand was still in the Americas, Charles VIII led 3 . An army of 70,000 men and 136 field guns (this is not a low percentage, but the quality is poor) crossed the Alps and marched towards Naples.

Piedmontese Army 2 . 30,000 men cooperated with Charles VIII's movements, and they joined Charles VIII's army in the Asti region.

As soon as Ferdinand returned to Burgos, he discussed the situation in Italy with Isabella.

"It is worth mentioning that the operations of the French army are guaranteed by the French fleet," Ferdinand grasped another weakness of the French, and the reason why it is another weakness is because the French are now full of weakness.

"We are expected to enter the war in 1496, by which time the Mediterranean army has been strengthened and capable of destroying the French navy!" Ferdinand played the English game.

"Cut off the French sea supply lines, and they will have to go through the Alpine passes!"

Ferdinand mourned the unfortunate fate of Charles VIII and the future Louis XII, albeit of his own infliction.

"So, if we do our best, it will be difficult for the French to get their hands on Milan, but why should we do that? It's not good for us. ”

The reason why Spain was able to get the Duchy of Milan, which was originally unbeatable, was because Spain and the Holy Roman Empire were unified under the rule of Charles V, but now that Juana is not married to Philip, naturally Charles VIII has no shadow, so if the battle is won, Milan will also belong to the Holy Roman Empire, or be independent, what is the benefit to Spain? It is enough to occupy Naples, Milan will entertain the French, as long as they occupy Milan for a day, they will be a common target for Italy and all of Europe.

Christmas was supposed to be a festive day on the continent, and it was certainly the case in Burgos, but Ferdinand and Isabella knew that Europe was about to change, and that this war was a good opportunity for Castile and Aragon.