Chapter 139: The Fall of Valois' Influence (Part II)

PS: Try the second bullet of the daily update (; ￣ェ￣）……

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In addition to the movement to Sardinia, there are two other developments that are worrying.

One of them is the movement towards the world of peace and religion. At present, it is centered on Algiers. Even in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, when religious beliefs were important and religious wars were fought and fought, God could not eat them after all, so it was normal for passive and even spontaneous "apostates" to appear. Even the Republic of Genoa, the source of all evil in the Corsican mind, had a large number of Corsicans to make a living, and the Mediterranean could not stop them from moving to North Africa, where commerce, food, seafood, and piracy awaited them.

The Corsicans in Algiers are wary because they can easily – and have historically been – mix with North African Berber pirates and infestation the entire Tyrrhenian coast. These people can be said to be bold, and Sardinia and Corsica are obviously places they frequent-

The two main agents behind the "Impenetrable Sardinia" that began to connect with the surrounding Mediterranean world were cheese and pirates, the latter of whom was apparently not invited by Sardinia. Corsica, the homeland of these Corsicans, is even more unguarded because of its familiarity with the countryside, and is frequently attacked, which poses a lot of defense pressure and risks leakage.

Because the pirates of the 16th century were much more niubility than the pirates of later generations, first of all, they played an important role in economic life, and secondly, they were also deeply involved in politics and military, not only the pirate leaders like Hayreddin would serve the Ottoman Empire, but even the small pirates from Corsican islanders dared to directly attack the coastal provinces of Spain and even affect the interior, interfering in the internal conflicts of Spain, mainly the conflicts between the Castilians and the Moors and the Moriscos- Most of them themselves will not be able to get good in the end, but they still dare to do it.

Many Corsicans traveled between Andalusia and North Africa on brigs to help the Moors flee the Iberian Peninsula for some profit, and merchants cunningly loaded goods that were allowed to be sold—not legally smuggled goods—salt, iron, saltpeter, gunpowder, oars, weapons...... Ahem, when these things arrive in North Africa, the harm goes far beyond the harm of smuggling. Not to mention the double agents who served the Ottoman Sultans in Istanbul and the doglegs who served the French in Marseille.

Marseilles! This key word points to another trend of concern for Ferdinand among the Corsican islanders, and this is the really serious problem. Originally, in Ferdinand's superficial impression, the French seemed, as if, and should have ...... in the late 15th and early 16th centuries Haven't had much ambition for Corsica yet...... Right?

But it turned out that even if the French had no territorial ambitions for the time being, not so much no territorial ambitions, but rather no guarantee of annexation at all, it would have been more practical that the French army that had conquered Corsica in the final stages of the Italian war would not have withdrawn after 1558 had it not been for the fact that the fleet was no match for Spain.

The Corsican connection with France was definitely not the beginning of the Corsican Revolution, which allowed Genoa to transfer Corsica to France more than two hundred years later. In fact, the turmoil in Corsica was absolutely inseparable from French funding. Not to mention, large numbers of Corsican islanders entered France in the 15th-16th centuries!

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Kingdom of France was the most extensive, most potential and most promising reclamation area in western Europe, and a large area of uncultivated land attracted farmers to continuously expand the area of arable land and food production, which was a major key to the growth of France's population and national strength, and was the "inner America" of France, which not only attracted the peasants of their own country to work hard to cultivate, but also for the densely populated Corsican islanders living under the decaying rule of Genoa, it was a fatal temptation!

Therefore, without any careful planning, the French king himself found that a large number of Corsican islanders spontaneously defected to France to reclaim the vast plains, and at the same time, as refugees who were constantly attacked at sea, the part of Corsican fishermen or seafarers who made a living from the sea, under the protection of the flag of the Kingdom of France, could have a little guarantee of navigation safety in the Mediterranean - of course, France's face in the Mediterranean had to wait until after the "Blasphemous Alliance" of François I and Suleiman Magnificent, The gold content will rise to a relatively high level. But the land alone is enough to suck away the landless peasants like a magnet. Not to mention the port of Marseille and the Rhône are also hot spots for shipping!

Ferdinand wandered for a long time in a pile of first-hand information from the end of the 15th century, stroking the scroll in his hand and exclaiming: "If there are no major errors in the relevant information, half of the inhabitants of the port of Marseille and its surrounding villages are Corsican!" ”

In this case, is it still necessary to guess whether the French Valois dynasty would have ambitions for Corsica?

Through the corrupt and negligent rule of the Genoese, French envoys, money, and even three-masted warships sailed to Corsica. Before leaving office, the governor of Corsica of the Republic of Genoa had this to say to the Aragonese officials: "I am glad that you are now in our place to deal with the spies and gold of the Valois!" ”

So the Corsican islanders continued to revolt after the takeover of Aragon, on the one hand, the Corsicans have this tradition, and their brains are prone to heat up as the temperature rises, and on the other hand, the incitement of the spies of the Valois dynasty is also a very important factor, or rather, it is the Ducats in the hands of the spies who play a pivotal role! Although Ferdinand was ten times better than Charles VIII (this is a specific number, and is about to be broken now), and Niederhogg, the first large-scale intelligence unit since the Middle Ages, was also much stronger than his poor and scattered French counterparts - but Ferdinand could not give money to a slow rebellion at any time! Therefore, it is easy to understand that the Corsican islanders continue to die, that is, they have fulfilled their long-standing dream of the stars and the sea, and at the same time can get Ducat, why not?

Fortunately, France could not afford to produce large quantities of flare-mouth arquebuses to deliver to Corsica (they did not necessarily have enough of them themselves), otherwise, according to the list of shots that Niderhogg had carried out so far, the Valois spies in Corsica would have been in chaos for several years.

In particular, after Aragon took over Corsica, France did not relent, but tried to increase its intervention.

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(To be continued)