Britanny had been added to that of Charles the Eighth.

From Calais to Bayonne, from the Jura to the Channel, stretched a wide and highly organized realm, whose disciplined army and unrivalled artillery lifted it high above its neighbours in force of war.

The efficiency of its army was seen in the sudden invasion and conquest of Italy while England was busy with the pretended Duke of York.

The passage of the Alps by Charles the Eighth shook the whole political structure of Europe.

In wealth, in political repute, in arms, in letters, in arts, Italy at this moment stood foremost among the peoples of Western Christendom, and the mastery which Charles won over it at a single blow lifted France at once above the states around her.