Twice repulsed from Naples, she remained under the successor of Charles, Lewis the Twelfth, mistress of the Duchy of Milan and of the bulk of Northern Italy; the princes and republics of Central Italy grouped themselves about her; and at the close of Henry the Seventh's reign the ruin of Venice in the League of Cambray crushed the last Italian state which could oppose her designs on the whole peninsula.
It was this new and mighty power, a France that stretched from the Atlantic to the Mincio, that fronted the young king at his accession and startled him from his father's attitude of isolation.

He sought Ferdinand's alliance none the less that it meant war, for his temper was haughty and adventurous, his pride dwelt on the older claims of England to Normandy and Guienne, and his devotion to the Papacy drew him to listen to the cry of Julius the Second, and to long like a crusader to free Rome from the French pressure.

Nor was it of less moment to a will such as the young king's that Catharine's passionate love for him had roused as ardent a love in return.
[Sidenote: Ferdinand of Aragon] Two months therefore after his accession the Infanta became the wife of Henry the Eighth.

The influence of the king of Aragon became all-powerful in the English council chamber.

Catharine spoke of her husband and herself as Ferdinand's subjects.