ABSTRACT
On 29 August 1494 Charles VIII of France set out from Grenoble with part of his army to make good his claim to the throne of Naples. For France, the resolution of the Breton wars promised closer integration of the duchy of Brittany into the kingdom, provided Charles and Anne produced an heir. Sustained and bitter campaigning had hardened the French army and given valuable experience to its leaders, and given Charles himself a taste for the excitement of going on campaign with his troops. French political interests in Italy were rather unfocused. The kingdoms of Naples and of Sicily had been primarily the concern of the Normans and the Angevins, and their Mediterranean enterprises had been only peripherally linked to French royal policy. For all the intrigues in Italy that prepared the way for the French invasion of 1494, it has to be seen as primarily a French initiative conditioned by events and attitudes in France.
