ABSTRACT
Even after the defeat in Naples, France would still be seen as the strongest power in Italy. Rather than banding together against Louis, as they had done against Charles VIII, the Italian states tended to call on the king for his protection and intervention. With the war in Naples that had just begun going in favour of the French, this visit to Lombardy and Genoa marked the height of Louis’s power and influence in Italy. But French dominance in northern Italy was not untroubled, even in the duchy of Milan. There were too many unresolved disputes and conflicting ambitions that could not be stilled by the word of the king alone, and there was no question of his being able to send troops to impose his will in every situation in which he was called upon to intervene, even if he had wanted to.
