Participation in wars: French-Spanish War. Crazy war. italian hike
Participation in battles:

(Le Père du Peuple, Louis XII of France) King of France from the Valois dynasty (Orleans branch)

The life of Louis XII was bright and unusual. The boy was born on June 27, 1462 near Paris in the castle of Blois. His father was Duke Charles of Orleans. Louis lost his parents early and, after the death of his father, went to be raised by the king Louis XI. The king patronized Louis and it was clear to everyone that the king had his own views on the young man. At the age of 14, in 1476, Louis, by order of the king, marries his daughter Princess Jeanne.

Jeanne was a very sickly girl with an absolutely unattractive appearance. In addition, as it turned out, she could not have children. For those close to him, it was clear that the king wanted to interrupt the younger branch Valois dynasty: if branch Dukes of Orleans interrupted, then for the senior branch of the Valois there will no longer be a threat from possible contenders for the throne. However, after the king's death, Louis wants his marriage to the barren Joan to be annulled. He justifies his decision by being too closely related to his wife. The Pope approved the dissolution of the marriage and Jeanne, not too upset by the divorce, retires to Bourges. It was there that she founded the famous Order of the Annunciates. Subsequently, for her piety and good deeds, Princess Jeanne was canonized.

After the death of the king, the question arose of who would become regent with his young son. Charles VIII. Louis counted on this position, but it goes to Anne de God, daughters of the late king Louis XI. Of course, the Duke of Orleans did not agree with this turn of events. Frustrated and angry, he decides with Francis II, Duke of Brittany, unleash a war, which later became known as "insane". However, the war ends in 1486 with the defeat of the Duke of Orleans and his allies. Louis of Orleans is captured. For several years he was in captivity, but later managed to reconcile with Charles VIII. Subsequently, Louis even accompanied the king to Italian campaign. However, the hopes of the French to take the Duchy of Milan did not come true.

On April 7, 1498, as a result of an accident, King Charles VIII died. He hit his head on the door frame and was seriously injured. After the death of a childless Charles VIII it became obvious to everyone that the closest relative of the tragically deceased king would take the throne - Louis of Orleans.

In the joy of fulfilling his cherished dream, Louis forgives all the sins of his enemies. The reign of Louis was accompanied by the same foreign policy France: The king tried in vain to capture Italy. At first, Louis was even lucky. However, fortune turned out to be insidious and changeable. Very soon, Louis lost all Italian conquests. He had to abandon the idea of ​​annexing Naples, Milan and Venice to his possessions.

Louis XII glorified his native Blois, making the region the center of all France. It was during the reign of the Duke of Orleans in Blois that the construction of a magnificent royal palace began.

The death of Louis XII was unexpected for everyone. After the death of his second wife, Anna of Brittany, Ludovic marries again Mary Tudor. However, three months after his marriage to a young English princess, Louis XII dies. The tragic event took place on January 1, 1515. Louis had no sons, so his cousin nephew occupies the French throne,

And my father. His appearance on the throne seemed almost unbelievable, and therefore, in his youth, Louis paid more attention to obtaining the Milanese inheritance of his grandmother Valentina Visconti. Nevertheless, he sought to completely exterminate the Orleans branch of the Valois. When his physically disabled daughter Jeanne was born, he arranged with Charles of Orleans for a marriage between the children before everyone knew about the deformity of the princess. Charles tried to annul this agreement, but the king was adamant. At the wedding, there were no people more unhappy than the bride and groom. Jeanne truly loved her husband. When he fell ill with smallpox in 1483, she cared for him without fear of contracting it. However, Louis openly neglected his wife, visited her bedroom very rarely, and soon resettled her to another castle.

After his death, the young one became king, and his elder sister Anna de Beaujeux became regent under him. Louis himself claimed the regency. Teaming up with, he went to war against Anna, but was defeated, captured and spent three years in prison in terrible conditions. Having begun to rule independently, at the request of his sister Jeanne, he released her husband Louis, restored his rights and declared him his heir.

After the death of the childless Louis became king. Under the terms of the Franco-Breton treaty, Louis married Anne of Brittany, a widow, for which he had to divorce his first wife. Louis treated his enemies generously and even Anne de Beaujeu did not remind of past grievances. The treasury was devastated by the Italian campaign, but Louis not only did not introduce new taxes, but even slightly reduced the old ones. His first decrees dealt with money circulation, coinage, customs duties, trade and other economic and financial issues. He cared about the improvement of roads, the growth of commodity exchange, the rise Agriculture about the flourishing of crafts. The economic situation in France quickly improved. The resumption of the Italian war soon did not prevent this.

Louis did not abandon his former dream of capturing. Not meeting much resistance, the French troops took Milan in the fall of 1499 exactly two months after entering the territory of the duchy. fled to Germany. When he succeeded at the beginning of the next year, having strengthened his army with German and Swiss mercenaries, to recapture Milan and Novara, Louis sent Georges d'Amboise against him as responsible for the Italian campaign and La Tremouille, commander in chief. In Novara, Swiss mercenaries fought in the troops of both opponents. They did not want to fight each other at all, and as a result, La Tremuille managed to be captured on April 8, 1500. The prisoner was brought to France, where he died in 1508 in the castle of Loches.

Soon, Louis signed an agreement with Spain on the division of southern Italy. Having attacked from two sides on, Louis and quickly captured him, but very soon quarreled. Louis was defeated by the army of the Spanish king, and in March 1504 he renounced his claims to southern Italy. In the north, things were also not going well. , Switzerland, and Venice, led by the militant pope, united against Louis, not wanting to recognize his rights to Lombardy. In 1512, the Spaniards captured, the Swiss invaded Burgundy in 1513, the British defeated the French in Guinegatte in August 1513, and Louis was forced to return the family, abandoning all conquests.

In this gloomy situation that developed in 1513, there was one favorable event for Louis: his death in February 1513. His successor was peace-loving and not as power-hungry as his two predecessors.

At the end of December 1513, a reconciliation took place between and Louis XII. And after long negotiations, Louis made peace in August 1514 with the kings of England and Spain. Moreover, he entered into an alliance with and married his sister.

Louis died on January 1, 1515 from exhaustion after six months of intercourse with his too young and too hot wife, as they then joked, "from trying to get an heir." The queen, after the death of the king, endlessly spread the rumor that she was pregnant; and although in reality this was not the case, they said that she, putting something under her dress, grew fatter and fatter, so that when the time came, she would take the child from some woman who gave birth at the same time. But Louise of Savoy, who could not be denied quick wit, knew perfectly well how children are made, and saw that for her and for her son, the heir to the throne, everything could end badly. Therefore, she ordered doctors and midwives to examine the queen, and they found bundles of linen and curtains under her dress. So Mary Tudor was exposed and she did not become the Queen Mother. Shortly thereafter, she left France, and on January 25, 1515, Louis XII's cousin and son-in-law, Count of Angouleme, was crowned in the Reims Cathedral.

Louis XII. Portrait by J. Perreal, ca. 1514

Internal reforms of Louis XII

Charles VIII of France, who died childless in 1498, was succeeded by Louis XII, Duke of Orléans, a descendant of Charles VI's brother. Until now, the people in France have suffered greatly from the standing army, which has appeared since the time of Charles VII and fed at the expense of unarmed residents: Louis XII freed the people from this burden, appointing certain incomes for the maintenance of the army, appointing well-known and well-meaning people instead of seekers as commanders of the troops adventurers and robber knights, as before, finally forbidding troops to be stationed in villages and small towns, and allowing them to stand only in large cities where the inhabitants could keep them from rampage. In addition, under Louis XII there were useful changes regarding the courts, regarding the coin, and all these concerns of the supreme power about improving the life of the subjects brought Louis the glorious nickname father people.

Italian wars under Louis XII - the capture of Milan by the French (1499)

But Louis soon showed that he did not intend to confine himself to internal orders alone: ​​he took the title of King of Neapolitan, Sicilian and Jerusalem, Duke of Milan. First of all, he wanted to take possession of Milan on the grounds that his grandmother was from the house of Visconti that had previously reigned there. Desiring to ensure success in capturing Milan, Louis XII attracted to his side Pope Alexander VI, whom he promised to his son, Caesar Borgia, famous for his immorality, to arrange possession in Italy; concluded an alliance with the Venetians, dissatisfied with the Milanese Duke Ludovic Moreau. But the French king had a small army, he considered it necessary to hire the Swiss, but there was no money; in such need, he demanded money from the tax collectors and began to sell their places, thus giving the buyers the right to collect their money from the poor taxpayers. Money was collected, the Swiss were hired, and in 1499 Louis XII marched against Milan. The success was brilliant, because everyone in Milan hated Ludovic Moreau as a tyrant, a thief of power, a murderer of his nephew, who owned the throne; Moreau was forced to flee from Milan, then returned with hired Swiss, was betrayed by them and sent to France. Having mastered Milan, Louis XII began to think about Naples. Success was not sure, because next to powerful France a no less powerful Spanish state was formed, and Ferdinand the Catholic, who already owned Sicily, did not want to allow the French to strengthen in Italy.

Rivalry for Southern Italy with the Spanish

Thus, the Italian wars take on a special meaning for us: we see how France, striving to strengthen itself at the expense of a divided and weak Italy, is held back by Spain. In order not to have interference from the Spanish king Ferdinand the Catholic, Louis XII decides to share the booty with him: both kings entered into an agreement according to which Apulia and Calabria should go to Ferdinand. In 1501, the French army under the command of d "Aubigny (Scottish Stuart) moved to Naples; the uncle of the deceased king Ferdinand II, Frederick, reigned here: he was captured by the French and died a prisoner in France. Meanwhile, the famous commander of Ferdinand the Catholic, Gonzalvo of Corduan, already occupied the southern regions of Neapolitan, and soon a quarrel broke out between him and the French: the division was difficult!In the summer of 1502, a clear war broke out between the Spaniards and the French, a war in which the obsolete chivalry expressed itself for the last time in all its strength; the French knight Bayard became especially famous here, "a knight without fear and reproach". The case ended with the fact that in 1503, having suffered two defeats from the Spaniards, the French were forced to clear the Kingdom of Naples, which went to the Spaniards; Louis XII sent a new army to conquer Naples, but it was also defeated by Gonzalva Corduana under Garigliano.In 1504, Spain and France concluded a truce: Naples remained with Spain, Mi lan - for France.

Thus the two most powerful continental powers established themselves at the two ends of Italy. Of the Italian powers, Venice was the strongest, with which Emperor Maximilian alone could not cope, and therefore began to try to break her with an alliance; allies were easily found, because many wanted to humiliate the proud Venetian oligarchy and divide the possessions of the republic; In addition to Emperor Maximilian, the French king Louis XII, Ferdinand the Catholic and the pope, now the militant Julius I, entered into an alliance: the allies in Cambrai directly agreed to divide the Venetian possessions among themselves. The French began hostilities and defeated the Venetian army at Agnadello (1509); King Louis began to take the Venetian cities. Then Venice hastened to break the alliance, giving the pope and Ferdinand the Catholic everything they wanted.

Holy League against Louis XII

The pope, pleased with the humiliation of Venice, began to act against the French, because he did not at all want to strengthen them in Italy; Louis XII, for his part, took up arms against the pope, demanding ecclesiastical reforms; through his efforts, a council was assembled in Pisa, whose fathers proclaimed the need for transformations of the Church, at the head of it and in its members, proclaimed that the pope must submit to the decision of the council. But this ecclesiastical matter could not have consequences, because political relations were against it. Ferdinand the Catholic considered it necessary not to extradite the pope to the mighty French king, and in the autumn of 1511 the so-called Holy League was formed, an alliance for the defense of the Roman Church. The members of the union were: Pope, Venetians, Spain; Ferdinand attracted to the union and his son-in-law, the English king Henry VIII; Ferdinand wrote that if the French were allowed to take Rome, the freedom of Europe would perish. Since 1512, hostilities began: it was difficult for the allies to act against the French army, led by the royal nephew, Gaston de Foix. Nicknamed Italian Lightning, Gaston really with incredible speed ran through vast spaces with his army, unexpectedly appeared now here, now where danger demanded. The Italians were against the French, who especially drove them out of patience with their immorality towards women, but the French put out the uprising in the blood of the rebels, and they behaved worse than the Tatars.

Expulsion of the French from Milan (1512)

In the spring of 1512, the Allied troops met the French at Ravenna: after a bloody battle in which up to 20,000 people died on both sides, the French remained victorious, but lost their famous leader, Gaston de Foix. With the death of Gaston, happiness left the French, who could hardly hold out in Italy, and meanwhile the Spaniards and the English attacked France itself; the French also had to leave Milan, where the descendant of the formerly reigning Sforza family had established itself; the fathers of the Pisa Cathedral had to retire first to Milan, and then to Lyon, and the cathedral was recognized by France alone.

In 1513, Louis XII sent a new army to conquer Milan; but the allies hired the Swiss, who defeated the French at Novara and forced them to flee to the fatherland; and at the very beginning of 1515, Louis XII died childless, leaving the throne to his cousin, Francis.

When writing the article, the "Course" was used new history" S. M. Solovyov

When Louis was born, it seemed incredible that he would take the throne of the French kings: after all, he was in third place in the line of successors to the throne after the brother of the king and his own father. Louis XI himself showed obvious irritation at the appearance of this "heir to the throne" and openly doubted the legitimacy of his birth. Indeed, the father of Louis, the Duke of Orleans, was then already. 68 years old, and he did not differ in good health. Not thinking about the French throne, Louis in his youth was much more concerned about receiving the inheritance of his grandmother. As the grandson of Valentina Visconti, he could lay claim to the Duchy of Milan.

Louis XI had a long-standing dislike for the Dukes of Orléans. This hostility prompted him a truly diabolical idea - to strike at the future of the House of Orleans. Soon after the birth of Louis, the king had a daughter, Jeanne, with a physical deformity, and before this fact became known to everyone, he managed to conspire with Louis's unsuspecting father about the future wedding of the children. It was not to be expected that this marriage would be happy, besides, he could well remain childless. Later, when the condition of the unfortunate princess was no longer a secret to anyone, mother and son tried to frustrate these plans. But the king remained inexorable and, despite resistance, forced the marriage. It was not in his power, however, to force the Duke of Orleans to reconcile with him. Jeanne sincerely loved her husband, cared for him, not being afraid to get infected when he fell ill with smallpox in 1483, but she never managed to overcome the dislike of the duke. The sight of the newlyweds at a luxurious wedding feast - the young duke did not touch the food and, paying no attention to anyone, sobbed from anger and impotence, and the bride shed tears from resentment and disappointment - did not bode well. Only the threats of the king could make the young husband visit - however, very rarely and not for long - the chambers of his wife, who lived separately from him in the castle of Linier. Later, having barely ascended the throne, Louis started a case to recognize the marriage as invalid. In court, despite the objections of his wife, he argued that for all twenty years life together there was no marital relationship between them.

The life of a duke removed by the king from political activity and trying to find solace in luxury and debauchery seemed to be completely determined by numerous love affairs, hunting and other entertainments. However, when the brother of Louis XI died without heirs, and the Dauphin Charles remained the only son of the king, the position of the Duke of Orleans noticeably increased: now he became the second contender for the throne, immediately after the direct heir Charles. The rapidly decrepit Louis XI understood very well the threat this posed to the minor heir to the throne, and tried to reduce it with his last orders. Upon the king's death, the regency was to be given to his daughter and son-in-law, Anne and Pierre de Beaugh. The Duke of Orleans was forced to swear on the Gospel that he would not seek regency under them. Of course, the duke forgot his promise immediately after the death of the king. At first, he tried to challenge his will before the States General, and when this did not work, he launched an armed rebellion in 1485. But even on this path he was not successful. In July 1488, Louis almost died at the Battle of Sainte-Aubin-du-Cormier. He was captured and thrown into prison without any trial. He spent the next three years in very strict confinement under appalling conditions, among the guards who harassed him with rough treatment. Only in June 1491, the grown-up Charles VIII decided, without asking the consent of Anna God, to release Louis, returned his favor to him and restored the rights taken from him. Since that time, Louis of Orleans was officially considered his heir.

In April 1498 Charles died without leaving any sons. Having become king, Louis treated his former enemies very generously, and even Anna God did not remind him of the hardships of his three-year imprisonment. The financial situation of the country was desperate. The Italian campaign of Charles VIII devastated the treasury. Nonetheless new king not only did not raise taxes, but even went for some of their reduction. He did not collect the usual tax for the coronation celebrations, although he had every right to do so. The king diligently took up the transformation, trying to raise the welfare of the country. His first decrees dealt with money circulation, coinage, customs duties, trade and other economic and financial issues. He took care of the improvement of roads, the growth of trade, the rise of agriculture, the prosperity of crafts. The economic situation in France quickly improved. The resumption of the Italian war soon did not prevent this.

As before, Louis considered the acquisition of the Duchy of Milan to be his main concern. In June 1499 the king crossed the Alps and was received in Savoy in a friendly manner. After the first clashes with the French army, the mercenaries of the Duke of Milan, Louis More, began to scatter. He himself fled to Tyrol under the protection of the emperor. In September, the French entered Milan. But the following year the Milanese revolted against them. Louis More returned to his capital, but in March 1500 he suffered a final defeat and was taken prisoner. In April, the French captured Milan for the second time, and in November, Louis concluded an agreement with the Spanish king Ferdinand on the division of the Kingdom of Naples. In the summer of 1501, the French invaded southern Italy, took Capua and subjected it to defeat. At the same time, the Spaniards landed in Calabria. The Neapolitan king Federigo gave up resistance and surrendered to Louis. As expected, the Kingdom of Naples was divided between the winners, but soon strife began between the French and the Spaniards, which escalated into open war in 1503. Louis, outraged by the treachery of Ferdinand, gathered a new army and moved it to Italy. In November-December, the French were defeated in a seven-week battle at Garigliano. Upon learning of this defeat, Louis fell ill, locked himself in his rooms and did not receive anyone. In March 1504 he signed peace with Spain and renounced all claims to southern Italy. Things went wrong in the north too. Neither the pope nor the emperor was willing to recognize Louis' rights to Lombardy. Spain, Switzerland, Venice and England joined their union. In 1512, Milan again came under the rule of the Sforza family. Then the Spaniards took possession of Navarre. The following year, the Swiss invaded Burgundy and advanced on Dijon. To make peace, Louis had to give up all his conquests.

The same failure awaited the king in another respect: he never succeeded in securing the throne for his dynasty. After parting with Jeanne, Louis soon married the widow of his predecessor, Queen Anne. In later years she bore him two daughters and two sons, but both boys died in infancy. After the death of his second wife, Louis married a third time to the young English princess Mary. But this new marriage only undermined his strength: two months after the wedding, the king died.

All the monarchs of the world. Western Europe. Konstantin Ryzhov. Moscow, 1999

Louis XII of France before accession to the throne

At the birth of Louis on June 27, 1462, in his father's castle in Blois, it would have seemed absurd to predict that he would take the throne of French kings: after all, he was in third place in the line of successors to the throne after the king's brother and his own father. Louis XI himself showed obvious irritation at the birth of this "heir to the throne", and in narrow circles openly questioned the legitimacy of such a late offspring, although he never officially announced this.

His father, Charles, Duke of Orleans (d. 1465), who had been married to Mary of Cleves for 22 years by the time Louis was born, was almost 70 years old, and he did not differ in good health. He was the grandson of King Charles V of France, thus Louis XII, like the reigning king Louis XI, was the great-grandson of Charles V. This lineage gave him the right to claim the throne, provided that King Louis XI and his brother died without leaving behind male heirs, or these heirs will die before Louis, leaving no legitimate sons. King Louis had a direct heir - the only son born on 06/30/1470, the future Charles VIII (1483-1498). Having almost no hope of the French throne, Louis, apparently, was counting on another opportunity - on the right to claim the Duchy of Milan, which had passed to him after the death of his father in 1465. As the son of Valentina Visconti, daughter of the Duke of Milan Giangaleazzo Visconti, to whom, after the death of her brother Philippe Maria (who died in 1447 without leaving sons), the duchy was to be inherited, Charles of Orleans considered himself the legitimate heir of Milan, and his son Louis followed behind him. Apart from accession to the French throne, one of Louis's most passionate aspirations was, apparently, to receive this inheritance.

Louis XI's dislike of the House of Orléans had two reasons: firstly, their aspirations to the throne, and secondly, their strong influence as large local princes who opposed the power of the king. This hostility suggested to him a truly diabolical idea - to strike at the future of the House of Orleans. Shortly after the birth of Louis, on April 23, 1464, the king had a daughter with a physical deformity, and before this fact became known to everyone, he managed to come to an agreement with Louis' unsuspecting father about the future wedding of the children. It was not to be expected that this marriage would be happy, he could well remain childless. Later, when the state of the unfortunate princess was no longer a secret to anyone, mother and son tried to frustrate these plans. But the king remained inexorable and, despite resistance, forced the same in 1476 to conclude this marriage. It was not in his power, however, to force the Duke of Orleans to reconcile with him. Jeanne, who sincerely loved her husband, cared for him, not being afraid to get infected, when in 1483 he fell ill with smallpox - this was the beginning of a long string of illnesses that fell on him - never managed to overcome the dislike of the duke. The sight of the newlyweds at a luxurious wedding feast - the young duke did not touch the food and, paying no attention to anyone, sobbed from anger and impotence, and the bride shed tears from resentment and disappointment - did not bode well. Only the threats of the king could force the young husband to visit - however, very rarely and not for long - the chambers of his wife, who lived separately from him in the castle of Linier. Having ascended the throne, a few months later he started a case to invalidate the marriage in order to marry the royal widow Anna, Duchess of Brittany. At the trial, he, despite the objections of his wife, argued that during all twenty-two years of marriage, there was no marital relationship between them.

The life of the duke, removed from political activity by the king and trying to find solace in luxury and debauchery, seemed to be completely determined by numerous love affairs, hunting and other "befitting his position" entertainment. However, when the brother of Louis XI died without heirs, and Charles remained the only son of the king, the position of the Duke of Orleans noticeably increased: now he became the second contender for the throne, immediately after the direct heir, Charles. The rapidly decrepit Louis XI was very well aware of the threat this poses to the minor heir to the throne. In October 1482, he obliges the duke to swear allegiance to the heir to the throne and take an oath that he renounces the regency, which he had every right to claim. After the king's death, Louis XI's daughter and son-in-law, Anne and Pierre de Baeuille, were to receive it. Of course, Louis of Orleans felt just as little bound by the oath given on the Gospel as later, when he had already ascended the throne. He violated numerous treaties as often as the rest of their participants. The king saw a potential danger for his son, first of all, in the traditionally good relations of the House of Orleans with the Duke of Brittany Francis II, an enemy of Louis and an ally of the Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold, as well as with Louis's brother Charles - in their dispute over the possession of Normandy in 1467 and 1468. From This is what he tried to protect his son by binding Louis of Orleans with an oath. His fears were not unfounded. As soon as after the death of the king on August 30, 1483, the pressure on the duke eased, he, in alliance with the old opponents of the deceased monarch, begins to develop political activity - at first secretly - against the heir and his temporary guardians, de God. How impatient he was can be seen from the fact that back in August 1483 he began secret negotiations with the Duke of Brittany, trying to free himself from the burdensome burden placed on him by Louis XI, i.e. from his wife Jeanne. After the annulment of his marriage to Jeanne, he wanted to marry Anne, the only daughter of the duke and heir to the Duchy of Brittany. The Duke readily agreed to this proposal. He realized his intention only 15 years later, since de God managed to achieve the marriage of Anna with their ward, Charles VIII, which provided the crown with the right to the Duchy of Breton.

So in the second attempt to gain power and political influence the still inexperienced young duke was defeated. The opponents managed to curb the first manifestations of open hostility towards the son of the deceased king by generously distributing lands, titles, rents and other favors to noble landed nobles, deprived of their power and power by Louis XI. Louis d'Orleans himself also took advantage of this generosity. The troops placed under him, a large annuity of 24,000 pounds, such a source of constant income as admission to the Order of St. discussion of government affairs. Louis hoped to receive such an opportunity from the Estates General, who had the right to remove the young king from the influence of de Baeu and appoint a royal council of several people, selected by him, and a regency under his control. At least, these might have been his immediate aims when, back in September 1483, he demanded - and achieved - the convocation of the Estates General. However, he and the opposition associated with him (supposed future members of the royal council - Duke John II of Bourbon, elder brother of Pierre de Beaugh, Francois Orleans, Count of Dunois, Count of Comminges, as well as the bishops of Periguet and Coutances) allowed de Beauge to achieve such a procedure for holding elections in States-General that in the end all the interests of the opposition at the meetings of the States-General from January to March were doomed to failure. Not to the benefit of Louis was the fact that, almost at the last moment, the seat of meetings of the states was moved from Orleans to Tours, which was loyal to the king. The chairmanship of the Duke of Orleans at the meetings of Parliament was purely formal, since it was valid only in the absence of the king. When, in January 1485, the campaign of Louis, joined by the Duke of Brittany, to assemble the Estates General in a renewed composition, failed, Louis of Orleans no longer saw any other way to fulfill his claims, except for a direct confrontation, up to an armed struggle, with the king . However, on this path he achieved as little success as before. His allies each had their own obligations, and at times pursued different goals, which did not contribute to success at all. Among them were the Count Dunois, the Prince of Orleans, the Duke of Brittany and Alain d "Albret, as well as his foreign supporters - the English king and the Austrian Archduke, Maximilian. Maximilian and Alain d" Albret, like Louis himself, tried with the help of marriage with Anna , daughter of the Duke of Brittany, to get Brittany.

The military conflict of the beginning of the 16th century, called the "senseless war" - "insana militia", (fr. Guerre folle), ended in tears for Louis: he almost died on 07/28/1488 in the battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier, small Breton town. The poorly armed and significantly outnumbered army of the allies was defeated by the royal army, which was under the command of the 27-year-old Louis II of Tremouille, the counts de Benon and de Guin and the prince of Talmond, who later, in the Italian campaign, was to become one of the most prominent and military leaders loyal to Louis. The personal courage and competence in military affairs of Louis himself, who had managed to accumulate military experience over the past years, was not in doubt. Only the caution of de Tremouille saved him from the enraged Swiss landsknecht, who was already pushing him with weapons in his hands.

Louis was imprisoned without trial and spent the next three years in appalling conditions. The jailers harassed him with rough treatment, until at last he was transferred to Bourges, the most secure dungeon. The fact that he was the only one of all the opposition kept so long in custody confirms what danger he represented in God's eyes to the king, still under their influence; after all, there were petitioners at court for his release. For this, however, he had only his unloved wife Jeanne to thank. After futile attempts to soften her sister, Anne de Beaugh, she turned directly to her brother, Charles VIII, and was successful. Exactly three years after being taken into custody, on June 27, 1491, Charles decided, without asking Anna's consent, to release Louis, return his favor to him and restore the morals taken from him.

In contrast to Anna, who did not hide the hostile attitude towards the duke, the king retained rather friendly feelings towards Louis. After all, it was Louis who knighted him during the coronation, and according to the code of noble honor adopted then, this connected them with personal ties. Release without any conditions and restrictions and reconciliation with the king, who rode from Tours to Firtzon, where he ordered a prisoner from neighboring Bourges to be brought to him, should have been a beneficial shock for Louis. Together with the return of the favor of the king, as well as the receipt of Normandy, transferred to him instead of Île-de-France, Louis not only regained his former positions as prince of the blood, but also received what he had sought for so long and in vain - the king was now open to his advice and influence . However, a certain price was required for this: all attempts to get rid of Jeanne should have been abandoned. It looked like a final refusal to marry Anna. Now, after the death of her father, which soon followed the crushing defeat at Sainte-Aubin-du-Cormier and the signing of a humiliating peace treaty, she became the Duchess of Brittany. And when Charles, in the face of increased claims from Maximilian, in turn began to seek marriage with Anna in order to be able to annex Brittany to the kingdom, Louis, as the king's adviser, negotiated on this issue with Anna on his behalf.

In order to marry Anna, Karl had to terminate the union concluded during the life of his father with Maximilian's daughter Margarita; back in 1488, at the age of three, she arrived in France, where she was brought up as a future queen. In addition, Anna, despite the rupture of the peace treaty of 1488, promised her hand to Maximilian and even celebrated the engagement. The success of Charles had for Louis, apparently, also the unfavorable consequence that Margaret, as the ruler of the Netherlands, could become a serious opponent of Louis XII. The marriage between Charles VIII and Anna was celebrated in December 1491. The question whether Louis made it a condition of the marriage contract that, in the event of the death of the king, she could only remarry his heir or successor remains open. That Louis still dreamed of marrying Anna and, despite his illnesses, hoped to outlive the king, who was 8 years younger than him, is in principle possible, although implausible. His negative attitude towards Jeanne, despite all that she did for his release, persisted. Otherwise, however, his whole being profoundly changed. Although tournaments, feasts, extravagance and debauchery, as well as the financial problems associated with them, did not disappear from his life, they receded into the background and did not prevent him from seriously and effectively managing Normandy. So, it was thanks to his diplomatic efforts that the British abandoned the already planned landing in Normandy.

On October 11, 1492, Anna gave birth to a healthy son, who was christened Charles-Orland. Charles's forthcoming Italian campaign, by which the king hoped to annex the kingdom of Naples, was an opportunity for Louis to realize the claims of his own house to the Duchy of Milan, which was in the hands of Lodovico Sforza, nicknamed "il Moro". However, Lodovico's prudently concluded alliance with Charles VIII, which he undertook to observe during the campaign against Naples, frustrated these plans. The growth of the power of Louis in the event of the capture of the Duchy of Milan could not but disturb the king and his advisers. Illness prevented Louis from accompanying the king on his campaign further to the south of Italy, and allowed him to stay in his fief possession of Asti. Charles put him not at the head of the army, but only at the head of the fleet - an unusual task for Louis and clearly did not prove the favor of the king. When Lodovico Sforza attempted to capture Asti, an important outpost on the route from France to Italy, in violation of the treaty, Louis resisted him. Encouraged by success, he took Nova-ra with a single onslaught, almost without bloodshed, where the population joyfully greeted him. However, he failed to take advantage of the chance and overthrow the usurper Lodovico, hated by the inhabitants, and he managed to re-assemble the army and lock Louis in Novara.

Although Charles VIII was successful in Naples and emerged victorious from the battle with the troops of the Lombard League at Fornovo on 07/06/1495, he hesitated for more than a month before coming to the aid of the besieged Louis. The consequences of the siege became more and more tangible: diseases spread in the city, food supplies were rapidly depleted, drinking water not enough. Charles was already in the vicinity of Asti on July 27, but it was not until September 8 that he finally moved his army to Lodovico, without showing much haste, however. Only on September 28, Louis was able to leave the city, after Charles and Lodovico agreed to lift the siege and unhindered withdrawal of troops. For this, Novara was returned to the Duke of Milan. The behavior of Charles, who equaled Louis himself in betrayal, led to the fact that the enmity between them escalated. However, in subsequent years, Louis could not be blamed for any disloyal actions towards the king. The sudden death of the only son Charles after a short illness in December 1495 contributed to the beginning of the alienation. After two more sons of Queen Anne died in 1496 and 1497, barely born, and at the beginning of 1498 she was relieved of the burden of a dead girl, Louis tangibly approached the coveted throne, especially since the king's health clearly deteriorated. Only by extremely tactful behavior, a complete rejection of everything that could set the royal couple and his opponents at court against him, Louis avoided a new aggravation of relations.

With the death of Charles VIII on April 7, 1498, the path to the throne was clear for Louis. No one else could prevent him from divorcing his unloved wife Jeanne, and also trying to conquer the Duchy of Milan, of which he considered himself the legitimate ruler. Finally, now the rights of the House of Anjou were transferred to him: the right to the kingdom of Naples.