Editing Louis XII (section)

===Military campaigns against the Kingdom of Naples (1501–1508)===
To assert his claim to his half of the Kingdom of Naples, Louis XII sent an army under the command of [[Bernard Stewart, 4th Lord of Aubigny|Bernard Stuart of Aubigny]] composed of 1,000 lances, 10,000 infantrymen including 5,000 Swiss troops to Naples in early June 1501.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=123}} In May 1501, Louis had obtained free passage for his troops to march through Bologne on the way to Naples.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=123}} As the army approached Rome, Spanish and French ambassadors notified Pope Alexander VI of the thus far secret Treaty of Grenada, signed 11 November 1500, which divided the Kingdom of Naples between France and Spain. The Pope was pleased and enthusiastically issued a bull naming the two kings – Louis XII of France and Ferdinand II of Spain – as the Pope's vassals in Naples.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=123}} Indeed, the public announcement of the treaty in the Vatican was the first news that King [[Frederick of Naples]] had received about his fate and his betrayal by his own cousin, Ferdinand.

Being a stern disciplinarian, Lord Stuart held the troops of his army to strict decorum during most of the march to Naples. However, discipline fell apart when the army passed through [[Capua]]. The French army plundered and raped Capua mercilessly.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=123}}  However, when news of the rape of Capua spread throughout southern Italy, resistance to the French vanished. Frederick fled and the French Army entered Naples unopposed. Louis XII claimed the throne of Naples and pursuant to the sharing agreement with Ferdinand II shared half the income of Naples with Spain. However, as Machiavelli had predicted, the agreement could not last and in early 1502 relations between France and Spain had gone sour.{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=125}} Negotiations were started between France and Spain over their disagreements about Naples. However, in April 1502, without waiting for the conclusion of these negotiations, Louis sent an army under the command of [[Charles IV, Duke of Alençon|Louis d' Armagnac, Duke of Nemours]] against the Spanish in [[Apulia]].{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|pp=125–126}}