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[[File: Charles VIII Ecole Francaise 16th century Musee de Conde Chantilly.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|Portrait of Charles VIII]]

The French invasion of Italy in 1494 is widely seen as the beginning of the end of the Italian Renaissance. Charles VIII invaded Italy to lay claim to the Kingdom of Naples, which composed most of southern Italy. The French army marched through Italy with only minimal resistance. The invasion had a profound impact on Italian society and politics. The invasion of Charles VII changed the development of Italy and can be considered one of the primary reasons the Renaissance ended. The French Invasion was to lead to a series of wars that greatly weakened the Italian City-States, prompted a greater role for Spain in the peninsula and eventually led to the domination of Italy by the Spanish Monarchy.

==Spanish Domination==

The French invasion worried many other of the emerging nation-states of Europe and was worried the Spanish elite. They held the island of Sicily and after the French invasion, they became much more involved with affairs on the Italian mainland. They took part in nearly all the Italian wars that took place after the invasion of Charles VII.<ref> Guicciardini, Francesco. <i>The History of Italy</i>. Translated by Sydney Alexander (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), p. 115 </ref> The kingdoms of Europe were becoming national states, with a unified government and standing armies. By the 16th century, the Italian city-states looked much weaker than large kingdoms such as France.

==Conclusion==

The Invasion of Italy by France in 1494 was to usher in a new era. One that was marked by war and political turmoil. The wars caused great economic disruption and led to a reduction in the amount of patronage available to artists and this resulted in a decline in the arts in Italian society. The wars that resulted from Charles VIII resulted in a change in the balance of power of Italy which ultimately led to the Spanish domination of the area. They championed the Counter-Reformation in the country and this led to a society that was increasingly intolerant of difference and innovation and this helped to end the Renaissance. Instead of looking to the classics for inspiration, increasingly artists and writers were drawn to religious subjects. The psychological impact of the decades of war resulted in a growing cultural pessimism about the nature of man and society and this did much to undermine the values that allowed the arts and culture to flourish in the period 1350-1550. The invasion of Italy by the French monarch began a series of events that greatly contributed to the end of perhaps one of the most brilliant epochs in human history.

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==Related DailyHistory.org Articles==

*[[Why did the Italian Renaissance End?]]

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