By his policy at home Louis XII.

deserved and obtained the name of Father of the People; by his enterprises and wars abroad he involved France still more deeply than Charles VIII.

had in that mad course of distant, reckless, and incoherent conquests for which his successor, Francis I., was destined to pay by capture at Pavia and by the lamentable treaty of Madrid, in 1526, as the price of his release.

Let us follow these two portions of Louis XII.'s reign, each separately, without mixing up one with the other by reason of identity of dates.

We shall thus get at a better understanding and better appreciation of their character and their results.
Outside of France, Milaness [the Milanese district] was Louis XII.'s first thought, at his accession, and the first object of his desire.