Why Did Venice Leave The Holy League

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Why did Venice leave the Holy League in 1513 to join France?

The Holy League, which consisted of the Holy Roman Empire, the Papal States, Spain, Venice, and Milan, had a complicated relationship with the French throughout the late 15th and early 16th centuries (Britannica.com). This complicated relationship began when Ludovico Sforza of Milan, convinced Charles VIII of France to invade Italy. Ludovico was convinced that the current rulers of Naples were very power hungry and they were going to try and take over Milan and/or take over the other neighboring city states. However, when Charles VIII invaded and took control of Naples in 1494, he realized how wealthy and beautiful Naples was and he now wanted to take over the other Italian city-states. Sforza, now realizing that he had done more bad than good for himself, banded together a …show more content…

The Holy League had now come into new wealth previously obtained by the French. The Holy League, primarily Milan, fought over these new riches and the Holy League began to fall apart ( The King of Terror by William J. Moylan pg. 118). I believe that Venice probably turned against the Holy League because they did not feel they had a true alliance. Just a few short years before the Holy League launched a war against Venice (Britannica.com). The Venetians probably felt that they could not trust the people of the Holy League 100% because they had so easily declared war on them before. If I were Venice I would have a hard time trusting the people that went to war with me before. They may have also done it as a tactical plan. Or, Maybe their plan all along was to join the Holy League to gain the trust of all those powers whilst still keeping in touch with the French, then with the element of the surprise switch teams after learning the battle plans and ultimately win in the end. The whole time the Venetians were playing