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Invading Italy made no sense for Charles VIII. Marrying Lisa Gherardini makes no sense for Francesco del Giocondo.

In the 10 years covered by Blood and Beauty, Borgia Rome has to negotiate with the armies of the French king Charles VIII, and the great ruling families of divided Italy – "a sack of spatting cats that has learned nothing from the past" – through diplomacy and marriage, poison and charm.

Charles VIII, as has often been said, brought back the Renaissance to France from that expedition; but he brought her back a captive chained to the wheels of his cannon.

This, and the confiscations which followed, divided between Charles VIII. and the Archbishop of Embrun, gave a fatal blow to Waldensianism in the valleys.

The death of Louis, in 1483, deprived them of their protector, and the Italian policy of Charles VIII. rendered him less indifferent to the wishes of the Holy See.