Changes

[[File: Borgia Two.jpg|thumbnail|300px|Lucrezia Borgia ]]

Pope Alexander was very ambitious for his children, especially his sons. He was aware that after his death that his family could lose their position and be at the mercy of his enemies. This led him to secure their future through marriages to the great families. However, Alexander was not satisfied with this and sought to establish principalities for his children, in Papal Lands.<ref>Woodward, W.H. <i>Cesare Borgia: A Biography</i>, (Chapman & Hall, London, 1913), p. 78</ref> This was to lead to series of conflicts with some of the most powerful leaders and princes in Italy. Alexander’s aggrandizement of the Borgia Family was to destabilize Italy. They were engaged in many feuds with families such as the Sforza and the de Medici and this led to growing instability in the peninsula.

Alexander sought to carve out a principality for his youngest son in lands owned by the Pope but situated in the Kingdom of Naples. The King resisted this and this led to Pope Alexander to enter an alliance with the French Monarch. Charles VII of France claimed the Kingdom of Naples. Pope Alexander vowed to recognize the claims of the French king and agreed to help him invade the Kingdom of Naples. In return the King would create a principality for the youngest Borgia son<ref> Hale, p. 119</ref>. This led to an invasion of Italy by the French King, it seemed at one time that Charles VII would renege on his agreement and depose Alexander. The French army eventually occupied Naples but it was decimated by a plague and was forced to retreat. The invasion by France was to mark a new and bloody era in the history of Italy. Spain, newly unified decided to contest French claims to Naples and this led to a series of bloody wars in Italy.<ref> Hale, p. 120</ref> These wars were eventually won by Spain and it came to dominate Italy until the eighteenth century. Under Spanish rule, the power of the Church grew and the Inquisition became more powerful leading to the end of the Renaissance. Pope Alexander VII selfish pursuit of his family’s interests greatly contributed to the outbreak of a series of wars in Italy that eventually led to the end of the Renaissance and leave Italy as only a dependency of Spain.