The perfidious
king considered this as quite a providential interposition in his favor.
He affected great zeal for the King of Naples, sent a powerful army into
his kingdom, and stationed his troops in the important fortresses. The
infamous fraud was now accomplished. Frederic of Naples, to his dismay,
found that he had been placing his empire in the hands of his enemies
instead of friends; at the same time the troops of Louis arrived at
Rome, where they were cordially received; and the pope immediately, on
the 25th of June, 1501, issued a bull deposing Frederic from his
kingdom, and, by virtue of that spiritual authority which he derived
from the Apostle Peter, invested Louis and Ferdinand with the dominions
of Frederic. Few men are more to be commiserated than a crownless king.
Frederic, in his despair, threw himself upon the clemency of Louis. He
was taken to France and was there fed and clothed by the royal bounty.
Maximilian impatiently watched the events from his home in Austria, and
burned with the desire to take a more active part in these stirring
scenes. Despairing, however, to rouse the German States to any effectual
intervention in the affairs of southern Europe, he now endeavored to
rouse the enthusiasm of the German nobles against the Turks.
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