Sunday, the 7th of October, the lord-cardinal of Amboise made his public entry into Lyon, having been appointed legate from the holy see to France. His entry was very sumptuous and handsome: the streets hung with rich tapestries, and several allegorical mysteries represented in those streets he passed through. The populace were greatly rejoiced at his arrival, as he had established a peace among the Christian princes, which was proclaimed at Lyon on Saturday preceding Christmas, when bonfires were made in all the squares.
About this time, the lady Margaret[25] was married to the duke of Savoy, and made her public entry into Geneva in the course of the month of December.
FOOTNOTES:
[25] The lady Margaret—of Austria, daughter to the emperor Maximilian, and widow to John son to Ferdinand the catholic king of Spain.
THE FRENCH, AFTER THE CAPTURE OF NAPLES, MAKE WAR ON THE TURKS.
The year 1502 was the jubilee for a croisade against the Turks. It was, as said, celebrated throughout Christendom to excite every prince to take up arms on the occasion. But there were divisions among them; and all failed in their engagements excepting the king of France, who showed himself deserving of his title of most Christian king.
After the conquest of Naples, he ordered his troops to make war on the Turks by sea and land,—for they, having declared war against the Venetians, had landed troops near to Venice. The french army were eager to advance to the conquest of Constantinople, under the command of the lord Philip of Ravenstein; and they had undertaken the siege of the town of Metelino, under a promise of pay, and of being victualled, made by the Venetians to the king of France. They failed in the last article, for the french army was five days without provision; and what was worse, the Venetians allowed the Turks to march through part of their territories, who fell on the French, killed numbers, and made thirty-two prisoners,—for whose release the pope issued his pardons to obtain the necessary sums, as is specified in the bull. By these means, the french army was ruined; but had the promises made to the French been kept, they would soon have conquered the greater part of Turkey.
Good-Friday, this year, falling on the feast of our Lady in March, pardons were fully granted at the church of our Lady at Puys, in Auvergne, where such multitudes attended that a melancholy accident happened, by the falling down of a wall from the crowd pressing against it, which killed numbers, and wounded more. Several also perished from the great pressure.