With the death of Louis XI the lords were agitated to seize the capacity; the duke of Orleans, which was Louis XII later, put himself at their head, and madly took the weapons with the duke of Brittany; the royal army reached revolted with Saint-Aubin-of-Cormier, not far from Ferns, and cut them in parts: four thousand men remained on the battle field, and the duke of Orleans was made prisoner (1488).

The duke of Brittany died soon after the battle, leaving to Brittany with his daughter the Anne duchess: the emperor of Germany asked for his hand to have the duchy; but the young Charles VIII invades Brittany, besieged Anne in Rennes, and took the duchess with the city: one month after, the marriage was celebrated in Langeais (16 déc. 1491): Charles had twenty and one year, and Anne fifteen.

It is since this time that Brittany is French.

The enemies of France had brought together 35 000 men in the north of Italy, to lock up the French Army in the peninsula.

Charles VIII, run of Naples in all haste, met them in Fornoue, on the edges of Taro.

He had with him only 9000 men, but a way had at all costs to be opened.

The two armies, arranged battles about it on two banks, remained some time to contemplate itself: Charles VIII was held initially on the defensive, and let the enemies pass Taro; then, after having seemed to move back, it sprang ahead with an irresistible impetuosity, and rejected the enemy army in the river (July 1495).

Since this day French fury was proverbial.

It is only at the fifteenth century that the man knew about great divisions of the ground; the world of antiquity and the Middle Ages was reduced to Europe, the Occidental Asia and North Africa.

Thanks to the compass, which shows north with the navigators, the gênois Christophe Colomb, with three Spanish vessels, launched out ahead in the Atlantic Ocean to the research of the Indies, and discovered America (several islands in 1492, the continent in 1498).

Portuguese Vasco de Gama, on his side, skirted the coasts of Africa, sailed round the Cape of Good Hope (1497), and advanced through the Indian Ocean to the Indies which were almost inaccessible by ground.

Consequently the discoveries followed one another with speed: the Portuguese explored Brazil and penetrated as far as China and to Japan.

Mexico, Peru, Chile were conquered by the Spaniards; many relations were established between Western Europe and the New World; the ground seemed larger, and an era of prosperity started for the trade and industry.