eyes included most of the Veneto, and signed an agreement with the Pope to exclude Venice entirely from the final partition; when the Republic objected, Julius threatened to reform the League of Cambrai against her. In response, Venice turned to Louis; on 23 March 1513, a treaty pledging to divide all of northern Italy between France and the Republic was signed at Blois. Pope Julius II, meanwhile, had died in February, and Cardinal Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent and elder brother of the new ruler of Florence, was elected Pope Leo X. Franco-Venetian alliance In late May 1513, a French army commanded by Louis de la Trémoille crossed the Alps and advanced on Milan; at the same time, Bartolomeo d'Alviano and the Venetian army marched west from Padua. The unpopularity of Maximilian Sforza, who was seen by the Milanese as a puppet of his Swiss mercenaries, enabled the French to move through Lombardy with little resistance; Trémoille, having seized Milan, besieged the remaining Swiss in Novara. On 6 June, the French were attacked by a Swiss relief army at the Battle of Novara, and were routed despite having superior numbers. Detachments of the Swiss army pursued the fleeing French over the Alps and had reached Dijon before being bribed into withdrawing. The rout at Novara inaugurated a period of defeats for the French alliance. English troops under Henry VIII besieged Thérouanne, defeated La Palice at the Battle of the Spurs, and captured Tournai. In Navarre, resistance to Ferdinand's invasion collapsed; he rapidly consolidated his hold over the entire region and moved to support another English offensive in the Guyenne. James IV of Scotland invaded England at the behest of Louis; but he failed to draw Henry's attention from France, and his death—and the Scots' catastrophic defeat—at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513, ended Scotland's brief involvement in the war. Meanwhile, Alviano, unexpectedly left without French support, retreated into the Veneto, pursued closely by the Spanish army under Cardona; while the Spanish were unable to capture Padua in the face of determined Venetian resistance, they penetrated deep into Venetian territory and by late September were in sight of Venice itself. Cardona attempted a bombardment of the city that proved largely ineffective; then, having no boats with which to cross the Venetian Lagoon, turned back for Lombardy. Alviano, having been reinforced by hundreds of