1495 AD., Italy, Kingdom of Naples, Charles VIII of France, Aquila mint, Cavallo, CNI 30-44.

Italy, Kingdom of Naples / Regno di Napoli, Charles VIII of France / Carlo VIII re di Francia (1495), Aquila mint / Zecca dell'Aquila, no date (struck ca. 1495 AD.),
Cavallo de cuivre / Cavallo (con croce tripartita) (15-18 mm / 1,47 g), copper, axes medal alignment ↑↑ (ca. 0°),
Obv.: KROLVS D G RE[X F]R R' , crowned French shield of arms - Écu de France couronné - Stemma di Francia coronato.
Rev.: + AQ[VILAN]A - CIVITAS . , legend arund cross, eagle below, eagle´s head left - Croix achée au-dessus d'une aigle couronnée, la tête à gauche - Croce gigliata con aquiletta volta a sx. in basso.
Dy. 625 ; Corpus Nummorum Italicorum (CNI) n°30-44 ; d'Andrea/Andreani n° 133-134 ; Perfetto n° 955 ; Giuliani n° 8 .
rarity: common

The cavallo was a coin of southern Italy in the Renaissance. It was minted for the first time by King Ferdinand I of Naples in 1472.
The name later was used for coins of the same values but with different types such as that minted by Charles VIII of France at Naples in 1494. As its value decreased, the cavallo was abolished in 1498 and replaced with the doppio cavallo ("Double Cavallo"), also known as sestino, by Frederick I of Naples.
The cavallo was mint again shortly under Philip IV of Spain (the Kingdom of Naples at the time was ruled by Spain) in 1626. Multiples (2, 3, 4, 6 and 9 cavalli) were minted until Ferdinand IV.
The last coin of three cavalli was minted in 1804, being replaced by the tornese, equal to 6 cavalli.

Charles VIII, called the Affable, French: l'Affable (30 June 1470 – 7 April 1498), was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. He succeeded his father Louis XI at the age of 13. His elder sister Anne of France acted as regent until 1491 jointly with her husband Peter II, Duke of Bourbon. During Anne's regency, the great feudal lords rebelled against royal centralisation efforts in a conflict known as the Mad War (1485-1488), which resulted in a victory for the royal government.
In a remarkable stroke of audacity, Charles married Anne of Brittany in 1491 after she had already been married by proxy to the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in a ceremony of questionable validity. Occupied elsewhere, Maximilian failed to press his claim. Upon his marriage, Charles became Duke of Brittany and created a Union of Brittany and France that enabled France to avoid total encirclement by Habsburg territories.

The Kingdom of Naples (Italian: Regno di Napoli), comprising the southern part of the Italian Peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily as it was the de jure remnant of that kingdom, it is dubbed Kingdom of Naples to distinguish it from the island-based polity. During much of its existence, the realm was contested between French and Aragonese (Spanish) dynasties. In 1816, it again merged with the island-based Kingdom of Sicily to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

To secure his rights to the Neapolitan throne that René of Naples had left to his father, Charles made a series of concessions to neighbouring monarchs and conquered the Italian peninsula without much opposition. The coalition formed against the French invasion of 1494-98 finally drove out Charles' army, but Italian Wars would dominate Western European politics for over 50 years.
In 1489, Pope Innocent VIII, then being at odds with Ferdinand I of Naples, offered Naples to Charles, who had a vague claim to the Kingdom of Naples through his paternal grandmother, Marie of Anjou. In 1494, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, was threatened by Ferdinand's successor Alfonso II and urged Charles to take Naples. Charles was also urged on by his favorite courtier, Étienne de Vesc. Thus encouraged, Charles imagined himself capable of actually taking Naples.
Charles entered Italy with 25,000 men (including 8,000 Swiss mercenaries) in 1494 and marched across the peninsula, reaching Naples on 22 February 1495. The French army subdued Florence in passing and took Naples without a pitched battle or siege. Alfonso was expelled and Charles was crowned King of Naples.
There were those in the Republic of Florence who appreciated the presence of the French king and his Army. The famous friar Savonarola believed that King Charles VIII was God's tool to purify the corruption of Florence. He believed that once Charles had ousted the evil sinners of Florence the city would become center of morality and thus the appropriate place to restructure the Church. This situation would eventually spill over into another conflict between Pope Alexander VI, who despised the idea of having king in Italy, and Savonarola, who called for the king's intervention. This conflict would eventually lead Savonarola to be suspected of heresy and executed by the State.
The speed and power of the French advance frightened the other Italian rulers, including the Pope and even Ludovico of Milan. They formed an anti-French coalition, the League of Venice. At the Fornovo in July 1495, the League defeated Charles, despite losing 2,000 men to his 1,000. Charles lost nearly all the booty of the campaign and had to withdraw to France. His remaining garrisons in Naples were quickly subdued by Aragonese allies of Alfonso.

Charles accidentally died in 1498 during a match of Jeu de paume. Since he had no male heir, he was succeeded by his cousin Louis XII of France from the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois.