I guess I should have known. I took Florence as Spain, and the other Italian states didn't like that. First came massive assaults that I managed to beat off thanks to Merchant Cavalry destroying the cannons and Militia Spearmen holding the enemy long enough for the ballista towers to rip the enemy apart, and recently they've turned to what can best be termed a 'Spy-Spam'.

For the last 20 or so turns, it seems all the Italians (and France, for reasons I cannot fathom) have been throwing streams of spies at me. I put spies in all my Italian cities, and every turn they'd zap at least three of the buggers. It actually almost worked, as some of my cities got close to rioting due to the unrest.

I'm really impressed by the campaign AI so far. Using spies to cause unrest in cities, switching to using cannons when siege towers and rams aren't working and using the spies for sneak attacks. Never saw that in Rome.