Italian Wars

The Italian Wars, often referred to as the Great Italian Wars or the Great Wars of Italy and sometimes as the Habsburg–Valois Wars or the Renaissance Wars, were a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559 that involved, at various times, most of the city-states of Italy, the Papal States, most of the major states of Western Europe (France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, England, and Scotland) as well as the Ottoman Empire. Originally arising from dynastic disputes over the Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples, the wars rapidly became a general struggle for power and territory among their various participants, and were marked with an increasing number of alliances, counter-alliances, and betrayals.

Prelude
Following the Wars in Lombardy between Venice and Milan, which ended in 1454, Northern Italy had been largely at peace during the reigns of Cosimo de' Medici and Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence, with the notable exception of the War of Ferrara in 1482-1484.

Spain had promised not to interfere with France's invasions into Italy in return for Roussillon and Cerdagne, which were ceded to Spain under the Treaty of Barcelona of 1492.

Italian War of 1494–98
Ludovico Sforza of Milan, seeking an ally against the Republic of Venice, encouraged Charles VIII of France to invade Italy, using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples as a pretext. When Ferdinand I of Naples died in 1494, Charles invaded the peninsula with twenty-five thousand men (including 8,000 Swiss mercenaries), possibly hoping to use Naples as a base for a crusade against the Ottoman Turks. For several months, French forces moved through Italy virtually unopposed, since the condottieri armies of the Italian city-states were unable to resist them. Their sack of Naples finally provoked a reaction, however, and the League of Venice was formed against them, effectively cutting off Charles's army from France. Despite the League's Pyrrhic victory over the French army at the battle of Fornovo forcing Charles to withdraw to Milan and then to France, the regional states of Italy had been shown once and for all to be both rich and comparatively weak, which sowed the seeds of the wars to come. After initial reverses, most notably the disastrous Battle of Seminara, Ferdinand II of Naples, with the able assistance of the Spanish general Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, reduced the French garrison in the Kingdom of Naples. Ludovico, having betrayed the French at Fornovo, retained his throne until 1499, when Charles's successor, Louis XII of France, invaded Lombardy and seized Milan, to which he had a claim in right of his paternal grandmother Valentina Visconti.

Italian War of 1499–1504
In 1500, Louis, having reached an agreement with Ferdinand II of Aragon to divide Naples, marched south from Milan. By 1502, a combined French and Spanish force had seized control of the kingdom; disagreements about the terms of the partition led to a war between Louis and Ferdinand, this war would be called the Great Italian War. By 1503 Louis, having been defeated at the Battle of Cerignola and Battle of Garigliano, was forced to withdraw from Naples, which was left under the control of a Spanish viceroy, General de Córdoba.

War of the League of Cambrai
Meanwhile, Pope Julius II was more concerned with curbing the territorial expansion of the Republic of Venice, and in 1508 formed the League of Cambrai, in which France, the Papacy, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire agreed to restrain the Venetians. Although the League destroyed much of the Venetian army at the Battle of Agnadello in 1509, it failed to capture Padua, and in 1510, Julius, now regarding France as a greater threat, left the League and allied himself with Venice. Following a year of fighting over the Romagna, during which the Veneto-Papal alliance was repeatedly defeated, the Pope proclaimed a Holy League against the French; this rapidly grew to include England, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire.

French forces under Gaston de Foix inflicted an overwhelming defeat on a Spanish army at the Battle of Ravenna in 1512, but Foix was killed during the battle, and the French were forced to withdraw from Italy by an invasion of Milan by the Swiss, who reinstated Maximilian Sforza to the ducal throne. The victorious Holy League fell apart over the subject of dividing the spoils, and in 1513 Venice allied with France, agreeing to partition Lombardy between them.

Louis mounted another invasion of Milan, but was defeated at the battle of Novara, which was quickly followed by a series of Holy League victories against the Venetians at La Motta, the French at Guinegate, and the Scots at Flodden Field. However, the death of Julius left the League without effective leadership, and when Louis' successor Francis I defeated the Swiss at Marignano in 1515, the League collapsed. By the treaties of Noyon and Brussels, the entirety of northern Italy was surrendered to France and Venice.

Italian War of 1521–26
The elevation of Charles of Spain to Holy Roman Emperor, a position that Francis had desired, led to a collapse of relations between France and the Habsburgs and provided Francis I of France with a pretext for starting a general war. The French were outmatched by the Spanish arquebusier tactics, however, and suffered crippling defeats at Bicocca and Sesia against Spanish troops under Fernando de Avalos. With Milan in Imperial hands, Francis personally led a French army into Lombardy in 1525, only to be utterly defeated and captured at the battle of Pavia. With Francis imprisoned in Spain, a series of diplomatic maneuvers centered around his release ensued, including a special French mission sent by Francis' mother Louise of Savoy to the court of Suleiman the Magnificent that would result in an Ottoman ultimatum to Charles—an unprecedented alliance between Christian and Muslim monarchs that would cause a scandal in the Christian world. Suleiman used the opportunity to invade Hungary in the summer of 1526, defeating Charles' allies at the Battle of Mohács; but, despite these efforts, Francis would sign the Treaty of Madrid, surrendering his claims to Italy, Flanders, and Burgundy.

War of the League of Cognac
In 1526, Pope Clement VII, alarmed at the growing power of the Empire, formed the League of Cognac against Charles V, allying himself, the Republic of Venice, Republic of Florence, and a number of smaller Italian states with France. Venice, however, refused to contribute troops; with the withdrawal of French forces from Lombardy, Charles V proceeded to subdue Florence, and, in 1527, sacked Rome itself. Clement was imprisoned by Imperial troops, and offered no further resistance to Charles V. With the conclusion of the Treaty of Cambrai in 1529, which formally removed Francis from the war, the League collapsed; Venice made peace with Charles V, while Florence was placed again under the Medici.

Italian War of 1536–38
The third war between Charles and Francis began with the death of Francesco Maria Sforza, the duke of Milan. When Charles's son Philip inherited the duchy, Francis invaded Italy, capturing Turin, but failed to take Milan. In response, Charles invaded Provence, advancing to Aix-en-Provence, but withdrew to Spain rather than attacking the heavily fortified town of Avignon. The Truce of Nice ended the war, leaving Turin in French hands but effecting no significant changes to the map of Italy.

Italian War of 1542–46
Francis, allying himself with Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire, launched a final invasion of Italy. A Franco-Ottoman fleet under the command of Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa captured the city of Nice in August 1543, and laid siege to the citadel. The defenders were relieved within a month. Commanded by the Count d'Enghien, the French defeated an Imperial army at the Battle of Ceresole in 1544, but failed to penetrate further into Lombardy. Charles V and Henry VIII of England then proceeded to invade northern France, seizing Boulogne and Soissons. A lack of cooperation between the Spanish and English armies, coupled with increasingly aggressive Ottoman attacks, led Charles to abandon these conquests, restoring the status quo once again.

Italian War of 1551–59
In 1551, Henry II of France, who had succeeded Francis to the throne, declared war against Charles with the intent of recapturing Italy and ensuring French, rather than Habsburg, domination of European affairs. An early offensive against Lorraine was successful, but the attempted French invasion of Tuscany in 1553 was defeated at the Battle of Marciano. Charles' abdication in 1556 split the Habsburg empire between Philip II of Spain and Ferdinand I, and shifted the focus of the war to Flanders, where Philip, in conjunction with Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, defeated the French at St. Quentin. England's entry into the war later that year led to the French capture of Calais, and French armies plundered Spanish possessions in the Low Countries; but Henry was nonetheless forced to accept the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, in which he renounced any further claims to Italy.

Aftermath and impact
In France, Henry II was fatally wounded in a joust held during the celebrations of the peace. His death led to the accession of his 15-year-old son Francis II, who in turn soon died. The French monarchy was thrown into turmoil, which increased further with the outbreak of the French Wars of Religion in 1562. The states of Italy were reduced to second-rate powers and Milan and Naples were annexed directly to Spain.

The Italian Wars had a number of consequences for the work and workplace of Leonardo da Vinci; his plans for a "Gran Cavallo" big horse statue in 1495 were dropped when the seventy tons of bronze intended for the statue were instead cast into weapons to save Milan. Later, following a chance encounter with Francis I after the Battle of Marignano, Leonardo agreed to move to France, where he spent his final years.

Arms and armies
The wars saw the introduction of many significant advances in military technology and tactics, including field artillery, muskets, and combined arms tactics.

Infantry
Infantry underwent profound developments during the Italian Wars, evolving from a primarily pike- and halberd-wielding force to a more flexible arrangement of arquebusiers, pikemen, and other troops. While the early part of the wars continued to see landsknechts and Swiss mercenaries dominate, the Italian War of 1521 demonstrated the power of massed firearms in pike and shot formations.

Cavalry
Heavy cavalry—the final evolution of the fully armored medieval knight—remained major players on the battlefields of the Italian Wars. Here, the French gendarmes were generally successful against mounted troops from other states, owing significantly to their excellent horses. The Spanish used light cavalry called Jinetes for skirmishing.

Artillery
The Italian Wars saw artillery—particularly field artillery—become an indispensable part of any first-rate army. Charles VIII, during his invasion of Italy, brought with him the first truly mobile siege train: culverins and bombards mounted on wheeled carriages, which could be deployed against an enemy stronghold immediately after arrival.

Military leadership
The armies of the Italian Wars were commanded by a wide variety of different leaders, from mercenaries and condottieri to nobles and kings.

Fortification
Much of the fighting during the Italian Wars took place during sieges. Successive invasions forced Italy to adopt increasing levels of fortification, using such new developments as detached bastions, that could withstand sustained artillery fire.

Historiography
The Italian Wars are one of the first major conflicts for which extensive contemporary accounts from people involved in the wars are available, owing largely to the presence of literate—and often extremely well educated—commanders.

Nomenclature
The naming of the component conflicts within the Italian Wars has never been standardized, varying among historians of the period. Some wars may be split or combined differently, causing ordinal numbering systems to be inconsistent among different sources. The wars may be referred to by their dates, or by the monarchs fighting them.

Contemporary accounts
A major contemporary account for the early portion of the Italian Wars is Francesco Guicciardini's Storia d'Italia (History of Italy), written during the conflict, and advantaged by the access Guicciardini had to Papal affairs.