Portal:Italian Wars

War and the military Military of  Ancient Rome  Australia Bangladesh Canada Germany  Greece Pakistan Turkey United Kingdom (British Army Royal Air Force Royal Navy) United States ( Army Marine Corps Navy Air Force Coast Guard) … Military history of  Africa France the Ottoman Empire …… American Civil War American Revolutionary War Cold War Crusades Italian Wars Napoleonic Wars War of 1812 World War I World War II …… Battleships Biological warfare Submarine Tank Weapons of mass destruction …… NATO  Terrorism The Italian Wars Portal The Battle of Pavia. Oil on panel by an unknown Flemish artist, 16th century. The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559 that involved, at various times, all the major states of western Europe (France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, England, Scotland, the Republic of Venice, the Papal States, and most of the city-states of Italy) 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 degree of alliances, counter-alliances, and regular betrayals. Warfare in the Italian Wars was a complicated and ever-changing art. Much of the period saw revolutionary developments in formation, equipment, and tactics as the great powers of Europe attempted to gain a decisive advantage against each other. Template:/box-footer The Battle of Ceresole was an encounter between a French army and the combined forces of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire during the Italian War of 1542–46. The lengthy engagement, which historian Bert Hall characterized as "marvelously confused", took place on April 11, 1544, outside the village of Ceresole d'Alba in the Piedmont region of Italy; the French, under François de Bourbon, Count of Enghien, defeated the Spanish-Imperial army of Alfonso d'Avalos d'Aquino, Marquis del Vasto. Despite having inflicted substantial casualties on the Imperial troops, the French subsequently failed to exploit their victory by taking Milan. Enghien and d'Avalos had arranged their armies along two parallel ridges; because of the topography of the battlefield, many of the individual actions of the battle were uncoordinated with one another. The battle opened with several hours of skirmishing between opposing bands of arquebusiers and an ineffectual artillery exchange, after which d'Avalos ordered a general advance. In the center, Imperial landsknechts clashed with French and Swiss infantry, suffering enormous casualties. In the southern part of the battlefield, Italian infantry in Imperial service were harried by French cavalry attacks and withdrew after learning that the Imperial troops of the center had been defeated. In the north, meanwhile, the French infantry line crumbled, and Enghien led a series of ineffectual and costly cavalry charges against Spanish and German infantry before the latter were forced to surrender by the arrival of the victorious Swiss and French infantry from the center. Ceresole was one of the few pitched battles during the latter half of the Italian Wars. Known among military historians chiefly for the "great slaughter" that occurred when columns of intermingled arquebusiers and pikemen met in the center, it also demonstrates the continuing role of traditional heavy cavalry on a battlefield largely dominated by the emerging pike and shot infantry. But we found that they were as ingenious as ourselves, for behind their first line of pikes they had put pistoleers. Neither side fired till we were touching—and then there was a wholesale slaughter: every shot told: the whole front rank on each side went down. —Blaise de Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de Montluc, on the Battle of Ceresole Siege of Florence. Fresco by Giorgio Vasari, 1558. Fernando de Avalos, Marquis of Pescara, (1489–1525), Italian condottiere, was born at Naples, his family being of Spanish origin. As a Spanish general, he participated in the Italian Wars. At the Battle of Ravenna in 1512 he was taken prisoner by the French, but was released at the conclusion of the War of the League of Cambrai. He was the chief commander of the Habsburg armies in Italy during the Habsburg–Valois wars and defeated the French at Bicocca and Pavia. Events People Italian War of 1494–98 Battle of Seminara Battle of Fornovo Italian War of 1499–1504 Battle of Ruvo Battle of Cerignola Battle of Garigliano War of the League of Cambrai Battle of Agnadello Siege of Padua Battle of Ravenna Battle of Novara Battle of Flodden Field Battle of Marignano War of Urbino Italian War of 1521–26 Battle of Bicocca Battle of the Sesia (1524) Italian campaign of 1524–25 Battle of Pavia War of the League of Cognac Sack of Rome Siege of Florence Battle of Gavinana Italian War of 1536–38 Italian War of 1542–46 Siege of Nice Battle of Ceresole Siege of St. Dizier First Siege of Boulogne Second Siege of Boulogne Battle of the Solent Battle of Bonchurch Italian War of 1551–59 Battle of Marciano Battle of Renty Battle of St. Quentin Battle of Gravelines Religious leaders Pope Julius II Pope Leo X Pope Clement VII Thomas Wolsey Martin Luther National leaders Henry VIII of England Andrea Gritti Ludovico Sforza Maximilian Sforza Francesco II Sforza Charles VIII of France Louis XII of France Francis I of France Henry II of France Ferdinand I of Spain Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Philip II of Spain Military leaders Niccolò di Pitigliano Bartolomeo d'Alviano Prospero Colonna Giovanni dalle Bande Nere Francesco Ferruccio Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard Gian Giacomo Trivulzio Gaston de Foix Charles III, Duke of Bourbon Guillaume Gouffier, seigneur de Bonnivet Anne de Montmorency Odet of Foix, Viscount of Lautrec Piero Strozzi Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba Fernando d'Avalos Georg von Frundsberg Others Francesco Guicciardini Michelangelo Leonardo da Vinci Armed forces Other topics Types of units Gendarmes Pike and shot Mercenary groups Black Bands Condottieri Landsknechts Swiss mercenaries Franco-Ottoman alliance Arquebus Trace italienne ▼ Italian Wars ► Battles of the Italian Wars ► Military units and formations of the Italian Wars Template:/box-header From the Military history WikiProject: Requested articles  Sack of Düren • Siege of Metz (1552) • Siege of Mondovi • François de Bourbon, Comte de St. Pol • Siege of Mirandola (1510) • Siege of Mirandola (1551) Expansion needed  Italian War of 1535-1538 • Louis II de la Trémoille • Antonio de Leyva • Robert de la Marck • Fabrizio Colonna • Siege of Nice • Battle of Serravalle • Siege of Genoa • Sack of Brescia • Siege of St. Dizier (1544) What are portals? 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