Italian Wars
The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559 involving various Italian states and foreign powers, primarily France and Spain, which sought to control the fragmented Italian peninsula. The political landscape of Italy in the late 15th century was marked by a multitude of states, including Milan, Venice, Florence, the Papal States, and Naples, that had been relatively stable due to the Peace of Lodi until the deaths of key leaders disrupted this balance. The wars began when King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy, fueled by dynastic claims and internal strife among Italian states.
Initially successful, Charles faced a coalition known as the League of Venice, which aimed to curb French expansion. Over the following decades, control of key territories shifted frequently, influenced by changing alliances and military engagements, such as the battles of Garigliano and Pavia. The wars also saw the emergence of prominent leaders like Francis I of France and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, each vying for dominance in the region. By the end of the conflicts, largely concluded with the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, France retained limited territories in northern Italy, while Spanish influence dominated the peninsula. The Italian Wars significantly shaped the political landscape of Italy and had lasting effects on European power dynamics.
Italian Wars
At issue: French control of Italy
Date: 1494-April, 1559
Location: Northern Italy
Combatants: French and allies vs. Holy Roman Empire and allies
Principal commanders: French, Gaston de Foix, duke of Nemours (1489–1512), King Francis I (1494–1547); Aragon, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (1453–1515); Holy Roman Empire, Fernando Francesco de ávalos, marquis of Pescara (1490–1525)
Principal battles: Fornovo, Novara, Cerignola, Garigliano, Agnadello, Ravenna, Marignano, Bicocca, Pavia, Cerisolles
Result: French efforts were thwarted; wars demonstrated inability of Italians either to work together or defend themselves and effectively brought the Renaissance to an end in Italy
Background
The Italian peninsula in the 1490’s consisted of more than a dozen states, ranging from small duchies to the kingdom of Naples. These had traditionally fought among themselves in forming varying patterns of alliance and with varying degrees of support from the Spanish, French, or imperial crowns. The major states in Italy were, from north to south, Milan, Venice, Florence, the Papal States and Naples. The Peace of Lodi (1454) effectively pacified these states among themselves for nearly forty years. The deaths of the Florentine leader Lorenzo de’ Medici in 1492, the Aragonese King Ferrante I of Naples in 1494, and the suspicious death of the heir to the Milanese duchy, Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza, and usurpation of his seat by his uncle Ludovico Sforza (‘il Moro) upset the balance of powers. The French king Charles VIII, who had an Angevin dynastic claim to Naples’ throne, was urged to press this by Sforza, who was himself being threatened by Naples, Florence, and the Papacy. Charles was encouraged by Italian exiles at his court, who saw an invasion of Italy as an opportunity for disorder back home, and their return.
Action
In 1494, Charles marched across the Alps with an army of 25,000 men. Allied with Sforza, he successfully defeated Florence and saw the overthrow of Pietro de’ Medici, traversed the Papal States, and proceeded into Naples. An alliance of Venice, the Pope, Aragon, England, and the Holy Roman Empire (the League of Venice) formed to oppose him and cut off his return to France. Charles headed north in summer, 1495, defeating a mercenary army under Francesco Gonzaga at Fornovo (July 6) and proving the effectiveness of field artillery. The French remaining in Naples held out for three years against an aggressive Spanish army under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, but surrendered in 1498.
In 1499, Charles’s son Louis XII returned to Italy to claim Milan as well as his Neapolitan throne, this time supported initially by Venice (which seized Cremona) and then by Pope Alexander VI, who feared Venice. Sforza fled Milan and purchased the service of Swiss mercenaries who then refused to fight the Italian mercenaries of the French at Novara (1500), leaving Milan and Sforza to Louis. In 1501, Ferdinand II of Aragon seized Naples and agreed to split the kingdom with Louis. Louis nonetheless invaded and seized Naples, Taranto, and Capua, but was blockaded and defeated by Fernández at Cerignola (April 28, 1503), the first battle decided by small firearms, and Garigliano (December 29, 1503). Louis was forced out of Naples, surrendering at Gaeta on January 1, 1504. Louis disclaimed any rights to the Neapolitan throne. In 1508, Louis was allied with the pope, Emperor Maximilian I, and Aragon (League of Cambrai) against Venice, whom he defeated at Agnadello (May 14, 1509).
A shift in alliances saw Venice, the Papacy, and Aragon challenge the French and Maximilian. Brilliant French general Gaston de Foix drove the allies out of Bologna and crushed a papal and Aragonese force at Ravenna (April 11, 1512), but died shortly thereafter. Maximilian then turned on Louis and forced him out of Italy. Louis returned, only to be defeated at Novara (June 6, 1513).
In 1515, France’s new king, Francis I, continued this policy. Along with Henry VIII of England and the Venetians, he opposed the emperor and pope, Aragonese, Swiss, Milanese, and Florentines. Francis took Milan after his victory at Marignano (September 13-14, 1515), and controlled Lombardy until he and Charles V, Holy Roman emperor, ignited the first Valois-Habsburg War in 1521. At Bicocca (April 27, 1522), Charles’s general, Fernando Francesco de ávalos, marquis of Pescara, defeated Francis and drove him from Milan, which Francis retook in October, 1524, at the head of a huge invasion force. He besieged Pavia but was crushed by an allied relieving force and captured (February 24, 1525). Though he promised to cede all claims to Italy, Francis repudiated the treaty and formed the League of Cognac (France, the pope, Milan, Venice, and Florence) in 1526 against the empire and the Spaniards, both ruled by Charles V. A Habsburg German and Spanish army invaded Italy the following year and sacked Rome in May, 1527. Atrocities, skirmishes, and the French loss of Genoa followed; France and the empire signed the Treaty of Cambrai in 1529, in which Francis again relinquished all claims in Italy. Charles V was crowned king of Lombardy, and the Spanish controlled all the city states except Milan and Genoa.
When Charles took control of Milan on the death of Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, in 1535, the French launched another invasion, which ended with their control of Piedmont. The next Italian war saw Francis surprisingly allied with Süleyman I of the Ottoman Empire. A joint fleet destroyed imperial Nice (April, 1543), and the French won at Cerisolles in Savoy (April 14, 1544). Charles’s attack of France through Roussillon and the Netherlands distracted Francis, and the Treaty of Crépy in September, 1544, ended this phase. Henry II of France, son of Francis, again pushed claims on Naples and invaded in the mid-1550’s, allied with the Papacy. French defeat at Saint-Quentin (August 10, 1557) forced Henry to call his troops home.
Aftermath
By the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis (April, 1559), France held only Turin, Pignerol, and Saluzzo in northern Italy. Soon, France would be deeply engaged in civil wars of religion.
Resources
Hay, Denys, and John Law. Italy in the Age of the Renaissance, 1380–1530. New York: Longman, 1989.
Knecht, H. J. Renaissance Warrior and Patron. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Konstam, Angus. Pavia, 1525. Oxford: Osprey, 1996.
Nicolle, David, and Richard Hook. Fornovo, 1495. Oxford: Osprey, 1996.