Everything about the Italian Wars totally explained
The
Italian Wars, often referred to as the
Great Italian Wars or the
Great Wars of Italy in historical works, 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.
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 adventures in Italy in return for
Roussillon and
Cerdagne, which were ceded to Spain under the
Treaty of Barcelona of 1493.
The wars
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, possibly hoping to use Naples as a base for a crusade against the 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 a tactical victory of French armies against the League at the
battle of Fornovo, the formation of the League to his rear forced Charles to withdraw to France, Fornovo itself being merely a successful fighting withdrawal. 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.
Italian War of 1499–1504
In 1500, Louis, having reached an agreement with
Ferdinand I of Spain to divide Naples, marched south from Milan. By 1502, combined French and Spanish forces had seized control of the Kingdom; disagreements about the terms of the partition led to a war between Louis and Ferdinand. 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 General de Córdoba, the Spanish viceroy.
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 Holy League, left victorious, 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 at
La Motta,
Guinegate, and
Flodden Field, in which the French, Venetian, and Scottish forces were decisively defeated. 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, and by the treaties of Noyon and Brussels, surrendered to France and Venice the entirety of northern Italy.
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. In 1519, a Spanish invasion of
Navarre, nominally a French fief, provided Francis with a pretext for starting a general war; French forces flooded into Italy and began a campaign to drive Charles from Naples. The French were outmatched, however, by the Spanish
arquebusier tactics, and suffered a series of crippling defeats at
Bicocca and
Sesia against Spanish troops under
Fernando de Avalos. With Milan itself threatened, Francis personally led a French army into Lombardy in 1525, only to be defeated and captured at the
battle of Pavia; imprisoned in
Madrid, Francis was forced to agree to extensive concessions over his Italian territories.
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,
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 de Bourbon proceeded to subdue Florence, and, in 1527,
sack 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
Phillip 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
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 captured the city of
Nice in August 1543, and laid siege to the citadel. The defenders were relieved within a month. The French, under François, Count d'Enghien, defeated an Imperial army at the
Battle of Ceresole in 1544, but the French failed to penetrate further into Lombardy. Charles 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
Phillip II of Spain and
Ferdinand I, and shifted the focus of the war to
Flanders, where Phillip, 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
By the end of the wars in 1559,
Habsburg Spain had been established as the premier power of Europe, to the detriment of
France. The states of Italy, which had wielded power disproportionate to their size during the
Middle Ages and the
Renaissance, were reduced to second-rate powers or destroyed entirely.
The Italian Wars had a number of consequences for the work and workplace of
Leonardo da Vinci, for example scuppering his plans for a "
Gran Cavallo" horse statue in 1495 when the seventy tons of bronze were instead cast into weapons to save
Milan.
The death of
Henry II of France at the celebrations of the wars' end quickly led to the collapse of the French monarchy in the
French Wars of Religion.
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, leading to their increasingly widespread adoption as the basis of all infantry 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 other nations' mounted troops, owing significantly to their excellent horses.
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
condottiere 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, and has varied among the various historians dealing with the period. Some wars may be split or combined in a number of permutations, 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.
Further Information
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