September 1499: Venetian invasion of the Duchy of Milan and anti-Sforza revolt inside the city of Milan; the rebels opened the gates to the Venetian army commanded byGian Giacomo Trivulzio.
July 1506 – March 1507: A popular revolt in Genoa expelled the city's pro-French nobility to Savona.[1]
22–29 April 1507: Siege of Genoa. French victory over the Genoese revolutionaries.[2]
Early February 1508: Maximilian declared war on Venice. Venice requested France, then still their ally, to send aid, which Chaumont did in the form of several thousand troops from Milan.[3]
23 May 1511: French troops captured Bologna after an anti-Papal revolt.
Late May 1511: French troops recaptured Mirandola.
War of the Holy League proper (1511–1514)
18 February 1512:Sack of Brescia. French victory over Venice. The city ofBrescia had revolted against French control, garrisoning itself withVenetian troops.Gaston de Foix, recently arrived to command the French armies in Italy, ordered the city to surrender; when it refused, he attacked it with around 12,000 men. The French attack took place in pouring rain, through a field of mud; Foix ordered his men to remove their shoes for better traction.[5] The defenders inflicted heavy casualties on the French, but were eventually overrun, suffering 8,000 – 15,000 casualties.[6] TheGascon infantry andlandsknechts then proceeded to thoroughly sack the city, massacring thousands of civilians over the next five days. Following this, the city ofBergamo paid some 60,000ducats to the French to avoid a similar fate.
16 August 1513:Battle of the Spurs (Guinegate). Anglo-Imperial victory over France.
8–13 September 1513:Siege of Dijon. Swiss victory over France.
9 September 1513:Battle of Flodden (Flodden Field, Branxton). English victory over Scotland (allied with France). Scotland abandoned France and left the war.[7]
7 October 1513:Battle of La Motta (1513). Spanish and Imperial victory over Venice (allied with France). Also known as the Battle of Schio, Vicenza or Creazzo. A Venetian army underBartolomeo d'Alviano attempted to prevent the Spanish and Imperials underRamón de Cardona from withdrawing from theVeneto, but was defeated and scattered.
Francis I's First Italian War (1515–1516)
13–14 September 1515:Battle of Marignano (Melegnano). Decisive Franco-Venetian victory over Switzerland and Milan.
4 October 1515: French troops captured Milan and dethroned Sforza.
20 May 1521:Battle of Pampeluna (also spelledPamplona). French-backedNavarrese victory over Spanish troops during theSpanish conquest of Iberian Navarre. Most Navarrese towns rose at once against the Spanish, who had invaded Navarre in 1512. The Spanish resisted the siege sheltered inside the city castle, but they eventually surrendered and the French-Navarrese took control of the town and the castle of Pamplona. It was at this battle that Inigo Lopez de Loyola, better known asSt. Ignatius of Loyola, suffered severe injuries, a Navarrese cannonball shattering his leg. It is said that after the battle the Navarrese so admired his bravery[8] that they carried him all the way back to his home in Loyola. His meditations during his long recovery set him on the road of a conversion of life from soldier to priest. He would eventually found theSociety of Jesus (the Jesuits), and create theSpiritual Exercises, which is the basis for the idea of "retreats" as an experience of prayer as practiced in the Roman Catholic Church.
November 1521: Siege of Tournai. AnImperial army besieged the city ofTournai, capturing it from the French in late November; it would remain aHabsburg possession until the French conquest of theAustrian Netherlands in 1795.
29 April 1522:Battle of Bicocca. Imperial–Spanish and Papal victory over France, Venice and Swiss mercenaries.[10]
20–30 May 1522:Siege of Genoa (1522). An army of theHoly Roman Empire under the command of the Italian/Spanish GeneralFernando d'Avalos and Italian condottieroProspero Colonna besieged the French forces defending the Italian city. Since Genoa had refused to surrender, the Imperial troops were permitted to loot the city once it had fallen.
30 June 1522: Battle of San Marcial. Spanish partisans defeat the French backed Navarrese at Monte Aldabe near Behobia Castle.
August–September 1524:Siege of Marseille (1524). Conducted by anImperial army underCharles de Bourbon (who had recently betrayedFrancis I) andFernando de Avalos against the French defenders ofMarseille. Although Avalos heavily looted the surrounding countryside, he was unsuccessful in seizing the city; and, faced with the arrival of French reinforcements, called off the siege in September.
11 April 1544:Battle of Ceresole. French victory over Hispano-Imperial army.
2–4 June 1544:Battle of Serravalle (1544). Imperial-Spanish victory over Italian mercenaries in French service.
July – 17 August 1544:Siege of Saint-Dizier. TheImperial army ofCharles V attacked the French city ofSt. Dizier at the beginning of its advance intoChampagne. Charles V himself joined the siege arrived with an army of 14,100 (including 1600sappers) on 13 July. Imperial commanderRené of Châlon,Prince of Orange, was wounded on 14 July and died 15 July. On 23 July French outposts near the besieged town were overrun, but a French army under the command of theDauphinHenry maintained an observing position at Jalons. On 17 August the town surrendered. Charles elected not to attack the Dauphin's army and instead pressed on toSoissons.
10 July – 25 September 1544:Siege of Montreuil. French victory over an English-Burgundian (Habsburg) army led byNorfolk andAdrien de Croÿ [fr] (count of Roeulx, governor of Flanders and Artois).[12]
19 October 1552 – 2 January 1553:Siege of Metz (1552). French victory over Imperial army.
11 April – 20 June 1553:Siege of Thérouanne. Spanish-Imperial victory over France. The Imperials razed Thérouanne to the ground on the orders of Charles V in revenge for the defeat at Metz.
Arnold, Thomas F.The Renaissance at War. Smithsonian History of Warfare, edited byJohn Keegan. New York: Smithsonian Books / Collins, 2006.ISBN978-0-06-089195-4.
Baumgartner, Frederic J.Louis XII. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994.ISBN0-312-12072-9.
Blockmans, Wim.Emperor Charles V, 1500–1558. Translated by Isola van den Hoven-Vardon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.ISBN0-340-73110-9.
Hackett, Francis.Francis the First. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1937.
