| Battle of Palestro | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Second Italian War of Independence | |||||||
 Victor Emmanuel II with French zouaves at the Battle of Palestro. Painting by Luigi Norfini, 1863. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Sardinia French Empire |
 Austrian Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Victor Emmanuel II |
Friedrich Zobel | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
14,000 1,000 | 14,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 101 | 2,000 | ||||||
The Battle of Palestro was fought on 30–31 May 1859 between the Austrian Empire and the combined forces of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont and France. The Franco-Piedmontese forces were victorious. It was fought just south to Palestro, a town in what is now the province of Pavia in northern Italy. It was believed that the Battle of Palestro was the last European battle in which a European Monarch rode into battle, that being King Victor Emmanuel II, who directly entered the fray with the Austrians.[1]