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The Battle of Pavia, fought on the morning of 24 February 1525, was the decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521–1526 between the Kingdom of France and the Habsburg Empire of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor as well as ruler of Spain, Austria, the Low Countries, and the Two Sicilies.
The French army was led by King Francis I of France, who laid siege to the city of Pavia (then part of the Duchy of Milan within the Holy Roman Empire) in October 1524 with 26,200 troops. The French infantry consisted of 6,000 French foot soldiers and 17,000 foreign mercenaries: 8,000 Swiss, 5,000 Germans, and 4,000 Italians (Black Bands). The French cavalry consisted of 2,000 gendarmes and 1,200 lances fournies. Charles V, intending to break the siege, sent a relief force of 22,300 troops to Pavia (where the Imperial garrison stationed consisted of 5,000 Germans and 1,000 Spaniards) under the command of the Fleming Charles de Lannoy, Imperial lieutenant and viceroy of Naples, and of the French renegade and captain-general Charles III, Duke of Bourbon. Other major Imperial commanders were the Italian condottiero Fernando d'Avalos, the German military leader Georg Frundsberg, and the Spanish captain Antonio de Leyva, who was in charge of the Imperial garrison inside Pavia. The Habsburg infantry consisted of 12,000 Germans (Landsknechte), 5,000 Spaniards, and 3,000 Italians. Within the infantry, Imperial arquebusiers formed a part of the Spanish colunellas and of the German doppelsöldners.[4][5][6] The Imperial cavalry consisted of 1,500 knights and 800 lances.[2]
The battle was fought in the Visconti Park of Mirabello di Pavia, outside the city walls. In the four-hour battle, the French army was split and defeated in detail. Many of the chief nobles of France were killed, and others – including Francis I himself – were captured. The historian Francesco Guicciardini summarised the clash as follows:[7]
The King, fighting very gallantly, sustained the shock of the enemy, who, however, with their firearms obliged those about him to give way, till, the Swiss arriving and the cavalry charging them in flank, the Spaniards were repulsed. But the Germans easily broke the Swiss with great slaughter, their valour no way corresponding that day with the courage they had shown in previous battles. The King, in the meantime, having been with a great number of his men at arms in the midst of the battle, and endeavoured to stop the flight of his men, after a long combat, his horse killed under him, himself wounded in the face and in the hand, and fallen to the ground, was taken by some soldiers who did not know him. But when the Viceroy came up he discovered himself to him, who, after kissing his hand with profound reverence, received him prisoner in the name of the Emperor.
Francis was imprisoned in the nearby tower of Pizzighettone and later transferred to Spain, where Charles V was residing for his upcoming marriage with Isabella of Portugal. Together they signed the Treaty of Madrid of 1526, by which Francis abandoned claims over the Imperial Duchy of Milan and ceded Burgundy to the House of Habsburg in exchange for his freedom. Francis, however, denounced the treaty after his liberation and soon re-opened hostilities over Burgundy and Milan.
- ^ Eisler, Colin T. (1977). This is the only identified work of the master Ruprecht Heller. Phaidon Press for the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. ISBN 9780714814537. Archived from the original on 24 February 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
- ^ a b c d Livio Agostini, Piero Pastoretto (1999). Le grandi Battaglie della Storia. Milano: Viviani Editore.
- ^ a b Tucker, Spencer (2011). Battles that Changed History: An Encyclopedia of World Conflict. ABC-CLIO. p. 163. ISBN 978-1-59884-429-0.
- ^ Tucker 2010, p. 495.
- ^ Brugh, Patrick (2019). Gunpowder, Masculinity, and Warfare in German Texts, 1400–1700. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781580469685. Archived from the original on 24 February 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
- ^ Morris, T. A. (2002). Europe and England in the Sixteenth Century. Routledge. ISBN 9781134748198. Archived from the original on 24 February 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
- ^ History of Italy, p.205, Francesco Guicciardini, J.Towers, 1755
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