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 by Gian 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 of Brescia had revolted against French control, garrisoning itself with Venetian 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] The Gascon infantry and landsknechts then proceeded to thoroughly sack the city, massacring thousands of civilians over the next five days. Following this, the city of Bergamo paid some 60,000 ducats 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. The kingdoms of France and Scotland had traditionally enjoyed a close diplomatic relationship, reflected in a defensive treaty signed between the two kingdoms in 1512. When Henry crossed the English Channel to campaign in France, the King of France activated the treaty, sending arms, money and military advisers to James IV of Scotland to encourage him to fulfil his obligations, in the hope that this would draw English resources away from the invasion of France. James crossed the border with a force of some 35,000 men, including 5,000 French advisers.[7] He was opposed by an English force under the Earl of Surrey. During the Battle of Flodden, the Scottish army was heavily defeated, losing some 9,000 men and many nobles, including King James, the King's illegitimate son, and twelve earls.[8]
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 under Bartolomeo d'Alviano attempted to prevent the Spanish and Imperials under Ramón de Cardona from withdrawing from the Veneto, 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 spelled Pamplona). French-backed Navarrese victory over Spanish troops during the Spanish 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 as St. 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 [9] 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 the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), and create the Spiritual 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. An Imperial army besieged the city of Tournai, capturing it from the French in late November; it would remain a Habsburg possession until the French conquest of the Austrian Netherlands in 1795.
29 April 1522: Battle of Bicocca. Imperial–Spanish and Papal victory over France, Venice and Swiss mercenaries.[11]
20–30 May 1522: Siege of Genoa (1522). An army of the Holy Roman Empire under the command of the Italian/Spanish General Fernando d'Avalos and Italian condottiero Prospero 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 an Imperial army under Charles de Bourbon (who had recently betrayed Francis I) and Fernando de Avalos against the French defenders of Marseille. 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. The Imperial army of Charles V attacked the French city of St. Dizier at the beginning of its advance into Champagne. Charles V himself joined the siege arrived with an army of 14,100 (including 1600 sappers) on 13 July. Imperial commander René 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 the DauphinHenry 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 to Soissons.
10 July – 25 September 1544: Siege of Montreuil. French victory over an English-Burgundian (Habsburg) army led by Norfolk and Adrien de Croÿ [fr] (count of Roeulx, governor of Flanders and Artois).[13]
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 by John 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.
