Italian Wars

The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts spanning 1494 to 1559, primarily fought across the Italian Peninsula, with additional campaigns in Flanders, the Rhineland, and the Mediterranean. Stemming from the enduring French–Habsburg rivalry, the main combatants were France against the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, with various Italian states, England, and the Ottoman Empire joining at different points. The wars are considered a pivotal shift from medieval to modern warfare, as the arquebus became widespread and siege artillery saw major technological advances.

The collapse of the Italic League in 1492 enabled Charles VIII of France to invade Naples in 1494, pulling Spain and the Holy Roman Empire into the conflict. Though forced to withdraw by 1495, ongoing divisions among Italian states turned the peninsula into a battleground for European dominance between France and the Habsburgs. After 1503, most fighting began with French invasions of Lombardy and Piedmont; while they could hold territory temporarily, they could not do so permanently. By 1557, the rise of Protestantism caused major belligerents to face internal religious strife, shifting their focus to domestic matters. This led to the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, which largely expelled France from Italy. In return, France gained Calais from England and the Three Bishoprics from Lorraine, while Spain acquired sovereignty over the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Sicily, and the Duchy of Milan. The wars were fought with considerable brutality against the backdrop of the Reformation’s religious turmoil, particularly in France and the Holy Roman Empire. Literate commanders and modern printing produced many contemporary accounts, including those by Francesco Guicciardini, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Blaise de Montluc.

**Background**

The long-running Wars in Lombardy, driven largely by rivalry between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan, ended with the 1454 Treaty of Lodi. This was followed by the Italic League, a non-aggression pact that brought forty years of stability and economic growth, interrupted only by the Pazzi conspiracy (1479–1481) and the War of Ferrara (1482–1484). The League’s main supporter was Florentine ruler Lorenzo de’ Medici, who also worked to keep France and the Holy Roman Empire out of Italy. Lorenzo’s death in April 1492 severely weakened the League at a time when France sought to expand into Italy. This ambition began when Louis XI of France inherited the County of Provence from his cousin Charles IV of Anjou in 1481, along with the Angevin claim to the Kingdom of Naples. His son Charles VIII succeeded him in 1483 and formally annexed Provence into France in 1486; its ports of Marseille and Toulon gave France direct Mediterranean access, enabling territorial ambitions. Before the First Italian War, Charles secured neutrality from other European rulers through treaties, including the November 1492 Peace of Étaples with Henry VII of England and the March 1493 Treaty of Barcelona with Ferdinand II of Aragon.

**History**

**Italian War of 1494–1495**

The war began when Ludovico Sforza, regent of Milan, encouraged Charles VIII to invade Italy, using the Angevin claim to Naples as a pretext. This was fueled by the intense rivalry between Ludovico’s wife, Beatrice d’Este, and Isabella of Aragon, wife of Ludovico’s nephew Gian Galeazzo Sforza. Although Gian Galeazzo was the hereditary Duke of Milan, his uncle had sidelined him in 1481 and exiled him to Pavia. Both women wanted their children to inherit the duchy; when Isabella’s father became Alfonso II of Naples in January 1494, she asked for his help. In September, Charles invaded the peninsula, claiming he wanted to use Naples as a base for a crusade against the Ottoman Turks. In October, Ludovico formally became duke of Milan after Gian Galeazzo’s death, popularly thought to be by poisoning. The French marched through Italy nearly unopposed, entering Pisa on 8 November, Florence on 17 November, and Rome on 31 December. Charles was backed by Girolamo Savonarola, who used the opportunity to establish a short-lived theocracy in Florence, while Pope Alexander VI allowed the French army free passage through the Papal States.

In February 1495, the French reached Monte San Giovanni Campano in the Kingdom of Naples and sent envoys to negotiate with the Neapolitan garrison, who murdered them and sent back their mutilated bodies. On 9 February, enraged besiegers breached the castle walls with artillery, stormed it, and killed everyone inside. This “Sack of Naples” caused widespread outrage in Italy and concern over French power, leading to the formation of the League of Venice on 31 March 1495—an anti-French alliance of the Republic of Venice, Milan, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire. Later joined by Florence (after Savonarola’s overthrow), the Papal States, and Mantua, this coalition cut off Charles and his army from France. Charles’ cousin, Louis d’Orléans, then tried to exploit Ludovico’s change of sides to conquer Milan, which he claimed through his grandmother, Valentina Visconti. On 11 June, he captured Novara when the garrison defected, reaching Vigevano, forty kilometers from Milan. At this critical point, Ludovico was incapacitated, either by a stroke or nervous breakdown, while his unpaid soldiers neared mutiny. In his absence, his wife Beatrice d’Este took command.