Italian War of 1494–1495

Timeline

On 25 January 1494, King Ferdinand I of Naples died and was succeeded by his son Alfonso II, who also laid claim to Milan. King Charles VIII of France disputed the succession and began preparations for an invasion of Italy to enforce his claim on the Neapolitan kingship. From 5 to 8 September 1494, the Battle of Rapallo occurred, a land battle involving the French fleet; the French victory led the Neapolitans to abandon Rapallo, which the French army sacked.

On 11 September 1494, Charles VIII and Louis of Orléans arrived in Asti and concluded an alliance with Duke Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este. Skirmishes near Sant'Agata sul Santerno on 17 October 1494 resulted in tactical Neapolitan victories. From 19 to 21 October 1494, the sacking of Mordano ended in a Franco–Milanese victory; French soldiers sacked Mordano while Milanese soldiers tried to protect civilians. The siege of Fivizzano from 26 to 29 October 1494 was a French victory, and the French army sacked the town.

On 8–9 November 1494, a Florentine revolt against de' Medici succeeded; Piero the Unfortunate, who had submitted to all French demands, was ousted, and the Republic of Florence was restored under the de facto leadership of Girolamo Savonarola. From mid-November to 28 November 1494, a tense French occupation of Florence occurred; an anti-French revolt or a French sack of the city was averted, and Charles VIII marched on to Rome. From 31 December 1494 to 6 January 1495, the French entered Rome peacefully with Pope Alexander VI's permission, though some French looting took place.

In 1495, the French conquered and destroyed the Castello di Monte San Giovanni Campano and sacked Tuscania. On 22 February 1495, the French army captured Naples without a fight; Ferdinand II of Naples fled to Sicily but kept fighting elsewhere. Charles VIII was crowned king of Naples and appointed Gilbert, Count of Montpensier as his viceroy. The first documented outbreak of syphilis in history likely occurred among the French troops at Naples.

Battle of Fornovo

On 31 March 1495, several Italian states, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire formed the League of Venice to expel the French army; Milan defected from France to join the League.

Prelude

Pope Innocent VIII excommunicated and deposed King Ferdinand I of Naples in September 1489 because Ferdinand refused to pay feudal dues owed to the papacy. Innocent then offered the Kingdom of Naples to Charles VIII of France. The French crown had already inherited the Angevin claim to Naples in December 1481, which became the foundation of Charles’s claim. Innocent later made peace with Ferdinand and lifted the bans before his death in 1492, but the offer to Charles remained a source of tension in Italian politics.

Ferdinand died in January 1494, and his son Alfonso II took the throne. Another claimant was René II, Duke of Lorraine, the eldest son of Yolande, Duchess of Lorraine, who was the only surviving child of René of Anjou, the last effective Angevin king of Naples until 1442. In 1488, the Neapolitans had already offered the crown to René II, who organized an expedition to take the kingdom, but Charles VIII stopped him. Charles argued that his grandmother Marie of Anjou, sister of René of Anjou, had a closer familial link than René II’s mother Yolande, who was René of Anjou’s daughter, so Charles had priority in the Angevin line of succession to Naples.

Conflict

Louis d'Orleans, the king's cousin, moved into the Duchy of Milan in July 1494 with the forward elements of the French army. The Dukes of Bari, Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este, welcomed him warmly in Vigevano before he settled in his own fief of Asti. King Charles VIII himself did not cross into Italy until September 3, entering through the Montgenèvre pass with a force of roughly 30,000 men, which included 5,000 Swiss mercenaries and a modern artillery train.

Upon reaching Piedmont, the Dukes of Savoy gave him a festive reception, and he then linked up with his cousin in the County of Asti. Charles assembled a large army of 25,000 troops, among them 8,000 Swiss mercenaries, along with the first siege train to feature artillery. Louis d'Orleans' defeat of Neapolitan forces at the Battle of Rapallo cleared the way for Charles to march through the Republic of Genoa.

Charles understood that his army, pushing deep into the Italian peninsula toward Naples, would require naval support for supplies. The Aragonese strategy aimed to deny him freedom of movement on the Tyrrhenian Sea. As early as July, a Neapolitan fleet had bombarded the Genoese port of Porto Venere in a failed attempt to capture the base. On September 5, 1494, an Aragonese naval fleet reached Rapallo in Liguria and landed 4,000 Neapolitan soldiers under Giulio Orsini, Obietto Fieschi, and Fregosino Campofregoso.

Their goal was to stir up the people of Rapallo against Genoa, which was then under Sforza control. Three days later, a French force led by Louis d'Orleans arrived, composed of French soldiers, 3,000 Swiss mercenaries, and Milanese contingents. The Swiss initiated the attack on the Neapolitans, but the Milanese and Neapolitans did most of the fighting. French artillery then concentrated fire on the Aragonese, routing them and forcing surrender or flight.

Orsini and Campofregoso were taken prisoner. The Swiss massacred those trying to surrender, as well as the wounded, and then sacked Rapallo. This battle wiped out the Neapolitan fleet and opened Liguria and central Italy to Charles VIII's army.