Chapter 5. War of the League of Cambrai
1515-1516 – Italy.
J'ai vaincu ceux que César seul a vaincus.
— Medal struck in honor of the French victory at Marignano.
Music Accompaniment: La Départ du Roy pour la conquête du Milanois
King François of France, c. 1515.
Despite the death of Henry VIII and James IV of Scotland, the War of the League of Cambrai continued unabated fueled primarily by French and Spanish ambitions centered on Italy and Milan. The last phase of the war would include all the major players—France, Spain, the Empire, and England, too. The war had entered a lull after 1513—Spanish and Imperial forces had secured a major victory at La Motta over the Venetians, and Maximilian Sforza had been restored to the Duchy of Milan, while Papal troops had succeeded in ousting the French from Tuscany—Pope Leo X, a member of the Medici family, had succeeded Julius II as Pope in 1513. After his seizure of Florence, he named his nephew Guiliano as ruler of Florence. England had pulled its forces back to Calais following the death of Henry VIII, while the defeat and death of James IV at Flodden Field had removed Scotland from the conflict wholly. The marriage of Eleanor of Austria to Louis XII came with a truce and hopes of a possible peace treaty, but the king’s death less than three months following his marriage dashed all hopes.
Louis XII was succeeded as king by François of Angoulême—his nearest male heir, who had also been married to Louis’ eldest daughter, Claude. François was everything that Louis was not, and with the throne firmly within his grasp, he was prepared to take what he believed was his. At his coronation at Reims on January 25th, François was not only crowned King of France, but also laid claim to the Duchy of Milan by virtue of descent from his great-grandmother, Valentina Visconti.
“The new king belonged to the race of Gallic warriors,” Wrote an anonymous historian of the period.
“Full of youth and vigor, he everything that the old king was not—and he was prepared take all that his predecessor failed to claim. It was his birthright.” The new king was heavily supported by his mother, the crafty Louise of Savoy—she had been told shortly following the birth of her son that he would one day be king. With his coronation, she was vindicated—and knew that his destiny would include going forth into Italy.
The increasingly bellicose behavior from the King of France aroused trepidation among those aligned against him. Emperor Maximilian was the first to learn of François' perfidy, when the young king withheld the first ever payment of Maximilian’s pension—claiming that it could not be paid out due to matters of economy. It was then that Maximilian realized that his luck with France had run dry. Though Maximilian felt himself cheated, he had not behaved honestly either—the emperor having only paid the first installment of Eleanor’s dowry. The remainder had been kept back for the emperor’s incessant financial needs. He now claimed the return of what had been paid and dispersed what remained of the funds he had retained towards equipping an army to face the French threat in Italy. Now was the time to stand strong against the French threat—and Maximilian knew that he would need the help of England.
Negotiations between the English and Habsburg courts for the marriage of Princess Mary to Prince Charles had continued throughout 1514, but the death of Louis XII meant the need for a swift conclusion. In February of 1515, Charles finally attained his majority as Duke of Burgundy and Count of Flanders and the various other entities that made up the Habsburg inheritance in the Lowlands. The
Treaty of Greenwich was signed in March of 1515 to finalize the marriage agreement between Princess Mary and Charles—Catherine of Aragon pledged a dowry of £200,000, with £50,000 to be paid immediately. The marriage would take place in a year—all were happy, except for Princess Mary, who wept bitterly and raged against the news. When Catherine attempted to console her sister-in-law by speaking of her own experiences as a young princess marrying abroad, the princess could only retort:
“Yes, madam—but you came to England. I am being asked to leave it.” Joan Vauxhall, Princess Mary’s former governess, wrote to a friend of hers:
“The princess is in grave distress at the news of impending marriage—all the court knows of her love for Charles Brandon. Queen Catherine is adamant that the match go forward—she believes it her duty to ensure the princess is properly married, believing it is what King Henry would’ve desired. She invokes his name constantly, and Charles Brandon has been sent away from court…” Some said that the queen-regent induced Brandon’s departure with a bribe of £3000—but whatever the reason, he was gone. Brandon’s life at court was finished.
Charles of Austria & Mary Tudor. Their marriage negotiations
were completed through the Treaty of Greenwich.
In Spain, news of Charles’ impending marriage to the Princess Mary caused more alarm to Ferdinand of Aragon than French saber rattling. After all, what interest did he have in Milan? His possessions in Naples were safe—at least for now. The King of Aragon had not enjoyed the best health, and by 1515 he was in a great decline. His second wife, Germaine of Foix, had provided him no further issue since the birth and death of their son John, born in 1509. Old Ferdinand, once renowned for his virility and love affairs, was now reduced to impotence and often took potions and elixirs to assist him. His focus lay less on France than the possible succession of his crown and that of Castile. A cleric attached to the court wrote that,
“Our king, if he does not rid himself of his appetites, will soon give his soul to the Creator and his body to the earth; he is already in his 63rd year of his life and does not allow his wife to separate from him and she is not enough for him, at least in his desire.”
England wasted little time following the ratification of the Treaty of Greenwich. Catherine, emboldened now as regent for her daughter, the infant queen, was prepared to do whatever she could to defend her daughter’s inheritance and to preserve the legacy left behind by Henry VIII. More than that, Catherine sought revenge for the tragedy at Thérouanne. Parliament had readily granted Catherine a subsidy in the summer of 1514, which went towards refitting the English army for a third sortie into France. A generous portion of her funds were also expended on the English navy to refit existing ships and outfit new ones.
Henry Grace à Dieu, a great ship which Henry VIII had commissioned in 1512 was launched in 1514 and was officially one of the largest warships that had ever been built. English ships patrolled the English Channel to protect English shipping, while a new army of about 25,000 men under the Duke of Norfolk landed in Calais. English troops, rather than march inwards towards Thérouanne, instead moved towards Boulogne, which was put under siege.
By July, François had assembled an army in Dauphiné. A combined force of Papal and Swiss troops under Cardinal Matthäus Schiner and Prospero Colonna was sent north of Milan to garrison the alpine passes against the French. This put the French in a difficult position, owing to the number of artillery pieces that were accompanying the army. Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, a
condottiero attached to the service of France offered a novel idea—instead of using the alpine passes, he suggested the army passing through the
Col d’Argentière, a mountain pass that connected Lyon with Cuneo and had been recently paved. This advantage allowed the French troops launch a surprise attack upon the Papal forces at Villafranca; Jacques de La Palice led a daring charge that allowed him to capture the Papal commander, Prospero Colonna, with a great deal of booty—including six hundred horses being seized as well. The arrival of France into the plains of Piedmont caused great consternation amongst the Pope—with Spanish troops still south of Rome, he was prepared to parlay with François and offer up control of Milan to prevent the French from pressing further south. Though some Swiss were of the mind to make peace with France, the main contingent of the Swiss confederates, led by Cardinal Schiner retreated towards Milan for one last final stand.
King François leads the charge against the Swiss at Marignano.
The French took a leisurely pace following their victory at Villafranca. At the small village of Marignano, the French were unprepared for an attack by the Swiss—even François was taken unawares; he was in his tent trying on a new suit of armor when scouts announced the Swiss approach. The French army was quickly divided into three divisions; the vanguard was jointly commanded by the Duke of Bourbon and Trivulzio, while François led a force of cavalry and Landsknechts recruited from the Lowlands. The Duke of Alençon commanded the rearguard. The French army was a mix of pikemen, arquebuses, and cavalry—while the Swiss troops were mainly pikemen, with less than a dozen artillery pieces. At close to sunset, the Swiss approached the French with three divisions of their own comprised of their pikemen. A small contingent of Swiss troops broke from the vanguard rushed for the French artillery to seize it for their own use. The Swiss had some success as they pushed back the Landsknechts and captured a few artillery pieces. The slow pace of the Swiss advance as it pressed forward rendered the Swiss artillery fire ineffective. Cavalry commanded by the Duke of Bourbon from the right succeeded in pushing the small Swiss contingent back into the shelter of the Swiss vanguard. Bourbon’s cavalry surged forward but were soon forced to retreat almost a whole half mile after they suffered heavy losses, but the artillery was saved.
The battle continued throughout the night—cavalry charges, often led by the king with the Chevalier of Bayard at his side resulted in the French troops repulsing temporary Swiss gains on the field. Desperate fighting resulted in the death of several French commanders—Antoine, the Duke of Lorraine; his brother, Claude, the Count of Guise, and Charles, the Prince of Tallemont. French troops stood brave among the Swiss attempts to toss them aside, and by mid-morning Venetian troops under the command Bartolomeo d’Alviano arrived and allowed the French to put the Swiss to route. Bloodied, bruised, and broken—the Swiss had suffered some 10,000 casualties, while French losses amounted to some 5000. With his decisive victory, François was able to move onto Milan, which he captured on October 4th. Milan offered only a token resistance. Duke Maximilian Sforza was quickly imprisoned by French troops—and would be carried back to France as the king’s hostage, albeit in a comfortable state, with King François granting Sforza a pension of 30,000 ducats. France’s stunning victory at Marignano shocked Europe. François met with Pope Leo X at Bologna in December, where an agreement was reached. François claimed not only Milan, but also Parma and Piacenza, while the Duchy of Ferrara was rewarded with Modena. François also gave the Pope reassurances that he would not interfere in the Pope’s designs regarding the Duchy of Urbino. Further discussions involved the state of the church in France. France would also reach peace with the Swiss confederates in 1516, when the
Treaty of Friborg was signed. Switzerland renounced their protectorate over the Duchy of Milan, with France agreeing to pay an indemnity of 2,100,000₶ in return. Both parties pledged to abstain from giving support to enemies of the other party, aside from pre-existing treaties, and that future disputes should be resolved through arbitration. The Swiss were also granted trading privileges at both Lyon and Milan.
Ferdinand of Aragon’s ill health continued to plague him throughout the winter of 1515. Spanish troops had made no further movements towards Milan after the news of Marignano broke, and soon took up their winter quarters, delaying any possible campaign until spring. Emperor Maximilian, with his own financial troubles, also saw himself limited in the months after Marignano—there would be no new campaigning until 1516, and the emperor had high hopes that he might be able to coordinate effectively with his allies in both England and Spain to check French ambition. The truth of the matter was different though—at this point, the war had been raging for nearly eight years, and there had been no real territorial changes—with François once more claiming Milan as his own, he had restored the borders that had existed at the beginning of the conflict in 1508. Any hopes of Spanish aid against France faded when Ferdinand of Aragon’s health took a drastic turn towards the end of January. Ferdinand realized that the end was near, but his mind remained clouded with the succession—and his desire to honor his grandson, Ferdinand, over his natural successor, Charles. Ferdinand had always intended to bequeath his namesake a crown in Italy, but the present situation prevented that. As such, he sought to give him honors in Spain. The first draft of his will promised the younger Ferdinand the regencies of Castile and Aragon, as well as control over the Orders of Alcántara, Calatrava, and Santiago—whose administration had been granted to Ferdinand of Aragon in 1499. The council strenuously objected to Ferdinand’s proposed will, arguing that it would turn the younger Ferdinand into a possible rival to the throne against Charles, and would risk plunging the two kingdoms into civil war—Ferdinand was thus forced to renounce his ambitions for his favorite grandson, with Cardinal Cisneros entrusted with the regency of Castile, while the Archbishop of Saragoza would serve as Regent of Aragon until Charles could assume authority over Spain. Ferdinand died shortly after his will was altered, at the hamlet of Madrigalejo on January 16th, 1516. As he lay dying, the King of Aragon’s final words were succinct:
“Forgive me, Isabella… Because I wanted to break the promise that I made to you… but God in his great judgement has prevented me from doing so.”
Death of Ferdinand of Aragon, 1516.
Ferdinand of Aragon was laid to rest in March of 1516, and Charles was proclaimed King of Castile and Aragon jointly with his mother, Joanna, who remained confined at Torsedillas. Charles made immediate plans to embark for Spain as soon as possible, which meant that any interest in continuing the war against France from the Spanish side immediately faded; Charles was much more concerned with ensuring his reign within his new kingdom. Plans were made for his embarkment to Spain as soon as possible… but first, Charles would travel to England by his aunt, where plans of his marriage to Princess Mary had been finalized. Charles arrived in England in the summer of 1516, where he was married to the Princess Mary in a splendid ceremony at Westminster Abbey on July 25th—the feast day of Saint James, the patron saint of Spain. English spirits were higher than ever, as news arrived shortly after the wedding that the city of Boulogne had fallen to the English troops.
Peace with France came through Charles—given the uncertain situation in Spain, he had little desire to war with France or expose the Low Countries to conflict before the crown was firmly upon his head. The fall of Boulogne also gave added impetus to France to make peace with both Spain and England to prevent a second front from opening in the north and the south. The
Treaty of Noyon was signed in August of 1516—Spain recognized France’s claim to Milan, while France recognized Spanish control over Naples. England would be allowed to retain Boulogne, slightly expanding the Pale of Calais, with the option for France to redeem the town in ten years for a payment of £500,000. There only remained Emperor Maximilian—he attempted to lead another army in Lombardy, but failed to reach Milan and was forced to turn back. By autumn, he too turned to negotiations with the French, which led to the
Treaty of Brussels in December—Maximilian not only recognized French control over Milan but was forced to recognize Venetian control over the remainder of Imperial possessions in Lombardy, except for Cremona, which was returned to the Duchy of Milan. England and Scotland reached their own agreement through the
Treaty of Richmond which re-established the terms of the
Perpetual Peace which had been signed in 1502, and agreed to a betrothal between the infant monarchs of England and Scotland. The War of the League of Cambrai had finally come to an end, almost eight years later—with neither side being victorious. It remained to see how long the fragile peace might hold.
