List of battles of the Italian Wars

rdf:langString List of battles of the Italian Wars

rdf:langString * 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 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. * ? 1521: * 30 June 1521: Battle of Noáin or Noain-Esquiroz near Pamplona. A makeshift Spanish army consisting mostly of Castilian troops defeated the Navarrese and French forces sent by Henry d'Albret and commanded by Lesparre, driving them out of Iberian Navarre. * ? 1521: Siege of Mézières. An Imperial army besieged the city (now part of Charleville-Mézières), which was defended by French troops under the command of the Chevalier de Bayard and Anne de Montmorency; the siege was unsuccessful, and the determined French resistance gave Francis I time to concentrate his forces against Charles V. * November 1521: Siege of Tournai (1521). 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. * * * * 27 April 1522: Battle of Bicocca. Imperial–Spanish and Papal victory over France, Venice and Swiss mercenaries. * 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. * * 1523–1524: Siege of Fuenterrabía (1523–1524). Spanish victory over France and Navarre. * 30 April 1524: Battle of the Sesia (1524). It was fought near the Sesia River, where the Spanish-Imperial forces under Charles de Lannoy inflicted a decisive defeat on the French under Admiral Bonnivet and the Francis de Bourbon, Comte de St. Pol, forcing the latter to withdraw from Lombardy. * 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. * October 1524 – February 1525: Italian campaign of 1524–1525. Habsburg Spanish-Imperial victory over France. * 24 February 1525: Battle of Pavia. Decisive Habsburg Spanish-Imperial victory over France; French king Francis I captured.