Battle of the Sesia River in 1524 was another defeat of the French in the Italian War of 1521-26, defeated by Imperial forces. During this battle, they also lost one of the finest French knights Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard, who fell on the battlefield, shot by an arquebus.
Despite their crushing defeat at Bicocca in 1522, the French king Francis I managed to send another big army to Italy in late 1523 led by Guillaume Gouffier, Lord of Bonnivet. Francis gained money for this new army by seizing properties of Charles III, Duke of Bourbon.
Charles of Bourbon was angered by this and abandoned the French king Francis, switching sides and entering emperor Charles V's service instead. Meanwhile a huge French army under Bonnivet, numbering around 35000 men including Swiss mercenaries marched into Italy to conquer Milan.
The Imperial forces under Prospero Colonna had barely half as many men, but Colonna was an experienced leader who patiently avoided battles and eventually stationed his army in the fortified city of Milan. Once again he wanted the French to exhaust themselves before battles.
The French once again had a problem of poor leadership as Bonnivet played into Colonna's game and had his army retreat to winterquarters to the west of Milan and delaying the campaign to next year. Meanwhile Imperial army received reinforcements by arrivals of Bourbon and Lannoy.
Charles de Lannoy arrived from Naples with fresh troops. He would assume command after the aged Colonna died that same year, and he continued using the same pragmatic and defensive approach while the French army was decimated by disease and lack of pay. A lot of Swiss left.
Lannoy now had a larger army than Bonnivet and decided to look for a decisive engagement on the open field. However this time, it was Bonnivet who didn't want it. Realizing the abysmal condition of his army, he decided to retreat to France. Lannoy was determined to pursue him.
As the French were crossing the river Sesia, Lannoy sent a vanguard consisting of light cavalry and mounted arquebusiers to catch the retreating French forces. This small force of Imperials was able to successfully harass the French who were retreating over the river very slowly.
The French prepared a counterattack on the Spanish and Italian arquebusiers who had dismounted uphill and assumed a defensive position. The French heavy cavalry charged, but on boggy terrain the charge was not as effective and arquebusiers managed to shoot down many.
Next the Swiss pikemen went on offensive but they too had a lot of casualties and were not effective as the arqubusiers retreated from them and then shot again from safer positions. They were also threatened by light cavalry from the flanks and had to retreat back.
In this situation, the French prepared another heavy cavalry attack, led by Pierre Terrail de Bayard, an inspiring veteran warrior reputed as the most chivalrous French. The charge was once again unsuccessful and Bayard himself died in the charge! He was shot down by an arquebus.
At that point, the main Imperial army had arrived and the French had no choice but to retreat in disorder and flee. Bonnivet's 1523-24 campaign was a total fiasco, a waste of money and men and another humiliating defeat for the French in a battle, on top of losing Bayard's life.
What makes this battle interesting is that is proved the effectiveness of skirmish gunpowder attacks which would continue to be used by Giovanni de Medici's Black Bands Italian mercenaries in the years that followed to great effect, as the wars would continue.
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At the Battle of Nájera in 1367, French noble Bertrand du Guesclin tried to warn the Castilians not to attack English longbowmen with light cavalry.
When they didn't listen to him, he replied,
"So be it then. But these are the best soldiers and fiercest warriors in this world."
As a result the Castilian light cavalry suffered heavy losses from English arrows, and the Castilian army was eventually outflanked by elite Gascon mercenaries.
Du Guesclin was well aware of the dangers of longbowmen as he faced them before in battles such as Auray in 1364.
At Auray, Bertrand du Guesclin was captured and his French contingent suffered a bitter defeat against the Anglo-Breton forces during the War of the Breton Succession.
During the battle, Guesclin and his troops found themselves under rain of arrows from English archers!
It's incredible how many inns and hotels in Austria and Germany still bear names such as Zur Post.
This is a remnant of the Imperial postal service created in 16th century by the Taxis family!
The Taxis established a network of inns which provided fresh horses for couriers! 🧵
The growing Habsburg Empire was in need of a better communication system in 16th century.
They commissioned the Taxis family which had historically provided couriers for the Duchy of Milan in Italy to establish a postal service in the Empire and beyond!
The Taxis managed to develop a very efficient system which was basically the first modern postal service with fixed schedules and transporting private mail.
They did this by recruiting wealthy innkeepers into their service who provided horses, lodging and food for couriers.
This cannonball in Nice was fired by the Ottomans during their siege of this city in 1543!
This siege was a result of French-Ottoman alliance and one of many joint operations they conducted against Habsburgs and their allies in the Mediterranean. 🧵
The Franco-Ottoman alliance was a result of the growing power of the Habsburgs which had encircled France due to their dynastic possessions in both Spain and Holy Roman Empire.
The alliance was proposed by King Francis I following the disastrous French defeat at Pavia in 1525.
This alliance was seen as controversial at the time, as it involved a Catholic monarchy allying with a Muslim empire which was invading other Catholic lands.
The Ottomans would soon defeat the Kingdom of Hungary in 1526 and become direct neighbors of Habsburgs.
16-17th centuries were more "medieval" than the actual Middle Ages, in terms of negative associations people have with the term medieval.
Constant wars, witch hunts, plagues, inquisition, religious violence...
All of these more common in 16-17th centuries than Middle Ages. 🧵
The 16-17th centuries were a specific time in European history when society was slowly transitioning from a medieval decentralized one to modern states.
This was an important step towards modernity, but one that brought with it a lot of problems and unprecedented violence.
The increasingly centralized governments were able to use state power more effectively and European monarchies grew in power.
But their interests were clashing with each other leading to a series of prolonged and very intense military conflicts all over Europe.