The Battle of Pavia 1525

After wresting Milan from imperial control, the French army of King Francis I of France moved camp to Pavia, Italy, where a decisive battle on 24 February 1525, with the Imperial-Spanish army of the Holy Roman Empire, led to a French defeat. The Battle of Pavia was the final conflict in the Italian Four Years’ War (1521–26), with both sides fighting for dominion over Italy. The Imperial-Spanish army, under General Charles de Lannoy, and supported by General de Leyva’s garrison in Pavia, met French forces in the vast hunting preserve of Castello Mirabello. Here, after breaching fortified park walls, the Imperial army’s crack-force of musketeers and Arquebusiers (long-gunners) used small enemy units (‘defeat in detail’), to bear down on Francis I and the units of Generals D’Alencon, Montmorency and Flourance. Francis I, who personally led his cavalry, was captured and made to sign the humiliating Treaty of Madrid (1526), where he ceded French claims to Italy.