SCENE 1:        Introduction and causes

            The Italian Peninsula at the time of the beginning of the Italian wars was split up into many different States each ruled differently and with different ruling families or Republican governments. The main “city states” as they were called were as follows: Naples, The Papal States, Florence, Milan, Venice and Naples. In 1454 all of these city-states signed a pact of peace, called the Peace of Lodi that promised a time of peace for a 40-year period. This however was not to be as other countries from outside Italy believed that they had territorial rights on the peninsula with the result that Italy became a battle ground between two outside countries/influences. This rivalry is often named the Hapsburg / Valois Rivalry as it was between the rival Royal families of the Hapsburgs, Spain, Austria and Burgundy and the Royal family of France, the Valois. Other players in the battle for Italy were in the beginning the Swiss and the English.

            There was no major central issue. The countries involved did not fight to gain more territories or land but simply to satisfy a thirst for war and gain influence. There was a tradition which had held over from the Dark Ages, that there should always be war, and if there was peacetime, war should be created to keep the people occupied.

SCENE 2:        The first advance into Italy in 1494

            In summer of 1494 King Charles VIII of France led 30000 men over the Alps with the purpose of conquering Italy. The armies that were sent still relied heavily on men-at-arms clad in armor but artillery played an increasing part, as French artillery was far superior to any Italian counterpart.

            The first stage of the attack into Florence was easy as a certain Dominican preacher by the name of Savonarola had, that same year, exiled the ruling and very rich merchant family of the Medici, taking control of Florence and handing it over to France in the hope that France would aid them in the creation of a democracy.

            The French then moved south passing through Milan and the Papal states without much trouble with the Neapolitan army retreating before them. Reaching Naples, they destroyed the Neapolitan army, securing all Italy.

SCENE 3:        The League of Defense

            While the French armies were in the South running amok, a league of defense was being created between the Spanish, the Pope, Venice and Milan.

            When the league’s forces had gathered, the French were obliged to retreat north to prevent them from being cut off from France and their supplies. They met the leagues’ army on the Northern side of the Apennines and began to negotiate with the league but only 15 minutes after negotiations had begun, the battle started. The battle had no decisive victor but the French were not stopped in moving back north and the league managed to re-take Naples.

            In Florence the monk Savonarola continued preaching political freedom until he was excommunicated by the Pope in 1497 and burnt at the stake in 1498. Although Savonarola died Florence remained a French vassal until the year 1512 when the old government was restored along with the powerful presence of the Medici family.

SCENE 4:        The French return to Italy

            Late in 1494 the French king Charles VIII died with his cousin Louis XII succeeding him. Louis renewed the war over Italy again. In 1499 he led his army to conquer Milan and took the city with no trouble but in doing so allowed the leader Sforza to escape to Austria where he appealed to the Swiss for help. The Swiss, dissatisfied with the French gave him 10000 men, which in 1500, marched on the city. The people of the city opened up the gates to him but the troops decided that their loyalties lay elsewhere and turned on their leader, Sforza who was then taken by the French and imprisoned for life.

            The French then again decided to conquer Naples and control the whole of Italy but they did this in conjunction with the king of Aragon (a kingdom on the east coast of Spain), Ferdinand. By the treaty of Granada the two countries agreed to jointly control the area. By 1503 Ferdinand had dissolved the treaty and had taken control of Naples.

SCENE 5: The end of the French in Italy

            When Pope Alexander VI (1492 – 1503) died, Julius II succeeded. Julius showed no religious humility in the sense that he fully supported war and encouraged it in many forms. Firstly he created the League of Cambrai in 1508 with France, Britain, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire and in 1509 the French took control of Venice.

            The Pope then changed his approach and decided to expel the French from Italy altogether. Julius also managed to sway the opinion of the Swiss away from favoring the French as they had done until that time to supporting the papacy and Spain through the promise of 6000 troops to expel the French from Italy in exchange for certain subsidies.

            In 1512 Julius and his Swiss mercenaries were thoroughly defeated at the battle of Ravenna on the 11^th of April by the brilliant French general Gaston de Foix who was unfortunately killed in the battle. After his death the French began to lose their footing in Italy and were quickly driven back to their border by the Swiss.

            After Julius II died Louis XII again tried to take Italy again before being turned back by the Swiss in Northern Italy.

SCENE 6: Francis I of France retakes Italy

            On the death of Charles VIII his heir Francis I (1515 –1547) completed the preparations made by Charles for another invasion into Italy. In 1515 he launched 40000 men into the campaign to cross the alps which were heavily guarded by the Swiss. Francis passed the Swiss ranks in secret and attacked from the rear forcing them to begin retreating. On 13^th September the Swiss launched a surprise attack on the French ranks beginning the battle of Marignano which is known as one of the fiercest battles of the Italian wars. The battle went back and forward on both side for two long days until finally the French, re-enforced by an army of men from Venice, managed to break the Swiss ranks. In that battle alone over 16500 men died and the aura of supposed Swiss ‘invincibility’ vanished. From that point on the Swiss had a very diminished effect on the Italian wars.

SCENE 7:        Spain consolidates power

            In 1517 Emperor Maximilian of the Holy Roman Empire fell gravely ill and died. The seat of the Holy Roman Emperor was not a hereditary one but an election of certain bishops and nobles. The three obvious candidates for the seat were Charles V of Spain, Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England. In the Renaissance period bribery was not illegal so all the candidates began using large sums of money to try and sway the electors and make their country look rich and powerful. Francis I was disadvantaged in several ways by this election. He did not have sufficient money to spend on bribes, secondly he, unlike the other candidates, had no way to secure it and exchange it and thirdly the Spanish had the convenience of an army camped around the city in which the vote was taking place. Charles V secured the title and became one of the most powerful rulers in Renaissance Europe.

            When Charles was making his way to Rome after the elections in 1521 to be crowned Francis decided to intercept Charles en route. He succeeded but the Pope Leo X retaliated swapping sides from that of France to that of Spain. His army entered France but was repulsed after a heroic French defense of the Mézières. Leo died that same year and was coincidently replaced by Charles V’s old tutor as Pope Adrian VI.

SCENE 8:        Treason of Bourbon

            The French ‘constable’ was a man by the name of Charles of Bourbon. He had never really been on amicable terms with Francis I and when he was denied right due to his position of constable, being given a command during a war, he was angered and decided to ‘switch sides’. He had planned to wait for Francis to attack Italy and then cut off his supplies by attacking from the rear but this was not to be so. In 1523 he was discovered and narrowly escaped to the mountains. His revolt had failed but he had succeeded in managing to delay Francis in his attack on Italy.

            In 1524 he returned at the head of an army but was almost immediately cut off from his supplies. He had hoped that many of his former vassals would rise up with him when he returned but he was sadly mistaken.

            In 1525 Francis attacked Italy and besieged the city of Pavia, and soon took it. The French army was then placed under siege when an Imperial army, camped outside the city having been sent to relieve the city. They stayed there for 3 weeks until their supplies began running low when they attacked the city in one of the most successful attacks of the war. They took the French by surprise breaching the wall in 3 places. 8000 Frenchmen died compared to 700 dead Spanish soldiers. Francis I had been captured.

SCENE 9:        The Holy League of Cognac and the sack of Rome

            When Francis was captured England put pressure on Charles V to totally annihilate France. Charles on the other hand had other matters on his hands at the time including his unpaid and mutinous Italian army and the Peasants war in Germany. While Francis was in captivity his sister ruled in his stead. Francis agreed to the Treaty of Madrid giving away all claims to Italian territory but as soon as he was released he renounced the treaty and created the Holy League of Cognac consisting of France, Venice, the Papacy, Florence and Milan against Spain. The Spanish under Bourbon managed to survive in Italy and, in revenge, began without orders to march on Rome.

            Pope Clement VII tried to stop them by bribes but their price was too high so on 6 May 1527 they attacked the city. Bourbon was among the first to die but the city was sacked; tens of thousands of people were murdered and raped as the city was stripped of all that was of value. During the week long sacking of the city the Vatican was saved only because it was designated as the headquarters of the man in charge of the force.

            The French were quickly pulled out of their stupor and attacked Italy again in 1528 only to be stopped by disease and treason at the city of Naples. The pope then ceased his neutrality and sided with the Spanish. Both sides weary of war and in the anticipation of war with the Ottomans, the Peace of Cambrai was signed on the 3^rd of August 1528.

SCENE 10:      The end of the war in Italy

            When the Milanese leader, who supported the French, died in 1536 Francis I again decided to take Milan. The pope in retaliation advanced into France to be turned back at the capital of Provence, Marseilles. The truce of Nice was signed in 1538.

            Again in 1544 Charles V attacked France at the same time as Henry VIII and almost entered the French capital but outside pressures were too strong and they signed the Peace of Crepy in September so that Charles could deal with the German situation.

            After Charles V abdicated in 1555 his successor Phillip II renewed the war with France in 1559 but the weariness of war lead to the treaty of Cuteau-Cambresis on the 3^rd of April 1559 bringing an the end to the Franco-Spanish and Italian wars. After this time civil war broke out in France between the Protestants and Catholics preventing any type of further war effort for some time.

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