Battle of Agnadello

Battle of Agnadello

Part of: War of the League of Cambrai

The Battle of Agnadello
(painting by Pierre-Jules Jollivet)

date	May 14, 1509
place	near Agnadello between Milan and Bergamo
output	Decisive French victory

Parties to the conflict
France	Venice
Commander
Louis XII. Louis II. De La Trémoille Charles II. D'Amboise	Bartolomeo d'Alviano Nicolo di Pitigliano
Troop strength
32,000	25,000
losses
unknown	4,000 dead, wounded and prisoners

The Battle of Agnadello on May 14, 1509 , also known as the Battle of Vailà , was the main battle in the War of the League of Cambrai . In it, the Republic of Venice tried the advance of Louis XII. by France , which was led from the west across the Adda against their mainland possessions. The outcome of the battle was a perfect victory for the French.

prehistory

Mainland expansion of the Republic of Venice

If one relates the war to the oldest events, then it turned against the Venetian expansion since the beginning of the 15th century. Venice had acquired the old town signs of Padua , Vicenza and Verona on the territory of the empire , on the territory of the church of Ravenna and Cervia and, most recently, with the peace of Bagnolo and the war against the Duchy of Ferrara, the so-called Polesine of Rovigo . Above all, however, in the course of the Italian wars , which had left the Apennine peninsula in the state of division between France and Spain since around 1504 at the latest , the republic had often benefited from alliance services and, so to speak, played the laughing third party: in 1495 it had the Apulian coastal cities around Otranto and in 1499 the communes of Ghiaradadda in Lombardy. 1503/04 Venice could Rimini and Faenza in the territories of the Papal States bring itself.

Since 1499, the Venetians had significantly from their alliance with Louis XII. profited because they had the geostrategic value of fending off the requisitions made by the Roman-German King Maximilian I after his conquest of the Duchy of Milan : By relocating the Veronese hermitage, the Venetians acted like a barrier to the Alps. After the armistice of Lyon in 1504, they were stabilized against France, provided they could be supported by the Spaniards, who had been victorious in southern Italy up to this point.

Although the Italian wars had created new conditions through the presence of France and Spain, the allegation persisted from the 15th century that the Venetians were striving for the Monarchia d'Italia , i.e. for sole rule or hegemony on the Apennine peninsula. For example, justified in 1482, this rhetoric had not yet captured changes.

League of Cambrai: Unification of the Enemies

Maximilian defended the Venetians in alliance with France in the first half of 1508 on the Alps, but rushed with an armistice, which, according to the accusation, without the leading word of Louis XII. had been completed. Therefore, the pretext was also given by the French that the great princes of Christianity settled their contradictions at the expense of the Venetians or discovered the republic as a common enemy: the League of Cambrai officially united Louis XII., Maximilian I and Ferdinand the Catholic and took the official goal of overcoming the Venetians before a common Turkish crusade, so that they could no longer benefit from the back of warring Christianity. The territorial goals were based on the respective damage of the previous century and previous years and also included Pope Julius II , although it was not to be found among the contracting parties and was rather covered at the moment of the conclusion.

War movements

Elevator

The Venetians led Bartolomeo d'Alviano and Nicola di Pitigliano Orsini in their service. However, they were divided as to whether they should expect the French to be expected from the west in the depths of their mainland holdings or attack with their own thrust across the Adda. The result was a compromise that took neither one way nor the other: the Venetian army took up a good position on the left bank of the Adda between Treviglio and Rivolta d' Adda . The commander in chief was able to fall back on 20,000 foot soldiers, 2,000 armored personnel , 3,000 cavalry men and 60 artillery pieces. The soldiers consisted of Venetians and mercenaries .

Louis XII. was numerically superior in every respect with his attacking army. From his starting point in Milan he was able to fall back on 106 guns, plus 12,000 foot soldiers from France and Italy, 6,000 Swiss and around 14,000 horsemen. However, he knew that his Swiss and the cavalry could only fight successfully on flat terrain, but the positions of the Venetians were not ideal for an attack, so he wanted to improve his tactical starting position with a good maneuver.

battle

The battle can be divided into three parts:

First, Louis XII. his plan was to by his left flank in an arc on the left bank of the Adda bypassing the Venetians and advancing to their line of communication. When this was noticed by the Venetians, they withdrew their troops under the protection of a large arquebusier rearguard back.

Initially, the French vanguard and the Venetian rearguard marched almost parallel to each other, unnoticed by one another, towards Agnadello . There the Venetians spotted the enemy first and posted their units in the dry bed of a forest stream that was bordered by a dam . At the same time, guns were set up on the dam and reinforcements were requested. First the Swiss vanguard attacked the Venetian rearguard out of the marching order, then the armored men tried to cross the vineyards, but both attacks were bloody repulsed by the fire of the Venetian artillery and arquebuses . The terrain with vineyards and trees was ideal for the defenders.

Disregarding the order to retreat, and without the requested reinforcements, the Venetian commander followed the French vanguard with his rearguard. Favored by the terrain, his action was initially successful, but when the level was reached, the attackers were attacked by the French main mass of Swiss and armored people. The Venetians were now able to defeat them in the terrain that was favorable to them thanks to their majority.

The maneuver intended by the French king was thus implemented, albeit belatedly. The Venetian armed forces fell even more behind. The main group of the Venetian armed forces withdrew to Verona without further resistance to the opposing army.

consequences

After the battle, the mainland holdings of the Venetians collapsed under the influx of French and Germans. However, the tide turned in the late 1509 in favor of the Venetians, because Louis XII. and Maximilian fell out and Julius II prepared a change of alliance against France. The latter led to the Holy League from 1511 .

literature

• Giuseppe Gullino (Ed.): L'Europa e la Serenissima. La svolta del 1509. Nel V centenario della battaglia di Agnadello. Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice 2011, ISBN 978-88-95996-25-7 , istitutoveneto.i (PDF; 4.8 MB; not evaluated).
• Ferdinand Philippi: History of Venice , Part 19, Volume 3, p. 63