Battle of Ceresole

Movements before the Battle of Ceresole

The Battle of Ceresole was a battle during the Italian Wars between France and the combined forces of Habsburg and Spain that took place on April 11, 1544 outside the village of Ceresole Alba . At the head of the French army was François de Bourbon, comte d'Enghien . The imperial army was led by Alfonso d'Avalos , Marchese del Vasto (see also Avalos ). The French army was victorious.

prehistory

When the French army was about to take Carignano , which had been conquered by the Habsburgs, d'Avolos tried with his troops to take a position that would force the French to break off their siege . The maneuver failed, among other things, because of rainy weather, which softened the roads and made it impossible for the army and the large supply columns to reach the assumed goal in a reasonable time. The young François had foreseen the maneuver d'Avalos and asked his king for permission and this was given to fight an open battle. In the morning at 3 a.m. on April 11th, his troops left the camp in front of Carignano and found the right flank of d'Avalos, who had been in Ceresòle d'Alba since April 10th . D'Avalos decided to accept the battle and not give up Carignano. The forces were fairly even when they took part in battle, the Habsburgs and the Spaniards slightly outnumbered the infantry, but the French had an outnumbered cavalry. Both forces had guns.

Positioning at the beginning of the battle and during mutual shelling; the French are in blue, the Habsburgs in red

Early phase of the battle, shows the imperial army advancing, the escape of the Florentine horsemen, the division of the mercenaries and the attack and retreat of the Spanish cavalry

Second phase of the battle, shows the flight of the mercenaries, the retreat from Sanseverino, the attack of the heavy cavalry from Enghien, the retreat of the Habsburg and Spanish infantry and the return of the Swiss and French infantry from Ceresole

Course of the battle

When both generals had decided to fight the battle, both began to try to gain the advantage of the defensive and to tempt the enemy to attack, since both generals had great expectations in the use of firearms, which at the battle of Pavia had had a decisive effect. Both opponents had placed their pikemen in three piles side by side. Cavalry was positioned on each flank of the piles . Now the battle began in a modern way with hours of artillery and rifle fire . The tirailleurs had it difficult in the open field and often had to retreat from the enemy cavalry. The long skirmish was not a great success , however, as the conditions for shooters were different from those of Pavia . Of greater importance to the course of the battle, however, was artillery fire, although it did not make the decision. It was only after a long bombardment that d'Avalos decided to attack. The right wing of the imperial, consisting of experienced mercenaries and Spaniards, met a bunch of newly recruited Swiss mercenaries (Gruyères) and knocked them out of the field. The victorious Habsburg group then went on to pursue the defeated Swiss group instead of swinging straight into the center to continue fighting there. Even heavy French cavalry could not stop the Habsburg crowd. In the center, however, an inexperienced bunch of Landsknechten of the Habsburgs encountered an already experienced one of the Swiss under Captain Fröhlich. Here also the light cavalry from Spaniards was defeated by heavy cavalry from the French, which should have supported the mercenaries in the center. Even so it looked bad for the mercenaries in the center, but the third group of Frenchmen, made up of gas cogners, came to the aid of the center and flanked the mercenaries. This was made possible because the third group of Habsburgs, consisting of Italians, had to hold back, as it was small and consisted of many riflemen who had to withdraw from French light cavalry; Nor was the Florentine cavalry able to defend itself against the French which accompanied the Italian band. The mercenaries in the center were already defeated when the first victorious right wing of the Habsburgs, who had made the fatal mistake of taking up the pursuit and not helping, came back to the battlefield, but could no longer turn the tide and was won over by everyone Pages attacked and eventually worn out.

The losses on the imperial side were enormous, about half of the army, 5000 of them dead.

particularities

The specifics of this battle seem to be determined by the firearm , both by what it did and what was expected of it but was not yet able to do it. In the earlier great battles of the Italian Wars , there was always a distinct attacker and a clearly marked defender. This was different in this battle, as both opponents sought the defensive in order to make use of the advantage of the artillery so that the enemy losses could be maximized from a distance and thereby their own were minimized. For the first time, the Habsburgs also placed archers with arquebuses and pistols in the second member of the pikemen who were supposed to shoot into the opposing group when they collided. This loosened the pile of mercenaries, as it needed gaps for the shooters, and thus reduced the force of the collision, which was a disadvantage. Despite this trick, the mercenaries did not defeat the Swiss mercenaries. You can see that the firearms had a certain influence on the battle, like the artillery, but still they could not ultimately make the decision.

consequences

Although the French troops won, the success was small. Although they were able to take Carignano , they were unable to do anything else, as Emperor Charles V was preparing directly for an invasion of France. Thus the French king had his troops withdrawn from Italy.

literature

• Hans Delbück: History of the Art of War. The Modern Age. Reprint of the first edition from 1920, Nikol Verlag, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-933203-76-7

Coordinates: 44 ° 48 ′ 0 ″  N , 7 ° 49 ′ 0 ″  E