The Battle of Marignano, in the phase of the Italian Wars (1494–1559) that is called the "War of the Holy League", was a victory for French forces that took place on 13 and 14 September, 1515, at a location, today called Melegnano, 16 km south east of Milan.

On one side were the French forces of Francis I and some German landsknechts—and, eventually, his Venetian allies—and on the other the mercenaries of the Swiss Confederation, since 1512 in control of Milan, where the nominal Sforza duke, Massimiliano—son of Lodovico il Moro, whom the French had previously defeated for possession of Milan—was under Swiss control. The bloody battle of Marignano was fought to retake control of the duchy of Milan, the French gate to Italy.

The prologue to the battle was a remarkable Alpine passage, in which François hauled pieces of artillery (including 40 or 70 huge cannon) over new-made roads over the Col d'Argentière , an unexpected route. At Villafranca the French surprised and seized Prospero Colonna and most of the Swiss cavalry. The Swiss retreated to Milan, where French gold sent some cantons' contingents of disciplined pikemen home.

After a delay of some time, the Swiss marched out to meet Francis' forces at the little burnt-out village at a bridgehead over a small river. The battle lasted more than 24 hours, a brutal and bloody engagement quite unlike the courteous feinting of the condottieri of the previous century. In the moonlight and confusion, the outcome hung in the balance. Only the early-morning arrival of fresh light cavalry commanded by the condottiere Bartolomeo d'Alviano, paid by the Venetian allies who had drawn Francis into Italy in the first place turned the tide against the Swiss. The previous day had seen a scandalous public auction of official places in Venice, described by the diarist Marcantonio Mihiel: "By the end of the day 47,000 ducats had been raised, though with the greatest shame and disrepute for the Great Council." Dispatch riders placed the sum in the hands of the condottiere overnight [1].

By the peace of Noyon (1516), Milan was returned to France. The Franco-Swiss treaty of peace after Marignano has never been broken.

Marignano established the superiority of French cast bronze artillery and cavalry over the until-then invincible phalanx tactics of Swiss infantry. The victory of Francis at Marignano, however, eventually galvanized opposition in the divided peninsula, and turned the European balance of power against him. In the meantime, however, Francis gained the city, and more importantly, the Castello Sforzesco within it, the strategic key to control of Lombardy. There Massimiliano Sforza and his Swiss mercenaries and the cardinal-bishop of Sion retreated, only submitting when French sappers had placed mines under the foundations. The French regained Milan, and Massimiliano went into luxurious exile with a French purse of 30,000 ducats [2].

A bas-relief of the battle of Marignano by Pierre Bontemps decorates Francis I's tomb at Saint-Denis, and a painting by Antoine Caron for Fontainebleau (now at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa) commemorated the event.

External links

• Eric Niderost, "The Swiss defeat at the battle of Marignano: Ancient tactics tested"
• War of the Holy League
• La Battaglia dei Giganti (in Italian)
• W. McAllister Johnson, "The Monumental Style of Fontainebleau and its Consequences: Antoine Caron and 'The Submission of Milan'" from National Gallery of Canada Bulletin 26 (1975)