The Battle of Ceresole
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Italy was not always as we know it; in fact, the process of unification was only completed in 1870.
Lots of turmoil happened before that. Take, for example, the Italian War of 1542-1546, successor to the Italian War of 1536-1538. When Francesco II Sforza, the duke of Milan, died without issue in 1535, the Holy Roman Emperor (and King of Spain) Charles V, uncle of Francesco's wife, took over the Duchy. Francis I of France invaded Italy the following year, but failed to take Milan; in retaliation, Charles invaded France. But caught between French troops in France and those in Italy, Charles was forced to the bargaining table in Nice (pronounced "neece," the name of a city in France).
But the Truce of Nice seemed doomed to fail from the start: the two royals hated each other so much that they wouldn't sit in the same room; Pope Paul III had to conduct negotiations by going back and forth from room to room. And indeed, it did fail, four years later.
The French were allied with the Ottoman Turks; Charles had made an alliance with Henry VIII of England. In 1542, Francis again declared war on Charles, his perpetual enemy. Fighting took place in the Netherlands and Belgium as well as France and Italy.
One of the bloodiest battles of this war was at Ceresole in northern Italy. On April 11, 1544, the French Army faced and defeated a combined force from the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, but still failed to take Milan. Few battles late in the Italian Wars were as fierce: military historians remember it chiefly for the "great slaughter" that occurred when infantrymen with guns and pikes met in the center of the field. An estimated 28% of the men involved were listed as casualties, an unusually high amount for the time.
Despite the high casualty rate, the battle proved to be of little lasting significance. Other aspects of the war continued for another two years. By September 1545 it was at a stalemate; diplomacy failed as the three parties--Henry, Francis, and Charles--still did not trust each other. A treaty was signed at Ardres in June of 1546. Henry retained a small portion of northern France, but the territories of northern Italy returned to the status quo.