On the afternoon of Thursday, September 13, the French sentries, entering Lombardy after crossing the Col de l'Argentière, saw a cloud of dust rising in the distance:the Swiss troops were on the march, they were attacking! The battle of Marignan is about to begin:everything has been done, however, to avoid it.
Less than a week ago, in fact, an agreement was reached. Against 150,000 ecus paid in cash, the Swiss have agreed to return home.
The inevitable Swiss
To raise such a sum as quickly as possible, the French emptied their pocket funds, going so far as to deliver the precious gold and silver tableware that the richest sent with them. We are going to deliver 400 kg of gold to the Swiss... But we have forgotten the relentlessness of the fiery Cardinal of Sion, Mathias Schiner, who lectures the Swiss garrison in Milan:this agreement is a trap that is ruining Swiss expansion projects in Italy. He easily convinces, because two centuries of struggles against Habsburg domination have hardened the men:they have forged a military tradition reinforced, since the middle of the 15th century, by compulsory military service.
Italy in the 16th century
Along with the Netherlands, Italy was the most developed and most populated country in Europe in the sixteenth century. But it is a country divided into twenty small states. Only five have real weight:Naples, Milan, Florence, Venice and the Papal States.
Their rivalries encouraged the great powers of the moment to intervene, in the hope of fruitful conquests:thus the Holy Empire, theoretical master of the north of the peninsula, Spain, which had already taken a foothold in the kingdom of Naples, or the France, whose royal family has ties to Italian princes. The Swiss are present where they are called, because of a long tradition of mercenary activity:in 1515, they are in the service of the Duke of Milan and their leaders also begin to harbor imperialist designs on the country.
François I, new Hannibal
But the French king is a remarkable man. Only twenty years old, he has presence and ardor to spare. His accession to the throne (he is the nephew and not the son of the late Louis XII) caused some murmurs. To silence them, he needs brilliant actions. Also, François 1er, barely crowned, takes up the old claims of the French royal family on Milan. He instructs a Spanish defector to recruit an army, which soon line up, surrounded by French nobles, Gascon and Navarrese adventurers, German infantrymen (lansquenets) and adventurers (the "black band") from the Netherlands. To reunite them, the king increases taxes and takes out loans, because he has to pay dearly for the neutrality of the ambitious Henry VIII of England. Finally, he crossed the Alps by the most difficult route, to thwart the surveillance of the troops of the Pope, an ally of Milan. The heavy guns are hoisted with winches to pass the passes by goat paths, near Montgenèvre:the feat is considered worthy of that of the Carthaginian elephants of Hannibal.
A "battle of giants"
In the early hours, the French fell back under the assault. It is necessary to charge to restore the situation:The king himself is in the fray, so actively that the leather which protects him (he has not had time to put on his armor) is torn by a blow of a pike. The "knight without fear and without reproach", Bayard, famous for the courage he had shown in previous battles in Italy, distinguished himself again, inveighing against his enemies:"Accursed traitors and villains, return to your mountains to eat cheese ! His horse is killed under him. He gets back in the saddle immediately; the bridles severed, his second mount races and drags him towards the Swiss ranks. But he escapes in time and returns to his camp on all fours...
As the sun sets, despite such acts of bravery and the hundreds of corpses strewn on the ground, the fight remains uncertain. All night long, on both sides, they remain armed, on the alert. In the early morning, the fight resumes, even more fiercely. The Frenchman Galiot de Genouillac had his guns fired non-stop:it was carnage! Decimated, the Swiss retreat. But, soon, they counter-attack. They are still being pushed back, but for how long? Suddenly, a cry rang out “Marco! Mark! ". They are the Venetians.
A decisive battle
For the Swiss, this traumatic defeat put an end to any expansionist aim. The following November 29, they signed a treaty of “Perpetual Peace” with France, a prelude to neutrality which, while lasting, would make the most military nation on the continent a model of pacifism.
Francis I, on the other hand, quickly forgot that the artillery had just given a brilliant demonstration of its henceforth decisive role. It cost him dearly, ten years later, in Pavia. Against the tide, in Marignan, on the evening of the battle, he reconnected with medieval traditions and had the most valiant gentlemen in combat armed as knights. He counts himself in the number and chooses to dub him the nobliau of low extraction that is Bayard. It is a spectacular tribute to the merits of a hero. It is above all a reward for the lesser nobility who, better than the great, know how to devote themselves blindly to the royal cause.
The Italian Wars
1494 Charles VIII. Claiming the kingdom of Naples, where his ancestors once reigned, he crossed the peninsula and conquered Naples with disconcerting ease. But, 3 months later, he had to retreat.
1495 Battle of Fomoue. It takes a heroic charge from the French cavalry to force the passage. A young man stands out:Pierre Terrail de Bayard.
1498 Louis XII. He conquers the Milanese, where he settles firmly. He agrees with Ferdinand of Aragon to seize the kingdom of Naples - which he only retains for a short time.
1512 Battle of Ravenna. Remarkable man of war, Gaston de Foix, aged 22, died there. Despite Bayard's exploits, the French had to evacuate northern Italy.
1515 Francis I. After the dazzling They come to swell the ranks of the French. Thus, on September 14, around noon, François I won the victory. There are 13,000 dead among the Swiss, 2,000 on the French side:an army then has, at most, 30,000 men... victory of Marignan, he reoccupies the Milanese.
1521 Charles V opens hostilities. Lacking the support of Henry VIII (failure of the interview at the Camp du Cloth d'or), the French were driven out of the Milanese. Bayard then perished (1524).
1525 Battle of Pavia. Defeat of François I, who came to the rescue. Held prisoner in Madrid, he must pay a ransom and abandon Flanders and Artois to Charles V.
1536 Another resumption of combat. In a conflict now made up of raids and skirmishes more than pitched battles, the Gascon Blaise de Monluc distinguished himself, in particular, during the siege of Siena (1554).
1559 Italian Wars end. Henri II, as financially exhausted as Charles V, signs the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis which sounds the death knell for French ambitions.
Firearms
Thanks to the adoption of a Chinese invention, gunpowder, firearms appeared during the Hundred Years War (Battle of Crécy, 1346). They experienced a spectacular boom in the 16th century.
There is the arquebus, ancestor of the rifle. It is heavy and slow to handle. There are above all the guns, "guns", in bronze, more deadly but even heavier.
Along with these new weapons come a shift in battlefield priorities – infantry now trumps cavalry and strategy over individual acts of bravery. More than ever, because these weapons are expensive, money is the sinews of war