Battle of Ravenna (1512)
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| War of the League of Cambrai |
|---|
| Agnadello – Padua – Brescia – Ravenna – St. Mathieu – Novara – Guinegate – Flodden Field – La Motta – Marignano |
| Italian Wars |
|---|
| First – Second – League of Cambrai – 1521 – League of Cognac – 1535 – 1542 – Habsburg-Valois |
The Battle of Ravenna, fought on April 11, 1512, by forces of the Holy League and France, was a major battle of the War of the League of Cambrai in the Italian Wars. It was an overwhelming victory for the French; however, it was unsuccessful in helping them secure northern Italy, since they would be forced to withdraw from the region entirely by August 1512.
Prelude
Beginning in February 1512, the French forces in Italy, newly commanded by Gaston de Foix, Duc de Nemours, had been engaged in capturing cities in the Romagna and the Veneto, in an attempt to deny control of those regions to the forces of the Holy League. Although he had been successful in a number of sieges, Nemours was aware that the impending invasion of France by Henry VIII of England would cause much of his army to be withdrawn, and he was determined to force the main army of the Holy League into battle before that occurred. Thus, in late March, Nemours, together with an Italian contingent under the Duke of Ferrara, marched east from Bologna and laid siege to the city of Ravenna, which was defended by Papal troops.
Julius II, alarmed at the prospect of losing his last stronghold in the Romagna, demanded that an army be sent to relieve the city; Ramon de Cardona had to comply, and the Spanish army set out for Ravenna with a company of Papal troops in tow. By April 9, they had passed Forli, and were advancing north along the Ronco River towards the city, and on the next day had reached Molinaccio, only a mile south of the French positions, but still separated from them by the Ronco. Nemours, short on supplies and increasingly anxious to give battle before he was forced to withdraw from Italy, ordered a general attack for the following day.
Battle
In the early morning of April 11, the French troops began to cross the Ronco north of the Spanish camp. The main body immediately came under heavy fire from Spanish artillery, taking casualties, and Nemours was forced to bring up his own artillery. Although the two armies had soon fallen into positions facing one another, the bombardment continued over the course of the next three hours, causing considerable casualties to both sides. The Duke of Ferrara, meanwhile, had moved around the southern flank of the Spanish positions and began to enfilade the Spanish with some two dozen of his own cannon. Pedro Navarro, Count of Oliveto, the commander of the Spanish infantry, ordered his men to lie prone to avoid the worst of the gunfire; the Spanish cavalry, however, had no such option, and was finally forced to leave its positions and attack the French line.
The target of the Spanish attack was the main French cavalry formation, which stood closest to the river, at the end of the French line. The first attack was made by the Spanish rearguard, and was so disorganized that it disintegrated prior to reaching the French. Soon afterwards, the main body of Spanish heavy cavalry, supported by the light cavalry under the Marquis of Pescara, engaged the French cavalry under de Foix. This quickly became a general cavalry melee as further reinforcements arrived to both forces. The Spanish vanguard, under Fabrizio Colonna, attempted to flank the French, but was engaged and destroyed by Jacques de la Palice, who then joined the main cavalry fight. At this point, much of the remaining Spanish cavalry broke and fled back into the camp, from which they retreated south towards Forli, accompanied by de Cardona, who had avoided taking part in the fighting.
The Spanish infantry, meanwhile, had remained inside their entrenchements in their camp, Navarro having refused to follow Colonna out. Here they became the target of an advance by the French infantry, comprised mainly of landsknechts and Gascon archers. Navarro split his forces, sending part of them, together with the Papal infantry, along the embankment of the Ronco, where they successfully broke the Gascon line, and were making considerable headway before being forced to retreat by the arrival of some French cavalry. The main body of Spanish infantry engaged the landsknechts, with the Spanish swordsmen moving under their pikes and causing considerable carnage. Colonna, who had returned from the cavalry battle, attacked the rear of the French formation with what remained of his cavarly, and the pikemen began to break and retreat from the camp.
At this point, the French cavalry attacked the Spanish from all directions. The Spanish infantry broke under the assault; and while several thousand managed to reach the riverbank and retreat along it, the majority were killed, and both Colonna and Navarro were taken prisoner. Gaston de Foix, meanwhile, had been informed of the Gascon retreat and had ridden north with a small cavalry detachement. On the embankment, he encountered a company of Spanish infantry trying to retreat, and was killed in the ensuing melee.
Aftermath
Following the death of Nemours, command of the French army fell to La Palice, who had little interest in pursuing the retreating Spanish forces, preferring instead to return to the siege of Ravenna. The city soon fell, and the French proceeded to thouroughly sack it. However, much of the French army was withdrawn to France following the battle, and La Palice was forced to extricate himself from Italy in August by renewed efforts on the part of the Holy League.
The Spanish forces in Italy were almost entirely destroyed at Ravenna, but Cardona would raise another army and appear in Lombardy in 1513. In the meantime, both Navarro and Colonna would see combat, Colonna in command of an Italian army and Navarro in the service of Francis I of France.
References
- Baumgartner, Frederic J. Louis XII. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994. ISBN 0312120729.
- Black, Jeremy. "Dynasty Forged by Fire." MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History 18, no. 3 (Spring 2006): 34–43. ISSN [1040-5992].
- Guicciardini, Francesco. The History of Italy. Translated by Sydney Alexander. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984. ISBN 0691008000.
- Norwich, John Julius. A History of Venice. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. ISBN 0679721975.
- Phillips, Charles and Alan Axelrod. Encyclopedia of Wars. Volume 2. New York: Facts on File, 2005. ISBN 0816028516.
- Taylor, Frederick Lewis. The Art of War in Italy, 1494–1529. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1973. ISBN 0837150256.
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