Prelude:
April 1509, a French army under the command of Louis XII invaded Venetian territory. To oppose the advance, Venice amassed a mercenary army near Bergamo, commanded by the Orsini cousins.
By May, Louis had crossed the Adda River at ther Orsini cousins (Alviano and Pitigliano) disagreed on how to deal with Louis. They decided to move south, despite Alviano's will to attack the French troops.
Battle:
On 14 May, as the Venetian army moved south, Alviano's rearguard, commanded by Piero del Monte and Saccoccio da Spoleto, was attacked by a French detachment under the Charles II d'Amboise, who had massed his troops around the village of Agnadello.
Alviano, who was at Pandino, hurried back to position his forces of ~8,000 on a ridge overlooking some vineyards.
Charles II (Govenor of Milan) attempted to attack, first with cavalry and then with Swiss pikemen, but the French were forced to march up a hillside crossed with irrigation ditches, which were soon filled with mud from the pouring rain, they were unable to initially breach the Venetian lines.
Pitigliano refused to come to the aid of the advance guard, effectively dooming Alviano's men. The Venetian levies suffered heavy losses during the battle, and Alviano's own infantry unit, from Brisighella, was almost annihilated. The advance guard was eventually defeated and Alviano himself was captured.
Pitigliano managed to retreat with the main body of men at arms, but most of the rest of the army broke and fled. The French captured 36 guns, a sign of the size of their victory.
Aftermath:
In the aftermath of this defeat the Republic rapidly withdrew from Bergamo, Brescia, Crema and Cremona, all of which were taken by the French. They evacuated their possessions in the Romagna, which were taken over by the Pope.
During the resulting War of the Holy League (1510-1514) the Venetians were able to regain many of their losses of 1509, although the Republic never quite regained the position of power it had held before the battle.
Links: N/A
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agnadello
- http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_agnadello.html
and did it change it all from then until his death?
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