Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

e struggles between the Italian city-states that
had proven a lucrative venture for so many
northern European knights in the 14th century
rumbled on. At the beginning of the 16th century
they had become the cockpit for the conflict
between the Hapsburg rulers of Spain, Burgundy and
the Holy Roman Empire and the Valois kings of
France. At Pavia these great superpowers fought
their final cataclysmic battle, one that would see
the end of the armoured horseman's dominance of
the battlefield.
By November 1524 the French army of Francois I
had invested the Hapsburg-held city of Pavia and,
after two failed assaults settled in to starve them out.
Hapsburg forces in the region made various attempts
to relieve pressure on the city but it was not until
January 1525 that fresh reinforcements, in the form
of 15,000 Landsknechte - German mercenary
footsoldiers - under the veteran commander Georg
Frundsberg allowed Charles de Lannoy, the general
in command of the Imperial forces, to renew the
offensive. After capturing the French outpost at
the Castel Sant'Angelo that lay between the two
armies, the Imperialists were able to close on Pavia
and prepare to attempt its relief.
The main part of the French besieging army was
encamped within the walled Visconti Park north of
the city with further forces closer to the city walls,
spread to the south, west and east. Lannoy's army
arrived to the east of the city, establishing artillery
batteries that enabled them to fire into the French
encampments. On 24 February Lannoy launched an
attack through a breach in the park wall with the aim
of raiding the Mirabello Castle, a fortified hunting
lodge that he believed to be the French headquarters,
and of getting supplies through to the city's
beleaguered garrison.
The attack started just before dawn in a thick mist,
and visibility for much of the battle was less than a
hundred yards. The raiding force and various elements
of the French army, alerted to some kind of enemy
activity, blundered into each other, and the battle
commenced as a series of disconnected and random
skirmishes. As the morning wore on, more and more
troops became embroiled and finally, at 7.30am,
Francois himself, fully armoured and leading 900
lances, about 4,500 heavily armoured horsemen,
entered the fray. They routed a force of Spanish
gendarmes, about two-thirds their number and more
lightly equipped than their French counterparts,
pursuing them towards woodland. The accompanying
Imperial infantry scattered for the trees and Francois
believed he had won the battle. However the infantry
now turned and their arquebusiers, using the cover of
the woods to protect them from any attempt to charge,
pinned the gendarmes in place whilst further
footsoldiers were brought up onto the cavalry's flank.
Francois and his knights found themselves trapped,
pinned against the woods and decimated by the
arquebusiers' fire. Unable to manoeuvre they were
slaughtered by the Spanish and German foot, honour
demanding that the gendarmes disdain to flee.
Frangois himself was dragged from his horse and only
the timely arrival of the Imperial commander Lannoy,
who pulled him from the melee and escorted him
from the field, prevented his being killed. As was
fitting, the king had been surrounded by a great
number of the French nobility, and many of these
were killed or captured; not since Agincourt had they
suffered so great a loss from amongst their ranks.