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Battle of Bicocca

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                       Battle of Bicocca
   Part of the Italian War of 1521
   Lombardy in 1522. The location of the battle is indicated.

     Date   April 27, 1522
   Location Bicocca, north of Milan, Italy
    Result  Decisive Imperial and Papal victory
                           Combatants
   France,
   Republic of Venice Holy Roman Empire,
                      Spain,
                      Papal States,
                      Duchy of Milan
                           Commanders
   Vicomte de Lautrec Prospero Colonna
                            Strength
   19,000–31,000+     7,000+
                           Casualties
   3,000+ killed      Light
   Italian War of 1521
   Pampeluna – Esquiroz – Mézières – Tournai – Bicocca – Genoa – Sesia –
   Marseille – Pavia
   Italian Wars
   First – Second – League of Cambrai – Urbino – 1521 – League of Cognac –
   1535 – 1542 – 1551

   The Battle of Bicocca, sometimes known as the Battle of La Bicocca, was
   fought on April 27, 1522, during the Italian War of 1521. A combined
   French and Venetian force under Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, was
   decisively defeated by an Imperial, Spanish, and Papal army under the
   overall command of Prospero Colonna. Lautrec then withdrew from
   Lombardy, leaving the Duchy of Milan in Imperial hands.

   Having been driven from Milan by an Imperial advance in late 1521,
   Lautrec had regrouped, attempting to strike at Colonna's lines of
   communication. When the Swiss mercenaries in French service did not
   receive their pay, however, they demanded an immediate battle, and
   Lautrec was forced to attack Colonna's fortified position in the park
   of Bicocca, north of Milan. The Swiss pikemen advanced over open fields
   under heavy artillery fire to assault the Imperial positions, but were
   halted at a sunken road backed by earthworks. Having suffered massive
   casualties from the fire of Spanish arquebusiers, the Swiss retreated.
   Meanwhile, an attempt by French cavalry to flank Colonna's position
   proved equally ineffective. The Swiss, unwilling to fight further,
   marched off to their cantons a few days later, and Lautrec retreated
   into Venetian territory with the remnants of his army.

   The battle is noted chiefly for marking the end of the Swiss dominance
   among the infantry of the Italian Wars, and of the Swiss method of
   assaults by massed columns of pikemen without support from other
   troops. It was simultaneously the first of a series of engagements
   which established the decisive role of firearms on the battlefield.

Prelude

   At the start of the war in 1521, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Pope
   Leo X moved jointly against the Duchy of Milan, the principal French
   possession in Lombardy. A large Papal force under the Marquis of
   Mantua, together with Spanish troops from Naples and some smaller
   Italian contingents, concentrated near Mantua. The German forces which
   Charles sent south to aid this venture passed through Venetian
   territory near Vallegio unmolested; the combined Papal, Spanish, and
   Imperial army then proceeded into French territory under the command of
   Prospero Colonna. For the next several months, Colonna fought an
   evasive war of maneuver against Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, the
   French commander, besieging cities but refusing to give battle.

   By the autumn of 1521, Lautrec, who was holding a line along the Adda
   River to Cremona, began to suffer massive losses from desertion,
   particularly among his Swiss mercenaries. Colonna took the opportunity
   this offered and, advancing close to the Alps, crossed the Adda at
   Vaprio; Lautrec, lacking infantry and assuming the year's campaign to
   be over, withdrew to Milan. Colonna had no intention of stopping his
   advance, however. On the night of November 23, he launched a surprise
   attack on the city, overwhelming the Venetian troops defending one of
   the walls. Following some abortive street-fighting, Lautrec withdrew to
   Cremona with about 12,000 men.

   By January, the French had lost Alessandria, Pavia, and Como; and
   Francesco II Sforza, bringing further German reinforcements, had
   slipped past a Venetian force at Bergamo to join Colonna in Milan.
   Lautrec had meanwhile been reinforced by the arrival of 16,000 fresh
   Swiss pikemen and some further Venetian forces, as well as additional
   companies of French troops under the command of Thomas de Foix-Lescun
   and Pedro Navarro; he had also secured the services of the condottiere
   Giovanni de' Medici, who brought his Black Bands into the French
   service. The French proceeded to attack Novara and Pavia, hoping to
   draw Colonna into a decisive battle. Colonna, leaving Milan, fortified
   himself in the monastery of Certosa south of the city. Considering this
   position to be too strong to be easily assaulted, Lautrec attempted
   instead to threaten Colonna's lines of communication by sweeping around
   Milan to Monza, cutting the roads from the city into the Alps.

   Lautrec was suddenly confronted, however, with the intransigence of the
   Swiss, who formed the largest contingent of the French army. They
   complained that they had not received any of the pay promised them
   since their arrival in Lombardy. The Swiss captains, led by Albert von
   Stein, demanded that Lautrec attack the Imperial army immediately—else
   the mercenaries would abandon the French and return to their cantons.
   Lautrec reluctantly acquiesced and marched south towards Milan.

Battle

   A diagram of the battle. Lautrec's movements are indicated in blue;
   Colonna's, in red.
   Enlarge
   A diagram of the battle. Lautrec's movements are indicated in blue;
   Colonna's, in red.

Dispositions

   Colonna had meanwhile relocated to a formidable new position: the manor
   park of Bicocca, about four miles north of Milan. The park was situated
   between a large expanse of marshy ground to the west and the main road
   into Milan to the east; along this road ran a deep wet ditch, which was
   crossed by a narrow stone bridge some distance south of the park. The
   north side of the park was bordered by a sunken road; Colonna deepened
   this and constructed an earthen rampart on the southern bank. The
   Imperial artillery, placed on several platforms jutting forward from
   the earthworks, was able to sweep the fields north of the park as well
   as parts of the sunken road itself. The entire length of the north side
   of the park was less than 600 yards, which permitted Colonna to place
   his troops quite densely. Immediately behind the rampart were four
   ranks of Spanish arquebusiers, commanded by Fernando d'Avalos, Marquess
   of Pescara; they were backed by Spanish pikemen and German landsknechts
   under Georg Frundsberg. Most of the Imperial cavalry was placed at the
   south end of the park, far behind the infantry; a separate force of
   cavalry was positioned to the south, guarding the bridge.

   On the evening of April 26, Lautrec sent a force of about 400 cavalry
   under the Sieur de Pontdormy to reconnoiter the Imperial positions. The
   patrol reported that the ground was cut by irrigation ditches and
   ill-suited for maneuvering, but this failed to dissuade the Swiss.
   Colonna, having observed the French presence, sent messengers to Milan
   to request reinforcements; Francesco Sforza arrived the next morning
   with 6,400 additional troops, joining the cavalry near the bridge to
   the south of Colonna's camp.

   At dawn on April 27, Lautrec began his attack. The Black Bands brushed
   aside the Spanish pickets, clearing the ground before the Imperial
   positions. The French advance was headed by two columns of Swiss, each
   comprised of about 4,000 to 7,000 men, accompanied by some artillery;
   this party was to assault the entrenched front of the Imperial camp
   directly. Lescun, meanwhile, led a body of cavalry south along the
   Milan road, intending to flank the camp and strike at the bridge to the
   rear. The remainder of the French army, including the French infantry,
   the bulk of the heavy cavalry, and the remnants of the Swiss, formed up
   in a broad line some distance behind the two Swiss columns; behind this
   was a third line, composed of the Venetian forces under Francesco Maria
   della Rovere, the Duke of Urbino.

The Swiss attack

   The overall command of the Swiss assault was given to Anne de
   Montmorency. As the Swiss columns advanced towards the park, he ordered
   them to pause and wait for the French artillery to bombard the Imperial
   defences, but the Swiss refused to obey. Perhaps the Swiss captains
   doubted that the artillery would have any effect on the earthworks;
   historian Charles Oman suggests that it is more likely they were
   "inspired by blind pugnacity and self-confidence". In any case, the
   Swiss moved rapidly towards Colonna's position, leaving the artillery
   behind. There was apparently some rivalry between the two columns, as
   one, commanded by Arnold Winkelried of Unterwalden, was composed of men
   from the rural cantons, while the other, under Albert von Stein,
   consisted of the contingents from Bern and the urban cantons. The
   advancing Swiss quickly came into range of the Imperial artillery.
   Unable to take cover on the level fields, they began to take
   substantial casualties; as many as a thousand Swiss may have been
   killed by the time the columns reached the Imperial lines.
   Anne de Montmorency, painted by Jean Clouet (c. 1530). Montmorency
   commanded the Swiss assault, and was the only survivor among the French
   nobles who accompanied it.
   Enlarge
   Anne de Montmorency, painted by Jean Clouet (c. 1530). Montmorency
   commanded the Swiss assault, and was the only survivor among the French
   nobles who accompanied it.

   The Swiss came to a sudden halt as the columns reached the sunken road
   in front of the park; the depth of the road and the height of the
   rampart behind it—together higher than the length of the Swiss
   pikes—effectively blocked their advance. Moving down into the road, the
   Swiss suffered massive casualties from the fire of d'Avalos's
   arquebusiers. Nevertheless, the Swiss made a series of desperate
   attempts to breach the Imperial line. Some parties managed to reach the
   top of the rampart, only to be met by the landsknechts, who had come up
   from behind the arquebusiers. One of the Swiss captains was apparently
   killed by Frundsberg in single combat; and the Swiss, unable to form up
   atop the earthworks, were pushed back down into the sunken road. After
   attempting to move forward for about half an hour, the remnants of the
   Swiss columns retreated back towards the main French line. In the
   fields which they had crossed and before the rampart, they left more
   than 3,000 dead; among these were twenty-two captains, including both
   Winkelried and Albert von Stein. Of the French nobles who had
   accompanied the Swiss assault, only Montmorency survived.

Denouement

   Lescun, with about 400 heavy cavalry under his command, had meanwhile
   reached the bridge south of the park and fought his way across it and
   into the Imperial camp beyond. Colonna responded by detaching some
   cavalry under Antonio de Leyva to halt the French advance, while
   Francesco Sforza came up the road towards the bridge, aiming to
   surround Lescun. Pontdormy held off the Milanese, allowing Lescun to
   extricate himself from the camp; the French cavalry then retraced its
   path and rejoined the main body of the army.

   Despite the urging of d'Avalos and several other Imperial commanders,
   Colonna refused to order a general attack on the French, pointing out
   that much of Lautrec's army—including the bulk of his cavalry—was still
   intact. Colonna suggested that the French were already beaten, and
   would soon withdraw; this assessment was shared by Frundsberg.
   Nevertheless, some small groups of Spanish arquebusiers and light
   cavalry attempted to pursue the withdrawing Swiss, only to be beaten
   back by the Black Bands, which were covering the removal of the French
   artillery from the field.

   Colonna's judgement proved to be accurate. The Swiss were unwilling to
   make another assault, and marched for home on April 30. Lautrec,
   believing that his resulting weakness in infantry made a further
   campaign impossible, retreated to the east, crossing the Adda into
   Venetian territory at Trezzo. Having reached Cremona, Lautrec left
   Lescun in command of the remnants of the French army and rode
   unescorted to Lyon, to make his report to Francis I.

Aftermath

   Lautrec's departure heralded a complete collapse of the French position
   in northern Italy. No longer menaced by the French army, Colonna and
   d'Avalos marched on Genoa, capturing it after a brief siege. Lescun,
   learning of the loss of Genoa, arranged an agreement with Francesco
   Sforza by which the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, which still remained
   in French hands, surrendered, and the remainder of the French forces
   withdrew over the Alps. The Venetians, under the newly elected Doge
   Andrea Gritti, were no longer interested in continuing the war; in July
   1523, Gritti concluded the Treaty of Worms with Charles V, removing the
   Republic from the fighting. The French would make two further attempts
   to regain Lombardy before the end of the war, but neither would be
   successful; the terms of the Treaty of Madrid, which Francis was forced
   to sign after his defeat at the Battle of Pavia, would leave Italy in
   Imperial hands.

   Another effect of the battle was the changed attitude of the Swiss.
   Francesco Guicciardini wrote of the aftermath of Bicocca:

     They went back to their mountains diminished in numbers, but much
     more diminished in audacity; for it is certain that the losses which
     they suffered at Bicocca so affected them that in the coming years
     they no longer displayed their wonted vigour.

   While Swiss mercenaries would continue to take part in the Italian
   Wars, they no longer possessed the willingness to make headlong attacks
   that they had at Novara in 1513 or Marignano in 1515; their performance
   at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 would surprise observers by its lack of
   initiative.

   More generally, the battle made apparent the decisive role of small
   arms on the battlefield. Although the full capabilites of the arquebus
   would not be demonstrated until the Battle of the Sesia (where
   arquebusiers would prevail against heavy cavalry on open ground) two
   years later, the weapon nevertheless became a sine qua non for any army
   which did not wish to grant a massive advantage to its opponents. While
   the pikeman would continue to play a vital role in warfare, it would be
   equal to that of the arquebusier; together, the two types of infantry
   would be combined into the so-called " pike and shot" units that would
   endure until the development of the bayonet at the end of the
   seventeenth century. The offensive doctrine of the Swiss—a "push of
   pike" unsupported by firearms—had become obsolete. Indeed, offensive
   doctrines in general were increasingly replaced with defensive ones;
   the combination of the arquebus and effective field fortification had
   made frontal assaults on entrenched positions too costly to be
   practical, and they were not attempted again for the duration of the
   Italian Wars.
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