The Great Italian Wars, Battle of Marignano 1515 - Furioso.

The Battle of Marignano 13th-14th September 1515 - Milek Jacubiec.

 

Introduction: 

The Battle of Marignano (modern Melegnano) was fought on 13th -14th September 1515, 10 miles southeast of Milan. The battle between King Francis I of France and the Swiss Confederacy, had a long-lasting effect because Switzerland became neutral and has remained so ever since; individual Switzer’s would continue to serve as mercenaries however. This battle was during France’s third campaign to capture Milan; but why were the French always trying to do so?

Why the French Claimed Milan: 

The repeated French campaigns to capture Milan do not make much sense until we address France’s claim. In the late medieval-era the Kingdom of Lombardy, was ruled jointly by two brothers, Bernabo Visconti in Milan and his younger brother Galeazzo in Pavia. King Jean II of France was captured at the Battle of Poitier in 1356, and the English demanded two million crowns in ransom. Galeazzo Visconti offered six hundred thousand crowns towards the ransom, in exchange for Jean’s daughter, Princess Isabella de Valois, marrying his son Gian.

Isabella of Valois (1348–1372), c14th century - unknown French artist

When Galeazzo died, his heir Gian poisoned Bernado, moved to Milan and became the sole ruler. Bernabo’s grand-daughter Valentina, was married to King Jean’s grandson, later Charles V. This did

not go down well in Paris as this undermined the Charles/Valentina's line in inheriting Lombardy and

Milan. When Isabella de Valois died (naturally) Gian married his uncle Bernabo’s daughter (and his

cousin) Caterina Visconti; this further undermined France’s claim because daughter Caterina’s issue

had preference over grand-daughter Valentina's issue. Isabella Visconti (nee de Valois) had one

surviving daughter, who married into the French royal house of Orlean and Catarina Visconti (nee

Visconti) had two sons.

On Gian’s death Caterina’s first son Gian-Mari became Duke but he was very unpopular and soon

assassinated, so his younger brother Filipo-Mari became Duke. Filipo-Mari died unexpectedly

(something he ate?), leaving only an illegitimate daughter Bianca-Maria who was married to Milan’s

military-captain, the Condotieri Francesco Sforza.

Francesco Sforza and Bianca-Maria Visconti.

In the succession struggle that followed, Bianca-Maria and Francesco Sforza came out on top; Francesco Sforza becoming The Duke of Milan. The French royalty saw their claim to Milan as way superior to that of an illegitimate daughter, married to a soldier of fortune. These dynastic machinations were the basis of the de Valois’s claim to Milan and exemplifies the difference between renaissance Italy and the rest of Europe. In Italy somebody with the drive, talent and ambition could rise-up in society regardless of their background; elsewhere your ancestors were the deciding factor. 

The Third French Campaign to capture Milan: 

In the DWG post of 18th January 2025 about the Battle of Cerignola, link below, the history of the first two French campaigns in Italy is covered; there were four campaigns in all.

Devon Wargames Group - The Great Italian Wars, Battle of Cerignola

When King Louise XII (1462-1515 of the second campaign) died without a male heir (his daughters were precluded by Salic Law), his cousin Francis (1494-1547) became The King of France. At his coronation, Francis had The Dukedom of Milan included as one of his titles. Immediately after his coronation the 20 year old Francis, began planning a military campaign in Italy. Francis’s great rival was the Hapsburg Emperor Charles V and Francis wanted to strike in Italy before Charles and his allies could strike in France. The previous two campaigns had not yielded much for France and there was now an, albeit rather shaky, anti-French coalition composed of The Papacy, Milan, Venice, Hapsburg Spain & Austria and England, but the members often fell-out with each other too.

Francis I painted in 1515 - Jean Clouet.

The Campaign: 

The Italian army, under the direction of Pope Leo X (member of the powerful Florentine ruling and banking family, the Medici’s) deployed to defend the expected Alpine passes the French would use. As Venice had allied itself to France, more troops were deployed on the eastern boarder of the Duchy and Spanish troops were marching northwards from Naples too. 

Francis audaciously crossed the Alps by a previously unknown pass, the Col d’Argentiere; his descent into Piedmont was totally unexpected and threatened to out-flank the Papal forces. A daring French cavalry raid captured the defender’s commander, the Spaniard Prospero Colonna, 600 horses and much loot; the now leaderless Spanish army halted. The Papal army began to fall back towards Milan so as not to be cut off. But crossing of the Alps had been exhausting for the French too, as new roads had been built for the French artillery train; Francis preferred to negotiate.

In all of this, nobody had given much thought to the Swiss mercenaries that made up much of the Papal army. The Milanese nobility thought the Sforza’s usurpers, and the commoners thought them tyrants; the Sforza’s relied so heavily on the Swiss that Milan was as good as a protectorate of The Swiss Confederacy. Fearing that the population of Milan might welcome Francis and they would be cut off from home, the Swiss mercenary troops hurriedly marched back towards Milan and Francis met them near Marignano. 

Portrait of Mathieu Schiner (c.1465-1522) - Unknown author.

Francis parled, and the Swiss initially agreed to him becoming The Duke of Milan, in return for their wages and a promise of safe-passage to Switzerland; but the representative of the Swiss Confederation, Cardinal Matthaus Schiner a firm ally of the pope, persuaded the Swiss otherwise. It was close to sunset on the 13th of September 1515, when news reached Francis that the Swiss were deploying for battle.

The Battle: 

The Swiss formed up in their usual three pike block formation with a forlorn-hope of halberdiers; the forlorn-hope advanced rapidly to seize the enemy artillery. Even though the French had been caught by surprise, the attack was only partly successful, as the French had carriage mounted guns, not fixed bombards. Soon French formations were joining the fray, including their Landsknecht pikemen. The Swiss loathed Landsknechts and visa versa, as usual in these cases, both forces flew at each other. 

The French cavalry had driven off the Swiss forlorn-hope and recaptured the guns, but the Swiss pikemen were pushing forward. Francis and the cream of France’s chivalry charged the Swiss head-on or in the flanks. As the daylight faded both sides were caught in a deadly game of push, shove, fall back, regroup, charge again. By 10pm it was too dark to tell friend from foe and the fighting died down but neither side would yield the field; Francis slept in his armour under a gun carriage.

A contemporary painting of Franco-Venetian forces driving back Swiss mercenaries and German Landsknechts at the Battle of Marignano, 1515 - Attributed to Maître à la Ratière.

The next morning the battle was rejoined as soon as it was light, but now the French artillery was ready and, as the Swiss advanced, swaths of men were cut down. Still the Swiss closed rank and pushed forward, leading to more desperate fighting. 

Eventually, news arrived that the Venetians were near and realising that the battle was lost, the Swiss withdrew in good order. The carnage had been terrible, 14,000 Swiss, innumerable Landsknechts, alongside French cavalry and foot too. Many noble French gendarmes had been killed and others wounded multiple times. Francis knew his army was near-beat so he ordered them not to pursue as the remaining Swiss marched out of Milan and back towards home. 

Massimiliano Sforza, circa 1496-1499 - Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis.

In 1516 the French and Swiss signed an agreement of perpetual peace that has, more or less, continued to this day. Francis now boasted that he was more successful than both Hannibal and Caesar combined, for crossing the Alps and for vanquishing the Swiss (Helvetti). 

Maximilian Sforza (above) surrendered Milan to Francis a few days after the battle and went into comfortable imprisonment in France. But the Sforza’s, with the help of the Hapsburg Emperor Charles V, would get Milan back in 1521 and Francis would have to fight for it all over again in 1525.

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How the game played: 

We used the Alternative Army rules set called Furioso, which is specifically written for this period and has the right feel. The set up was my interpretation of the historical start to the battle, with units joining in gradually as the hours progressed. The forces and their characteristics are based on the army lists provided in the rule book.

The orders of battle:

French - three leaders, two light guns, two field guns, four units of landsknechts and one French pike block (8 bases per unit), two units of Gendarmes and two of Archers (four bases per unit. Four leaders were provided for the French and they were invited to choose two as the third one must be King Francis himself. Leaders can be rash or cautious – there are no cautious leaders in this battle – and add to unit activation and combat. Apart from Francis, who was designated rash, the French chose Charles of Bourbon and a Landsknecht commander, both bold.

Swiss - three leaders, one vanguard pike block of 12 bases, one centre block of 16 base, one rearguard of 12 bases and three units of Halberdiers 4 baes each. Five leaders were provided for the Swiss, one per pike block, but they must be assigned blindly to each pike block, representing their electoral leadership system. Like the French, Swiss leaders can be rash or cautious – there are no cautious leaders in this battle – and add to unit activation of combat. The Swiss deployed two bold commanders for their vanguard and rearguard and a rash general for their main pike block.

The French start with just their guns on the table. The Swiss attack with their three pike blocks in echelon starting with their vanguard pike block deployed on the left flank and their three units of halberdiers on the table. As the game progressed the French could bring on two units per turn and the Swiss one pike block. The stream that intersects the table counts as an obstacle that units must halt at before crossing.

Initially some good shooting by the French artillery delayed the left flank halberdier attack and then the vanguard pikes though some poor initiative dice; it was all their commander could do to keep them moving forward. In the same move French landsknechts were marching onto the field opposite the Swiss vanguard. But the Swiss main block and rearguard troops had no such hesitation as they deployed onto the field and seeing yet more landsknechts, their traditional enemy, they were soon advancing impetuously towards them. 

Now the Swiss vanguard seemed to find its spirit and began to advance more resolutely with its halberdiers charging a French artillery battery. The French tried to hitch up and evade the charging Swiss but to no avail were caught in hand-to-hand fighting. The French artillery men were made of stern stuff and just about managed to defend their guns long enough for Landsknechts to reach their positions.

The main Swiss pike block and halberdiers, urged on by their rash leader, charged into the nearest facing landsknechts and a terrible melee began. In these rules, traditional enemies fight two rounds of melee in each activation, to represent the furious nature of their combats. The Landsknechts suffered badly from these types of attack, not just from Swiss 'furiousity' but some uncanny good dice throwing by the Swiss players too! As the battle progressed the Swiss slowly but inexorably got the upper hand.

As the sun fell below the horizon the French gendarmes arrived and launched their first charge of the game driving off the right flank Swiss halberdiers. But now it was dark and the game came to a temporary halt (lunch break to you and I).

Overnight both sides had drawn-off their positions and half of the casualties’ incurred on the first day were returned to their armies. The Swiss, pleased with the previous day’s action and confident of the morrow, formed up at the stream intersecting the battlefield consolidating all their troops into three pike blocks. 

The French had completely reorganised their deployment with massed artillery and all their pike men into a battle line, even though some of the landsknecht units were a bit depleted in numbers. The French cavalry was deployed off-table on both flanks waiting for the Swiss to advance. If the artillery could cut down enough Swiss and the landsknechts hold the line the cavalry could attack the Swiss flanks; in the early morning sun battle recommenced.

The Swiss needed no second bidding and soon all three pike blocks were impetuously advancing towards the French. The Landsknechts advanced enough to keep the Swiss off the artillery and as the Swiss charged the landsknechts for yet more terrible slaughter, one of the smaller landsknecht blocks crumbled under the onslaught. But the centre Swiss pike block was just about held as it seemed overnight the Swiss dice rolling had returned to average and a small improvement in the French too.

The flanking Gendarmes charged the exposed Swiss pike block sides, but the sheer size of the pike block absorbed the impact of Francis and his nobility, who bounced off. The French artillery was starting to make some progress with barrages of hail shot on the unengaged parts of the Swiss pike blocks though.

But nothing could stop the Swiss who absorbed everything the French could throw at them, their pike blocks being thousands of men strong and they charged and pushed forward again seemingly unstoppable. At this point Charles of Bourbon claimed to have met some approaching Venetian reinforcements, so we concluded the game.

Afterthought: 

The rules include army lists with point values for each unit type, so I had made the two armies as near as even as possible. Perhaps this was a mistake and the size of the French landsknecht blocks should have been larger, as well as providing the French with more artillery since it seemed to under-perform, relative to the historical battle. The French should have been allowed to deploy faster on the first day too, stopping the Swiss from overwhelming their pike blocks so ferociously. As the umpire there is nothing you can do about dice rolling however.

The rules are written for 15mm figures and while information is provided for playing with 28mm the players agreed that we need to give more thought to this. We seemed to get confused about base sizes quite easily, partly because a fair number of our figures were not based consistently. I hope to put on a few more games this year, in the run up to our refight of the Battle of Pavia in December.

Thanks to the players, Alex, JJ, Chas and John. Figures are Perry, Wargames Foundry, Mail Fist Miniatures et al. Thanks to Alex Chas Paul and Vince for lending figures, even though the latter two didn’t play in the game.

Stephen H