Battle of Marignano

Battle context

The Battle of Marignano, fought on 13–14 September 1515 near present-day Melegnano, southeast of Milan, was the last major engagement of the War of the League of Cambrai. Francis I, newly crowned King of France, led a French force of approximately 30,000 against some 22,000 Swiss Confederacy troops fighting alongside Maximilian Sforza. The engagement resulted in heavy losses on both sides, with the Swiss sustaining around 10,000 casualties against approximately 5,000 French. As the concluding battle of the war, Marignano settled the question of French dominance in northern Italy that had animated the conflict since 1508, with the Swiss suffering losses severe enough to mark the effective end of their military expansion into the Italian peninsula. The battle also demonstrated the utility of French artillery and German landsknecht infantry alongside French cavalry, with the late arrival of Venetian allied forces contributing to the outcome.