Battle of Cerignola

Battle of Cerignola
Part of the Second Italian War
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba finds the corpse of Louis d'Armagnac. Federico de Madrazo, 1835. Museo del Prado.
Date April 28, 1503 Location Cerignola (present-day Italy) Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
Spain	France
Commanders and leaders
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba Prospero Colonna Pedro Navarro Fabrizio Colonna	Duke of Nemours † Yves d'Alègre Pierre du Terrail
Strength
~6,300 men 700 men-at-arms 800 light horse 1,000 foot arquebusiers 2.000 landsknechts 1,000+ other infantry 20 guns	~9,000 men 650 French gendarmes 1,100 light horse 3,500 Swiss infantry 2,500-3,500 French infantry 40 guns (arrived too late)
Casualties and losses
100 casualties	4,000 casualties

~6,300 men

~9,000 men

The Battle of Cerignola was fought on April 28, 1503, between Spanish and French armies, in Cerignola, near Bari in Southern Italy. Spanish forces, under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, formed by 6,300 men, including 2,000 landsknechte, with more than 1,000 arquebusiers, and 20 cannons, defeated the French who had 9,000 men; mainly heavy gendarme cavalry and Swiss mercenary pikemen, with about 40 cannons, and led by Louis d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, who was killed. It was one of the first European battles won by gunpowder weapons, as the assault by Swiss pikemen and French cavalry was shattered by the fire of Spanish arquebusters behind a ditch.

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, called "El Gran Capitán" (The Great Captain), had many strategic advantages. He formed his infantry into new units called "Coronelías," that were the seed of the later Tercios. They were armed with a mix of pikes, arquebuses and swords. This type of formation had revolutionized the Spanish army, which like the French, had also centred upon cavalry from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, in the battles of the Reconquista against the Muslims in Spain. The Spanish troops had occupied the heights of Cerignola, and entrenched his soldiers with walls and stakes. In front of the hillside, a trench was dug in which the arquebusiers took their positions. The Spanish artillery was placed on top of the hill among the wineyards, having a good view of the entire battlefield. The jinetes, Spanish light cavalry, were placed in front of the rest of the army, while the Spanish heavy cavalry under Prospero Colonna were kept in reserve.

De Córdoba's troops faced a professional French army based on the Ordonnance reforms, relying on the heavily armoured cavalry of the Compagnies d'ordonnance and mercenary Swiss pikemen; however, at the same time, this army had more artillery than the Spanish. This paradox would be constant in the French armies through the first half of the sixteenth century. The French artillery however would not arrive in time to take active part in the battle.

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Wikipedia