Battle of the Sesia (1524)

Battle of the Sesia

Date	30 April 1524
Location	Near the Sesia River, Lombardy (present-day Italy)
Result	Decisive Imperial–Spanish victory

Belligerents

Commanders and leaders

The Battle of the Sesia or Battle of the Sesia River, took place near the Sesia River (Latin: Sesites or Sessite), situated in north-western Italy, Lombardy, on 30 April 1524, where the Imperial–Spanish forces commanded by Don Carlos de Lannoy, inflicted a decisive defeat to the French forces under the Admiral Guillaume Gouffier, Lord of Bonnivet and Francis de Bourbon, Comte de St. Pol, during the Italian War of 1521–1526.

The French, in possession of the Italian region of Lombardy at the start of the Italian War of 1521–1526, had been forced to abandon it after their defeat at the Battle of Bicocca in 1522. Determined to regain it, Francis I of France ordered an invasion of the region in October 1523, with an army of 18,000 men commanded by Guillaume Gouffier, Lord of Bonnivet. The French army advanced through the Piedmont to Novara, where it was joined by a similarly sized force of Swiss mercenaries.Prospero Colonna, who had only 9,000 men to oppose the French advance, finally decided to retreat to Milan.