Habsburg–Valois War

Italian Wars
The Battle of Pavia by unknown Flemish artist (16th century).
Date 1494–1498; 1499–1504; 1508–1516; 1521–1530; 1536–1538; 1542–1546; 1551–1559 Location Italian peninsula Result Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis:  • Duchy of Milan and Southern Italy (including Sicily and Sardinia) under Habsburg Spain  • France restores Corsica to the Republic of Genoa and Piedmont to the Duke of Savoy but retains Saluzzo, Calais and the Three Bishoprics  • Papacy, Florence and Venice survive as sovereign entities
Belligerents
Holy Roman Empire  Spain  England (1496–1526; 1542–1559) Variable Italian states	France  England (1526–1528)  Ottoman Empire (1536–1559) Variable Italian states
Commanders and leaders
Maximilian I Charles V Ferdinand I Philip II Henry VIII Mary I	Charles VIII Louis XII Francis I Henry II Suleiman I

The Italian Wars, often referred to as the Great Italian Wars or the Great Wars of Italy and sometimes as the Habsburg–Valois Wars or the Renaissance Wars, were a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559 that involved, at various times, most of the city-states of Italy, the Papal States, the Republic of Venice, most of the major states of Western Europe (France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, England, and Scotland) as well as the Ottoman Empire. Originally arising from dynastic disputes over the Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples, the wars rapidly became a general struggle for power and territory among their various participants, and were marked with an increasing number of alliances, counter-alliances, and betrayals.

Relying on brilliant diplomacy as well as on the military commanders and techniques forged in the war against Granada, King Ferdinand was chiefly responsible for making Spain into a major European power. The main opponent was France, both along the frontiers that separated the two states and also in Italy, where Aragón’s traditional interests were threatened by French efforts to dominate the peninsula. The struggle began with the successful campaign of 1494 to 1498 in southern Italy and continued intermittently for two decades, until Ferdinand’s death. By then Spain had won control of southern Italy, all Navarre south of the Pyrenees, and farther north, the regions of Cerdagne and Roussillon. Ferdinand’s anti-French strategy was continued in a series of wars (1521–1526, 1526–1530, 1536–1538, 1542–1546, 1551–1559) that made Spain a dominant power in northern as well as southern Italy.

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