[Ennath]

April 27, 1522
Battle of Bicocca

With the renewal of the Italian Wars in 1521, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Pope Leo X moved jointly against the Duchy of Milan, the principal French possession in Lombardy. A large Papal force under Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, together with Spanish troops from Naples and some smaller Italian contingents, concentrated near Mantua. The German forces which Charles sent south to aid this venture passed through Venetian territory near Vallegio unmolested; the combined Papal, Spanish, and Imperial army then proceeded into French territory under the command of Prospero Colonna. For the next several months, Colonna fought an evasive war of maneuver against Odet of Foix, Viscount of Lautrec, the French commander, besieging cities but refusing to give battle.

By autumn, Lautrec, who was holding a line along the Adda River, began to suffer massive losses from desertion, particularly among his Swiss mercenaries. Colonna took the opportunity this offered and, advancing close to the Alps, crossed the Adda at Vaprio; Lautrec, lacking infantry and assuming the year's campaign to be over, withdrew to Milan. But Colonna had no intention of halting. On the night of November 23, he launched a surprise attack on the city, overwhelming the Venetian troops defending one of the walls. Following some street-fighting, Lautrec withdrew to Cremona with about 12,000 men.

By January 1522, the French had lost Alessandria, Pavia, and Como; and Francesco II Sforza, bringing further German reinforcements, had slipped past a Venetian force at Bergamo to join Colonna in Milan. Lautrec had meanwhile been reinforced by the arrival of 16,000 fresh Swiss pikemen and some further Venetians, as well as additional companies of French troops under the command of Thomas de Foix-Lescun and Pedro Navarro; he had also secured the services of the condottiere Giovanni de' Medici, who brought his Black Bands into the French service. The French proceeded to attack Novara and Pavia, hoping to draw Colonna into a decisive battle. Colonna, leaving Milan, fortified himself in the monastery of Certosa south of the city. Considering this position to be too strong to be easily assaulted, Lautrec attempted instead to threaten Colonna's lines of communication by sweeping around Milan to Monza, cutting the roads from the city into the Alps.

Lautrec was suddenly confronted, however, with the intransigence of the Swiss, who formed the largest contingent of the French army. They complained that they had not received any of the pay promised them since their arrival in Lombardy. The Swiss captains, led by Albert von Stein, demanded that Lautrec attack the Imperial army immediately - else the mercenaries would return home. Lautrec reluctantly acquiesced and marched south towards Milan.

Colonna had relocated to a formidable new position: the manor park of Bicocca, about 4 miles north of Milan. The park was situated between a large expanse of marshy ground to the west and the main road into Milan to the east; along this road ran a deep wet ditch, which was crossed by a narrow stone bridge some distance south of the park. The north side of the park was bordered by a sunken road; Colonna deepened this and constructed an earthen rampart on the southern bank. The Imperial artillery, placed on several platforms jutting forward from the earthworks, was able to sweep the fields north of the park as well as parts of the sunken road itself. The entire length of the north side of the park was less than 600 yards, which permitted Colonna to place his troops quite densely. Immediately behind the rampart were four ranks of Spanish arquebusiers, commanded by Fernando d'Avalos, Marquess of Pescara; they were backed by Spanish pikemen and German landsknechts under Georg Frundsberg. Most of the Imperial cavalry was placed at the south end of the park, far behind the infantry; a separate force of cavalry was positioned to the south, guarding the bridge.

On the evening of April 26, Lautrec sent a force of about 400 cavalry under the Sieur de Pontdormy to reconnoiter the position. The patrol reported that the ground was ill-suited for maneuvering, but this failed to dissuade the Swiss. Colonna sent messengers to Milan to request reinforcements; Francesco Sforza arrived the next morning with 6400 additional troops, joining the cavalry near the bridge to the south of Colonna's camp. The Imperial army now numbered about 18,000 men to face 25-30,000 French and Swiss.

At dawn on the 27th, Lautrec began his attack. The Black Bands brushed aside the Spanish pickets, clearing the ground before the Imperial positions. The French advance was headed by 2 columns of Swiss, each comprising 4-7000 men, accompanied by some artillery; these were to assault the entrenched front of the Imperial camp directly. Lescun, meanwhile, led a body of cavalry south along the Milan road, intending to flank the camp and strike at the bridge to the rear. The remainder of the French army, including the French infantry, the bulk of the heavy cavalry, and the remnants of the Swiss, formed up in a broad line some distance behind the 2 columns; behind this was a third line, composed of the Venetian forces under Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino.

Command of the Swiss assault was given to Anne de Montmorency. As the Swiss columns advanced towards the park, he ordered them to pause and wait for the artillery to bombard the defenses, but the Swiss refused. Historian Charles Oman suggested that they were "inspired by blind pugnacity and self-confidence". In any case, the Swiss moved rapidly towards Colonna's position, leaving the artillery behind. There was apparently some rivalry between the two columns, as one, commanded by Arnold Winkelried of Unterwalden, was composed of men from the rural cantons, while the other, under Albert von Stein, consisted of the contingents from Bern and the urban cantons. The advancing Swiss quickly came into range of the Imperial artillery. Unable to take cover on the level fields, they began to take substantial casualties; as many as 1000 may have been killed by the time the columns reached the Imperial lines.

The Swiss came to a sudden halt as they reached the sunken road; the depth of the road and the height of the rampart effectively blocked their advance. Moving down into the road, the Swiss suffered massive casualties from the fire of d'Avalos' arquebusiers. Nevertheless, the Swiss made a series of desperate charges. Some parties managed to reach the top of the rampart, only to be met by the landsknechts, who had come up from behind the arquebusiers. After attacking for about half an hour, the Swiss remnants retreated back towards the main French line, leaving more than 3000 dead, including both Winkelried and von Stein. Of the French nobles who had accompanied the assault, only Montmorency survived.

Lescun, with 400 heavy cavalry, had meanwhile reached the bridge south of the park and fought his way across it and into the Imperial camp. Colonna responded by detaching some cavalry under Antonio de Leyva, while Francesco Sforza came up the road towards the bridge, aiming to surround Lescun. Pontdormy held off the Milanese, allowing Lescun to extricate himself; the French cavalry then retraced its path and rejoined the main body.

Despite the urging of several Imperial commanders, Colonna refused to order a general attack, pointing out that much of Lautrec's army - including the bulk of his cavalry - was still intact. Colonna suggested that the French were already beaten, and would soon withdraw; this assessment was shared by Frundsberg. Nevertheless, some small groups of Spanish arquebusiers and light cavalry attempted to pursue the withdrawing Swiss, only to be beaten back by the Black Bands, who were covering the removal of the French artillery.

Colonna's judgement proved accurate. The Swiss were unwilling to make another assault, and marched for home on April 30. Lautrec, believing that his resulting weakness in infantry made a further campaign impossible, retreated to the east, crossing the Adda into Venetian territory. Having reached Cremona, he left Lescun in command of the remnants of the French army and rode unescorted to Lyon, to make his report to King Francis I.

While Swiss mercenaries would continue to take part in the Italian Wars, they no longer possessed the willingness to make headlong attacks that they had at Novara in 1513 or Marignano in 1515 (see postings); their performance at the Battle of Pavia (see posting) in 1525 would surprise observers by its lack of initiative.

Lautrec's departure heralded a complete collapse of the French position in northern Italy. No longer menaced by the French army, Colonna and d'Avalos marched on Genoa, capturing it after a brief siege. Lescun, learning of the loss of Genoa, reached an agreement with Sforza by which the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, which still remained in French hands, surrendered, and the remainder of the French forces withdrew over the Alps. The Venetians, under the newly elected Doge Andrea Gritti, were no longer interested in continuing the war; in July 1523, Gritti concluded the Treaty of Worms with Charles V, removing the Republic from the war. The French would make 2 further attempts to regain Lombardy before the end of the war in 1526, but neither would be successful; the terms of the Treaty of Madrid, which Francis was forced to sign after his defeat at the Battle of Pavia, would leave Italy in Imperial hands.