Battle of Marignano The Battle of Marignano was fought during the phase of the Italian Wars ( 1494 – 1559 ) called the War of the League of Cambrai , between France and the Old Swiss Confederacy . It took place on September 13 and 15 , 1515 , near the town today called Melegnano , 16 km southeast of Milan . It resulted in a victory for French forces . It pitted the French army , composed of the best armored lancers and artillery in Europe and led by Francis I , newly crowned king of France and a day past his 21st birthday , against the Old Swiss Confederacy . With Francis were some German " landsknecht s " , bitter rivals of the Swiss for fame and renown in war , and arriving late his Venetian allies . Background . The campaign of Marignano followed years of Swiss successes , during which French fortunes in Northern Italy had suffered greatly . The Swiss had taken control of Milan ( for France the gateway to Italy ) after their victory at the Battle of Novara ( 1513 ) , and returned to its ducal throne Massimiliano — son of Lodovico il Moro , the last duke of the House of Sforza to rule independent Milan , as their puppet . The prologue to the battle was a remarkable Alpine passage , in which Francis hauled pieces of artillery ( including 40 or 70 huge cannons ) over new - made roads over the Col d ' Argentière , a previously unknown route . This was , at the time , considered one of the foremost military exploits of the age and the equal of Hannibal ' s crossing of the Alps . At Villafranca the French , led by Jacques de la Palice , surprised and captured the Papal commander , Prospero Colonna , in a daring cavalry raid deep behind the allied lines ( the Chevalier Bayard providing the impetus and expertise ) . Colonna and his staff aside , the French seized a great deal of booty on the raid , including 600 horses . The capture of Colonna , along with the startling appearance of the French army on the plains of Piedmont , stunned the allies . The Pope and the Swiss both sought terms with Francis , while the Spanish allies en route from Naples halted to await developments . The main Swiss army retreated to Milan , while a large faction , tired of the war and eager to return home with the booty of years of successful campaigning , urged terms with the French . Though the parties reached an agreement that gave Milan back to the French , the arrival of fresh and bellicose troops from the Swiss cantons annulled the agreement , as the newly arrived men had no desire to return home empty - handed and refused to abide by the treaty . Discord swept through the Swiss forces till Matthäus Schiner , cardinal of Sion and an arch - enemy of King Francis , inspired the Swiss with a fiery harangue on September 13 , reminding them of what a smaller Swiss army had achieved against as powerful a French army at the Battle of Novara . Schiner pointed out the enormous profits of victory , appealed to national pride , and urged the Swiss to immediate battle . The effect was prodigious . The suddenly enthusiastic Swiss sprang to arms , issuing forth from Milan in disciplined but frenzied columns . Battle . The Swiss encountered Francis ' s forces at the little burnt - out village of Marignano on a featureless plain . A treaty signed , the French were not expecting battle . Francis was in his tent , trying on a new suit of armor , when scouts reported the coming of the Swiss . The French army quickly jumped into action , forming up in three divisions : the vanguard , posted slightly forward and on the right under Charles III , Duke of Bourbon , the Constable of France ; the central battle , commanded by the King , slightly trailing the right ; and on the left and even further back , the “ rearguard ” commanded by the Duke of Alençon . Each division was a combined arms force of infantry , cavalry , and artillery . Massed in front of Francis ’ center division was a grand battery of seventy - two field guns guarded by the infamous Black Legion , or Black Band . These were German landsknecht mercenaries who had refused to return home and instead served loyally under Francis . Also with the king ' s division was the Chevalier Bayard and his company , the foremost lancers in the French army ( and perhaps Europe ) . Close to sunset , the Swiss approached the French in three divisions of their own , each a dense mass of pikemen . They had no artillery or cavalry and had learned in past actions that a rapid advance into the enemy would sweep all before them . At Marignano , the battle began with a “ forlorn hope ” detaching from the Swiss vanguard phalanx , and with lowered pikes charging the grand battery in front of the King ’ s position in the center . Their intent , justified by experience in other battles , was to quickly overrun the French cannon and then turn them upon their owners . At first the Swiss attack succeeded in driving back the landsknecht defenders and capturing a few of the guns , the speed of the Swiss advance rendering their fire ineffective . But Bourbon ’ s cavalry from the French right counter - attacked their flank , driving the forlorn hope back to the shelter of the Swiss vanguard . The pursuing French horse were themselves routed by the oncoming Swiss mainbody . Smoke and the coming of night obscured the battle ; in the moonlight and confusion , the outcome hung in the balance . Furious French cavalry charges , often led by the king himself , with Bayard at his side , succeeded time and again in throwing back temporary Swiss gains . Many of the foremost French commanders were wounded or killed in the desperate night fighting , including the Prince of Tallemont , son of Louis II de la Trémoille , who died with sixty - two wounds on his body . The Black Legion counter - attacked and threw back the Swiss , only to be repulsed in turn . Bayard had to cut his way through the Swiss phalanx to rescue the Duke of Lorraine , stranded in the dark amongst his enemies . In the darkest hours , the fighting stopped , and both armies extracted themselves and reorganized . At dawn the battle commenced again . In the French center , the grand battery had been reassembled . Opposing them , the Swiss had reformed their largest phalanx . Encouraged by the evening before , the Swiss once again lowered pikes and charged the French guns . This time the grand battery was ready for them . Massed cannon fire tore bloody furrows deep in their ranks , slowing the advance . But the undaunted Swiss continually closed ranks and pushed forward . Again , the defending German landsknechts were driven back ; but the massed fire of the guns at point blank prevented the Swiss from pushing farther forward . Still another French cavalry charge , this time led by Bayard , forced the attacking Swiss to give ground . Baffled by the artillery but as yet undaunted , the Swiss refocused their assault against Alençon ’ s left - wing division . After making some headway , this attack too was thrown back . In his report later to his mother , King Francis would boast that “ thirty brave charges ” were hurled by the French gendarmerie against the stubborn Swiss . Only the mid - morning arrival of allied Venetian forces commanded by the " condottiero " Bartolomeo d ' Alviano turned the tide against the Swiss . Their attacks repulsed everywhere , their ranks in bloody shambles , they grudgingly gave ground and withdrew . The battle was a decisive victory for Francis . This could be considered the expected outcome , seeing as the Swiss were heavily outnumbered and outgunned . But the Swiss during the preceding decades had almost habitually emerged victorious from such disadvantageous situations , and the French victory by no means came easy , the battle hanging in the balance until the arrival of the Venetian reinforcements . The immediate cause of the Swiss defeat was their failure to capture the enemy artillery during the early phase of the battle , and the arrival of the Venetians . But also contributing to the Swiss defeat was their lack of discipline and their ineffective command structure . Earlier in the same year of 1515 , the Swiss diet had granted to each captain the authority to decide whether their company would continue their campaign or retreat . This made it impossible for the Swiss forces to act as a unity . The system of command consisted two captains elected as commanders - in - chief , besides the captains of the individual companies , as well as one representative elected by the men - at - arms of each canton . These commanders would vote on the policy of the Swiss army . In practice , this system broke down as soon as it was put to the test : the captains decided to honour the agreement not to attack , while the representatives of the troops , especially those of Uri , Schwyz and Glarus , decided to attack regardless , motivated by the prospect of rich spoils . Results . French side . “ I have vanquished those whom only Caesar vanquished ” was printed on the medal King Francis ordered struck to commemorate the victory . Considering the battle his most cherished triumph , Francis requested that he himself be knighted on the battlefield , in the ancient style , by the hand of none other than the Chevalier Bayard . Marshal Gian Giacomo Trivulzio , veteran of every war for the previous 40 years , praised Marignano as the “ battle of giants ” and stated that compared to it , all previous battles in his lifetime had been “ child ’ s sport ” . Marignano established the superiority of French cast bronze artillery and gendarme cavalry over the heretofore invincible phalanx tactics of the Swiss infantry . French success at Marignano , however , eventually galvanized opposition in the divided peninsula and turned the European balance of power against Francis I . In the meantime , however , Francis gained the city , and more importantly , the Castello Sforzesco within it , the strategic key to control of Lombardy . There Massimiliano Sforza and his Swiss mercenaries and the cardinal - bishop of Sion retreated , only submitting when French sapper s had placed mines under the foundations . The French regained Milan , and Massimiliano went into luxurious exile with a French purse of 30 , 000 ducats . Swiss side . The retreating Swiss army retained control of their upper - Lombardy provinces of Bellinzona and adjacent valleys , leaving a rearguard to preside over them . The battle ended once and for all Swiss aspirations in Milan , and the Swiss Confederacy never again went to war against France or Milan . In fact , the Confederacy never went to war again at all after declaring neutrality in 1525 , and ( apart from the conquest of Vaud by the canton of Berne acting on its own in the 1530s ) there never was any Swiss military offensive against an external enemy again . Swiss historiography has tended to attribute this to the " lesson learned " at Marignano , but at least as effective was the division created by the Swiss Reformation in the 1520s , dividing the Confederacy into two factions which would be occupied with internal hostilities throughout the period of the European Wars of Religion , as well as a number of painful defeats of Swiss mercenary regiments in the decade between 1515 and 1525 ( at Bicocca , Sesia and Pavia ) . Eternal Peace . After lengthy negotiations , an " Eternal Peace " between the Swiss cantons and Francis in both his roles as king of France and duke of Milan was signed in Fribourg on 29 November 1516 . Both parties agreed not to ally themselves with opponents of the other party in any future military conflict , and to seek diplomatic or judicial resolution of all future conflicts . Switzerland renounced all claim to Milan , while France paid 400 , 000 gold crowns to compensate the Swiss for their Dijon and Milanese campaigns . France offered another 300 , 000 crowns if the Swiss were willing to yield their transmontane territories , but this offer was declined . Only the Ossola valley was passed back to Milan , while the other transmontane bailiwicks of the Swiss Confederacy remain part of Switzerland to this day , since 1803 as the canton Ticino . The treaty furthermore granted trade privileges to the Swiss , both in Milan and in Lyon . The " Eternal Peace " with France was indeed kept for the remainder of the lifetime of the Kingdom of France , and was broken only after the French Revolution , with the French invasion of Switzerland in 1798 . It opens a period of close ties between the Swiss Confederacy with France over the next three centuries ( while at the same time Switzerland moved away from its association with the Holy Roman Empire ) . A next step of rapprochemant to France was the service pact ( " Soldbündnis " ) with France , concluded in 1521 , which made Swiss mercenary regiments a regular part of the French armed forces . This arrangement also outlasted three centuries , with four Swiss regiments participating in Napoleon ' s invasion of Russia in 1812 , foreign military service of Swiss citizens being finally outlawed in 1848 with the formation of Switzerland as a federal state . Other . Marignano was also the first battle in history in which the fife was used ( in this case , by the Swiss infantry to relay commands throughout the army ) . Shortly after the battle , Francis met with Pope Leo X in Bologna to discuss the return of Milan to France – a meeting at which Leonardo da Vinci was present . There , Francis persuaded Leonardo to accompany him back to France , and granted him the Clos Lucé manor . Also present at the battle was Huldrych Zwingli , who since 1506 had been church patron at Glarus . In Glarus , there was political controversy on which side the young men seeking employment as mercenaries should take service , the side of France or that of the Holy Roman Empire and the Papal States . The aim was to prevent that men of Glarus took service on both sides of the war , which would result in the unhappy constellation of " brothers fighting brothers " on the battlefield , as had been the case at Novara in 1500 . Zwingli had supported the Pope before Marignano , and even after the battle , he opposed the peace with France and continued to support the side of the Papal States . Since public opinion Glarus in had shifted towards a clearly pro - French stance after the peace of 1516 , Zwingli was forced to abandon his position in Glarus . He took employment at Einsiedeln , and from 1519 in Zürich . Based on his experience in the Italian War , Zwingli became an outspoken opponent of mercenary service , arguing with Erasmus of Rotterdam that " war is sweet only to those who have not experienced it " ( " dulce bellum inexpertis " ) . He also blamed the warmongery on the part of cardinal Schiner for the disaster at Marignano and began to preach against the " red caps " ( " rote hüetlin " , i . e . the high clergy ) , the first signs of his radicalization that would culminate in the Swiss Reformation during the decade following Marignano . Legacy and commemoration . Commemorating the event are a bas - relief of the Battle of Marignano by Pierre Bontemps , which decorates Francis I ' s tomb at Saint - Denis ; a painting by Antoine Caron for Fontainebleau ( now at the National Gallery of Canada , Ottawa ) ; and the most famous musical composition of Clément Janequin , the chanson " La guerre " . The Swiss hero Hans Bär appears in a fresco on the tower of the Basel city hall .