War of the League of Cambrai The War of the League of Cambrai , sometimes known as the War of the Holy League and by several other names , was a major conflict in the Italian Wars . The principal participants of the war , which was fought from 1508 to 1516 , were France , the Papal States and the Republic of Venice ; they were joined , at various times , by nearly every significant power in Western Europe , including Spain , the Holy Roman Empire , England , Scotland , the Duchy of Milan , Florence , the Duchy of Ferrara , and Swiss mercenaries . Pope Julius II , intending to curb Venetian influence in northern Italy , had created the League of Cambrai , an anti - Venetian alliance that included , besides himself , Louis XII of France , Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Ferdinand II of Aragon . Although the League was initially successful , friction between Julius and Louis caused it to collapse by 1510 ; Julius then allied himself with Venice against France . The Veneto – Papal alliance eventually expanded into the Holy League , which drove the French from Italy in 1512 ; disagreements about the division of the spoils , however , led Venice to abandon the alliance in favor of one with France . Under the leadership of Francis I , who had succeeded Louis to the throne , the French and Venetians would , through their victory at Marignano in 1515 , regain the territory they had lost ; the treaties of Noyon and Brussels , which ended the war the next year , would essentially return the map of Italy to the status quo of 1508 . Prelude . In the aftermath of the First Italian War , Pope Alexander VI had moved to consolidate Papal control over central Italy by seizing the Romagna . Cesare Borgia , acting as Gonfalonier of the Papal armies , had expelled the Bentivoglio family from Bologna , which they had ruled as a fief , and was well on his way towards establishing a permanent Borgia state in the region when Alexander died on 18 August 1503 . Although Cesare managed to seize the remnants of the Papal treasury for his own use , he was unable to secure Rome itself , as French and Spanish armies converged on the city in an attempt to influence the Papal conclave ; the election of Pius III ( who soon died , to be replaced by Julius II ) stripped Cesare of his titles and relegated him to commanding a company of men - at - arms . Sensing Cesare ' s weakness , the dispossessed lords of the Romagna offered to submit to the Republic of Venice in exchange for aid in regaining their dominions ; the Venetian Senate accepted and had taken possession of Rimini , Faenza and a number of other cities by the end of 1503 . Julius II , having secured his own control of the Papal armies by arresting and imprisoning Cesare , first in Rome and later in Madrid , quickly moved to re - establish Papal control over the Romagna by demanding that Venice return the cities she had seized ; the Republic , although willing to acknowledge Papal sovereignty over them and pay Julius an annual tribute , refused to surrender the cities themselves . In response , Julius concluded an alliance with France and the Holy Roman Empire against Venice ; the death of Isabella I of Castile and the resulting collapse of relations between the parties soon dissolved the alliance , but not before Venice had been induced to abandon several of the cities . Julius , although unsatisfied with his gains , did not himself possess sufficient forces to fight the Republic ; for the next two years he instead occupied himself with the reconquest of Bologna and Perugia , which , located between Papal and Venetian territory , had in the meantime assumed a status of quasi - independence . In 1507 , Julius returned to the question of the cities in Venetian hands ; once again rebuffed by the Senate , he encouraged the recently elected Emperor Maximilian I to attack the Republic . Maximilian , using his journey to Rome for the Imperial coronation as a pretext , entered Venetian territory with a large army in February 1508 and advanced on Vicenza , but was defeated by a Venetian army under Bartolomeo d ' Alviano . A second assault by a Tyrolean force several weeks later was an even greater failure ; Alviano not only routed the Imperial army but also proceeded to seize Trieste and Fiume , forcing Maximilian to conclude a truce with Venice . League of Cambrai . Julius , humiliated by the failure of the Imperial invasion , turned to Louis XII of France ( who , having been left in possession of Milan after the Second Italian War , was interested in further expansion into Italy ) with an offer of alliance . In mid - March , the Republic provided a pretext for an attack on itself by appointing her own candidate to the vacant bishopric of Vicenza ( an act in keeping with prevailing custom , though Julius considered it a personal provocation ) ; the Pope proceeded to call for all Christian nations to join him in an expedition to subdue Venice . On 10 December 1508 , representatives of the Papacy , France , the Holy Roman Empire and Ferdinand I of Spain concluded the League of Cambrai against the Republic . The agreement provided for the complete dismemberment of Venice ' s territory in Italy and for its partition among the signatories : Maximilian , in addition to regaining Istria , would receive Verona , Vicenza , Padua and the Friuli ; France would annex Brescia , Crema , Bergamo and Cremona to its Milanese possessions ; Ferdinand would seize Otranto ; and the remainder , including Rimini and Ravenna , would be added to the Papal States . On 15 April 1509 , Louis left Milan at the head of a French army and moved rapidly into Venetian territory . To oppose him , Venice had hired a condottiere army under the command of the Orsini cousins — Bartolomeo d ' Alviano and Nicolo di Pitigliano — but had failed to account for the fact that the two disagreed on how best to stop the French advance . Consequently , when Louis crossed the Adda River in early May and Alviano advanced to meet him , Pitigliano , believing it best to avoid a pitched battle , moved away to the south . On 14 May , Alviano confronted the French at the Battle of Agnadello ; outnumbered , he sent requests for reinforcements to his cousin , who replied with orders to break off the battle and continued on his way . Alviano , disregarding the new orders , continued the engagement ; his army was eventually surrounded and destroyed . Pitigliano managed to avoid encountering Louis ; but his mercenary troops , hearing of Alviano ' s defeat , had deserted in large numbers by the next morning , forcing him to retreat to Treviso with the remnants of the Venetian army . The Venetian collapse was complete ; Louis proceeded to occupy Venetian territory as far east as Brescia without encountering any significant resistance . The major cities that had not been occupied by the French — Padua , Verona and Vicenza — were left undefended by Pitigliano ' s withdrawal , and quickly surrendered to Maximilian when Imperial emissaries arrived in the Veneto . Julius , having in the meantime issued an interdict against Venice that excommunicated every citizen of the Republic , invaded the Romagna and seized Ravenna with the assistance of Alfonso d ' Este , Duke of Ferrara . D ' Este , having joined the League and been appointed Gonfalonier on 19 April , proceeded to seize the Polesine for himself . The newly arrived Imperial governors , however , quickly proved to be unpopular . In mid - July , the citizens of Padua , aided by detachments of Venetian cavalry under the command of the proveditor Andrea Gritti , revolted ; the landsknechts garrisoning the city were too few in number to mount effective resistance and Padua was restored to Venetian control on 17 July . The success of the revolt finally pushed Maximilian into action . In early August , a massive Imperial army , accompanied by bodies of French and Spanish troops , set out from Trento into the Veneto . Because of a lack of horses , as well as general disorganization , Maximilian ' s forces would not reach Padua until September , giving Pitigliano the time to concentrate such troops as were still available to him in the city . The Siege of Padua began on 15 September ; although French and Imperial artillery successfully breached Padua ' s walls , the defenders managed to hold the city until Maximilian , growing impatient , lifted the siege on 30 September and withdrew to Tyrol with the main part of his army . In mid - November , Pitigliano returned to the offensive ; Venetian troops easily defeated the remaining Imperial forces , capturing Vicenza , Este , Feltre and Belluno . Although a subsequent attack on Verona failed , Pitigliano managed to destroy a Papal army under Francesco II of Gonzaga in the process . The Battle of Polesella , a river attack on Ferrara by the Venetian galley fleet under Angelo Trevisan failed , however , when the Venetian ships anchored in the Po River were sunk by Ferrarese artillery . Francesco Guicciardini credited the decisive victory to Alfonso himself . A new French advance soon forced Pitigliano to withdraw to Padua once again . Faced with a shortage of both funds and men , the Senate decided to send an embassy to Julius in order to negotiate a settlement . The terms insisted on by the Pope were harsh : the Republic lost her traditional power to appoint clergy in her territory , as well as all jurisdiction over Papal subjects in Venice , the Romagnan cities that had prompted the war were to be returned to Julius , and reparations were to be paid to cover his expenses in capturing them . The Senate argued over the terms for two months , but finally accepted them on February 24 , 1510 . Even before the Venetian ambassadors had presented themselves to Julius for absolution , however , the Council of Ten had privately resolved that the terms had been accepted under duress and were therefore invalid ; and that Venice should violate them at the earliest opportunity . This apparent reconciliation between Venice and the Pope did not stop the French from again invading the Veneto in March . Pitigliano ' s death in January had left Andrea Gritti in command of the Venetian forces ; although Maximilian failed to reinforce Louis , the French army was nonetheless sufficient to drive the Venetians from Vicenza by May . Gritti garrisoned Padua for an expected attack by a combined Franco - Imperial army ; but Louis , more concerned by the death of his advisor , the Cardinal d ' Amboise , abandoned his plans for a siege . Veneto - Papal alliance . Julius , meanwhile , had become increasingly concerned by the growing French presence in Italy ; more significantly , alienated from Alfonso d ' Este by friction over a licence for a salt monopoly in the Papal states and Alfonso ' s continued forays against Venetian forces to secure his recently reacquired Polesine , he had formulated plans to seize the Duchy of Ferrara , a French ally , and to add its territory to the Papal States . His own forces being inadequate for the venture , the Pope hired an army of Swiss mercenaries , ordering them to attack the French in Milan ; he also invited Venice to ally with him against Louis . The Republic , facing a renewed French onslaught , readily accepted the offer . By July 1510 , the new Veneto - Papal alliance was on the offensive . An initial attack on French - occupied Genoa failed , but Venetian troops under Lucio Malvezzo finally drove the French from Vicenza in early August ; and a joint force commanded by Francesco Maria della Rovere , the Duke of Urbino , captured Modena on 17 August . Julius now excommunicated Alfonso d ' Este , thus justifying an attack on the Duchy itself ; in anticipation of his coming victory , the Pope traveled to Bologna , so as to be nearby when Ferrara was taken . The French army , however , had been left unopposed by the Swiss ( who , having arrived in Lombardy , had been bribed into leaving by Louis ) and was free to march south into the heart of Italy . In early October , Charles II d ' Amboise advanced on Bologna , splitting the Papal forces ; by 18 October , he was only a few miles from the city . Julius now realized that the Bolognese were openly hostile to the Papacy and would not offer any resistance to the French ; left with only a detachment of Venetian cavalry , he resorted to excommunicating d ' Amboise , who had in the meantime been convinced by the English ambassador to avoid attacking the person of the Pope and had thus withdrawn to Ferrara . In December , a newly assembled Papal army conquered Concordia and , in December , besieged the fortress of Mirandola ; d ' Amboise , marching to relieve the latter , fell ill and died , briefly leaving the French in disarray . Mirandola fell in January 1511 , the pope having taken personal command of the assault ; but d ' Amboise had been replaced by Gian Giacomo Trivulzio , who took back Concordia and Castelfranco , while the Papal army retreated to Casalecchio . Alfonso d ' Este , meanwhile , confronted and destroyed the Venetian forces on the Po River , leaving Bologna isolated once more . Julius , afraid of being trapped by the French , departed the city for Ravenna . Cardinal Alidosi , whom he left behind to command the defense of the city , was no better liked by the Bolognese than Julius himself had been ; and when , on 23 May 1511 , a French army commanded by Trivulzio arrived at the gates , they quickly surrendered . Julius blamed this defeat on the Duke of Urbino , who , finding this quite unfair , proceeded to murder Alidosi in full view of the Papal guard . Holy League . By June 1511 , most of the Romagna was in French hands ; the Papal army , disorganized and underpaid , was in no condition to prevent Trivulzio from advancing on Ravenna . In response to this debacle , Julius proclaimed a Holy League against France . The new alliance rapidly grew to include not only Spain and the Holy Roman Empire , who abandoned any pretense of adhering to the League of Cambrai in hopes of seizing Navarre and Lombardy from Louis , but also Henry VIII of England ( who , having decided to use the occasion as an excuse to expand his holdings in northern France , concluded the Treaty of Westminster — a pledge of mutual aid against the French — with Ferdinand in November 1511 ) . In February 1512 , Louis appointed his nephew , Gaston de Foix , to command the French forces in Italy . Foix proved more energetic than Amboise had been ; having checked the advance of Ramón de Cardona ' s Spanish troops on Bologna , he returned to Lombardy to sack Brescia , which had rebelled against the French and garrisoned itself with Venetian troops . Aware that much of the French army would be diverted to deal with the impending English invasion , Foix and Alfonso d ' Este besieged Ravenna , the last Papal stronghold in the Romagna , in hopes of forcing the Holy League into a decisive engagement . Cardona marched to relieve the city in early April , and was decisively beaten in the resulting Battle of Ravenna , fought on Easter Sunday ; the death of Foix during the fighting , however , left the French under the command of Jacques de la Palice , who , unwilling to continue the campaign without direct orders from Louis , contented himself with thoroughly sacking Ravenna . By May 1512 , the French position had deteriorated considerably . Julius had hired another army of Swiss mercenaries ; they descended on Milan , bringing with them Maximilian Sforza , who was determined to regain control of the Duchy for his family . The French garrisons abandoned the Romagna ( where the Duke of Urbino quickly captured Bologna and Parma ) and retreated to Lombardy , attempting to intercept the invasion . By August , the Swiss had combined with the Venetian army and forced Trivulzio out of Milan , allowing Sforza to be proclaimed Duke with their support ; La Palice was then forced to withdraw across the Alps . In late August , the members of the League met at Mantua to discuss the situation in Italy ( particularly the partition of territory acquired from the French ) . They quickly came to an agreement regarding Florence , which had angered Julius by allowing Louis to convene the Council of Pisa in its territory . At the Pope ' s request , Ramon de Cardona marched into Tuscany , smashed Florentine resistance , overthrew the Republic , and installed Giuliano de ' Medici as ruler of the city . On the subject of territory , however , fundamental disagreements quickly arose . Julius and the Venetians insisted that Maximilian Sforza be permitted to keep the Duchy of Milan ; Emperor Maximilian and Ferdinand conspired instead to have one of their cousins installed as duke . The Pope demanded the immediate annexation of Ferrara to the Papal States ; Ferdinand objected to this arrangement , desiring the existence of an independent Ferrara to counter growing Papal power . Most problematic , however , was the attitude of Maximilian towards Venice . The Emperor refused to surrender any Imperial territory , which in his eyes included most of the Veneto , to the Republic ; to this end , he signed an agreement with the Pope to exclude Venice entirely from the final partition . When the Republic objected , Julius threatened to reform the League of Cambrai against her . In response , Venice turned to Louis ; on 23 March 1513 , a treaty pledging to divide all of northern Italy between France and the Republic was signed at Blois . Franco - Venetian alliance . In late May 1513 , a French army commanded by Louis de la Trémoille crossed the Alps and advanced on Milan ; at the same time , Bartolomeo d ' Alviano and the Venetian army marched west from Padua . The unpopularity of Maximilian Sforza , who was seen by the Milanese as a puppet of his Swiss mercenaries , enabled the French to move through Lombardy with little resistance ; Trémoille , having seized Milan , besieged the remaining Swiss in Novara . On 6 June , the French were attacked by a Swiss relief army at the Battle of Novara , and were routed despite having superior numbers . Detachments of the Swiss army pursued the fleeing French over the Alps and had reached Dijon before being bribed into withdrawing . The rout at Novara inaugurated a period of continuous defeats for the French alliance . English troops under Henry VIII besieged Thérouanne , defeated La Palice at the Battle of the Spurs , and captured Tournai . In Navarre , resistance to Ferdinand ' s invasion collapsed ; he rapidly consolidated his hold over the entire region and moved to support another English offensive in the Guyenne . James IV of Scotland invaded England at the behest of Louis ; but he failed to draw Henry ' s attention from France , and his death — and the Scots ' catastrophic defeat — at the Battle of Flodden Field on 9 September 1513 , ended Scotland ' s brief involvement in the war . Meanwhile , Alviano , unexpectedly left without French support , retreated into the Veneto , pursued closely by the Spanish army under Cardona . While the Spanish were unable to capture Padua in the face of determined Venetian resistance , they penetrated deep into Venetian territory and by late September were in sight of Venice itself . Cardona attempted a bombardment of the city that proved largely ineffective ; then , having no boats with which to cross the lagoon , turned back for Lombardy . Alviano , having been reinforced by hundreds of volunteers from the Venetian nobility , pursued Cardona and confronted him outside Vicenza on 7 October . In the resulting Battle of La Motta , the Venetian army was decisively defeated , with many prominent noblemen cut down outside the city walls as they attempted to flee . However , the Holy League failed to follow up on these victories . Cardona and Alviano continued to skirmish in the Friuli for the rest of 1513 and through 1514 , fighting several inconclusive battles , but Cardona was unable to make any real progress . Henry VIII , having failed to gain any significant territory , concluded a separate peace with France . Finally , the death of Julius left the League without a leader ; Julius ' successor to the Papacy , Leo X , was rather less concerned with military matters . The death of Louis XII on 1 January 1515 brought Francis I to the throne . Having assumed the title of Duke of Milan at his coronation , Francis immediately moved to reclaim his holdings in Italy . By July , Francis had assembled an army in the Dauphiné . A combined Swiss and Papal force moved north from Milan to block the Alpine passes against him , but Francis , following the advice of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio , avoided the main passes and marched instead through the valley of the Stura . The French vanguard surprised the Milanese cavalry at Villafranca , capturing Prospero Colonna ; meanwhile , Francis and the main body of the French confronted the Swiss at the Battle of Marignano on 13 September . The Swiss advance initially made headway ; however , Francis ' s superiority in cavalry and artillery , together with the timely arrival of Alviano ( who had successfully avoided Cardona ' s army at Verona ) on the morning of 14 September , led to a strategically decisive victory for Francis and the Venetians . Aftermath . After the defeat at Marignano , the League no longer possessed the ability or the will to continue the war . Francis advanced on Milan , capturing the city on 4 October and removing Sforza from the throne . In December , he met with Leo at Bologna ; the pope , who had in the meantime been deserted by the remainder of his Swiss mercenaries , surrendered Parma and Piacenza to Francis and Modena to the Duke of Ferrara . In return , Leo received guarantees of French noninterference in his proposed attack on the Duchy of Urbino . Finally , the Treaty of Noyon , signed by Francis and Charles V in August 1516 , recognized French claims to Milan and Spanish claims to Naples , removing Spain from the war . Maximilian held out , making another attempt to invade Lombardy ; his army failed to reach Milan before turning back , and by December 1516 , he had entered into negotiations with Francis . The resulting Treaty of Brussels not only accepted French occupation of Milan , but also confirmed Venetian claims to the remainder of the Imperial possessions in Lombardy ( except for Cremona ) , effectively ending the war with a return to the status quo of 1508 . The peace , however , would last only four years ; the election of Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 caused Francis , who had desired the position for himself , to begin the Italian War of 1521 – 26 . The Italian Wars , thus reignited , would then continue until 1530 without significant interruption .