Battle of Cerignola The Battle of Cerignola was fought on April 28 , 1503 , between Spanish and French armies , in Cerignola , near Bari in Southern Italy . Spanish forces , under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba , formed by 6 , 300 men , including 2 , 000 landsknechts , with more than 1 , 000 arquebusiers , and 20 cannon , defeated the French who had 9 , 000 men ; mainly heavy gendarme cavalry and Swiss mercenary pikemen , with about 40 cannon , and led by Louis d ' Armagnac , Duke of Nemours , who was killed . Preparations . Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba , called " El Gran Capitán " ( The Great Captain ) , had many strategic advantages . He formed his infantry into new units called " Coronelías , " that were the seed of the later Tercios . They were armed with a mix of pikes , arquebuses and swords . This type of formation had revolutionized the Spanish army , which like the French , had also centred upon cavalry from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries , in the battles of the Reconquista against the Muslims in Spain . The Spanish troops had occupied the heights of Cerignola , and entrenched his soldiers with walls and stakes . In front of the hillside , a trench was dug in which the arquebusiers took their positions . The Spanish artillery was placed on top of the hill among the wineyards , having a good view of the entire battlefield . The jinetes , Spanish light cavalry , were placed in front of the rest of the army , while the Spanish heavy cavalry under Prospero Colonna were kept in reserve . De Córdoba ' s troops faced a professional French army based on the " Ordonnance " reforms , relying on the heavily - armoured cavalry of the " Compagnies d ' ordonnance " and mercenary Swiss pikemen ; however , at the same time , this army had more artillery than the Spanish . This paradox would be constant in the French armies through the first half of the sixteenth century . The French artillery however would not arrive in time to take active part in the battle . The Battle . The battle began with two charges by the French heavy cavalry , against the centre of the Spanish army , but was dispersed by Spanish heavy artillery and arquebus fire on both occasions . The next assault tried to force the right flank , but many of the French cavalrymen fell into the Spanish trench and the attack was then broken by a storm of fire from the Spanish arquebusiers . One of those killed by the arquebus volley was the French commander Duke of Nemours , making him probably the first general killed in action by small arms fire . With the Swiss commander , Chandieu , taking charge , the Swiss infantry attacked with the cavalry instead of waiting for the arrival of the French rear guard under d ' Alègre . At the imminent assault upon the Spanish center the Spanish arquebusiers were withdrawn and the Landsknechts sent forward . The Swiss formations , soon joined by the Gascons , were unable to break into the defensive positions . Shot into the flank by the arquebusiers and harassed by the Spanish cavalry , the Swiss and French were driven back , taking heavy casualties including Chandieu . De Córdoba then called for a counterattack against the now disorganized enemy by both the Spanish infantry and the heavy Spanish cavalry waiting in reserve . Mounted arquebusiers surrounded and routed the remaining French gendarmes , but the Swiss pikeman managed to retreat in a relatively organized fashion . Upon witnessing the defeat of both the gendarmes and the pikemen , Yves d ' Alègre , the commander of the French rear guard , called for a withdrawal . He was pursued by the victorious Spanish jinetes . Aftermath . The battle resulted in a heavy French defeat with the French reported to have lost around 2 , 000 men , Spanish losses amounting to some 500 men . The French supplies , wagon train and all of the French artillery still in it fell into the hands of the victorious Spanish troops . The end of the battle saw the first time a " call to prayer " ( toque de oracion ) was issued , a practice that was later adopted by most Western armies , when the Great Captain , upon seeing the fields full of French bodies ( who , like the Spaniards , were Christian ) , ordered three long tones to be played and his troops to pray for all the fallen . After the battle the defeated French army retreated to the fortress of Gaeta north of Naples . De Córdoba ' s forces attempted to storm the fortress , but the attacks all failed . The besieged French were prepared for a long siege and were receiving supplies by sea . Thus unable to take Gaeta and fearing the arrival of possible French reinforcements , De Córdoba lifted the siege and retreated to Castellone , some 8 kilometers south of Gaeta . In retrospect , Cerignola marks the beginning of a near invincible Spanish dominance on European battlefields until the defeat of Rocroi in 1643 and also marked the rise of pike and shot tactics . It is considered to be the first major battle won largely through the use of firearm s , comparable to what was to occur in Japan seven decades later in the Battle of Nagashino in 1575 .