Fernando d ' Avalos Fernando Francesco d ' Ávalos , V marquis of Pescara ( or Ferrante Francesco d ' Ávalos ; Spanish : Francisco Fernando d ' Ávalos , 1489 – 3 December 1525 ) , was an Italian condottiero of Spanish extraction . As a general of the Spanish army , he participated in the Italian Wars . At the Battle of Ravenna in 1512 he was taken prisoner by the French , but was released at the conclusion of the War of the League of Cambrai . He was the chief commander of the Habsburg armies in Italy during the Habsburg - Valois Wars and defeated the French at Bicocca and Pavia . Biography . Fernando was born at Naples , but his family was of Aragonese origin , having arrived in southern Italy with Alfonso V ' s general Iñigo d ' Avalos , his grandfather . Fernando ' s father was Alfonso d ' Ávalos d ' Aquino , IV marquis of Pescara ( not to be confused with Alfonso d ' Avalos , VI marquess of Pescara and a cousin of Fernando ) . At the age of six the boy was betrothed to Vittoria Colonna , daughter of the general Fabrizio Colonna , and the marriage was celebrated in 1509 on the island of Ischia . His position as a noble of the Aragonese party in Naples made it incumbent on him to support Ferdinand the Catholic in his Italian wars . In 1512 , he commanded a body of light cavalry at the battle of Ravenna , where he was wounded and taken prisoner by the French . Thanks to the intervention of one of the foremost of the French generals , the Italian G . G . Trivulzio , who was his connection by marriage , he was allowed to ransom himself for 6 , 000 " ducats " . He commanded the Spanish infantry at the Battle of La Motta , or Vicenza , on 7 October 1513 . It was on this occasion that he called his men before the charge to take care to step on him before the enemy did if he fell . From the battle of Vicenza in 1513 , down to the Battle of Bicocca on 29 April 1522 , he continued to serve in command of the Spaniards and as the colleague rather than the subordinate of Prospero Colonna . After the battle of Bicocca Charles V appointed Colonna commander - in - chief . D ' Ávalos , who considered himself aggrieved , made a journey to Valladolid in Spain , where the emperor then was , to state his own claims . Charles V , with whom he had long and confidential interviews , persuaded him to submit for the time to the superiority of Colonna . But in these meetings he gained the confidence of Charles V . His Spanish descent and sympathies marked him out as a safer commander of the imperial troops in Italy than an Italian could have been . When Francis I invaded Italy in 1524 D ' Ávalos was appointed as lieutenant of the emperor to repel the invasion . The difficulties of his position were very great , for there was much discontent in the army , which was very ill - paid . The tenacity , patience and tact of D ' Ávalos triumphed over all obstacles . His influence over the veteran Spanish troops and the German mercenaries kept them loyal during the long siege of Pavia . On 24 February 1525 he defeated and took prisoner Francis I by a brilliant attack . D ' Ávalos ' plan was remarkable for its audacity and for the skill he showed in destroying the superior French heavy cavalry by assailing them in flank with a mixed force of harquebusier s and light horse . It was believed that he was dissatisfied with the treatment he had received from the emperor ; and Girolamo Morone , secretary to the duke of Milan , approached him with a scheme for expelling French , Spaniards and Germans alike from Italy , and for gaining a throne for himself . d ' Ávalos may have listened to the tempter , but in act he was loyal . He reported the offer to Charles V and put Morone into prison . His health , however , had begun to give way under the strain of wounds and exposure , during late November , and he died at Milan on 3 December 1525 . d ' Ávalos had no children ; his title descended to his cousin Alfonso D ' Ávalos , Marquis del Vasto , also a distinguished imperial general ( who in fact led the Imperialist musketeers at Pavia ) . In literature . The Italian historiographer Paolo Giovio published a contemporary biography in Latin of Fernando Francesco which was included in his " Vitae " ( " illustrium virorum " ) . It was subsequently translated by Lodovico Domenichi and published in Florence in 1551 . Giovio ' s biography was also translated into Spanish by Pedro de Vallés in 1553 as " Historia del fortissimo y prudentissimo capitan Don Hernando de Avalos " .