Battle of Agnadello
| Battle of Agnadello | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the War of the League of Cambrai | |||||||
Battle of Agnadel, 14th May 1509, painting by Pierre-Jules Jollivet | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Kingdom of France | Republic of Venice | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Louis XII Charles II d'Amboise | Bartolomeo d'Alviano (POW) | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 30,000 | 8,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 90% of the army wiped | |||||||
The Battle of Agnadello, also known as Vailà, was fought on 14 May 1509 between the army of King Louis XII of France and the Venetian rear-guard elements commanded by Bartolomeo d'Alviano. After a three hour struggle, and after Bartolomeo found himself abandoned by a part of his army, the Venetians were defeated with losses in excess of 4,000 men. Louis then occupied the rest of Lombardy.
It was one of the most significant engagements of the War of the League of Cambrai and a pivotal episode in the broader context of the Italian Wars, with Machiavelli describing it as Venice losing in a single day the territorial gains of eight centuries.