The Battle of Pavia (1525) and its immediate consequences not only represented a before and after in European geopolitics, but also marked a paradigm shift on the battlefields and in the military strategy of the main powers of the old continent. . It has been considered the turning point in the transition from the prototype of the medieval noble knight as the backbone of the armies, to the infantryman and harquebusier of the Spanish thirds model that, after this campaign, would dominate the European and world battlefields for a century and a half.
As an immediate precedent to the great pitched battle that would take place within the hunting reserve of the Duke of Milan, the Spanish troops garrisoned in the citadel of Pavia had been enduring the siege and siege of the troops commanded by King Francis I of France himself during more than three months. The fall of the city seemed immediate, given the situation and the strong and constant attacks of the powerful French artillery.
However, the reinforcement troops under the command of Carlos de Lannoy and the Marquis of Pescara approached a few kilometers from the city. Their intention was to enter the hunting reserve near Pavia and advance to the Mirabello Castle, located in its center and where they presumed that King Francis I would be found.
To do this, during the early hours of the morning, the Spanish begin to open a breach in the wall that surrounds the hunting park, allowing shirted soldiers to enter in the vanguard. Soon, they manage to reach and take the weakly defended Mirabello castle, which suggests that the French King is not there.
A few hours later the final battle would take place. Francisco I, camped at one end of the park, begins to march to meet the troops of Lannoy and Pescara. After the artillery fire, the French launched their heavy cavalry, made up of more than 3,000 cavalry, among whom was the entire French nobility, against the Castilian light cavalry, smaller in number and defenses. In turn, the Swiss troops and mercenaries in the pay of the French monarch flank the advance, highlighting the contingent of the Black Bands, whose popularity was more than notable at the time, and who would be almost completely decimated after the battle.
In an agile and strategic movement, the Marquis of Pescara sends a few hundred harquebusiers to flank the charge of the French cavalry, unleashing a large and incessant fire on them, which will cause many of them to perish and many others to flee. With the gendarme defeated, the mercenary troops and imperial infantry will begin to charge, managing not only to destroy the majority of the French nobility, but also managing to capture King Francis I of France as a prisoner. #playmobil #knight #aesclick #elmundoclick #pavia #novelmore