Battle of Cerignola

Battle of Cerignola
Part of the Third Italian War
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba finds the corpse of Louis d'Armagnac. Federico de Madrazo, 1835. Museo del Prado.
Date 28 April 1503 Location Cerignola, Apulia, Kingdom of Naples (present-day Italy) Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
Spain	Kingdom of France
Commanders and leaders
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba Prospero Colonna Fabrizio Colonna Pedro Navarro Diego García de Paredes	Duke of Nemours † Chandieu † Yves d'Alègre Roberto II Sanseverino Chevalier Bayard
Strength
~9,000 [1] 700 men-at-arms 800 light horse 1,000 arquebusiers 2,000 landsknechts 1,000+ other infantry 20 guns	~9,000 [2] 650 French gendarmes 1,100 light horse 3,500 Swiss infantry 2,500–3,500 French infantry 40 guns (arrived too late)
Casualties and losses
500 total casualties	2,000 [3] -4,000 killed

The Battle of Cerignola was fought on 28 April 1503 between Spanish and French armies outside the town of Cerignola, Apulia, Kingdom of Naples (now in modern-day Italy), approximately 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Bari.^[4] The Spanish force under the command of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (El Gran Capitán) comprising around 9,000 men, including 2,000 Landsknecht pikemen, 1,000 arquebusiers and 20 cannons, defeated the French force of 9,000 men, mainly gendarme heavy cavalry and Swiss mercenary pikemen, with about 40 cannons, led by Louis d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, who was killed during the battle.

Cerignola was probably the first European battle to be won by small firearms, as the attacks by the French cavalry and Swiss pikemen were shattered by the fire of Spanish arquebusiers.^[5][6] It also demonstrated the renewed value of fortifications, with Córdoba employing a defensive ditch to maximize the effect of his battleplan.^[7] Military historian Bernard Montgomery described it as the turning point where infantry finally displaced cavalry on the battlefield: "Gonzalo de Córdoba had raised the infantry soldier armed with a handgun to the status of the most important fighting man on the battlefield - a status he was to retain for over 400 years".^[8]