Italian Wars

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The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between 1494 and 1559 in the Italian Peninsula, with subsidiary theatres in Flanders, the Rhineland and Mediterranean Sea. Related to the long-running French–Habsburg rivalry, its primary belligerents were France versus Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, supported by numerous Italian states at different stages, along with England, and the Ottoman Empire. The collapse of the Italic League in 1492 allowed Charles VIII of France to invade Naples in 1494, which drew in Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Although he was forced to withdraw in 1495, ongoing political divisions among the Italian states made them a battleground in the struggle for European domination between France and the Habsburgs. After 1503, most of the fighting was initiated by French invasions of Lombardy and Piedmont, but although able to hold territory for periods of time, they could not do so permanently. By 1557, the growth of Protestantism meant the major belligerents faced...

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