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 Pedro Navarro Fabrizio Colonna
Duke of Nemours † Chandieu † Yves d'Alègre Pierre du Terrail
Strength
~6,300[1]
700 men-at-arms
800 light horse
1,000 arquebusiers
2,000 landsknechts
1,000+ other infantry
20 guns
~9,000[1]
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
4,000 killed
v
t
e
Italian Wars of 1499–1504
Second Italian War
Forlì
Novara
Capua
Third Italian War
Ruvo
Barletta
2nd Seminara
Cerignola
Garigliano
v
t
e
Italian Wars
1494–1498
1499–1504
League of Cambrai
Urbino
1521–1526
League of Cognac
1536–1538
1542–1546
1551–1559
Full list of battles
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.[2]
The Spanish force under the command of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (El Gran Capitán) comprising 6,300 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. It was one of the first European battles won by gunpowder weapons, as the attacks by the French cavalry and Swiss pikemen were shattered by the fire of Spanish arquebusiers behind a defensive ditch.
^ abMallet, p. 64 – combined strength deducted from contingents
^
Spencer C. Tucker, A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East, vol. 1, ABC-CLIO, (2009), p. 477.
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