Siege of Novara (1495)

The siege of Novara took place in the summer and autumn of 1495 during the Italian War of 1494–1495. While king Charles VIII of France was retreating to the north after facing rebellions in the recently conquered Kingdom of Naples, and managed to escape the destruction of his army at the Battle of Fornovo (6 July 1495), his cousin and future king Louis d'Orleans opened a second front by attacking the Duchy of Milan (which had defected to France's enemies) and occupying the city of Novara. In an effort to retrieve it, the Milanese army and their League of Venice allies besieged Novara for three months and fourteen days. Suffering from severe starvation and disease, the French lost about 2000 soldiers before Louis had to surrender and withdraw.

Siege of Novara
Part of the First Italian War
Date 11 June – 24 September 1495 Location Novara, Duchy of Milan Result League of Venice victory
Belligerents
France	League of Venice: Republic of Venice Duchy of Milan Margraviate of Mantua
Commanders and leaders
Louis, Duke of Orléans	Galeazzo Sanseverino, Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este Bernardo Contarini, Luca Pisani and Melchiorre Trevisan Francesco II Gonzaga of Mantua
Casualties and losses
2,000

Premise

Louis d'Orleans at the age of 36 (1498)

In the early phase of the French invasion of Italy in September 1494, the French king Charles VIII and his cousin Louis d'Orléans had concluded an alliance with Ludovico "il Moro" Sforza, the Duke of Milan, against their common enemy Alfonso II of Naples. Alfonso claimed the Milanese dukedom, while Charles claimed the Neapolitan kingship, and so collaboration between the two seemed opportune. On the other hand, the French kings also had pretensions about the Duchy of Milan, which Louis in particular was keen on enforcing when given the chance.

Louis d'Orléans had not followed Charles on his march to Naples but had remained in his own fief of Asti, having fallen ill with malaria in September 1494. While the Franco-Milanese advance towards Naples went swiftly, accomplished on 22 February 1495, Charles' harsh policy of violent reprisals against any resistance resulted in death and destruction across cities and countries along the peninsula, to the horror of the Italian population and courts. This not only alienated the Milanese from the French but also spurred neutral states into active opposition towards the invaders. On 30 March 1495, the Italian states of Venice, Milan, Florence, Naples, Genoa, Mantua and the Papal States, as well as Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, concluded the League of Venice to drive the French out of Italy.

With the Milanese defection to the enemy camp, Louis saw his opportunity. He now threatened to implement his plan to conquer the Duchy of Milan, which he considered his right, being a descendant of Valentina Visconti.

Conflict

French advance stopped

On 11 June 1495, Louis with his troops occupied the Milanese city of Novara, which was given to him by treason, and went as far as Vigevano. Ludovico il Moro then took refuge with his family in the Rocca del Castello in Milan but, not feeling equally safe, he meditated on abandoning the duchy to take refuge in Spain. The firm opposition of his wife Beatrice d'Este and some members of the council convinced him to desist.

Lodovico [...] so disheartened that he divided himself to be hospitalized in Arragona, and there he quietly ended his days in a private condition. But Beatrice d'Este, as a woman of strong and valiant soul, chased him up, and made him once think of him as Sovereign.

— Carlo Morbio, storia di Novara dalla dominazione de' Farnesi sino all'età nostra contemporanea.

Beatrice d'Este at the age of 18 (1494).

However, the state was suffering from a severe financial crisis, there was no money to pay for the army and the people threatened the revolt. Philippe de Commines wrote that, if the Duke of Orleans had advanced only a hundred paces, the Milanese army would have crossed the Ticino again, and he would have managed to enter Milan since some noble citizens had offered to let him in.

Ludovico did not resist the tension and fell ill, perhaps due to a stroke (according to the hypothesis of some historians), since, as reported by the chronicler Malipiero, he had become paralytic of a hand, he never left the bedroom and was rarely seen. Malipiero, however, is the only one to report this strange disease, moreover, the chronology is uncertain, as it disagrees with that of Sanudo, who makes no mention of it. The anonymous Ferrarese chronicler limits himself to saying that "the Duke of Milan was sick at this time in Milan" but the illness was perhaps an excuse to justify the fact that his wife Beatrice d'Este had, as in a sort of regency, taken over the government of the state and the war in her place and that, as Bernardino Zambotti reports, she had been appointed governor of Milan together with her brother Alfonso, who, however, soon fell ill with syphilis. She secured the support and loyalty of the Milanese nobles, took the necessary measures for the defence and abolished some taxes which were hated by the people.

Là, on était un peu tenté de tenir rigueur à Ludovic: l'indignation patriotique, avec laquelle Guichardin flagelle si éloquemment « cet homme né pour la jouissance et la richesse, si adroit banquier, soldat si misérable et si lâche, menteur, traitre et assassin », qui, à l'heure du péril, savait seulement se cacher et pleurer, auquel il fallait que sa femme Béatrix vînt faire honte de sa lâchelé, trafiquant incapable de se mettre en tête d'un bataillon, celte indignation, ce mépris, on l'éprouvait partout, et à Venise. On trouvait étrange que Ludovic, informé, sur l'heure, de la marche du duc d'Orléans, eùt laissé San Severino se replier, qu'il se fùt borné à des proclamations, à des agitations, à des dépenses, à des paroles de matamore. Il avait parlé de lever vingt mille hommes, d'envoyer San Severino à Novare, d'y aller en personne, de recevoir comme il faut « les barbares ». Puis, rien! il se cachait!

There we were a bit tempted to be hard on Ludovico: the patriotic indignation with which Guicciardini so eloquently scourges "this man born for fun and wealth, so skilled banker, so miserable and cowardly soldier, liar, traitor and murderer. ", who, in the hour of danger, only knew how to hide and cry, to which his wife Beatrice had to come to shame her cowardice, a merchant unable to take the lead of a battalion, this indignation, this contempt was felt everywhere, and in Venice. It was thought strange that Ludovico, informed at the time of the march of the Duke of Orleans, had allowed Sanseverino to retire, that he had limited himself to proclamations, agitation, expense, words of arrogance. He had spoken of gathering twenty thousand men, of sending Sanseverino to Novara, of going there in person, of receiving "the barbarians" adequately. Then, nothing! he was hiding!

—René Maulde-La-Clavière, Histoire de Louis XII (1891), p. 207.

The army of the League had meanwhile moved near Vigevano. Captain General of the Sforza army was then Galeazzo Sanseverino, while the Serenissima sent Bernardo Contarini, provveditore of the stradiotti, to the rescue of Milan. However, in June the Lordship of Venice - according to Malipiero - had meanwhile discovered how the Duke of Ferrara, Beatrice's father, together with the Florentines, kept King Charles informed every day of everything that was being done in Venice as in Lombardy, then secretly supplying the Duke of Orleans in Novara, as he sought the king's help in the recovery of the Polesine, stolen from him by the Venetians at the time of the Salt War. In addition, the leader Fracasso, Galeazzo's brother, was accused of double game with the king of France. The suspicions were corroborated by the fact that the latter had responded with little respect to Marquis Francesco Gonzaga when the latter during a council of war accused him of not collaborating in war operations.

Not being able to count, therefore, on her father's help, on June 27 Beatrice d'Este went alone, without her husband, to the military camp of Vigevano, both to supervise the order and to animate her captains to move against the Duke of Orleans, who in those days was constantly making raids in that area. Guicciardini's opinion is that if the latter had attempted the assault immediately, he would have taken Milan since the defence resided only in Galeazzo Sanseverino, but Beatrice's demonstration of strength was able to confuse him in making him believe the defences superior to what they were so that he did not dare to try his luck and retired to Novara. The hesitation was fatal to him, as it allowed Galeazzo to reorganize the troops and surround him, thus forcing him to a long and exhausting siege.

Loys duc d'Orleans [...] en peu de jours mist en point une assez belle armée, avecques la quelle il entra dedans Noarre et icelle print, et en peu de jours pareillement eut le chasteau, laquelle chose donna grant peur à Ludovic Sforce et peu près que desespoir à son affaire, s'il n'eust esté reconforté par Beatrix sa femme [...] O peu de gloire d'un prince, à qui la vertuz d'une femme convient luy donner couraige et faire guerre, à la salvacion de dominer!

Louis Duke of Orleans [...] in a few days he prepared a fairly fine army, with which he entered Novara and took it, and in a few days he also had the castle, which caused great fear to Ludovico Sforza and he was close to despair over his fate, had he not been comforted by his wife Beatrice [...] O little glory of a prince, to whom the virtue of a woman must give him courage and make war, for the salvation of the domain!

—Cronaca di Genova scritta in francese da Alessandro Salvago

Béatrix d'Este, honteuse de la conduite de son mari, qui ne voulait pas quitter le château de Milan, et ne songeait qu'à y faire des provisions, à y maintenir bonne garde et à implorer humblement Venise, Béatrix, cette noble femme, tout animée du souffle viril qui, dans l'Italie de cette époque, semblait passer de l'homme à la femme, sortit elle- même de Milan avec un grand nombre de dames et se rendit en pompe à Vigevano. Elle y reçut médiocre accueil; sa fermeté même faisait plus cruellement ressortir les défauts de Ludovic. Elle se rendit au camp, avec les commissaires ducaux, et chercha à encourager tous ces hommes: elle pressa le capitaine d'agir et d'essayer quelque chose. Elle réussit; le 27 juin, l'armée se décida à faire un mouvement. Contarini et Galéas montèrent à cheval le 28 au matin, et sortirent de Vigevano à la tête de toutes leurs troupes, en ordre de bataille, très lentement, très prudemment. [...] La duchesse passa en revue les troupes dans la campagne, et rentra à Vigevano, laissant l'armée s'avancer sans coup férir sur la rive droite du Tésin, par la route de Trecate. [...] Les mêmes capitaines qui avaient empêché le duc d'Orléans de marcher en avant s'opposèrent nettement à ce qu'il risquat la bataille, malgré la supériorité de leurs troupes. [...] Louis d'Orléans s'inclina de nouveau... Il ramassa ses troupes, et rentra dans la ville- [...] sur la nouvelle de sa retraite, l'armée italienne s'avance et occupe, en avant de Novare, les deux positions abandonnées peu d'instants au paravant, Cerano et Trecate [...] Louis annonçait au roi sa décision de se renfermer à Novare; il ajoutait qu'il ignorait la force exacte de l'armée de Vigevano, qu'on y voyait seulement des gens bizarres, armés de lances et d'épées, avec une longue barbe et un chapeau sur la tête: en un mot, les stratiotes. [...] Les capitaines, uniquement préoccupés du salut du roi, décidèrent de rentrer à Novare, sans rien faire, parti maladroit, mal conçu, mal exécuté, que Louis d'Orléans paya cher.

Beatrice d'Este, ashamed of her husband's conduct, who did not want to leave the castle of Milan, and who thought only of taking care of herself, of keeping awake well, and of humbly begging Venice, Beatrice, that noble woman, all animated by the virile breath that, in the Italy of that time seemed to pass from man to woman, left Milan itself with a large number of ladies and went to Vigevano with great fanfare. There she received a mediocre reception; her very firmness brought out Ludovico's faults in a more cruel way. She went to the camp, with the ducal commissioners, and she tried to encourage all these men: she urged the captain to act and try something. She succeeds; on June 27 the army decided to make a move. Contarini and Galeazzo mounted their horses on the morning of the 28th, and left Vigevano at the head of all their troops, in order of battle, very slowly, very cautiously. [...] The Duchess reviewed the troops in the town, and returned to Vigevano, letting the army advance without firing a shot on the right bank of the Ticino, along the road to Trecate. [...] The same captains who had prevented the Duke of Orleans from advancing strongly opposed his risky battle, despite the superiority of their troops. [...] Louis d'Orléans bowed again ... gathered his troops and returned to the city. [...] at the news of his retreat, the Italian army advanced and occupied, in front of Novara, the two positions abandoned a few moments earlier, Cerano and Trecate [...]. Louis announced to the king his decision to lock himself up in Novara; he added that he did not know the exact strength of the Vigevano army, in which only strange people were seen, armed with spears and swords, with long beards and hats on their heads: in a word, the stratootians. [...] The captains, concerned only with the king's safety, decided to return to Novara, without doing anything, an awkward, ill-conceived, poorly executed plan for which Louis d'Orléans paid dearly.

—René Maulde-La-Clavière, Histoire de Louis XII (1891), p. 221–223.

Bernardo Contarini offers to kill Ludovico il Moro. Antonio Vassilacchi, known as the Aliense, around 1579, Palazzo Ducale (Venice). Bernardo is the man standing in the centre of the scene, with a bared sword in his hand and a helmet.

On 28 June, the camp moved to Cassolnovo, a direct possession of Beatrice. The woman supervised the order of the troops and the camp, then returned to Vigevano, where she remained housed, so as to keep herself immediately informed of the operations. Some severed heads of the French were brought to her by the stratioti, and she rewarded them with a ducat for each. According to Sanudo, however, she was disliked by everyone for the hatred they brought to her husband Ludovico, who was safe in the castle of Milan and from there made his measures.

Madona Beatrice duchessa, moglie dil Duca, era partita lei sola senza el marito [...] tamen era mal vista da ogni uno, per l'odio haveano a suo marito, el qual stava in castello et lì faceva li soi provedimenti, con bona custodia di la persona soa. [...] Or che ditta Madonna era andata in campo, el qual era lì a Vegevene [...] con alcuni comessarii dil Duca, sì per sopraveder le cosse, quam per inanimar el capitan suo facesse qual cossa. [...] Et per lettere di Bernardo Contarini sora i Stratioti se intese che [...] col campo si levò da Vegevene et venne mia 4 ad alozar in uno loco chiamato Caxolo [...] et che la Duchessa volse venir a veder l'ordene dil campo [...]

Madonna Beatrice Duchess, wife of the Duke, had left alone without her husband [...] however she was frowned upon by everyone for the hatred they had towards her husband, who was in the castle and from there made his provisions, with good custody of the person. [...] Now that said Madonna had gone out on the field, who was there in Vigevano [...] with some commissioners of the Duke, both to supervise things and to animate her captain to do something. [...] And by letters from Bernardo Contarini about the Stradioti it was understood that [...] with the camp left Vigevano and came four miles away to lodge in a place called Cassolo, and that the Duchess wanted to come and see the order of the camp.

—Marin Sanudo, La spedizione di Carlo VIII in Italia

Siege of Novara

Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua, who had played an important role during the Battle of Fornovo (one which was arguably exaggerated later), moved his troops to Casallogiano on 19 July 1495, and began to besiege to Novara. On 23 July, the Venetian government nominated Francesco captain-general of their forces and awarded him an annual salary of 2000 ducats, later handing him the baton and standard of his new rank.

Finally recovering from the disease in early August, Ludovico went with his wife Beatrice to the Camp of Novara, where they resided in the following weeks.

Relations between Beatrice and Bernardo Contarini remained cordial, despite the fact that among the Venetians, the father and husband were not in good blood, and the common opinion was - according to Malipiero - that the Serenissima should have ordered Bernardo to "cut into pieces Duke Ludovico and Duke Ercole di Ferrara ". According to Pietro Bembo, Bernard himself offered to assassinate Ludovico to put an end to his duplicity. This is because, in September 1495, Ludovico had given orders to prevent the Venetian troops from crossing the Ticino and therefore repatriating to the Republic, leaving them without supplies and vehicles. Contarini's plan had no implementation either due to the prudence of his colleagues - Melchiorre Trevisan and Luca Pisani - and because in October 1495 Venice had moved a contingent of almost 10,000 men to Cremasco and Bergamo, threatening Ludovico invasion if he had not released his soldiers still stranded in the Duchy.

Probable statue of Galeazzo Sanseverino, in the collection of the Great Museum of the Duomo of Milan

The besieging troops from the League of Venice – mostly Milanese and Venetians – lacked artillery to bombard Novara, and Ludovico also preferred not to destroy one of his own cities. (According to other sources, the attackers did employ field guns against Novara, but had to use earth, fascines, trenches and gabions to protect their artillery from the French cannons firing at them from the city). Instead, the allies resorted to starving the French out. They cut off Novara's water supplies by diverting the river, burnt the land around the city, and closely surrounded the city day and night to make leaving or entering Novara and provisioning it impossible. As Louis had fled inside Novara in such a panic, he had also failed to provision his army properly beforehand to be able to withstand a siege. The little grain they did have could not be ground to flour to bake bread without flowing water to power the town's mills. A supply convoy sent by Charles from Asti was easily captured by the besiegers. Moreover, the League spread false rumours into the city that Charles VIII had fallen in the Battle of Fornovo, or that he was too busy trying to seduce local princess Anna Solarno to relieve the French soldiers inside Novara, demoralising the defenders.

The city was plagued by famine and epidemics that decimated the French army. A French chronicler wrote: 'Every day some were starved to death.' To save as many supplies for his soldiers as possible, Louis decided to seize all the food of the civilians, and 'drove out all those of the populace who were poor and useless ['paupertatem omnem ac inutilem plebem exclusit']. A great many suffered from fever and diarrhoea due to the poor quality of the food and drinking of water.' According to the Mantuan ambassador in Milan, the civilians who were thrown out of Novara, mostly women and children, 'became prey to the stradiots in Venetian pay and were reduced to begging in the camp of the besiegers.' The Duke of Orleans, also ill with malarial fevers, urged his men to resist with the false promise that the king's help would soon come. However, the 20,000 Swiss mercenaries who Charles had hired as reinforcements would not arrive until after Louis had been forced to evacuate the city and give it back to the Milanese.

Peace negotiations

The critical conditions of the French military inside the city forced them to propose a truce to the Milanese on 21 September. Charles invited Francesco to visit him at Vercelli to negotiate an armistice; Francesco quested and obtained permission from the Venetian authorities to commence talks on their behalf, but their instructions were ambiguous. Louis was finally forced to cede the city on 24 September 1495 at the behest of King Charles, who was returning to France, and the enterprise ended in nothing.

Beatrice d'Este managed to expel from Novara the Duke of Orleans, who had seized it, directly threatening Milan over which she boasted rights of possession. Peace was signed, and Charles returned to France, without having drawn any serious fruit from his enterprise. Lodovico Sforza rejoiced in this result. But it was a brief jubilae his.

— Francesco Giarelli, Storia di Piacenza dalle origini ai nostri giorni

About 2000 French soldiers had succumbed to disease or starvation by the time Novara was liberated, and the sight of the survivors shocked a French ambassador: "...so lean and meagre that they looked more like dead than living people; and truly, I believe never men endured more misery." Hundreds more died after they evacuated Novara, being left on the side of the roads as Louis withdrew his beaten forces. Louis was nevertheless burning with desire for revenge, and to the horror of a French diplomat, he urged Charles to stop the negotiations, keep fighting and attack Milan as soon as the Swiss reinforcements had arrived. However, the peace negotiations between captain-general Francesco and king Charles appear to have been very amicable, publicly exchanging compliments, with Charles giving Francesco two beautiful horses as a gift on 6 October, to which Francesco gifted Charles two beautiful horses in return a few days later.

On 9 October 1495, Charles VIII and Ludovico Sforza concluded the Peace of Vercelli between France and Milan. The Venetians and Spanish claimed they were not properly consulted, and objected strongly to Sforza's and Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua's alleged unilateral diplomatic actions. The Venetians particularly objected to the following agreements:

• Ludovico Sforza had permitted the French to use the port of Genoa to resupply their garrisons in Naples.
• Francesco Gonzaga had consented to a prisoner exchange between Mathieu, Bastard of Bourbon (captured at Fornovo, died 19 August 1505) and Fregosino Fregoso (a Genoese who had fought for the League).

As a result, the Veneto-Milanese alliance rapidly deteriorated.

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