Italian wars 1492 - 1518. Lemonier A.

Italian wars of the late XV - first half of the 16th centuries - the largest military conflict since the Hundred Years War, which has erupted between the two powers of late medium Europe: a centralized France, which was in the zenith of its power, and Spain, which has just begun the path to the imperial future under the scepter Two sovereigns - Isabella and Ferdinand. The dispute erupted due to the possession of the Neapolitan kingdom and the Milan duchy. Italy was weak in political terms and, split into many cities-states, became easy prey for its neighbors.

On the battlefields, knights and military leaders showed themselves, whose names thundered throughout Europe: Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandes de Cordoba , The “great military leader”, and the Frenchman Pierre Bayard, “a knight without fear and reproach”. It was in these wars that the star of the European chivalry finally rolled, giving way to new power - the Spanish infantry, which has brought fear to all of Europe over the next one and a half years. Italian wars changed not only military art. The rulers who were forced to maintain large armies were supposed to find new methods of collecting taxes and administration of subject areas. That is why it can be said that the Italian wars became a prologue to the birth of Europe of the New Age.