February 24, 1525

Battle of Pavia

Imperial victory and capture of Francis I at Pavia

Imperial soldiers pulled white shirts over their armour so they could recognize one another in the dark.

Night of 23–24 February 1525: through the park wall

During the night of 23–24 February 1525, the Imperial relief army feigned withdrawal, breached the wall of the Visconti hunting park north of Pavia, and entered around daybreak.

The attackers set part of their own camp on fire to sell the illusion of retreat, and the whole assault force was ordered to wear a white shirt or white sign.

Its commanders were short of provisions and money, and Antonio de Leyva had warned that Pavia's garrison was nearing crisis. They chose a risky attack rather than lose the army or the city without a battle.

The charge that crossed its own guns

French artillery struck the advancing Imperial formations at first. Then Francis I's cavalry moved across its field of fire and became separated from the supporting infantry.

Spanish arquebusiers attacked the isolated gendarmes at close range. Imperial Landsknechts and Spanish infantry defeated the French-employed Black Band and the Swiss formations, while Leyva's garrison sallied from Pavia against another Swiss force.

The detailed Pavia reconstruction puts the main battle at less than two hours.

Three men-at-arms and a king on the ground

Francis I's horse was brought down near the Repentita farmstead. Documentary research identifies three Imperial heavy cavalrymen — Juan de Urbieta, Alonso Pita da Veiga and Diego de Ávila — as his captors; Charles de Lannoy subsequently received his formal surrender.

The French army was routed and the siege of Pavia broken. Francis was taken under guard to the convent of San Paolo, and two days later transferred to Pizzighettone.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

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What the sources leave uncertain

The date and outcome are solid, but troop strengths and casualty totals vary by reconstruction.
Accounts long competed over who personally captured Francis and who killed or wounded his horse. Recent Spanish archival research credits Urbieta, Pita da Veiga, and Ávila jointly; it does not support assigning the decisive act solely to Cesare Hercolani.
One recent scholarly reconstruction argues that the battle was not simply an improvised nocturnal surprise. The entry was planned, and surprise was only partly achieved by daybreak.