Italian Wars

The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between 1494 and 1559, mainly on the Italian Peninsula, with side theatres in Flanders, the Rhineland and the Mediterranean. They grew out of the long French and Habsburg rivalry, with France facing the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, while Italian states, England and the Ottoman Empire joined at different stages. The invasion of Naples by Charles VIII in 1494 started them, and later French invasions of Lombardy and Piedmont could not secure lasting gains. The Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis ended them: France was largely expelled from Italy, Spain gained Naples, Sicily and Milan, and France took Calais. Historians see the wars as a turning point from medieval to modern warfare because the arquebus spread and siege artillery improved.