"Cerignola 1503 - OK, so I got it wrong. We try again...." Topic

Hi Guys,

My Cerignola 1503 scenario revision, inspired by Puster, has now been done. I've not only added the hitherto absent Landsknechts, but I've added d'Agres cavalry to the French left, and changed fig ratio from 1:50 to 1:40. New OOBs, deployment map, and pics here:

link

And here's a pic of those damn Landsknechts:

:-)

BTW: I like your Italian style buildings. Spectacular.

Hi Puster, the church is 2mm MDF scratch built. But the other buildings are "blanks" from Warbases. I like these sooo much, I'll plug 'em again. The fact they come with windows and doors – the awkward bits – makes them perfect for me. BTW, WB doesn't pay me for my enthusiasm: nice guys, worth supporting, saw them at Fiasco Sunday gone, lots of very nice proto-type stuff on show, and if you like the idea of sieges…….oooh.

link

Yep, I saw that these were scratch built by you – I was already looking for the manufacturer on your blog…

Well, I assume time and skill will limit my own exploits here.

Back to Cerignola – I managed to find Potter and Mallet, and here is their verdict on the OOB:

Potter on the French forces:
Heavy cavalry 2000
Light cavalry 110
Swiss 3500
French Infantry: 3-3500

He is usally pretty correct when he gives numbers, so we might deduct here that most of the light cavalry mentioned in othe sources comes from the lower ranks of the "heavy cavalry" mentioned here – so Ordonnance Archers rather then Argoulets or Stradiots.

Alas, no info from him on the Spanish or anything new on the battle.

Mallet generally goes conform with this. For 1502 (before Seminara) he gives a cavalry strength of 1200 lances and 3000 mounted archers for the French (lances meaning single Gensdarmes here, I presume) and no other cavalry (though late Italian allies might have joined), while the Spanish had 420 men-at-arms, 170 mounted crossbowmen and 250 light horse (but would get reinforcements from Calabria) I will forfeit the infantry here.

For Cerignola Mallet gives this deployment:
Spanish: 2000 landsknechts in the center, covered by the handgunners. 300 men-at-arms to the left, also covered by handgunners, a block of arquebusiers with the artillery behind the lines and 800 light horse to the right. At the rear 400 men-at-arms with Gonsalvo himself.

I presume most of the handgunners were deployed in line defending the ditch in front of the landsknechts and men-at-arms

The French started with a "frontal assault" of 250 men-at-arms and 400 "light horse", followed by the infantry (Swiss before Gascons). The rear was held by 400 men-at-arms and 700 "light horse". The assault failed and faltered when the cavalry was unable to cross the ditch and the infantry could not force the ditch vs. the landsknechts and was attacked on their flanks by both arquebus and men-at-arms.
The French rear did not take part in the battle.

So much from my paper sources. I hope your rule-system models the defended earth-works well. I am looking forward to any results you may bring up in your blog :-)

Thanks Puster,

I've re-done the final version of this scenario now (same link) and I'm going to leave it at that until after we've played it. You might find a look worth while because I've added a lot of detail from de Gaury's work – mainly commander names for all of the chief 'elements'.

I intend to do this as an article for MW or WI at some point as I have not written one for quite a while now. I shall save your numbers for the revision.

Thanks again, our discussion has been most rewarding.

James

I wonder who the commander of the Landsknechts was. Usually only the nominal commander is given, which is usually a Spanish or French officer who was more a liason then in actual command. As example, several later pretty renowned Landsknechts leader took part in the French assault of Brescia in 1512. If Gaury has anything on that I would be grateful.

Btw: I did some more research. Seems I need works of Jovious and Hobohm to get more data on the Landsknechts. The internet will lead to some quantum jumps in historical research as soon as the majority of the old documents hits the open databases.

Alas, my Italian is a bit rusty:
PDF link

You will love this second one, though. I certainly did. Still in Italian, but at least it has some illustrations, including a pretty good order of battle (imho). Seems it was funded with public money, which just shattered one of my core believes on the usage of public money in Italy:
PDF link

Enjoy :-)

BTW 2: I found it – in the first work of Ranke – sometimes the old hands got the irrelevant details best :-)

In his "Geschichte der Germanischen Völker 1494-1514" he tells us that Gonsalvo got 3000 Catalans, Galicians and Asturians reinforcements on March 8, an April 10 some 2500 Germans under Hans von Ravenstein joined him – sent by Maximilian and paid for by Joan Manuel.
He also notes for the battle that Ives d'Allegre, one of the French captains, was shot by a Landsknecht in front of their positions – seems that they already had some, probably the customary 10%, of handgunners around. This might explain the difference between 2500 landsknechts as reinforcements and some 2000 mentioned in the deployed landsknecht pikeblock.
It also shows that Ranke makes mistakes, for it was not Allegre but Chandieu who was shot – Allegre survived for another decade.

And here is a final (promised) link to a relatively new book with a description of the actual battle (among much other stuff), telling us the story of the hero d'Allegre on that day…
link

Gaury originally puts them under the ('liason?') command of Ottavio Colonna – later transferred to Zamudio.

Gaury puts d'Alegre (no first name noted – same one?) as a battle survivor leading one of the two retreating French columns away from the field.

However, Nemours "..riding across the front in an endeavour to find a gap in the entrenchment, was killed by a shot from an arquebusier.". A similar fate awaited Chandieu "Chandieu, dismounting in an attempt to find a way across the ditch and made conspicuous by his high crest of white plumes, also fell shot…by an arquebusier."

Gaury also notes the loss of several men to heat stroke, including 4 Germans, on the march to Cerignola. It is quite possible, I suppose, for 500 to have been lost to desease, action and, of course desertion, in the preceding months.

I just found an account of Wilhelm Havemann, written in the mid 19th century, that confirms most of this, including the heatstrokes. His work on the military history of the Italian wars seems pretty detailed and historically sound (for his time). Not unsurprisingly in his account the role of the landsknechts is bit more decisive, though. He also notes that these were raised in Triest and transferred by Venetian ships for the occasion, so desertion is probably not a problem – the fording of a river however might have cost casualties. Acording to him the cavalry had to help the infantry in the fording.
I will have to get me a printout and digest the work of Havemann, several hundred pages long :-)

I have to say this hours of research yielded quite some informations – the Italian comic being not the least of it.

Oooh, I wish I could do languages.

Envious,

James