League of Cambrai

Last updated
League of Cambrai
1508–1511
Northern Italy in 1494.png
Northern Italy in 1494.
Status Military coalition
Membership
Historical era Early modern period
 Established
10 december 1508
  Dissolved
24 february 1511

The League of Cambrai was a military coalition against the Republic of Venice formed on December 8, 1508, by the main European powers (Holy Roman Empire, Spain and France), to maintain the hegemony on the Italian Peninsula.

Contents

Membership

Joined the League: Maximilian I (Holy Roman Emperor), Louis XII (King of France), Ferdinand II of Aragon (King of Naples and Sicily), Julius II (Sovereign of the Ecclesiastical State), Alfonso I d'Este (Duke of Ferrara), Carlo III (Duke of Savoy), Francesco II Gonzaga (Marquess of Mantua) and Vladislaus II (King of Hungary).

Aim

In the treaty's preamble, signed in Cambrai (a small city located in Hauts-de-France) with the pretext to achieve a peace between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Duke of Guelders, to which were admitted also the Spanish and Papal ambassadors, we read that it was stipulated:

[...] to stop the losses, the abuses, the robberies, the harms which the Venetians have caused not only to the Holy Apostolic See, but also to the Holy Roman Empire, to the House of Austria, to the Dukes of Milan, to the Kings of Naples and to many others principles occupying and usurping tyrannically their goods, their lands, their cities and their castels, as if they had conspired to the ill of everyone [...] So we found not only useful and honorable, but also necessary to call everyone to a right revenge to turn off, like a common fire, the Venetians' insatiable greed and their thirst for domination.

Maximilian I, Treaty of Cambrai, Preamble

The Treaty of Cambrai predicted the next Venetian dominions' spartition:

The conflict

The Republic of Venice had lots of inklings of a possible alliance against itself, due to some speaches of the French ambassador. [1]

The League fought the Venetian forces between 1508 and 1511. After they routed the Venetian army in Battle of Agnadello, they invaded Veneto and marched to Venice; however, they get defeated by Bartolomeo d'Alviano in the Siege of Padua. So, the Venetians resisted and launched a counter-offensive, taking back a big part of Veneto but getting defeated in the Battle of Polesella.

In 1510, the Pope Giulio II decided that the France consisted in a bigger threat for the Italian peninsula's balances than Venice, so he left the League to switch with the Serenissima. The next year, the Spain and the Holy Roman Empire switched side, too, leading the foundation of the Holy League against France.

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References

  1. von Hormayr, Josep Freiherr (1821). Massimiliano I. Il Plutarco austriaco ossia Vite e ritratti di tutti i sovrani della casa d'Austria e dei più rinomati generali, uomini di stato, letterati ed artisti dell'impero austriaco (in Italian). Vol. 2. p. 238.

Sources