Italian Wars 1494–1559

Belligerents: Ottoman Empire, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of England, Hispanic Monarchy

Key battles

• Battle of Novara (1500)
• Battle of Garigliano (1504)
• Battle of Agnadello (1509)
• Battle of Ravenna (1512)
• Battle of Flodden (1513)
• Battle of Novara (1513)
• Battle of Guinegate (1513)
• Battle of Marignano (1515)
• Battle of Bicocca (1522)
• Battle of Pavia (1525)
• Battle of Ceresole (1544)
• Battle of St. Quentin (1557)
• Siege of Calais (1558)

Who lived through the Italian Wars

Well-known people alive during 1494–1559:

• Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) — Italian Renaissance polymath (1452−1519)
• Michelangelo (1475–1564) — Italian artist and architect (1475-1564)
• Martin Luther (1483–1546) — German priest and theologian (1483–1546)
• Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) — Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright (1547-1616)
• Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) — Italian navigator, explorer, and colonist (1451–1506)
• Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) — Italian diplomat and political and military theorist (1469–1527)
• Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) — Polish mathematician and astronomer (1473-1543)
• Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521) — Portuguese explorer in the service of Spain
• Raphael (1483–1520) — Italian painter and architect (1483–1520)
• Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) — German painter, printmaker, mathematician, and theorist (1471-1528)
• Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603) — Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 to 1603
• Vasco da Gama (1460–1525) — Portuguese explorer (c. 1460s – 1524)
• Hernán Cortés (1485–1547) — Spanish conquistador
• Akbar (1542–1605) — the third and greatest Mughal emperor from 1556 to 1605
• Jacques Cartier (1492–1557) — Breton maritime explorer of North America (1491–1557)
• Suleiman the Magnificent (1494–1566) — the tenth and greatest Sultan of Ottoman Empire (1520–1566)
• Erasmus (1466–1536) — Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and theologian (1466-1536)
• Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) — Italian Dominican friar, philosopher and mathematician (1548–1600)
• Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) — French author, philosopher, and statesman (1533–1592)
• Mimar Sinan (1490–1588) — 16th-century Ottoman chief architect and civil engineer
• John Calvin (1509–1564) — French Protestant reformer (1509-1564)
• François Rabelais (1494–1553) — 16th-century French writer and humanist (1494–1553)
• Thomas More (1478–1535) — English statesman, lawyer and philosopher (1478–1535)
• Charles V (1500–1558) — Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 to 1556 (1500–1558)
• Nostradamus (1503–1566) — French seer and astrologer (1503–1566)

See this war on the interactive map →

Who else was alive in 1490 →