Western History 84: What were the Italian Wars?

The Italian Wars are name given to a series of conflicts that primarily saw the Habsburg dominated Holy Roman/Spanish Empires fight the French Valois monarchy for dominion over the Italian peninsula. The war is also known as the Great Wars of Italy or the Renaissance Wars. 

The War was initiated by Charles VIII of France’s invasion of Italy in 1494. Historians typically divide the war into several phases – Italian War (1494-1498), Italian War (1499-1504), War of the League of Cambrai (1508-1516), Italian War (1521-1526), War of the League of Cognac (1526-1530), and the Three Italian Wars from 1535 to 1559. The end result of the fights was a win for the Habsburgs.

 Philip II of Spain became King of Naples and Sicily, much of Italy fell into foreign hands (Spain) with only a few formerly independent Italian Republics surviving. Venice would begin its slow decline and Florence would also fall under the Spanish orbit. The French failed to have their ambitions met in Italy but they did succeed in capturing Calais from the English.  The war on one level set the stage for the Thirty Years War were which would dominate Central European politics for the first half of the 17^th century.