"My God! What is this?!" cried Francis I, the bewildered and soon to be captured King of France. Or at least that's what has come down to us; I'm always suspicious of battlefield quotes. Who heard him, and how did they hear him?? But, if it is what the desperately shocked monarch screamed outside the city of Pavia as his army died around him, it would make sense. Francis's feudal outlook on the world was rooted in a system 500 or more years old. For most of that time, the idea that it would or could change would have been ludicrous, even blasphemy….

This week, let's go back to Northern Italy, and a power struggle between King and Emperor. Let's go back to the enclosed hunting ground of Visconti Park, with its Castle-like lodge, wide-open fields, boggy canals, and wooded thickets. Let's go back to a time when Swiss mercenaries were just as likely to win you a battle as they were to walk away, all depending on the pay—when the german Landsknechtes fought like lions at carnival, ferocious but decked out in outrageously colorful garb. Where a military revolution was well underway, one that combined modern weapons with old ways, let's go back to a place where a King was captured, and the common man became a threat to everything and everyone. Let's go back to February 24th, 1525, and the battle of Pavia.

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Sources - European War 1453-1815 Edited by Jeremy Black, Thomas F. Arnold's The Renaissance At War, Military History Monthly, Fighting Techniques of Medieval World by Bennett, DeVries, Bradbury, Dickie, and Jestice

Music:

Journey in the New World by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Source: http://www.twinmusicom.org/song/258/journey-in-the-new-world

Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org

Art - Melhak @ Fiverr