After months of exhausting siege warfare, two of Europe’s leading powers—the Kingdom of France and the Habsburgs—clashed at the Battle of Pavia. The battle marked the dramatic climax of their decades-long struggle for supremacy on the continent, fought primarily on the battlefields of Italy. It was also a pivotal moment in military development. At Pavia, the modern pike-and-shot infantry of Emperor Charles V faced the most formidable heavy cavalry in Europe—the French gendarmes. Would the old elite prevail once more, or was a new era about to begin? This is how modern historiography recounts the Battle of Pavia.
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