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League of Cambrai
League of Cambrai
1508–1511
	Northern Italy in 1494.
Status	Military coalition
Membership	Papal States; Kingdom of France; Holy Roman Empire; Spain; Duchy of Ferrara; Kingdom of Hungary; Duchy of Savoy;
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 8 December 1508, by the main European powers (Holy Roman Empire, Spain and France), to maintain their hegemony over the Italian Peninsula.

Membership

The following were members of 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).

Objectives

The treaty was signed in the Picard town of Cambrai. In its preamble, a stated pretext for the treaty is peace between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Duke of Guelders, mediated by Spanish and Papal ambassadors. The following was also remarked against the Venetian Republic:

[...] 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 castles, 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 stipulated the following partition of Venice's mainland and overseas territories:

to the Holy Roman Empire: Treviso, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Friuli, and Istria
to the Kingdom of France: Brescia, Bergamo, Crema, Cremona, and Gera d'Adda
to the Spanish Empire: Trani, Brindisi, Otranto and Gallipoli
to the Papal States: Ravenna, Cervia, Rimini, Faenza and its castles, and also some possessions near Cesena and Imola
to the Duchy of Ferrara: Polesine, Este, and Scodosia di Montagna
to the Marquisate of Mantua: Peschiera, Asola, and Lonato

to the Kingdom of Hungary, if it joined the alliance: Dalmatia

to the Duchy of Savoy, if it joined the alliance: Cyprus

Conflict

For some time, Venice had developed suspicions of an emerging alliance against them, in some part due to hostile speeches by the French ambassador.^[1]

The League fought against Venetian forces between 1508 and 1511. After they routed the Venetian army in Battle of Agnadello, they invaded Veneto and marched on Venice; however, they were defeated by Bartolomeo d'Alviano at the Siege of Padua. The Venetians began a counter-offensive campaign, retaking a large part of Veneto but suffering defeat at the naval battle of Polesella.

In 1510, Pope Julius II left the League and allied with the Venetians against France, having grown suspicious of French ambitions in Italy. The League of Cambrai was effectively dissolved the following year, when Spain and the Holy Roman Empire also abandoned the League to join Venetian and Papal forces in a new multi-nation alliance called the Holy League, designed to check French power.

References

^ 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

Mallett, M. E. (2006). The Military Organisation of a Renaissance State: Venice C.1400 to 1617. ISBN 978-0521032476.

Marocchi, Massimo (2010). I Gonzaga e Lonato 1509-1515 (in Italian). Brescia.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Chiappini, Luciano (2001). Gli estensi. Storia di mille anni (in Italian). Ferrara. ISBN 9788882690298.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Locatelli, Francesco (1985). La fabbrica ducale estense delle artiglierie (in Italian). Bologna. OCLC 18349517.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)