The Battle of Cerignola is fought. It is noted as the first battle in history won by small arms fire using gunpowder

The Battle of Cerignola was fought on April 28, 1503, between Spanish and French armies, in Cerignola, near Bariin Southern Italy. Spanish forces, under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, formed by 6,300 men, including 2,000 landsknechte, with more than 1,000 arquebusiers, and 20 cannons, defeated the French who had 9,000 men; mainly heavy gendarme cavalry and Swiss mercenary pikemen, with about 40 cannons, and led by Louis d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, who was killed.

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, called "El Gran Capitán" (The Great Captain), had many strategic advantages. He formed his infantry into new units called "Coronelías," that were the seed of the later Tercios. They were armed with a mix of pikes, arquebuses and swords. This type of formation had revolutionized the Spanish army, which like the French, had also centred upon cavalry from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, in the battles of the Reconquista against the Muslims in Spain.

The Spanish troops had occupied the heights of Cerignola, and entrenched his soldiers with walls and stakes. In front of the hillside, a trench was dug in which the arquebusiers took their positions.

The Spanish artillery was placed on top of the hill among the wineyards, having a good view of the entire battlefield. The jinetes, Spanish light cavalry, were placed in front of the rest of the army, while the Spanish heavy cavalry under Prospero Colonna were kept in reserve.

De Córdoba's troops faced a professional French army based on the Ordonnance reforms, relying on the heavily armoured cavalry of the Compagnies d'ordonnance and mercenary Swiss pikemen; however, at the same time, this army had more artillery than the Spanish. This paradox would be constant in the French armies through the first half of the sixteenth century. The French artillery however would not arrive in time to take active part in the battle.

The Battle

The battle began with two charges by the French heavy cavalry, against the centre of the Spanish army, but was dispersed by Spanish heavy artillery and arquebus fire on both occasions. The next assault tried to force the right flank, but many of the French cavalrymen fell into the Spanish trench and the attack was then broken by a storm of fire from the Spanish arquebusiers.

One of those killed by the arquebus volley was the French commander Duke of Nemours, making him probably the first general killed in action by small arms fire. With the Swiss commander, Chandieu, taking charge, the Swiss infantry attacked with the cavalry instead of waiting for the arrival of the French rear guard under d'Alègre.

At the imminent assault upon the Spanish center the Spanish arquebusiers were withdrawn and the Landsknechts sent forward. The Swiss formations, soon joined by the Gascons, were unable to break into the defensive positions. Shot into the flank by the arquebusiers and harassed by the Spanish cavalry, the Swiss and French were driven back, taking heavy casualties including Chandieu.

De Córdoba then called for a counterattack against the now disorganized enemy by both the Spanish infantry and the heavy Spanish cavalry waiting in reserve. Mounted arquebusiers surrounded and routed the remaining French gendarmes, but the Swiss pikeman managed to retreat in a relatively organized fashion.

Upon witnessing the defeat of both the gendarmes and the pikemen, Yves d'Alègre, the commander of the French rear guard, called for a withdrawal. He was pursued by the victorious Spanish jinetes.

"..what happened in the battle of Chirinola {Cerignola}; where an Italian, believing the Spanish were beaten, threw fire in the powder wagons, and the army being confused by such an accident, El Gran Capitan was encouraged saying 'good sign friends, those are the lights of victory' and thus it was."