Italian War of 1494–1495
war
The First Italian War, or Charles VIII's Italian War, was the opening phase of the Italian Wars. The war pitted Charles VIII of France, who had initial Milanese aid, against the Holy Roman Empire, Spain and an alliance of Italian powers led by Pope Alexander VI, known as the League of Venice.
Timeline
25 January 1494: King Ferdinand I of Naples died and was succeeded by his son Alfonso II of Naples (who also laid claim to Milan). King Charles VIII of France disputed the succession, and began preparations for an invasion of Italy to enforce his claim on the Neapolitan kingship.
5–8 September 1494: Battle of Rapallo. A land battle involving the French fleet. French victory; Neapolitans abandoned Rapallo, which the French army sacked.
11 September 1494: French King Charles VIII and Louis of Orléans arrived in Asti and concluded an alliance with Duke Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este.
17 October 1494: skirmishes near Sant'Agata sul Santerno. Tactical Neapolitan victories.
“Italian War of 1494–1495” enters the record as war. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Italian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Italian War of 1494–1495” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Italian provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1355145. The Library of Congress control number is sh85068952. Authority coordinates are 42.500, 12.500. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1494.
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This entry incorporates text from “Italian War of 1494–1495” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.