Pavia 1525: The Climax of the Italian Wars (Campaign, 44) Paperback – November 15, 1996

I have been very pleased with and impressed with the quality of Osprey publications. The Campaign series are focused on military campaigns from ancient times through the current era. I have found the books in the Osprey Campaign series to be a great source and frequently the only source for well-researched information on military campaigns especially in the ancient campaigns through early 20th century campaigns.

Angus Konstam does an excellent job of making sense of a confusing battle. I have read several dscriptions of the battle of Pavia before, which only left me confused about exactly what happened. After this book, I finally understand the battle. The author has done some impressive research with primary sources to understand what actually happened and does a first rate job (aided by plenty of well laid out maps) explaining it. My only gripes are that the author does not do a better job describing the armies and how they fought (altho much of this can be gleaned from the battle description) and too many pages were wasted on a poorly done chapter on how to wargame the battle.

This is one of the best productions of the rather uneven Osprey series. It is unfortunately prone to the problems of sloppy editing and production which dog the series, but is still an excellent short treatment of the battle, within the limitations of the slim-volume Osprey format. It gave me my first clear insight into what went on, after floundering amongst accounts which could not even clearly identify the size and location of the hunting park in which it all happened.Konstam opens with a short but adequate summary of the strategic confrontation, already a generation old, between France and Spain in Italy, and the series of dynastic accidents which united almost all France's potential enemies, in Spain, Italy, Germany and Burgundy, under the personal rule of the Emperor Charles V. He also includes a series of excellent thumbnail sketches of the main actors. He could profitably have outlined in more detail the reasons for the generation gap which did so much to weaken the French command, but a full analysis of that issue would require a whole volume on Renaissance military sociology. His analysis of the events of the year leading up to Pavia is also thorough, within the limits of space.The reconstruction of the battle itself is lucid and convincing. One is inclined to scepticism over the precision of the timings given, but it was not a long battle and given the amount of ground to cover and the possible speed of movement, they can't be far out - and Konstam has walked the ground himself. At Pavia a major role in the destruction of the French cavalry was played by the Imperialist musketeers, which has led some commentators to claim it as marking some sort of military revolution. Konstam avoids falling into this trap; the immediate tactical cause of the French defeat was the centuries-old propensity of the gendarmerie to make mutton-headed charges against ill-selected objectives. Pavia was in many ways a transitional battle; musketry and field artillery were important, but many tactical details could have happened one, or even two, centuries earlier.In a broader perspective, the real root of victory and defeat was the marked superiority of Imperialist command and control. The French seem never to have had a coherent plan for dealing with the Imperialist army encamped on their doorstep. The Imperialists started out with a plan that was nearly the classic "surgical strike" at the French command centre and artillery reserve, but that turned out to be based on outdated intelligence. But, with both sides facing an unexpected situation, the French could not achieve more than ad hoc reactive responses, while the Imperialists maintained an impressive degree of mutual support - famously, Frundsberg's disengagement and re-direction of his Landsknechts to de Vasto's support after breaking the first Swiss counter-attack, but also in the sortie of de Leyva's garrison from Pavia. On principle, it should have been the Imperialist command, drawn from every corner of a multi-lingual and multi-cultural empire, which was less cohesive in planning and in action - but it was the culturally more uniform French whose cracks showed first and worst. Konstam does not address this issue - but to be fair, that would require a work of heavy military sociology. Even Sir John Hale's 'War and Society in Renaissance Europe' does not (IMHO) really get to grips with the factors affecting command performance.Finally, Konstam does justice to the curiously inconclusive aftermath of the battle. Theoretically, the capture of the King and destruction of the flower of the French nobility should have led to a total Imperialist victory in the war - but as the English discovered long before, France could absorb such blows. Charles's overstretched empire could not capitalise on its advantage, and lost all moral sanction when the exiled Duc de Bourbon's Landsknechts (Frundsberg's old command) sacked Rome - to the point that the Pope absolved Francis from honouring his oaths given on surrender. So France stood - but Italy went in the end to Charles's House of Hapsburg, for the French never resolved their internal problems (not for over 100 years, anyway).The book is very well illustrated. The artwork is good (though as usual the carnage in the battle scenes is understated) and the perspective maps are clear. Konstam also draws extensively and to good effect on the numerous contemporary and near contemporary illustrations. Fortunately for posterity, Pavia was fought in the High Renaissance when Europe was binging on the graphic arts and battlefields were a respectable artistic subject. It is only a shame that space did not permit reproduction of some of the illustrations on a large enough scale - very detailed woodcuts and copper engravings are a labour to the eye when compressed.One can quibble with a few points of Konstam's style. Readers not familiar with the language distinctions between England and Lowland Scotland may be puzzled by his use of the Scots "Marishal" rather than the English "Marshal" to translate the French "Maréchal", but this is a minor distraction (and some of my best friends are Scots, honest!). Less forgivable are a series of basic errors in French, such as an evident confusion between "Comte" (Count as a title of honour) and "Compte" (count as in pennies), and between the Dauphin (the title of the French Crown Prince) and Dauphiné (the name of a French province). Not to mention "Aix le Provence", a strictly Anglophone (Scottophone?) aberration for the place the French call Aix en Provence. A good editor (which Osprey seems to lack) should have dealt with such matters, and also detected the more egregious typos before the book went to press.

In the Winter of 1524, Francis I sent his Army over the Alpine passes into Northern Italy. Having seized his primary objective of Milan, he pursued the retreating Imperialist troops to the town of Pavia. Soon the campaign lost momentum and the beseiger became the besieged.Angus Konstam does a workmanlike job in describing the complex details of the campaign. However, like many Osprey campaign books, this work is uneven. The written text is very strong but unfortunately the visual aspects of this book are a lot weaker. Graham Turner's water color and pen illustrations are unintersting and the maps are of very poor quality. The most dissapointing visual aspect of the book are the black and white photos of the colorful battle paintings that were produced contemporanously with the siege. Although published in 1996, this Osprey volume looks tired and dated.

Pavia 1525 is a typical Osprey Campaign book (for those familiar with the type). The author does a good job of identifying and differentiating between the different people and forces involved in this somewhat confused campaign. I found Mr. Konstam's narrative and analysis quite good. While Pavia may have been the "Climax of the Italian Wars," don't look for a great deal of tactical or historical sgnificance. The book's greatest drawback is sloppy editing. The text is occasionally broken up, or even repeated. The captions often refer the reader to some detail of a postage-stamp-sized picture, indicating that the editor was more concerned with page layout than informative content.

Tous mes remerciements les plus sincères au vendeur pour la qualité de son envoi. Ce numéro de la série campaign illustre à merveilles l'extravagance des costumes de cette époque, surtout ceux des lansquenets allemands. A conseiller pour les amateurs des guerres d'Italie.