Template:/box-header1 The military history of France includes both those military actions centered on the territory encompassing modern France, and the military history of French-speaking peoples of European descent, both in Europe and in Europe's overseas possessions and territories.
If starting from the Franks, French military history encompasses about 1,500 years. However, the Gauls are the more preferred and popular starting point, partly because Gallo-Roman culture laid the foundation for the current French people. In that case, the breadth and scope of French military history extends for a few more centuries. Such lengthy periods of warfare have allowed peoples of France to often be at the forefront of military developments, and as a result military trends emerging in France have had a decisive impact on European and world history.
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The
War of the League of Cambrai, sometimes known as the
War of the Holy League and by several other names, was a major conflict in the
Italian Wars. The principal participants of the war, which was fought from 1508 to 1516, were
France, the
Papal States, and the
Republic of Venice; they were joined, at various times, by nearly every significant power in
Western Europe, including
Spain, the
Holy Roman Empire, the
Kingdom of England, the
Kingdom of Scotland, the
Duchy of Milan,
Florence, the
Duchy of Ferrara, and the
Swiss.
Pope Julius II, intending to curb Venetian influence in northern
Italy, had created the
League of Cambrai, an anti-Venetian alliance that included, besides himself,
Louis XII of France,
Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and
Ferdinand I of Spain. Although the League was initially successful, friction between Julius and Louis caused it to collapse by 1510; Julius then allied himself with Venice against France. The Veneto-Papal alliance eventually expanded into the Holy League, which drove the French from Italy in 1512; disagreements about the division of the spoils, however, led Venice to abandon the alliance in favor of one with France. Under the leadership of
Francis I, who had succeeded Louis to the throne, the French and Venetians would, through their victory at
Marignano in 1515, regain the territory they had lost; the treaties of
Noyon and
Brussels, which ended the war the next year, would essentially return the map of Italy to the status quo of 1508.
