Battle of Casaloldo

During the 16th century, the expansionist ambitions of the Gonzaga family led to several clashes over the conquest of border villages of their Marquisate. Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua, joined the League of Cambrai on 8 December 1508, to counter the expansion of the Republic of Venice.

On 1 May 1509, when the bulk of the Venetian army was emcamped in Pontevico, the Marquess of Mantua and his army were in Canneto sull'Oglio, a town located near the border between the Marquisate of Mantua and the Republic of Venice. On that day, 200 French lancers, followed by 24 carts of fodder, wine and poultry, traversed the Po in Casalmaggiore using a pontoon bridge. After crossing the river, they went to Canneto sull'Oglio, where Francesco II distributed them into the surrounding villages. By then, the Marquess had assembled around 5,000 infantrymen, 200 knights, 200 cavalrymen and 400 crossbowmen on horseback in Canneto sull'Oglio. That army resulted difficult to maintain due to the small territory of the Marquisate and the large number of horses, which needed lots of fodder. Gonzaga paid the knights but he could not pay the infantrymen. The Venetians, warned of the movements of the Mantuans, began to fear hostile actions in the rear areas which were poorly defended, since most of their soldiers were marching towards Gera d'Adda to fight the French army.^[1]

On 3 May, a messenger sent by Louis XII, King of France, met the Marquess with orders to move his army to Casalmaggiore and then cross the Po, the Emilian countryside and go to Maccastorna, to unite his army to the French one. The Venetians knew that the Emilian cities were poorly defended, to the point that they could be easyly conquered, if attacked in time. Furthermore, if the Venetians would threaten to invade the Marquisate, Francesco II would probably switch to the Serenissima's side and his army wouldn't join in the bigger French one. However, an offensive on Canneto would be very difficult, due to the presence of 30 cannons in the town. The next day, a big part of the Mantuan army started its march to Maccastorna with around 3.500 soldiers and the artillery, preceded by the Marquess, who spent the night in Colorno in the palace of Elisabetta Costanza, Galeazzo Sanseverino's wife.^[2]