The Battle of Landriano and the Rise of Francesco Taverna

It was Italy in 1529 and Landriano found itself at the height of a battle between empires.

Charles V of Habsburg, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, King of Spain, Duke of Burgundy, Sovereign of Naples and Sicily in 1525 had conquered Lombardy by defeating, in the battle of Pavia, and imprisoning Francis I of Orleans, King of France and Duke of Milan.

In order to obtain freedom, the French king had to sign the humiliating conditions of the Treaty of Madrid in 1526, but the Italian states, worried and frightened by the great power that Spain was assuming in Europe and especially in Italy, decided, together with Francis I, to establish the League of Cognac, with the intent of confronting Charles V.

The following took part in the League of Cognac: the Doge of Venice, Pope Clement VII, the Republic of Florence, the Republic of Genoa, the Duchy of Milan and of course the Kingdom of France with Francis I.

There were several battles on the peninsula and some of them saw the mighty armies on the territory of Landriano, commanded on one side by General Antonio de Levya for the Spanish army and on the other by Francesco Borbone, Count of Saint Pol for the French army.

After the Pope's withdrawal, the army of the League tried, in May 1527, to march to liberate Milan and it was here that it received its first defeat at the hands of our Antonio de Levya, who with a quick maneuver, leaving Milan along the road to Sant'Angelo, took his men to Landriano and from here, following today's Via Cerca, attacked the enemies by surprise and from behind, forcing them to retreat.

A very influential figure, who in those years was moving in the shadows and who in the future would play a key role in Lombardy, is Francesco Taverna belonging to a noble family of Milan, a famous jurist who began his career first as ambassador and grand chancellor of the Duke of Milan in Venice then in Rome and at the court of the King of France, and thus found himself at the center of the political events of the time, such as the stipulation of the League of Cognac. In 1522 Francesco decided to invest in the lands of Landriano, having already owned some, and in those years he purchased the tax revenues of the fiefdom from Antonio Landriani, a lord of the time increasingly in decline. Thanks to this move, with the approval of Francesco Sforza II, Taverna was able to increase his assets and become one of the most important figures of the time, before the Spanish domination.

Returning to our battles, in the summer of 1528, while Levya was in Milan with his armies, the allied armies of the League of Cognac met in Landriano for a war council, which was held inside the castle and which was also attended by the Duke of Urbino; from that council, however, emerged once again the uncertainty as well as the lack of initiative of the commanders in chief and the inferiority complex they felt towards their Spanish adversaries. They tried to get closer to Milan to reconquer it but the enterprise was soon abandoned.

If the French in those years managed to reconquer some cities such as Vigevano and Pavia, reduced to hunger by plagues, wars and famines, they lost the support of Genoa, which decided to ally itself with Charles V of Spain. Thus began a period of crumbling of the League of Cognac, for which both the Pope and the Venetians and even the Duke of Milan himself began to doubt the victory and sought agreements with the Spanish Emperor.

On Thursday 17 June 1529 the French vanguard reached Landriano, ahead of the main army but, as often happened, due to a lack of discipline the preparations degenerated into a sacking of the town. On the 19th the entire French army had arrived in town; that night it rained so hard that, as can be read in the chronicles of the time, the Lambro rose to such a point as to prevent the passage of artillery, so that our Francis of Bourbon of Saint Pol had to wait with his army and the German mercenary soldiers hired for the battles.

Taking advantage of the French being prevented from moving, Antonio de Levya, inspiring the soldiers with a heartfelt speech, urged them to battle and invited them to dress in white shirts to distinguish themselves in the night. Thus, at 8 pm, travelling along the current Val Tidone road, the Spanish army in the silence of the night arrived near Gnignano without being discovered by the French; in the morning, the vanguard of the League's army led by Count Guido II Rangoni, left the camp towards Pavia, passing through Cavagnera and Vidigulfo. Unfortunately, Francesco Borbone di Saint Pol relied on his reconnaissance knights who did not spot the Spanish army.

The Spanish, silently crossing via Milano, now via fratelli Cervi and Belvedere, fell upon the French army, with arquebusiers and knights; the bastions erected by the Venetians a few years earlier to protect the camp were of no use; the French were surprised and surrounded, 600 Spanish infantry simulated a retreat, pushing the opposing army to a pre-established place where over 1000 arquebusiers were waiting for them. The French fell into the ambush, the cavalry was unable to retreat because the lanzichenecchi deserted, trying to escape in a disorderly fashion. Francesco Borbone was thus imprisoned along with other captains. De Levya then continued attacking the other part of the army.

The end of the conflict was sanctioned by the Peace of Cambrai signed on 5 August 1529, also known as the Peace of the Two Ladies because it was negotiated by Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis I, and Margaret of Habsburg, aunt of Charles V. The peace marked the end of the ambition of Francis I and the claims of the League of Cognac. Charles V was finally able to be crowned in 1530 in Bologna.

Having become governor of the Duchy of Milan, Charles V decided to appoint Francesco Taverna as Grand Chancellor of State in 1533; to reward him for his work and loyalty in 1536, by creating the fiefdom of Landriano, he appointed him first count, a title that could also be held by his descendants. The coat of arms of Landriano would no longer be the banner of the Landriani, but that of the Taverna, a greyhound facing a golden star, to symbolize the loyalty of the Taverna family towards the emperor.


Thanks to Francesco we owe the renovation works of the castle, which went from a medieval fortress to a Renaissance noble villa; with the Taverna family as counts the town changed over the years, going from a cluster of farmhouses and houses to the town we know and love today.