Source:dariomadrid.es
Did you know that the Spanish word “bicoca” comes from a battle in which the army of Carlos I of Spain and V of Germany defeated the French and Venetians on 27 April 1522? According to the RAE (Royal Academy of Spanish Language) , “bicoca” is something good achieved without effort. The imperial victory at Bicocca was quick and effortless.
At Bicocca, now a university district of Milan, the army of César Carlos won a crushing victory, driving France out of the Duchy of Milan. The key to the victory was the haste of Swiss mercenaries enlisted with the French and the great Imperial tactics.
The Swiss mercenaries, annoyed at not having been paid, forced the French commander Odet de Lautrec to attack head-on the fortified position where the Imperial Army was located. They wanted to end the battle quickly to sack Milan and collect their pay.
The Imperial Army, commanded by Prospero Colonna, was waiting for them with artillery protected behind a wall built for the battle. Behind the wall were also four lines of Spanish arquebusiers led by the Navarrese Fernando de Avalos.
To reach the imperial positions, the Swiss had to climb an embankment. The Swiss were first hit by the Imperial artillery, which caused around 1,000 casualties. When the artillery ceased, the Spanish arquebusiers were on the Swiss pikemen.
The Swiss who reached the top of the rampart were repelled by German lansquenets. The Swiss were forced to retreat after suffering 4,000 casualties. It is said that the Imperial Army suffered only one death, caused by a donkey’s kick. The battle of Pavia was looming.
Share this article
On this day
- 1276 Jaime I of Aragón dies in Alcira, Valencia.
- 1309 Reconquista: King Fernando IV of Castile breaks the truce he had signed with Muhammad III of Granada and lays siege to Algeciras.
- 1513 King Ferdinand appoints Pedro Arias Davila administrator of the new governorate of Castilla de Oro (Panama).
- 1549 St Francis Xavier, Spanish missionary, arrives on the coast of Japan.
- 1649 The Bank of England is founded
- 1723 The Palace of La Granja (Segovia) is completed and blessed.
- 1909 Spanish troops suffer a heavy defeat during the 2nd Melilla Campaign in the day known as the Desastre del Barranco del Lobo.
- 1923 The first issue of the Revista de Occidente, founded and directed by José Ortega y Gasset until 1936, appears in Madrid.
- 1941 Peru uses an airborne and paratroop attack for the first time in the Western Hemisphere to take Puerto Bolivar during the Peruvian-Ecuadorian war.
History of Spain
