New Year, Christmas lurgy and Pavia puzzling

The lack of posts recently has been due to contracting some kind of respiratory illness, coughing, wheezing and generally feeling tired and washed out.....typically just at the start of Chrismas leave.....

It has also resulted in a complete absence of painting!

I have been reading about the battle of Pavia......

What is clear is that there is no single coherent account of the battle; both the contemporary and modern accounts of the battle differ considerably - a point raised by Martyn in his blog as he considered how to wargame the battle.

https://www.collegeofkings.com/battle-of-pavia-in-2025/

I have found many of the modern accounts make references to "attacking the right flank" or "left flank" without a clear explanation of how this was possible given the limited maps and diagrams.

As usual, the numbers of the opposing forces differ widely and we run into the usual problems of "lances" and how many actual heavy cavalry this represents...

More problematic are issues such as where in the park walls the Imperialists broke into the Parco Viscontio; accounts differ whether it was the east or north walls which has a significant impact on the battle, or where the garrison made a sortee - I have seen both south and north east suggested.

Contemporary woodcuts, paintings and tapestries further confuse matters all choosing to show a perspective from north looking south to Pavia and distorting geography and distances.

Modern wargame reconstructions suffer from all these issues and more, not least perpetuating some common myths.

These include:

The Swiss - normally portrayed as fearsome fanatics - one rule set had a rule they never rout! In this battle their performance was lukewarm and it certainly looks like they routed in a panic at the end; perhaps Bicocca a mere three years earlier had been the high tide of ferocious behaviour.

The French and Italians seem to have played no part aside from the cavalry, artillery and some references to Gascons with the king. The cavalry in wargames are often decisive. In the real battle they seem to have been tardy in arriving and suffered from the terrain and boggy ground.

The Black Band - of which there were two present. Giovanni de Medici had been wounded (and would later die of these wounds); his unit had suffered casualties and was probably posted to the south of Pavia so played no part in the battle. The landsknechts are more problematic. They were named prior to entering French service and are often shown in black uniforms and armour. It seems the original band were supplemented by more mercenaries for an invasion of England under Richard de Pole. Thus there may have been two units - it is perhaps telling that both de Pole and Lorraine are given as leaders. Contemporary depictions do not show black uniforms, although in the Tapestries now in Naples, a few figures are so depicted....

Maps - these vary but are crucial to getting any understanding of the battle. That said, these vary considerably. This is one of the better:

(From https://www.thedevilstonechronicles.com/The-Siege-of-Pavia.php)

Given that the park was fairly waterlogged and the attack was made at night, the tracks and roads would have been used (there is an indication they were raised). From this it s likely the Porta Pescarina and wall adjacent were the point of entry for the Imperial army (the gate on the north wall above).

Assuming the French advances also used the roads for the most part the action seems to have taken place to the east and south of the Mirabello lodge with a subsidiary action to the south around the Five Abbeys (to the east of Pavia itself).

More on numbers and OoB in a subsequent post.