The Italian War of 1542–1546 was a conflict late in the Italian Wars, pitting Francis I of France and Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Henry VIII of England. The course of the war saw extensive fighting in Italy, France, and the Low Countries, as well as attempted invasions of Spain and England. The conflict was inconclusive and ruinously expensive for the major participants.
The siege of Nice by a Franco-Ottoman fleet in 1543 (drawing by Toselli, after an engraving by Aeneas Vico)
William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (engraving by Heinrich Aldegrever, c. 1540). William allied himself with Francis I, marrying Jeanne d'Albret, but was defeated by Charles V.
Suleiman the Magnificent (painting by a member of the Venetian school, 16th century)
Battles and sieges in northern France and the Low Countries during the war
The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between 1494 and 1559, mostly in the Italian Peninsula, but later expanding into Flanders, the Rhineland and Mediterranean Sea. The primary belligerents were the Valois kings of France, and their Habsburg opponents in the Holy Roman Empire and Spain. At different points, various Italian states participated in the war, some on both sides, with limited involvement from England and the Ottoman Empire.
Left to right, top to bottom: Battle of Fornovo, 1495 Battle of Ravenna, 1512 Battle of Marignano, 1515 Battle of Pavia, 1525 Battle of Ceresole, 1544 Battle of St. Quentin, 1557
Italy after the 1454 Peace of Lodi
Louis XII
Emperor Maximilian, c. 1508