CC 006 Pita da Veiga

On 24 February 1525, during the Battle of Pavia, the forces of Emperor Charles V defeated the French army of Francis I in one of the most decisive engagements of the Italian Wars. The French defeat culminated in an extraordinary event: the capture of the King of France himself.

Among the men involved in this episode was Alonso Pita da Veiga, a Galician knight serving as a man-at-arms in the Imperial heavy cavalry. Together with Juan de Urbieta and Diego de Ávila, he took part in the capture of Francis I after the French king's horse was brought down during the fighting. The three men became forever associated with one of the most famous episodes in sixteenth-century military history.

Alonso Pita da Veiga left his own account of the events in a chronicle known as The Campaign of Pavia and the Imprisonment of the King of France. His testimony is an exceptional historical source, offering the perspective of one of the men directly involved in the capture.

The Imperial victory had far-reaching political and military consequences. Francis I was taken to Spain, where he remained a prisoner until the signing of the Treaty of Madrid in 1526. The capture of the French monarch gave the Battle of Pavia an extraordinary resonance throughout Europe.

The memory of Alonso Pita da Veiga and his companions recalls the importance of the heavy cavalry in the Italian Wars and the moment when the fate of two great European monarchies was decided on the battlefield.