Bartolomeo d'Alviano

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Bartolomeo d'Alviano (1455-1515) was an eminent Venetian general and captain who distinguished himself in the defence of the Venetian Republic against the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian.

[edit] Biography

The son of Francesco d'Alviano and Isabella degli Atti, Bartolomeo fought very early in his life in Central Italy, serving the Papal States and, in 1496, the Orsini family against pope Alexander VI and the Colonna.

In 1503, hired by Ferdinand II of Spain, he was determinant in the victory at the Battle of Garigliano over the French army, which started the Spanish domination over southern Italy. In 1507, together with Nicolò Orsini, was hired by the Republic of Venice. The following year he defeated the imperial Army of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in Cadore, at Mauria and Pontebba, conquering Gorizia and Trieste. In the same year Pordenone also fell and the Serenissima asigned its seignory to Alviano himself.

In 1509, however, he was crushingly defeated at the Battle of Agnadello, being also wounded in the fray. Alviano was charged of the result, as he allegedly attacked the enemy without the authorisation of Orsini, then commander-in-chief. Captured by the French, he remained in jail until 1513. In 1513, after the alliance between France and Venice against the Duchy of Milan, he was freed, and later fought under the Franch commander Louis de la Trémoille. He was defeated at Vicenza by the Spanish viceroy of Naples Ramón de Cardona.

Later Alviano conquered back, and sacked, Pordenone, which in the meantime had fell again to Habsburg house. He was subsequently a protagonist of the French victory at Marignano (September 1515), in which he attacked the Swiss mercenary with a corps of only 300 knights. Later he managed to conquer also Bergamo, but died in the October of the same year during the siege of Brescia.

He was buried in the church of Santo Stefano in Venice.