Disaster at Pavia
On 14 October, the king was to be found in Briançon, then Pignerol from 15 to 17 October. In the absence of so much of the senior nobility, the kingdom was to be left under the regency of the king's mother Louise, with the duc de Vendôme to monitor Picardy and the Île de France, the comte de Guise and Vaudémont to keep check over Burgundy and Champagne; the comte de Maulévrier, Normandy' the comte de Laval, Brittany; and the seigneur de Lesparre charge over Languedoc.
The king arrived in Milan and now faced a dilemma on how to proceed if he wished to clear the territory of Spanish forces. Some of his captains favoured a strike at Lodi, where the duc de Bourbon and other Imperial captains were held up; others favoured a strike at Pavia. The maréchal de La Palice, and the amiral de Bonnivet favoured this latter course. Francis chose Pavia. The vicomte de Thouars was left in Milan as the king's army made to besiege the city. Having arrived at Pavia, according to Le Fur, La Palice and the armies vanguard established themselves before the castle near the river Ticino. Montmorency and much of the armies infantry made their home in the suburb of San Antonio. The armies rear-guard, under the command of the duc d'Alençon established itself in the fortified Visconti pleasure park to the north of Pavia. Le Roux diverges from Le Fur, stating that Alençon and the soldiers of the rear-guard were to be found to the west of the city around San Lanfranco. Le Roux is supported in this by Le Gall, whose book on the battle places Alençon at San Lanfranco, the royal camp in the park, and the Swiss soldiers to the east of the city outside of the park. The city itself, under the command of the Imperial captain de Levya was well garrisoned with 5,000 landsknechts, 500 arquebusiers, 300 men-at-arms and 200 light horse.
After a few days the besieging army succeeded in establishing a breach in the walls. An assault was therefore launched on 8 November. The first soldiers through the breach were mown down, and those behind them refused to follow. Though so many had died in the first assault, Francis imagined a second, though never gave the order for it. The siege was bitter, with both Montmorency, and de Levya threatening to hang prisoners that fell into their hands.
Racked by disease and defections, the French army soon lacked the strength to capture Pavia by assault. Nevertheless Francis remained confident, thinking the garrison wanted for pay and supplies, and would sooner defect than offer battle.
Keen to avoid a battle between the French and the Imperials, the Pope proposed to Francis a compromise deal by which his second son, the duc d'Orléans, would receive Milan, the dispossessed Sforza would be financially compensated and the Emperor would be assured his share of Naples. Francis, confident of victory, rejected this intervention.
Around this time, the Imperial commanders de Lannoy, Bourbon and the marquis of Pescara departed from Lodi at the head of 20,000 infantry, 7,000 men-at-arms and 500 light horse. Their first target was the French held castle of San Angelo on the road to Pavia. An assault on the castle was launched on 24 January, and proved successful. While this suggested to some of the French that a battle was imminent, the king refused to be led away to Milan, and stayed outside Pavia. He moved to the castello di Mirabello in the Visconti park, before heading to the monasteries of San Jacopo and San Paolo which were situated at the end of the park, and where Alençon and the rear-guard were to be found according to Le Fur.
Come the start of February, de Lannoy had installed himself to the north of Pavia, at the end of the Visconti park. The French besiegers of Pavia, were now themselves to be besieged. On 23 February, the movement of Imperial troops tricked the French into believing they were about to retreat. In fact, in the evening the Imperial pioneers and soldiers set to work destroying parts of the northern wall of the park.
During the night, the Imperials breached the park. According to the historian Crouzet, the French army assumed battle lines behind a trench with the king in the centre, the duc d'Alençon commanding the right and the maréchal de La Palice commanding the left. According to Michon, Alençon instead commanded the left. In the artillery duel that followed, the French artillery proved much superior to the Imperial artillery, which was poorly ranged. With the battle going well, Francis got carried away. Francis and the vanguard now charged into the Imperials, however, this impeded the French artillery from firing, thereby allowing the Imperials under de Lannoy to regroup. Francis and his cavalry advanced too far too fast, and were separated from the rest of the French army. They now came under fire from the arquebusiers of the marchese di Pescara. The Imperial forces succeeded in driving back the French landsknechts, meanwhile the forces under Alençon proved lethargic to provide support. Francis was unhorsed, and then made prisoner. Le Gall suggests that Alençon's slow provision of support or lack of support was a product of the fact that as the king had been captured, there was little point in continuing the fight. The French army collapsed, the battle having lasted little more than two hours. Alençon and his 400 lances of the rear-guard fled across a bridge over the Ticino, destroying it behind them. The destruction of the bridge meant that more French soldiers attempting to flee drowned. Michon summarises Alençon's command during the battle as short sighted and indecisive, though personally brave.
In total, Knecht puts stock in the figures of Russell for the casualties, placing those killed at around 1,200 with many more drowning in the Ticino with 10,000 made prisoner, while Imperial casualties numbered more than 1,500 total. The battle was the most significant slaughter of the French nobility since the battle of Agincourt. Among the dead on the field were to be found the amiral de Bonnivet, the maréchal de La Palice, meanwhile the maréchal de Lescun and the grand maître de Tende were fatally wounded by the combat. In addition to the dead were the vast host of prisoners, chief among which was the king himself.
Alençon survived the combat of Pavia without being made captive, the "only important French nobleman" to enjoy this privilege according to Knecht, and he retreated out of Italy back to Lyon. In his absence from France, the parlement of Paris had looked to the duc de Vendôme as the premier prince du sang. Alençon is alleged to have received a frosty reception from his wife, and Louise upon his return to France, however this is now largely a fiction. Marguerite took care of him as he fell ill and then died on 11 April. Some of the chroniclers suggested that he died of shame despite the mention of pleurisy in various sources. The idea that he died of sadness for having abandoned the field was also a contemporary suggestion. The modern historian Crouzet notes that his death was one without glory, filled with remorse for abandoning the field at Pavia. Michon meanwhile states that on his deathbed he blamed himself for Francis' defeat.
Francis himself, writing poems in his Spanish captivity, cursed those who had fled the battlefield at Pavia, among whom was Alençon.
Alençon was buried without ceremony on 1 May 1525.
During his life, the prince had been convinced by the queen mother Louise and the chancellor Duprat, to establish as his heir Francis' son the duc d'Orléans (future king Henry II), to the detriment of his own sister Françoise. This was much to the vexation of his sister's husband, the duc de Vendôme. Though the latter figure remained at court during the period of the kingdom's crisis, it was in a state of discontent for this cause among others.
Alençon was outlived by his wife, Marguerite, who during her remaining lifetime maintained the majority of the various seigneuries her late husband had held, including the duché d'Alençon. When she died in 1549, the lands were reunited with the royal domain.
The government of Normandy, vacated by his death, was granted by the king to the comte de Maulévrier upon the latter's return from Imperial captivity in March 1526. He would be invested with the charge on 6 May. Meanwhile, the government of Brittany was granted to the comte de Laval on 27 August of the same year.
