Battle of Anghiari. The Battle of Anghiari was fought on 29 June 1440, between the forces of Milan and those of the Italian League led by the Republic of Florence in the course of the Wars in Lombardy.
The battle was a victory for the Florentines, securing Florentine domination of central Italy. The battle is well known for its depiction in a now-lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci.
It is also remarkable for the fact that though the battle lasted all day, involving several thousand troops, it was said that only one soldier was killed. According to Niccolò Machiavelli after four hours of skirmishing the single death occurred when a soldier fell off his horse.
The League's army concentrated on Anghiari, a small centre of Tuscany, and comprised: 4,000 Papal troops, under Cardinal Ludovico Trevisan; a Florentine contingent of around the same size, and a company of 300 men-at-arms from Venice, led by Micheletto Attendolo. Other men joined for the occasion from Anghiari itself.
The numerically superior Milanese force was led by the famous condottiero Niccolò Piccinino in the name of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti and reached the area on the night of 28 June. Some 2,000 men from the nearby town of Sansepolcro joined the Milanese. Confident in his superior manpower, and on the element of surprise Piccinino ordered an attack in the afternoon of the following day. However, the dust lifted by the Milanese on the
The battle was a victory for the Florentines, securing Florentine domination of central Italy. The battle is well known for its depiction in a now-lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci.
It is also remarkable for the fact that though the battle lasted all day, involving several thousand troops, it was said that only one soldier was killed. According to Niccolò Machiavelli after four hours of skirmishing the single death occurred when a soldier fell off his horse.
The League's army concentrated on Anghiari, a small centre of Tuscany, and comprised: 4,000 Papal troops, under Cardinal Ludovico Trevisan; a Florentine contingent of around the same size, and a company of 300 men-at-arms from Venice, led by Micheletto Attendolo. Other men joined for the occasion from Anghiari itself.
The numerically superior Milanese force was led by the famous condottiero Niccolò Piccinino in the name of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti and reached the area on the night of 28 June. Some 2,000 men from the nearby town of Sansepolcro joined the Milanese. Confident in his superior manpower, and on the element of surprise Piccinino ordered an attack in the afternoon of the following day. However, the dust lifted by the Milanese on the
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