The Battle of Cerignola was fought on 28 April 1503 between Spanish and French armies outside the town of Cerignola, Apulia, Kingdom of Naples (now in modern-day Italy), approximately west of Bari. The Spanish force under the command of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (El Gran Capitán) comprising 6,300 men, including 2,000 Landsknecht pikemen, 1,000 arquebusiers and 20 cannons, defeated the French force of 9,000 men, mainly gendarme heavy cavalry and Swiss mercenary pikemen, with about 40 cannons, led by Louis d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, who was killed during the battle. It was one of the first European battles won by gunpowder weapons, as the attacks by the French cavalry and Swiss pikemen were shattered by the fire of Spanish arquebusiers behind a defensive ditch. Preparations The Third Italian War was re-kindled in late 1502, over disagreements stemming from the secret Treaty of Granada, signed on 11 November 1500. Although it was agreed that Louis XII of France would assume the throne of Naples, he and the monarchs of Spain soon quarreled over several territories between their respective spheres of control. The Spanish forces under Fernández de Córdoba avoided contact with the French at first, hoping to lure the French into complacency. After a series of skirmishes, the battle of Cerignola was the first major engagement in this phase of the war, alongside the second battle of Seminara in Calabria the week before. Fernández de Córdoba was outnumbered but had the advantage of the terrain, with the Spanish occupying and fortifying the heights of Cerignola with ditches and stakes. The Spanish infantry was organized into a new type of unit called coronelías, the immediate predecessor of the later tercios. They were armed with a mix of pikes, arquebuses, and swords. This type of formation had revolutionized the Spanish army, which like the French, had centered on cavalry well into the 15th century, in the battles of the Reconquista against the Muslims in Spain. In front of the hillside, a ditch was dug behind which the arquebusiers took their positions, with the Landsknecht pikemen behind them. The Spanish artillery was placed on top of the hill among the vineyards, having a good view of the entire battlefield. The Spanish light cavalry jinetes screened the front of the position, while the Spanish heavy cavalry under the Italian condottiero Prospero Colonna were kept in reserve. The Spanish troops faced a professional French army based