Jacques de La Palice (or de La Palisse) (1470 – 24 February 1525) was a French nobleman and military officer. He was the lord of Chabannes, La Palice, Pacy, Chauverothe, Bort-le-Comte and Héron. In 1511, he received the title of Grand Master of France. As a Marshal under Francis I, he fought against Habsburg armies, and died during the battle of Pavia.
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Biography
He was born at Lapalisse, Auvergne. At 15, La Palice entered the service of King Charles VIII of France, of his same age. His first battle was that of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier (1488). Four years later he married Jeanne de Montbéron, daughter of chamberlain Eustache de Montbéron. In 1494 he followed the king in war for the Kingdom of Naples, taking part in the latter city's capture in 1495, as well as in the battle of Fornovo (1498) against the Italian League, which allowed the French army to retreat in their homeland.
After Charles' death, La Palice accompanied the new King, Louis XII, in the campaign for Milan, which the French captured in 1499. He conquered several lands in the Abruzzi and in Apulia, being created viceroy of Abruzzo in 1502. However, he was defeated in the battle of Ruvo di Puglia (1503) and made prisoner by Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba. He was freed in 1504, the same year his wife died.
In 1507 he commanded the French vanguard in the siege of Genoa, during which he was seriously wounded. In 1509 the war of the League of Cambrai against the Republic of Venice broke out. La Palice took part in the siege of Treviglio and in the victorious battle of Agnadello; he was then made commander-in-chief of the French troops in Lombardy and, sent to help Emperor Maximilian I, he took part against the Venetians in the unsuccessful siege of Padua in 1509. In 1511, after Charles d'Amboise's death, La Palice became the French overall commander in Italy and was made Grand Master of France.
