[4] The Spanish force under the command of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (El Gran Capitán) comprising around 9,000 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.

Cerignola was probably the first European battle to be won by small firearms, as the attacks by the French cavalry and Swiss pikemen were shattered by the fire of Spanish arquebusiers.

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.

[10] The Spanish troops faced a professional French army based on the Ordonnance reforms, relying on the heavy armoured cavalry of the Compagnies d'ordonnance and mercenary Swiss pikemen.

Held by the Landsknechts in the front, fired into their flanks by the arquebusiers and harassed by the Spanish light cavalry, the Swiss and French were again driven back with heavy casualties, including Chandieu.

[10] "..what happened in the battle of Chirinola {Cerignola}; where an Italian, believing the Spanish were beaten, threw fire in the powder wagons, and the army being confused by such an accident, El Gran Capitan was encouraged saying 'good sign friends, those are the lights of victory' and thus it was."

The end of the battle saw the first time a "call to prayer" (toque de oracion) was issued, a practice that was later adopted by most Western armies, when the Great Captain, upon seeing the fields full of French bodies (who, like the Spaniards, were Christian), ordered three long tones to be played and his troops to pray for all the fallen.

[10] In retrospect, Cerignola marks the rise of pike and shot tactics and the beginning of 140 years of Spanish dominance on European battlefields until the defeat of Rocroi in 1643 .