Under the leadership of Francis I, who had succeeded Louis on the throne of France, the French and Venetians would regain the territory they had lost in a campaign culminating in the Battle of Marignano in 1515; the treaties of Noyon (August 1516) and Brussels (December 1516), which ended the war the next year, would essentially return the map of Italy to the status quo of 1508.

In the aftermath of the First Italian War (1494–1498), Pope Alexander VI had, with French assistance, moved to consolidate Papal control over central Italy by seizing the Romagna.

[13] Sensing Cesare's weakness, the dispossessed lords of the Romagna offered to submit to the Republic of Venice in exchange for aid in regaining their dominions; the Venetian Senate accepted and had taken possession of Rimini, Faenza, and a number of other cities by the end of 1503.

[17] Julius, although unsatisfied with his gains, did not himself possess sufficient forces to fight the Republic; for the next two years he instead occupied himself with the reconquest of Bologna and Perugia, which, located between Papal and Venetian territory, had in the meantime assumed a status of quasi-independence.

[21] In the spring of 1508, the Republic provoked Julius by appointing her own candidate to the vacant bishopric of Vicenza; in response, the Pope called for all Christian nations to join him in an expedition to subdue Venice.

[23] The agreement provided for the complete dismemberment of Venice's territory in Italy and for its partition among the signatories: Maximilian, in addition to regaining Gorizia, Trieste, Merania, and eastern Istria, would receive Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and the Friuli; France would annex Brescia, Crema, Bergamo, and Cremona to its Milanese possessions; Ferdinand would seize Otranto; and the remainder, including Rimini and Ravenna, would be added to the Papal States.

[29] Pitigliano managed to avoid encountering Louis; but his mercenary troops, hearing of Alviano's defeat, had deserted in large numbers by the next morning, forcing him to retreat to Treviso with the remnants of the Venetian army.

[33] Julius, having in the meantime issued an interdict against Venice that excommunicated every citizen of the Republic, invaded the Romagna and captured Ravenna with the assistance of Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara.

[41] Although French and Imperial artillery successfully breached Padua's walls, the defenders managed to hold the city until Maximilian, growing impatient, lifted the siege on 1 October and withdrew to Tyrol with the main part of his army.

[45] The terms insisted on by the Pope were harsh: the Republic lost her traditional power to appoint clergy in her territory, as well as all jurisdiction over Papal subjects in Venice, the Romagnan cities that had prompted the war were to be returned to Julius, and reparations were to be paid to cover his expenses in capturing them.

[48] Gianpaolo Baglioni and Andrea Gritti, left in command of the Venetian forces by Pitigliano's death in January, withdrew to Padua; by 24 May, the League's armies had taken Vicenza and the Polesine, and were advancing on Legnago.

[49] Gritti fortified Padua for an expected attack by a combined Franco-Imperial army, but Louis, frustrated by Maximilian's failure to appear in person and distracted by the death of his advisor, the Cardinal d'Amboise, abandoned his plans for a siege.

[58] Julius now realized that the Bolognese were openly hostile to the Papacy and would not offer any resistance to the French; left with only a detachment of Venetian cavalry, he resorted to excommunicating d'Amboise, who had in the meantime been convinced by the English ambassador to avoid attacking the person of the Pope and had thus withdrawn to Ferrara.

[60] Alfonso d'Este, meanwhile, confronted and destroyed the Venetian forces on the Po River, leaving Bologna isolated once more; Julius, afraid of being trapped by the French, departed the city for Ravenna.

[64] The new alliance included not only Spain and the Holy Roman Empire (which abandoned any pretense of adhering to the League of Cambrai in hopes of seizing Navarre from Queen Catherine and Lombardy from Louis), but also Henry VIII of England who, having decided to use the occasion as an excuse to expand his holdings in northern France, concluded the Treaty of Westminster—a pledge of mutual aid against the French—with Ferdinand on 17 November.

[67] Aware that much of the French army would be diverted to deal with the impending English invasion, Foix and Alfonso d'Este besieged Ravenna, the last Papal stronghold in the Romagna, in hopes of forcing the Holy League into a decisive engagement.

[73] In 1512 Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset led an unsuccessful English military expedition to France to reconquer Aquitaine, which England had lost during the Hundred Years' War.

[79] The Emperor refused to relinquish any Imperial territory, which in his eyes included most of the Veneto, and signed an agreement with the Pope to exclude Venice entirely from the final partition; when the Republic objected, Julius threatened to reform the League of Cambrai against her.

[99] In December, he met with Leo at Bologna; the pope, who had in the meantime been deserted by the remainder of his Swiss mercenaries, surrendered Parma and Piacenza to Francis and Modena to the Duke of Ferrara.

[102] Maximilian held out, making another attempt to invade Lombardy; his army failed to reach Milan before turning back, and by December 1516, he had entered into negotiations with Francis.

[103] The resulting Treaty of Brussels not only accepted French occupation of Milan, but also confirmed Venetian claims to the remainder of the Imperial possessions in Lombardy (except for Cremona), effectively ending the war with a return to the status quo of 1508.