Gaston of Foix, Duke of Nemours

Nephew of King Louis XII of France and general of his armies in Italy from 1511 to 1512, he is noted for his military feats in a career which lasted no longer than a few months.

French forces had captured Bologna on 13 May 1511[4][5] and were under siege from a combined Papal-Spanish army commanded by Ramón de Cardona, the Viceroy of Naples.

In October 1511, Pope Julius II formed the Holy League with Ferdinand of Aragon and the Republic of Venice.

The Swiss took Bellinzona in December 1511, but Gaston refrained from attacking them, fearing that if he left Milan then the people would rebel behind his back.

Gaston's force marched his army south through the snow to arrive at Ravenna unexpectedly and threatened to besiege it.

The Spanish had their backs to the Ronco River and maintained a relatively secure front thanks to the strong entrenchments and obstacles prepared by the famous engineer Pedro Navarro.

When the Swiss returned and joined the Venetians and together marched on Milan, the new French Commander Jacques de La Palice and his demoralised army fled back to the Dauphiné in June.

Ironically, Ferdinand of Aragon, whose forces Gaston fought at Ravenna, had married his sister Germaine de Foix.

A very elaborate tomb was commissioned for Gaston in Milan from the workshop of Agostino Busti,[7] which despite never being completed and assembled remains a key work in art history, and especially French Renaissance art, with (as planned) classicising relief panels of his campaigns around the base of the sarcophagus, surmounted by a more traditional recumbent effigy.