Galeazzo Sanseverino, Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este Bernardo Contarini, Luca Pisani and Melchiorre Trevisan The siege of Novara took place in the summer and autumn of 1495 during the Italian War of 1494–1495.

While the Franco-Milanese advance towards Naples went swiftly, accomplished on 22 February 1495, Charles' harsh policy of violent reprisals against any resistance resulted in death and destruction across cities and countries along the peninsula, to the horror of the Italian population and courts.

But Beatrice d'Este, as a woman of strong and valiant soul, chased him up, and made him once think of him as Sovereign.However, the state was suffering from a severe financial crisis, there was no money to pay for the army and the people threatened the revolt.

Philippe de Commines wrote that, if the Duke of Orleans had advanced only a hundred paces, the Milanese army would have crossed the Ticino again, and he would have managed to enter Milan since some noble citizens had offered to let him in.

[5] Ludovico did not resist the tension and fell ill, perhaps due to a stroke (according to the hypothesis of some historians), since, as reported by the chronicler Malipiero, he had become paralytic of a hand, he never left the bedroom and was rarely seen.

There we were a bit tempted to be hard on Ludovico: the patriotic indignation with which Guicciardini so eloquently scourges "this man born for fun and wealth, so skilled banker, so miserable and cowardly soldier, liar, traitor and murderer.

", who, in the hour of danger, only knew how to hide and cry, to which his wife Beatrice had to come to shame her cowardice, a merchant unable to take the lead of a battalion, this indignation, this contempt was felt everywhere, and in Venice.

It was thought strange that Ludovico, informed at the time of the march of the Duke of Orleans, had allowed Sanseverino to retire, that he had limited himself to proclamations, agitation, expense, words of arrogance.

[6] Not being able to count, therefore, on her father's help, on June 27 Beatrice d'Este went alone, without her husband, to the military camp of Vigevano, both to supervise the order and to animate her captains to move against the Duke of Orleans, who in those days was constantly making raids in that area.

[...] The Duchess reviewed the troops in the town, and returned to Vigevano, letting the army advance without firing a shot on the right bank of the Ticino, along the road to Trecate.

Louis announced to the king his decision to lock himself up in Novara; he added that he did not know the exact strength of the Vigevano army, in which only strange people were seen, armed with spears and swords, with long beards and hats on their heads: in a word, the stratootians.

[...] The captains, concerned only with the king's safety, decided to return to Novara, without doing anything, an awkward, ill-conceived, poorly executed plan for which Louis d'Orléans paid dearly.

[15][12] Madona Beatrice duchessa, moglie dil Duca, era partita lei sola senza el marito [...] tamen era mal vista da ogni uno, per l'odio haveano a suo marito, el qual stava in castello et lì faceva li soi provedimenti, con bona custodia di la persona soa.

[...] Et per lettere di Bernardo Contarini sora i Stratioti se intese che [...] col campo si levò da Vegevene et venne mia 4 ad alozar in uno loco chiamato Caxolo [...] et che la Duchessa volse venir a veder l'ordene dil campo [...] Madonna Beatrice Duchess, wife of the Duke, had left alone without her husband [...] however she was frowned upon by everyone for the hatred they had towards her husband, who was in the castle and from there made his provisions, with good custody of the person.

Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua, who had played an important role during the Battle of Fornovo (one which was arguably exaggerated later[17]), moved his troops to Casallogiano on 19 July 1495, and began to besiege to Novara.

Contarini's plan had no implementation either due to the prudence of his colleagues - Melchiorre Trevisan and Luca Pisani[19] - and because in October 1495 Venice had moved a contingent of almost 10,000 men to Cremasco and Bergamo, threatening Ludovico invasion if he had not released his soldiers still stranded in the Duchy.

[21] (According to other sources, the attackers did employ field guns against Novara, but had to use earth, fascines, trenches and gabions to protect their artillery from the French cannons firing at them from the city).

[21] Moreover, the League spread false rumours into the city that Charles VIII had fallen in the Battle of Fornovo, or that he was too busy trying to seduce local princess Anna Solarno to relieve the French soldiers inside Novara, demoralising the defenders.

'[21] To save as many supplies for his soldiers as possible, Louis decided to seize all the food of the civilians, and 'drove out all those of the populace who were poor and useless ['paupertatem omnem ac inutilem plebem exclusit'].

'[23] According to the Mantuan ambassador in Milan, the civilians who were thrown out of Novara, mostly women and children, 'became prey to the stradiots in Venetian pay and were reduced to begging in the camp of the besiegers.

[21] Louis was nevertheless burning with desire for revenge, and to the horror of a French diplomat, he urged Charles to stop the negotiations, keep fighting and attack Milan as soon as the Swiss reinforcements had arrived.

The Venetians and Spanish claimed they were not properly consulted, and objected strongly to Sforza's and Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua's alleged unilateral diplomatic actions.