Francis I Captured at Pavia

February 24, 1525

Spanish arquebusiers picked off the flower of French chivalry outside Pavia, and the cream of the French nobility died in a single morning. King Francis himself was dragged from his horse and taken prisoner. From a cell in Madrid he wrote his mother, All is lost save honor. His imprisonment lasted over a year, during which he signed the Treaty of Madrid under duress, repudiating it upon return to France.