Editing Milan (section)

=== Early modern ===
{{Main|Duchy of Milan}}
[[File:Parti superstiti dei bastioni di Milano presso Porta Venezia 02.jpg|thumb|[[Walls of Milan#Spanish walls|Spanish walls]] of Milan]]
[[Image:1807KingdomItaly.jpg|thumb|Highlighted in yellow, the [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy]], which had Milan as its capital]]
Milan's last independent ruler, [[Lodovico il Moro]], requested the aid of [[Charles VIII of France]] against the other [[Italian states]], eventually unleashing the [[Italian Wars]]. The king's cousin, [[Louis XII|Louis of Orléans]], took part in the expedition and realized most of Italy was virtually defenseless. This prompted him to come back a few years later in 1500, and claim the Duchy of Milan for himself, his grandmother having been a member of the ruling [[Visconti of Milan|Visconti]] family. At that time, Milan was also defended by [[Swiss mercenaries]]. After the victory of Louis's successor François I over the Swiss at the [[Battle of Marignan]], the duchy was promised to the French king [[François I of France|François I]]. When the Spanish Habsburg Emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] defeated François I at the [[Battle of Pavia]] in 1525, [[northern Italy]], which included Milan, passed to [[Hapsburg Spain|Habsburg Spain]].<ref>John Lothrop Motley, ''The Rise of the Dutch Republic'' Vol. II (Harper Bros.: New York, 1855) p. 2.</ref>

In 1556, Charles V abdicated in favour of his son [[Philip II of Spain|Philip II]] and his brother [[Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand I]]. Charles's Italian possessions, including Milan, passed to Philip II and remained with the Spanish line of Habsburgs, while Ferdinand's Austrian line of Habsburgs ruled the Holy Roman Empire. The [[Italian plague of 1629–1631|Great Plague of Milan]] in 1629–31, that claimed the lives of an estimated 60,000 people out of a population of 130,000, caused unprecedented devastation in the city and was effectively described by [[Alessandro Manzoni]] in his masterpiece [[The Betrothed (Manzoni novel)|''The Betrothed'']]. This episode was seen by many as the symbol of Spanish bad rule and decadence and is considered one of the last outbreaks of the centuries-long [[pandemic]] of plague that began with the [[Black Death]].<ref>Cipolla, Carlo M. ''Fighting the Plague in Seventeenth Century Italy''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981.</ref>

In 1700, the Spanish line of Habsburgs was extinguished with the death of [[Charles II of Spain|Charles II]]. After his death, the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] began in 1701. In 1706, the French were defeated in [[Battle of Ramillies|Ramillies]] and [[Siege of Turin|Turin]] and were forced to yield northern Italy to the [[Habsburg monarchy|Austrian Habsburgs]]. In 1713–1714 the Treaties of [[Treaty of Utrecht|Utrecht]] and [[Treaty of Rastatt|Rastatt]] formally confirmed Austrian sovereignty over most of Habsburg Spain's Italian possessions including Lombardy and its capital, Milan.

[[Napoleon]] invaded Italy in 1796, and Milan was declared capital of the [[Cisalpine Republic]]. Later, he declared Milan capital of the [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Kingdom of Italy]] and was crowned King of Italy in the cathedral. After Napoleon's occupation ended, the [[Congress of Vienna]] returned Lombardy and Milan to Austrian control in 1815.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/regno-lombardo-veneto/|title=Lombardo-Veneto, Regno|access-date=29 October 2023|publisher=[[Treccani]]|language=it}}</ref>