The Italian Wars, also known as the Habsburg–Valois Wars, were a series of conflicts covering the period 1494 to 1559 that took place primarily in the Italian peninsula. The main belligerents were the Valois kings of France and their opponents in Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Many of the Italian states were involved on one side or the other, along with England and the Ottoman Empire.

The 1454 Italic League achieved a balance of power in Italy and resulted in a period of rapid economic growth which ended with the death of Lorenzo de' Medici in 1492. Combined with the ambition of Ludovico Sforza, its collapse allowed Charles VIII of France to invade Naples in 1494, which drew in Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Despite being forced to withdraw in 1495, Charles showed the Italian states were both wealthy and vulnerable due to their political divisions. Italy became a battleground in the struggle for European domination between France and the Habsburgs, with the conflict expanding into Flanders, the Rhineland and the Mediterranean Sea.

Fought with considerable brutality, the wars took place against the background of religious turmoil caused by the Reformation, particularly in France and the Holy Roman Empire. They are seen as a turning point in the evolution from medieval to modern warfare, with the use of the arquebus or handgun becoming common, along with significant technological improvements in siege artillery. Literate commanders and modern printing methods also make them one of the first conflicts with a significant number of contemporary accounts, including Francesco Guicciardini, Niccolò Machiavelli and Blaise de Montluc.

After 1503, most of the fighting was initiated by French invasions of Lombardy and Piedmont, but although able to hold territory for periods of time, they could not do so permanently. By 1557, both France and the Empire were confronted by internal divisions over religion, while Spain faced a potential revolt in the Spanish Netherlands. The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559) largely expelled France from northern Italy, gaining in exchange Calais and the Three Bishoprics; it established Spain as the dominant power in the south, controlling Naples and Sicily, as well as Milan in the north.