Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba
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| Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba | |
|---|---|
| 1 September 1453 – 2 December 1515 | |
 Equestrian statue of Gonzalo de Córdoba by Mateo Inurria; erected in Córdoba in 1923. |
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| Nickname | El Gran Capitán ("The Great Captain") |
| Place of birth | Montilla, Spain |
| Place of death | Córdoba, Spain |
| Allegiance |  Spain |
| Years of service | 1482–1504 |
| Rank | General |
| Battles/wars | Granada War
|
| Other work | Viceroy of Naples (1504–1507) |
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Duke of Terranova and Santangelo, also known simply as Gonzalo de Córdoba (Italian: Consalvo di Cordova, September 1, 1453–December 2, 1515), was a Spanish general in the service of the reign, when it was rising to military pre-eminence. He was called El Gran Capitán ("The Great Captain") by contemporaries and "the Father of Trench Warfare" by some.
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[edit] Early life
Gonzalo was born at Montilla near the city of Córdoba, the second son of Pedro Fernández de Córdoba, count of Aguilar, and his wife Elvira de Herrera, who belonged to the family of Enriquez, the hereditary admirals of Castile, a branch of the royal house of Trastamara. [1]
His father died when he and his elder brother, Alonso, were young boys. The counts of Aguilar carried on an hereditary feud with the rival house of Cabra, and the children were drawn as vassals into the factional fights of the two families. As a younger son, Gonzalo had to make his own fortune, but he was generously aided by the affection of his elder brother, who was very wealthy. War and service in the king's court offered the one acceptable career outside the church to a gentleman of his birth.
He was first attached to the household of Don Alfonso, the king's brother, and upon his death devoted himself to Isabella of Castile, who later became queen. During the civil war, and the conflict with Portugal which disturbed the first years of her reign, he fought under the grand master of the Santiago, Alonso de Cárdenas. After the battle of Albuera, the grand master gave him special praise, saying that he could always see Gonzalo in the front because he was conspicuous by the splendor of his armor. Indeed the future Great Captain, who, as a general, was above all things astute and patient, could, and habitually did, display the most reckless personal daring. He would go into a fight as if he loved it, and having a shrewd sense and a reputation for intrepidity, a free-handed profusion, and the personal magnificence which strikes the eye, he would secure the devotion of his soldiers.
[edit] Role in the conquest of Granada
During the ten-year long conquest of Granada under the Catholic Kings, he completed his apprenticeship under his brother, the grand master of Santiago, and the counts of Aguilar and of Tendilla, of whom he spoke always of as his masters. It was a war of sieges and defences of castles or towns, of skirmishes, and of ambushes in the defiles of the mountains. The skills of a military engineer and a guerilla fighter were equally employed. Córdoba's most distinguished feat was the defence of the advanced post of Illora, but he commanded the queen's escort when she wished to take a closer view of Granada, and he beat back a sortie of the Moors under her eyes. When Granada surrendered, he was one of the officers chosen to arrange the capitulation, and on the peace he was rewarded by a grant of land in the town of Loja, near Granada.
[edit] In Italy
He was loyal to Isabel of Castile. When, therefore, the Catholic monarchs decided to support the Aragonese house of Naples against Charles VIII of France Gonzalo was chosen by the influence of the queen, and in preference to older men, to command the Spanish expedition. In Italy, he won the title of the Great Captain; Guicciardini says that it was given him by the customary arrogance of the Spaniards.
He held the command in Italy twice. In 1495 he was sent with a small force of little more than five thousand men to aid Ferdinand of Naples to recover his kingdom. His first battle in Italy, at Seminara in 1495, was a disastrous defeat against Bernard Stewart d'Aubigny; in the following year he was however able to capture the rebel county of Alvito for the king and to defeat in turn the French, pushing them down to Calabria. He returned home in 1498. After a brief interval of service against the conquered Moors who had risen in revolt, he was back to Italy in 1501. Ferdinand of Spain had entered into his iniquitous compact with Louis XII of France for the spoliation and division of the kingdom of Naples. The Great Captain was chosen to command the Spanish part of the coalition. As general and as viceroy of Naples he remained in Italy till 1507.
During his first command he was mostly employed in Calabria in mountain warfare which bore much resemblance to his former experience in Granada. There was, however, a material difference in the enemy. The French forces under d'Aubigny consisted largely of Swiss mercenary pikemen, and of their own men-at-arms, called gendarmes. With his veterans of the Granadine war, foot soldiers armed with sword and buckler, or arquebuses and crossbows, and light cavalry, who possessed endurance unparalleled among the soldiers of the time, he could carry on a guerrilla-like warfare which wore down his opponents, who suffered far more than the Spaniards from the heat. But he saw clearly that this was not enough. His experience at Seminara showed him that something more was wanted on the battlefield. The action was lost mainly because Ferdinand, disregarding the advice of Gonzalo, persisted in fighting a pitched battle with their lighter troops, some of whom were untrustworthy Neapolitans. In the open field, the loose formation and short swords of the Spanish infantry put them at a disadvantage against a charge of heavy cavalry or pikemen. Gonzalo therefore introduced a closer formation, and divided the Spanish infantry into the battle or main central body of pikemen, and the wings (alas) of shot, called a pike and shot formation.
The French were expelled by 1498 without another battle. When the Great Captain reappeared in Italy he had first to perform the congenial task of driving the Turk from Cephalonia, then to aid in the campaign against the king of Naples, Frederick, brother of his old ally Ferdinand. When the king of Naples had been deposed, the French and Spaniards engaged in war . The Great Captain now found himself with a much outnumbered army in the presence of the French. The war was divided into two phases very similar to one another. During the end of 1502 and the early part of 1503 the Spaniards stood at bay in the entrenched camp at Barletta near the Ofanto on the shores of the Adriatic. He resolutely refused to be tempted into battle either by the taunts of the French or the discontent of his own soldiers. Meanwhile he employed the Aragonese partisans in the country, and flying expeditions of his own men, to harass the enemy's communications. When he was reinforced, and the French committed the mistake of scattering their forces too much to secure supplies, he took the offensive, pounced on the enemies depot of provisions at Cerignola, took a strong position, threw up hasty field works, and strengthened them with a species of wire entanglements. The French made a headlong front attack, were repulsed, assailed in flank, and routed. The later operations on the Garigliano against Ludovico II of Saluzzo were very similar, and led to the total expulsion of the French from the Kingdom of Naples.
[edit] Later life
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Gonzalo remained as governor of Naples till 1507. But he had become too great as not to arouse the jealousy of such a typical king of the Renaissance as Ferdinand the Catholic. The death of the queen in 1504 had deprived him of a friend, and it must be allowed that he was profuse in rewarding his captains and his soldiers out of the public treasury. Ferdinand loaded him with titles and fine words, but recalled him so soon as he could, and left him unemployed till his death.
[edit] Legacy
De Cordoba was first among the founders of modern warfare. As a field commander, de Cordoba, like Napoleon three centuries later, saw his goal in the destruction of the enemy army. He systematically organized the pursuit of defeated armies after a victory in order to destroy the retreating enemy. De Cordoba help found the first modern standing army and the near invincible Spanish infantry that dominated battlefields of Europe during 16th and first decades of 17th centuries. The best generals of Charles V and Philip II were either the pupils of the Great Captain or were trained by them. The Torres Vedras campaign of the Duke of Wellington has a distinct resemblance to Barletta, and Assaye to the Battle of Garigliano.
[edit] Renown
Gonzalo's renown in Spain was great and many of the conquistadors admired him, some even imitating his dress fashion. Many had served under him like Amador de Lares who was steward to the Great Captain.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Hugh Thomas, The Conquest of Mexico, 1993, ISBN 1-8441-3743-0
