Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba

Córdoba, Gonzalo Fernández de (1453-1515). Justly known as ‘El Gran Capitán’ (‘The Great Captain’), Córdoba was the right-hand man of his exact contemporary Ferdinand in the latter's stunningly successful dynastic expansion from prince of Aragon and titular king of Sicily to joint ruler of a united Spain, all of southern Italy, and the principal military power in Europe. Fernández de Córdoba's career started during the period when the successions to their respective kingdoms of both Ferdinand and his wife Isabella of Castile were threatened by rebellious nobles (1474-9). His leadership qualities emerged while serving in Christian armies during the final eight years of the centuries-long Reconquista, taking part in the sieges of Tajara, Illora, and Monte Frío, at the last of which he was the first man over the walls. Unhorsed and saved by the self-sacrifice of his manservant in a cavalry skirmish outside Granada, his familiarity with Arabic made him one of two crown commissioners in the secret negotiations for the surrender of that Muslim kingdom in 1492.

In 1495 he led an expedition of 5, 000 veteran infantry and 600 jinetes (light cavalry) for Ferdinand to Sicily, in alliance with Venice, to support the Aragonese King of Naples against an invasion by French King Charles VIII. Although the latter returned rapidly to France, the forces he left behind inflicted a rare defeat on Fernández de Córdoba at Seminara. But siege warfare and not field operations decided campaigns, and at Atella the next year his inspired use of a light cavalry screen combined with a close investment isolated and defeated the main French force, after which, and with an imaginative use of allied naval superiority, he mopped up the remaining French garrisons. The campaign ended in an armistice in 1497, after he drove French forces out of their stranglehold on Rome at the port of Ostia, at the invitation of Pope Alexander VI who earlier had bestowed the honorary title of ‘The Most Catholic’ on his master.

Ferdinand agreed with the new French king, Louis XII, to partition Naples between them in the Treaty of Granada in 1500, which neither intended to respect. He dispatched Fernández de Córdoba as viceroy of Sicily at the head of a large expedition to balance a similar French force, while combining with them and Venice against the Ottoman Turks who threatened Sicily. At the head of a Spanish-Venetian expedition, he took the strongly held Turkish island of Cephalonia in December 1500. During this siege he first employed Pedro Navarro, a sometime pirate, self-taught military engineer, and later a general of distinction in his own right.

When the French tried to seize the rest of the kingdom of Naples in 1502, Fernández de Córdoba confirmed his title of ‘Great Captain’ by inflicting severe defeats on them at Cerignola, where the vaunted Swiss in French service were shattered by Spanish arquebus and light cannon fire, and at the Garigliano river (December 1503), where he outflanked and forced the surrender of a considerably larger force by a night attack, using pontoons to bridge a flooded estuary. Ferdinand made him duke of Sessa and joined him in Italy 1506, returning with him to Spain the next year. In 1512 he was appointed grand constable of Italy to restore the situation following defeat of Pope Julius II's Holy League by the French at the battle of Ravenna, while his king took advantage of a religious schism to seize the kingdom of Navarre, a French ally.

Although Spanish military supremacy was based on the militarization of the whole society during the years of the Reconquista, Fernández de Córdoba is credited with synthesizing contemporary Moorish, French, and Swiss tactics into a potent combination of arquebusiers, gunners, and pikemen known as the tercio, using jinetes to screen his movements and to report those of his less agile opponents. Heavy cavalry, difficult to transport and maintain, and often undependable because of the individualistic arrogance of the knights, had already assumed a lesser role in Spanish campaigns following several disasters during the conquest of Granada.

Above all, the Spanish under Fernández de Córdoba showed themselves masters of siege warfare at a time when gunpowder had sounded the knell of city states and minor principalities in Europe, ushering in the era of the centralized nation state. Spanish battlefield ascendancy rested on the tercio and related formations for 150 years, until it was destroyed by combined arms tactics at Rocroi.

Bibliography

• Prescott, William, The Art of War in Spain, ed. Albert McJoyne (London, 1995)

— Hugh Bicheno

The Spanish general Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba (1453-1515) led several successful military campaigns and was known as "El Gran Capitan" (The Great Captain). He revolutionized sixteenth century warfare by introducing a new firearm (called an arquebus) to his infantry forces. His innovative use of weaponry and strong organizational skills assured Spain more than 100 years of military superiority in Europe.

Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba was born into an aristocratic Spanish family in 1453. He became involved in military initiatives at a young age, fighting as a teenager to quell the Muslim occupation of Granada. In his younger years, Cordoba also served the Spanish royal court of Isabella of Castile, working as a page.

Moorish Conquests

Cordoba assumed military leadership between 1482 and 1492. He contributed to the initiative that eventually ousted the Moors from his country and ended Muslim occupation of Spain. These early years in Cordoba's career familiarized him with various military strategies and increased his understanding of possible tactics. Cordoba was recognized for his personal bravery during this time. In one battle, the siege of Montefrio, he penetrated the Moors' defenses using ladders to scale the opponents' walls. In 1492, Cordoba captured the city of Granada from the Moors, bringing an end to the war against the kingdom of Granada. To achieve this victory he staged small skirmishes, creating confusion and deliberately capturing small villages. Cordoba emerged from this experience with an understanding of how to integrate mobile military initiatives with technical tools, such as siege craft and explosives.

Italian Occupation

Cordoba's successful initiatives against the Moors attracted the favorable attention of the Spanish queen, Isabella of Castile, and her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon. In 1495, Isabella ordered Cordoba to lead an army of more than 2,000 soldiers into Italy. He was to assist the Italians in recapturing Naples from the French. Coordination efforts between the Italian and Spanish forces proved to be ineffective, and Cordoba's forces lacked the necessary training to prevail. Spain was defeated by the French at the Battle of Seminara.

Cordoba was inspired by the outcome of Seminara. He retreated temporarily in order to train his troops and rethink his strategy in dealing with the French occupation of Italian territory. Because Italian forces were much larger than Cordoba's forces, he employed effective guerrilla tactics to disrupt the movement of supplies to the French. Using such tactics, Cordoba was able to avoid large-scale battles that would have demolished his forces and to successfully disrupt French military operations in Italy. Cordoba used these tactics to gain a foothold in the country, and then move toward the French-occupied Italian cities. In less than a year, Cordoba had stopped the French initiative and captured Atella, taken the French commander (Montspensier) as prisoner, and recovered the Roman port of Ostia. He returned the captured territories to the Italians by 1498. The pope recognized Cordoba and expressed gratitude for his victory in Italy.

Applied Lessons from the Field

Cordoba returned to Spain and applied what he had learned in the field to his military operations. He used his knowledge to restructure his forces in ways that were to have larger implications for military strategy. Cordoba introduced a new weapon to his forces - a heavy gun called an arquebus-which was fired from the shoulder and braced with supports. Cordoba realized that military operations would be more effective with increased flexibility. He assigned sections of his forces with strategic roles, rather than using them as one general force. He divided his forces into sections assigned to infantry, artillery, and cavalry. These new sections could operate and perform maneuvers more independently than they had previously done.

In 1503, Cordoba returned to Italy to expel the invading French. He faced a French army of 10,000 men. The Spanish force of 6,000 met the French near Cerignola, and quickly defeated them with the arquebuses. The French commander, the Duc de Nemours, was killed in this battle and power shifted to Cordoba's forces. This was the first time in military history that a battle had been won largely with firearms. Cordoba's explosives had been accidentally detonated during the battle, making firearms a crucial component of victory in this case.

Cordoba and his forces moved into Naples, occupying the city and pushing the French forces back to the Garigliano River. For awhile, neither side made any strategic progress toward victory, as they faced each other across the river. But Cordoba used his restructured forces to plan an offensive tactic. The Spanish army strung together pontoon bridges and crept across the river on the night of December 29, 1503. They successfully surprised the French forces. Surprise was particularly important in this attack since the French had assumed that the river was impassable. Cordoba and his army easily defeated the French with the powerful arquebuses as well as the use of pikes. Cordoba had also anticipated and prepared for coordination between his various section leaders in infantry, artillery, and cavalry. The French were again defeated in a smooth initiative that used advanced military strategy. Cordoba continued to pursue the French and captured the Italian city of Gaeta. The French initiative had lost its momentum after the defeat at the Garigliano River, and they were forced to sign the Treaty of Blois shortly after, relinquishing their hold on Naples.

Retired from Military Service

Cordoba gained immense popularity among his countrymen and was referred to as "El Gran Capitan" (The Great Captain). After Naples was returned to the Italians, King Ferdinand became threatened by Cordoba's popularity and ordered an end to his military career. Isabella of Castille had died, and Cordoba lost the support of his strong ally in the Spanish court. He returned to Spain at the King's orders and retired at his estate in Granada. On December 1, 1515, Cordoba died of malaria, an illness he had contracted during his military service in Italy.

Cordoba is remembered as a significant figure in military history because his introduction of firearms moved the army beyond fighting with pike and blade. The restructuring of his forces, was continued by successive Spanish military leaders, who were able to achieve dominance for the next 100 years.

Further Reading

Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, 1993.

Keegan, John, and Andrew Wheatcroft. Who's Who in Military History from 1453 to the Present Day, William Morrow & Company Inc., 1976.

Lanning, Michael Lee. The Military 100, A Ranking of the Most Influential Military Leaders of all Time, Carol Publishing Group, 1996.

Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary, 1995.

The Oxford Companion to Spanish Literature, edited by Philip Ward, Clarendon Press, 1978.