Ambrogio Spinola (1569-25 September 1630) was a Genoese Italian nobleman and condottiero who served as a Spanish general during the Dutch Revolt and the Thirty Years' War.
Biography[]
The eldest son of a powerful Genoese banking family, Ambrogio Spinola sought an outlet for his ambitions in the service of Spain. In 1602, he raised and paid for a force of 1,000 men and marched to the Netherlands. Here, he was welcomed by Archduke Albert and Infanta Isabella, joint rulers of the Spanish Netherlands, and set to work besieging Dutch-held Ostend. The siege was a major success and the capture of the ruined city in 1604 made his reputation.
Over the following years, Spinola was successful in a number of sieges, using his own credit and that of Genoese bankers to make up for dwindling Spanish finances. This involved him in increasing credit risks, and he pushed for the truce that halted the fighting in the Netherlands in 1609. He resumed his military career 12 years later, early in the Thirty Years' War. Spinola occupied the Palatinate on the Rhine, which consolidated communications between Flanders and northern Italy - then ruled by Spain - and resumed war with the Dutch United Provinces. The siege of Breda (August 1624-June 1625), though costly in men and resources, was his masterpiece. It concluded with the humane treatment of its governor, Justin of Nassau, and the defeated garrison. Spinola now returned to Spain to persuade Philip IV to make a favorable peace with the Dutch. But he was instead sent to command the Spanish army in northern Italy, where he died of plague during the siege of Casale-Monferrato in 1630.