Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba (1 September 1453-2 December 1515), also called El Gran Capitan (The Great Captain), was a Spanish general during the Italian Wars.
Biography[]
Gonzalo de Cordoba deserves much of the credit for turning the Spanish Army into the dominant force in 16th-century European warfare. Distinguished in the 1492 defeat of the Muslim Emirate of Granada, his reputation largely rests on his Italian campaigns, which began in 1496 with a victory over the French at Atella.
Battlefield Tactician[]
Gonzalo de Cordoba harnessed the discipline of the highly trained tercios-regular Spanish infantry combining a mass of pikemen with arquebusiers. With his military engineer, Pedro Navarro, he also developed expertise in siege warfare and the use of cannon. He was the first commander to see the importance of field fortifications in the warfare of the gunpowder age, positioning his infantry and artillery behind defensive earthworks. At Cerignola in April 1503, he scored a landmark victory over French knights and Swiss Pikemen by blasting them with firepower from behind a ditch and palisade. The following December, Gonzalo de Cordoba showed his offensive flair by defeating a larger French force at Garigliano through a bold maneuver that involved moving troops across a river unobserved on an improvised pontoon bridge. His military career ended with his return to Spain in 1507.