Ottavio Piccolomini (11 November 1599 – 11 August 1656) was a general of the Spanish Empire and a Field Marshal of the Holy Roman Empire. He fought in the Thirty Years War under Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria in the 1642 Second Battle of Breitenfeld.
Biography[]
Born in Florence, Piccolomini received military education at a young age and in 1615 he became a tercio pikeman of the Spanish Empire. With the start of the Thirty Years War in 1618, he was made the captain of a cavalry regiment fighting in Bohemia and first fought in the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 before fighting in Hungary. His efforts in the Battle of Lutzen in 1632 earned him recognition, with five bullets piercing his chestplate and losing five horses under him. Count Piccolomini was then sent as an assistant to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, and fought in the crushing defeat in the 1642 Second Battle of Breitenfeld. His son died in the 1645 Battle of Jankov.