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In-Depth Information
Cerignola, Battle of (Battle of
Ceriñola)
(1503)
Fought in April 1503, this battle marks
Spain's first great victory in the I
TALIAN
W
ARS
(1494-1559). Essentially one long
war between Spain and France for the
domination of the Italian peninsula, inter-
rupted by truces or peace treaties, this
struggle had revived in 1500. Louis XII of
France, having gained control of the north-
western region, had initially agreed with
F
ERDINAND
V to allow him domination of
the south. The French king then decided to
seize the Neapolitan realm as well. Attacked
in Apulia by the French, Ferdinand's gen-
eral, G
ONZALO
F
ERNÁNDEZ
DE
C
ÓRDOBA
,
broke free from the siege of Barletta and
withdrew to the heights near Cerignola.
There he constructed a defensive line that
included trenches and a barrier of pointed
stakes. The pursuing French forces
launched a precipitous cavalry charge,
which was halted by or, in some cases,
impaled upon the barrier of stakes. At the
same time an accidental spark exploded a
Spanish gun powder depot, sending flames
high into the air. The quick-witted Spanish
commander is reported to have shouted to
his men that the heavens were illuminat-
ing their moment of victory and launched
his infantry into a counterattack. His oppo-
nents were thrown into disarray by their
sudden reversal and by the near-simulta-
neous deaths of the duke of Nemours, the
French commander, and the leader of his
Swiss auxiliaries.
Cerignola marks the first triumph of
Fernández de Córdoba, known to Spaniards
as El Gran Capitán, and the T
ERCIO
, the
Spanish infantry force that would dominate
European battlefields for generations to
come. A new French army was sent south
perhaps too outrageous) to win acceptance
from his more staid colleagues, but within
a few years the monarch honored him
again with a title of nobility, marqués de
Iria Flavia.
Cela continued his prodigious output of
novels, short stories, and essays, which
would total more than 100 topics, includ-
ing
Rol de cornudos
(Catalogue of cuckolds,
1976);
Mazurca para dos muertos
(
Mazurka for
Two Dead People,
1983), a novel for which
he received the National Prize for Litera-
ture;
El asno de Buridán
(Buridán's donkey,
1986);
Nuevo viaje a la Alcarría
(New jour-
ney to the Alcarría, 1986);
Cristo versus Ari-
zona
(Christ versus Arizona, 1988);
El
asesinato del perdedor
(The assassination of
the loser, 1992),
La cruz de San Andrés
(The
cross of Saint Andrew, 1994), and
Madera de
boj
(
Boxwood,
1999).
Frequently interviewed by the media,
he could always be counted on for the pro-
vocative opinions and unorthodox per-
spectives that alternately delighted and
shocked his fellow Spaniards. When asked
about his reputation as “enfant terrible”
and “nonconformist,” Cela insisted that
nonconformity is in the best tradition of
the greatest Spanish writers. Q
UEVEDO
, one
of the masters of the S
IGLO
DE
O
RO
(Golden
Age), raised the flag of nonconformism,
according to Cela, and he saw himself, not
as a rebel, but as a traditionalist in that
splendid tradition.
Cela was awarded the Nobel Prize in lit-
erature in 1989. When an interviewer asked
him about his plans, following receipt of
the prize, Cela replied, “I am going to keep
writing, which is what really matters to me.
Winning the prize was an important step
for me, but not the end in itself; the only
end is death.”
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