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rose steadily in the esteem of F
ERDINAND
V
and I
SABELLA
I as he took part in the wars
with Portugal and the Moors that sur-
rounded their ascent to the mastery of Spain.
By the time the French invasion of Italy in
1494 precipitated what would become a
decades-long struggle for control of that
peninsula, Fernández de Córdoba had
become the obvious choice to lead the Span-
Positioning himself in the Kingdom of Naples
as the rescuer of Ferdinand's kinsmen there,
Córdoba fought a series of actions that com-
pletely dislocated the plans of the enemy.
The death of Charles VIII in 1498 led to a
temporary withdrawal of French forces from
Italy and a treaty of friendship with Spain.
Córdoba, back in C
ASTILE
, busied himself
with raising and training new forces for what
was perceived to be the inevitable renewal
of hostilities. He had already developed a
new approach to battlefield tactics that
marked the transition from medieval war-
fare, based on cavalry, to the modern meth-
ods that transformed infantry into the
“queen of battle.” El Gran Capitán's use of
highly flexible bodies of pikemen and mus-
keteers formed in squares would be devel-
oped by subsequent generations of Spanish
leaders into a consistently winning instru-
ment well into the 17th century. Even the
term
infantry,
derived from the Spanish word
for prince (
infante
), endures as a reminder of
how armies led by subsequent Spanish
princes built and maintained military ascen-
dancy. The league formed in 1500 between
Ferdinand and the new French ruler, Louis
XII, soon collapsed. The Spanish monarch,
who had agreed to the division of Naples
into two spheres of influence, claimed the
entire kingdom with the extinction of the
old Neapolitan dynasty. The El Gran Capitán
met and mastered a series of French and Ital-
ian rivals, displaying both his skill at rapid
movement of forces and the trick of with-
standing a siege to delay the enemy while
awaiting reinforcements. By 1503 his victory
C
ERIGNOLA
, soon followed by that at Garigli-
ano, put an end to French designs on Naples.
Ferdinand appointed him constable of the
kingdom, and Córdoba demonstrated his
skills as an administrator while ingratiating
himself with the Neapolitans. His very suc-
cess and popularity may have excited the
suspicion or jealousy of Ferdinand. In any
event the king demanded a full report of his
expenditures and then, claiming that it was
faulty, summoned him back to Spain. Some
historians insist that Córdoba's accounts, still
preserved in the archives, are in normal for-
mat and properly balanced, but the tradi-
tional story that Córdoba sent back a pile of
jumbled records and resigned in disgust has
survived in the proverb about the “accounts
of the Gran Capitán,” signifying a faulty
report. Ferdinand did not choose to employ
his greatest general again. He seems to have
considered summoning him from retirement
during a crisis in 1512 but then abandoned
the idea.
Fernández de Córdoba was undoubtedly
the author of Spain's military greatness and
one of the premier commanders in Euro-
pean history. His downfall demonstrates a
principle that would persist throughout the
centuries, that military genius is always at
the mercy of political intrigue.
Fernández y González, Manuel
(1821-1888)
Spanish writer
One of the most popular Spanish writers of
the 19th century, Fernández y González
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