Ottavio Piccolomini
Ottavio Piccolomini | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Piccolomini by Anselm van Hulle, Collezione Luca Cristini | |
| Born | 11 November 1599 Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany[1] |
| Died | 11 August 1656 (aged 56) Vienna, Austria[2] |
| Allegiance |  Spain Holy Roman Empire |
| Years of service | 1616–1656 |
| Rank | Generalfeldmarschall |
| Battles/wars | Thirty Years' War
|
| Awards | Order of the Golden Fleece |
| Spouse(s) | Maria Benigna Francisca of Saxe-Lauenburg |
Ottavio Piccolomini, 1st Duke of Amalfi (11 November 1599 – 11 August 1656) was an Italian nobleman whose military career included service as a Spanish general and then as a field marshal of the Holy Roman Empire.
Early life
Piccolomini was born in
1618 saw the outbreak of the
In 1624 he served for a short time again in the Spanish army
In 1628 his brother,
In 1630 came the
Nineteenth-century authors were so impressed by Piccolomini's role in the battle of Lützen that they falsely ascribed to him the command of the entire Imperial left wing. He did, though, play a pivotal role at the head of his cavalry regiment, leading numerous cavalry charges against the Swedish army, having five horses shot under him, and receiving six painful bruises from
As a commanding officer
After reading the official report of the battle, the emperor made Piccolomini
In the campaign of 1633, Piccolomini was appointed commander of a detachment posted at
On 5 and 6 September of that same year, Piccolomini distinguished himself at the Battle of Nördlingen.[1] In his first independent command following the battle, he expelled the opposing troops of Sweden and the Heilbronn League from Franconia. From 1635 to 1639, Piccolomini commanded an Imperial auxiliary corps supporting Spain in the Southern Netherlands and Northern France. In this position, he achieved a number of military successes but often complained about a lack of support from the Spanish authorities.[2] In 1636, his corps supported the Spanish offensive in France that crossed the Somme and captured the important fortress of Corbie. After his own troops took Roye and approached Paris as far as Compiègne, Piccolomini urged Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria, the leader of the Spanish operations, to advance further, but the Cardinal-Infante deemed the offensive to be too high risk with little reward.[7]
Piccolomini's achievements included relieving French sieges of Saint-Omer in 1638 together with Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano and especially of Thionville on 7 July 1639 in a crushing victory over the Marquis de Feuquieres. He was rewarded with the status of Count of the Empire in 1638[1] and the elevation to the office of privy councillor and the dukedom of Amalfi from King Philip IV of Spain in 1639.[8]
Still in 1639, Piccolomini and his corps were recalled from the Southern Netherlands by the emperor to end the Swedish invasion of Bohemia.[2] Despite own hopes to replace Matthias Gallas as main commander of the Imperials, Piccolomini was ordered to assist the emperor's brother, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria.[1] Together they repelled the Swedes under Johan Banér and secured Bohemia and Saxony in 1640.[9] However, they failed in their main goal to beat the Swedish army in battle.[2] After Banér's failed attempt to attack the Regensburg Reichstag in January 1641, Piccolomini and Gottfried Huyn von Geleen chased him with the united Imperial and Bavarian force. Nonetheless, Piccolomini could only catch and defeat the rear of Banér's army in Neunburg vorm Wald and Preßnitz while the rest escaped.[10] In November 1642, the Imperials finally faced the entire Swedish army but lost the second battle of Breitenfeld against Lennart Torstensson.
Thereafter he spent several years in the Spanish service and received the title of grandee and induction into the Order of the Golden Fleece.[1] After being recalled to Spain in 1647, he resigned as Spanish commander with the intention to return to the Imperial army.[2]
Promotion to Generalissimo
When the Imperial commander Peter Melander, Graf von Holzappel, fell in battle at Zusmarshausen in May 1648, Piccolomini was at last appointed lieutenant-general of the emperor. He conducted the final campaign of the Thirty Years' War in which he and the Bavarians under Hunolstein stopped the Swedish and French advance at the rivers Inn and Danube and forced them to retreat out of Bavaria across the Lech.[2][11]
After the
Marriage, death, and legacy
On 4 June 1651 Piccolomini married Maria Benigna Francisca of
Piccolomini's titles and estates passed to his brother's grandson. With the death of the latter's nephew Octavio Aeneas Josef in 1757, the line became extinct.[2] Piccolomini had two known illegitimate sons – Ascanio and Diego, who left descendants, one in Bohemia and the other in Italy. His elder son Ascanio died as a captain of infantry in the battle near Mírov in September 1643, while the younger son Diego died in Italy after gaining the title "don" and becoming a "noble" married to Nobile Donna Maria Anna Tarragona Ruxoto. Ascanio himself had an illegitimate son with Liduska Nyvlt.
Piccolomini died after falling from a horse on 11 August 1656.
References and notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Hallwich 1888, pp. 95–103.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Bierther 2001, pp. 408–410.
- ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911, p. 580.
- ^ Wilson 2018, p. 76.
- ^ Brzezinski 2001, p. 58, 79, 90.
- ^ Wedgwood 1938, p. 345.
- ^ Israel 1997, pp. 77–78.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 581.
- ^ Wilson 2009, pp. 618–621.
- ^ Höbelt 2016, pp. 269–278.
- ^ Höfer 1997, pp. 207–225.
- ^ Weyhe-Eimke 1885, pp. 97–107.
Sources
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Piccolomini, Octavio". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 580–581.
- Bierther, Kathrin (2001), "Piccolomini, Ottavio", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 20, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 408–410; (full text online)
- Brzezinski, Richard (2001). Lützen 1632. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 9781855325524.
- Hallwich, Hermann (1888), "Piccolomini, Octavio Fürst", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 26, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 95–103
- Höbelt, Lothar (2016). Von Nördlingen bis Jankau: Kaiserliche Strategie und Kriegsführung 1634-1645 (in German). Wien: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum. ISBN 978-3902551733.
- Höfer, Ernst (1997). Das Ende des Dreißigjährigen Krieges. Strategie und Kriegsbild (in German). Köln/Weimar/Wien: Böhlau. ISBN 978-3-412-04297-4.
- Israel, Jonathan Irvine (1997). Conflicts of empires: Spain, the low countries and the struggle for world supremacy, 1585-1713. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 1-85285-161-9.
- Wedgwood, C.V. (1938). The Thirty Years War. New York Review Books Classics. pp. 345. ISBN 1590171462.
- Weyhe-Eimke, Arnold von (1885). "Das Haus der Piccolomini aus den vom Papste Pius II. adoptirten Familien Todeschini und Pieri auf der Herrschaft Nachod in Böhmen". Jahrbuch der k. k. heraldischen Gesellschaft Adler zu Wien. pp. 97–107.
- Wilson, Peter H. (2009). The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03634-5.
- Wilson, Peter H. (2018). Lützen: Great Battles Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199642540.
- Piccolomini in Libro de Oro de la Nobleza del Mediterráneo
External links
Media related to Prince Octavio Piccolomini, Duke of Amalfi at Wikimedia Commons
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