Mary Purcell (1906–1991)

There may be better biographies of Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba in Spanish but I very much enjoyed this account by Mary Purcell in English. She was a great fan of "El Gran Capitan", a name given to him by the Italians after his reconquest of Southern Italy for the Spanish crown.

She shows that he was already an experienced soldier before arriving in Italy, having spent years fighting to recover Moorish Spain for the Catholic kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, in a long-lasting war of town by town assault against determined Arab resistance.

His enormous military achievements were not appreciated by Ferdinand who did deals behind his back with the French, refused to send much need money, frequently and unjustly suspected him of treachery and finally demolished his ancestral castle at Montilla. Nevertheless he was worshipped by his soldiers and was Spain's most successful 15th century general.
I read the last chapter while traveling on the Euromed train between Barcelona and Alicante and it was interesting to see the many hilltop medieval castles race by that Gonzalo would have known, if maybe not have visited.… (altro)