Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (1 September 1453 – 2 December 1515) was a Spanish general and statesman. He led military campaigns during the Conquest of Granada and the Italian Wars, after which he served as Viceroy of Naples. For his extensive political and military success, he was made Duke of Santángelo (1497), Terranova (1502), Andría, Montalto and Sessa (1507), and earned the nickname El Gran Capitán ("The Great Captain").

Held as one of the greatest generals in history, he became the first European to decisively employ firearms on the battlefield, and among the first to reorganize the infantry with pikes and firearms in effective defensive and offensive formations. He developed them as part of a combined arms doctrine including fields as disparate as cavalry, artillery, fortifications, guerrilla, siegecraft and diplomacy. The changes implemented by Fernández de Córdoba, which led to the formation of the tercios, were instrumental in making the Spanish army the dominant land force in Europe for over a century and a half. He has been credited with marking the transition between medieval and modern warfare.

Córdoba rose to international prestige during his career, maintaining active relationships not only with the crowns of Castile and Aragon, but also with France, the Papal States, the Italian city-states and the Holy Roman Empire, all of which sought out his services. Chronicler Jerónimo Zurita went to consider him "...the most esteemed person that lived in these times, for such princes, either desired to have him for a friend, or were wary that he might become their enemy."