Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, called El Gran Capitán (1453–1515), was a Castilian general born at Montilla near Córdoba. He served Isabella the Catholic in the Castilian succession war and fought in the Granada War of 1482–1492, then led Spanish armies in Italy.

Reforming infantry around pikes and arquebuses, he defeated the French at Cerignola in April 1503 and on the Garigliano that December, conquering Naples and becoming its viceroy. He died at Granada in 1515, and his reforms inspired the later tercios.