Marquis of Castel Rodrigo, Spanish General, War of Devolution 1667-68

 

Hello mates,

In this quick post I just wanted to show you my latest addition to a parallel project I am doing, which is the War of Devolution, a transition conflict between 30 Years War/Franco Spanish War and Franco Dutch War, I mean transition in terms of uniforms and equipment, because it occured in late 1660' decade.

The general I have painted is Marquis of Castel Rodrigo, Francisco de Moura Corte Real (13 December 1621 – 26 November 1675) was a Portuguese nobleman who served as Viceroy of Sardinia and Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands. Despite being Portuguese, his family remained loyal to Spain when the Portuguese revolt began in 1640.

The miniature is a full conversion from a North Star 1672 French pikeman lower body, and 1898 miniatures "Don Juan Jose of Austria"  upper half body. I am quite pleased with the look of the miniature, in my opinion it has the look of a 1660' military leader, with the blackened armor and the distinctive collar of that time, just before cravattes became more popular.

the other miniature is a Walloon ensign, in Dutch or English armour, I used muted tones for the coat, as I have seen these kind of colours in contemporary paintings.

the miniature is a pikeman from North Star 1672.  The flag was made by the very talented Mats Elzinga, using Castel Rodrigo's coat of arms in one side of the flag, and Spanish royal coat (of 1667) in the other side of the flag.

I made a blog entry with a piece of history for this conflict here:

https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-defense-of-dendermonde-1667.html

Under Castel Rodrigo's administration, the Spanish Netherlands suffered a French invasion during the War of Devolution.  After the peace of the Pyrinees in 1659, Spanish forces in Flanders were at its minimum, and no soldiers were sent from Spain or Italy in the last 4 years, so Marquis of Castel Rodrigo had to resort to Imperial troops and some German regiments in order to bolster the defenses of the Spanish Netherlands.

Despite his efforts, when the Louis XIV invaded the country with 70.000 troops,   the governor had only 20.000 troops, and he placed them in the most important fortified cities,  so the first year of the war, a lot of villages and towns fell into French hands in a Baroque "Blitzkrieg". In 1668, Spain signed peace with Portugal and sent several thousands men to reinforce the Army of Flanders, also the rest of the countries, feared a full French conquest of the area and forced the Sun King to sign a peace treaty in favourable terms.