La storia di Sesto...
La famiglia Spinola
Fu fondata da Guido, alias
Guidone, valente combattente ai tempi della Prima Crociata, al
termine della quale ebbe il soprannome di SPINOLA perchè,
secondo la leggenda, riportò con se dalla Terra Santa
una spina ("spinula") della corona di Cristo. La "spinula"
è diventata pertanto l'emblema della famiglia, ne sono
riconoscibili i tratti nel portale d'ingresso del palazzo ducale
di Sesto.
Ma il personaggio di maggior rilievo, della famiglia Spinola,
è stato senza dubbio Ambrogio, di cui riportiamo le gesta...
dalla Columbia Encyclopedia...
Spinola, Ambrogio , 1569
- 1630 , Generale spagnolo, nato in Italia, da una nobile famiglia
Genoese. Nel 1602 è stato al servizio degli spagnoli nei
Paesi Bassi. Ha preso Ostenda da Maurice di Nassau dopo un lungo
assedio (1604) ed è quindi riuscito ad estendere la guerra
fino nelle province nordiche. Nominato comandante in capo nei
Paesi Bassi da Filippo II nel 1605, Spinola ha negoziato la tregua
dei 12 anni nel 1609. All'inizio della guerra dei trant'anni
(1620) , ha condotto un esercito nel Palatinato, contro l' unione
protestante; l'anno seguente è stato nominato Marchese
de los Balbases da Filippo IV. Alla la ripresa della lotta nei
Paesi Bassi (1621), Spinola vi fa ritorno e riesce nell'impresa
di occupare Breda (1625) . Tuttavia, la sua politica conciliativa
non incontra il favore di Filippo IV, che lo nomina governatore
di Milano (1629). Spinola muore mentre tenta di espugnare Casale,
nella guerra per successione di Mantova.
(ritratto
di Anthony Van Dyck)
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dall'enciclopedia Britannica...
Spinola, Ambrogio di Filippo,
Marqués De Los Balbases
b. 1569, Genoa [Italy]
d. Sept. 25, 1630, Castelnuovo Scrivia
an outstanding military commander in the service of Spain and
one of the ablest soldiers of his time. Though he won fame in
the wars against the Dutch Republic in the early 17th century,
he was ultimately unable to break Dutch military power.
Spinola was born into an old and powerful family of Genoa, an
Italian city-state that during his time was a close ally of Spain.
To advance the fortunes of his family, Spinola contracted for
service in the Spanish Netherlands and marched there in 1602
with a force of 9,000 men he had raised at his own expense. With
his disciplined troops, Spinola showed himself a match for his
major opponent, the skillful Dutch commander Maurice of Nassau,
in his successful one-year siege of Ostend, which fell on Sept.
22, 1604. After that victory, Spinola was appointed commander
in chief of the Spanish armies in the Netherlands and the next
in line to head its government after Alfred, archduke of Austria,
joint sovereign of the region with his wife, Isabella.
Spinola
continued to do battle with Maurice of Nassau and to exhibit
his mastery of siege warfare. He captured many fortified places.
In 1606 he went to Spain, where he was forced to pledge his entire
fortune as security for the expenses of the Dutch war before
bankers would advance funds to the Spanish government. Spinola
was never repaid and ultimately suffered financial ruin. The
next year he signed a suspension of arms with Maurice and two
years later played a major role in the negotiation of a truce
that lasted 12 years. During this entire period, Spinola kept
his Netherlands forces in readiness and directed repair and maintenance
efforts.
Shortly after the opening of the Thirty Years' War (1618-48),
Spinola seized nearly all of the Palatinate, a fertile and strategic
German region along the Rhine River (1620). He thereby removed
a Protestant-held barrier on the route by which money and men
reached the Spanish armies in the Netherlands; he was rewarded
with the rank of captain general. He returned to the Netherlands
to assume command of the Spanish armies in 1621, after Spain
had decided to break the truce with the Dutch. There Spinola
gained his most famous victory, the capture of the strategic
Dutch fortress of Breda, after a long siege (Aug. 28, 1624-June
5, 1625). This victory drew attention throughout Europe and served
as the subject for the great painting by Velázquez, "The
Surrender of Breda." After Breda, the lack of funds and
the enmity of the conde-duque de Olivares, the administrator
for the Spanish boy-king Philip IV, hindered Spinola's military
efforts. Also, the new Dutch commander, Frederick Henry, prince
of Orange, proved himself a formidable opponent.
In 1628 Spinola left for Spain, where he reluctantly accepted
an appointment as general and plenipotentiary in the war with
the French over the disputed succession to the duchy of Mantua,
Italy (1628-31). Spinola arrived in Italy in 1629 and died there
in the midst of the siege of Casale. The title of marqués
de Los Balbases, which had been bestowed on Spinola, was all
the compensation his family received for the great fortune Spinola
had spent in the service of Philip III and Philip IV of Spain.
ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
Spinola, Ambrogio di Filippo, Marqués De Los Balbases
Bibliography
Studies of his campaigns are found in Pieter Geyl, The Revolt
of the Netherlands, 1555-1609, 2nd ed. (1958), and The Netherlands
in the Seventeenth Century, rev. and enlarged ed. (1961).
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