2023-12-08 19:45:31
The campaign between the France of Louis XIII and the Spain of Philip IV that placed the Spanish Tercios a few kilometers from conquering Paris, it is usually ignored so as not to spoil the idea that this mythical infantry was a few years away from crashing in Rocroi (1643), a battle that Gallic historiography pointed out as the decline of the military empire. But the fact that it is uncomfortable for the established narrative does not make the so-called year of Corbie any less true, a lost campaign within an endless conflict.
The entry of France into the 30 Years’ War on the part of the Protestant side was a headache for the Habsburgs starting in 1635. Far from religious disputes, what Richelieu wanted with this war movement was to gain ground in his century-old battle with Spain. both in Flanders and in Italy. The Bourbon dynasty He had managed to stop the civil wars that stalked the kingdom and, with freer hands, he reformed his army by introducing some of the tactics and ideas with which Sweden had burst into the European conflict like a brave bull.
In 1634, the Catholic victory in the battle of Nördlingen, with a decisive participation of Spanish troops (only a minority was Castilian, that is true) demonstrated to the continent that the Spanish Tercios were still the toughest nut to crack even for the Swedes. Hence, the French entry into the war was so risky and, at the same time, favorable for Protestant interests. Richelieu managed to remove the Spanish from the German equation and bring the war to his own territory, including in Portugal and Catalonia.
The disappearance of the most capable of the Spanish generals, a Habsburg of blood and category, who carried the war until the gates of paris. The youngest son of Felipe III, the infant Fernando, was of a lively temperament, intelligent, athletic and was more healthy than his brothers. It was decided for this reason, so that the succession order would not be threatened, that the infant enter the clergy and thus Philip IV would reign without the long shadow of a robust brother.
The Cardinal-Infante by Gaspar de Crayer (Prado Museum). abc
At only 10 years old, he was named Archbishop of Toledo, the main ecclesiastical seat of Spain, and shortly after he was appointed cardinal. He served as such, but without being ordained a priest because the 30 years war He limited his life exclusively to the military side. Upon the death of Isabel Clara Eugenia in 1633, Ferdinand was chosen to assume control over the Spanish Netherlands.
However, before traveling to Brussels, the Cardinal-Infante was ordered to lead an army into the heart of Germany and take part in the aforementioned Battle of Nördlingen, where the Swedes were unable to dislodge the Spanish Tercios from Allbuch Hill. rejecting 15 charges from the Protestant regiments. About that victory, which left 8,000 Protestant army dead in Nördlingen, the Spanish officer wrote Diego de Aedo y Gallart:
“It is not credible how full and how strewn the fields were with weapons, flags, corpses and dead horses, with horrific wounds.”
The Cardinal-Infante thus became the fashionable man of Catholic Europe and, on November 4, 1634, he entered Brussels amid cheers. The celebrations culminated with several raids on Dutch territory, which convinced the other most famous cardinal in Europe, Richelieu, that the only way to stop Spain was with the direct intervention of his country.
After declaring war on Spain, el Cardenal Richelieu He ordered his army to descend through the Meuse Valley to join his forces with the Dutch and thus lay siege to the strategic province of Brabant. French and Dutch, who added 60,000 men, they captured Diest and Hacen and laid siege to Leuven. However, the invaders disbanded in front of Leuven due to lack of supplies and poor organization.
«It is not credible how full and how strewn the fields were with weapons, flags, corpses and dead horses»
The rapid French collapse allowed Ferdinand to take by surprise, at the end of July, the fort of Esquenque, a key position to control the lower Rhine and draw a safe military corridor between the Netherlands and Catholic Germany, so that the Dutch would be trapped. . The Count Duke of Olivares He enthusiastically celebrated this conquest and demanded from the Cardinal-Infante, busy occupying the adjacent Duchy of Cleves, that “this must be maintained at any price.”
The Cardinal-Infante knew of the strategic importance of Esquenque, but he disagreed with the Count Duke about the possibilities of maintaining a place so far away from the rest of the Spanish positions for a long time. Even so, before returning to Brussels to spend the winter, Philip IV’s brother left 1,500 of his best soldiers in Esquenque with supplies for seven months and another 2,000 in Cleves, under the command of the Francisco Toralto. It was the most that could be allowed without neglecting the rest of the garrisons but too little for the Count Duke, who in a letter at the beginning of 1636 insisted on his demand “without the Esquenque, there is nothing, even if Paris is taken, and with it “Even if you miss Brussels and Madrid, there is everything.”
The Dutch understood, just as the Spanish did, how important it was to control Esquenque, so they dedicated themselves to its conquest as soon as spring began. After suffering prolonged Dutch bombardment from artillery barges, the 600 Spaniards who survived in the fortress surrendered on April 30 to great indignation of Olivares: «Well, I see, sir, that the greatest jewel that the King our lord had in those states to be able to accommodate his things with glory has been lost. […] great blow, sir, for the King our lord, great for all of Spain.
In the absence of Esquenque, the Count Duke was content, at least, with the recovery of Helmond, Eindhoven or any other Dutch town this year.
An unexpected turn in the war
When the Cardinal-Infante seemed ready to respond with all his strength to the loss of Esquenque on the Dutch border, he made a surprising decision with his back to Madrid: he began a diversionary maneuver on the border with France. If Fernando had received such a large army, nearly 70,000 men, reinforced with imperial troops, it was to reestablish the authority in Flanders after the series of Dutch victories between 1629 and 1634. Hence the unexpectedness of his attack on France and why his decision was seen at court as the result of personal desire. He would justify himself in the value of improvisation on the ground and in that the Emperor’s troops were entertained in Germany, leaving Richelieu’s hands too free.
With hardly any preparation and no support actions on other fronts, the Cardinal-Infante In the summer of 1636, he invaded French territory with only 18,000 men, armed with light equipment and a large number of cavalry. The idea of Infante Fernando dismantled the French defenses, which were expecting anything but a quick attack, and placed on a plate the capture of Le Câtelet, one of the most solid fortresses in the country, which did not resist more than three days of bombardment from portable mortars.
‘Rocroi. The last third’, by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau ABC
On August 7, the Spanish placed the stronghold of Corbie, a few kilometers from Paris, under siege. The fortress only lasted a week and, with its fall, left the way clear to reach Paris, where panic spread through its streets and The Royal Familyexcept for the King, was evacuated from the city.
Although some officers, such as the imperial general Ottavio Piccolomini, urged the Cardinal Infante to order the crossing of the Somme River to the capital, the brother rejected this possibility. Certainly the French defenses were completely disorganized and Spain would never again achieve a similar opportunity, although it was also true that without a supply line and with so few troops the invasion had an expiration date. The Spanish commander ordered the withdrawal and by the beginning of September there were no Spanish troops left on French soil.
Cardinal Richelieu, as shocked as anyone in Paris by the unexpected events, celebrated that the invasion ended in a scare. The Earl Duke, for his part, regretted that the Spanish had withdrawn from the Somme and had not done enough to hold Corbie. It’s more, Olivares In the following years he became obsessed with repeating the move with invasions from Catalonia and Flanders that went awry. The strategy ordered by the Court of suddenly assuming a defensive attitude in Holland and an offensive attitude in France ended, once the surprise effect dissipated, with more failures than successes. Precisely the Dutch recovery of Breda in 1637, the place that Spínola managed to surrender after much effort twelve years earlier, was possible because Olivares’ obsession with the French front neglected defense in Flanders.
The year of Corbie was the last humiliation to the French before the first serious collapse of the Spanish armies. There was a lack of heads, as Olivares would say. Spínola was missing, he was missing the Duke of Fair…and the warrior cardinal was going to be missing. With his reputation tarnished at court by his less than obedient attitude, and in the midst of Portugal’s dangerous rebellion, Ferdinand fell ill during a battle and died in Brussels on November 9, 1641.
His death is believed to have been caused by a stomach ulcer. Which did not prevent the usual rumors from arising that pointed to poisoning, perhaps ordered by Olivares, as the cause of a death that left him an orphan. to the Spanish Empirel of his best active general. Like his brother, Fernando also emulated Don Juan’s fame and left some bastard children. Clearly, there were plenty of bastards and a lack of valid and military heirs with his imagination.
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