Saturday 9 October 2021

Gonzalo Fernandez Cordoba Personal Coat of Arms for Cerignola 1503 Campaign?

 With the release of the beautiful Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba, 1st Duke of Santangelo and Staff miniatures from The Assault Group (superbly) sculpted by Nick Collier below has had me on a bit of a trek on the net looking for his personal coat of arms for the Cerignola 1503 Campaign.

I struck it lucky with Wappenwiki and got a convincing hit straight away which has left me wondering which coat of army El Gran Capitan might have used at the time of  Cerignola 1503? So far there are four potentials thus far; I prefer the first one at the top but would be very interested in hearing from anyone who might have a better understanding of Spanish Heraldry or Early Renaissance Heraldry in  general. 

You can see the coats of arms on the Wappenwiki page HERE)

Candidate no. 1:

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba

1st Duke of Santángelo, Montalto, Terranova, Andría and Sessa
Viceroy of Naples
El Gran Capitan
Younger son of Pedro Fernández de Córdoba, 4th Lord of Aguilar and Priego


Candidate no. 2: 
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba

1st Duke of Santángelo, Montalto, Terranova, Andría and Sessa
Alternative arms variant



Candidate no. 3:
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba

1st Duke of Santángelo, Montalto, Terranova, Andría and Sessa
Alternative arms variant V.2


Candidate no. 4:
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba

1st Duke of Santángelo, Montalto, Terranova, Andría and Sessa
Alternative arms variant as Knight of the Golden Fleece


Candidate 5- from my good friend and fabulous painter Rafa:


If anyone can help me shed some light on which coat of arms he would have held aloft at Cerignola 1503 I would be very grateful. My instincts are to go with the first image but I really don't know for sure.

4 comments:

  1. From a practical standpoint, the first and simplest is most viable. The later 2 have the elaborate borders denoting a Knight of the Golden Fleece, essentially equivalent to many other nations, where the ribbon and badge of the Order is displayed around the escuteon... or so I would surmise. The right side of the shield (left as we view it) simply refers to the Kingdom of Spain - Aragon, Castile, and Leon from top to bottom. escutcheon. I tried searching for the titles to see if that explained any of the emblems; no luck. The "hail mary, full of grace" and the associated red/green/yellow bands are presumably indicative of a Spanish religious order.

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    1. Thanks Gonsalvo. As I have said above, my instincts are to go with the first coat of arms; I have to measure that up with the written info Pete from Pete's Flags gave me just yesterday. It's kind of odd, one would have thought finding his coat of arms would have been reasonably easy given that he's such a famous figure from history. It has proved to be the opposite!

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  2. Historically, I would agree with Peter (Gonsalvo) but, personally I'd go with what I presume is the Sultan in chains. On a flag, that would stand out bold and proud. My reasoning is simply this, there are are so many Spanish flags with the 'Spanish motifs that his personal arms would get lost amongst them. I'm definitely pinching the 'Sultan' image you have posted!

    Thanks,

    James

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    Replies
    1. Interesting. It would be a lot easier to paint too! LOL

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