Gonsalvo De Cordova, Or Gonzalo Hernandez De Cordova called el Gran Capitan (the Great Captain), a Spanish general, born at Montilla, near Cordova, March 16, 1453, died in Granada, Dec. 2, 1515. His family name was Aguilar, but his ancestors rendered such services at the conquest of Cordova that St. Ferdinand permitted them to assume the name of that city. At the court of Ferdinand and Isabella Gon-salvo attracted attention by his beauty and knightly skill and the magnificence of his living, He distinguished himself at Albuera during the war with Portugal (1479), but gained the greatest renown in the war with the Moors, which began in 1481 and ended at the beginning of 1492. In conjunction with the king's secretary, he conducted the secret negotiation with the Moorish monarch, Abdallah or Boab-dil, which resulted in the capitulation of Granada. In 1495 he was sent with a small squadron against the French who had invaded the kingdom of Naples. He landed at Messina, and thence crossed over to the mainland. In his first battle at Seminara, fought against his advice, he was defeated, but his desperate valor saved the army from destruction and King Ferdinand from capture.

His subsequent operations were so successful that by the end of 1496 the French, who a year before had possessed the whole kingdom, yielded up their last fortress, and withdrew to their own country. At the request of the pope, he then laid siege to Ostia, which was held by a formidable band of freebooters, and carried it by storm. On his return to Naples the king gave him the title of duke of St. Angelo, with an estate containing 3,000 vassals. In the beginning of 1500 he was called into the field to suppress a sudden insurrection of the Moors of the Alpujarras. In May of the same year he sailed from Malaga in command of an army of 4,600 men, designed to protect Naples, which the French were preparing to invade a second time. In September, in conjunction with a Venetian fleet, he laid siege to the almost impregnable fortress of St. George in Cephalonia, and the place was carried by assault in January, 1501. Gonsalvo sailed thence to Sicily, where he was waited on by an embassy from the Venetian senate bringing him magnificent presents. Meanwhile, by a secret treaty, Louis XII. of France and Ferdinand of Spain had agreed to divide Naples between them.

Gonsalvo was appointed lieutenant general of the Spanish portion, which he overran and conquered in less than a month, except Taranto, which capitulated after a long siege, March 1, 1502. The French and Spaniards speedily quarrelled about their boundaries in Naples, and in July their dispute broke into open hostilities. Gonsalvo, whose force was much interior to that of the French, threw himself into the fortified seaport of Barletta on the Adriatic. Here, from July, 1502, to April, 1503, he sustained one of the most memorable sieges in history, conducted by the duke of Nemours and the chevalier Bayard. Having at length received by sea a small reenforcement, the Great Captain on April 28 broke forth from Barletta, gave battle to the French, and defeated them, with the slaughter of half their army, the loss of all their artillery and baggage, and most of their colors. This victory decided the war, and in a few weeks all the fortresses held by the French were taken or surrendered, with the exception of Gaeta, into which the remnant of the French army had thrown themselves. A long siege ensued, which gave time to Louis XII. to despatch into Italy one of the finest armies that France had ever sent into the field.

Gonsalvo met the French on the Garigliano, near Gaeta, defeated them in several encounters, and on Dec. 29, 1503, routed them totally with great slaughter. This defeat put an end to the French attempt to conquer Naples. Gaeta surrendered Jan. 1, 1504, and by a treaty, Feb. 11, peace was restored between France and Spain, the latter power retaining Naples. Gonsalvo remained in Naples, ruling the kingdom as viceroy till 1507, when Ferdinand, suspecting that he meant to make himself independent, recalled him to Spain. Soon after his arrival there he retired to his estates near Loja, where he lived in great magnificence. In 1512 the French again made head in Italy, and Ferdinand called upon Gonsalvo to take command of an army for the protection of Naples; and when it became known that he was to command, nearly all the nobles of Spain volunteered. This enthusiasm so augmented Ferdinand's distrust that he countermanded his orders, and directed Gonsalvo to disband his levies. Three years later Gonsalvo was attacked by a quartan fever, and removed to his palace in Granada, in hopes that the climate of that city would benefit his health; but he died shortly after his arrival there.

His remains were laid in a sumptuous mausoleum in a chapel of the church of St. Geronimo.