Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, called «El Gran Capitan», was a military service to the Catholic Monarchs (15th and 16th centuries). Belonging to the house of Aguilar, he trained on horseback between the warrior tradition of the Andalusian border and the Castilian royal court. In the Wars of Granada (1480-92) he began to practice his tactical innovations that made him from a young age the most prominent military chief of the Castilian-Aragonese monarchy.

It introduces great reforms into the «art of war»: from medieval heaviness to modern agility and trained his men through rigorous discipline and formed his morals, awakening in them the pride of body, personal dignity, the sense of national honor and religious interest.

Soon his name was associated with bravery. But where he really began to show his military ingenuity was during the «War of Granada», a military campaign that followed from 1482 and in which the Spaniards intended to expel Boabdil from the last Muslim state in the Iberian Peninsula. The services he provided during that campaign were awarded with the entruste of the Order of Santiago, in addition to other rents and lordships.

By 1497, after a brief stay at the Court, the Catholic Monarchs appointed him «adalid of the Frontier», a degree that amounted to captain

The successes of the Campaign in Italy (the takeover of Reggio, Atella and Naples) earned him the nickname Grand Captain and the title of Duke of Santángelo.

The death of Queen Elizabeth the Catholic in 1504 marked the beginning of the Great Captain’s fall from grace. His confrontation with Ferdinand the Catholic reached a climax following the Treaty of Blois (1505), at which point he recounts the legend that demanded the Grand Captain to be held accountable for his management.

The Cordoba never ceased to be an officer close to his men, with a sense of honor for the opposite, stoic and, above all, a loyal subject towards Catholic Monarchs who began on their shoulders the adventure of a new nation

The «Great Captain’ legacy» revolutionized the way he fought globally: training the troop in companies under the command of a captain, and the expert handling of the individual firearms of the 6-foot fighter.

He played a pivotal role in the cavalry. He replaced the medieval shock war with the defense-attack tactic by giving preference to infantry over all weapons.

He made the Spanish infantry that formidable army that the French said about after fighting him, which «had not fought with men but with devils».

• Length: 75 cm
• Width: 17.5 cm
• Weight: 1.2 kg