Background
Ottavio Piccolomini was born on the 11th of November 1599 in Florence, Italy.
Ottavio Piccolomini was born on the 11th of November 1599 in Florence, Italy.
He received a military education as a young boy.
He became a tercio pikeman for the Kingdom of Spain at the age of sixteen.
Two years later, on the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in Bohemia, he was appointed a captain in a cavalry regiment sent by the grand duke of Tuscany to the emperor's army, and he fought with some distinction under Bucquoy at the Weisser Berg and in Hungary.
In 1624 he served for a short time again in the Spanish army and then as lieutenant-colonel of Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim's cuirassier regiment in the war with the Milanese.
In 1627 he returned to the Imperial service as colonel and captain of the personal guard of Albrecht von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland. In this capacity Piccolomini fell into disgrace for attempting to extort money from people of Stargard in Pomerania. But his dedication and contrition saw him returned to the rank of "Colonel of horse and foot".
In 1629 his younger brother, Ascanio Piccolomini, was appointed Archbishop of Siena which secured the older Piccolomini brother a position of influence in the diplomatic world. Italians were at the centre of diplomacy in Europe and this was even more so the case for a family that had seen two of its members elected to the papal throne (Pope Pius II and Pope Pius III). Wallenstein made use of his subordinate's capacity for negotiation and intrigue.
During the Mantuan War, Piccolomini took a prominent part in the dual role of subtle diplomat and plundering soldier of fortune.
In 1630 came the invasion of Germany by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Piccolomini was captured and held hostage at Ferrara for helping in unauthorised negotiations for peace with the Swedish Empire. Despite his support for Wallenstein, he was not included in the list of promotions when the Duke resumed action against Saxony, Brandenburg, Sweden and France. Thereafter, Piccolomini served as a colonel under Feldmarschallleutnant Heinrich Holk, a Danish officer, in the battle of Lützen and other operations.
In the campaign of 1633 Piccolomini was appointed commander of a detachment posted at Königgratz assigned to bar the enemy's advance from Silesia into Bohemia. In May, Wallenstein entered Silesia with the main army in an attempt to compel the electors of Brandenburg and Saxony to join the Holy Roman Empire against the Swedes. Piccolomini was with Wallenstein but disapproved of his policy and joined in the military conspiracy to oust the Duke. On January 24, 1634 Ferdinand II signed a decree dismissing Wallenstein and instructed Count Gallas and Piccolomini to determine a course of action for removing the Duke, but did not specifically demand his death. Nevertheless, the conspiracy developed into a plot to assassinate the Duke, Wallenstein was killed on 25 February 1634 at Cheb Castle. Piccolomini's reward was his marshal's baton, 100, 000 gulden and the estate of Náchod in the Orlické mountains in East Bohemia. Piccolomini's part in the assassination was set out in fictionalised form in Friedrich Schiller's play, Wallenstein.
On 5 and 6 September of that same year, Piccolomini distinguished himself at the Battle of Nördlingen. By 1635, Piccolomini was again allied with a Spanish army but complained that their laziness and caution ruined every strategy he developed.
Piccolomini had expected to be appointed as successor to Matthias Gallas. Instead of being appointed, though, he was called in to act as an assistant to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, with whom he served in the second battle of Breitenfeld in 1642. Thereafter he spent several years in the Spanish service.
Some years later, having re-entered the Imperial army, he was again disappointed with the chief command's selection of Peter Melander, Count Holzapfel. But when in 1648 Melander fell in battle at Zusmarshausen, Piccolomini was at last appointed lieutenant-general of the emperor, and thus conducted as generalissimo the final weary and desultory campaign of the Thirty Years' War.
Three days after the commission for executing the peace had finished its labours, the emperor addressed a letter of thanks to the Prince Piccolomini, and awarded him a gift of 114, 566 gulden.
His skills both on the battlefield (Thionville, 1639) and at the conference table (Congress of Nürnberg, 1649) made him an invaluable servant of the Austrian and Spanish crowns.
In 1638 he was made a Count of the Empire. Having won a great victory over the French (at the relief of Thionville, on 7 July), he was rewarded with elevation to the office of privy councillor and the dukedom of Amalfi from King Philip IV of Spain.
He received the title of grandee and induction into the Order of the Golden Fleece.
On 4 June 1651 he married Maria Benigna Francisca of Saxe-Lauenburg, daughter of Duke Julius Henry of Saxe-Lauenburg. He left no legitimate children and his titles and estates passed to his brother's son.
