Antonio de Oquendo

Antonio de Oquendo (1577-1639)

Statue of Antonio de Oquendo

Antonio de Oquendo (born October 1577 in San Sebastián , † June 7, 1639 in La Coruña ) was a Spanish admiral.

Life

Antonio de Oquendo was the second son of Admiral Miguel de Oquendo, who had fought in the Spanish Armada campaign . Antonio also entered the Navy and from 1593 initially served in the galley fleet of the Kingdom of Naples under Pedro de Toledo. In 1600 he switched to the Spanish fleet, where in 1604 he commanded two ships that defeated English privateers near Cadiz . This brought him the goodwill of Philip III. one who in 1607 entrusted him with command of the Biscay squadron. With this he tried to protect silver fleets coming from overseas from Dutch attacks. In 1611 he protected and accompanied a fleet of 36 merchant ships for the first time on their journey across the Atlantic . A second trip in 1613/14 was also successful. A third expedition across the Atlantic followed in 1623. He was supposed to lead ships across the Atlantic again and return quickly with the silver because there was a financial crisis in Spain. de Oquendo, however, had to winter in Havana and did not return to Spain until 1624, where he was arrested. The charges were fraud and nepotism . After his release, he was banned from commanding silver fleets again and had to pay a heavy fine. However, the sentence was overturned and de Oquendo was rehabilitated. In 1626 he was appointed Admiral of the Ocean . In 1628, on his own initiative, he horrified the city of La Marmora in Morocco, which was besieged by the Moroccans . Together with Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Mendoza , he commanded a Spanish-Portuguese fleet in 1629, which briefly wrested the Caribbean islands from English possession in the victorious battle of St. Kitts . In 1631, he commanded a troop transport to Brazil to retake Recife , which had recently been conquered by the Dutch. A sea victory at Abrolhos enabled the land troops to land successfully. In 1636 he was temporarily arrested for a duel. Because his fleet was not operational, he refused in 1637 to support the fleet of the Kingdom of Naples. As a punishment, he became governor of Maó on the island of Menorca . In 1639 he was appointed commander of a large transport fleet in support of the Spanish troops in the Netherlands. He was defeated by the Dutch fleet in the naval battle of the Downs in the English Channel. The Spanish naval power in the north was thus permanently broken. Wounded and morally broken, he returned to Spain, where he died a short time later.

literature

• David Marley: Wars of the Americas: a chronology of armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere, 1492 to the present. Santa Barbara, 2008 p. 184.