Torquato Conti

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Torquato Conti

Torquato Conti, Marchese di Guadagnola, Duca di Pola (* 1591 ; † June 1636 in Ferrara ) was an Italian condottiere , imperial field marshal and papal general.

Life

Torquato Conti comes from the Italian noble family Conti and was the first-born son of Lotario Herzog von Poli and Clarice Orsini. Destined by his father to be a clergyman, he studied with Cardinal Odoardo Farnese . However, he then went on to do Spanish military service as a volunteer. He fought in 1616 and 1617 in the war against Charles Emanuel of Savoy in Italy, commanding a company of infantry. He then moved to Germany. Under Emperor Ferdinand II , he led the Italian volunteers who were in German service. He became a lieutenant colonel and head of the regiment, and as such took part in the Battle of Prague and the conquest of Pilsen in 1620 . In 1621 he fought in Hungary under Count Bucquoy against Gábor Bethlen . While trying to recover the body of the count, he was taken prisoner, from which he was released after a few months. For this he was rewarded by the emperor with the commandant post of Olomouc . He defended the city against further attacks by Bethlen. In 1622 he took part in the siege and conquest of Glatz and in the battle of Wimpfen . As a merit, he was appointed war councilor, chamberlain and colonel by the emperor .

Then he went into the service of Pope Urban VIII to take part in the Veltlin War. The Pope made him Duke of Guadagnolo and general of his troops. After this war he became General Feldzeugmeister of the Kaiser. He helped to crush Count Peter Ernst II von Mansfeld in the Battle of Dessau in 1626 . In Wallenstein's army he besieged and conquered Krempe in 1627 and in his absence was commander of the imperial troops in Holstein. After the peace with Denmark in 1629 and his illness cured, he went to Pomerania as field marshal and commander . He occupied the Oder crossings Gartz and Greifenhagen . Since he could not prevent the landing of the Swedish King Gustav Adolf , he had to retreat. His troops moved into two camps in Stolpe and Gartz, and he secured the town of Landsberg an der Warthe . His attempt to conquer the city ​​of Kolberg , which was occupied by Sweden , thwarted the Swedish Field Marshal Gustaf Graf Horn , as did the attack on Szczecin .

Because of cancer, he passed his command on to General Feldzeugmeister Count Hannibal von Schomberg . He traveled to Vienna, where he was honorably discharged, and then to Italy, where he became a general in the army of the Papal States.

A marriage with Margravine Felice of Sassatelli-Bevilacqua, of Ferrara, had no children.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Marchese di Guadagnola, Duca di Pola

literature

personal data
SURNAME Conti, Torquato
BRIEF DESCRIPTION imperial field marshal and papal general
DATE OF BIRTH 1591
DATE OF DEATH June 1636
Place of death Ferrara