Endless attacks and fierce defenses planned on his figure. Considered one of the best generals of his time and one of the great heroes that our mother earth has produced, the Black Legend describes him and his elite troops, the Tercios, as an ambitious, brutal, sadistic, cruel and savage guy. , without empathy, who applied terror and extermination, a true tyrant. Renowned experts and historians deny all these extremes, other important and serious ones say otherwise.

In any case, to say that he is a relevant character, for better or for worse, in the history of Spain, he was a trusted man of Emperor Charles V and his son Felipe II. Wherever the imperial cause had to be defended, the Duke of Alba met there. We see him in Vienna against the Ottoman expansion, in Tunisia overthrowing Barbarossa returning the control and power of the Crown over the Mediterranean, in Mühlberg defeating the German Protestants, his campaigns in Flanders, putting down the revolts in the Netherlands, defeating Luis de Nassau and Guillermo de Orange, or conquering, for the Empire, Portugal. He lived through the splendor of the Golden Age and shared arms and camaraderie with his good friend, the poet Garcilaso de la Vega. Still, he turned out to be the champion of the idea of ​​Empire —Generating / Civilizing Empire or Predatory / Colonizing Empires? - and his actions favored the undisputed apogee in the international concert during the SXVI.

[En la imagen el lema "Je Maintiendrai" (mantendré) de la casa de Orange-Nassau]

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Would you bet on a maimed, lame and one-eyed man to face the "Perfidious Albion"? In view of the outcome, it would be stupid to say no ... Our half-man is called Blas de Lezo and he is remembered for having shaken the English by directing the defense of Cartagena de Indias during the British siege in 1741, where with just 6 ships managed to heroically resist the attack of 195 ships during the bloody battle.

This intrepid Gipuzkoan at only 17 years old would lose his leg with a cannon shot in the hard battle of Vélez-Málaga in 1704, at two years old a splinter from another cannon shot would blow his left eye off. Some time later, with 26 compliments, during the War of the Succession he would be left maimed by a bullet. Since then, the nickname of Almirante Palpalo would always accompany him. He had already become a legend, but it would be as commanding general in Colombia that he would go down in the annals of history as one of the best strategists in the Spanish Navy for his extraordinary feat and glorious victory against the humiliated Englishmen of Admiral Edward Vernon in Cartagena de Indias.

[T-shirt proposed by Joaquín Lista de Pando]

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"He was not the most honest or the most pious man, but he was a brave man" P. Reverte.

If you lived dangerously and your life was hanging by a thread, if you defied authority, defending your reason and rights with the proud point of your sword, if you sacrificed yourself and were generous and human, if you were fearless, reckless, arrogant, brave, adventurous, seductive, rogue, loyal, if you were capable of the most heroic but also the meanest actions, if you were guided by your code of honour, if you sought glory on the margins of society and the law, if you lost your innocence in the face of the harsh reality of mud and blood, and if, disenchanted, everyone abandoned you. .. then you were probably an Old Thirdsman, a tired hero in rusty armour, a forgotten anti-hero like a cursed Alatriste.

Under the reign of Carlos V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and his son Felipe II, Spain became the first world power, the champion during the Golden Age of that vast empire in which "the sun did not set." He assumed the old idea of ​​establishing a universal Empire of supranational and spiritual unity, an ideal of an Empire successor to the European Tradition (the medieval Christianites, the Romanites of the Roman Empire) against the Protestant currents, the Europe of Nations and against the thriving Ottoman Empire.

While the “Civilizing Empire” spread across America and the world (Hispanity), the emperor managed to face the threat of the Turks (Vienna and Lepanto —Felipe—). But the expansion of the Protestant Lutheran Reformation and the hostility of France and other countries such as Belgium, Holland or England frustrated (Westphalia) the realization of the ideal of Empire - that continuation project of the wisdom tradition, the East / West Indo-European tradition and Pagan tradition through which we can transcend through the initiatory and warrior path, through grace, the fruit of our works. As a consequence, the predatory Empires and the Europe of the sovereign Nations of the modern world appear.

The Kingdom of Castile was a prosperous, frontier and politically advanced society, organized on the basis of its peculiar institutions (Cortes, Councils, Communities, Behetrías) that erupted in a deep malaise of the Castilians before Carlos de Gante's self-proclamation as King of Castile. The postponement of the economic and political interests of Castile together with Flemish greed caused the first modern revolution - the so-called War of the Communities of Castile that lasted from 1520 to 1522. An armed uprising led by the Castilian cities with attorneys in the Cortes, supported by the peasantry and the lower nobility. The community members in Villalar were disarmed with the execution of Padilla, Maldonado and Bravo, the constitutional reform project of the Communities of Castile to reorganize the country was frustrated, now forming part of the Imperial project of the emperor.

Ostentatious, fearless, brave and courageous warriors, so fearful that even the very devil closed the gates of hell because he was afraid of them... These knights of steel or servants of the land were the warrior elites of the Renaissance, recognizable by their striking features, colorful and extravagant clothing (until then reserved for the clergy and nobility, as they were exempted from the rules of the state and the sanctuary laws) their actions were recorded in legendary battles such as Pavia, San Quintín, the siege of Vienna, or the sack of Rome.

In a period, at the end of the 15th century, in which feudalism was dying —with it the caste system that determined by birth the roles in life— and the art of war was changing, the peasants, craftsmen or servants had the possibility to become by their own merits pikemen, arquebusiers or swordsmen within the new mercenary armies of the emperor. Without a noble title, lineage and ancestry, the Lansquenets were able to become highly paid land soldiers thanks to their impeccable combat technique, their high risk in the battlefield that made their lives "so short and brutal" (Maximilian I).

Ostentatious, fearless, brave and courageous warriors, so fearful that even the very devil closed the gates of hell because he was afraid of them... These knights of steel or servants of the land were the warrior elites of the Renaissance, recognizable by their striking features, colorful and extravagant clothing (until then reserved for the clergy and nobility, as they were exempted from the rules of the state and the sanctuary laws) their actions were recorded in legendary battles such as Pavia, San Quintín, the siege of Vienna, or the sack of Rome.

In a period, at the end of the 15th century, in which feudalism was dying —with it the caste system that determined by birth the roles in life— and the art of war was changing, the peasants, craftsmen or servants had the possibility to become by their own merits pikemen, arquebusiers or swordsmen within the new mercenary armies of the emperor. Without a noble title, lineage and ancestry, the Lansquenets were able to become highly paid land soldiers thanks to their impeccable combat technique, their high risk in the battlefield that made their lives "so short and brutal" (Maximilian I).

"He was not the most honest or the most pious man, but he was a brave man" P. Reverte.

If you lived dangerously and your life was hanging by a thread, if you defied authority, defending your reason and rights with the proud point of your sword, if you sacrificed yourself and were generous and human, if you were fearless, reckless, arrogant, brave, adventurous, seductive, rogue, loyal, if you were capable of the most heroic but also the meanest actions, if you were guided by your code of honour, if you sought glory on the margins of society and the law, if you lost your innocence in the face of the harsh reality of mud and blood, and if, disenchanted, everyone abandoned you. .. then you were probably an Old Thirdsman, a tired hero in rusty armour, a forgotten anti-hero like a cursed Alatriste.

"He was not the most honest or the most pious man, but he was a brave man" P. Reverte.

If you lived dangerously and your life was hanging by a thread, if you defied authority, defending your reason and rights with the proud point of your sword, if you sacrificed yourself and were generous and human, if you were fearless, reckless, arrogant, brave, adventurous, seductive, rogue, loyal, if you were capable of the most heroic but also the meanest actions, if you were guided by your code of honour, if you sought glory on the margins of society and the law, if you lost your innocence in the face of the harsh reality of mud and blood, and if, disenchanted, everyone abandoned you. .. then you were probably an Old Thirdsman, a tired hero in rusty armour, a forgotten anti-hero like a cursed Alatriste.

Disciplined centurions, medieval knights, furious Spartans, lethal Vikings, honorable samurai, untamed Celts, courageous Thirds, legendary native Indians, fearsome Aztecs... Warriors of the world who have changed history. Idealists and mercenaries faced almost always in cruel and unjust wars. Acts of heroism, bravery and honour are sullied by the most despicable and ruthless actions... The warrior by his activity of Justice, Fortitude and Temperance, has to avoid the effects of the wars, not to invent, to promote, to foment and to live of them.

Life is an adventure and we must not let it escape, do not you want to discover everything that this world offers you? Do not wait for the deathbed to look back and regret what you have not done all this time. Now is your opportunity, it is your moment, throw yourself on the horizon, take flight and cross borders, navigate to the beyond with the decision and courage of an eagle. Fortune favors the andes and daring, rest assured that the gods will reward you.

Life is an adventure and we must not let it escape, do not you want to discover everything that this world offers you? Do not wait for the deathbed to look back and regret what you have not done all this time. Now is your opportunity, it is your moment, throw yourself on the horizon, take flight and cross borders, navigate to the beyond with the decision and courage of an eagle. Fortune favors the andes and daring, rest assured that the gods will reward you.

Life is an adventure and we must not let it escape, do not you want to discover everything that this world offers you? Do not wait for the deathbed to look back and regret what you have not done all this time. Now is your opportunity, it is your moment, throw yourself on the horizon, take flight and cross borders, navigate to the beyond with the decision and courage of an eagle. Fortune favors the andes and daring, rest assured that the gods will reward you.

The eagle was a symbol present in the iconography and heraldry of several Civilizations. Sacred by the vast majority of Cultures such as the Aztec, Roman, Egyptian, Hittite, Sumerian, Indo-European... represents majesty, strength, character, courage, spirituality, power and wisdom. Used in Europe since the late Middle Ages, it became an attribute for gods, warriors, kings and emperors.

The double-headed eagle observes from the top of the Tree of life and from the Cosmic Mountain the land of its ancestors, presiding omnipotent with its physical and spiritual duality, able to look at the sun and follow its course through the sky until descending to Delos, the sacred island of antiquity where the god Apollo was born.

The eagle was a symbol present in the iconography and heraldry of several Civilizations. Sacred by the vast majority of Cultures such as the Aztec, Roman, Egyptian, Hittite, Sumerian, Indo-European... represents majesty, strength, character, courage, spirituality, power and wisdom. Used in Europe since the late Middle Ages, it became an attribute for gods, warriors, kings and emperors.

The double-headed eagle observes from the top of the Tree of life and from the Cosmic Mountain the land of its ancestors, presiding omnipotent with its physical and spiritual duality, able to look at the sun and follow its course through the sky until descending to Delos, the sacred island of antiquity where the god Apollo was born.

The history of the Empires has bequeathed to us a world of blood and terror, games of thrones and struggles motivated by domination and exploitation, gestures of superiority that end in robberies, massacres and exterminations, mutilation of cultures to their legitimate heirs. The colonialist market and the slave trade coexisted together with the technical and scientific advances, architecture, art and the glory of the Cursed Empires. Today they survive and dominate the spheres of power, they control resources, they crush freedom in modern times. Nihilism on the horizon, revolt for the most daring... in the distance a vague memory of the Golden dream, of the civilizing and meeting mission, of that Ideal of Tradition that was defeated.