Piccolomini, Prince Ottavio (1599 or 1600-1656).

Italian general and diplomat in Imperial service. Principal wars: Thirty Years' War (1618-1648); War of the Mantuan Succession (1628-1631). Principal battles: Lutzen (1632); Thionville (1639); Breitenfeld II (near Leipzig) (1642).

Born at Pisa, a scion of the Pieri branch of the noble Sienese family (1599 or 1600); joined the Spanish army (1616); continued to serve the Hapsburgs when he switched to the Austrian Imperial army; served in Italy, Bohemia, Hungary, and northern Germany, and was closely associated with wallenstein (after 1627); commanded Wallenstein's bodyguard early in the War of the Mantuan Succession, and later promoted to independent command through Wallenstein's influence (1628-1631); helped bring about Wallenstein's reappointment as generalissimo of the Imperial armies (1632); played a major role at the battle of Lutzen (November 16, 1632), where his repeated charges cost him seven wounds and nearly won the day for the Imperialists; Wallenstein entrusted Piccolomini with important independent commands in Bohemia and Silesia during the following year (1633); while Piccolomini was in most respects a faithful supporter of Wallenstein, he remained loyal to the Emperor; played a leading role, together with Matthias Gallas, in the generals' plot that led to Wallenstein's flight from Pilsen (Plzen)(February 22, 1634) and his murder at Eger (February 25); rewarded with an estate in Bohemia, he was frustrated in his hopes to succeed to Wallenstein's command, which went instead to Gallas; left the Austrian service to return to that of Spain (1635); campaigned with notable success against the French in the Netherlands, shattering a larger army under the Marquis de Feuquieres at Thionville (June 7, 1639); was rewarded with the duchy of Amalfi by Philip IV; transferred back to the Austrian army, but his hopes of succeeding Gallas were still not realized; serving under the nominal command of Archduke Leopold William, he was present at the Austrian defeat at the second battle of Breitenfeld (November 2, 1642); again transferred to the Spanish forces, where he was richly rewarded for his services in the Netherlands; finally appointed an Imperial lieutenant general, he led an army to the relief of Prague (May 1648); played a major role in the postwar disarmament and repatriation of the ostensibly Swedish forces in Bohemia and central Germany (1648-1650); led the Imperial delegation to the Congress of Nurnberg (1649); there his diplomatic skill so impressed Emperor Ferdinand III that he made Piccolomini a Prince of the Empire (1650); died in Vienna (August 1656).

A brave and resourceful cavalry commander, he was skillful both as a tactician and a strategist; his efforts in defense of Prague in 1648 (while allowing the French and Swedes to occupy Bavaria) preserved the Empire from suffering harsher peace terms and tempered the triumph of the anti-Hapsburg forces. <BL>

Sources:
Elster, C., Piccolomini-Studien. N.p., 1911.
Wedgwood, Cicely V., The Thirty Years War. 1938. Reprint, Garden
     City, N.Y., 1961.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. 24 vols. Chicago, 1966.

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