2ºB Individual Proyect

Antonio de Oquendo
Alejandro Montiano Cádiz
Index
• Who was?
• Naval Career
• Later Promotions
• Role in the Battle of the Downs
Who was?
• Antonio was the son of Captain-General Miguel de Oquendo, who died in
October 1588 when his ship foundered off Pasajes, while coming back from
the ill-fated campaign of the Armada Invencible. In 1594 he entered naval
service. He commanded a naval squadron made of his flagship, the Delfín de
Escocia, and the Dobladilla, two 500 ton galleons.
Naval Career
• In 1619 he temporarily replaced Juan Fajardo de Entenza y de Guevara,
arrested for insubordination, as commander of the Squadron of the Ocean, the
Atlantic high seas navy. Ordered to be Fajardo's successor he refused, at the
same time trying to make the government aware of the many shortcomings in
the naval organisation; as a result he was himself incarcerated. Soon his
imprisonment was changed for a forced stay in a convent.
Later Promotions
• In 1626 De Oquendo became Admiral-General of the Ocean Fleet, under
Captain-General Fadrique de Toledo. In 1628 by his own initiative he
relieved La Mámora, at the time besieged by the Moors.
• In 1631 he commanded a troop convoy destined for Brazil, to retake the city
of Pernambuco, the previous year conquered by the Dutch West India
Company. On 12 September he engaged and defeated a Dutch WIC fleet
under Admiral Adriaan Pater, allowing him to successfully land the troop
contingent. The Spanish lost one vessel, the Dutch three. De Oquendo was
now promoted to the highest rank, that of Captain-General.
Role in the Battle of the Downs
• However, in 1639 the situation of Spain in the Thirty Years War strongly
deteriorated. France had blocked the usual land route to the Army of Flanders
and in August De Oquendo was made a viscount and given command of a
large transport fleet to ship reinforcements from Cadiz to Dunkirk. On 15
September he was intercepted near the Strait of Dover by the squadron of
Dutch Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp, who was reinforced two days later
by a flotilla of Vice-Admiral Witte de With.