The Flanders War fictionalized in its most interesting details. Under the real history of that eighty-year war (they would not spend arrows ...), germinated since the abdication of Carlos V in his son Felipe II the prudent (perhaps prudence as a euphemism for weakness), since this king was considered for the purpose internship a foreigner in the Netherlands. As I say under this real scenario, Fernando Martínez Laínez brings us closer to the first phases of the confrontation.
Alonso de Montenegro, a private, and Ambrosio Spínola, Genoese in command, as Captain General, of the entire Spanish army (that's how it went 😛) share the stage in this plot about History and stories. An interesting compendium of narrative intentions that offers the precise dynamism to know details of one of the largest armed conflicts in Europe while we delve into uses, customs and peculiarities of the fictionalized lives of these two protagonists and many others who accompany them.
Alonso de Montenegro was never an exemplary citizen, his hands had already run other people's blood that he was about to take him to the galleys, but he got rid of the mess by getting ready. In the army he demonstrated his talents for warfare, with dedication, bravery and generosity at the front.
For all these virtues and for some common bond, Ambrosio trusts him to face the first campaigns. And then we discovered that courage was never lacking to defend the Spanish cause, but there was a lack of logistics with which to cover all kinds of needs of so many combatants.
A plot that wonderfully connects the facts and the intrahistory, the reality of an endless war and the fiction in terms of the vital, the personal of so many people who left their lives in front. An interesting novel that entertains and teaches.
You can buy the book The spears. The path of the thirds, the new novel by Fernando Martínez Laínez, here:
It will be the next to fall. A great find this page.
Good bet, Andrés. And thanks!!