Piccolomini

Piccolomini, a distinguished Italian family which reckoned among its members the scholarly Pope Pius II. (q.v.). Ottavio Piccolomini (1599 -1656), Duke of Amalfi, passed from the Spanish service into that of the Emperor Ferdinand II., and played a distinguished part in the Thirty Years' War, contributing to the victory of Nordlingen (1634), expelling the French from the Netherlands (1635), and saving Austria from invasion by a Swedish host under Baner (1640). After a defeat by Torstenson in Silesia (1642), he re-entered the Spanish service, and was appointed commanderin-chief in the Netherlands. He died at Vienna.