The accounts of “El Gran Capitán”
Traditionally, the rendering of accounts to the king for the conquest of Naples has been attributed to a text with the defiant response of “El Gran Capitán” in the following terms:
“One hundred million ducats in picks, shovels and hoes to bury the enemy’s dead. One hundred and fifty thousand ducats in friars, nuns and poor people, to pray to God for the souls of the king’s soldiers fallen in combat. One hundred thousand ducats in perfumed gloves, to preserve the troops from the stench of the enemy’s corpses. One hundred and sixty thousand ducats to replace and repair the bells destroyed by so much ringing in victory. Finally, for the patience in having listened to these trifles of the king, who asks for an account from the one who has given him a kingdom, one hundred million ducats”.
The same motif was picked up by Lope de Vega in his comedy “Las cuentas del Gran Capitán” (The Great Captain’s Accounts), which turned such a response into part of the literary myth.
The authentic accounts of “El Gran Capitán” are preserved in the General Archive of Simancas. They are contained in a volume of 924 sheets, made up of drawees from Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba to the treasurer of the Catholic Monarchs’ navy, Luis Pixon, for payment of the people of war, their captaincies and all kinds of campaign expenses, mails, supplies, ammunition, etc.
