“LA BATALLA” (The Battle). Thus, with capital letters, Fernando Martínez Laínez entitled the second installment of the trilogy "La senda de los tercios."

The battle to which he refers is of Nördlingen, the last great battle where the Spanish Tercios destroyed the then invincible Swedish armies, descendants of those Vikings who ravaged the European coasts at the beginning of the second millennium. In the trilogy, Fernando Martínez Laínez, who is perhaps the greatest expert on the Spanish Tercios, recounts the story, the rise and fall of the best infantry ever seen throughout time. A harsh affirmation for those who feel distressed by our history. The Barcelonan author, although resident of Madrid, states very clearly on the book's binding: "I want to contribute to the recovery of respect for Spain’s history and to rescuing the great characters that marked the splendor of our past from oblivion." Errors were committed, no doubt, but our past is glorious by all accounts. Martínez Laínez unfolds it all so well in the historical essay as well as in the novel. He has always aimed to "really tell what the Tercios were like." On this occasion he wanted to "tell in the form of a novel what the historic Spanish journey was. The last one was carried out in 1634 by the troops of Cardinal-Infante Don Fernando de Austria." A truly extraordinary talent who, when he died in his early 30s, deprived Spain of glory, and another rooster would have crowed had he lived longer. Unfortunately, the other rooster, Cardinal Richelieu, in the seventeenth century, when the panorama was all in favor of cardinals, he became the owner of the European henhouse.

See interview and video here: TodoLiteratura