Ramón Folch of Cardona-Anglesola

Ramón Folch de Cardona-Anglesola (Bellpuig, Lérida, 1467-Naples, March 10, 1522) was a Spanish soldier and sailor. 1st Count of Oliveto, 1st Duke of Soma and 12th Baron of Bellpuig, he was the son of Antonio de Cardona-Anglesola i Centelles and Castellana de Requesens.

Biography

In 1503 he led the galleys of the Crown of Aragon that participated in the successful siege of Gaeta, during the war with France for control of the kingdom of Naples. He stood out as head of the squad in the Day of Mazalquivir in 1505 during the North African campaigns.

He participated in the war of the League of Cambrai (in Italy) in the army of Ferdinand the Catholic. He was viceroy of Sicily (1507-1509) and Naples (1510-1522). As head of the armies of the Holy League, in 1512 he reinstated the Medici in Florence after the well-known Sack of Prato (the first Spanish military event that went on to fuel the Black Legend). With his victories at Novara and La Motta (1513) he expelled the French from northern Italy and besieged Venice, separating it from its alliance with France.

After his death in Naples he was buried in his native Bellpuig, in a lavish mausoleum commissioned by his widow, Isabel de Requesens y Enríquez, from the Italian sculptor Giovanni Merliano da Nola. This Renaissance work made of white Carrara marble is one of the most important of its kind in Spain. Initially the mausoleum was located in the convent of San Bartolomé de Bellpuig, which she founded; In the year 1841-1842, after the exclaustration, the mausoleum was transferred to the parish church of San Nicolás.

Marriage and offspring

In 1506 he married Isabel de Requesens y Enríquez, with which he became count consort of Palamós, Trivento and Avellino and baron of Calonge. Some sources indicate that they had two children (Fernando de Cardona-Anglesola y de Requesens and Catalina Folch de Cardona y de Requesens); others add a third, Antonio. Finally, according to Marino Sanuto, they had four children, two boys and two girls:

• Antonio, the firstborn, who was dumb.
• Mary (n. 1507/1510)
• Beatriz (1511-1535)
• Fernando de Cardona-Anglesola y de Requesens (20 November 1521 - 1571), second Duke of Soma

An illegitimate daughter, Catherine of Cardona, was raised in Naples and, back in Spain, she retired from the court and developed a hermitical life in a cave in Cuenca, acquiring a reputation for sanctity.