Juan de Garay Otañez

Juan de Garay Otáñez y Rada, 1st Marquis of Villarrubia de Langre (1586–1650), was a Spanish military officer who, rising through the ranks, went on to command three armies of Spain, those of Extremadura, Guipúzcoa and Catalonia.

Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659)

In 1635 he was sent to Italy and given command of the tercio in the valley of Valtellina, which had been invaded by French troops. There, he saw action at Morbegno (13 October), and at the Battle of Tornavento. On 1 July 1636, he was given command of the Lombardy Tercio, the oldest tercio in the Spanish army, when its commander, Martín de Aragón, was promoted to Captain general of Artillery. However, a few months later, the Marquis of Leganés relieved Garay of that command, sending him back to Madrid, when Garay refused to obey Aragón, his superior, on the basis that as commanding officer of Spain's oldest tercio, he was not under Aragón's command.

However, following his bravery at the defeat at Leucate in 1637, action for which he had volunteered, Garay was pardoned by King Felipe IV, who ordered him back to Italy and recommended him for promotion.

Following the events of the Corpus de Sang that was to trigger the Reapers' War that May, the King gave Garay command of the tercios quartered in Roussillon. The following September, Garay was wounded by two musket shots at the Siege of Ille-sur-Têt.

In 1641, Garay projected several major improvements to the Citadel of Pamplona and the works were concluded in 1646, in time for the King to visit them.

Although it is not clear whether Juan de Garay saw action at the Battle of Montjuïc (1641), following the defeat there, the Marquis of Los Vélez "gave Garay full command" to ensure the safe return of the beaten army to Tarragona.

Command of the Army of Catalonia In the summer of 1649, Garay was given command of the army of Catalonia and received the marquisate of Villarrubia de Langre. Although it was late in the year, Garay managed to raise a small, select army and left Lerida in September, passing through the comarca of Pla d'Urgell and attacked Vimbodi and Poblet, Cabra del Camp, Montblanc, Valls, Constantí. On reaching Tarragona, he received reinforcements and provisions and marched on Torredembarra, Vilanova i la Geltrú and Sitges, where he left garrisons. As the commander-in-chief of the French forces, John Gaspar Ferdinand de Marchin, Comte de Granville (who would later serve under Philip IV), had prepared Barcelona for an attack, Garay abandoned that line of attack and headed inland into the Penedés, where he defeated the French cavalry at Villafranca (17 October) and at Montblanc (14 November) on his way back to Lerida, having left Barcelona threatened by the spur at Sitges. Garay had planned to return to the attack after the winter but he died suddenly at Gelsa (Zaragoza), on his way back from Madrid.