Martín de Idiáquez y Camarena

Martín de Idiáquez y Camarena (born 1594) was a Flemish-Spanish military leader and mercenary who fought with several tercios for Hapsburg Spain across multiple European territories. He was knighted in the Order of Santiago.

Early life Idiáquez was born in Dendermonde, East Flanders, Belgium, the son of Domingo de Idiáquez, a native of Gipuzkoa, Spain and Magdalena de Camarena, who was of Calabria, Spain. He commanded a Spanish tercio formed from companies stationed in Naples and Lombardy. On September 5, 1634, Idiáquez' tercio and two German regiments defended the strategic hill of Albruch. A Swedish calvary attack forced the Germans to retreat, but Idiáquez' tercio prevented a rout of the defenders at Albuch by planting pikemen against a charging Swedish infantry. Then Idiáquez led a counter-attack that left the Swedish forces in disarray. In a span of six hours, Swedish companies launched fifteen successive attacks against the tercio of Idiáquez and were repulsed each time. The stand-off eventually led to the exhaustion of the Swedish forces and their defeat. In the official report of the victory at Nordlingen, Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand stated that "...Don Martín de Idiáquez deserves much of the credit for this success...."

On October 12 1634, King Philip IV of Spain awarded Idiáquez a pension of 1,000 ducats and an embrace.