Tommaso Caracciolo

Tommaso Caracciolo, Count of Roccarainola (10 March 1572 – 5 December 1631), was among others a Field Marshal who commanded parts of the Spanish forces in the Thirty Years' War. Biography His father, Tristano Caracciolo, was the son of Michele Caracciolo, II. Baron of Castelfranco (Cosenza) and signore of Lusciano (Terra di lavore) and Ponte Albaneto (Capitanata). Michele had the lordship of these lands from 1530 to his death in 1548, inheriting them from his uncle Berardino Caracciolo, created first baron by privilege signed by the King Fernando I of Aragon at Castelnovo of Naples on 20 June 1598. He seems to have had some military experiences in his youth; he reportedly assisted in the siege of Brichesario (1594). On 25 August 1600 he was made a captain by his relative Camillo Caracciolo (1563–1617), Count of Avellino, who entrusted him a tercio. On 5 September he was made a sergeant major of this tercio. He took part at the Siege of Ostend in Flanders. He is mentioned as Maestro de Campo (Field Marshal) in the war in Montferrat in the Piedmont (1614–1617). After 1617, he made him captain of war of the Val di Noto (between Catania and Messina) by the viceroy Count of Osuna, in order to establish the defense of Sicily against a suspected Turkish invasion.