The houses of Spinola and
Doria were rivals for authority within the republic. Ambrogio Spinola continued the rivalry with the count of
Tursi, then the chief of the Dorias. He was not successful, and having lost a lawsuit into which he had entered to enforce a right of pre-emption of a palace belonging to the
Salerno family which the Doria wished to purchase, he decided to withdraw from the city and advance the fortunes of his house by serving the Spanish monarchy in Flanders. In 1602 he and his brother Federico entered into a contract with the Spanish government—a
condotta on the old Italian model. It was a speculation on which Spinola risked the whole of the great fortune of his house. Ambrogio Spinola undertook to raise 9,000
Lombard mercenaries for land service, and Federico to form a squadron of
galley ships for service on the coast. Several of Federico's galleys were destroyed by English and Dutch war-ships; first at the
at Sesimbra in June and then
at the Goodwin Sands in October in the
English Channel. He himself was slain in
an action with the
Dutch on 24 May 1603. Ambrogio Spinola marched overland to Flanders in 1602 with the men he had raised at his own expense. During the first months of his stay in Flanders, the Spanish government played with schemes for employing him on an invasion of England, which came to nothing. At the close of the year, he returned to Italy for more men. His experience as a soldier did not begin until, as General, and at the age of thirty-four, he undertook to continue the
Siege of Ostend on 29 September 1603. Despite failing to
relieve Sluis under siege at the same time, the ruins of
Ostend fell into his hands on 22 September 1604. For this victory, he was appointed a Knight of the
Order of the Golden Fleece in 1605. ==War in Flanders==