Encyclopedia
Alessandro Farnese was Duke of
Parma and
Piacenza from 1586 to 1592, and Governor of the
Spanish Netherlands from 1578 to 1592.
Biography
Alessandro was the son of Duke
Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma and Margaret, the illegitimate daughter of the Habsburg
Emperor Charles V. Thus Alessandro was the nephew of
Philip II of Spain and of
Don John of Austria. He led a significant military and diplomatic career in the service of
Spain. He fought in the
Battle of Lepanto and then in the
Netherlands against anti-Spanish rebels.
He accompanied his mother to
Brussels when she was appointed Governor of the Netherlands. In 1565 his marriage with the princess Maria of Portugal was celebrated in Brussels with great splendour. Alexander Farnese had been brought up in Spain with his cousin, the ill-fated Don Carlos, and Don John, both of whom were about the same age as himself, and after his marriage he took up his residence at once in the court of Madrid.
It was seven years, however, before he had again the opportunity to display his great military talents. In the meantime the provinces of the Netherlands had revolted against the arbitrary and oppressive Spanish rule. Don John, who had been sent as governor-general to restore order, had found himself helpless in face of the superior talent and personal influence of
William the Silent, who had succeeded in uniting all the provinces in common resistance to the civil and religious tyranny of Philip. In the autumn of 1577, Farnese was sent to join Don John at the head of reinforcements, and it was mainly his prompt decision at a critical moment that won the Battle of Gembloux in 1578. Shortly afterwards Don John, whose health had broken down through disappointment and ill-health, died. Farnese was appointed to take his place.
He was confronted with enormous difficulties, but he proved himself more than equal to the task. In military ability he was inferior to none of his contemporaries. As a skilful diplomatist he was the match even of his great antagonist, William the Silent. And, like most of the leading statesmen of his day, he was unscrupulous as to the means he employed so long as he achieved his ends.
Perceiving that there were divisions and jealousies in the ranks of his opponents between Catholic and Protestant, Fleming and Walloon, he set to work by persuasion, address and bribery, to successfully foment the growing discord, and bring back the Walloon provinces' allegiance to the king. By the
treaty of Arras, January 1579, he was able to secure the support of the 'Malcontents', as the Catholic nobles of the south were styled, to the royal cause. The reply to the treaty of Arras was the
Union of Utrecht, concluded a few weeks later between the seven northern provinces, who abjured the sovereignty of King Philip and bound themselves to use all their resources to maintain their independence of Spanish rule.
As soon as he had obtained a secure basis of operations in
Hainaut and
Artois, Farnese set himself in earnest to the task of reconquering
Brabant and
Flanders by force of arms. Town after town fell into his power.
Tournai,
Maastricht,
Breda,
Bruges and
Ghent opened their gates.
He finally laid siege to the great seaport of
Antwerp. The town was open to the sea, strongly fortified, and defended with resolute determination and courage by the citizens. They were led by the famous
Marnix van St. Aldegonde and assisted by an ingenious Italian engineer named Gianibelli. The siege began in 1584 and called forth all of Farnese's military genius. He cut off all access to Antwerp from the sea by constructing a
bridge of boats across the
Scheldt from Calloo to Oordam, in spite of the desperate efforts of the besieged townspeople to prevent its completion. At last, on the August 15 1585, Antwerp was compelled by famine to capitulate. Favourable conditions were granted to the vanquished, but all Protestants were required to leave the town within two years. With the fall of Antwerp, and with
Mechelen and Brussels already in the hands of Farnese, the whole of the southern Netherlands was once more placed under the authority of Philip.
Holland and
Zeeland, whose geographical position made them unassailable except by water, were able to hold out and defy Farnese's further advance through the courage and skill of their hardy seafaring population and the help of English auxiliaries sent by Queen
Elizabeth I.
In 1586 Alexander Farnese became Duke of Parma by the death of his father. He applied for leave to visit his paternal territory, but Philip would not permit him. He could not replace him in the Netherlands. However, while retaining him in his command at the head of a formidable army, the king would not give his sanction to his great general's desire to use it for the reconquest of England. Farnese at first believed it possible to successfully invade England with a force of 30,000 troops, without significant naval protection, relying mainly on the hope of a native Catholic insurrection. Philip overruled him, and began the work that led to the
Spanish Armada. As part of the general campaign preparations, Farnese moved against
Ostend and
Sluis. Sluis was taken in August 1587. The Armada reached the area a year later. After its defeat, Farnese broke up his camp in Dunkirk in September.
Farnese was to have turned his attention back to the northern Netherlands, where the Dutch had regrouped, but on December 23 1589, the French king
Henry III was assassinated, and Farnese was ordered into France. He fought in
France in support of the Catholic opposition to
Henry IV of France, and died in
Arras in 1592.
Farnese became Duke of
Parma and
Piacenza in 1586.
External links
...
's
The Rise of the Dutch Republic, the etext of which can be found at ftp://sailor.gutenberg.org/pub/gutenberg/etext04/jm36v10.txt
