Ancestral Trails 2016 » Alexander FARNESE (1545-1592)

Persoonlijke gegevens Alexander FARNESE 

• Hij is geboren op 27 augustus 1545 in Rome, Roma, Lazio, Italy.
• Hij is overleden op 3 december 1592 in Arras, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Artois, France, hij was toen 47 jaar oud.

Gezin van Alexander FARNESE

Hij is getrouwd met Maria de GUIMARAES.

Zij zijn getrouwd op 11 november 1565 te Brussels, Brabant, Flanders, Belgium, hij was toen 20 jaar oud.

Kind(eren):

1. Margherita FARNESE  1567-1643 
2. Odoardo FARNESE  1573-1626
3. Ranuccio FARNESE  1569-1622 

Notities over Alexander FARNESE

Alexander Farnese (27 August 1545 - 3 December 1592) was Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Castro from 1586 to 1592, and Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1578 to 1592. He is best known for his successful campaign 1578-1592 against the Dutch Revolt, in which he captured the main cities in the south (now Belgium) and returned them to the control of Catholic Spain. His talents as a field commander, strategist and organizer earned him the regard of his contemporaries and military historians as the first captain of his age.

Alessandro was the son of Duke Ottavio Farnese of Parma (a grandchild of Pope Paul III) and Margaret, the illegitimate daughter of the King of Spain and Habsburg Emperor Charles V. He had a twin brother, Charles, who only lived one month. His mother was the half-sister of Philip II of Spain and John of Austria. He led a significant military and diplomatic career in the service of Spain under the service of his uncle the King. He fought in the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and then in the Netherlands against the rebels.

He accompanied his mother to Brussels when she was appointed Governor of the Netherlands. In 1565 his marriage with 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 before he again had the opportunity to display his great military talents. During that time the provinces of the Netherlands had revolted against Spanish rule. Don John, who had been sent as governor-general to restore order, found difficulties in dealing with William the Silent, who had succeeded in uniting all the provinces in common resistance to King Philip II.

Spanish Armada
In 1586, Alexander Farnese became Duke of Parma through the death of his father; he never ruled, instead naming his son Ranuccio as regent. He applied for leave to visit his paternal territory, but Philip would not permit him as there was no replacement 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 conquest of England, at the time a supporter of the rebels. 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 plan was that Parma's troops would cross the channel in barges, protected by the Armada. The Armada reached the area a year later, but poor communication between Parma and the Armada's commander, Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, made effective coordination difficult. Parma's troops were also threatened by the presence of Dutch forces in flyboats, who hoped to destroy the barges and drown Parma's army at sea. The English attack on the Armada in the Battle of Gravelines (1588), followed by an unfavourable change in wind-direction, made link-up impossible. After the Armada's defeat, Farnese broke up his camp in Dunkirk in September and went on to besiege the predominately English garrison at Bergen Op Zoom. After a siege which had lasted six week Parma was defeated and then withdrew to Brussels.

From his marriage with Infanta Maria of Portugal, also known as Maria of Guimarães, he had three children:
Margherita Farnese 7 November 1567-13 April 1643 married, 1581, Vincenzo I, Duke of Mantua; no issue
Ranuccio Farnese 28 March 1569-5 March 1622 succeeded as Duke of Parma married, 1600, Margherita Aldobrandini; had issue
Odoardo Farnese 7 December 157321 February 1626 became a Cardinal

After his wife's death he had a natural daughter by Catherine de Roquoi, noblewoman from Flanders and member of the House of Roquoi:
Isabella Margherita Farnese (Luxembourg, 1578 - Lisbon, 1610), who in April 1592 in Rouen, married (some say there was no marriage) Portuguese João de Meneses, o Roxo (the Purple) (Penamacor, c. 1550 - Madrid, 1604), ?th Lord of the Majorat of Penamacor, Colonel of the Spanish Army, Field Master in the Netherlands, only child and son of Simão de Meneses, with whom she had had one daughter and heiress, Leonor de Meneses.
SOURCE: Wikipedia

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