Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma

Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, Duke of Parma (1586-1592), Spanish general and statesman, best known for his campaigns against rebels in the Netherlands. A son of the Italian prince Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma, and Margaret of Austria, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Farnese was born in Rome on August 27, 1545. Brought up at the court of his Habsburg uncle, King Philip II of Spain, he served under another uncle, John of Austria, at the Battle of Lepanto (1571), in Italy, and in the Netherlands, where he became regent for King Philip after John's death (1578). In 1579 Farnese secured the submission of the rebellious provinces of Artois and Hainaut by the Treaty of Arras, and over the next six years he subdued the rest of the southern Netherlands (present Belgium), which thereafter remained a Habsburg possession for two centuries. In 1586 and 1587 he successfully countered English attempts to aid the Dutch rebels, but his projected invasion of England was prevented by the destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588. In 1590 and 1591 he intervened in France as an ally of the Catholic League against King Henry IV. Farnese died at Arras on December 3, 1592.