André de Foix
André de Foix († 1547 ) was a son of Jean de Foix , Vice Count of Lautrec , and his wife Jeanne d'Aydie. His older brothers were Marshals Odet and Thomas de Foix , while his sister Françoise was the mistress of King Francis I of France . André became known as a French general in 1521 after a failed campaign against Spain .
In 1521, King Francis I of France intended to militarily support the claims of King Henry II of Navarre from the House of Albret to his kingdom, which had been annexed by Spain in 1512. He appointed André de Foix, who was a distant cousin Albret, to command an army that included 300 lances and 6,000 infantrymen. With this, Foix set out on May 10 of the same year and crossed the Pyrenees . When the Spanish King Charles I, who as Charles V was Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, heard about it, he is said to have shouted: “God be my witness that I did not start this war. France wants to make me bigger than I am. "
On May 19, Foix conquered Pamplona , the capital of Navarre. The defender of the city was Ignatius of Loyola , who was badly wounded in this battle. The next day Foix was able to take Tudela , after which he crossed the Ebro and penetrated into Castilian territory and there took up the siege of Logroño . However, the city's defenses proved too strong and forced Foix to break off the siege and retreat to Navarre. There he was defeated on June 30 by the army of the Duke of Nájera near Noáin (5 km south of Pamplona) and was taken prisoner by the enemy; its conquests fell back to Spain, with which the last attempt to free Navarre from Spanish rule had failed. With the House of Albret, only a small strip of land remained of Navarre , which lay north of the Pyrenees ( Basse-Navarre ), which after the inheritance of the House of Bourbon in 1572 actually became a French province.
Foix was released from his captivity a little later after his defeat, he then took part again in the service of France in the Italian wars against Habsburg .
literature
- Karl Brandi: Emperor Karl V. The emperor and his world empire. 1973.
- Ferdinand Gregorovius, Waldemar Kampf: History of the city of Rome in the Middle Ages from V. to XVI. Century. 1957.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Foix, André de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 15th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1547 |