Francisco Verdugo

Francisco Verdugo

Don Francisco Verdugo (born March 13, 1537 in Talavera de la Reina , † September 22, 1595 in Luxembourg ) was marshal , admiral and governor of the Spanish crown in the Spanish Netherlands .

Life

Francisco Verdugo left his Spanish homeland in 1555 at the age of 19 in the wake of the Duke of Alba to fight the enemies of Catholicism as a simple soldier . At the Battle of Saint-Quentin on August 10, 1557, he is said to have stood out from the rest of the troops because of his unbridled courage.

In 1573, Verdugo, who had meanwhile risen to the rank of admiral of the Spanish fleet in Flanders , became governor of the city of Haarlem , which he had previously successfully besieged and captured together with Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo .

As the successor to the late Georg von Lalaing, Verdugo was the last Spanish governor in the northern provinces of Friesland , Groningen , Drenthe and Overijssel from 1581 to 1594 . However, his rule was not recognized by the independence fighters of the newly established Republic of the Seven United Provinces , so that two governors existed. On the part of the republic it was William of Orange together with his successor Wilhelm Ludwig of Nassau .

Marriage and offspring

Verdugo married Dorothea in 1578, a daughter of Count Peter Ernst von Mansfeld and Margaretha von Brederode . The wedding took place in Luxembourg.

Francisco Verdugo had three sons who, like himself, served the Spanish kings in the southern Netherlands and stood on the side of the Austrian Habsburgs during the Thirty Years' War , including:

• Guillermo Verdugo († 1628), who received the West Bohemian estates of Duppau and Maschau for his services ;
• Francisco II. Verdugo († 1650), who settled permanently in Bohemia.

literature

• Fanciscus Verdugus . In: Jakob Schrenck von Notzing : Augustissimorum imperatorum, serenissimorum regum atque archiducum, illustrissimorum principum, nec non comitum, baronum, nobilium, aliorumque clarissimorum virorum, qui aut ipsi cum imperio bellorum duces fuerunt… verissimae succinctae description, etes… . Johannes Agricola (Baur), Innsbruck 1601, sheet 79 ( digitized in the Internet Archive)
• Geoffrey Parker : The uprising of the Netherlands. From the rule of the Spaniards to the establishment of the Dutch Republic. 1549-1609. Callwey, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-7667-0459-1 .

Trivia

Verdugo is Spanish for executioner , his father's profession.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jiří Kubeš: From Spain to Upper Silesia. Fates of the Verdugo family in the Habsburg Monarchy in the early modern period in Der Adelige in Oberschlesien. The relationship between the region and the center using the example of the fates and careers of the nobility of Upper Silesia (15th-20th centuries) , Ed. NHM (Nobilitas in Historia Moderna), Vol. 5, pp. 223-240

predecessor	Office	successor
Georg von Lalaing	Governor of Overijssel 1581–1594	Moritz of Orange
Georg von Lalaing	Governor of Drenthe , Friesland and Groningen 1581–1594	Wilhelm Ludwig of Nassau-Dillenburg