Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/47

 FARNESE 37 together with the splendid family property in Rome the Palazzo Farnese and the Farnese gardens. A large part of the Farnese art collection including the Hercules, the Bull, and the Flora was removed to the museum at Naples. The Neapolitan court resided in the Farnese palace for many years. In 18G1 the Farnese gardens, which belonged to the pope, and had been held in fee by the king of Naples, were bought by Napoleon III. from Francis II. for 250,000 francs, and they now belong to the Italian Government, which bought them in 1870 for G50,000 francs. See ROME. FA11NESE, ALEXANDER, Pope Paul III. See PAUL III. FARNESE, ALEXANDER (1546-1592), prince of Parma, the famous governor of the Low Countries, was born most probably about 1546. He was the son of Ottavio Farnese, prince of Parma, and the celebrated Margaret of Austria, natural daughter of Charles V. His boyhood he spent at Alcala and Madrid, having as companions his ill-fated cousin Don Carlos and his uncle Don John of Austria, who were both about the same age as him self. His chief delight was in martial exercises, and his passionate ambition was for warlike glory. At eleven years of age he earnestly begged leave to join the expedition which fought at St Quentin, and wept bitterly when his request was refused. He had, indeed, a love for lighting for its own sake. During the wearisome inac tivity of his residence at Brussels with his mother, whose abilities and masculine force of character had led to her appointment as governor of the Low Countries, it was his nightly amusement to saunter in disguise through the streets and challenge any cavalier of martial appearance whom he met. As a young man he was extremely un popular among the Netherlander ; men said that he was nothing but a coxcomb and a bravo. He treated even the nobility with the most insolent arrogance. When he honoured them with an invitation to dinner, he sat for the most part silent at the head of the table, and placed his guests below the salt. During his stay at Brussels, on the 18th November 1565, his marriage with that wonderful paragon of propriety, Donna Maria of Portugal, was cele brated with great splendour and at prodigious expense. At length, after years of impatient waiting, his passion ate longing for military glory could no longer be repressed, and in 1571 he gained his first laurels by brilliant personal bravery in the battle of Lepanto. It was seven years before he had an opportunity of proving his splendid ability as a general. In the end of 1577 he was placed in command of the reinforcements sent to Don John, and it was mainly his prompt decision at a critical moment which secured the victory of Gemblours (1578). His abilities were now recognized by his master Philip II., and on the death of Don John, he was appointed governor of the Netherlands. This position, beset on every hand with difficulties ap parently insuperable, was exactly that which afforded the best opportunity for the display of his remarkable talents- and character. He gave his whole heart to his work, never questioning the justice of the cause. Birth and education had endowed him with the soul of a prince, with its virtues and its faults ; and it probably never occurred to him to doubt that the world was created as a field for the ambition of princes, or to imagine that the plain Nether- land burghers, who certainly did not display a very satis factory capacity for ruling themselves in the crisis of national danger, were, with all their failings, really fight ing for a noble cause. To him they were self-willed rebels and heretics. In military ability Alexander Farnese was not surpassed, if equalled, by any of his contemporaries, lie possessed in a very high degree the power of command ; his ill-fed, ill-clad, unpaid soldiers rendered him the most perfect obedience. A consummate master of strategy, fertile in resource, prompt and vigorous in action, partly by the power of his genius and partly by the contagion of his dauntless courage, he performed the greatest achievements with the slenderest means. His coolness in danger amounted to rashness. Once, while dining within range of the enemy, a shot scattered the brains of one of his companions on the table, but he ordered a new cloth to be laid, and would not give the enemy the satisfaction of interfering with his arrangements. His skill in diplomacy was second only to his generalship, but it was a diplomacy without scruple, and his dissimulation was remarkable even in that age. Yet though jealousy preferred numerous charges against him, there is no reason to doubt his fidelity to his ungrateful master. He found the Netherlands distracted by petty jealousies and party quarrels, and to take advantage of these all his skill in diplomacy and in the art of delicate bribery was exerted to the utmost. In the magistracies of many of the towns he created a party favourable to the king, and the Walloon provinces were induced to return to their allegiance. But he was unable to prevent the Union of Utrecht, which was formed in 1579 by the genius of William the Silent. For five years he w r aged equal war with that great prince, his chief exploits being the taking of Maestricht and Oudenarde. In 1584 William was assassinated. The oppor tunity was not lost by Farnese. He offered most favour able terms (except as regarded the matter of religion), and gained over Ghent and several other important towns. But the great town of Antwerp remained faithful to the union, and against it all his energies were now directed. The history of this siege may be taken as best displaying all the many and varied qualities of a great general which Alexander Farnese possessed. Antwerp enjoyed a natural means of defence, of which William of Orange had resolved to take advantage, and which would have enabled it to bid defiance even to the genius of Farnese. It was possible by breaking down the dykes to flood the country to the very city gates. Sainte Aldegonde, the governor, persuaded the magistracy to adopt this plan ; but the butchers and others, whose private interests were threatened, offered a violent resistance, and the magistrates yielded in fear of riots. Another chance w r as afforded Antwerp, and the magistrate^ were again to blame, with far less excuse. Even after the! siege commenced, numerous ships continued to bring grain 1 into the city, which might easily have been stored with sup plies for a very long period ; but the magistrates fixed a minimum price, and decreed that no corn should be sold to merchants for storing in granaries, thus completely stop ping the invaluable traffic. They did not for a moment believe that Farnese would be able to overcome the many difficulties of the task, and build a bridge across the Scheldt. But his engineering skill soon showed itself equal to the achievement ; and it was now in his power to starve the town. Yet a third chance was allowed to Antwerp. The ingenious fireships of Gianibelli were launched against the bridge ; a breach was effected ; a thousand Spanish soldiers were destroyed ; Farnese him self was wounded and lay senseless for some time ; his army was overwhelmed with panic. The ships of the Netherlands might have brought their cargoes of corn into the town, and a fatal blow might have been struck against the Spaniards. But, through gross incompetence, the Netherlander only learned their success too late. The moment he recovered consciousness, Farnese had set about repairing the bridge, inspiring his panic-stricken followers with his own undaunted resolution and energy, and careful precautions were taken against the recurrence of such a disaster. The only hope of Antwerp was to break down the dykes, and, taking advantage of Farnese s absence,