Infant Don Juan of Austria (Ratisbon, February 24th 1545 - Namur, October 1st, 1578) was a Spanish prince of the family of the Habsbourg - wire illegitimate of Charles Quint - which made a military career in the armies of his/her half-brother Philippe II and was governor of the Netherlands of 1576 with 1578.
Biography
Born from the fruits of the illegitimate union of Charles Quint and a woman resulting from a family from notable of Ratisbon in Germany, Barbara Blomberg, in 1545, Don Juan of Austria was baptized, actually, under the name of Jerónimo (Jeromín). It was high in Castille, in the city - near to Madrid - of Leganés, in the street which currently bears its name (Jeromín).He did not know his father until the eleven years age, when this one made it come in 1556 - after its abdication - to Yuste (Extrémadure), where he had withdrawn himself. His/her brother, Philippe II, respecting the will of their father, recognized it like full member of the royal family and allotted to him the name of “Don Juan of Austria”, granting to him the honors and the incomes worthy of a Infant (1559). He lived his adolescence with the court of Spain with his half-brother Philippe II. He made his studies at the prestigious university of Alcalá de Henares, but refused to devote himself to the ecclesiastical career for which one had intended it.
In 1566, it is made knight of the Golden Fleece.
Having expressed his desire to make a military career, the king named it with the command of a squadron charged to fight the barbaresque Pirate S in the Mediterranean (1568). He showed in this forwarding of real military capacities, also was he charged, the following year, to direct the repression of the revolt of Morisques, these descendants of the Musulman S of the Royaume of Grenade - remained in Spain after the end of the Reconquête in 1492 - converts officially with the Catholicisme, but who continued to practice their religion (1569). This rising - begun in 1567 - against the violation of the rights which had been granted at the time in Morisques - still called Guerre of Alpujarras - lasted four years and ended in their defeat in front of Don Juan of Austria. These successes also enabled him to obtain - what was the top of its military career - the supreme command of the fleet of the Sainte League formed - by Spain, Venice and the Pape Pie V - against the Turks (1570). Vis-a-vis the defensive strategy that its more careful advisers recommended, Don Juan of Austria forced her choice to go to the meeting of the Turkish fleet of Ali Pasha and to overcome it, which it did with the Bataille of Lépante (October 7th 1571). During this forwarding it had under its orders, among the soldiers, some Miguel de Cervantes - the future author of Don Quichotte - which lost the use of its left hand there, which was worth to him later the nickname of “penguin of Lépante”. If this Christian victory - which put an end to supremacy Turks in the Mediterranean - had a great repercussion, it hardly had continuation, Tunis, conquered by gift Juan of Austria, having been lost shortly after. This victory was worth in Don Juan to receive from the pope, in 1576, the Rose of gold, initially reserved exclusively to the prefect of Rome, then, later offered to a faithful catholic who had rendered a service important to the Église. On the other hand, resounding it success of Lépante increased the ambitions of Don Juan of Austria. Philippe II prudently rejected his plans to benefit from the situation to launch out in a great territorial expansion to the Mediterranean. He also pushed back his requests to be officially recognized like infant with treatment of highness. Perhaps this is to put an end to its ambitions which the king sent it like governor to the Netherlands (1576), extremely difficult station in which had already failed the pile cluster and Luís de Zúñiga there Requesens, incompetents to put an end to the Protestant rebellion . To convince it to accept this perilous mission, Philippe II insinuated the possibility of launching thereafter an invasion of the England, intended to place on the British throne a catholic queen , Marie Stuart.
Very quickly, Don Juan included/understood the unrealistic character of this project, while it failed meanwhile day after day in its attempt to contain the rebellion of the Netherlands. Philippe II entrusted to his half-brother the command of the army of Spain and the government of the Netherlands with for mission of restoring the authority of the king. On its arrival, it finds all the provinces linked, if not against the capacity, at least against the Spanish armies who devastate the country. The General states having taken the initiative to meet and proclaim the “ Pacification of Ghent ”, this act is ratified by the new governor but quickly called into question by the hard core of the orangists who then take the name of “ Patriots ”.
Don Juan of Austria tries to restore the calm one put at evil by her predecessors. It little obtained with its compromise of the “ perpetual Édit ” of Walk-in-Famenne (1577), by which it offered to withdraw one the third of the Spanish forces and to respect Flemish freedoms in exchange of what the rebels would recognize the catholic faith and Spanish sovereignty and would give up the Protestantisme. But the proposal is disallowed by the duke William of Orange. The war is then inevitable.
The intrigues which organized at the Court Antonio Pérez placed Don Juan in a delicate situation with the king and the resources which it needed (as well as men as silver) arrived with parsimony. Philippe II charged it with establishing contacts with the France, the English and the rebellious factions in order to regulate the insurrectionary situation, tries well too large for the poor diplomat who it was.
The March 31st 1578, its secretary and nearer collaborator, Juan de Escobedo, was assassinated.
The August 31st 1578, gift Juan beat the army of the General states with Gembloux close to Brussels.
He died of the Typhus, disease contracted during a military campaign, the October 10th 1578.
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