Details
DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA (1547-1578, victor of Lepanto). Autograph letter signed ('Don Ju[an] de Austria') to 'Señora' [his half-sister, Margaret of Austria], Namur, 6 June 1578, 5 pages, 4to, autograph address, contemporary docket, papered seal.
DON JOHN AT WAR IN FLANDERS. A reply to a letter from his sister, apologising for having sometimes to use a secretary, but he is preoccupied by the war [in Flanders] and the problem of finding resources: 'Pues lo q[ue] falta para esta guerra lo avemos de suplir nosotros mereciendo a puro fraccaso que nos ayude Dios con milagros y mas milagros lo q[ue] a mas largo andar noveo como sepueda resistir si es verdad q[ue] los hombres nopueden lo imposible aellos, con todo vivimos dello y viviremos hasta q[ue] lo de aca tome otro pie con otra neuva jornada [What is needed for this war we must provide, meriting the failure that I see can only be solved by God with miracles and more miracles ... even so we survive and will survive until the beginning of a new day]'. Much of the letter concerns Margaret's son, Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma, who has left for Limbourg and Luxembourg, the only loyal province; he asks her to write to Alexander, urging him to be careful of himself as he engages in dangerous actions and pays little heed to his uncle. He knows that it is his duty to look after him and restrain him, and promises that he has fulfilled and will fulfil this promise every day of his life. References to his own exhaustion and fever are probably to the first symptoms of the typhus of which he was shortly to die.
Don John, bastard son of the Emperor Charles V and Barbara Blomberg, was accepted at the court of his half-brother Philip II of Spain in 1568. His fame as a military commander was secured by his great naval victory at Lepanto in 1571, and he was appointed governor of the Spanish Netherlands in 1576. Early in 1578 he was victorious over the William of Orange's army at Genbloux and captured Namur. He died within four months of the present letter. Margaret of Austria (1522-1586), illegitimate daughter of Charles V, was married to Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma.
DON JOHN AT WAR IN FLANDERS. A reply to a letter from his sister, apologising for having sometimes to use a secretary, but he is preoccupied by the war [in Flanders] and the problem of finding resources: 'Pues lo q[ue] falta para esta guerra lo avemos de suplir nosotros mereciendo a puro fraccaso que nos ayude Dios con milagros y mas milagros lo q[ue] a mas largo andar noveo como sepueda resistir si es verdad q[ue] los hombres nopueden lo imposible aellos, con todo vivimos dello y viviremos hasta q[ue] lo de aca tome otro pie con otra neuva jornada [What is needed for this war we must provide, meriting the failure that I see can only be solved by God with miracles and more miracles ... even so we survive and will survive until the beginning of a new day]'. Much of the letter concerns Margaret's son, Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma, who has left for Limbourg and Luxembourg, the only loyal province; he asks her to write to Alexander, urging him to be careful of himself as he engages in dangerous actions and pays little heed to his uncle. He knows that it is his duty to look after him and restrain him, and promises that he has fulfilled and will fulfil this promise every day of his life. References to his own exhaustion and fever are probably to the first symptoms of the typhus of which he was shortly to die.
Don John, bastard son of the Emperor Charles V and Barbara Blomberg, was accepted at the court of his half-brother Philip II of Spain in 1568. His fame as a military commander was secured by his great naval victory at Lepanto in 1571, and he was appointed governor of the Spanish Netherlands in 1576. Early in 1578 he was victorious over the William of Orange's army at Genbloux and captured Namur. He died within four months of the present letter. Margaret of Austria (1522-1586), illegitimate daughter of Charles V, was married to Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma.
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