Fernando d'Avalos
Fernando Francesco d' Avalos, Marchese di Pescara ( Marquis of Pescara) and viceroy of Sicily ( * 1489 or 1490 in Naples, † 1525 in Milan ) was commander of the Emperor Charles V. and commander of the Imperial Spanish troops in Italy campaigns.
Life
At the age of six years he was engaged to the daughter of the condottieri, Fabrizio Colonna, whom he married in Ischia on December 27, 1509. His wife, Vittoria Colonna was a famous poet.
His status as nobles in Aragon and Naples, secured him the support of Ferdinand of Spain.
Avalos was taken in 1512 wounded and captured as leader of a light horseman unit at Ravenna by the French, a short time later but released because one of the most distinguished French military leader, the Italian Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, who had participated in Avalos wedding, his release on a ransom of 6,000 ducats allowed.
In 1513 he fought with distinction under Raymondo de Córdoba in Vicenza and led the battle of Motta on October 7, 1513 the Imperial infantry. Avalos defeated the Venetians Lautrec and captured Milan in 1521. In 1522 he fought victoriously against the French troops at Bicocca.
When Charles V. held his Prospero Colonna appointed commander in chief, Ávalos felt passed over and went to Valladolid to personally complain to the emperor. Charles V appeased the angry General and assured of his loyalty.
When Francis I. in 1525 again invaded Italy, Ávalos received by the Emperor personally commissioned to drive the French from northern Italy. Against all odds - lack of pay and supplies - he managed to take the French outposts at San Angelo in January 1525 and to separate the connecting line between Milan and Pavia.
24 February 1525, he led in the Battle of Pavia a daring attack by arquebusiers and cavalry, and were a major crushing victory over the French at. After the victory, tied again on the bed of sickness by a new injury, he was appointed permanently to the commanding general of the imperial army in Italy.
In the mistaken belief Ávalos had fallen out of favor with Emperor Karl, trying Girolamo Morone, secretary of the Duke of Milan, to convince the commander, finally to clean Italy by the French, Spaniards and Germans and promised him the throne. Several Italian princes, as Pope Clement VII and Duke Francesco Maria Sforza of Milan, Ávalos also searched on and tried to win him to the conspiracy. Pescara remained loyal and was apparently only one of these plans in order to subsequently report the details of the Emperor Charles V..
Fernando Francesco d' Ávalos, Marchese di Pescara, died of the consequences of his war wounds on 30 November of the same year ( according to other information on 4 November or December 3, 1525 ). He is buried near Naples, San Domenico Maggiore. As he had no own offspring, he inherited his title to his nephew Alfonso de Ávalos, Marqués del Vasto, also an imperial general.
Survival
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer immortalized the political fate of Fernando Francesco d' Avalos in the novel The Temptation of Pescara ( first edition Leipzig 1887).