F A B, N E S E Sainte Aldegonde collected for the work a strong and resolute force. A fierce hand-to-hand fight ensued on the slippery dykes, and the work was going slowly forward, while the Spaniards were beginning to give way, when Farnese himself appeared on the scene, and by his own ex ploits, and the inspiration of his presence, entirely changed the fortunes of the day. The Netherlanders fought resolutely for their homes and liberties, but at last were forced to retreat, leaving the breach unmade. Antwerp was soon obliged by famine to capitulate; Farnese, who was ignorant of the extremity of their distress, allowing a com plete and universal amnesty, and only requiring that all Protestants should leave the city within two years. There was one noteworthy condition, cunningly worded and worthy of Italian diplomacy : it was provided that during the two years allowed the Protestants should not offer " any offence" to the ancient religion. The Catholic magistrates whom Farnese had appointed, and the Spanish garrison which held the citadel he had rebuilt, were, of course, the sole judges of what constituted such an offence. The year 1586 he employed in taking steps to obtain the command of the Meuse and Rhine. Grave, Gelders, and Deventer he gained by bribery and intrigue, and Neuss, by assault. In this year negotiations were opened with Elizabeth, who had sent an army under Leicester into the Low Countries. These negotiations are the most strik ing illustration of Parma s principles of diplomacy. So perfect was his apparent frankness that even Elizabeth and Burleigh, who were well accustomed to double-dealing, ap pear to have been completely deceived. From tho first Farnese had been told by his master that the negotiations were to lead to nothing ; and at the very moment when he had just received orders to invade England, he was assuring the queen that " really and truly " nothing was in tended against her majesty or her kingdom. As time went on, Parma s position grew more and more difficult. His soldiers died in hundreds from cold, hunger, and disease ; money was doled out to him with the most niggardly hand ; and it required all his influence to keep down mutiny. He was constantly harassed by Philip s commands to attempt the impossible. He had prepared a fleet of transport boats, and the king issued repeated orders that he should with these invade England, though every port was blockaded by the ships of Holland and Zealand. Once, goaded to rashness, he made a mad attempt to break through the line, but the odds were too great, and he was repulsed with heavy loss. Even after the failure of the Armada, Philip still thought that Farnese with his unarmed boats should do that which the huge warships had failed to accomplish. In 1590 the condition of the Spanish troops had become intolerable. Farnese could no longer support them from Ms private resources; his very jewels were pledged, and the supplies from the king did not increase in regularity or amount. A mutiny broke out, but was speedily sup pressed. Under these difficulties, Farnese was commanded to leave the work of years, and raise the siege of Paris, which was surrounded by Henry of Navarre. He left the Netherlands on the 3d August 1590 with 15,000 troops. At Meaux he swore publicly in the cathedral that he had come, not to conquer France, but only to assist the Catholic cause. By the most splendid strategy he outwitted Henry, and relieved Paris ; but his troops being insuffi ciently supplied, he was compelled immediately to return to the Low Countries, losing on the march many stragglers and wounded, who were killed by the peasantry, and leaving all the positions he had taken to be recaptured by Henry. Again, in 1591, in the very midst of a desperate con test with the genius of Prince Maurice, sorely against his will, Farnese was obliged to give up the engrossing struggle and march to relieve Rouen. Henry at once cautiously raised the siege. In a subsequent engagement Farnese was wounded by a musket-ball in the arm. Yet he defied pain and fever, refused to take the necessary rest, and was carried in his couch to the field. At length Henry seemed to have shut in the Spanish army safely in the land of Caux, but Farnese found means to escape across the Seine. He spent a few days in Paris, and then visited Spa to drink the waters. All his splendid services had not gained for him the con fidence of Philip. His enemies persuaded the king that he was only striving to conquer the Netherlands that he might obtain the sovereignty for himself. Philip s first characteristic step was to dispatch a letter expressing com plete confidence and tender affection ; Farnese was then politely requested to return home to aid his majesty with his advice. But at the same time the marquis of Cerralbo was sent to the Netherlands to share his work with the Mansfelds, and with orders to send him home by force, if he refused to obey the king s deceitful command. But all trouble was spared the grateful monarch. In the autumn of 1592 Alexander Farnese prepared to invado France for the third time. His robust constitution ruined by the prodigious labours he had performed, gouty, drop sical, fevered with his wounds, he was lifted into his saddle every day till the very morning of his death. On the 3d December 1592, in the town of Arras, he fainted while undressing for bed, and in a few hours was dead. He was only forty-six years of age. By his own com mand he was laid out in the garb of a Capuchin friar. His services were rewarded by a pompous funeral at Brussels, at which his Italian and Spanish veterans fought together for the first place among the mourners, and his statue was placed in the Capitol at Rome. He was buried in the church of his own capital of Parma. See Strada, the historiographer of the Farnese family; Motley, Dutch Republic and United Netherlands ; Gachard, Correspondence dc Philippe, II. FARNESE, ELIZABETH (1692-1766), queen of Spain, born on the 25th October 1692, was the only daughter of Odoardo II., prince of Parma. Her mother educated her in strict seclusion, but seclusion altogether failed to tame her imperious and ambitious temper. At the age of twenty-one (1714) she was married by proxy at Parma to Philip V. of Spain. The marriage was arranged by the Italian cardinal Alberoni, with the concurrence, it is said, of the king s mistress, the Princess Orsino. On her arrival at the borders of Spain Elizabeth was met by the princess ; but she received her rival sternly, and, perhaps in accord ance with a plan previously concerted with the king, at once ordered her to be removed from her presence and from Spain. Over the weak king Elizabeth quickly obtained com plete influence. This influence was exerted altogether in support of the policy of her countryman Alberoni, one chief aim of which was to recover the ancient Italian possessions of Spain, and which actually resulted in the seizure of Sardinia and Sicily. So vigorously did she enter into this policy that, when the French forces advanced to the Pyrenees, she placed herself at the head of one division of the Spanish army. But Elizabeth s ambition was grievously disappointed. The Triple Alliance thwarted her plans, and at length in 1720 the allies made the banishment of Alberoni a condition of peace. Sicily also had to be evacuated. And finally, all her entreaties failed to pre vent the abdication of Philip, who in 1724 gave up tho throne to his heir, and retired to the palace of La Granja. Seven months later, however, the death of the young king 1 recalled him to the throne. In 1736 Elizabeth had the satisfaction of seeing her favourite scheme realized in the accession of her son Don Carlos (afterwards Charles VL)
