Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria

Common card · No. 303326

Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand (also known as Don Fernando de Austria, Cardenal-Infante Fernando de España and as Ferdinand von Österreich; 16 May 1609 – 9 November 1641) was a Spanish and Portuguese prince (Infante of Spain, Infante of Portugal (until 1640)), Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Cardinal of the Holy Catholic Church, Archduke of Austria, Archbishop of Toledo (1619–1641), and a general during the Thirty Years' War, the Eighty Years' War, and the Franco-Spanish War. Upon his first decisive victory at the Battle of Nördlingen, which led to the Peace of Prague, he proceeded to rescue the desperate situation in the Spanish Netherlands despite facing a great numerical disadvantage against the combined forces of France and the Dutch Republic. As such, the Cardinal-Infante gained a reputation as one of the best European generals of the 17th century. He is commonly considered the last great commander and strategist of Habsburg Spain, whose premature death in a critical moment helped...

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