<!-- end of infobox person -->

John of Austria (, , often called "Don Juan", "Don Juan of Austria", or "Don Juan of Lepanto" in English; 24 February 1547 – 1 October 1578) was the illegitimate son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and a military leader in the service of the Spanish Empire under his half-brother, King Philip II of Spain. He is best known for his role as the admiral of the Holy League fleet at the Battle of Lepanto and as Governor of the Spanish Netherlands.

Born in Regensburg, the son of a burgher's daughter, John was raised in Spain and recognized by Charles V in a codicil. After the death of his father, Philip II of Spain acknowledged him as his half-brother and a Habsburg, granted him the title of a grandee and provided him with a household and an income. In 1568, Philip granted John a military command, and in that capacity John took part in the suppression of corsairs in North Africa as well as a rebellion of the Moriscos in Granada.

On the formation of the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire in 1571, John was designated head of its naval forces by Philip. Under his command, the league inflicted a major defeat on the Ottoman navy off Lepanto in the Gulf of Patras. In 1576, John was named governor-general of the Spanish Netherlands, where he continued the war against the Dutch rebels. He died of a fever in 1578 at the age of 31 and was buried at El Escorial.

Life

Early years

John of Austria was born in Regensburg, Upper Palatinate. His mother was Barbara Blomberg, the daughter of a burgher, and his father was Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who had been widowed since 1539.

In the summer of 1554, he was taken to the castle of Luis de Quijada in Villagarcía de Campos, Valladolid. Magdalena de Ulloa, de Quijada's wife, took charge of his education, assisted by Latin teacher Guillén Prieto, chaplain García de Morales, and Juan Galarza, a squire.

Charles V wrote a codicil, dated 6 June 1554, in which he recognized: "For since I was in Germany, after being widowed, I had a natural child of one unmarried woman, named Geronimo". In the summer of 1558, Charles ordered de Quijada, de Ulloa, and John to relocate to the village of Cuacos de Yuste. Charles resided nearby at the Monastery of Yuste, and until his own death in September of that year, he saw his son several times. In his last will of 1558, he officially recognized John as his son; he also arranged for John to enter the clergy and pursue an ecclesiastical career.

Charles's only surviving legitimate son and heir, Philip II of Spain, was then outside of Spain. Rumors had spread about John's paternity, which de Quijada denied, and he wrote to Charles asking for instructions. Charles replied with a note written by his personal secretary Eraso, in which he recommended to wait for Philip's return to Spain. Joanna, Dowager Princess of Portugal and regent during the absence of her brother Philip, asked to see the child. She met him in Valladolid in May 1559, coinciding with an auto-da-fé then taking place.

Philip II returned from Brussels in 1559, aware of his father's will. Once he had settled in Valladolid, he summoned de Quijada to bring John to a hunt. The first meeting between Philip and John took place on 28 September in the Monastery of Santa María de La Santa Espina. When the king appeared, de Quijada told John to dismount as a sign of respect. When John did so, Philip asked him if he knew the identity of his father; he did not, so Philip explained that they had the same father and thus were brothers. Philip insisted that, although John was a member of the House of Habsburg, he was not to be addressed as "Your Highness", the form reserved for royals and sovereign princes.

John was known as "Don Juan de Austria", and his manner of address was "Your Excellency", the title used for a Spanish grandee. He did not live in a palace, but maintained a separate household with de Quijada as the head. Philip allowed John to have the income allocated to him by Charles. In public ceremonies, John stood, walked, or rode ahead of the grandees, but behind the royal family.

Formative years

left|thumb|Portrait of Don Juan by [[Jooris van der Straeten]]

John completed his education at the University of Alcalá de Henares (now the Complutense University of Madrid), where he attended with his two nephews: Prince Carlos, son and heir of Philip II, and Alessandro Farnese, the son of Charles V's other acknowledged illegitimate child, Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Parma. All three were taught by Honorato Hugo, the disciple of scholar Juan Luis Vives. While at the university, Carlos sustained a skull fracture, resulting in personality changes.

In 1562, the royal house assigned John 15,000 ducats, the same amount allocated to his half-sister Joanna, Dowager Princess of Portugal, with whom John had a close relationship.

In 1565, Farnese left Alcalá de Henares to reside in Brussels, where his mother governed the Spanish Netherlands. He married Maria of Portugal while in Brussels.

When he marched on the fortress of Serón, John was shot in the head, and his foster father Luis de Quijada was wounded. De Quijada died of his injuries a week later, on 25 February, in Caniles. John took the town of Terque, which dominated the middle valley of the Almería River.

In May 1570, John negotiated a peace with El Habaquí. In the summer and fall of 1570, the last campaigns to subdue the rebels were carried out. In February 1571, Philip signed a decree expelling all Moriscos from the Kingdom of Granada. John's letters described their forced exile as the greatest "human misery" that can be portrayed.

The War of Cyprus and Battle of Lepanto

thumb|280px|Battle of Lepanto

The War of Cyprus became the focus of Spanish attention after Pope Pius V sent an envoy to urge Philip to join him and Venice in a Holy League against the Turks. Philip II agreed, and negotiations opened in Rome. Among Philip's terms was the appointment of John as commander-in-chief of the Holy League armada. He agreed that Cyprus should be protected, but also wished to recover control of Tunis, where the Turks had overthrown Philip's Muslim client ruler. Tunis posed an immediate threat to Sicily, one of Philip's kingdoms. He also had in mind the eventual conquest of Algiers, whose corsairs posed a constant nuisance to Spain. Charles V had tried and failed to take it in 1541.

left|thumb|280px|The Victors of Lepanto (from left: Don Juan de Austria, [[Marcantonio Colonna, Sebastiano Venier)]]

The Venetians repaired their galley fleet and readied six armed galleasses. The pope hired twelve galleys from the Grand Duke of Tuscany. The dukes of Savoy and Parma also provided galleys, and Alexander Farnese sailed in one of them. When the League was formally signed in May, John was designated commander-in-chief and given instructions by Philip. He travelled with the Spanish squadron from Barcelona in July, and the Holy League armada set sail from Messina in mid-September. In order to motivate them further, when he came to his galley's forecastle, he danced a Spanish galliard with two other captains to the beat of fifes.

thumb|right|[[John of Austria (Messina)|John of Austria monument in Messina]]

The battle began around noon. The gunfire from the galleasses disrupted the Turkish formations as they pressed to the attack, and the bigger and more numerous guns of the Christian allies did damage as the Turkish right and center closed to board. The allies won the fighting on the decks. Among the wounded was 24-year-old Miguel de Cervantes, future writer of Don Quixote. Cervantes later wrote a description of the courage of the Christian combatants. In the evening, a storm broke and the League had to head for port, while sporadic Greek uprisings were suppressed by the Turks.

During and after the battle of Lepanto, John was addressed in letters and in person with "Highness" and "Prince", in contradiction to the initial protocol and address by Philip. There are no records to indicate if Philip gave Don John these honors.

John captured the city of Namur on 24 July 1577. In January 1578 he defeated the Protestants in the Battle of Gembloux. The defeat at Gembloux forced Prince William of Orange, the leader of the revolt, to leave Brussels. The victory of John also meant the end of the Union of Brussels, and hastened the disintegration of the unity of the rebel provinces. Six months later John was defeated at Rijmenam.

Death

Two months after his defeat at Rijmenam, John of Austria contracted a fever and died on 1 October 1578, at the age of 31. To avoid his body being captured at sea by adversarial Dutch or English forces, it was quartered, returned secretly overland in saddle bags to Madrid, and reassembled for burial once there. John was buried in the Escorial, the only illegitimate Habsburg to be so honored.

Coat of arms

thumb|Coat of arms of John of AustriaAs John of Austria was the illegitimate son of Charles V, the partitions of the armories of his father's coat of arms were modified for his own. John's coat of arms consisted of a divided shield; on the dexter (left) side, the arms of Castile and León were placed in a cut and not quartered (repeated in four quarters), as usual; on the sinister (right) side were Aragon and Aragon-Sicily; and on the divided inescutcheon (center) were Austria and Duchy of Burgundy.

Relationships and descendants

The following women are confirmed to have had a relationship with John of Austria:

  • Margherita Branciforte d'Austria (11 January 1605, Naples – 24 January 1659, Rome), Princess of Butera; married Federico Colonna, 5th Duke of Tagliacozzo, with whom she had one son:
  • Antonio Colonna, Prince of Pietraperzia (1619–1623)
  • Flavia Branciforte d'Austria (3 June 1606, Naples – 24 May 1608, Naples)
  • Caterina Branciforte d'Austria (4 May 1609, Naples – 6 June 1613, Naples)
  • Elisabetta Branciforte d'Austria (9 December 1611, Naples – 7 August 1615, Naples)
  • Anna Branciforte d'Austria (6 July 1615, Naples – 1 September 1615, Naples)
  • Zenobia Saratosia (born ca. 1540), daughter of Vincenzo Saratosia and Violante Garofano. They had one son:
  • Unnamed (born and died in 1574); reportedly died at childbirth, although it was rumoured that Philip II had a hand in his death.
  • Don John of Austria's life inspired the 1835 play Don Juan d'Autriche by Casimir Delavigne, which served in turn as a source for two operas, Don John of Austria by Isaac Nathan in 1847 and Don Giovanni d'Austria by Filippo Marchetti in 1879.
  • G. K. Chesterton in 1911 published a poem, Lepanto, in which he dubbed Don John "the last knight of Europe".
  • The historical novel A Knight of Spain (1913) by Marjorie Bowen depicts the relationship between Don John of Austria and his half-brother, Philip.
  • The historical romance, Spanish Lover, by Frank H. Spearman (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1930), has Don John as its central character.
  • In 1956, Louis de Wohl published The Last Crusader: A Novel about Don Juan of Austria, presenting Don John of Austria as one of history's most triumphant and inspiring heroes.
  • The 1990 historical novel La visita en el tiempo by Venezuelan writer Arturo Uslar Pietri depicts Don Juan searching for his own identity, his journey from an orphaned childhood to his transformation into the (illegitimate) son of Emperor Charles V and the hero of Lepanto. The novel won the 1991 Rómulo Gallegos Prize novel prize.

References

Bibliography

  • Chronicle of the battle of Lepanto by Rev. Luis Coloma, SJ