Pedro Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Osuna (17 December 1574 – 24 September 1624) was a Spanish nobleman and politician. He was the 2nd Marquis of Peñafiel, 7th Count of Ureña, Spanish Viceroy of Sicily (1611–1616), Viceroy of Naples (1616–1620), a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece since 1608, Grandee of Spain, member of the Spanish Supreme Council of War, and the subject of several poems by his friend, counselor and assistant, Francisco de Quevedo.
He served as a footsoldier and climbed the ranks, an unusual career for an aristocrat, during the Eighty Years' War. As Viceroy of Sicily and Naples, Osuna reorganized the local administration with new strategies and ships, and implemented a highly profitable and successful privateering system against the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Venice and the Barbary corsairs. Despite counting solely on local resources, he maintained Spanish dominance in the Mediterranean during the ten years of his mandates, producing victories like Cape Corvo, Cape Gelidonya, Constantinople and Ragusa. At his peak, his individual naval power is believed to have rivaled that of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
Although a favourite of King Philip III, he faced much obstruction from his court, which he ameliorated by buying political influence with booty from his campaigns. Osuna was eventually deposed in 1620, undoing most of his work, in midst of the unstability caused by the fall of the royal minister Francisco de Sandoval, Duke of Lerma. Venetians claimed Osuna had participated in a conspiracy to take over Venice, while the Neapolitan aristocracy purported he intended to secede from Spain and become King of Naples. He denied all accusations and died in prison while awaiting for judgement.
Early life
He was born in Osuna, province of Sevilla, and baptized on 18 January 1575, the son of Juan Téllez-Girón, 2nd Duke of Osuna, and of his wife Ana María de Velasco, daughter of Íñigo Fernández de Velasco, 4th Duke of Frías and Constable of Castile.
According to the first biography published in 1699 by the Protestant Milanese Gregorio Leti, which has been until the 20th century the main and most exploited source of information on the third Duke of Osuna, when a boy he accompanied his grandfather, the 1st duke, In April 1594 he inherited the dukedom Afán de Ribera.
Although deeply indebted, the estate of Osuna came under the Council of Castile administration because of his young age, to avoid money mismanagements. The estate of Osuna was only second by total wealth in Spain to that of the Duke of Medina Sidonia.
In 1602, apparently with the agreement of Juan Fernández de Velasco, 5th Duke of Frías, Constable of Castile, his uncle and political godfather and one of the most powerful and outstanding personalities of the reign of King Philip III of Spain, Osuna escaped from his confinement in the castle of Cuéllar, a place/prison used for the last two centuries to control "illustrious" Crown guests accompanied by a servant, arriving in Brussels in October of that year.
Military career
Initially, he enlisted in the army of the Archduke Albert of Austria as a private, but soon he was given the command of two cavalry companies. In 1602 and 1603 he had a role in controlling and defusing the mutinies which erupted in Brabant among the armies of the Archduke, even financing the arrangements with the mutineers with his own money, raised in Flanders with the guarantee of his Spanish properties. Besides, he took part in several important battles, being seriously wounded twice.
Another of Leti's legends says that in 1604 he went to London, as a member of the embassy sent by king Philip III of Spain to king James I Stuart to sign the Treaty of Peace, the ambassador being the Constable of Castile, the later assessment being indeed true.
In 1608, when the negotiations for the 12 years truce between Maurice of Nassau and Ambrogio Spinola within the Eighty Years War had already begun in The Hague, he took no part as he was against them. He returned to Spain as a hero, being decorated in 1608 with the Order of the Golden Fleece, the highest decoration given by the King of Spain as head of the Habsburg dynasty.
In 1608 he arranged the marriage of his son, Juan, with the daughter of Cristóbal de Sandoval, Duke of Uceda, the son and assistant of Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, Duke of Lerma, the Prime Minister and Valido of king Philip III of Spain. The political meaning of such an agreement was indeed that he was accepted as a member of the Lerma's family and group of friends, the real ruling elite of the Spanish monarchy at the time, till he was displaced around 1621 by his political enemy, Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares.
In Italy
As viceroy of Sicily
On 18 September 1610 he was named viceroy of Sicily, and took possession of his post at Milazzo on 9 March 1611.