FARNESE FAMILY

Italian family that ruled the duchy of Parma and Piacenza from 1545 to 1731.

The family became noted for its statesmen and soldiers, especially in the 14th–15th century, as well as by contracting politically useful marriages. In 1545 Pope Paul III , a Farnese, detached Parma and Piacenza from the papal dominions and made them into duchies. The first duke was his illegitimate son, Pier Luigi Farnese (1503–47), whose son Ottavio (1542–86), the 2nd duke, made Parma the capital and consolidated the family's power. The 3rd duke, Alessandro Farnese , was Spain's regent of the Netherlands and duke in name only. His son, Ranuccio I (1569–1622), and grandson, Odoardo I (1612–46), left heavy financial and diplomatic debts by inconclusive military campaigns in the Thirty Years' War . In 1649 Pope Innocent X accused the Farnese of the murder of an ecclesiastic and seized the fief. Ranuccio II (1630–94) declared war and was defeated, and the duchy survived precariously. Francesco Farnese (1678–1727) tried to save the state, but his only important success was the marriage of his niece Isabella Farnese to Philip V of Spain (1714). In 1731 the duchy passed from the last Farnese of the male line, Antonio (1679–1731), to Elizabeth's son, the future Charles III .