REQUESENS Y ZIGA, LUIS DE

born Aug. 25, 1528, Barcelona, Spain died March 5, 1576, Brussels, Spanish Netherlands [now in Belgium] Requesens also spelled Requessens Spanish governor of the Netherlands during one phase (157376) of the Dutch revolt called the Eighty Years' War. Succeeding the tyrannical Duke de Alba, he tried unsuccessfully to compromise with the rebellious provinces. Requesens' early career was as a government official and diplomatist. In 1563 he gained King Philip II's confidence as his representative at Rome. In 1568 he was made lieutenant general to Don Juan de Austria during the suppression of the Morisco revolt in Granada. He also accompanied Don Juan in the Lepanto campaign, his function being to control his nominal commander in chief, whose excitable temperament was distrusted by the king. Philip then named him viceroy in Milan, where he was credited with having shown moderation, though he came into sharp collision with the archbishop Charles Borromeo. Requesens arrived in Brussels on Nov. 17, 1573, having been sent to govern the Spanish Netherlands because the king wished to pursue a more conciliatory policy after the disastrous policy of repression of the Duke de Alba. Requesens urged a general pardon, the dissolution of the Council of Troubles, and the abolition of the sales tax; he also wanted to call the States General in order to negotiate with the rebels. Philip, however, refused to yield any of the essential points in dispute between him and the rebels; and the Netherlanders themselves were scarcely in a conciliatory mood. Thus, although Requesens did publish a general pardon (June 5, 1574) and offered to exchange the sales tax for a subsidy, he ultimately fell back again on the army, with considerable success, though the Spanish troops themselves, frequently left unpaid, were inclined to mutiny and to plunder the civilian population. Requesens died exhausted by trying to do the impossible.