Fernando Francesco d'Ávalos d'Aquino, 5th Marquess of Pescara (also known as Ferrante, 1489 – 1525). Italian (Neapolitan) military leader and nobleman of Spanish (Aragonese) origin. He was an important captain in the service of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire during the Italian Wars.
In the Battle of Ravenna in 1512, he was taken prisoner by the French but was released at the conclusion of the War of the League of Cambrai, after which he became a chief commander of the Habsburg armies of Charles V in Italy during the Habsburg-Valois Wars. He was instrumental to the victories over the French at Bicocca and Pavia thanks to his ordered usage of arquebusiers.
At the age of six the boy was betrothed to Vittoria Colonna, daughter of the general Fabrizio Colonna, and the marriage was celebrated in 1509 on the island of Ischia.
After the death of Fernando in Milan from the wounds that he had sustained at the Battle of Pavia, Colonna dedicated herself to writing poetry and became one of the most popular poets of 16th-century Italy.
Portrait by unknown artist
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