GIOVANNI D'AUSTRIA - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. VI, p. 326

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

GIOVANNI d'AUSTRIA. - Natural son of Charles V and Barbara Blomberg, born in Ratisbon, his mother’s city, on 24 Feb. 1545, died at Namur on 10 Oct. 1578. Reared in Spain and destined for the monastic life, he instead displayed marked military aptitudes. After Charles V’s death, who had acknowledged him as his son, he was received at court by Philip II, who entrusted him with important enterprises.

He quelled the Morisco revolt in Granada (1569); as supreme commander of the Christian fleet, he won the splendid victory of Lepanto against the Turks (7 Oct. 1571); he captured Tunis (1573), though it soon fell back into Turkish hands, thus thwarting his plan to establish a Christian kingdom there. In 1575 he was Philip II’s lieutenant in Italy. In 1576 he succeeded Luis de Requeséns in the government of the Netherlands, where, with the scant reinforcements sent by his half-brother under Alessandro Farnese, he defeated the insurgents at Gembloux (1578). But in the midst of the struggle against William of Orange, he suddenly died, perhaps of plague, in the military camp. No proof exists that he was poisoned. He is buried at the Escorial.

Bibl.: W. Havemann, Das Leben des Don Juan, Gotha 1865; W. Stirling Maxwell, Don John of A., 2 vols., London 1883; G. Boglietti, Don G. d'A., Bologna 1894; B. Porreño, Historia del serenissimo señor don Juan de A., Madrid 1899; H. F. M. Huybert, Don Juan von Oostenrijk, Utrecht 1913; M. Yeo, Don John of A., London 1934; F. Hartlaub, Don Juan d'A. und die Schlacht bei Lepanto, Berlin 1940; F. Braudel, La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l'époque de Philippe II, Paris 1940, V. index.

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GIOVANNI d'AUSTRIA. - Natural son of Philip IV of Spain and María Calderón, born in Madrid on 7 Apr. 1629. He displayed uncommon military talents. In 1647 he suppressed the revolt of Masaniello in Naples. He was then viceroy of Sicily. Sent against the insurgent Catalonia, he captured Barcelona and Gerona and concluded the convention that ended the revolt.

Governor of the Netherlands (1656), he was defeated by Turenne at the Battle of the Dunes (14 June 1658). He then commanded the Spanish army against Portugal, capturing several fortified cities, but was finally defeated at Estremoz (8 June 1663). After Philip IV’s death (1665), he led the opposition against the queen dowager, the regent Mariana. At court he faced a formidable adversary in the Jesuit Everard Nithard, confessor and adviser to the queen: Don G. forced the queen to exile him. Upon Charles II’s coming of age, he was removed, through the intrigues of the queen mother, and appointed viceroy of Aragon, whence he returned having secured the exile of the Queen and her new adviser, Valenzuela. Charles II made him his prime minister (1676): Spain then enjoyed a brief period of tranquility. He died in Madrid on 17 Sept. 1689. He is buried at the Escorial.

Bibl.: A. Risco, Don Juan de A., Madrid 1918. For further bibliography cf. B. Sánchez Alonso, Fuentes de la historia española e hispano-americana, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Madrid 1927, V. index.