GRANVELLE, ANTOINE PERRENOT de. – Cardinal, born at Ornans (Franche-Comté) on 20 August 1517, died at Madrid on 21 September 1586. He was the son of Nicola, minister of Charles V. He studied at Padua and Louvain. In 1538 he was given the bishopric of Arras. He represented Charles V at the opening of the Council of Trent. From 1549 he was a minister of Philip II, who sent him to the Netherlands as adviser to Margaret of Parma. His policy, aimed at establishing absolute government and destroying the Protestant heresy, brought him into serious conflict with the native nobility, especially William of Orange.
In 1560, when Paul IV reorganized the Church in the Netherlands and established new bishoprics there, G. was made archbishop of Mechelen, and the following year he was appointed cardinal. But, regarded as the author of this Catholic revival, he became even more unpopular with the people and the nobility, who, after the revolt of the Gueux, succeeded in depriving him of the favor of the Regent and of Philip II. He therefore had to leave the country and withdraw to Besançon. In 1565 he was sent to Rome, and from there, in 1571, as viceroy to Naples, where he resolutely defended the rights of the king of Spain, even against Gregory XIII. In 1575 he returned to Rome and remained there until 1579. He was then recalled to Madrid and entrusted with the presidency of the Supreme Council of Italy. During the Portuguese war he governed Spain. Having resigned the archbishopric of Mechelen, he obtained that of Besançon (1584), of which, however, he never took possession. G., besides being a skillful politician, was a munificent patron of men of letters and artists and a passionate collector of paintings.