Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria

Infante Ferdinand
Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria in Portico
Portrait of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand by Gaspar de Crayer, 1639.
See	Santa Maria in Portico (Octaviae)
Installed	29 July 1619
Term ended	9 November 1641
Predecessor	Ferdinando Gonzaga
Successor	Virginio Orsini
Other posts	Apostolic Administrator of Toledo Governor of the Spanish Netherlands Governor of the Duchy of Milan
Orders
Created Cardinal	29 July 1619
Rank	Cardinal-Deacon
Personal details
Born	16 May 1609 or 24 May 1610 San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Kingdom of Spain
Died	9 November 1641 (aged 31 or 32) Bruxelles, Spanish Netherlands
Buried	El Escorial
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Parents	Philip III of Spain Margaret of Austria

Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand (also known as Don Fernando de Austria, Cardenal-Infante Fernando de España and as Ferdinand von Österreich; May 1609 or 1610 – 9 November 1641) was Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Cardinal of the Holy Catholic Church, Infante of Spain, Infante of Portugal (until 1640), Archduke of Austria, Archbishop of Toledo (1619–41), and military commander during the Thirty Years' War.

Born at the Escorial near Madrid, Spain in 1609¹, he was the son of the King of Spain and Portugal, Philip III and II and Margaret of Austria, sister of Emperor Ferdinand II. His older siblings were King Philip IV and III and the French queen Anne of Austria.

As his father wished that he pursue an ecclesiastical career, Ferdinand was elevated to the Primacy of Spain in 1619, becoming Archbishop of Toledo. Shortly afterwards he was created Cardinal. The style Cardinal-Infante was a combination of his dignity as Cardinal and his station as a royal Prince (Infante in Spanish) of Spain. Ferdinand was never actually ordained a priest (though he received the minor orders),

In 1630 the Cardinal Infante's aunt Isabella Clara Eugenia planned to make him her successor as governor of the Spanish Netherlands. To move to the Netherlands in a style befitting a governor, a strong army had to accompany him. Travel by ship from Spain was not an option as it would expose him to risk of battle with the Dutch navy in the then ongoing Eighty Years' War, so in 1633, he went to Genoa, having quit his governorship of Catalonia where he had been trained. He met with an army from Milan for a planned march through the famous Spanish Way across Lombardy, Tyrol, and Swabia, and then following the Rhine to the Netherlands. Ferdinand also planned to secure this supply route with a string of garrisons, and to support the army of King Ferdinand IV of Hungary, his brother-in-law the emperor's son and heir, who was leading the Imperial army facing the Swedes in the Thirty Years' War.