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Fernando d'Avalos


Fernando Francesco d'Ávalos, V marquis of Pescara (or Ferrante Francesco d'Ávalos; Spanish: Francisco Fernando d'Ávalos, 1489 – December 3, 1525), was an Italian condottiero of Spanish extraction. As a general of the Spanish army, he participated in the Italian Wars. At 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. He was the chief commander of the Habsburg armies in Italy during the Habsburg-Valois Wars and defeated the French at Bicocca and Pavia.

Fernando was born at Naples, but his family was of Aragonese origin, having arrived in southern Italy with Alfonso V's general Iñigo d'Avalos, his grandfather. Fernando's father was Alfonso d'Ávalos d'Aquino, IV marquis of Pescara (not to be confused with Alfonso d'Avalos, VI marquess of Pescara and a cousin of Fernando).

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. His position as a noble of the Aragonese party in Naples made it incumbent on him to support Ferdinand the Catholic in his Italian wars. In 1512, he commanded a body of light cavalry at the battle of Ravenna, where he was wounded and taken prisoner by the French. Thanks to the intervention of one of the foremost of the French generals, the Italian G. G. Trivulzio, who was his connection by marriage, he was allowed to ransom himself for 6,000 ducats.


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