PEDRO TELLEZ GIRON

OSUNA  , 3rd duke of (1575-1624), Spanish viceroy of Sicily and Naples, was born at Osuna, and baptized on the 18th of January 1575 . He was the son of Juan Tellez Giron, the 2nd duke, and of his wife Ana Maria de Velasco, a daughter of the constable of Castile . When a boy he accompanied his grandfather, the 1st duke, to Naples, where he was viceroy . He saw service at the age of fourteen with the troops sent by Philip II. to put down a revolt in Aragon, and was married while still young to Dona Catarina Enriquez de Ribera, a grand-daughter on her mother's side of Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico . In 1598 he inherited the dukedom . Before and after his marriage he was known for the reckless dissipation of his life . The scandals to which his excesses gave rise led to his imprisonment at Arevalo in 1600 . This sharp lesson had a wholesome effect on the duke, and in the same year he left for Flanders, with a body of soldiers raised at his own expense . His appearance in Flanders as a grandee with a following of his own caused some embarrassment to the king's officers . But Osuna displayed unexpected docility and good sense in the field . He was content to serve as a subordinate, and took a full share of work and fighting both by land and sea . When peace was made with England in 1604 he is said to have visited London .

He is said also to have paid a visit to

Holland during the armistice arranged to allow of the negotiations for the twelve years' truce of 1609; but, as he was back in Spain by that year, he cannot have seen much of the country . His services had purged his early offences, and he had been decorated with the Goldej Fleece . On the 18th of September 16ro he was named viceroy of Sicily, and he took possession of his post at Melazzo on the 9th of March 1611 . In 1616 he was promoted to the viceroyalty of Naples, and held the office till he was recalled on the 28th of March 162o . The internal government of Osuna in both provinces was vigorous and just . During his Sicilian viceroyalty he organized a good squadron of galleys with which he freed the coast for a time from the raids of the Mahommedan pirates of the Barbary States and the Levant . After his transfer to Naples Osuna continued his energetic wars with the pirates, but he became concerned in some of the most obscure political intrigues of the time . He entered into a policy of unmeasured hostility to Venice, which he openly attacked in the Adriatic . The princes of the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs were at all times anxious to secure safe communication with the- German possessions of their family . Hence their anxiety to dominate all northern Italy and secure possession of the Alpine passes . It would have suited them very well if they could have reduced Venice to the same state of servitude as Genoa . Osuna threw himself into this policy with a whole heart .

There can be no reasonable doubt that he was engaged with the Spanish

ambassador, and the viceroy of Milan, in the mysterious conspiracy against Venice in 1618 . As usual, the Spanish government had miscalculated its resources, and was compelled to draw back . It then found extreme difficulty in controlling its fiery viceroy . Osuna continued to act against Venice in an almost piratical fashion, and treated orders from home with scant respect . Serious fears began to be entertained that he meant to declare himself independent in Naples, and had he tried he could have brought about a revolt which the enfeebled Spanish government could hardly have suppressed . It is, however, unlikely that he had treasonable intentions . He allowed his naval forces to be gradually reduced by drafts, and when superseded returned obediently to Madrid . After his return he was imprisoned on a long string of charges, and largely' at the instigation of the Venetians . No judgment was issued against him, as he died in prison on the 24th of September 1624 . The " great duke .of Osuna," as he is always called by the Spaniards, impressed the imagination of his countrymen profoundly as a vigorous, domineering and patriotic -leader of the stamp of the 16th century, and he was no less admired by the Italians . His ability was infinitely superior to that of the ordinary politicians and courtiers of the time, but he was more energetic than really wise, and he was an intolerable- subordinate to the bureaucratic despotism of Madrid . The Vita di Don Pietro Giron, duce d' Ossuna, vicere di Napoli e di Sicilia of Gregorio Leti (Amsterdam, 1699) is full of irrelevances, and contains much gossip, as well as speeches which are manifestly the invention of the author .

But it is founded on good documents, and Leti, an

Italian who detested the Spanish rule, knew the state of his own country well . See also Don C . Fernandez Duro, El Gran Duque de Osuna y su Marina (Madrid, 1885), and Documentos ineditos tiara la historic de Espana (Madrid, 1842, &c.), vols. xliv.-xlvii .