GRANVELLE, ANTOINE PERRENOT DE

Churchman and diplomat in the service of the Hapsburgs; b. Ornans, Franche-Comté, Aug. 20, 1517; d. Madrid, Spain, Sept. 21, 1586. After studies at Padua and Louvain, the 21-year-old Granvelle, younger son of Nicholas Granvelle, minister of Charles V, already holder of a canonry at Arras, was named bishop of that diocese. Entering the imperial diplomatic service, he acted as the Emperor's representative at the opening of the Council of trent in 1545. In Charles's military campaign against the Protestant princes of the schmalkaldic league, Granvelle drew up the peace terms after the League's defeat at the hands of the Emperor at Mühlberg (1547). One of the chief results of the imperial victory had been the removal of John Frederick the Magnanimous from the electorate of Saxony. His successor, Elector Maurice of Saxony, quickly followed his relative in treason against the Emperor, joining with Henry II of France in a twofold attack on the imperial forces in 1551. Bishop Granvelle was in the company of Charles V when the latter was almost captured by Maurice's forces at Innsbruck. Subsequently, Granvelle negotiated the Treaty of Passau in August 1552, which brought this conflict to an end.

After Emperor Charles V's abdication and retirement in 1555, Granvelle continued as advisor to his son philip ii of spain. In 1559, when Margaret of Parma was named Philip's regent in the Netherlands, Granvelle accompanied her as chief counsellor. While Granvelle was serving in this post, Pope Paul IV named him archbishop of Malines (1560) and cardinal (1561). Devoting himself to the double objectives of making Spanish authority absolute and of uprooting the rapidly spreading Protestant movement, Granvelle quickly drew on himself the enmity of the dissatisfied Netherlands nobility and their leader, William the Silent of Orange. An opposition party, the Ligne Anticardinaliste, was formed, later to evolve into the confederation known as Gueux. Because of Granvelle's increasing unpopularity, Philip relieved him of his office in 1564 and the cardinal retired to Besançon, an imperial city in his native Franche-Comté. In 1565 Granvelle was transferred to Rome; in 1570 he assisted in drawing up the Holy League, an alliance between Spain, the Holy See, and the Republic of Venice against the Turks. From 1571 to 1575 he served King Philip as viceroy of Naples, being promoted in 1575 to the presidency of the Council for Italy, a post he held till 1579. In that year, Granvelle was summoned to Spain to replace the recently dismissed Antonio Perez as Philip's secretary of state. One of his administration's first acts was to put a price on the head of William of Orange and to intensify the campaign against the Dutch Protestants (January 1580). Single-handed, Granvelle administered the Spanish government that year during the military campaign against Portugal and was responsible, after the cessation of hostilities, for negotiating the formal union of the Spanish and Portuguese crowns that was to last for the next 60 years (1580–1640). In 1584 Granvelle renounced his See of Malines and was named to the Diocese of Besançon, though he never returned to take possession of his new benefice.

Bibliography: Correspondance du Cardinal de Grandvelle 1565–1586, ed. e. poullet and c. piot, 12 v. (Brussels 1877–96); Papiers d'état du Card. de Grandvelle, ed. c. weiss, 9 v. (Paris 1841–61). Jedin Trent. p. geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555–1609 (2d ed. New York 1958). b. chudoba, Spain and the Empire, 1519–1643 (Chicago 1952). r. palmarocchi, Enciclopedia cattolica 6:1002. m. dierickx, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 4:1166, bibliog. e. hassinger, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart 2:1825.

[w. keller]