Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria

Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand 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 a Spanish and Portuguese prince (Infante of Spain, Infante of Portugal (until 1640)), Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Cardinal of the Holy Catholic Church, Archduke of Austria, Archbishop of Toledo (1619–41), and a general during the Thirty Years' War, the Eighty Years' War, and the Franco-Spanish War. He is commonly considered the last great commander and strategist of the Spanish Empire, whose premature death in a critical moment helped bring about the end of Spanish hegemony in Europe. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria has received more than 169,120 page views. His biography is available in 23 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 20 in 2019). Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria is the 3,071st most popular politician (up from 3,213th in 2019), the 261st most popular biography from Spain (up from 278th in 2019) and the 92nd most popular Spanish Politician.

Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria was the son of Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria. He was a member of the House of Habsburg and was the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand is most famous for being the ruler of the Spanish Netherlands from 1634 until his death in 1641.