Ranuccio I Farnese

Ranuccio I Farnese (1569-1622) was the son of Alessandro Farnese and Maria of Aviz of Portugal, by which he could claim the succession to the throne of Portugal, which went to his uncle Philip II of Spain. On the death of his grandfather Ottavio (1586), Ranuccio began to govern the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza in the place of his father, engaged in the battlefields of Europe. Unlike the latter, Ranuccio devoted himself actively to the government of his duchy, equipping it with modern legislation. He enriched the city of Parma with sumptuous monuments, and made it a centre of culture and art on a par with other major European cities. Opposed to an important part of the aristocracy of the dukedom, which came to plot a conspiracy against him, Ranuccio married Pope Clement VIII’s niece, Margherita Aldobrandini. Odoardo Farnese, the couple’s son, became the new duke upon his father’s death.