GRANVELLA, ANTOINE PERRENOT, CARDINAL DE (1517-1586), one of the ablest and most influential of the princes of the Church during the great political and ecclesiastical move ments which immediately followed the appearance of Protestant ism in Europe, was born on Aug. 20, 1517, at Besancon. After studying at Padua and at Louvain, he held a canonry at Besancon and in 1540 was promoted to the bishopric of Arras. Through the influence of his father, Nicolas Perrenot de Granvella (1484 155o), chancellor of the empire under Charles V., he was entrusted with many delicate pieces of public business, in the execution of which he developed a rare talent for diplomacy, and at the same time acquired an intimate acquaintance with the currents of Euro pean politics. Specially noteworthy was his settlement of the peace terms after the defeat of the league of Schmalkalden at Miihlberg in 1547. As secretary of State (155o) he attended Charles in the war with Maurice, elector of Saxony, accompanied him in the flight from Innsbruck, and afterwards drew up the Treaty of Passau (Aug. 1552). In 1553, he conducted the negotiations for the marriage of Mary of England and Philip II. of Spain, to whom, in 1555, he transferred his services. One of the Spanish commis sioners at the peace of Cateau Cambresis (1559), on Philip's with drawal from the Netherlands, he was appointed prime minister to the regent, Margaret of Parma.
In 156o Granvella was made archbishop of Malines and in 1561 cardinal, but his policy of repression aroused the hostility of the people and by the advice of Philip he retired to Franche Comte in 1564. Recalled in 1570 to Rome, he helped to arrange the alliance between the Papacy, Venice and Spain against the Turks and in the same year became viceroy of Naples. In '575 Philip II. appointed him president of the council for Italian affairs. Among the more delicate negotiations of his later years were those of 158o, whose object was the union of the crowns of Spain and Portugal, and those of 1584, which proved a check to France by the marriage of the Spanish infanta Catherine to Charles Emmanuel, duke of Savoy. He died of a lingering disease at Madrid on Sept. 21, 1586.