FARNESE, Italian family which ruled the duchy of Parma for two centuries. The Farnese are first heard of as lords of Farneto or Farnese, a castle near the lake of Bolsena, and they were consuls and signori of Orvieto. They seem always to have been Guelphs, and in the civil broils of Orvieto they sided with the Monaldeschi faction against the Ghibelline Filippeschi. Pietro Farnese commanded the papal armies under Paschal II. (1099 I I 18) ; another Pietro led the Florentines to victory against the Pisans in 1363. Ranuccio Farnese served Eugene IV. so well that the pope endowed him with large fiefs, and is reported to have said, "The Church is ours because Farnese has given it back to us." Pope Alexander VI. was the lover of the beautiful Giulia Farnese, known as Giulia Bella. Her brother Alessandro, created cardinal in 1493, was elected pope as Paul III. (q.v.) in An unblushing nepotist, he alienated immense fiefs belonging to the Holy See in favour of his natural children. Of these the most famous was Pierluigi Farnese who served in the papal army in various campaigns, but also took part in the sack of Rome in 1527. On his father's elevation to the papacy he was made captain-general of the Church, and received the duchy of Castro in the Maremma, besides Frascati, Nepi, Montalto and other fiefs. A shameless rake and a man of uncontrollable temper, his massacre of the people of Perugia after a rebellion in 154o and an unspeakable outrage committed on the bishop of Fano are typical of his character. In 1545 his father conferred on him the duchy of Parma and Piacenza. He deprived the nobles of their privileges, and forced them to dwell in the towns, but to some extent he improved the conditions of the lower classes. When Pierluigi built a castle at Piacenza to overawe its inhabitants, a successful plot to murder him was organized by the marquis An guissola and others, with the support both of Gonzaga, the impe rial governor of Milan, and of Andrea Doria (q.v.), Charles's admiral, who sought revenge on Pierluigi for his part in the Fiesco conspiracy (see FIEsco). He was murdered on December to, and Piacenza was occupied by the imperialists.
Pierluigi had several children, for all of whom Paul made gen erous provision. Alessandro (152o-1589), was created cardinal at the age of fourteen; he was a man of learning and artistic tastes, and lived with great splendour surrounded by scholars and artists, among whom were Annibal Caro, Paolo Giovio, Della Casa, Bembo, Vasari, etc. It was he who completed the magnificent Farnese palace in Rome. Orazio, Pierluigi's third son, was made duke of Castro when his father became duke of Parma, and mar ried Diane, a natural daughter of Henry II. of France. Ottavio, the second son (1521-1586), married Margaret of Austria (q.v.), the natural daughter of Charles V., and widow of Alessandro de Medici, at the age of fifteen. After Pierluigi's death Paul ap pointed a papal legate to Parma ; Ottavio pushed his claims, but did not receive the duchy until the accession of pope Julius III. (1 5 51) . This did not end his quarrel with the emperor, for Gonzaga refused to give up Piacenza and even threatened to occupy Parma, so that Ottavio was driven into the arms of France. Julius, who was anxious to be on good terms with Charles, ordered Farnese to hand Parma over to the papal authorities once more, and on his refusal deprived him of his Roman fiefs, while Charles did the same with regard to those in Lombardy. A French army came to protect Parma, war broke out, and Gonzaga at once laid siege to the city. But the duke came to an arrangement with his father-in-law, by which he regained Piacenza and his other fiefs. The rest of his life was spent quietly at home, where the modera tion and wisdom of his rule won for him the affection of his people. At his death in 1586 he was succeeded by his son Ales sandro Farnese (q.v.) (1545-1592), the famous general of Philip II. of Spain, who spent the whole of his reign in the Flemish wars.
His son and successor, Ranuccio I. (1569-1622), was a reserved and gloomy bigot ; he instituted savage persecutions against sup posed witches and heretics, and lived in perpetual terror of plots. His eldest son Alessandro being deaf and dumb, the succession devolved on his second son Odoardo (1612-1646), who fought on the French side in the war against Spain. His failure to pay the interest of the money borrowed in Rome, and the desire of Urban VIII. to obtain Castro for his relatives the Barberini (q.v.), resulted in a war between that pope and Odoardo. His son and successor Ranuccio II. (163o-1694) also had a war with the Holy See about Castro, which was eventually razed to the ground. His son Francesco Maria (1678-1727) suffered from the wars between Spain and Austria, the latter's troops devastating his territory. The succession devolved, at his death, on his brother Antonio (1679-1731), with whom the male line ended. The powers had agreed that at the death of the latter the duchy should pass to Don Carlos of Bourbon, son of King Philip V. of Spain by Elisa betta Farnese (1692-1766), granddaughter of Ranuccio II.
The Palazzo Farnese in Rome, one of the finest specimens of Roman Renaissance architecture, was begun under Paul III., while he was cardinal, by Antonio da San Gallo, and completed by his nephew Cardinal Alessandro under the direction of Michel angelo (1526). It was inherited by Don Carlos, afterwards king of Naples and Spain, and most of the pictures were removed to Naples. It now contains the French embassy to the Italian court, as well as the French school of Rome.