Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort
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Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort (Saxony, July 20, 1517 – Luxemburg, May 22, 1604) was an army commander and Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1592 to 1594.
He came to the Spanish Netherlands with Charles V as a young man. He participated in the expedition against Tunis in 1535 and became governor of Luxemburg in 1545.
In the Eighty Years' War, he took part in combat under John of Austria, (1547 - 1578, aged 31), illegitimate half brother of King Felipe II of Spain and Alexander Farnese, (1545 - 1592, aged 47) cousin on his mothers side of both half brothers, Juan of Austria and King Felipe II of Spain.
When Farnese invaded France in 1590, he was appointed Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands ad interim. When Farnese died in 1592 , Von Mansfeld effectively became governor until Archduke Ernest of Austria took over in 1594.
He married three times and had many children, but his best known descendant was his illegitimate son Ernst von Mansfeld, an important army commander in the Thirty Years War.
One of his daughters, too, Dorothea von Mansfeld, became the wife of Spanish General ("Maestre de Campo General", some sort of Field Marshall) and Admiral Francisco Verdugo, (Talavera de la Reina, province of Toledo, 1537 - Luxembourg, 1595).
| Preceded by Alexander Farnese |
Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands 1592-1594 |
Succeeded by Archduke Ernest of Austria |
