Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort (20 July 1517 – 22 May 1604) was an army commander and Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1592 to 1594.
Born in Saxony, he was the 11th child (of 16) of Ernst II, von Mansfeld-Vorderort. His mother was Ernst II's second wife, Dorothea von Solms-Lich.[1]
As a young man, Peter Ernst came to the Spanish Netherlands with Charles V. He participated in the expedition against Tunis in 1535 and became governor of Luxembourg in 1545.
In the Eighty Years' War, he took part in combat under John of Austria, the illegitimate half-brother of King Philip II of Spain and Alexander Farnese, cousin on his mother's side.
When Farnese invaded France in 1590, Mansfeld was appointed Governor ad interim of the Spanish Netherlands. When Farnese died in 1592, Von Mansfeld effectively became governor until Archduke Ernest of Austria took over in 1594.
His first marriage (1 April 1542) to Margaretha van Brederode (*ca 1520, died Nemours, 31 May 1554) produced:
His second marriage on 22 February 1562 to Marie de Montmorency (died 5 February 1570) produced:
A liaison with Anna Benzerath resulted in Peter Ernst II von Mansfeld, who was his best known descendant; Ernst was an important army commander in the Thirty Years War. Another son, Karl, was a general in the Cologne War and Ottoman-Habsburg wars and instrumental in the siege of Gran, where he was mortally injured;. One of his daughters, Dorothea von Mansfeld, became the wife of Spanish General and Admiral Francisco Verdugo.
He died in Clausen, Luxembourg in 1604.
| Preceded by Alexander Farnese |
Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands 1592-1594 |
Succeeded by Archduke Ernest of Austria |