page_title: Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria
section_title: Fall from grace
hierarchical_section_title: Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria / Biography / Fall from grace
caption_attribution_description: Español: Retrato del cardenal-infante Fernando de Austria (1609-1641), que fue hijo del rey Felipe III de España y de la reina Margarita de Austria.
context_page_description: Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand was Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Cardinal of the Holy Catholic Church, Infante of Spain, Infante of Portugal, Archduke of Austria, Archbishop of Toledo, and military commander during the Thirty Years' War.
context_section_description: With Spanish forces concentrated in the fight with the French, a relatively lightly defended Breda was recaptured in 1637 after a 10-month siege by the Prince of Orange after being under Spanish control for 12 years. The loss of Breda was a blow to Spanish prestige but of minor strategic importance compared to the gains made by Ferdinand that year by taking the towns of Venlo and Roermond in the Meuse, effectively cutting Maastricht from the Dutch Republic and, thus, preventing further Dutch attacks on the Spanish Netherlands from the east. In the southern front Ferdinand lost the towns of La Capelle, Landrecies, and Damvillers to the French, but then he forced them to retreat south of Maubeuge.
  In 1638 Ferdinand's army successfully defended Antwerp, Saint-Omer and Geldern from the Dutch and French armies. Ferdinand achieved a decisive victory over the Dutch at the Battle of Kallo in June, when he took 2,500 Dutch prisoners, 81 river barges and a good amount of artillery. In a letter to his brother the King shortly afterwards, Ferdinand described the battle as "the greatest victory which your Majesty's arms have achieved since the war in the Low Countries began". The next year Ferdinand managed again to thwart the Franco-Dutch plans. The Dutch navy defeated an important Spanish fleet in the Battle of the Downs, off the English coast, but it failed to prevent most of the army it was carrying, some 7,000 to 10,500 infantry, from landing at Dunkirk. While Ferdinand frustrated the Prince of Orange's move against Hulst, a Spanish army under Count Piccolomini destroyed the main French army in the south at the Battle of Thionville.
  In 1640 Dutch attacks on Hulst and Bruges were repelled by the local Spanish garrisons. In the south, after a failed attack on the Spanish fortress of Charlemont in Givet, the French army launched a great offensive upon Arras, the capital of the County of Artois. Ferdinand took the command of the Spanish Army and attempted unsuccessfully to break the French lines. The city finally surrendered on 9 August. Its capture was the first victory of importance for the French in the war after five years of fighting.
  More dangerous than his military enemies were, however, his enemies at the Spanish court. Numerous rumors and lies floated about, and it was claimed that Ferdinand was planning to become an independent ruler of the Spanish Netherlands with the help of the French King, an enemy of Spain. This rumor was enhanced by another rumor that the French court was planning to marry Ferdinand to Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, the (eldest) daughter of Gaston, Duke of Orléans, the French king's brother. The former claim was untrue however his sister Anne of Austria did suggest a marriage between Ferdinand and Anne Marie Louise, the greatest heiress in Europe .
  At the same time, the Spanish empire was in a bad state both military and financially. The Cardinal-Infante was even given conflicting orders to send troops to Spain to aid against the 1640 Portuguese uprising.
caption: Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria as Actaeon by Diego Velázquez
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