He should not be confused with his nephew, Alessandro Farnese, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, grandson of Emperor Charles V and great-grandson of Pope Paul III.

[3] On 18 December 1534, at the age of 14, he was appointed Cardinal Deacon of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria[4] by his grandfather Paul III, who had been elected to the papacy two months previously.

[15] His grandfather, Pope Paul III, immediately named Alessandro Farnese Administrator of the Diocese of Parma (1 November 1534), allowing him to collect the episcopal income during the interregnum.

He was Administrator of the Archdiocese of Tours from 28 April 1553, until Pope Julius III ordered the issue of bulls for Archbishop Simon de Mailly on 25 June 1554.

[26] In the case of Tours, the right of nomination belonged to the King of France, Henri II, whose daughter Diane had married Farnese's youngest brother Orazio in 1552.

[citation needed] Farnese also became a Papal Legate, arranging peace between the perpetually warring Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Francis I of France.

[citation needed] In 1548, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese took into his service as his private secretary Annibale Caro, the noted poet and prose stylist.

The Farnese had spent more than fifteen years developing their dukedom, and Cardinal Alessandro's father had been assassinated in the struggle with the Gonzaga and the Emperor Charles over it.

The Farnese were being protected by the French Crown, which considered Parma its entrée into northern Italy, where it challenged the Emperor to the possession of the Duchy of Milan and the Lombard plain.

This was a matter of annoyance for the French, for King Henri had extracted from Pope Julius III, through negotiations carried on by Cardinals Georges d' Armagnac, Alessandro Farnese, and Jean du Bellay, a bull which allowed an extra 15 days before a Conclave began, in order to allow cardinals who had to travel a long distance (the French) to reach Rome.

D'Este was not electable (Sir John Masone, the English agent wrote: "Marry, we hear of no quality to set him forward but that he is rich.

When Farnese finally arrived from Avignon in mid-April, he was no doubt delighted to find his grandfather's secretary, Cardinal Marcello Cervini, on the throne of Peter.

The supporters of Carafa finally numbered more than the two-thirds needed for election, but the Imperialists (who were caucusing in the Hall of the Secret Consistory) refused to come to the Chapel and carry out the electoral process.

When the Florentine Ambassador, Bongiano Gianfiliazzi, had attempted to have an audience with Paul IV to enlighten him about his corrupt nephews, the door was slammed in his face by Cardinal Carafa.

[citation needed] It was in 1556 that Cardinal Farnese commissioned Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola to take in hand the half-completed fortress at Caprarola and turn it into a country villa.

On 12 June 1557, Morone was interrogated in the Castel S. Angelo by the committee: Cardinals Innocenzo del Monte, Jean Suau, Scipione Rebiba, Spoletano [Alessandro Farnese], and Michele Ghislieri.

[citation needed] For two decades, the Farnese had been trying to maintain friendships both with King Henri II of France and the Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire.

This became more difficult when Cardinal Carafa, in the name of Paul IV, concluded a treaty with Henri II on 23 July 1556, committing them to a war against the Emperor for the Kingdom of Naples.

The benefices were all given to Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este, Farnese's enemy, who had spent his youth at the French Court and was a personal friend of Henri and the Royal Family.

[67] When the Spanish Ambassador, Don Luis Requesens de Zuniga, arrived in Rome on 21 December 1565, however, he carried instructions to support Ghislieri and Morone.

The Emperor Maximilian II was informed by his agent in Rome, Nosti Camiani, that the most favored cardinals were: d' Olera, Boncompagni, Suau, Sirleto, Simonetta, Gianbernardino Scotti, and Michele Ghislieri.

Nothing could be so great a consolation to me in my grief for my uncle, as the certainty that he is succeeded by one who possesses all the qualities that your Eminence sympathizes with me in lamenting, and who with equal courage and strength of soul will know how to maintain and uphold the authority of religionWithin two hours, they had sufficient votes to elect Ghislieri.

The Christian fleet, commanded by King Philip II's half-brother, Don John of Austria, inflicted a decisive defeat on the Ottoman Turks, destroying all but thirty of its ships.

Catherine de' Medici was attempting to avoid a civil war in France, and she believed that the marriage of her daughter Margot with Henri of Navarre, a Protestant, might avert disaster but dispensations would be required of the pope.

[citation needed] In the Spring of 1586, Cardinal Farnese's young nephew Ranuccio, aged 17, came to Rome to swear allegiance for his domains of which the Church was the feudal souverain.

The Spanish Ambassador, Olivares, invited the Castellan of the Castel S. Angelo to dinner, while the Cardinal tricked the guards into releasing Ranuccio into his custody.

[citation needed] Alessandro Farnese is remembered for gathering the greatest collection of Roman sculpture assembled in private hands since Antiquity,[92] now mostly in Naples, after passing by inheritance to the Bourbon-Parma kings.

He commissioned the masterpiece of Giulio Clovio, arguably the last major illuminated manuscript, the Farnese Hours, which was completed in 1546 after being nine years in the making (now the property of the Morgan Library, New York).

On 2 August 1587, at the Farnese palace in Caprarola, she married her second husband, Marco Pio di Savoia, Lord of Sassuolo; the marriage was without issue.

[100] On 7 July 1588, the physician of the Duke of Urbino, Vincenzo Remosetti, was summoned to a consultation at the Farnese Palace at Caprarola, "per uno grande accidente di epilepsia", accompanied by severe respiratory problems.