Mummified remains of Renaissance warlord exhumed to find poisoning clues after 400 years
The mummified remains of a Renaissance warlord who took part in the planning of the Spanish Armada mission have been exhumed in a bid to discover whether he was poisoned to death.
It has long been thought that Alessandro Farnese, the Duke of Parma, died of pneumonia while campaigning in the Low Countries but a group of Italian historians believe he may have been murdered by one of his many enemies.
They have found contemporary documents that suggest that while the ‘condottiero’ or military commander was suffering from exhaustion and illness, it was not enough to have killed him.
Farnese died in the French town of Arras in 1592 at the age of 47 but his body was brought back to Italy and interred in the Church of Santa Maria della Steccata in Parma in northern Italy.
His mummified remains, still wrapped in robes, were exhumed earlier this week and will be analysed by forensic experts from a specialist unit of the Carabinieri police as well as pathologists from a hospital in Parma.
“We’re looking for traces of poison in his bones or in the scraps of clothing that remain,” historian Anna Zaniboni Mattioli told The Telegraph.
“He had a lot of enemies. His military successes caused a great deal of jealousy among other commanders. In the last few days of his life he was ill, but not to such an extent that he should have died so quickly.”
Farnese, the duke of Parma and Piacenza, fought against Dutch rebels in the Netherlands on behalf of Phillip II, the Habsburg king of Spain.
The king appointed him governor-general of the Netherlands after a series of bloody battles in which his adversary was William of Orange.
A master strategist, he was also involved in the planning of the ultimately abortive Spanish Armada plan to invade England with a huge naval fleet in 1588.
“Farnese was a good commander but he was also realistic and told Philip that the invasion would be impossible. Philip wouldn’t listen to him but of course he was right – it was a disaster,” said Ms Zaniboni Mattioli.
Although he spent his life as a man of action, in death he was wrapped in the robes of a Capuchin monk, and the remnants of the clothing could yield clues as to whether he was poisoned.
Among the suspects for his possible poisoning is Philip II himself.
“Farnese had become a very troublesome figure for the king, who was planning to get rid of him because he had become too powerful,” said Ms Zaniboni Mattioli.
Even if experts find traces of poison, it will not tell them who murdered the duke. “There’s no signature on poison,” she said.
“That would remain another mystery to solve.”
