Francesco Farnese, Duke of Parma

Who was Francesco Farnese, Duke of Parma?

Francesco Farnese reigned as the seventh and penultimate Farnese Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1694 until his death. Married to Dorothea Sophia of the Palatinate, his brother Odoardo's widow, to avoid the return of her dowry, Francesco curtailed court expenditure, enormous under his father and predecessor, Ranuccio II, while preventing the occupation of his Duchy of Parma, nominally a Papal fief, during the War of the Spanish Succession.

The second son of Ranuccio II Farnese and Maria d'Este of Modena, the Duke, despite the his efforts otherwise, saw Parma declared a fief of the Duchy of Milan, an Austrian province in Italy, towards the end of the war. His inability to produce offspring, combined with his brother Antonio's barrenness, lead to the accession of his niece the Queen of Spain's eldest son, Don Carlos, in 1731.