Cesare d'Avalos

Cesare d'Ávalos (16 July 1536 – 21 August 1614), Marquis of Padula, was a Neapolitan nobleman and military man in the service of the Hispanic Monarchy.

Biography He was the fifth child of Alfonso d'Avalos and Maria d'Aragona. Like his father, he started a military career for the Spanish Empire, now during the reign of Philip II. He was present in the Eighty Years' War, participating in the Battle of Jemmingen under the Duke of Alba.

Three years later he and his brother Carlo were part of the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire, serving under Don John of Austria. Carlo commanded the League's sailing ship squad failed to arrive in time to the Battle of Lepanto, but Cesare did and served with distinction. The following year he captained the Spanish galleon division during the conquest of Tunis. He was later in the War of the Portuguese Succession, where Alba and Álvaro de Bazán, also a veteran of Lepanto, defeated the foreign coalition trying to prevent Philip II from inheriting the Portuguese Empire. In 1603, he sold Buonabitacolo and Padula to Giovan Gerolamo de Ponte and built the palace later known as the Palace Carafa di Maddaloni. Portraits of him and his brothers Francesco and Giovanni were painted by Bernardino Campi, whom they were patrons of.

Issue On November 24 1577 he married Lucrezia del Tufo, daughter of Giovanni Girolamo del Tufo and Antonia Carafa, having two sons: Giovanni, who was appointed Prince of Montesarchio by Philip IV in 1628, and Innico, who inherited the marquisates of Pescara and Vasto after marrying his niece Isabella d'Ávalos.