Francisco de Moncada, 3rd Marquis of Aitona

Portrait of Francisco de Moncada by Anthony van Dyck while Francisco de Moncada was interim Governor in the Spanish Netherlands. Kept at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria Francisco de Moncada (in Catalan: Francesc de Montcada i Montcada), 3rd Marquis of Aytona, (1586–1635) was a Spanish diplomat, soldier and writer of the early 17th century. He was Ambassador in the Holy Roman Empire and interim Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, a general and commander of the Spanish-Flemish armies.

Early life Moncada was born in Valencia to Gastón de Moncada, 2nd Marquis of Aitona, (1554–1626), Ambassador to Rome Viceroy of Sardinia, 1590–1595, Viceroy of Aragon, 1603–1610, and his wife Catalina de Moncada (her maiden name) baroness of Callosa.

He then served as a counselor to Princess Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, regent of the Spanish Netherlands. While serving in Brussels he tried to convince King Philip IV of Spain to transfer the general management of affairs in his Netherlands possessions to Brussels and remove any responsibility for such matters from the government in Madrid. His proposals to give the various peoples in the Netherlands, still under Habsburg rule, more say in their governmental affairs were rejected.

Moncada also wrote Vida de Anicio Manlio Torquato Severino Boecio. This Roman politician from an illustrious imperial family of the 6th century, was known as Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius. This work was not published until after Moncada's death, first going to press at Frankfurt, Germany in 1642.