There is an improbable legend about this picture that it cost the artist his life, from the shock of hearing the Duke let drop in Spanish that the two Counts, Horn and Egmont, were sentenced to death.
Don John of Austria
From a picture attributed to Sir Antonio More in the possession of Don Fernande Fernandez de Velasco.
Cardinal de Granvelle
Born 1517. Died 1586.
Antoine Perrenot. Bishop of Arras. Primate of the Netherlands.
A well-known statesman during the reigns of Charles V and Philip II. Chief Councillor to the Duchess of Parma when Governess of the Netherlands. He became so unpopular that in 1564 Philip II was compelled to advise him to retire to his estates in Burgundy. The Cardinal left vowing that he would not cut his beard until he returned to Brussels. Three years later he went to Rome, where he assisted in the negotiations of the Holy League. He subsequently became Viceroy of Naples.
From his picture by Scipione Pulzone called Gaetano in Municipal Museum, Besançon.