Gaspar de Robles
Dutch stadtholder (1527-1585)

Gaspar de Robles (1527, Madrid, Spain – 1585, Antwerp) was Stadholder of Friesland and Groningen at the beginning of the Eighty Years' War (reign: 1568 to 1576).
Family
Robles was the son of Doña María de Leyte, probably the wet nurse for Philip II of Spain, and João Lopes of Robles. In 1558 he married Jeanne de Saint-Quentin, baroness of Billy, their son was Jean de Roblès 1st Count of Annappes. They are considered to be the founders of the Flemish branch of the house and became owner of the castle and lands in Billy in the County of Artois south of Lille. Amongst his many descendants we find the Dukes of Ursel.
Military life
On 17 May 1568, de Robles landed with 1800 Walloon soldiers under his leadership in Harlingen. Six days later he was defeated by Louis of Nassau in the Battle of Heiligerlee, together with the Spanish army of Jean de Ligne, Duke of Aremberg, who was killed.
De Robles then took part in the victorious battle of Jemmingen against the Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, who only just managed to escape. Consequently, De Robles became Stadtholder of Frisia and prevented the uprising of the Frisian cities which had only limited defences. He supported Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo with 1000 Walloon soldiers during the siege of Haarlem.
“Gaspar de Robles” enters the record as dutch stadtholder (1527-1585). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gaspar, Robles and Dutch can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 21, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q537135. VIAF identifies the subject as 13152744. The Library of Congress control number is n86104071. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1527, 1585, 1568 and 1576.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gaspar de Robles” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.