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Francisco de Valdés (c. 1511 – 1580) was a military officer of the Spanish tercios of the 16th century, with a record of service in several wars of the time, and who reached the rank of maestre de campo in 1573. During the Eighty Years' War, he was appointed governor of Deventer in 1571 and then Maestre de campo general of the Army of the Province of Holland between 1573 and 1574. He was commander of the tercios of San Felipe and Santiago in 1573, the Tercio of Italiy in 1574, which appeared of the fusion of the previous tercios, and the Tercio of Sicily between 1579 and 1580.

Valdés is known for the stories of his love affair with Magdalena Moons during the Siege of Leiden between 1573 and 1574, about which the Dutch wrote various works beginning in the 17th century. He is also known for his military treatise titled Espejo y Disciplina Militar (English: Mirror and Military Discipline) of 1578, which was widely distributed in his day and soon saw reissues and translations into English and Italian.

Personal details
Valdés was born around 1511, possibly in Gijón, Asturias. It is unknown who his parents were, although they were not hidalgos, but they were acquaintances, according to a document from the time. Although there is no certainty of the place of birth, his family was originally from Asturias.

It is also known that his father disinherited him, being therefore a man of limited resources, even in advanced times of his life. According to Sánchez Martín, one explanation for his disinheritance would be that he had not followed his father's plan to pursue an ecclesiastical career, having received, it is believed, an extensive religious education. This is inferred because he possessed elegant calligraphy, knowledge of religious works, and possibly the use of the Latin language. This would also later explain his slow rise in the army because he entered late, at twenty-six or older.

Valdés is known to have had two daughters prior to his relationship with Magdalena Moons. One was called Francisca, and the other her name is unknown, but it is known that she was in a convent. In 1571, he asked permission to travel to Spain because a daughter was getting married, and the wedding could not be celebrated without her presence. In 1574, during the last moments of the Siege of Leiden, he was very busy in a business Francisca had with a person who claimed to have the favour of the queen of Portugal.

In 1578 Valdés and Moons were married. The relationship was not youthful, since in 1574 Valdés and Moons were around fifty-six and thirty-three years old, respectively. It is unknown if they had any children, although Moons' age at the time of the marriage makes this unlikely.

In Italy, Germany and North Africa
The first news of his military career dates back to 15 June 1544, during the Italian War of 1542–1546. That day he entered Carignano, sieged by the French, managing to get around their lines to deliver a letter from the Governor of Lombardy, Alfonso d'Avalos, 2nd Marquis of Vasto, to Pirro Colonna, commander of the Carignano garrison, in which he authorized him to negotiate the surrender of the place before the impossibility of being able to help him due to the defeat in the Battle of Ceresole, an engagement in which Valdés had to participate. He was later in the Schmalkaldic War, fighting in Emperor Charles V's victory at the Battle of Mühlberg on 24 April 1547, and in September 1550 he participated in the Capture of Mahdia, during the Ottoman–Habsburg wars.

Valdés was in the Italian War of 1551–1559 and in the Siena War against the French and their allies. He participated in the siege of Montalcino in March 1553, in the army of García Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio, 4th Marquess of Villafranca del Bierzo. Although this siege had to be lifted to allocate part of the troops to the coasts of the Kingdom of Naples in the face of the Turkish threat, Valdés became part of Francisco de Haro's tercio, who remained in the Duchy of Tuscany to support the Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Florence. He served at the defence of Piombino between 1553 and 1554, and then in the victory against Franco-Sienese forces at the Battle of Scannagallo in August 1554. Valdés also participated in the siege of Siena until the place capitulated in April 1555.

Valdés remained garrisoning Siena at the command of a company of soldiers until the Spanish authorities handed over the city to Cosimo. After this, the Valdés company was assigned to Porto Ercole, one of the cities of the so-called State of the Presidi that the Spanish Monarchy maintained after the war with Siena. With the peace reached between Pope Paul IV and Philip II of Spain at the end of 1557, which ended with the Salt War of 1556–1557, Valdés and his company joined the tercio of Sancho de Londoño at the beginning of 1558, participating with him in the conquest of Talamone and Castiglione, under French rule. He then left for the Duchy of Milan, and under the command of the Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, 3rd Duke of Sessa, he participated in the recovery of the squares of Centale, Sommariva and Moncalvo, later building the fort of Borgo San Martino to besiege the square of Casale or Valenza, but it was not necessary since the French handed them over with the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis in April 1559.

In Flanders
Following the peace between Spain and France, Valdés continued to serve in the tercio of Londoño, which had merged with the Tercio of Lombardy under Londoño's command. This fact favored Valdés, who otherwise would have seen his company reformed due to his short seniority; instead, he was promoted to sargento mayor around 1565. With that rank he would be part of the ten companies of his tercio that, integrated into the army of Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, left Asti for Flanders in 1567, to fight against the Dutch rebels in the context of the Eighty Years' War.

In 1568, he participated in the fight against William of Orange, who had invaded Flanders with an army recruited from Germany. He fought in the Battle of Dahlen in April, where he had an outstanding performance by evicting with five companies of his tercio an enemy military corps that had taken refuge in moats before the surprise attack of the Spanish forces. He then was at the Battle of Jemmingen in July and of Libertange in October, in both engagements fighting in the vanguard and with distinction.

After the invasion of Orange was repelled, there was a period of two and a half years of peace between 1568 and 1571, during which Valdés possibly spent his time quartered in some city in the Netherlands. In 1571, he was appointed Governor of Deventer because other military officers had failed to act satisfactorily against the Dutch rebels. During his stay in Deventer he wrote letters hinting at his desire to return to Spain, and explaining how life in Flanders had become an exile for the Spanish after the campaign of 1568. In 1572, Orange launched a new offensive in the Netherlands, causing several villages to rebel. Valdés went to the southern war front, with the forces of Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, son of the Duke of Alba. In June, he was at the reconquest of Valenciennes and then at the Siege of Mons, where he participated in the victory over French relief forces at Quiévrain in July. In said commitment, he received a shot that damaged his elbow joint, which prevented him from being in the capitulation of the place in September. The injury, which had caused some disability in his hand, would be healed in different sessions in Antwerp, being an exceptional case in the medical annals of the time.

Valdés rejoined service during the Siege of Haarlem in December, in the army under Fadrique. He participated in the unsuccessful attack on the square ravelin that month, which caused the siege to last seven months. He was in the attacks that repelled the Dutch attempt to rescue Haarlem, after which the place capitulated in July 1573. Later, the Duke of Alba appointed him commander of the tercios of San Felipe and Santiago, former tercios of Lombardy and the League. He was also at the failed Siege of Alkmaar in September.

In the culture
Valdés gained much fame in the Netherlands due to his romantic relationship with Magdalena Moons during the siege of Leiden. From 1624 the first chronicles about their love relationship appear, although without even identifying the woman. He was also the protagonist of plays, such as that of the Dutch writer Reiner Bontius in 1646, which, with more than one hundred editions, was the most popular play in the country during the second half of the 17th century, and continued to be performed until the 19th century. Today, a street in Leiden is named after him in memory of him.