Francisco de Valdez

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Francisco de Valdez (c. 1522–c. 1580) was a Spanish general in the Eighty Years' War. In 1573 he led the siege of Leiden as part of the Army of Flanders and ordered the unsuccessful attack on Delft that same year. He came from a peasant background and served Emperor Charles V in 1546 during the war against Protestant forces of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1550 he led an expedition against Tunis. In 1567 he joined the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands to restore Philip II’s authority during the Dutch Revolt. He married Magdalena Moons in 1574.