During the War of the Spanish Succession Alberoni laid the foundation of his political success by the services he rendered to Louis-Joseph, duc de Vendôme, commander of the French forces in Italy, to whom the duke of Parma had sent him.
The son born to Maria Francesco Farnese, later Duke of Parma, continued the work at Colorno dying in 1727.
Duke University | Parma | Duke Ellington | Duke | Duke of Wellington | Prince William, Duke of Cambridge | Duke of York | Duke of Norfolk | Duke of Edinburgh | Duke of Burgundy | Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn | George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham | Prince Andrew, Duke of York | Duke of Northumberland | Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester | Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany | George Duke | Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond | Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma | Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans | Francesco Rosi | Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset | Philippe II, Duke of Orléans | John Frederick II, Duke of Saxony | Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster | Francesco Clemente | Duchy of Parma | Parma F.C. | George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle |
The title was held by the Torelli family in his whole history, until in 1612 it was annexed by Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma.
The Duke of Parma also usually held the title of Duke of Guastalla from 1735 (when Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor took it from Mantua) to 1847 (when the territory was ceded to Modena), again, except for the Napoleonic dukes, when Napoleon's sister Pauline was Duchess of Guastalla and of Varella.
Married to Dorothea Sophia of the Palatinate, his brother Odoardo's widow, to avoid the return of her dowry, Francesco curtailed court expenditure, enormous under his father and predecessor, Ranuccio II, while preventing the occupation of his Duchy of Parma, nominally a Papal fief, during the War of the Spanish Succession.
•
Francesco Farnese (19 May 1678 – 26 May 1727) reigned as the seventh and penultimate Farnese Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1694 until his death.