Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma

Alexander Farnese was born in 1545, nephew to Spain's Philip II. He fought at Lepanto in 1571, then against the Ottomans with the Holy League. In 1578 he took command in the Netherlands, where Dutch rebels had been bleeding Spain for years. Over the next decade he reversed their gains, recapturing city after city through siege craft and diplomacy, peeling away the southern provinces and fixing the divide that would become Belgium. He also relieved Paris for the Catholic League during France's religious wars and tipped the Cologne War to Ernest of Bavaria. The 1588 Armada was supposed to ferry his Army of Flanders to England; the fleet never reached him. He died in December 1592, still campaigning, still unmatched.