FARNESE, COUNT CHARLES DE (?-?). Charles, Count de Farnese, traveled to Texas in July 1837 and offered "his fortune and personal influence to the glorious Texas cause." He proposed to Sam Houstonqv that a separate Catholic bishopric be established in Texas to insure peace with Mexico and Texan independence. According to his plan, the Congress of the Republic of Texasqv was to grant 1,280 acres to the parishes and their schools and the Vatican was to decide upon the structure of the system. When Count de Farnese returned to Rome, his idea was rejected, and the plan was never completed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ralph Francis Bayard, Lone-Star Vanguard: The Catholic Re-Occupation of Texas, 1838-1848 (St. Louis: Vincentian Press, 1945). Amelia W. Williams and Eugene C. Barker, eds., The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813-1863 (8 vols., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1938-43; rpt., Austin and New York: Pemberton Press, 1970). Henderson K. Yoakum, History of Texas from Its First Settlement in 1685 to Its Annexation to the United States in 1846 (2 vols., New York: Redfield, 1855).
