In 1674 he captured the Fort de Bellegarde, held by the French since the Peace of the Pyrenees of 1659 between France and Spain, and won the Battle of Maureillas over a French army led by Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg. The eruption of a revolt in Messina against the Spanish rule in 1675, however, forced him to send many of his troops to suppress the rebellion, and Schomberg was able to take back Bellegarde.[1]
Duke Francisco de Tutavilla y del Tufo was married to a Spanish noblewoman, mainly of Portuguese ancestors, Catalina de Cárdenas Colón de Toledo y Portugal, 14th Countess of la Puebla del Maestre and 5th Marchioness of Bacares, who died in Madrid on 4 January 1701. The couple had no children.