Philip IV

La aparición del valimiento en 1598 generó el establecimiento de un sistema de gobierno bajo la supervisión de Felipe III y la ejecución de Lerma. Esta cuestión ha sido estudiada desde diferentes perspectivas, aunque se ha mantenido un cierto silencio sobre la labor de don Cristóbal Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, duque de Uceda. Por tanto, esta tesis doctoral examina a través de documentación inédita el desarrollo del valimiento de Uceda durante el reinado de Felipe III, así como el funcionamiento de este modelo a lo largo de la etapa comprendida entre 1606 y 1622. De esta forma, también se ofrece una imagen renovada de la figura de Felipe III, quien a partir de los procesos contra las hechuras de Lerma decidió que era necesario revitalizar el valimiento para preservarlo como sistema gubernativo. El rey fue capaz de insertar la actuación de Uceda dentro de esta idea, aunque fuese consciente de que sus capacidades no eran las necesarias para solventar problemas políticos graves. Desde ese momento, el monarca fue tomando diferentes determinaciones sobre la posición de Uceda y de Lerma, sobre la actividad de los secretarios de Estado y de sus principales ministros y sobre la gestión del patronazgo regio que evidencian su proyecto. Una gran parte de sus planteamientos se mantuvieron con el ascenso al trono de Felipe IV, cuando este aceptó el legado de su progenitor, a pesar de que, junto a Baltasar de Zúñiga y el conde-duque de Olivares, trazase la imagen de que el nuevo gobierno iba a estar regido únicamente por la idea del cambio. En definitiva, a través del análisis de la evolución del valimiento de Uceda se propone un estudio renovador sobre la acción de Felipe III y Felipe IV, los cuales entendieron que este sistema de gobierno era indispensable para conducir la Monarquía ante las obligaciones que tuvo que asumir a lo largo del siglo XVII.

The Royal Palace of Madrid houses in its collections a superb modellino in bronze of the Obelisk of Piazza Navona (Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, Roma) made in the Seicento, both fontana and bronze model, by the Baroque artist G. L. Bernini. Extensive research has been done about the historical vicissitudes of this piece previous to this paper. However, under the eyes of the Egyptologist, this bronze obelisk provides new information. Bernini did not copy the Egyptian hieroglyphs directly from the original stone obelisk. In fact, he copied on his scaled model the hieroglyphs drawn by A. Kircher in his book devoted to the Obeliscus Pamphilius. Furthermore, the restoration of the stone obelisk was a cooperative work done by both Bernini and Kircher, with the German Jesuit scholar using specifically his own conceptions about Egyptian hieroglyphs to cover (in an interesting way) the epigraphic lacunae on the stone obelisk. A date for this excellent bronze guglia, is also proposed at the end of the present paper.
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As Cortes portuguesas e o Parlamento inglês foram assembleias representativas de suma importância ao longo da Época Moderna. Em 1581, Portugal passou a ser governado por Felipe II de Espanha e, em 1603, o trono inglês foi herdado por Jaime VI da Escócia. Tanto Felipe II quanto Jaime VI convocaram as assembleias representativas de seus novos reinos assim que puderam e, nas sessões de abertura das Cortes portuguesas e do Parlamento inglês encomendaram, no caso de Felipe II, compuseram e leram, como fez Jaime VI, os discursos iniciais. Os discursos das sessões de abertura das assembleias representativas modernas, não raro testemunhadas pelos monarcas, eram importantíssimos para as comunidades políticas. Investigou-se de forma comparativa, no presente artigo, as especificidades dos discursos inaugurais - nomeadamente aquelas partes que tratam do advento das novas uniões políticas em tela - das sessões de abertura das Cortes portuguesas de 1581 e do Parlamento inglês de 1604, ocorridas nas esteiras das ascensões de Felipe II em Portugal e de Jaime VI na Inglaterra.

King Philip II of Spain (1527-1598), among the most important art collectors of the Renaissance, was a patron as learned and refined as demanding and stringent in his tastes; these did not always coincide with those of his contemporaries. Protector of masters such as Titian and Pompeo Leoni, with whom he maintained an extensive personal correspondence, Philip also esteemed the works of Pellegrino Tibaldi to the same extent that he despised what Federico Zuccari or Luca Cambiaso left in the Monastery-Palace of El Escorial. Thanks to his numerous letters and, above all, to the description of his artistic interests recorded by biographers and chroniclers, such as the Hieronymite friar José de Sigüenza, this paper will try to establish, and comment on, an index of Italian artists who suffered a ‘bad reception’ on the part of the Prudent King. Significantly, the likes and dislikes of the sovereign, in relation to the Italian Renaissance, paved the way for his successors on the Spanish throne, especially by his grandson Philip IV (1605-1665), the other great, discerning collector and patron of the Habsburg dynasty during the Early Modern Age.

From the last decades of the sixteenth century and continuing to the end of the seventeenth, the city of Milan was characterised by a particular confluence of political and religious ideologies: reformed Catholicism, represented in the figure of archbishop Carlo Borromeo and his successors, and expressed in an intensely devout and performative religious culture; and the rule of the Catholic Spanish Habsburgs, represented in the person and the court of the Spanish governor and expressed in major events celebrating Spain’s monarchs.  Spectacle in Spanish Milan played a defining role in urban life throughout this period, involving the citizenry of the city and its territories as performers in elaborate civic and religious rituals and ceremonies.

State funerals were among Milan’s most distinctive contributions to the world of the early modern spectacle.  The ephemeral scenographies constructed for these occasions—collaborations of the city’s artists, architects, scholars and religious orders––transformed both the interiors and the exteriors of the churches in which they were held into great ‘theatres of death.’  The elaborate decorative programmes of royal funerals in Milan’s vast Duomo, recorded in lavish commemorative publications,  invariably celebrated the global reach of Spain’s power with figures, emblems and imprese representing Spanish territories. In this paper I offer an examination of the Milanese state funeral as it developed from the 1580s to the 1660s, demonstrating those aspects which make it distinctive among early modern exequies in Europe: the ritual itself and the performative role of the public as royal subjects; the language and symbolism used in narratives and panegyric sermons; the decorations and ephemeral structures—particularly the elaborate catafalques––and the systems of visual rhetoric they employed; and the roles of light, ritual movement and memory in the design and the experience of the event.  As highly choreographed rituals of devotion and reflection, Milanese funerals are eloquent illustrations of early modern understandings and beliefs regarding death, mortality and commemoration.

Philip IV of Spain is often understood to have secluded himself in the company of a small group of ministers and courtiers to whom he delegated his favour and authority. Yet, evidence from palace records, as well as from journals, like those of don Cristóbal Crespí de Valdaura and of the marquis of Osera, indicate that this was not the case. Rather, the king was accompanied by a significantly larger entourage than is often realised, and had very clear ideas of his own about how he wanted his court to function. This article seeks to identify the people who made up the close entourage of the Spanish royal family. In doing so, it argues that the households of the Spanish king and queen during the middle decades of the seventeenth century were largely apolitical in their composition, with neither the valido nor his rivals exercising any decisive control over access to the monarch.

This article aims to study the role of Friar Antonio de Sotomayor, dominican, Philip IV’s confessor and general inquisitor as a paterfamilias for his lineage. His activity is a good example of the
nepotism, which was practised by many members of the ecclesiastical elites in the Early Modern Spain, the same way as his position as a paterfamilias, looking after the perpetuation of the family patrimony.

Entre los muchos problemas a los que D. Gaspar de Guzmán trató de dar respuesta, se encontraba el de los profesionales de la carrera de las armas que, de forma voluntaria (sobre todo con motivo de la disolución de sus unidades y adquirir la condición de reformados), decidieron romper su vínculo con la profesión de Marte y regresar a la vida civil.
A este respecto, el todopoderoso ministro no podía concebir que unos individuos cuyos servicios eran tan valiosos pudieran abandonar su oficio. Pero lo cierto es que la falta de incentivos y la imposibilidad de progresar en sus carreras se encontraban detrás de tal decisión. Con ello no solo se renunciaba a la presencia de un considerable número de veteranos en los ejércitos, sino que se generaba un efecto negativo al disuadir de sentar plaza a quienes tenían vocación castrense. Así pues, y debido a la cada vez más compleja situación internacional (más en concreto la inminencia de la guerra con Francia), esbozó una serie de iniciativas para invertir la situación y detener esta sangría de abandonos.
En la base del problema se encontraba la ausencia de un sistema de remuneración de los servicios, que asegurara la obtención de ciertas mercedes tras servir un determinado número de años.

This essay considers the embassy of Philip IV’s ambassador to the electoral conclave that chose Leopold I as Holy Roman Emperor in 1658. In broad terms, it considers the place of the Austrian monarchy within Spanish international priorities during the mid-seventeenth century. More specifically, it reconstructs the circumstances of the count of Peñaranda’s appointment to travel to central Europe in the summer of 1657, his relations with the ministers of the Habsburg candidate Archduke Leopold Ignatius, and the part he played in the negotiation of an electoral capitulation that was much more favourable to the Habsburgs than is often realised. Most importantly, it considers Peñaranda’s role in the peace-making process. He found himself torn between a personal desire to bring an end to the conflict between Spain and France, and his deference towards the Spanish king and his chief minister, who were not yet of a mind to come to terms with the government of Louis XIV and Cardinal Mazarin.

(ESP): Cuando en 1645 el Gran Turco decidió tomar el reino de Candía de una vez y por todas, la Monarquía Hispana se planteaba como un aliado indispensable para los venecianos. No obstante, los problemas internos que sacudieron a la Monarquía Católica en tiempos de Felipe IV llevaron a que la ayuda destinada a combatir al infiel no fuese la deseada, tanto por venecianos como por españoles.
Este trabajo trata de cubrir un periodo olvidado por la comunidad historiográfica, con el claro objetivo de demostrar la importancia que la defensa de Creta tuvo para el Rey Católico pese a los pocos socorros que pudo destinar a la causa veneciana. Salvaguardar Candía era fundamental, ya que, de hacerse con la isla, los otomanos se aproximarían peligrosamente a las posesiones hispanas en Italia.
Palabras clave: Candía, Creta, Venecia, Monarquía Hispánica, Imperio Otomano, Guerra de los Treinta Años.

(ENG): In 1645, when the Sultan was ready to conquer Candia from once to all, the Spanish Monarchy arises as an essential ally for the Venetians. Nonetheless, the never-ceasing clashes of the Spanish forces led to short assistances for the Republic to fight the infidel.
This essay tries to cover a period slightly forgotten by historiographical community, with the clear goal to demonstrate the importance of defending Crete for the Catholic King, notwithstanding the few succours he destined to promote the Venetian cause. To safeguard Candia was essential, because taking over the island the ottomans would get dangerously closer to the Spanish possessions in Italy.
Keywords: Candia, Crete, Venice, Spanish Monarchy, Ottoman Empire, Thirty Years War.