Philip of Spain

by Henry Kamen

  4. Cf. Kamen, Phoenix, pp.391–3.

  5. For all this, details in my forthcoming Spanish Inquisition (1998).

  6. José Antonio de Rojas to Granvelle, 12 May 1560, BP MS.II/2291 f.172.

  7. González de Amezúa, I, 215.

  8. President of Chancery, Tello de Sandoval, to king, 22 Sept. 1561, AGS:E leg.140 f.156.

  9. Cf. B. Bennassar, Valladolid au siècle d'or, Paris 1967, pp.147–50.

  10. Cf. the useful discussion in A. Alvar Ezquerra, Felipe II, la Corte y Madrid en 1591, Madrid 1985.

  11. Diego de Córdoba to Granvelle, Toledo, 3 Sept. 1560, BP MS.II/2291 f.224.

  12. Feria to Granvelle, 7 Sept. 1560, ibid. ff.205–8.

  13. Alvar Ezquerra, p.31.

  14. Quoted ibid., p.33.

  15. Relation of Lambert Wyts, in Garciá Mercadal, I, 1174.

  16. A good overview in Wilkinson, pp.149–52.

  17. For what follows, Rivera, pp.198–243.

  18. Ibid., pp.215–16.

  19. Iñiguez Almech, p.203.

  20. BZ 146 f.35.

  21. Rivera, p.251.

  22. Cited Danvila y Collado II, 389.

  23. Rivera, p.276.

  24. BL Add. 28350 ff.19–26, 32.

  25. Checa, pp.63–4.

  26. Cited ibid., p.63.

  27. AGS:CR leg.247.

  28. For what follows, Rivera, pp.123–83.

  29. Lhermite calculated that Aranjuez in the 1590s had 222,695 trees: Lhermite, II, 108.

  30. Cf. Wilkinson, pp.140–4.

  31. ‘Memoria de mano de Su Mgd de lo que es servido que se haga en Aranjuez’, 11 June 1563, BL Add.28350 ff.52–5.

  32. AGS:CR leg.247.

  33. Aranjuez, Apr. 1567, in Iñiguez Almech, p.201.

  34. Cf. Kubler, p.34.

  35. Ibid., p.42.

  36. Hoyo to king, 1562, BZ 146 f.11.

  37. Cf. Kubler, pp.170–3, on the interesting views of René Taylor that the building was conceived as an expression of Renaissance magic. Taylor's further arguments in ‘Las ciencias ocultas en la Biblioteca del Escorial’, IV Centenario del Monasterio: La Biblioteca, Madrid 1986, are also weak.

  38. Kubler, p.70. For the Solomon thesis, the article by A. Martínez Ripoll, in IV Centenario del Monasterio: La Biblioteca, pp.53–73.

  39. BL Add.28350 f.100.

  40. Cf. Checa, pp.231–2, discussing the secretive aspect of the layout.

  41. San Jerónimo, Memorias, CODOIN, VII, 396.

  42. King to Francés de Álava, 28 May 1567, in Rodríguez and Rodríguez, doc.51.

  43. Gil Fernández, pp.710–15. Hesiod describes Chaos in his poem Theogony.

  44. Ambrosio de Morales, Viaje por orden del rey Phelipe II a los reynos de Leon y Galicia y Asturias, Madrid 1765, p.207.

  45. Sigüenza, II, 500.

  46. What follows is drawn mainly from the excellent essay by Goodman, pp.3–19.

  47. 19 Aug. 1579, king on letter from Pero Nuñez to Mateo Vázquez, in Muro, App.62.

  48. Francisco Rodríguez Marín, Felipe II y la alquimia, Madrid 1927, p.21.

  49. To Zúñiga, 29 Aug. 1574, BL Add.28357 vol.1 f.41.

  50. The horns and other animal bones are listed in the inventory of his goods sold in 1603: Favre vol.37 ff.123–31.

  51. Cf. Braudel, II, 762, for other perspectives.

  52. Jonathan Brown, ‘Felipe II como mecenas y coleccionista de arte’, in R.L. Kagan, ed., Ciudades españolas del siglo de oro, Madrid 1986.

  53. García Ballester, p.39.

  54. Ibid., p.54.

  55. Goodman, pp.233–8.

  56. See, in general, Checa, pp.134–61.

  57. Badoero, in Gachard, Carlos V, p.39.

  58. Jane C. Nash, Veiled Images. Titian's mythological paintings for Philip II, Philadelphia 1985, is interesting, but posits an unacceptable antithesis between Titian's pagan themes and Philip's allegedly ultra-severe religion.

  59. Checa, p.137.

  60. Lhermite, I, 98.

  61. Sigüenza, II, 635–9.

  62. J. K. Steppe, in Splendeurs d'Espagne, I, 272.

  63. Annie Cloulas, ‘Les choix esthétiques de Philippe II: Flandre ou Italie’, Adas XXIII Congreso Internacional de Historia del Arte, 3 vols. Granada 1977, II, 236–41.

  64. I have been unable to consult Stephanie Breuer, Alonso Sánchez Coello, Munich 1984. However, her introduction to Alonso Sánchez Coello y el retrato, is definitive.

  65. On El Greco at this period, see Jonathan Brown, ‘El Greco y Toledo’, in El Greco de Toledo, Madrid 1982.

  66. Ibid., p.28.

  67. Wilkinson, pp.67ff.

  68. Ibid., p.138.

  69. Report of May 1556, in Iñiguez Almech, p.165.

  70. Wilkinson, pp.148, 165.

  71. An overview in Lisón Tolosana, pp.131–70.

  72. CSPV, VIII, 223.

  73. The sketch of the court given by J. H. Elliott, ‘The court of the Spanish Habsburgs: a peculiar institution?’, in Politics and Culture in Early Modern Europe, ed. P. Mack and M. C. Jacob, Cambridge 1987, is relevant only to the court of one Habsburg, Philip IV. On Philip II's court there is no satisfactory study.

  74. Danvila y Collado, II, 277, 332, 360.

  75. Ibid., 290–1.

  76. This view, as stated in 1995, is: ‘After the court was established at Madrid, Philip II retreated even farther from public view, firmly establishing the reclusive brand of kingship that would characterize his reign’, Boyden, p.83.

  77. ‘So lugubrious a court’: the view of Elliott, in Mack and Jacob, Politics and Culture.

  78. Comment in 1583: IVDJ, 55 no.85.

  79. Cf F. Bouza, ‘Cortes festejantes, fiesta y ocio’, Manuscrits, 13 (1995), pp.185–203.

  80. Cabrera, III, 230.

  81. Marquis of Ladrada to king, Madrid, 21 Feb. 1571, BL Add.28354 f.158.

  82. Cf. Pilar Ramos López, ‘Dafne, una fábula en la corte de Felipe II’, Anuario Musical, 50 (1995), pp.23–45.

  83. Lhermite, I, 240.

  84. HHSA, Spanien, Varia, karton 2, r, ff.6, 10v.

  85. Paul Bécquart, ‘La musique’, in Splendeurs d'Espagne, I, 355.

  86. Unfortunately, though much has been published on the music of Philip's chapels, little or nothing has been published on the king's own love of music.

  87. IVDJ, 38.

  88. San Lorenzo, king to council of Castile, Oct. 1587: ibid. 21, caja 31, f.320.

  89. E. Cotarelo y Mori, Bibliografia de las controversias sobre la licitud del teatro, Madrid 1904, p.619.

  90. Paolo Tiepolo, in Alberi, ser.I, vol.5, p.64.

  91. Cf. Prescott, III, 362.

  92. No significant literary salons are recorded before the reign of Philip III: see José Sánchez, Academias literarias del siglo de oro español, Madrid 1961, p.26.

  93. Cf. Danvila y Burguero, pp.97–8, who gives a good list of cultured nobles.

  94. Ambassador Badoero, in Alberi, ser.I, vol.5, p.277.

  95. Cabrera, III, 205.

  96. Barajas to king, 16 Nov. 1586, IDVJ, 21 f.312. Then aged thirty, Feria was the most eligible grandee in Spain.

  97. In 1581: BZ 142 f.63.

  98. This is explained in the ‘Avisos de la Corte’, in HHSA, Spanien, Varia, karton 2, p, f.30.

  99. Ambassador Soranzo, 1565, Alberi, ser.I, vol.5, p.113.

  100. HHSA, Spanien, Varia, karton 3, c, f.21.

  101. For two examples, see BL Add.28262 f.290, in 1579; and BZ 141 f.59, in Lisbon in 1581.

  102. IVDJ, 53, carpeta 7, f.56.

  103. Cited in J. Zarco Cuevas, Ideales y normas de gobierno de Felipe II, Escorial 1927, p.48. The source for the statement is spurious; but it reflects other statements by the king.

  104. Mal Lara, p.13v.

  105. Order to the corregidor of Toledo, 25 Nov. 1573: BL Eg. 2047 f.321v.

  106. They were informed by the Catalan cleric Miquel Giginta, who had coincided with the Frenchman on a journey from Madrid to Barcelona: Giginta to Mateo Vázqu
ez, 11 Jan. 1583, IVDJ, 21 ff.148–57.

  107. Cited in Zarco Cuevas, Ideales, p.47.

  108. HHSA, Spanien, Varia, karton 2, n.

  109. Ibid., karton 2, s, f.35.

  110. Ibid.

  111. Kubler, p.109, states incorrectly that the king slept for the first time in San Lorenzo in 1571. He is also mistaken in stating (p.126) that the king did not stay at San Lorenzo between 1571 and 1575.

  112. BL Add.28354 f.392.

  113. In 1585, for instance: MZA:RAD, K 9/24, ‘Relacion … para … Dietristan’, Feb. 1585.

  114. Sigüenza, II, 434.

  115. San Jerónimo, Memorias, CODOIN, VII, 126–8.

  116. Sigüenza, II, 436.

  117. King to chamberlain, 10 July 1572: BL Add.28354 f.422. The queen's chamberlain at this date was Antonio de la Cueva, marquis of Ladrada.

  118. BL Add.28354 f.414.

  119. This was in 1577: see Gachard, Carlos V, p.130.

  120. King to Vázquez, San Lorenzo, 13 July 1577, IVDJ, 53, carpeta 6, f.39.

  121. BL Add.28354 f.370.

  122. Khevenhüller (BNM MS.2751 f.734) gives an enthusiastic description of the ceremony at his reception into the order in 1593.

  123. King to marquis of Ladrada, 2 Oct. 1572, BL Add.28354 f.490.

  124. Cabrera, II, 6.

  125. Danvila y Burguero, p.206.

  126. Parker, Philip II, p.82, says firmly that ‘Philip II was simply not interested in women’. The evidence presented in this book demonstrates quite the contrary.

  127. The image of a great love was diffused by González de Amezúa's splendid but highly misleading book on Elizabeth.

  128. González de Amezúa, II, i, 59.

  129. The prince of Ascoli, aged only twenty-three, died in October that year, 1564.

  130. HHSA, Spanien, Varia, karton 2, n, f.3.

  131. Douais, I, p.68.

  132. Cited in González de Amezúa, I, p.388.

  133. Douais, I, 45, Fourquevaux's despatch of 17 Jan. 1566.

  134. Ibid., 51.

  135. Ibid., 106.

  136. Ibid., 115.

  137. Checa, p.165.

  138. IVDJ, 50, report of 1566.

  139. Danvila y Burguero, p.102.

  140. Checa, pp.167–8; González de Amezúa, III, 414–27.

  141. ‘Las causas que ay para que la Reyna deva tanta cantidad en fin del año de 1565’, AGS:E leg.146 f.35.

  142. King to Ladrada, 25 Oct. 1570, BL Add.28354 ff.51–2.

  143. King to Ladrada, 23 Dec. 1570, 5 Apr. 1571, and 15 Dec. 1571, ibid. ff.113, 176, 306.

  144. King to Ladrada, 9 Mar. 1572, ibid. f.362.

  145. His handwriting in 1571, for perhaps the first time since 1559, becomes neater and perfectly legible. Curiously, Anna has been totally ignored by historians.

  146. Ambassador Badoero, in Alberi, ser.I, vol.5, p.276.

  147. Cabrera, IV, 393.

  148. BL Add.28354 ff.230, 240, 294.

  149. Gachard, Carlos V, p.120.

  150. King to Vázquez, 1575, IVDJ, 53, carpeta 7, f.67.

  151. Cf. R. J. W. Evans, Rudolf II and His World, Oxford 1973, p.50.

  152. Barghahn, I, 93.

  153. Mayer-Löwenschwerdt, p.40.

  154. BL Add.28357 f.359.

  155. Philip to sister Maria, 13 Dec. 1576, in Cabrera, IV, 69.

  156. Ibid., II, 382.

  157. Zayas to Francés de Álava, 16 May 1569, in Rodríguez and Rodríguez, doc.173.

  158. Cabrera, II, 198.

  159. M. T. Oliveros and E. Subiza Martín, Felipe II. Estudio médico-histórico. Madrid 1956, pp.107–18.

  160. CODOIN, XXXVII, 310.

  161. To Vázquez, 25 Aug. 1578, BZ 144 f.255.

  162. BL Add.28354 ff.460, 476, 492.

  163. AGS:CR leg.78 no.38; leg.33 f.6.

  164. Alberi, ser.I, vol.5, p.60.

  165. Mal Lara, p.76.

  166. ‘Pochissimi fruti’, said ambassador Morosini, 1581, in Alberi, ser.I, vol.5, p.322.

  167. Marañón, I, 50, quotes Pérez: ‘Philip II could not smell and did not distinguish smells’.

  168. San Lorenzo, 26 May 1578, BZ 144 f.315.

  169. Note of Sept. 1590, El Pardo, BZ 140 f.270.

  170. BL Add.28354 ff.480, 490, 506, 542.

  171. To Ruy Gómez, in Weiss, V, 491.

  172. King on letter from Vázquez, 29 Oct. 1577, IVDJ, 51 f.175.

  173. BL Add.28354 ff.394, 408, letters of May and June 1572.

  174. King to Zúñiga, 2 Apr. 1576, BL Add.28357 f.111.

  175. ‘Pelo biondo che incomincia a imbiancare’: Badoero, in Alberi, ser.I, vol.5, p.275.

  176. Badoero, ibid., p.276.

  177. CODOIN, VII, 213.

  178. Ibid., 215.

  8. The Statesman

  1. Instruction by king to viceroy of Naples, Brussels, Jan. 1559, BL Add.28701 f.49v.

  2. Manuel Rivero Rodríguez, ‘Poder y clientelas en la fundación del Consejo de Italia (1556–1560)’, Cheiron, 9, nos 17–18, 1992 [1993], pp.37–40. Rivero shows clearly that the new council was derived from that of Castile and not, as many historians had believed, from the council of Aragon.

  3. Ibid., pp.41–4.

  4. ‘Relacion de lo que escriven algunos corregidores cerca de las causas y remedio de la carestia’, BZ 149 f.38.

  5. Marañón, I, 38. Marañon's discussion of this matter is seriously misleading. His view of a ‘capture’ of the king by Pérez (I, 51) is mistaken.

  6. See the earlier correspondence in BL. Add.28262.

  7. BL Add.28355 ff.3, 6.

  8. Lippomano to Senate, 13 Feb. 1588, CSPV, VIII, 339.

  9. Cabrera, II, 307.

  10. Ibid., 452.

  11. ‘Estilo que guardó el Rey en el despacho de los negozios desde que comenzó a valerse del secretario Matheo Vazquez, hasta que murió’: a copy, in BL Eg.329 ff.8–11.

  12. Zayas to Vázquez, Madrid, 1 Mar. 1586, BZ 135 f.116.

  13. Paris, pp.49, 562.

  14. Cf. also Parker, Philip II, pp.36, 44.

  15. A 1581 report, by Morosini, is largely copied from earlier ones. It states that ‘dorme molto … la mattina si leva dal letto assai tardi … dopo desinare ritorna a dormir’: Alberi, ser.I, vol.5, p.322.

  16. Badoero, ibid., p.276.

  17. Venetian ambassador Tiepolo, 1567, ibid. p.153.

  18. BL Add.28701 ff.106–9.

  19. Note to Vázquez, 28 May 1590, BL Add.28263 f.522.

  20. Cabrera, II, 528; Ossorio, p.466.

  21. BL Add.28355 ff.5, 57, 62.

  22. Ambassador Tiepolo, in Gachard, Carlos V, p.114. Cf. Soranzo in 1565: ‘non entra il re nei consigli’: Alberi, ser.I, vol.5, p.115.

  23. Weiss, IX, 568.

  24. ‘Espejo que se propone a nuestro gran monarcha para que en el vea el estado infeliz de su monarchia’, BL Eg.330 f.8, 10.

  25. King to Vázquez, 21 Feb. 1576, BL Add.28263 f.14.

  26. 25 Oct. 1573, IVDJ, 51 f.21.

  27. Madrid, 6 May 1578, ibid. f.178.

  28. 18 Aug. 1575, IVDJ, 21 f.53.

  29. Note from Aranjuez, 30 Apr. 1586, BL Eg.28263 f.403.

  30. 12 Oct. 1576: ibid. f.58.

  31. King to council, 30 July 1586, BL Add.28358 f.386.

  32. Cabrera, II, 126.

  33. Madrid, 1 Aug. 1575, IVDJ, 51 f.52.

  34. BL Add.28355 f.49v.

  35. On letter from Vázquez, 26 July 1573, IVDJ, 51 f.19.

  36. BL Add.28262 f.207.

  37. 22 Jan. 1578, ibid. f.290.

  38. BL Add.28263 f.191.

  39. 11 Apr. 1578, IVDJ, 51 f.162.

  40. San Lorenzo, 25 June 1577, BZ 141 f.11.

  41. Note by king, 1 Feb. 1575, IVDJ, 53, carpeta 4.

  42. Lhermite, I, 94.

  43. 21 Apr. 1575, IVDJ, 51 f.49.

  44. Ambassador Zane, in Alberi, ser.I, vol.5, p.363.

  45. Cabrera, II, 451.

  46. 9 Mar. 1576, San Lorenzo, IVDJ, 53, carpeta 5, f.51.

  47
. 18 Mar. 1576, El Pardo, ibid., f.63.

  48. 26 Sept. 1575, El Pardo, BZ 144 f.72.

  49. King to Vázquez, 25 Oct. 1573, IVDJ, 51 f.21.

  50. Letter of 28 Dec. 1574, BZ 144 f.39.

  51. Note by king, 22 June 1592, Tordesillas, BZ 131 f.41.

  52. Jan. 1575, San Lorenzo, BZ 144 f.49.

  53. King to Vázquez, 18 Apr. 1575, Aranjuez, IVDJ, 53 carpeta 4 f.59.

  54. The best survey of Philip's decision-making is Schepper, pp.173–98.

  55. Paris, p.64.

  56. Douais, I, 172.

  57. Gachard, Carlos V, p.115.

  58. Cf. H. Koenigsberger, ‘The statecraft of Philip II’ (an interesting but now superseded essay) in Politicians and Virtuosi, London 1986, p.81: ‘Philip thought he could make all decisions for himself’. The claim is palpably untrue.

  59. Gachard, Carlos V, p.114.

  60. For Rumpf see F. Edelmayer, ‘Freiherr Wolf von Rumpf zum Wielroß und Spanien’, in Die Fürstenberger. 800 Jahre Herrschaft und Kultur in Mitteleuropa, Korneuburg 1994.

  61. CSPV, VI, i, p.31; ibid., ii, p.1061.

  62. There were very few exceptions. Virtually none could speak English, Dutch or German. The second duke of Feria, who was half English, was a clear exception. A few with German contacts, like Juan de Borja, chamberlain to the empress Maria, spoke German fluently. Some, like Alba and Don Juan Manrique, spoke a bit of French. Several, thanks to their service in Italy and the similarity of the tongues, spoke Italian well. Contrast the proficiency in Spanish among the English elite: Ungerer, I, 71.

  63. Cf. Gil Fernández, p.35.

  64. Edelmayer, p.44. Borja's family was Catalan in language; he himself was a gifted linguist, and learned both German and Czech in Vienna.

  65. Tassis spoke six languages perfectly: Joseph Rübsam, Johann Baptista von Taxis, 1530–1610, Freiburg 1889, p.32.

  66. CSPV, VI, ii, p.1061.

  67. Ibid., X, p.156.

  68. Lhermite, I, 275.

  69. Gachard, Carlos V, p.39.

  70. In 1582: Bouza, Cartas, p.75.

  71. IVDJ, 53, carpeta 6, f.1. The problem with French was not necessarily the language. Sixteenth-century French script was (as modern researchers can testify) often difficult to decipher.

  72. Gachard, Correspondance, I, xlix.

  73. BL Add.28355 f.58. This was in May 1573.

  74. Cf. Gil Fernández, pp.82, 215.

  75. BNM MS.2751 f.102. This interesting document is a copy of the memoirs of Khevenhüller, written in the early 1600s.

  76. BNM MS.11240.

  77. Lhermite, II, 173.

  78. The splendid Motley, in his classic Rise of the Dutch Republic, pp.75–6, refers to Philip as ‘deficient in manly energy, pedant, bigot, cold, mediocre, grossly licentious’.