Philip of Spain

by Henry Kamen

  116. King to duke, 25 Apr. 1586, in Altadonna.

  117. Cabrera, III, 113.

  118. Cf. the opinions of cardinal Tavera in 1535, cited Chabod, ‘Milán’, p.343.

  119. The phrase is of 1585. From the 1560s the king had shown an interest in limiting the size of the city: BCR MS.2174 ff.4, 11, 29, 143, 258,315.

  120. Exceeded, perhaps, only by Mexico City.

  121. Rosario Villari, La rivolta anti-spagnola, a Napoli: le origini 1585–1647, Bari 1973, p.56.

  122. Ambassador Zane, 10 Jan. 1585, CSPV, VIII, 129.

  123. Ambassador Zane, 8 Mar. 1586, ibid., 145.

  124. My account of the 1585 embargo is based on the brilliant piece by Simon Adams, ‘The outbreak of the Elizabethan naval war against the Spanish empire: the embargo of May 1585’, in M. J. Rodríguez-Salgado and S. Adams, England, Spain and the Gran Armada 1585–1604, Edinburgh 1991.

  125. Gómez-Centurión, p.197.

  126. Adams, ‘The outbreak’, p.60.

  127. CSPV, VIII, 128.

  128. Quoted by Gómez-Centurión p.246.

  129. Thompson, War and Society, chap.IX, 73.

  130. Ibid., 71.

  131. CSPV, VIII, 150.

  132. Longlée to Henry III, 3 and 13 Apr., 4 May 1586, in Mousset, pp.246–52.

  133. Kamen, Phoenix, p.80.

  134. Ambassador Zane, 23 Apr. 1586, CSPV, VIII, 157, 161.

  135. Van Durme, pp.364, 366.

  136. Ibid., p.372.

  137. Cabrera, II, 201.

  138. Ambassador Zane, 22 Mar. 1586, CSPV, VIII, 147.

  139. Notes on a paper of the Junta, 20 Apr. 1586, IVDJ, 51, f.189.

  140. Longlée, 29 June 1586, in Mousset, p.275.

  141. Bouza, Cartas, p.111.

  142. Mousset, p.272.

  143. Cabrera, III, 228.

  144. Cf. Checa, pp.408, 417.

  145. Cabrera, II, 198: ‘delighting in what he had awaited so long’.

  146. Sigüenza, II, 467.

  147. ‘In order not to suffer anguish’, says a monk, he did not come: Sepúlveda, p.30. ‘He did not wish to be present at the translation’: CODOIN, VII, 410.

  148. Ambassador Lippomano, 20 Aug. 1586, CSPV, VIII, 198.

  149. Philip to king of Denmark, 28 July 1586, ibid.

  150. ‘Estilo que guardó el rey’, BL Eg. 329 f.9.

  151. Ambassador Lippomano, 12 Jan. 1587, CSPV, VIII, 236.

  152. Longlée, 19 June 1586, in Mousset, p.272.

  10. The Time of Thunder 1587–1593

  1. On letter from Rodrigo Vázquez, 14 June 1588, BZ 146 f.219.

  2. San Jerónimo, CODOIN, VII, 419.

  3. Lhermite, I, 81–3.

  4. Bouza, Cartas, p.118.

  5. Ibid., p.119.

  6. Aranjuez, king to duke, 27 May 1587, in Altadonna.

  7. San Jerónimo, CODOIN, VII, 417.

  8. Boston Museum of Fine Arts, reproduced in Wilkinson, p.167.

  9. Lhermite, I, 94.

  10. Teulet, V, 386.

  11. Ibid., 413.

  12. Ibid., 436.

  13. Sepúlveda, p.40.

  14. Cabrera, III, 249.

  15. Ambassador Lippomano, 21 May 1587, CSPV, VIII, 277.

  16. Ambassador Lippomano, 18 Sept. 1586, ibid. 205.

  17. Madrid, king to duke, 12 Mar. 1588, in Altadonna.

  18. Martin and Parker, pp.110–11.

  19. Council resolution of 20 Jan. 1588, AGS:E leg.2855.

  20. Thompson, War and Society, chap.V, 197–216.

  21. Martin and Parker, p.116.

  22. Longlée to Henry III, 14 Apr. 1588, Mousset, p.364.

  23. Martin and Parker, pp. 156–60.

  24. Quoted ibid., p.210.

  25. Zayas to Vázquez, ‘I gave the flowers to His Majesty and they are on his table’, BL Add.28363 f.184.

  26. Madrid, 4 Jan. 1588, BZ 143 f.4.

  27. BL Add.28363 f.188.

  28. On a report from Vázquez, 8 Mar. 1588, BZ 143 f.41.

  29. Bouza, Cartas, p.122.

  30. To Vázquez, 16 Mar. 1588, BZ 143 f.46.

  31. Vázquez to king, Madrid, 22 Mar. 1588, ibid. f.51.

  32. San Lorenzo, 14 June 1588, ibid. f.88.

  33. Vázquez to Zayas, 21 June 1588, BL Add.28363 f.234.

  34. San Lorenzo, 25 May 1588, BL Add.28263 f.469.

  35. San Jerónimo, CODOIN, VII, 429.

  36. BL Add.28363 f.235.

  37. Mendoza's despatch in CSPV, VIII, 380; Philip's comment in BL Add.28263 f.481.

  38. Bouza, Cartas, p.125.

  39. BZ 142 f.171.

  40. King to Rodrigo Vázquez, 14 June 1588, BZ 144 f.219.

  41. Favre, vol.31 ff.169, 293.

  42. I have followed the version given by Strada, V, 1190, as being the most likely. But neither this nor any other version of Philip's response is verifiable.

  43. Strada, V, 1191.

  44. Gachard, Correspondance, II, lxxvi.

  45. On a letter from Vázquez to king, 4 Sept. 1588, IVDJ, 51 f.190.

  46. Gachard, Correspondance, II, lxxvii.

  47. Lippomano to Senate, 6 Sept. 1588, CSPV, VIII, 386.

  48. Sepúlveda, p.59.

  49. The manuscript paper was dated March 1588 but may really have been written after August: Miguel Avilés, Sueños ficticios y lucha ideológica en el siglo de oro. Madrid 1981, pp.214, 217.

  50. Cited Thompson, War and Society, chap. VIII, 17.

  51. Merriman's view, echoing many other historians: Merriman, IV, 552.

  52. BZ 143 f.140.

  53. CSPV, VIII, 407.

  54. On a letter from Vázquez to king, 13 Nov. 1588, IVDJ, 51 f.145.

  55. Longlée to Henry III, 15 Oct. 1588, in Mousset, p.389.

  56. D. Juan de Silva to Estevan de Ibarra, 10 July 1589, BCR MS.2417 f.27.

  57. CSPV, VIII, 477.

  58. Vázquez to king, 5 Aug. 1589, BL Add.28263 f.510.

  59. Silva to Esteban de Ibarra, Coimbra, 10 July and 13 June 1589, BCR MS.2417 f.27, 13.

  60. Plan by Hernando de Toledo and Cristóbal de Moura, 6 May. 1589, AGS:E leg.2855.

  61. Gómez-Centurión, p.255. But the defeat also stimulated some naval activity.

  62. In 1595: ibid., pp.282–95, 301.

  63. Esteban de Ibarra, a Basque, was at the time quartermaster-general of the Navy and went on to become secretary of the council of Finance.

  64. To Ibarra, 22 June 1589, BCR MS.2417 f.19.

  65. To Ibarra, 13 Aug 1589, ibid. f.37. These letters are original.

  66. Lippomano to Senate, 4 Feb. 1589, CSPV, VIII, 427.

  67. Letter of 11 Apr. 1589, BL Add.28263 f.501.

  68. Lippomano to Senate, 15 Jan. 1589, CSPV, VIII, 424.

  69. The famous writings of the Jesuits Mariana and Suárez, in which they defended tyrannicide, were published only after Philip's death.

  70. AGS:E leg.2855.

  71. AGS:E/K 1569 f.23.

  72. G. Baguenault de Puchesse, ‘La politique de Philippe II dans les affaires de France 1559–1598’, Revue des Questions Historiques, 25 (1879).

  73. Note of 18 Feb. 1589, BZ 143 f.199.

  74. Note of June 1589, IVDJ, 51 f.150.

  75. Memoir by Vázquez, 15 Nov. 1589, BZ 143 f.231; with comments thereon by the king.

  76. On letter of Vázquez, 17 Nov. 1589, ibid. f.232.

  77. Comment of Oct. 1589, AGS:E/K 1569 f.143.

  78. Silva to Esteban de Ibarra, 11 Sept. 1589, BCR MS.2417 f.43.

  79. The splendid study by Alain Milhou, Colón y su mentalidad mesiánica, Valladolid 1983, touches on several relevant issues. For the period of Philip II, pp.245–8.

  80. When Philip sailed from the Netherlands in 1559, the departure was delayed in part because of a forecast of mishap by Nostradamus.

  81. Note by king, 4 Aug. 1584, BL Add.28263 f.334.

  82. There is a good, brief essay by R. Kagan, ‘Politics, prophecy and the Inquisition’, in M. E. Perry and A. J. Cruz, Cultural Encounters, Berkeley
1991, chap.6.

  83. Cabrera, II, 568.

  84. Chapter 6 above, p.158.

  85. Kagan, p.96.

  86. Favre, vol.21 ff.333, 421.

  87. In a full council of twelve, six voted against arresting him: Favre, vol.142 f.167.

  88. Cf. Sepúlveda, pp.82–3.

  89. Juan Horozco Covarrubias, Tratado de la verdadera y falsa prophecia, Madrid 1588, p.42.

  90. Kagan, p.127.

  91. ‘Sueños desde fin de Março de 1588 hasta 18 de abril 1590’, AHN Inq leg.37122 exped. 2, pieza 4, ff.25, 27, 33, 38.

  92. Vázquez to king, 8 and 24 Feb. 1591, IVDJ, 51/1, 7.

  93. Comments on letters of Vázquez to king, 8 and 24 Feb. 1591, IVDJ 51/1, 7.

  94. Castillo de Bobadilla, I, p.415.

  95. Sebastià García Martínez, Bandolers, corsaris i moriscos, Valencia 1980, p.121.

  96. Pedro de Solchaga to Juan de Zúñiga, 23 Feb. 1589, Favre, vol.16 f.136.

  97. ‘Relacion de lo que passa en el negocio del Marques de Mondéjar’, 10 July 1586; also plea by marquis, 2 July 1588; both in BZ 135 ff.135, 137. King's order of arrest, 26 Jan. 1586, BL Add.28358 f.350.

  98. Ambassador Lippomano, 7 Mar. 1587, CSPV, VIII, 254.

  99. The examples that follow are taken from IVDJ, 62 ff.43, 45, 57, 72.

  100. Cabrera, III, 446; Sepúlveda, p.115; IVDJ, 62 nos 168, 173, 178. The duke, Don Antonio, married Mencia de Mendoza, daughter of the duke of Infantado, instead of complying with an agreement to marry the daughter of the duke of Alcalá.

  101. IVDJ, 38 no.6 ff.13–22. The unauthorised marriage of Alba was referred to Rome, which eventually decided in favour of the duke.

  102. Cabrera, III, 474. Barajas claimed he was sacked because of rivalry with the king over a woman.

  103. Francavilla and Pastrana were, respectively, father and son of La Eboli. I am not convinced by the suggestion of Kagan, p.130, of a link between Piedrola and Pérez.

  104. Antonio Pérez, Relaciones, Paris 1598, p.25.

  105. Cited Marañón, I, 431.

  106. ‘It is he who backs them [Pérez and his wife] and has always done’: MZA:RAD, G.140, karton 9, sign. 12a, ‘Relacion … para … Dietristan’. Quiroga owed his nomination as archbishop of Toledo to Pérez's influence with the king.

  107. Lhermite, I, 113.

  108. King to Almenara, 1590, IVDJ, 62 no.167.

  109. Cabrera, III, 554.

  110. On a letter of the Junta, 5 June 1591, BZ 186 f.3.

  111. Sepúlveda, p.117, says that Philip did not go to San Lorenzo that spring, because of his illness. The count of Luna says that he did.

  112. Gurrea y Aragón, p.87.

  113. On a letter of the Junta, 5 July 1591, BZ 186 f.9.

  114. Gurrea y Aragón, p.86.

  115. King to Junta, San Lorenzo, 7 July 1591, BZ 186 f.12.

  116. In 1599, significantly, the council of Aragon was instructed ‘to see that the Inquisition does not meddle in things that are not its concern, since one can see the harm it caused in Saragossa over Antonio Pérez’: cited Kamen, Phoenix, p.261.

  117. On letter from Junta, 14 July 1591, BZ 186 f.15.

  118. On letter of 30 July 1591, ibid. f.20.

  119. On letter from Junta, 29 Aug. 1591, ibid. f.21.

  120. The names of the dead are given in CODOIN, XII, 418–20.

  121. On letter from Junta, 16 Oct. 1591, BZ 186 f.25.

  122. ‘His Majesty was in such a hurry arranging matters for the entrance of the army, that nothing else was done’: Gurrea y Aragón, p.180.

  123. ‘The whole army was put together from what the nobles, grandees and prelates traditionally offer the king when there is war in Spain’: ibid., p.181.

  124. AGS:E leg.168 f.11.

  125. Gurrea y Aragón, p.227.

  126. Cited by Marañón, II, 605.

  127. Cf. Danvila y Collado, II, 479.

  128. Memoranda of Oct. 1591 by the vice-chancellor of Aragon and two colleagues: BZ 186 ff.66, 72.

  129. Opinion of 16 Dec. 1591, ibid. f.85.

  130. Cabrera, III, 588.

  131. Ibid., 589.

  132. This version of his death, given by the count of Luna (Gurrea y Aragón, pp.251–3), who was present in the city and knew all those participating in the execution, must be accepted over the highly dramatic version offered by most historians.

  133. Junta, 7 Feb. 1592, BZ 186 f.44.

  134. Gurrea y Aragón, p.253.

  135. The count of Luna, Villahermosa's brother, reported that ‘I made a full and thorough enquiry, and was unable to find any secure basis for the opinion held about this matter’: ibid., p.298. Luna also reports that the duke's family learned of his death before they learned of his illness. This must be compared with the fact that in Bayonne an agent of Lord Burghley knew of Villahermosa's illness before he knew of the death: CSP, Foreign, Elizabeth I, vol.III, p.419. Luna was probably guilty of dramatic exaggeration. As in the cases of Montigny and the justiciar, Philip never acted without judicial support. In the case of the two Aragonese nobles, no such support existed, and it is highly unlikely that Philip would have taken any extra-judicial action.

  136. Gurrea y Aragón, p.315.

  137. The decision was reached at Christmas 1595 but not formally issued until the following Easter: ibid., p.339. The king appealed against the verdict, apparently because he wished to retain control of the county of Ribagorza. In the end he gave up the appeal, in exchange for a formal cession to him of the county.

  138. Aranda was subsequently declared innocent on the order of Philip III.

  139. Marquis of Llombay to king, 10 Dec. 1591, BZ 186 f.37.

  140. Response to junta, 14 Oct. 1591, ibid. f.24.

  141. ‘My close friend,’ wrote Henry Cock, Jornada de Tarazona hecha por Felipe II en 1592, ed. A. Morel-Fatio. Madrid 1879, p.27.

  142. King to viceroy of Navarre, Burgos, 18 Sept. 1592, AGS:E leg.169 f.25.

  143. Lhermite, I, 192.

  144. Cock, Jornada de Tarazona, p.74.

  145. ‘Sicut fulgur et acies,’ reports Luna, who was present: Gurrea y Aragón, p.339.

  146. This important point has been elucidated by Xavier Gil Pujol, ‘Las Cortes de Aragón en la edad moderna’, Revista de las Cortes Generates, 22 (1991), p.111.

  147. Danvila y Collado, II, 353.

  148. Cabrera, III, 607.

  149. Gurrea y Aragón, p.320.

  150. The erroneous phrase is still used in older English textbooks.

  151. X. Gil Pujol, introduction to Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola, Información, Saragossa 1991 edn, p.xlv.

  152. Paper of 1589, BZ 146 f.225.

  153. Herrera, III, 402.

  154. A dozen were hanged, according to Sepúlveda, p.120.

  155. 7 July 1591, BZ 186 f.12.

  156. A. Merino Alvarez, La sociedad abulense durante el siglo XVI, Madrid 1926, pp.98–102.

  157. Actas de las Cortes, XVI, 568.

  158. Duke of Gandía to Juan de Idiáquez, Nov. 1591, in Gurrea y Aragón, p.178.

  159. Herrera, III, 291.

  160. Sepúlveda, p.129.

  161. Actas de las Cortes, XVI, 169–73.

  162. Ibid., 305.

  163. Danvila y Collado, II, 359–60.

  164. J. Lockhart and E. Otte, Letters and People of the Spanish Indies, Cambridge 1976, p.136.

  165. Papers of Feb. 1588, BL Add.28361 f.160.

  166. From San Lorenzo, 8 Oct. 1590, BL Add.28263 f.550.

  167. On the crisis, James Casey, ‘Spain: a failed transition’, in Peter Clark,ed., The European Crisis of the 1590s, London 1985, chap.11.

  168. Linda Martz, Poverty and Welfare in Habsburg Spain, Cambridge 1983, chap.2.

  169. See Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera, Amparo de pobres. Madrid 1975 (Clásicos castellanos, no.199), pp. xxxiv-xlvi.

  170. IVDJ, 55 no.3, letter of fray Pablo de Mendoza.

  171. Cited in Bouza, ‘Portugal’, pp.813–14.

  172. CSPV, IX, 226.


  173. T. Davies and P. Burke in Clark, The European Crisis of the 1590s, chaps 9 and 10.

  174. Lorenzo Vander Hammen, Don Filipe el Prudente, Madrid 1632, p.111.

  175. Cited M. Góngora, Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America, Cambridge 1975, p.76.

  176. ‘Lo que pareció sobre los quatro papeles que dio a Su Magd el presidente Richardot’, Aranjuez, 11 Nov. 1589, AGS:E leg.2855. See the rather different interpretation of Philip's attitude to this document, in Parker, Dutch Revolt, pp.222–3.

  177. Philip to count of Olivares, El Pardo, 12 Nov. 1590, AGS:E leg.2220/1.

  178. On letter from Mendoza, 17 Aug. 1589, AGS:E/K 1569 f.95.

  179. Philip to duchess of Savoy, El Pardo, 6 Mar. 1590, BL Add.28419 f.4.

  180. ‘Lo que vos Juan Bapt de Tassis’, issued 1 May. 1590, AGS:E leg.2220/1 f.24. There is a further instruction at f.27.

  181. Note of Jan. 1591, Escorial, BZ 141 f.203.

  182. Braudel, II, 1215.

  183. Gachard, Correspondance, II, lxxxv.

  184. Ibid., xc, instructions to Esteban de Ibarra, 28 Sept. 1592.

  185. Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa, second duke of Feria, son of Lady Jane Dormer.

  186. Cf. the mistaken presentation of Philip as imperialist, repeated by most historians and also by Lynch, p.466: ‘Philip was blind to rational argument … [he committed himself to] a policy of imperialism in France’. The diplomatic documents demonstrate quite the reverse.

  187. ‘Relacion del estado en que se hallan las cosas de Francia’, Paris, 14 Jan. 1594, AGS:E/K 1590 no.10.

  188. Feria to king, Laon, 28 Mar. 1594, ibid. no.50.

  189. Braudel, II, 1212.

  190. AGS:E leg.171, report of 15 Apr. 1594.

  191. Silva to Esteban de Ibarra, Madrid, 12 July 1590, BCR 2417 f.74.

  192. Arias Montano to king, 25 Nov. 1594, AGS:E leg.171.

  193. Alberi, ser. I, vol.5, p.421.

  194. Library of the Escorial.

  11. Last Years 1593–1598

  1. Madrid, 4 Feb. 1578, BZ 144 f.426.

  2. Sepúlveda, p.145.

  3. 5 Feb. 1589, Madrid, IVDJ, 37 f.151.

  4. Cabrera, IV, 62.

  5. Lhermite, I, 233.

  6. Cabrera, IV, 63.

  7. BL Eg.329 f.10, ‘Estilo que guardó el Rey’.

  8. Cabrera, IV, 63–8.

  9. I have consulted the useful edition by Manuel Fernández Alvarez, Testamento de Felipe II, Madrid 1982.

  10. Gachard, Carlos V, p.157, report of Venetian envoy Contarini.

  11. On a report of 4 Apr. 1594, AGS:E leg.2855.

  12. Venetian ambassador Contarini, 1593, Alberi, ser. I, vol.5, pp.419–20.