Members of Don Juan’s Household and the Politics of Carlos II’s Court during the Early Years of his Minority (1665–1669)¹

1 This article has benefited from the contract ‘2016-T2/HUM-1179’ within the project ‘La herencia de los Sitios reales. Madrid de corte a capital (historia, patrimonio, cultura)’ (ref. H2015/HUM-3415) funded by the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid. ORCID: 0000-0003-4120-1530. The author is grateful to Silvia Z. Mitchell.

Abstract

The illegitimate son of Philip IV, don Juan José of Austria (1629–1679), sought a permanent political position in the court of his younger brother, Carlos II, and the new regime now led by the King’s mother, Queen Mariana of Austria. Kept at bay during the first two years of the reign, the War of Devolution (1667–1668) opened the door for his appointment as governor of the Spanish Netherlands, which he accepted at first. His eventual refusal to take over the governorship precipitated the Queen’s order for his arrest and a dangerous period for don Juan. This article examines the role of members of don Juan’s household at the beginning of the reign, during his appointment to the governorship, and during his escape through Aragon. Members of don Juan’s household played a critical role during the first years of Carlos II’s reign, including the convoluted events that culminated with the confrontation between don Juan and the Queen in 1669.

Notes

1 This article has benefited from the contract ‘2016-T2/HUM-1179’ within the project ‘La herencia de los Sitios reales. Madrid de corte a capital (historia, patrimonio, cultura)’ (ref. H2015/HUM-3415) funded by the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid. ORCID: 0000-0003-4120-1530. The author is grateful to Silvia Z. Mitchell.

2 Silvia Z. Mitchell, ‘Mariana of Austria and Imperial Spain: Court, Dynastic and International Politics in seventeenth-century Europe’, Ph.D. diss., Miami University, 2013, pp. 56-73.

3 Gabriel Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II y su corte (Madrid, 1911), vol. 1, pp. 369-449.

4 Henry Kamen, La España de Carlos II (Barcelona, 1981), p. 522; José Antonio Maravall, Teoría española del Estado en el siglo XVII (Madrid, 1944); Francisco Tomás y Valiente, Los validos en la monarquía española del siglo XVII (Madrid, 1982), pp. 28-9.

5 Albrecht Graf von Kalnein, Juan José de Austria en la España de Carlos II. Historia de una regencia (Lleida, 2001); Josefina Castilla Soto, Don Juan José de Austria (hijo bastardo de Felipe IV): Su labor política y militar (Madrid, 1991), chapter 7; Juan Antonio Sánchez Belén, ‘La Junta de Alivios de 1669 y las primeras reformas de la regencia’, Espacio, tiempo y forma 1 (1989), pp. 639-68.

6 Laura Oliván Santaliestra, ‘Mariana de Austria en la encrucijada política del siglo XVII’, Ph.D. diss, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2006; Silvia Z. Mitchell, ‘Habsburg Motherhood: The Power of Queen Mariana of Austria, Mother and Regent for Carlos II of Spain’, in Anne J. Cruz and Maria Galli Stampino (eds), Early Modern Habsburg Women: Transnational Contexts, Cultural Conflicts, Dynastic Continuities (Aldershot, UK; Burlington, VT, 2013), pp. 177-94.

7 Philip IV recognized him in 1642, see Castilla Soto, Don Juan José, pp. 29-31, Archivo Histórico Nacional (hereafter AHN), Estado, leg. 2783. For his various politico-military roles, see Fernando Sánchez Marcos, Cataluña y el Gobierno central tras la guerra de los segadores (1652–1679): El papel de don Juan de Austria en las relaciones entre Cataluña y Gobierno central (Barcelona, 1983); Ellen Roegis, ‘Het hof van don Juan José de Austria, landvoogd in de Habsburgse Nederlanden (1656–1658)’, Master thesis, Ghent University, 2006.

8 Archivo General de Simancas (hereafter AGS), Guerra y Marina (hereafter GYM), legajos (hereafter legs) 1956-1957, Real Academia de la Historia (hereafter RAH), Collección Salazar y Castro, A-107, fol. 164v-165v; Rafael Valladares, La rebelión de Portugal. Guerra, conflicto y poderes en la Monarquía Hispánica (1640–1680) (Valladolid, 1998), pp. 184-5.

9 Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. 1, p. 113; Castilla Soto, Don Juan José, pp. 184-91, 196-8; Valladares, La rebelión de Portugal, 183-190.

10 For the reductions in don Juan’s household in Consuegra, see AGS, CSR, leg. 183/1, Consuegra, November 25 1664.

11 Pierre Bourdieu, ‘De la maison du roi à la raison d’état. Un modèle de la genèse du champ bureaucratique’, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 118 (1997), pp. 55-8.

12 Antonio Domínguez Ortíz, Testamento de Felipe IV. Edicion facsímil (Madrid, 1982), Clause 57, pp. 69-71.

13 Don Juan’s goal to advance his candidacy to the crown of Poland is mentioned in the diary of the Imperial ambassador in Madrid, Franz Eusebius, count of Pötting, between October 1666 and January 1667, see Miguel Nieto Nuño, Diario del Conde de Potting, Embajador del Sacro Imperio en Madrid (1664–1674), 2 vols (Madrid, 1990–1993), vol. 1, pp. 249, 271-2.

14 Don Juan shared his goals with Nithard in a secret interview in October 1665, only weeks after Carlos II’s accession; Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. I, pp. 233-238.

15 Daniel Aznar Martínez and Fernando Sánchez Marcos, ‘Don Juan (José) de Austria, bastardo regio y Gran Prior. La consolidación del poder real sobre la Orden de San Juan en la época de Felipe IV’, in Manuel Rivero Rodríguez (ed.), Nobleza hispana, nobleza cristiana: la Orden de san Juan (Madrid, 2009), vol. 2, pp. 1555-81; Koldo Trápaga Monchet, La actividad política de don Juan [José] de Austria en el reinado de Felipe IV (1642–1665) (Madrid, forthcoming), pp. 109-125.

16 AHN, Estado, leg. 2783 and BNE, Ms. 11,027.

17 AHN, Estado, leg. 2783.

18 RAH, Salazar y Castro, A-107, ff. 26r-27, don Juan to don Luis de Haro (Philip IV’s principal minister), 10 February 1656. Of course, don Juan went to the outskirts of the city of Madrid and occasionally joined the royal family, but the important issue here is that he was not allowed to be part of the formal court events. Similar protocolary problems arose in Flanders, when Archduke Leopold William (1614–1662), refused to recognize him as member of the royal family, although don Juan won in this occasion; AGS, Estado, leg. 2087. Eventually they were treated as equals, Archivio Segreto Vaticano (hereafter ASV), Segretaria di Stato, Fiandra, reg. 40, ff. 198r-199v.

19 Castilla Soto, Don Juan, pp. 184-186.

20 The private audience took place on April 1666, see Castilla Soto, Don Juan, pp. 200-201.

21 On Nithard’s meetings with don Juan, see Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. I, p. 234.

22 Julián Juderías y Loyot, España en tiempo de Carlos II el Hechizado (Pamplona, 2011), Biblioteca Nacional de España (hereafter BNE). Don Francisco Bremundan, secretary of don Juan de Austria, pointed out that don Juan was learning German while remained in Consuegra. BNE, Ms. 2,045, f. 10r-v, letter of don Francisco Bremundan to don Juan, around 1665. Elvira González Aseno has depicted the cultural patronage conducted by don Juan during his stay in Consuegra, Elvira González Asenjo, Don Juan José de Austria y las artes (1629–1679) (Madrid, 2005), pp. 371-383.

23 Patiño was the oficial mayor de la secretaría de cámara since 1644; later he was secretario de la secretaría y estado from an indeterminate date but before 1656. He accompanied don Juan to Flanders in 1656, when his promotion to valet occurred. See AGS, CSR, legs. 185/2, 186, 191, 193/1, 194/2, 195/2, 196/1, 206, 215/1 y 232/2 and Estado., legs 2,969 y 8,484; AHN, Estado, leg. 1,641 and Órdenes Militares (hereafter OOMM), Expedientillos, 4.246.

24 BNE, Ms. 18,655/48.

25 Laura Oliván Santaliestra, Mariana de Austria: imagen, poder y diplomacia de una reina cortesana (Madrid, 2006) p. 146.

26 BNE, Ms. 2045, ff. 4r, 20r-v.

27 Pötting, claiming to have received orders from Leopold I, wanted don Juan to give him the same treatment owed to grandees, to which don Juan hesitated. On his part, Patiño assured Pötting that don Juan was willing to grant him the treatment of ‘His Excellency’ even though the late king had only allowed him to always deal with ambassadors with no higher than ‘His Lordship’. Nieto Nuño, Diario, vol. 1, p. 202-203.

28 Castilla Soto, Don Juan, p. 205.

29 Castilla Soto, Don Juan, p. 205; González Asenjo, Don Juan, p. 390.

30 On these various visits, see Nieto Nuño, Diario, vol. 1, pp. 153-5, 170-1, and 216 n. 349. These figures had been close to Pötting since 1664.

31 Nieto Nuño, Diario, vol. 1, p. 202-3, May 1666.

32 The meeting took place on 23 May 1666. Nieto Nuño, Diario, vol. 1, pp. 206-7. Cuéllar had served in don Juan’s chamber from 1644 to 1650, during don Juan’s tenure as viceroy in Naples and was then promoted to the household of Philip IV. AGS, CSR, legs 196, 204 and 206. Cuéllar was mentioned by Nithard as one of don Juan’s closest supporters; see José Rufino Novo Zavallos, ‘De confesor de la reina a embajador extraordinario en Roma: la expulsión de Juan Everdardo Nithard’, in José Martínez Millán and Manuel Rivero Rodríguez (eds), Centros de Poder Italianos en la Monarquía Hispánica (siglos XVI-XVIII) (Madrid, 2010), vol. 2, pp. 751-835, pp. 775-6. The others were the marquises of Cerralbo and Villafiel, don Mateo Patiño and don Luis Fernández de Córdoba, all of them belonging to don Juan’s household.

33 Ibid.

34 AHN E. leg. 1632, Mariana’s instructions to don Pedro Ronquillo, Spanish ambassador extraordinary to Vienna, 10 June 1673.

35 Leopold to Potting cited in Nieto Nuño, Diario, vol. 1, p. 232, n. 376.

36 Ibid.

37 Nieto Nuño, Diario, vol. 1, p. 232, n. 376.

38 For example, see Nieto Nuño, Diario, vol. 1, p. 200.

39 Maura y Gamazo identifies Nithard as the person from whom everyone was seeking the Queen’s patronage, Carlos II, vol. 1, p. 330; Mitchell argues against Nithard’s influence, particularly on foreign policy, ‘Mariana of Austria’, pp. 233-7. The amount of petitions Nithard received, however, indicates that he was considered as a potential broker of royal patronage. If his inability to help don Juan achieve his goals is an indication, Nithard was not very good at it.

40 Mariana’s royal decree of 24 May 1666, cited in Mitchell, ‘Mariana of Austria’, p. 175.

41 Nieto Nuño, Diario, vol. 1, p. 210, 212 (June 1666).

42 Nieto Nuño, Diario, vol. 1, p. 202-3 (May 1666).

43 Nieto Nuño, Diario, vol. 1, p. 232 (July 1666).

44 Archivo Histórico de la Universidad de Valladolid (hereafter AHUV), Fondo Crespí Valdaura (hereafter Crespí Valdaura), registro (hereafter reg.) 9263, don Juan to Crespí de Valdaura, from Guadalajara 13 August 1666.

45 Don Mateo Patiño held at least 2 meetings with Pötting in January and February 1667, Nieto Nuño, Diario, vol. 1, pp. 271-4.

46 AGS E. leg. 2382, Council of State deliberation, 21 June 1667; Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. 1, pp. 276, 281; Castilla Soto, Don Juan, p. 208.

47 Mariana permitted don Juan to attend Council of State meetings on 4 June 1667, Castilla Soto, Don Juan, p. 208. On 15 June 1667, she allowed him to receive ambassadors, see letter of don Blasco de Loyola to don Juan José, AGS, Gracia y Justicia (hereafter GYJ), leg. 886.

48 AGS, GYJ, leg. 886, letters of don Mateo Patiño and don Blasco de Loyola, 15 June and 2 July 1667; and letter of don Juan to Pötting, where he confirms the plan of receiving the ambassador in his bed.

49 For the course of the campaigns from the beginning of the war and during the summer 1667, see Antonio José Rodríguez Hernández, España, Flandes y la Guerra de Devolución (1667–1668). Guerra, reclutamiento y movilización para el mantenimiento de los Países Bajos Españoles (Madrid, 2007), pp. 154-194; BNE ms. 8354, fs. 73v-74v, copy of Mariana’s royal decree; Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. 1, pp. 298-9.

50 AGS, GYJ, leg. 886, don Blasco de Loyola to don Juan, 15 March 1668.

51 For don Juan’s household in 1644 and 1648–56, AGS, CSR, legs. 196/1, 197, 198. For the household as general-governor in Flanders, see Ellen Roegis, Het hof; AGS, CSR, legs 193, 195 and 196; and Trápaga Monchet, La actividad política, pp. 404-52.

52 AGS, CSR, leg. 201/2.

53 AGS, CSR, leg. 191 and GYJ, leg. 886, order of Queen Mariana, Madrid 9 July 1667.

54 AGS, CSR, legs. 182 and 187.

55 AGS, CSR, leg. 191, order of 15 February 1668.

56 Mitchell, ‘Mariana of Austria’, pp. 196-8, 216-21.

57 Most of don Juan’s requests to appoint his own people were rejected by Philip IV and his favourite, don Luis de Haro; for example, see RAH, Salazar y Castro, A-104, f. 32r-v, letter of don Juan de Austria to don Luis de Haro, Barcelona, 28 November 1652.

58 AGS, GYJ, leg. 886, don Blasco de Loyola to don Juan, 23 February 1668.

59 Ibid.

60 AGS, CSR, leg. 205/2.

61 AHN, OOMM, exps 1149 and 1150.

62 AGS, GYJ, leg. 886.

63 AGS, GYJ, leg. 886, don Blasco de Loyola to don Juan de Austria, 23 February 1668.

64 AGS, GYJ, leg. 886, don Blasco de Loyola to don Juan de Austria and don Mateo Patiño, 20, 23, 26 February 1668.

65 Ibid.

66 AGS, CSR, leg. 193/1.

67 Ibid.

68 AHN, Estado, leg. 1641, letter of don Juan 22 April 1668.

69 AHN, Estado, leg. 1641, letter of don Juan 18 May 1668.

70 Mitchell, ‘Mariana of Austria’, pp. 241-2.

71 Ibid., p. 242 and Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. 1, p. 355.

72 The arrest was made on allegations that there was a plot to assassinate Nithard, to which Bernardo Patiño (probably scared rather than guilty) confessed to in the court jail. See, Mitchell, ‘Mariana of Austria’, pp. 244-5.

73 Castilla Soto, Don Juan, pp. 209-11.

74 AGS, CSR, leg. 191.

75 Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. 1, p. 364.

76 Anna Vermeulen has collected several dozen extant copies of this letter; see Idem, A quantos leyeren esta carta: estudio histórico-crítico de la famosa carta de don Juan José de Austria, fechada en Consuegra el 21 de octubre de 1668 (Leuven, 2003).

77 Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. 1, pp. 363-75, and Mitchell, ‘Mariana of Austria’, pp. 246-7; on don Juan’s effective public opinion campaign, see Héloïse Hermant, Guerres de plumes: Publicité et cultures politiques dans l'Espagne du XVIIe siècle (Madrid, 2012).

78 AGS, CSR, legs 193/1 and 201/2.

79 AGS, CSR, legs 190/1 and 201/2.

80 AGS, CSR, legs 190/1 and 201/2.

81 Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. 1, pp. 369-450; Castilla Soto, Don Juan, pp. 209-20; Mitchell, ‘Mariana of Austria’, pp. 243-54.

82 Fernando Sánchez Marcos, ‘El apoyo de Cataluña a don Juan de Austria en 1668–1669 ¿La hora de la periferia?’, Pedralbes: Revista d’Història Moderna 1 (1981), pp. 127-66; Sebastián García Martínez, ‘Sobre la actitud valenciana ante el golpe de Estado de don Juan José de Austria (1668–69)’, Primer Congreso de Historia del País Valenciano (Valencia, 1976), vol. 3, pp. 421-57.

83 AHUV, Crespí Valdaura, reg. 9261, count of Paredes to Crespí de Valdaura, 18 November 1668; García Martínez, ‘Sobre la actitud’, pp. 424-5.

84 His appointment as gentilhombre de cámara in AGS, CSR, leg. 206; the conflicts between the Kingdom of Valencia and the Queen have been studied by Maria Carme Pérez Aparicio, ‘Centralisme Monàrquic i resposta estamental: l’ambaxaida valenciana del senyor de cortes (1667–1668)’, III Congres d’Historia Moderna de Catalunya (Barcelona, 1993), vol. 3, pp. 327-40.

85 AGS, CSR, leg. 206.

86 AHUV, Crespí Valdaura, reg. 9261, letter of the count of Paredes to Crespí de Valdaura, Valencia, November 18 1668; García Martínez, ‘Sobre la actitud’, p. 436, n. 64.

87 Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. 1, pp. 383-4, letters of November 1668 from the tower of Lledo, in Catalonia; AHUV, reg. 9261, 15 November 1668, the comission to his servant.

88 García Martínez, ‘Sobre la actitud’, pp. 436-42; Pérez Aparicio, ‘Centralisme Monàrquic’, pp. 327-40.

89 Castilla Soto, Don Juan, pp. 217-18.

90 AHUV, Crespí Valldaura, reg. 9261, letter of don Miguel de Marta to Crespí Valldaura, 30 October 1668.

91 Ibid.

92 Mitchell, ‘Mariana of Austria’, pp. 238-50. Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. I, p. 379; Hermant, Guerres de plumes.

93 Sánchez Marcos, ‘El apoyo de Cataluña a don Juan de Austria’, pp. 141-5.

94 AHUV, Crespí Valdaura, reg. 9261, letter of 29 November 1668, Don Andrés de Mendo, Barcelona.

95 ‘And I declare today to Your Majesty and to all who read this letter that the actual reason that prevented my departure to the Low Countries was my intention to separate from Your Majesty’s side that beast [Nithard] so unworthy of occupying such sacred place.’ Quoted and translated in Mitchell, ‘Mariana of Austria’, p. 246.

96 AHUV, Crespí de Valdaura, reg. 9261, letter of don Andrés de Mendo, Barcelona, 8 December 1668.

97 AGS, E., leg. 2688, orders to Osuna to investigate don Juan’s whereabouts and Osuna’s reports in the council of State deliberations of December 1668 and January 1669.

98 He and don Juan coincided when he governed Catalonia as Viceroy from 1653 to 1656. Along with Jerónimo de Miquel and Pere Montaner he was one of the strongest supporters of don Juan; Sánchez Marcos, Don Juan de Austria, pp. 150-2.

99 AGS, CSR, leg. 193/1.

100 AGS, CSR, leg. 205/2; AHUV, Crespí Valdaura, reg. 9261, letter of don Andrés de Mendo, Barcelona, 8 December 1668.

101 Although he did not specify the details of the local struggles, don Miguel was adamant about the fact that Terranova’s substitution by the count of Aranda would provoke the locals. AHUV, Crespí Valdaura, reg. 9261, letter of don Miguel de Marta to Crespí Valdaura, October 1668, Zaragoza.

102 Don Juan protected Terranova’s widow in a criminal case against her in the 1670s and appointed her camarera mayor of the queen consort, Marie-Louise of Orleans in 1679, see García Martínez, ‘Sobre la actitud’, pp. 428-9.

103 AHUV, Crespí Valdaura, reg. 9261, letter of Don Andrés de Mendo, 22 December 1668, Barcelona.

104 AHUV, Crespí Valdaura, reg. 9261, the duke of Osuna to don Crespí Valdaura, 22 and 26 January 1669; Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. 1, p. 425.

105 AHUV, Crespí Valdaura, reg. 9261, letter of don Andrés Mendo to Crespí Valdaura, 26 Barcelona, January 1669.

106 AHUV, Crespí Valdaura, reg. 9261, letter of duke of Osuna to Crespí Valdaura, Barcelona, 26 January 1669.

107 AHUV, Crespí Valdaura, reg. 9261, the duke of Osuna to don Crespí Valdaura, 22 and 26 January 1669; Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. 1, p. 425.

108 AGS, Estado K, leg. 1395, 24 November 1668.

109 AGS, Estado K, leg. 1395, docs 45, 58, 59 and 63; leg. 1396, docs 10, 14, 21 and 37; AHUV, Crespí Valdaura, reg. 9261.

110 Castilla Soto, Don Juan, pp. 223-5. AHUV, Crespí Valdaura, reg. 9261, paper of 5 February 1669 sent by don Joseph Ozcáriz y Vélez. The answer of the Diputación is here as well, 9 February 1669, Zaragoza.

111 AHUV, Crespí Valdaura, reg. 9261, don Juan’s letter of 9 February 1669.

112 Antonio Álvarez-Ossorio, ‘Fueros, cortes y clientelas: El mito de Sobrarbe, Juan José de Austria y el Reino paccionado de Aragón’, Pedralbes. Revista d’Història Moderna 12 (1992), pp. 265-84.

113 Álvarez-Ossorio Alvariño, ‘Fueros’, pp. 241-3.

114 Maura y Gamazo, Carlos II, vol. 1, pp. 434-48; Castilla Soto, Don Juan, pp. 222-8; Mitchell, ‘Mariana of Austria’, p. 251.

115 Maura, Carlos II, vol. 2, pp. 8-9; Álvarez-Ossorio, ‘Fueros’, pp. 243-4; Kalnein, Juan José, pp. 208-9.

116 Álvarez-Ossorio Alvariño, ‘Fueros’, pp. 284-91.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Koldo Trapaga Monchet

Dr. Koldo Trápaga Monchet is currently a visiting professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid, Spain). His book on don Juan’s political activities during the reign on Philip IV — La actividad política de don Juan [José] de Austria en el reinado de Felipe IV (1642–1665) — was published with Polifemo in 2018. He is the author of a chapter in a collection of essays on children of favourites, ‘La larga sombra del valimiento: el control de la casa y persona de don Juan de Austria por don Luis Méndez de Haro’, in Rafael Valladares Ramírez (ed.), Hijas e hijos de validos. Familia, género y política en la España del siglo XVII (Valencia, 2018), and co-author, with Félix Labrador Arroyo, of ‘Forestry, Territorial Organization, and Military Struggle in the Early Modern Spanish Monarchy’, Environmental History 23 (Oxford, 2018), pp. 318-41.