Philip of Spain

by Henry Kamen

  For Philip, it was his first experience of a royal journey. Their route took them to the eastern provinces of Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia, known collectively as the crown of Aragon. Each of the realms of Spain had its own constitution, and it was a long-standing obligation for the heir to the throne to visit each realm and be formally sworn in. The royal party went first to Burgos. From here they left on 2 June for Navarre, and eventually on 22 June reached Monzõn, in Aragon, where the meeting of the Cortes of Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia had already commenced. Philip fell ill with fever, which kept him indisposed the whole of July and August.

  That summer the emperor also had to cope with a threatened invasion by France. Defences had to be strengthened all along the Pyrenees. The threat became real when French forces laid siege to Perpignan, on the Catalan frontier. Charles sent the duke of Alba off in July to deal with the problem.32 It was not until September and early October that the Estates extended their recognition to prince Philip.33 The prince's next obligation was to go to each realm to swear to their privileges. On 12 October he set off for Saragossa.

  Charles in the meantime went on to Barcelona, where he arrived on the sixteenth. Philip returned to join him early in November. He was scheduled to make a solemn entrance into the city on 8 November, but arrived the day before and had to spend the night in a convent outside. Not to be outdone, he slipped secretly into the city on the evening of the seventh, visited his father, and then went ‘by night to see the distractions in the town’ before going back to sleep outside the walls.34 This experience of enjoying night-life and celebrations when in disguise, appealed to him hugely. He repeated it frequently in later years. The following afternoon he made his formal entry, and swore to the constitutions of Catalonia. On the ninth he received the homage of the authorities. Francisco de Borja was now viceroy of Catalonia, and the festivities put on for the royal party went on for two weeks. There were ‘illuminations, dances and masked balls’, in which the prince played a leading part. On the fourteenth he was taken on a special tour of the business area of Barcelona. On 21 November, in pouring rain, the emperor and Philip set out for Valencia. Having made sure of Philip's constitutional position as heir in Valencia, the emperor made his final preparations for departing abroad. The court left Valencia on 16 December and returned to Castile.

  On 1 March 1543 Charles and Philip once more left Madrid. The latter accompanied his father as far as Alcalá de Henares. Charles then went on to Saragossa and Barcelona. In the first week of May he set sail from Palamõs, on the Catalan coast, after naming his son as regent of Spain. It was a momentous step, for Charles now entered on his longest absence from the peninsula, an incredible fourteen years during which he tried in vain to bring his imperial commitments to a successful conclusion, ruining his health in the process. Philip, by contrast, now became effective and permanent ruler of Spain. These early years of his regency were certainly only an apprenticeship, but they helped to shape the king, and their relevance to his later development should not be underestimated.

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  Before he sailed from Palamõs the emperor left with Zúñiga two handwritten letters of Instruction for his son, one dated 4 May, the other 6 May.35 The first, headed ‘Confidential’, and consisting of advice on his personal and public behaviour, was to be handed to Philip by Zúñiga and read in his presence, since Zúñiga was still responsible for his conduct. In it, Charles said he was leaving him ‘in my place during my absence, to govern these realms’. Philip was adjured to keep two principles always before him: to ‘keep God always in mind’; and to ‘accept good advice at all times.’ He must serve God above everything: ‘never allow heresies to enter your realms; support the Holy Inquisition … and on no account do anything to harm it’. He must be ‘an upholder of justice’ and uproot all corruption among his officials. He must be ‘temperate and moderate in all you do. Keep yourself from anger, and do nothing in anger’. He must avoid flatterers, but accept the good advice given him by his counsellors and ‘preserve their freedom so that their opinions are given freely’. Great care must be taken not to say, or sign, anything that might create problems for the future. He must exercise caution in the crown of Aragon, ‘because you are more liable to make mistakes in this government than in that of Castile’. In giving audiences he must be patient, ‘and you must also find time to go among and talk with the people’.

  The Instruction then turned to his personal life. First of all, to his disinclination for study. ‘As I told you in Madrid, don't think that it is childish to study.’ Study helped to make the man. Being a man was not a question of body but of mind, and only study could achieve this. Moreover, he was to rule over many different peoples and languages, and to communicate with them all it was essential to know Latin. ‘Nor would it be amiss to know a bit of French.’

  He must now also enter the adult world. ‘Till now your company has been that of children … From now on, you must not associate with them.’ The change would be brutal. ‘Your company will be above all that of grown men.’ But he must enter the world of public affairs slowly and with caution, consulting always, and especially with Zúñiga. ‘You will soon marry’; but once married he must be moderate in his pleasure, ‘because besides being harmful both to bodily growth and strength, often it impairs the capacity to have children and can kill’, as was the case with prince Juan, son of Ferdinand and Isabella. He must therefore limit access to his wife and ‘keep away from her as much as possible’, and when with her ‘let it be briefly’. In this he should be ruled by Zúñiga's advice. However, he must remain faithful to her and once married must not go with other women. And in all matters, if in any doubt, he should have recourse to Zúñiga.

  The Instruction of 6 May was headed ‘Private’ (secreta), for him to keep ‘under lock and key, so that nobody not even your wife sees it’. In it Charles regretted his departure, and the penury of his treasury, but trusted that God would favour him in his struggle against the king of France. The advice concerned delicate matters of state.

  Criticising the factions among his ministers, he recommended that Philip consult with the president of the royal council, cardinal Ta vera, and with the secretary of state Francisco de los Cobos. ‘Although they are the heads of differing factions, I wanted to have both of them available so that you should not fall into the hands of either.’ Philip must never put himself in the hands of any one minister. ‘Rather, deal with many and do not bind yourself to one alone.’ For example, the duke of Alba had ambitions in government: ‘he has set his sights on great things and on rising as high as he can’, but ‘you must be careful not to let him or other grandees get a firm footing in government, or you will regret it afterwards’. However, Alba should be employed in matters of war, ‘since he is the best that we have at present in these realms’. As to Cobos, he had been a good servant and no one knew affairs of state better than he, but he was also grasping and had many enemies. In conclusion, Charles hoped to be able during his journey to sort out the current problems and so clarify the issues facing them both.

  From abroad, the emperor continued to take a close interest in the training of his son. Outside of politics and war, the main business of 1543 was Philip's marriage. The princess of Portugal was aged just sixteen, six months younger than Philip. The prince wrote to his father how with a small escort he had gone out at the beginning of November to witness secretly the princess Maria's progress from the frontier. At Aldeanueva ‘I saw her without her being able to see me’. On Monday, 12 November Philip made a ceremonial entry into Salamanca. The princess entered a few hours later, and the couple were married by cardinal Tavera on the same day.36 The celebrations continued till the early hours.

  A few days later the royal pair, with their retinue, set out for Valladolid. They made a courtesy stop at Tordesillas to visit queen Juana, mother of the emperor and Philip's grandmother. The unhappy, crazed queen had ruled Castile briefly in the early years of the century. Her parents, Ferdinand and Isabella, had bee
n well aware of her mental affliction but hoped it would not affect her political capacity. When her husband, the Flemish Philip the Handsome, died unexpectedly, she went out of her mind. Out of respect for her, as long as she lived she was accepted as queen jointly with her son. During his period as regent, Philip got used to signing decrees in the name of ‘the Catholic Queen and the emperor and king, my lords’. In practice, she did not stir from her strange retreat in her palace at Tordesillas, where Philip made regular courtesy visits to see her. She died, a prey to her imaginings, in April 1555.

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  Immediately his father left the country in 1543, Philip applied himself with enthusiasm to his new role. ‘His Highness received the Instructions,’ Zúñiga reported to the emperor, ‘together with the powers which Your Majesty sent for governing these realms and those of Aragon. After he had read it all, he sent the special instructions to the tribunals and councils. He has begun, conscientiously and with resolution, to study what he has been ordered to do. He is in touch always with the duke of Alba and the grand commander of León [Cobos].’37 The prince continued at the same time with his habitual interests and diversions, notably jousting and hunting. Zúñiga kept him company. ‘His Highness arrived here in good health this afternoon,’ the grand commander wrote in May 1543; ‘his grandmother was pleased to see him, and he also enjoyed being in Alcalá eight days with his sisters. The day after he left Alcalá he killed a large, fat stag which he sent to his sisters. One day when he was in the Segovia woods he killed two or three, as well as a roe; I myself killed a very large stag.’38

  Philip was still obliged to follow his daily classes with his tutors in Latin and other subjects, but more and more he was introduced into the routine of business undertaken by the councils. His mentor was Francisco de los Cobos. As secretary to Charles for Spanish affairs, and administrator of the treasury, the grand commander of León was effective director of government machinery in the emperor's absence. He used his position to build up a reliable team of state officials. He also, on the side, made himself extremely rich. Philip was encouraged by him to assist at meetings of the lesser councils and also to make decisions. Cobos informed Charles shortly after his departure that ‘two meetings on matters of administration have been held with His Highness, and I must say that he really is very good in these affairs’.39 The prince's first recorded decision was in this meeting in July 1543 of the royal council, when ‘His Highness has through his councillors ordered all necessary steps to be taken’ in a matter involving an argument with the papacy.

  Government in those days was a simpler affair than today. The areas in which the state had competence were limited, no proper bureaucracy existed, and the main business of the king was to raise a few taxes in order to keep the peace or wage war. As responsibilities increased, the crown relied on selected counsellors to help it arrive at decisions. Most advisers were traditionally from the high nobility and formed councils for specific areas of government. In 1543 there were about nine councils advising the king of Spain, of which the most important was the royal council (often also called the council of Castile). Staffed since 1493 by legal experts, it was the highest court in Castile and had competence over most aspects of government. Questions of foreign policy were dealt with by a number of grandees sitting in the council of State, which when it convened for military business was known as the council of War. Other specialist councils existed for America (the council of the Indies), the Inquisition, and affairs of finance. The eastern realms of the peninsula, and the kingdom of Naples, sent representatives who sat on the council of Aragon. The councils met on allotted days, during specific hours, in the royal palace. They gave their opinions in the form of a written report known as a consulta. The secretaries of the councils directed all the paperwork, and liaised directly with the king. They became, inevitably, powerful men who effectively controlled business.

  From the summer of 1543 Philip began to append his signature, with the words ‘Yo el Principe [I, the prince]’, to all official letters. His annotations, written in the scrawl of one who had refused to subject himself to writing lessons, began to appear in the margins of state papers. It seems that Philip's education may have been adversely interrupted by these political duties, for Siliceo reported in August that ‘about his studies I can say that he understands what he reads in Latin, although he practises little, partly because he is busy with government and partly because he spends his time in pursuits of arms and chivalry’.40

  At this early stage, most real decisions in Spain were being made by Cobos, who ruled his colleagues with an iron fist. But by the end of 1543 the prince – with Cobos's guidance – was participating in most aspects of business, and also took a close interest in American affairs. Financial matters were from the very beginning put his way, the emperor's instruction to the council of Finance stating specifically that ‘matters arising should be discussed with the prince my son, so that he can see the accounts of what is needed’.41 Most major decisions were still reserved for the emperor, but in practice day-to-day matters were resolved in Spain. This left Philip free to follow policies that the emperor might not always agree with. The council of the Indies, for example, complained to Charles in August 1543 that the prince was diverting silver which came to them from America to other projects.42

  Philip also began to give audiences, one of the most important duties of the crown. Among his earliest was that given to the marquis of Mondéjar, who travelled to Valladolid from Andalusia in order to lay before him a plan to bring peace and security to the lands peopled by the Moriscos of Granada.43 With effective power in nearly all areas of decision-making, Philip was now the real master of Spain. Thirty years later he had no doubts in dating the fact: ‘I began to govern in the year 1543’.44

  The favourable noises made about the prince's role at this date, when he was still only sixteen, smack of polite flattery. Fernando de Valdés, president of the royal council, felt that ‘His Highness is very able in his duties, to the great contentment of these realms’. Cobos felt that ‘since Your Majesty left him he has grown in body and even more, in my opinion, in judgment; he takes part enthusiastically in all business’.45 There is, all the same, clear evidence that Philip was indeed working at his new job. He now took on, for example, the role of principal correspondent with the emperor. Guided by secretaries who put together the several pieces of information which had to be reported to Charles, Philip helped to compose official letters into which he was expected to slot his contribution. From the autumn of 1543 all the ministers deferred to the prince's letters. Alba and Cobos, though they still conducted their own correspondence with Charles, told him also that ‘there is no need to repeat what the prince is writing, since he will write all that is necessary’. Tavera, rounding off one of his missives, added that ‘on all the other matters that have been discussed in the council of State on the prince's orders, you will be informed through the letters of His Highness’.46 These were not polite gestures, but a real division of tasks, in which the prince was allotted considerable responsibility.

  A report drawn up by Cobos in 1544 gives an intimate (and suspiciously favourable) sketch of the prince at work.47 Philip is described as

  always immersed in matters of government and justice … His daily business and activity is always on these matters and with men of judgment … Sometimes he asks questions even though he knows the answer, and this is no doubt his greatest virtue, since he does it in order not to err. In weighty matters for which special committees are set up, he listens to each opinion with great care and attention, and when everything is aired and explained he criticises with courtesy and prudence that which he disagrees with. Afterwards he alone decides. He often shuts himself up with me for hours to deal with business of the council of State. He does the same with the president [of the royal council] on questions of justice, with the duke of Alba on those of war, and with others on other different areas.

  The report, obviously designed to please the emperor, gives an
exaggerated picture of the prince's competence, claiming for example that ‘instead of giving him advice, we all accept and respect his’. For all that, it seems to coincide with other evidence of Philip's impressive immersion in the world of government. Most official correspondence within the peninsula was addressed to him, though in practice he dealt with only some of it. By contrast, virtually all official correspondence emanating from the central government carried his signature, proof that he dedicated considerable time to the formality of putting his name to letters.48

  When the emperor left Spain in 1543, war had already broken out with France. He went to Germany, from which he launched an invasion of Francis I's kingdom. It appeared the most direct way of stopping aggression in Italy by the French, and their schemes with German Protestants and the Turks. The major difficulty was the lack of adequate finance for the war.

  Philip tried to find funds in Spain. Serious debates took place in Valladolid in August 1543 over the desperate situation of the treasury. Charles was committed to heavy military expenditure in northern Europe, and looked to the Castilian exchequer to help him. ‘Aware of the pressing need,’ wrote Cobos, ‘His Highness summoned the councils of State and of Finance to see what could be done.’ In their deliberations, the councils agreed that some silver be seized from the ships recently arrived laden with silver from America, but that the Cortes should not be asked to pay more taxes. Cobos reported the matter in constitutional terms to his king. ‘In the end it was decided that these are not matters to be treated of in Your Majesty's absence’, since only the king should summon the Cortes.49 In a parallel letter written on the same day to Charles, and summarising the same debate, Philip expressed a quite different perspective, that of a people oppressed by taxes: