Philip of Spain

by Henry Kamen

  The rebellion was most serious in Peru, where the new viceroy, Blasco Núñez de Vela, used high-handed methods to introduce the laws, and failed to stifle a rebellion by the conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro. In January 1546 Pizarro defeated and killed the viceroy in battle. On receiving news of the troubles in Peru, the prince in 1545 called a meeting of the council. Eight members were present including Tavera, Cobos, Zúñiga and Alba. Alba was alone in suggesting that the rising should be crushed ‘with great strength and force’ and ‘a large and powerful armada’. All the others considered this wholly impracticable.23 They were anxious to make concessions (some of the New Laws were revoked at the end of 1545), but at the same time refused to condone rebellion. Since it was logistically impossible to despatch an army, they decided to send a lone emissary as ‘pacifier’. The man chosen was the priest Pedro de la Gasca, a member of the council of the Inquisition who also had considerable military experience. The emperor followed events closely from Germany, and sent Gasca his instructions from there,24 but all the practical steps were directed by the council and the prince.

  Gasca's success story began with his landfall at Nombre de Dios in July 1546. He was armed with absolute powers, but little else. With amazing skill, he won sufficient support to raise an army and bring about the defeat and execution of Pizarro in April 1548. For Philip it was his first contact with armed rebellion. Early in May 1547 he wrote to Gasca hoping ‘that the land be pacified through the path of clemency, without any need for severity or punishment’. Two weeks later he recognised that if the rebels did not submit, ‘it seems that an exemplary punishment may be exercised on the leaders and on the most guilty’.25 Gasca's total success in Peru made a lasting impression on Philip. Seven years later, when there were further troubles in the same region, he wrote from London commenting that it might be necessary to call again on Gasca's services.26 The example of Peru decisively affected his approach to the problem of rebellion.

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  Throughout 1547 Philip was actively in control of affairs in Spain, consulting when necessary with the ailing Cobos. He was also developing what came to be one of his great hobbies, an interest in building. The emperor had for some years been planning to restore and rebuild parts of the half-neglected royal palaces, notably the Alcars (medieval fortresses) in Madrid and Toledo. In 1543 he charged his architect Luis de Vega to construct a palace on the site of the hunting-lodge at El Pardo. His absences shifted the work on to Philip's shoulders. In May 1545 the prince set up a special department, the Committee for Works (Junta de Obras y Bosques), to oversee the royal residences and administer justice on the royal estates. It developed with time into a major government body. In August 1548 Philip commissioned a report on the Alcázar in Madrid and the house at El Pardo. ‘Look into this and remind me about it,’ runs one of his marginal comments that year on papers related to the palaces.27 El Pardo was the first building which bore witness to his evident interest in design and architecture. His commitment dated from the occasion when he and his father had to spend an uncomfortable night in the cramped space available there. When he complained to Charles, the latter replied that ‘kings do not need to have residences’.28 This did not satisfy Philip. A few days later he set about making his own arrangements for the building. When in 1552 a treatise by the Italian architect Serlio was published in Toledo, the translator (himself a distinguished practitioner) recognised that the prince had ‘a taste for architecture’.29

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  In January 1547 Philip gave his approval to a plan by Valdés and Cobos to pay salaries to the officials of the Inquisition (who had so far lived only off confiscations from the property of those whom they sentenced). He recommended the plan to Charles, ‘since you know better than anyone how important it is to support the Inquisition in these realms’.30 At the end of May he set out for Monzón. ‘Accompanying me are the archbishop of Seville, the marquis of Mondéjar, and a few grandees and other persons who I thought should come with me.’

  Before leaving Valladolid, he gave his approval to a highly controversial measure, demanded insistently by his father, for the seizure of gold and silver from the churches of Castile in order to pay for the wars in Germany. Philip's personal opposition to such seizures confirmed the attitude he had maintained since he took over the regency: unswerving respect for his father's wishes, but a no less firm resolution to follow the more realistic views of his advisers. He wrote: ‘I cannot omit to mention to Your Majesty that what was written and commented to you on this matter, was not from a wish to cause difficulties or create impediments, but because it appeared most necessary to act in this way’.31

  The emperor had learned by now that his son was no mere puppet. Over the next decade they continued to have major disagreements on many matters, both political and personal,32 but Charles never demonstrated impatience with Philip and never publicly overrode him. He may even have been proud of his son's independent spirit. At any rate, precisely in these weeks the emperor decided that the prince was ripe to enter into his European inheritance. In April 1547 he achieved a resounding victory over the Protestants at the battle of Mühlberg, and felt it was time to put his house in order. Plans were made to bring Philip to visit Germany.

  The prince was at Monzón, where on 5 July he opened the joint session of the general Cortes of Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia. His experience of the Castilian assembly of 1544–5 had given him adequate background. But his performance on this occasion was by any standard remarkable, since he had none of his well-tried advisers, neither Zúñiga nor Cobos, to back him up. The term ‘general Cortes’ was used for what in reality were completely separate sessions of the representatives of the eastern realms, which tended to meet in Monzón because of its proximity to all three realms. The king or his proxy, who alone could summon the Cortes, would pass from one building to another to deal with each Cortes individually.

  Business from all over Spain was directed to Monzón. Philip corresponded directly with the ambassador in Lisbon over the precarious health of the king of Portugal, and received letters from Ruy Gómez in Germany.33 He had to deal with a mass of petitions. Among them was one, which he eagerly supported, asking for the building of more and better houses in Monzón. Neither the court nor the deputies had any enthusiasm for holding sessions in the town. Monzón was a sleepy, inhospitable place, insufferably hot in the summer, with none of the amenities its distinguished visitors might expect. Philip had to resign himself to several further visits. On this occasion he took part conscientiously in the sessions. ‘I have seen His Highness in the Cortes,’ reported a member of his household, ‘pass whole nights without sleep in order to bring his business to a close.’34

  Shortly after the prince's arrival in June, the indefatigable Bartolomé de Las Casas also turned up. Now aged seventy-seven but as active as ever, he had just returned from America and made haste to visit Philip, who greeted him cordially35 and listened sympathetically to his account. The two had several meetings during the weeks the royal group was in Monzón. Philip wrote letters on his behalf to the authorities and clergy of the diocese of Chiapas. Las Casas succeeded in obtaining the prince's permission to change the name of the territory where he was currently conducting one of his colonising experiments, from Tuzulutlán to True Peace (Vera Paz).36

  Philip's patronage was a decisive help to the Dominican friar in this critical period. In 1547 the humanist Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda (Philip's former tutor) was beginning the anti-Las Casas campaign which reached its climax in 1550 in a famous debate before the royal council in Valladolid. In the summer of 1547 another well-known Dominican, Melchor Cano, obtained his chair at Salamanca university and entered the lists against Sepúlveda. The controversy over the Indians of America was a debate that embroiled all Spanish intellectuals, and Philip did not remain neutral. He (like his father) gave his continuous support to Las Casas, corresponded with him, and advanced him money. A few years later, he was obliged to make decisions against the advice and opinion of Las Casas, bu
t by then other factors had intervened. It did not affect the considerable esteem in which the old campaigner was always held by Philip.

  Among the business that crossed the prince's desk was a matter involving his old tutor, Siliceo. In 1546 Siliceo was promoted by Charles to the archbishopric of Toledo, the principal see in Spain. The new archbishop soon fell out with his cathedral chapter, the body of canons responsible for running the see. He particularly objected to the fact that a number of the canons were of converso origin. On the excuse that converso origin made one suspect in matters of religion, Siliceo and a majority of the canons in July 1547 voted through a new statute, disqualifying from membership of the chapter anyone who could not prove his purity (limpieza) from Jewish blood.

  Purity regulations of this type had long existed in a few religious bodies in Castile, but they had always been strongly criticised as racialist and were falling out of use. Philip was in these years no supporter of anti- Semitism: indeed in 1546 he had proposed appointing a converso to the see of Granada.37 Revival of the issue by Siliceo caused a storm of protest, which soon reached the prince in Monzón.38 The city authorities of Toledo complained energetically to the prince and to the council against a measure which, they said, was certain to stir up enmities and resurrect all the bitterness of the Comunero movement ‘twenty-six years ago’. Those canons who opposed the statute also protested, and one of them obtained a resolution from the university of Alcalá condemning the decision. In response to the petitions sent to him (which included a personal letter from Siliceo to his former pupil), Philip sent out for appropriate opinion. The bishop of Sigúenza consulted with his clergy and informed the prince that the statute would cause ‘great problems’, and should be withdrawn. The royal council, the highest court in the land, agreed that ‘this statute is unjust and scandalous and if put into effect could cause many problems’. The matter could clearly not be allowed to proceed, particularly since in September a special magistrate sent out by Philip informed him that ‘in the city there are many persons who would be affected by it’. To let the measure take effect would undoubtedly cause serious disorder in Toledo, so the prince at the end of September 1547 signed an order suspending the statute, and in November informed Siliceo that he was consulting the emperor.

  In December, immediately after closing the Cortes, he left Monzón: ‘I left Monzón on Friday the ninth, and am going to Alcalá de Henares to spend Christmas with the Infantas my sisters’.39 The family reunions with María and Juana were always a special pleasure.

  Philip's stance in favour of Las Casas, and against the anti-Semitism of Siliceo's statute, was neither original nor daring. Controversy over the Indians of America, and the place of conversos in Spanish society, had been around for many years. Among the elite, very many supported Las Casas and saw little problem in living side by side with conversos. Philip's position accorded with the attitude taken by people in educated circles. The 1547 Toledo statute, his biographer was later to write, was ‘detested by those who lay down the guidelines for good government’.40

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  From Germany, Charles V expressed his anxiety and impatience to see Philip. He was concerned by the instability in many of his territories, and the state of his own health. The gout, which afflicted nearly every personage of the time, was laying waste his body. He wished to make arrangements to pass on a secure succession to his son. Moreover, a whole epoch in European history ended in the year 1547. On 28 February, Henry VIII of England died. Just over a month later, on 31 March, Charles's great antagonist Francis I of France also passed away. The previous year, 1546, when Martin Luther died, also marked the end of the career of the scourge of the Mediterranean, Khair al-Din Barbarossa. It became urgent to prepare Philip for the new scenario in European politics. Fortunately, the west was now at peace.41 Charles's victory over the German Lutheran princes at the battle of Mühlberg in April 1547 restored some tranquillity to central Europe. It was safe for the prince to travel abroad. Early in 1548 Charles sent the duke of Alba to Spain with instructions to reform the ceremonial of the Spanish court, and bring Philip back with him. In January in Augsburg he drew up a long set of Instructions which he sent to Spain with Alba, for the prince to consider before he left the country.42

  When Alba arrived he brought the emperor's orders to introduce into Spain the ceremonial of the court of Burgundy.43 Charles was conscious of the poverty of royal ritual in Spain and wished to prepare the prince for the more elaborate forms used in the north. The new ceremonial was officially inaugurated (despite the hostility of many Castilian nobles and of Alba himself) in the Spanish court on 15 August 1548, to coincide with the festivities of the feast of the Assumption. The personnel of Philip's household before this had formed two distinct groups: his gentlemen, pages and servants, including those in the kitchen and stables; and the chaplains and choir of the chapel. Before 1548, as we have seen, they totalled at least 110 persons. The Burgundian ritual brought about changes at the top. There had been only one chamberlain before; after 1548 the prince had a high steward and five assistant chamberlains. He also gained over fifty ‘gentlemen’ with various ceremonial duties. Little change occurred at the lower levels of the household. Altogether, the immediate personnel after 1548 added up to about 200 persons, without counting the members of the guard.44

  In February 1548 Philip summoned the Cortes of Castile to Valladolid to settle outstanding matters, mainly of finance. When the deputies assembled on 4 April the prince informed them of his impending departure, but his message was not well received. Castillans had already lived nearly six years without their king; now they were losing their prince as well. They petitioned Philip not to leave the realm, and sent a letter of protest to Charles.45 ‘If the absences of their rulers continue,’ they said, ‘these realms will be left even poorer and more ruined than they are.’ ‘Castile does not accept the absences of its princes,’ a historian of the time observed.46

  On 13 September the archduke Maximilian, who was due to exercise the regency during Philip's absence, arrived from Vienna with his retinue of Austrian and Czech courtiers. A marriage had been arranged between him and Philip's sister María. Son of the emperor's Spanish-born brother Ferdinand, Maximilian spoke perfect Spanish, as well as five other languages. Since April this year he had borne the honorary title of king of Bohemia. Two days after his arrival he was formally married to the Infanta María. The extensive celebrations included the staging of a comedy by Ludovico Ariosto.47

  At daybreak on 2 October Philip's party set out from Valladolid for Barcelona. The prince left the bulk of Cortes business in the hands of his administrators. A summary of the petitions of the Cortes, well over 200, was brought to him in Catalonia shortly before his departure. He gave his formal assent to half of them; the most pressing ones, expressing opposition to his departure, were studiously ignored.

  It was a bad time to leave. The Castilian countryside was afflicted by drought. Grain was scarce, with prices ‘never before seen in Castile’.48 In Valencia there had for months been rumours of an insurrection among the Moriscos, who constituted a third of the population of the province. One of Philip's last acts before leaving was to set up a special committee under Inquisitor Valdés, made up of eighteen persons including ‘theologians and lawyers from all the councils’, to discuss the problem. After each had given his view in writing, ‘I have now ordered them to meet again and reduce their opinions to only one,’ the prince informed his father.49

  The royal party was a large and distinguished group that included Alba, Ruy Gómez, and a number of leading nobles. There were noted humanists, among them Gonzalo Pérez as secretary, Honorat Juan as tutor, Constantino Ponce de la Fuente as preacher, and Cristóbal Calvet de Estrella as chronicler. Foreigners in the entourage included the German cardinal of Trent, who was with Philip during the entire journey. The prince was also accompanied by his musicians, among them his guitar-teacher Luis Narváez and the blind composer Antonio de Cabezón. The prince's steward, Vicente Al
varez, went along to supervise food arrangements, and in his spare time wrote a journal of the whole trip.

  Although the travellers encountered violent rainstorms in Catalonia, Philip managed to make a three-night stay at Montserrat. In Barcelona, which he entered on 14 October, he resided at the palace of Estefania de Requesens, who over the years had been as a second mother to him. A sumptuous banquet was laid on by the cardinal of Trent for the prince and other guests, during which over 150 different dishes were served. At the three-hour feast, the prince became exceptionally merry and ‘began to drink a bit more than he was used to’.50 The group left Barcelona on 18 October and headed north for the port of Rosas, where bad weather delayed their departure. They eventually sailed in the fleet of fifty-eight galleys commanded by the great Genoese admiral, the eighty-two-year-old prince Andrea Doria, on 2 November.51

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  Philip's excitement at his first sea voyage shines through in the letters he wrote on arriving in Italy.52 The bad weather of the past few days continued, so for security the ships kept close to the coastline and Philip slept ashore. On 3 November he passed the night in Cadaquès. The next few days were spent mainly on land, visiting Cotlliure and Perpignan. Not until the ninth did the fleet manage to sail from Cotlliure, but off Aigues Mortes they were held up for six days by the wind, and could neither land nor continue. Provisions had to be ferried out. After they resumed the journey, visits ashore were made at the isles of Hyères and Lérins. Thereafter the weather improved. Doria decided to press on straight to Italy, so they sailed past Nice and Monaco without stopping. The first landfall was made just before dusk on 23 November at Savona, where the feast of welcome, put on by the Spinola family, was remarkable for the presence not only of the highest nobility of northern Italy but also of agents from all the chief Italian banking-houses, the Lomellini, Pallavicino, and Grillo. The prince was not used to such cosmopolitan company, and had difficulty with the language. He spoke very little. His formality seemed rather ‘austerità e severitè’,53 noted an observer.