Feros, Antonio

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  • Publication
    El Viejo Monarca y Los Nuevos Favoritos: Los Discursos Sobre La Privanza en El Reinado de Felipe II / The old Monarch and the new Favorites: Discourses on the Privanza During Philip II's Reign
    (1997) Feros, Antonio
    RESUMEN: Durante el reinado de Felipe II, y especialmente desde comienzos de la década de 1580, se desarrollan una serie de iniciativas por parte del monarca que supondrían la aparición no sólo de nuevas prácticas políticas, sino también la introducción de cambios importantes en los discursos políticos dominantes. Estas iniciativas políticas promovidas durante los últimos años del reinado de Felipe II fueron en parte inspirados por el llamado "nuevo humanismo", el cual asociado a las teorías de la "razón de estado" tenía como punto central de su discurso la necesidad de promover la capacidad de acción independiente de la monarquía, frente a los obstáculos legales y administrativos impuestos por otros miembros del cuerpo político —consejos reales y Cortes—. Algunas de estas iniciativas políticas se basaban en experiencias anteriores (la creación de Juntas, por ejemplo) pero otras eran decididamente nuevas, como lo era el intento de evitar la presencia de facciones cortesanas enfrentadas. Elemento central en este proceso fue la creciente participación en la gobernación cotidiana de la monarquía de los llamados "favoritos del rey", quienes promovieron las teorías y prácticas políticas definidas con anterioridad. Del mismo modo, con la presencia de estos "nuevos favoritos" se inició el desarrollo de un discurso en el cual los favoritos reales aparecían representados como "ministros" del monarca, un discurso que sería plenamente desarrollado en las primeras décadas del siglo XVII bajo las privanzas del Duque de Lerma y el Conde Duque de Olivares. ABSTRACT: During the 1580s and 1590s, Philip II and his close counselors implemented political initiatives which resulted in important changes in the royalist political discourse and in the ways in which politics were conducted. These changes were in part inspired by the political philosophy of reason of state, promoted by the "new humanists", whose central political premise was the need to consolidate and expand the monarchy's right for independent action free of the legal and administrative constrains imposed by other members of the body politic, e.g. royal councils and Cortes. Although Philip II continued to advance initiatives began in the early years of his reign (such as the creation of committees ad hoc, or Juntas), towards the end of his rule he undertook others that were radically new (such as Philip's attempts to avoid the division of the court into conflicting factions). Throughout this period the king's favorites also played an increasing role in the everyday ruling of the monarchy. The merging of what contemporaries believed was a new type of royal favorite encouraged the surge of a political discourse portraying the favorite as the king's minister, and later as the king's principal minister. These developments led to a theoretical revolution which culminated during the first decades of the seventeenth century under the "privanzas" of Lerma and Olivares.
  • Publication
    Review of Stanley J. Stein and Barbara H. Stein, Apogee of Empire: Spain and New Spain in the Age of Charles III,1759–1789
    (2006-03-01) Feros, Antonio
    Although most eighteenth-century Europeans still considered Spain to be one of the most powerful polities on the continent, by the time Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations (1776), views about Spain and its empire, then headed by Charles III, seemed to have become unconditionally negative. Despite the size of its population, its terri-tories and the silver mines under Spanish jurisdiction, and its monopoly over the commercial trade with its American colonies, Smith and his contemporaries viewed Spain as one of the poorest nations in Europe. Spain’s economic backwardness was inevitably linked to its rather traditional political system. Smith, for example, believed that Spain remained a quasi-feudal state and that its colonies were ruled by an “absolute govern-ment . . . arbitrary and violent.” The predicament of the Spanish empire, according to eighteenth-century Europeans, stemmed from what many believed to be the mediocre character of Spain’s rulers and citizens. A nation that during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries seemed to represent the virtues of a learned, vigorous, and expanding Europe was now seen as culturally deprived and isolated, dominated by religious fanatics, and ruled by second-rate monarchs and self-interested elites. For many decades historians have debated the merits of these views—whether they in fact reflected the political and economic realities of eighteenth-century Spain or whether they were sim-ply a part of the ideological trashing that accompanies all international struggles for world power. The loss of its American colonies in the early nineteenth century, the political instability that characterized Spain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and its inability to industrialize until recent times have seemed to many historians sufficient proof that Smith and his contemporaries were essentially right. This view of Spain in time became the interpretative paradigm used to explain an empire that, despite its power, was never able to “modernize” economically and politically.
  • Publication
    Vicedioses, Pero Humanos: El Drama del Rey
    (1993) Feros, Antonio
  • Publication
    "Sacred and Terrifying Gazes": Languages and Images of Power in Early Modern Spain
    (2002-01-01) Feros, Antonio
    In 1640 Diego de Saavedra y Fajardo, one of the most influential seventeenth-century Spanish writers, made a remarkably explicit reference to the effect that images of kings had upon their subjects as he recalled his own experience of viewing a royal portrait by Velazquez. In it Philip IV appeared "full of grace, august in his countenance ... [and] I was overcome with such respect, [that] I !melt down and lowered my eyes." The importance of the king's representation within a monarchy like Spain's, composed of a number of territories where the king was an "absent" ruler, is also evident in royal ceremonies celebrated in kingdoms distant from the monarchy's political center. In 1621, for example, the elites of the viceroyalty of Peru took oaths of loyalty to the new monarch, Philip IV, in a ceremony replete with symbols of obedience, loyalty, and adoration for the king. In the absence of the monarch himself, a portrait of Philip, framed in gold and "seated" on a throne, beneath a canopy, presided over the ceremony.
  • Publication
  • Publication
    Governance (Spain)
    (2014-01-01) Feros, Antonio
  • Publication
  • Publication
    Lerma y Olivares: La Práctica del Valimiento en la Primera Mitad del Seiscientos
    (1990) Feros, Antonio
    A estas alturas, podria resultar paradojico sefialar que detras de esta cita de Gonzalez Davila se encuentra una de las razones -explicitada de forma natural por el autor- que explicaria, en ultima instancia, los cambios que se produjeron en el reinado de Felipe III: el caracter personal de la Monarquia Hispana. Desde esta perspectiva la entronizacion de un nuevo monarca se convirtio -al igual que en reinados anteriores y posteriores- en el momento politico clave, en la ocasion para la introducion de novedades y de exaltacion de personajes hasta esos momentos oscuros. Parece claro, en este sentido, que la personalidad y las actitudes del nuevo monarca fueron elementos fundamentales en todo este proceso. Sin embargo, estos no eran los unicos que condicionaban el comportamiento de los gobernantes hispanos. A finales del quinientos, la Monarquia Hispana se caracterizaba por la plena consolidacion de una estructura gubernativa basada en los órganos consultivos que conformaban la Hamada polisinodia. Pero, ademas, los ultimos afios del reinado de Felipe II vieron surgir una serie de iniciativas politicas que habrian de influir -en mayor medida de lo que suele admitirse- en la actuacion de los reyes y los validos, que dominarian la escena politica de la primera mitad del siglo XVII.
  • Publication
    Review of Ruth Ruth Mackay and Sir John Elliott, The Limits of Royal Authority: Resistance and Obedience in Seventeenth‐Century Castile
    (2001-12-01) Feros, Antonio
    During the 1640s, many Spaniards and Europeans believed that something was going terribly wrong in the Spanish monarchy. Signs of general discontent were widespread, as demonstrated by insurgent political movements in Catalonia (1640), Portugal (1640), and Naples (1647–48). In addition, between roughly 1620 and 1650 the Spanish monarchy was embroiled in an endless and debilitating “global war,” with its armies battling across Europe, America, and Asia. Many of these tensions and conflicts were linked to the attempts of the Spanish government, led by Philip IV (1621–1665) and his favorite, and prime minister, the Count-Duke of Olivares, to introduce reforms aimed at creating what was known at the time as a “regular state,” a centralized monarchy in which the king reigned supreme. Although tensions began to abate after the fall of Olivares in 1643, it should not surprise anyone that the 1640s were a period during which many of Philip IV’s subjects believed that the Spanish monarchy was on the verge of total collapse.
  • Publication
    Introduction to Kingship and Favoritism in the Spain of Philip III, 1598-1621
    (2000-01-01) Feros, Antonio
    "I am writing at the end of an era and the beginning of another about a monarch [Philip III] who never became a real king [de un monarca que acabó de ser rey antes de empezar a reinar]." These words, written by one of the most distinguished and influential seventeenth-century Spanish authors, Francisco de Quevedo, represent perhaps the most famous derogatory statement ever made about Philip III of Spain (1598-1621). Quevedo's sharp criticism extended to the royal privado, Don Francisco Gomez de Sandoval y Rojas, better known as the Duke of Lerma, and also to his allies and clients, all of whom Quevedo viewed as corrupt and inept. More than personal criticism, Quevedo's words were uttered at a time when the worth of an entire era was assessed in terms of the character and deeds of the individuals in charge of public affairs. By this criterion, Quevedo's appraisal of Philip Ill, Lerma, and their allies was truly devastating. His denunciation of the king and his closest advisers relegated Philip Ill's reign to a position of no historical significance, in no way comparable to the reign of Philip Ill's father, the "extraordinary" Philip II.