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The Marquis of Carpio | |
|---|---|
 Don Luis de Haro y Guzmán, anonymous painting from theUffizi Gallery | |
| Valido of the King of Spain | |
| In office 23 January 1643 – 16 November 1661. | |
| Monarch | Philip IV |
| Preceded by | Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares |
| Succeeded by | Gaspar Méndez de Haro |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1598-02-17)17 February 1598 Valladolid,Crown of Castile,Spain |
| Died | 26 November 1661(1661-11-26) (aged 63) Madrid,Crown of Castile,Spain |
| Spouse | |
| Parents |
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Luis Méndez de Haro, 6th Marquis of Carpio and 2nd Duke of Olivares orLuis Méndez de Haro y Guzmán,GE, (17 February 1598 – 26 November 1661), was a Spanish political figure,general and art collector. He was the royalfavourite (Spanish:valido) ofPhilip IV. De Haro was also notable as being one of the very few Spanish royal favourites of the period to die whilst still in favour.
Luis Méndez de Haro y Guzmán was the son of Diego de Haro, the marquis of Carpio, and of doña Francisca de Guzmán, the sister ofGaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares.[1] Little is known about his childhood and early youth. He probably spent most of his early years between his native Valladolid, which became the seat of the court between 1601 and 1606, and Madrid, where the King later returned. Haro was one of the king’s childhood friends and spent the first twenty years of Philip's reign as agentleman of the bedchamber. This post allowed him to develop a close personal relationship with the king which eventually bore fruit in the years following the downfall of his uncle.
In his youth Haro was a close friend of theCount of Villamediana. He was in his coach with him when Villamediana was stabbed to death by an unknown assailant in 1622.[2] Haro tried to capture the aggressor but stumbled and fell. The scandal at court was notable, given Villamediana's reputation as a caustic poet, who had made many political enemies and was implicated in a trial onsodomy. Luis must have learned then the importance of prudence. He would never again put his reputation at risk.
Haro inherited the Marquisate of Carpio and the County of Morente from his father in 1648, and the Marquisate of Eliche from his mother. At the death of the Count-Duke in July 1645 the title and inheritance of the counts of Olivares passed to Haro who came into the ownership of extensive landed possessions and of the dignity ofgrandee.[3]
Méndez de Haro made a career at the Spanish court under the protection of his uncle, the Count-Duke, whom he succeeded asValido or the courtfavourite who enjoyed the friendship and trust of the King and who wielded political power, after the Count-Duke was driven from office in 1643. That same year theDuke of Híjar, who aspired to succeed Olivares asValido, planned a conspiracy against him, which cost him exile from Court.[4] Haro would never exert the same type of influence or control as his uncle had, mainly due to KingPhilip IV's reliance upon SisterMaría de Ágreda's counsel.[5] Sor María was uncompromisingly hostile towards Philip's delegation of authority upon avalido and thought that the king should rule on his own.[6] She advocated the distancing of Olivares from the centre of power, and she suggested that Haro should also be removed.[7] However Philip did not abolish thevalimiento, but decided to hold on to it and stage it in more understated fashion.[8]
Rather more modest and discreet than Olivares, Haro was tactful, humble and prudent. His courteous manner provided a welcome contrast to the abrasive tactlessness of Olivares. Where Olivares had tried to master the king, Haro was always his friend. A sign of his apparent modesty is the scarcity of his portraits: no oil painting of him survives and the six that exist are all by anonymous authors.[9]
In April 1650 and November 1651 Haro negotiated the alliances between Spain and the rebel princes of France. The more significant alliance was made with theGrand Condé. According to its terms, Condé was given the status of an ally of the king of Spain, which obliged Philip to keep him supplied with arms and subsidies untilLouis agreed to make peace with Spain and permitted the full restoration of the rebel princes to the titles, lands and offices that had been confiscated from them at the time of theirFronde revolt. The alliance between Philip IV and France's first prince of the blood would become the central aspect of Haro's foreign policy until the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659.[10]
Eager to gain British backing in the war against France, Haro convinced Philip to officially recognize theCommonwealth of England and made every effort to secure a treaty with theLord Protector - even, in 1654, indicating his willingness to recognize Cromwell as King.[11] Cromwell'sundeclared war on Spain, however, prompted Philip IV to withdraw his ambassador, and declare war on Britain.[12]
A commercial treaty between England and France was signed on the very day that the Spanish AmbassadorAlonso de Cárdenas left England (October 24, 1655). Upon hearing the news, Haro promptly fashioned an agreement withCharles Stuart whereby the Spanish would finance aRoyalist army to support an uprising in England; Charles, for his part, promised that, on his accession, he would returnJamaica to Spain and suspend England's laws against Catholics.[13]
Haro greatly improved the organization and general efficiency of the Army. His main political and military success was the suppression of theCatalan uprising, and thereconquest of Barcelona in 1652. Haro was also able to claim success in the suppression of rebellion in Spain's Italian possessions. In the summer of 1658 he assumed command of the military operations against Portugal and achieved the lifting of the Portuguesesiege of Badajoz (1658). Taking advantage of this success, Haro, invaded Portugal and besiegedElvas, the main defensive system of Portugal - where the Portuguese army that had besieged Badajoz took refuge and was suffering a catastrophic plague. However the Portuguese managed to gather a relief army which inflicted a crushing defeat to the Spanish army at the decisivebattle of the Lines of Elvas (14 January 1659).[14]
Luis de Méndez Haro was the main Spanish negotiator of theTreaty of the Pyrenees onPheasant Island in 1659. He was unable to avoid any perceived negative result of the treaty, nor was he able to reach an anti-French accord with the Lord Protector of theCommonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland,Oliver Cromwell. The treaty was accompanied by the marriage of KingLouis XIV of France and the InfantaMaria Theresa of Spain. Luis de Méndez Haro played the part of the bridegroom in theproxy marriage that took place atFuenterrabia on 3 June 1660.
Haro died on 16 November 1661. He was buried in the Church of the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Madrid. On December 31, 1662, his remains were moved to the Dominican convent ofLoeches, founded by the Count-Duke of Olivares.Baltasar Gracián'sOráculo manual,José Pellicer'sEl Fénix y su historia natural andJuan de Espinosa Medrano'sApologético were dedicated to him.[15]
Haro was highly praised by his contemporaries for his honesty and integrity. In the sixth crisi of the first part of theCriticón, Gracián referred to him as ‘la integridad, la rectitud, la verdad y todo lo bueno en uno’ (Integrity, righteousness, truth and all good things in one). Haro was immortalized in LordDiego Fernández de Medrano y Zeniceros'panegyric, 'Heroic and Flying Fame of the Most Excellent Lord Don Luis Méndez de Haro, Count-Duke of Olivares.'[16] Medrano credited Haro with restoring the Spanish Monarchy and praised his pivotal role in negotiating thePeace of the Pyrenees, calling him the "Archpolitician of the world."[16] Haro's foremost critics were the members of the party aligned with the papacy, especially the mysticMary of Jesus of Ágreda and theDominicantheologian andphilosopherJohn of St. Thomas, Philip IV’s confessor between 1643 and 1644.[17]
On 26 April 1625, in Barcelona, Luis Méndez de Haro married Catalina (26 April 1610 – 19 November 1647), the youngest daughter ofEnrique de Córdoba Cardona y Aragón. They had 5 children:
Following the execution ofCharles I of England and the dispersion of his art collection, Luis de Haro commissionedAlonso de Cárdenas, the Spanish ambassador in London, to purchase some of the most valuable works. Cárdenas bought more than a hundred paintings at the auction organised by the Parliament, known as theCommonwealth Sale.[19] Among them were many of the most prized works in the collection, such as theDeath of the Virgin byAndrea Mantegna, theSelf-Portrait byAlbrecht Dürer,La Perla byRaphael,The Virgin and Child between Saint Matthew and an Angel byAndrea del Sarto,The Washing of the Feet byTintoretto, andMoses Saved from the Waters byPaolo Veronese, all of them currently in theMuseo del Prado.[20] The series of theEleven Caesars byTitian was destroyed in the fire of theRoyal Alcázar of Madrid in 1734.
Haro purchased the largeChrist and the Centurion by Paolo Veronese from LadyAlethea Talbot Howard, wife of theEarl of Arundel.
| Spanish nobility | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by |  VIMarquess of Carpio 1469–1528 | Succeeded by |
