1. Andrés Muñoz, Sumaria y verdadera relación del buen viaje que el . . . Príncipe . . . don Felipe hizo a Inglaterra (Zaragoza, 1554), reprinted in Pascual de Gayangos, ed., Viaje de Felipe Segundo á Inglaterra, por Andrés Muñoz (impreso en Zaragoza en 1554), y relaciones varias relativas al mismo suceso (Madrid, 1877), p. 34. Despite some confusion of terminology on this point, I refer to the infante in this passage, following Gachard, who records Don Carlos's joy at first being called príncipe in March 1556, after his father's accession as king (Louis-Prosper Gachard, Don Carlos y Felipe II (San Lorenzo de el Escorial, 1984), p. 46).

2. "As a Portuguese and His Highness's servant," Ruy Gómez had been involved from the outset of the negotiations for this match, agreeing to host a reception for the ambassador sent from Portugal to propose it; see Ruy Gómez de Silva to Francisco de Eraso, from Toro, 2 January 1552, Archivo General de Simancas (AGS), Secretaría de Estado (Estado), legajo 89, no. 125. For Ruy Gómez's mission to Portugal and its outcome, see the following documents in Calendar of Letters, Despatches and State Papers relating to the Negotiations between England and Spain, Preserved in the Archives at Vienna, Simancas, Besancon, Brussels, Madrid and Lille (cited henceforth as CalStP-S ), ed. by Royall Tyler, vol. XI, Edward VI and Mary, 1553 (London, 1916): Charles V (at Brussels) to Philip (at Valladolid), 30 July 1553 (pp. 126-127); same to same, 12 August 1553 (pp. 162-163); Philip to Charles V, 22 August 1553 (pp. 177-178); Simon Renard (London) to Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, Bishop of Arras (Brussels), 7 August 1553 (pp. 153-154); Charles V to Luis Sarmiento de Mendoza (Lisbon), 21 November(?) 1553 (pp. 377-378). For an account of the negotiations, see M. J. Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 78-79.

3. The negotiations for the marriage can be followed closely in AGS Estado, legs. 807 and 808 (an interesting memorandum on unresolved points of the match is preserved at AGS Estado, leg. 807, no. 23), and in CalStP-S , vol. XI, and vol. XII ( Mary, Jan.-July, 1554 (London, 1949). The vehemence of Philip's objections are evident in a curious "writing ad cautelam " drawn up in Valladolid on 4 January 1554, in which the prince stated that "because by his own free will he had never agreed and never would agree to the articles [of the marriage contract], although he was about to grant the power to enable [various officials in England] . . . to ratify and swear to observe them, and he himself would agree to and swear by them, using the customary legal forms to render the oath binding, he protested before me, the secretary, and the other witnesses mentioned below, against the articles and everything contained therein . . ." ( CalStP-S , vol. XII, pp. 4-6). For the belief that Philip was procrastinating, see Tyler's preface to CalStP-S , vol. XI, pp. x-xii, and the calendared documents cited there. For the journey to England and the events that transpired in the first weeks there, see Gayangos, Viaje de Felipe Segundo; Juan de Varaona [Barahona], ''Viaje de Felipe II á Inglaterra en 1554 cuando fué á casar con la Reina Doña María," Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España (Madrid, 1842-1895) (cited henceforth as CODOIN), vol. I, pp. 564-574; Martin A. S. Hume, "The Visit of Philip II," English Historical Review 7 (1892), pp. 253-280; Mariano González-Amao, ''La boda inglesa de Felipe II," Historia 16 9:97 (May 1984), pp. 34-42. Disagreements over the date of Philip's departure have been convincingly settled (in favor of 13 July 1554) by Carl Bratli, Felipe II, rey de España (1909) (Madrid, 1927), p. 176, n. 229.

4. For the accompanying household, see the list in Muñoz, Viaje , pp. 31f. The aristocrats in the entourage are listed in a document of 20 July 1554 that is reproduced in CalStP-S , vol. XII, p. 317, and the ayudas are discussed in Muñoz, Viaje , pp. 1, 4-5. I have found no record of the ayuda paid to Ruy Gómez de Silva, but an approximate figure for the grants made to prominent courtiers can be inferred from the fact that Philip offered a lump sum of 20,000 ducats, plus an annuity of 2,000 ducats for two or three years, to Don Fernando Francisco Dávalos, marquis of Pescara. Pescara seems to have regarded even this sum as insufficient, and he may have received more. Draft memo of Philip for Ruy Gómez de Silva, 2 August 1555, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, Philip and Mary, Jul. 1554-Nov. 1558 (London, 1954), pp. 239-240.

5. On the size of the entourage, see Philip to Simon Renard, 8 February 1554, CODOIN, vol. III, pp. 478-480; Philip to Charles V, 9 February 1554, CalStP-S , vol. XII, pp. 90-92. The quotation is from Philip's minute of 16 February 1554, CODOIN, vol. III, p. 488. Philip's following in England must have been considerably smaller than this prior estimate, since according to Badoero Philip's establishment in the Low Countries in about 1557 amounted to around 1,500 persons. Federico Badoero, "Relazione delle persone, governo e stati di Carlo V e di Filippo II," in Eugenio Albèri, ed., Le relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senato durante il secolo decimosesto , ser. I, vol. III (Florence, 1853), p. 236.

6. Don Juan Hurtado de Mendoza to Arras, 19 March 1554, CalStP-S , vol. XII, pp. 161-162. Similarly, Charles V instructed Alba that under no circumstances should the soldiers accompanying Philip's fleet be allowed to set foot in England. Charles V to the Duke of Alba, from Brussels, 1 April 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 508.

7. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Eraso, from Winchester, 26 July 1554, CODOIN, vol. III, pp. 526-528 (quotation at p. 527); Don Juan de Figueroa to Charles V, from Winchester, 26 July 1554, ibid., pp. 519-525 (see p. 523).

8. CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 11, p. 9.

9. Ibid., p. 12.

10. See the report of Don Juan de Figueroa (sent by the emperor to announce his gift in England) in CODOIN, vol. III, pp. 519-525. Figueroa's account (p. 524) implies that possession of Milan had been made over to Philip some time before but that the transfer had been kept secret. In fact, Philip was invested with the duchy in 1546, but Martin Hume argues that this investiture was "nominal" and that the real transfer took place at the wedding. Martin A. S. Hume, Philip II of Spain (1897) (New York, 1969), p. 62; see also Bratli, Felipe II , p. 77. For the announcement of the gift at the wedding ceremony (at Winchester, 25 July 1554), see also Varaona, "Viaje de Felipe II á Inglaterra en 1554," CODOIN, vol. I, p. 570; the English heralds' account in John G. Nichols, ed., The Chronicle of Queen Jane, and of Two Years of Queen Mary (London, 1850), app. XI, p. 168; and Francisco López de Gómara, Annals of the Emperor Charles V (Oxford, 1912), p. 151.

11. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Eraso, from Winchester, 29 July 1554, CODOIN, vol. III, pp. 528-530 (quotation at p. 530). The original of this letter is at AGS Estado, leg. 808, no. 148.

12. CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 11, p. 11.

13. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Eraso, from Winchester, 29 July 1554, CODOIN, vol. III, p. 530.

14. Privy Council register, 15 August 1554, in Nichols, Chronicle of Queen Jane , app. IX, pp. 135-136.

15. Simon Renard to Charles V, from Twickenham, 3 September 1554, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 56, p. 45.

16. "An account of what has befallen in the realm of England since Prince Philip landed there, written by a gentleman who accompanied the Prince to England . . .," 17 August 1554, ibid., doc. 37, pp. 30-34 (quotation at pp. 33-34). For some specific departures, see Privy Council register, 13 August 1554, in Nichols, Chronicle of Queen Jane , app. IX, p. 135. See also D. M. Loades, The Reign of Mary Tudo (London, 1979), pp. 212-213, 222.

17. On the growing confusion of lines of authority between the two courts, however, see Diego de Vargas to Ruy Gómez de Silva, from Brussels, 30 November 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 508, no. 236.

18. Many of the state papers concerning Philip's sojourn in England and the Netherlands, 1554-1559, were lost at sea during the return voyage to Spain in 1559. Some of the surviving documents--most of them held at Simancas--have been printed in the British calendars, CODOIN, and other collections.

19. For a detailed account of the Habsburg politics of the 1550s, see Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire . My account differs on several points from hers, in part because of the narrower focus of my interest in these issues and also because of my somewhat divergent view of Philip's personality and its evolution in these years.

20. Charles V to the Duke of Alba, from Brussels, 1 April 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 508.

21. Ibid.; translation from CalStP-S , vol. XII, p. 185.

22. Badoero, "Relazione," p. 279.

23. Charles V to Philip, "Carta autógrafa e instrucción secreta de 6 de mayo de 1543," in José M. March, ed., Niñez y juventud de Felipe II (Madrid, 1941-1942), vol. II, p. 27.

24. For an early (1544-1545) example of Philip's exasperation with Alba, see Hayward Keniston, Francisco de los Cobos, Secretary of the Emperor Charles V (Pittsburgh, 1960), p. 270.

25. Antonio Ossorio, Vida y hazañas de Don Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Duque de Alba (1669) (Madrid, 1945), p. 470.

26. Rodríguez-Salgado attempts, not entirely convincingly, to revise the traditional vision of Philip's deference to his father. See The Changing Face of Empire , esp. pp. 7-9, 76.

27. On Perrenot's relations with Philip, see Maurice van Durme, El Cardenal Granvela (1517-1586) (Barcelona, 1957), pp. 109-110, 395-396 and passim; Paul David Lagomarsino, "Court Factions and the Formulation of Spanish Policy Towards the Netherlands (1559-1567)," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1973, pp. 17-18; Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , p. 13 (including remarks about flattery). For Philip's first meeting with Arras and contemporary praise of Perrenot's abilities, see Juan Cristóbal Calvete de Estrella, El felicissimo viaje del muy alto y muy poderoso principe don Phelippe (1552) (Madrid, 1930), vol. I, p. 166. Arras's propensity for making enemies is discussed in Geoffrey Parker, The Dutch Revolt (Ithaca, 1977), p. 45.

28. The best account of this conflict is in Lagomarsino, "Court Factions," esp. ch. 3.

29. CalStP-S , vol. XI, pp. xxi and 222-225; Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , p. 75. For a gloomy report on Charles's health in this period, see "Relacion de las cartas del s ^or Fer ^do de vi y xvii de octubre 1553," AGS Estado, leg. 508, no. 32.

30. Arras to Charles V, 3 September 1554, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 55, p. 44. For a superb account of the feud between Perrenot and Renard, see Lucien Febvre, Philippe II et la Franche-Comté (Paris, 1970), ch. V, sections III and IV, pp. 83-88, and ch. VI, pp. 91-106.

31. Among many others, see Lagomarsino, "Court Factions," pp. 21ff.; CalStP-S , vol. XIII, p. vi; and the evidence of the correspondence between the two men cited in this work.

32. See Louis-Prosper Gachard, ed., Correspondance de Philippe II sur les affaires des Pays-Bas, 1558-1577 , vol. I (Brussels, 1848), p. lviii and n. 1. For criticism of the bishop's "ingratitude" for extravagant royal favor, see Ruy Gómez de Silva to Francisco de Eraso, from Madrid, 20 May 1552, AGS Estado, leg. 89, no. 131.

33. For the alliance in the early 1550s of Arras and Alba, along with the secretary Gonzalo Pérez, see Lagomarsino, "Court Factions," pp. 17-18. The shifting nature of the relations of all of these protagonists up to 1567 is cogently described in subsequent sections of Lagomarsino's dissertation.

34. For Arras's anxiety over the succession, see van Durme, El Cardenal Granvela , esp. p. 192. See also Royall Tyler, The Emperor Charles the Fifth (London, 1956), p. 167. For further discussion of the misgivings of the emperor's Netherlandish and Burgundian advisers, see Febvre, Philippe II et la Franche-Comté , pp. 84, 86, 95, 99; Manuel Fernández Alvarez, Charles V, Elected Emperor and Hereditary Ruler (London, 1975), pp. 167-168. Ethnic resentment was hardly a one-way street; witness Ruy Gómez de Silva to Eraso, from London, 23 August 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 808, no. 141, in which he complains that problems with the English marriage can be attributed to the fact that the negotiations were entrusted to Arras and Renard rather than to Spaniards.

35. Badoero, "Relazione," p. 239.

36. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Eraso, from Winchester, 29 July 1554, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 7, p. 6.

37. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Eraso, from Richmond, 12 August 1554, CODOIN, vol. III, p. 531; original (from "Rreximon") at AGS Estado, leg. 808, no. 143.

38. Ibid. Regarding Philip's relations with Mary, some confusion has been caused by Carl Bratli's misreading of Badoero (or, to be precise, of Gachard's paraphrase of the relazione ); the Venetian's reference to mutual loathing between Philip and Queen Mary concerns Mary of Hungary, not Mary Tudor. See Bratli, Felipe II , p. 83 and n. 235, p. 177; Badoero, "Relazione," pp. 208-209; Louis-Prosper Gachard, ed., Relations des ambassadeurs vénitiens sur Charles-Quint et Philippe II (Brussels, 1855), pp. 16-17.

39. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Eraso, from London, 2 October 1554, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 71, p. 60.

40. Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , p. 127.

41. Diego de Vargas to Ruy Gómez de Silva, from Brussels, 30 November 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 508, no. 236.

42. In a letter to Charles V, 3 September 1554, Arras wrote "And now that your Majesty has resolved to retire . . ." ( CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 55, p. 44).

43. Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , p. 127.

44. See also Loades, Reign of Mary Tudor , pp. 123-124, 211-212; Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , p. 90.

45. See van Durme, El Cardenal Granvela , p. 192.

46. See Ruy Gómez de Silva to Eraso, 12 August 1554, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 30, p. 26.

47. Francisco de Eraso to Ruy Gómez de Silva, from Antwerp, 29 November 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 808, no. 133; printed in CODOIN, vol. III, pp. 532-536 (quotations from pp. 533-534).

48. Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , p. 73, suggests that Eraso had started to shift his allegiance to Philip as early as 1552.

49. Eraso to Ruy Gómez de Silva, from Antwerp, 29 November 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 808, no. 133.

50. Ibid.

51. They were in regular correspondence at least from early 1552; see, for example, some of that year's letters from Ruy Gómez to Eraso in AGS Estado, leg. 89, nos. 120-123, 125, 129-131.

52. "E superbissimo, collerico e rustico molto . . ." (Badoero, "Relazione," p. 248).

53. Ambassades de Noailles , reproduced in Nichols, Chronicle of Queen Jane , p. 138. The degree of their intimacy was in some ways rather revolting. See, for example, the memorandum "News from Various Quarters," prepared for Charles V, Brussels, June, 1555: "Ruy Gómez writes to me in a letter dated 4 June that the King had had a pain in the bowels, as he frequently does . . ." ( CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 209, p. 214). Over a decade later Ruy Gómez was still broadcasting privy details of the king's physical ailments; see Ruy Gómez de Silva to Juan de Escobedo, from Pellejeros, 2 October 1566, AGS, Consejo y Juntas de Hacienda (CJH), leg. 50, no. 264.

54. See Charles V to Ruy Gómez de Silva, from Bethune, September 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 508, no. 203, where the emperor praises Ruy Gómez for his assistance, reported by Eraso, to Philip.

55. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Francisco de Eraso, no date (early 1554?), AGS Estado, leg. 808, no. 134.

56. Keniston, Francisco de los Cobos , p. 337; Lagomarsino, "Court Factions," p. 22; Badoero, "Relazione," p. 248. Eraso was accused and convicted in the mid-1560s of massive corruption involving government funds. See Badoero for indications that Eraso's peculations had begun with state contracts negotiated for Charles V.

57. Badoero, "Relazione," p. 248.

58. John M. Headley, The Emperor and his Chancellor (Cambridge, 1983), p. 143.

59. Lagomarsino, "Court Factions," pp. 22-23. In the mid-1560s Figueroa was to be Eraso's chief accuser and prosecutor for corruption. See, for example, Cardinal Granvelle to Viglius, from Besançon, 26 December 1564, in Charles Weiss, ed., Papiers d'État du Cardinal de Granvelle , vol. VIII (Paris, 1850), p. 570, referring to "la guerre que Figueroa fait à Erasso." From the early days of his collaboration with Eraso, Ruy Gómez played upon the secretary's dislike of Gonzalo Pérez, regaling him with tales of the sloth and presumption of his rival. See Ruy Gómez de Silva to Francisco de Eraso, from Aranjuez, 13 October 1552, AGS Estado, leg. 89, no. 122; same to same, from Madrid, 25 November 1552, AGS Estado, leg. 89, no. 123.

60. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Eraso, 12 August 1554, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 30, p. 26.

61. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Francisco de Eraso, from Hampton Court ("antoncurt"), 22 September 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 808, no. 139.

62. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Francisco de Eraso, from Garcillán (near Segovia), 7 May 1552, AGS Estado, leg. 89, no. 130. Somewhat similarly, the French diplomat Lansac de Saint-Gelais described the sumiller de corp as "celuy qui couche en la chambre du roy d'Espagne" (Lansac de Saint-Gelais to the Cardinal of Lorraine, June 1559, in Louis Paris, ed., Négociations, lettres et pièces diverses relatives au regne de François II (Paris, 1841), p. 177).

63. An extract of the letter of 7 December appears in CalStP-S , vol. XIII, p. 117. For earlier imperial misgivings about the visit, see Philip to Eraso, November 1554, ibid., p. 93.

64. For further indications of this, see (Diego de Vargas?) to Ruy Gómez de Silva, from Brussels, 12 December 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 508, no. 241, with the news that the emperor had decided to remit the accumulated consultas de particulares from Naples and Milan to Philip for resolution; Charles's instructions to Eraso, 1 September 1554, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, p. 39; Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , p. 90.

65. See the report of Philip's complaints in Diego de Vargas to Ruy Gómez de Silva, from Brussels, 30 November 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 508, nos. 236-235 (a single letter, numbered out of sequence in the legajo ). In CalStP-S , vol. XIII, pp. 110-112, Ruy Gómez's correspondent is identified as Eraso. This cannot be so, since the writer refers to Eraso in the third person and also because he praises the bishop of Arras, absolving him from any blame for Philip's displeasure. Eraso would hardly have been so charitable to his longtime enemy in a letter to a confidant. Moreover, the cover notation on the original letter suggests what I believe to be the proper attribution to Vargas.

66. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Francisco de Eraso, from London, 2 October 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 808, no. 138, reports the news of the pregnancy and contains a hint of early doubt about its viability.

67. See AGS, Patronato Real, leg. 44, no. 11 ⁽ⁱⁱ⁾ ; the following documents in CalStP-S , vol. XIII: Arras to Simon Renard, 5 January 1555, doc. 136, p. 131; Mary [Tudor] to Charles V, 18 January 1555, doc. 140, p. 135; Arras to Renard, 1 March 1555, doc. 155, pp. 143-144; Renard to Ferdinand, King of the Romans, July 1555, doc. 226, p. 236; draft letter, Eraso to Juan Vázquez de Molina, 20 August 1555, doc. 234, p. 243. See also Loades, Reign of Mary Tudor , p. 217; Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , p. 110. Arras's reliance on Ruy Gómez de Silva is evident from his letter of 1 March. Further evidence of recognition at the imperial court of Ruy Gómez's influence as a conduit to Philip is provided by Diego de Vargas to Ruy Gómez de Silva, from Brussels, 6 November 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 508, no. 221, and same to same, 1 August 1555, AGS Estado, leg. 508, no. 182.

68. News of this decision seems to have been brought to the imperial court by Ruy Gómez in February, 1555 (see Arras to Renard, 1 March 1555, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 155, pp. 143-144), but the duke did not leave England for the Continent until April and only departed Brussels for Italy in June ("From the Imperial Court on 14 April [1555], from the Ambassador in England," ibid., doc. 173, p. 161; Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , p. 141).

69. William Maltby, Alba: A Biography of Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Third Duke of Alba, 1507-1582 (Berkeley, 1983), pp. 86ff. For a more thorough and convincing account of these events, see Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , pp. 104-110.

70. For Maltby's depiction of the unwilling but duty-bound Alba, see his Alba , pp. 87-88.

71. Charles V, Instructions for Eraso, 1 October 1554, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, p. 59; Giovan Tommaso Langosco di Stroppiana to Arras, 6 October 1554, ibid., p. 63; Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , pp. 104-105.

72. Simon Renard to Charles V, 13 October 1554, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, p. 66; Renard to Arras, 13 October 1554, ibid., p. 69; Stroppiana to Arras, 22 October 1554, ibid., p. 75; Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, to Charles V, December 1554, ibid., pp. 122-123; Arras to Charles V, 18 December 1554, ibid., p. 123; Antonio Maria de Savoia to Arras, 25 December 1554, ibid., p. 127.

73. Arras to Charles V, 18 December 1554, ibid., p. 124.

74. Stroppiana to Arras, 22 October 1554, ibid., p. 75; Ruy Gómez de Silva to Eraso, 23 November 1554, ibid., pp. 103-104; same to same, from London, 11 December 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 808, no. 131.

75. Arras to Renard, 1 March 1555, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, p. 143; Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , p. 107.

76. For Gonzaga's reaction, see AGS, Patronato Real, leg. 44, no. 11; Renard to Charles V, 13 March 1555, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, p. 146.

77. Anxiety over this competition is evident in Arras's letter to Charles V of 18 December 1554, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, pp. 123-124.

78. AGS, Patronato Real, leg. 44, no. 11 ⁽ⁱⁱ⁾ ; Eraso to Juan Vázquez de Molina, 12 April 1555, CalStP-S , vol. XII, p. 159. Arras claimed credit for pacifying Savoy in his letter to Renard of 1 March 1555 ( CalStP-S , vol. XIII, p. 143).

79. See AGS, Patronato Real, leg. 44, no. 11 ^{(i-ii, v)} --11 ⁽ⁱ⁾ dated Antwerp, 8 April 1555; also, Eraso to Juan Vázquez de Molina, 12 April 1555, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, p. 159. After describing the rather generous monetary settlement and the honors offered to Gonzaga, Eraso continues: "But he [Gonzaga] swept all this aside, insisting on the post of Lord Chamberlain (Mayordomo mayor) saying that nothing else was compatible with his honour and that he must not be inferior to anyone." See also Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , pp. 105-107.

80. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Eraso, 15 April 1555, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, p. 162.

81. Ibid., p. 163.

82. Ibid.

83. Ibid.

84. Eraso seems to have worked for Alba's appointment as well. See Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , p. 105.

85. Ramón Carande noted Alba's suspicions on this score in his account of the duke's finances in Italy ( Carlos V y sus banqueros (Barcelona, 1983), vol. II, pp. 261ff.), and Lagomarsino makes this charge ("Court Factions," p. 334), while Maltby greatly elaborates the argument ( Alba , pp. 88-89 and notes, p. 333). Lagomarsino and Maltby are concerned to demonstrate a precedent for similar obstruction of Alba's administration in the Netherlands in the late 1560s. Their evidence for the later period is more convincing, although this notion as well may require revision in light of the strenuous efforts to supply the duke reported in Melchor de Herrera to Ruy Gómez de Silva, from Medina del Campo, 10 September 1568, AGS CJH, leg. 90, no. 12. Maltby carries partisanship on this issue to considerable lengths, suggesting at one point that the provisioning of Alba's invasion of Portugal in 1580 was successful largely because "there was now no Ruy Gómez or Eraso to undermine him" (pp. 286-287, quote at p. 287). One might more plausibly argue that the Portuguese expedition benefited from the relative ease of marshaling resources within the peninsula during a period of comparative financial stability.

86. Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , pp. 140-141, refutes Maltby. Among a multitude of sources on the faltering finances of those years, see her book and Carande, Carlos V y sus banqueros , vol. II, ch. 4. Alba's financial situation in Italy is discussed on pp. 261-273. On p. 263 Carande remarks that Eraso served the duke as a scapegoat for the problems frustrating him: "era Eraso el blanco predilecto de los tiros del duque."

87. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Francisco de Eraso, from London, 5 December 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 808, no. 132; same to same, 21 December 1554, ibid., no. 130.

88. See Hume, Philip II of Spain , pp. 63-64, for a typical statement of this belief.

89. Maltby, Alba , pp. 70-71.

90. A few identifiable Mendozas--the count of Saldaña, Don Francisco de Mendoza (son of the marquis of Mondéjar) and Don Bernardino de Mendoza, himself an Alba partisan--were among the retinue and household taken to England, while Alba was accompanied by his wife and two sons, and his brother-in-law the caballerizo mayor Don Antonio de Toledo, to mention only the members of his immediate family. Furthermore, in his position as mayordomo mayor , Alba had presumably filled many household posts with his friends and clients. See CalStP-S , vol. XII, p. 317, for a list of the aristocratic retinue, and Muñoz, Viaje de Felipe II , p. 31, for an approximation of the personnel of the accompanying household. Feria became a friend and ally of Ruy Gómez de Silva in later years, and they may have grown close while in England, but there is no direct evidence to support this supposition.

91. The term is used by Loades to describe Mary Tudor's favorites ( Reign of Mary tudor , p. 84).

92. For examples, see Alba to Ruy Gómez de Silva, 3 May 1555, Duque de Alba, ed., Epistolario del III Duque de Alba, Don Fernando Alvarez de Toledo (Madrid, 1952), vol. I, p. 85; same to same, 6 May 1555 (a chatty note concerning Ruy Gómez's younger brother), ibid., p. 93; same to same, 23 July 1555, ibid., p. 268.

93. Carande, Carlos V y sus banqueros , vol. II, p. 262.

94. See, for example, the cordial missive Ruy Gómez de Silva to Alba, 30 March 1556, Duquesa de Berwick y de Alba, ed., Documentos escogidos del archivo de la Casa de Alba (Madrid, 1891), pp. 73-75.

95. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Eraso, 6 June 1555, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 207, p. 213. Royall Tyler notes that Ruy Gómez had recently received a letter from the marquis of Mondéjar complaining that "that dog Alva has bitten me, too" (ibid.). This may support a suspicion that Ruy Gómez had been mounting a campaign of backbiting against the duke. Certainly he criticized Alba in letters to Eraso even before the journey to England; see, for example, Ruy Gómez de Silva to Francisco de Eraso, 18 May 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 808, no. 152.

96. Maltby, Alba , p. 85. No sources are cited to support this assertion.

97. See D. M. Loades, "Philip II and the Government of England," in Law and Government under the Tudors , ed. by Claire Cross, David Loades and J. J. Scarisbrick (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 177-194. He argues that Philip, handicapped by linguistic shortcomings and ignorance of English law and government, took little interest in the kingdom's affairs; moreover, he concludes that Mary, her pronouncements and subsequent tradition notwithstanding, was jealous of her own prerogatives and did little to empower Philip within England. William Paget, the only english counselor closely allied with Philip, was for the most part out of favor with Mary and thus little help to the king. See ibid., pp. 182-184; James Bassett to Paget, 14 November 1556, in Barrett L. Beer and Sybil M. Jack, eds., "The Letters of William, Lord Paget of Beaudesert, 1547-1563," Camden Miscellany , vol. XXV (London, 1974), p. 140. Rodríguez-Salgado, however, sees evidence of Philip's effective influence in English government and of the potential for more ( The Changing Face of Empire , pp. 94-100).

98. Alone among the Spaniards, Feria married an Englishwoman and stayed on as Philip's ambassador. Joycelyne G. Russell, Peacemaking in the Renaissance (London, 1986), p. 148, suggests that Ruy Gómez de Silva acquired some English, but the evidence is scanty.

99. The allegation of Ruy Gómez's ignorance appears in Loades, "Philip II and the Government of England," p. 188. For his relations with the English lords, see Gustav Ungerer, A Spaniard in Elizabethan England: The Correspondence of Antonio Pérez's Exile (London, 1974-1976), vol. I, p. 33. See also Don Pedro de Córdoba to Ferdinand, King of the Romans, 10 December 1554, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 127, p. 119. For an English description of the typical Spanish tournament entertainment, the juego de cañas held 25 November 1554, see John Gough Nichols, ed., the Diary of Henry Machyn (London, 1848), p. 76.

100. Arras to Ruy Gómez de Silva, 23 August 1555, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 235, p. 246.

101. In 1554 Philip had named Ruy Gómez Groom of the Stole in his English household, in addition to his Castilian post of sumiller de corps . See Diego Gutiérrez Coronel, Historia genealógica de la case de Mendoza (Madrid, 1946), p. 565.

102. Arras to Ruy Gómez de Silva, 23 August 1555, CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 235, p. 246; Philip's draft instructions to Ruy Gómez de Silva, late August 1555, ibid., docs. 240-241, pp. 247-248; Ruy Gómez de Silva to Eraso, 4 September 1555, ibid., doc. 243, p. 249.

103. Good accounts of the abdication process are provided by A. W. Lovett, Early Habsburg Spain, 1517-1598 (Oxford, 1986), p. 59; van Durme, El Cardenal Granvela , pp. 190-192; Roger Bigelow Merriman, The Rise of the Spanish Empire in the Old World and in the New , vol. III, The Emperor (New York, 1918), pp. 394-397; and Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire , pp. 126-132. The circumstances of the transfer of 16 January 1556 are reported by Luis Cabrera de Córdoba, Historia de Felipe II, rey de España (Madrid, 1876-1877), vol. I, libro I, capítulo VII, p. 36, and Merriman, Rise of the Spanish Empire , vol. III, p. 396. Rodríguez-Salgado's account emphasizes conflict in the abdication process between Philip and his father over the emperor's attempts ''to retain power without responsibility'' ( The Changing Face of Empire , p. 128). She also argues, contradicting van Durme and Merriman, that Charles retained control of the county of Burgundy until his death ( The Changing Face of Empire , p. 131).

104. For the revival of the council, see Lagomarsino, "Court Factions," p. 31, and M. J. Rodríguez-Salgado, "The Court of Philip II of Spain," in Princes, Patronage, and the Nobility: The Court at the Beginning of the Modern Age, c.1450-1650 , ed. by Ronald G. Asch and Adolf M. Birke (Oxford, 1991), pp. 222-223; for its desuetude under Charles V, see John H. Elliott, Imperial Spain, 1469-1716 (Harmondsworth, 1970), p. 173.

105. Cabrera de Córdoba, Felipe II , vol. I, lib. I, cap. VII, p. 37; Luis de Salazar y Castro, Historia genealógica de la casa de Silva (Madrid, 1685), vol. II, p. 471. The twelve councilors of state were Ruy Gómez de Silva, Alba, Feria, Arras, Ferrante Gonzaga, the duke of Savoy, Andrea Doria, Don Juan Manrique de Lara, Don Antonio de Toledo, the count of Chinchón (Don Pedro de Cabrera y Bobadilla), Don Bernardino de Mendoza (brother of the second marquis of Mondéjar) and Gutierre López de Padilla. Don Juan de Figueroa was soon added to the list. López de Gómara, Annals , p. 271, provides a shorter and different list (excluding Alba, Feria, Savoy, Doria, Chinchón and López de Padilla, but adding Juan de Vega and Don Luis de Avila).

106. Cabrera de Córdoba, Felipe II , vol. I, lib. I, cap. VIII, p. 41. For a strong recommendation, supporting Cabrera's judgment of this relationship, see Ruy Gómez de Silva to Francisco de Eraso, from Richmond, 12 August 1554, AGS Estado, leg. 808, no. 145. For acknowledgment of Ruy Gómez's patronage, see Gutierre López de Padilla to Ruy Gómez de Silva, from Valladolid, 8 December 1557, AGS CJH, leg. 32, no. 123. López de Padilla accompanied Philip to England, and he sometimes appears as a figure of fun in the correspondence between Ruy Gómez de Silva and Eraso. For example, in a letter of 8 June 1555 Ruy Gómez wrote, regarding the uncertainties of Mary Tudor's pregnancy, that "they say that the calculations got mixed up when they saw her with a girth greater than that of Gutierre López" ( CalStP-S , vol. XIII, doc. 212, p. 222). In 1557, however, Juan de Escobedo warned Ruy Gómez that López de Padilla was a false friend and backstabber (Escobedo to Ruy Gómez de Silva, from Valladolid, 16 October 1557, AGS CJH, leg. 32, no. 121).

107. Van Durme, El Cardenal Granvela , p. 199; Badoero, "Relazione," p. 240.

108. Badoero, "Relazione," p. 248; Cabrera de Córdoba, Felipe II , vol. I, lib. I, cap. VII, pp. 38-39.

109. Badoero, "Relazione," p. 248; José Antonio Escudero, Los secretarios de estado y del despacho (1474-1724) (Madrid, 1969), vol. I, p. 107.

110. Lagomarsino, "Court Factions," p. 32. Antonio Rodríguez Villa, Etiquetas de la Casa de Austria (Madrid, 1913?), p. 62, estimates (without specifying the date) the compensation of the sumiller as 480 maravedís per diem, plus an annual salary of 175,200 maravedís , plus a variety of allowances for tableware, wood and foodstuffs.

111. Badoero to the Doge and Senate of Venice, 24 February 1556, in Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts, relating to English Affairs, Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice, and in other Libraries of Northern Italy (cited henceforth as CalStP-V ), ed. by Rawdon Brown and G. Cavendish Bentinck, vol. VI, pt. I (1555-1556) (London, 1877), doc. 410, pp. 356-357.

112. Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (AHN), Sección Osuna, leg. 2078, nos. 4 ¹ and 12 ⁷ , and leg. 2077, no. 10 ⁶ . See Chapter 2 for the 3,000-ducat debt.

113. Badoero to the Doge and Senate, 24 February 1556, CalStP-V , vol. VI, pt. I, doc. 410, p. 357. Note that the Venetian refers to Ruy Gómez de Silva as "don." No Spaniard accorded him this courtesy title.

114. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 472; Gutiérrez Coronel, Casa de Mendoza , vol. II, p. 565.

115. See the title of office in AGS, Escribanía Mayor de Rentas, Quitaciones de Corte (EMR-QC), leg. 39, fols. 618ff. See also Cabrera de Córdoba, Felipe II , vol. I, lib. I, cap. VIII, p. 41; Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 472; Gutiérrez Coronel, Casa de Mendoza , vol. II, p. 565; Modesto Ulloa, La hacienda real de Castilla en el reinado de Felipe II (Madrid, 1986), p. 101.

116. Ulloa, La hacienda real , p. 101. For an example of the specific derechos pertaining to this office in 1564-1565, see AGS EMR-QC, leg. 39, fol. 687.

117. Van Durme, El Cardenal Granvela , pp. 193, 199.

118. Badoero to the Doge and Senate, 6 December 1555, CalStP-V , vol. VI, pt. I, p. 271.

119. See Lagomarsino's comments, "Court Factions," p. 13, and Chapter 5 of the present work.