1 From La Chamusca to the Court of Spain
1. William Maltby, Alba: A Biography of Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Third Duke of Alba, 1507-1582 (Berkeley, 1983), p. 330, n. 17. See also his comments on p. 86. Another scholar has remarked Ruy Gómez's ''almost uncanny ability to hide his feelings and cover his tracks.'' M. J. Rodríguez-Salgado, The Changing Face of Empire: Charles V, Philip II and Habsburg Authority, 1551-1559 (Cambridge, 1988), p. 16. Concerning the scarcity of correspondence, Paul David Lagomarsino suggests, without supplying evidence, that Ruy Gómez's papers may have been burned after his death on the king's orders ("Court Factions and the Formulation of Spanish Policy towards the Netherlands (1559-1567)," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1973, p. 19).
2. Luis Cabrera de Córdoba, Historia de Felipe II, rey de España (Madrid, 1876-1877), vol. II, libro X, capítulo I, pp. 141-142.
3. A word should be added here about the name Ruy Gómez. Even though the family surname had once been Gómez de Silva, by the time of Ruy Gómez de Silva's birth, Ruy Gómez (often spelled as one word--Rruigomez or Ruigomes--in contemporary documents) had become in essence a forename. The name, as a first name, recurs over several generations of the Silva family, and it should be classified as one of the traditional names honoring prominent ancestors that were adopted by many noble houses. More familiar examples are Iñigo López or Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, or Per Afán de Ribera. (At a somewhat more humble social level, the Loyola clan seems to have been inordinately fond of these compound names; see William W. Meissner, Ignatius of Loyola [New Haven, 1992], p. 13, for the names of the siblings of the Jesuit founder--himself Iñigo López .) Also, since I have gained my knowledge of Ruy Gómez's family from Spanish documents and treatises, I have chosen to use the Castilianized names that appear in the sources.
4. Luis de Salazar y Castro, Historia genealógica de la Casa de Silva (Madrid, 1685), vol. II, p. 456.
5. Ibid., p. 442.
6. Ibid., pp. 419-422; Cabrera de Córdoba, Felipe II , vol. IV, lib. VII, cap. V, p. 158.
7. Cabrera de Córdoba, Felipe II, vol. IV, lib. VII, cap. V,p. 158; Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva, vol. II, pp. 425-434.
8. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva, vol. II, pp. 435-437.
9. Ibid., pp. 435, 437, 438-441.
10. Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (AHN), Sección Ordenes Militares, Pruebas de Caballeros de Alcántara, expediente 1.430 (prueba of Don Diego de Silva y Mendoza).
11. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva, vol. II, p. 447; Cabrera de Córdoba, Felipe II, vol. IV, lib. VII, cap. V, p. 158. The Meneses and the Noronhas were among the greatest families of Portugal throughout the early modern period. The Meneses in particular had benefited from the irresponsible alienation of royal lands and revenues by the weak Afonso V (reigned 1438-1481). (See A. H. de Oliveira Marques, History of Portugal [New York, 1976], pp. 178-179, 284, 341.)
12. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva, vol. II, pp. 418, 448-456.
13. For examples, see Pedro Aguado Bleye, "Príncipe de Eboli," in Diccionario de historia de España, ed. by Germán Bleiberg (Madrid, 1981), vol. I, p. 1181; John H. Elliott, Imperial Spain, 1469-1716 (Harmondsworth, 1970), p. 406.
14. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva, vol. II, p. 456. To my knowledge, there is no extant copy of Ruy Gómez's fe de bautismo, at least in the Spanish archives. I have not encountered any record of his birth or baptism in the papers of the ducal house, nor does such a testimony appear in the proof of Ruy Gómez's pedigree drawn up in 1540 for his admission as a knight of Calatrava (AHN Ordenes Militares, Pruebas de Caballeros de Calatrava, exped. 2472). This is unusual, but the document is incomplete and badly damaged.
15. Federico Badoero, "Relazione delle persone, governo e stati di Carlo V e di Filippo II (1557)," in Eugenio Albèri, ed., Le relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senato durante il secolo decimosesto, ser. I, vol. III (Florence, 1853), p. 241. Confusion persists, however, since J. García Mercadal, in his Spanish version of this relazione, notes that an alternate copy gives Ruy Gómez's age as thirty-six. See J. García Mercadal, ed. and trans., Viajes de extranjeros por España y Portugal (Madrid, 1952), vol. I, p. 1115.
16. José Cornide, Estado de Portugal en el año de 1800, vol. II, in Memorial histórico español, vol. XXVII (Madrid, 1894), pp. 146-147; Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva, vol. II, p. 445.
17. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 443.
18. AHN Ordenes Militares, Pruebas de Caballeros de Alcántara, exped. 1.430, testimony of Andrés Vaes.
19. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 445.
20. AHN Ordenes Militares, Pruebas de Caballeros de Alcántara, exped. 1.431 (prueba of Don Diego de Silva y Portugal, 1613).
21. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 442; AHN Ordenes Militares, Pruebas de Caballeros de Alcántara, exped. 1.430, testimony of Andrés Vaes.
22. Juan de Zúñiga to Charles V, 20 July 1523, abstract in José M. March, ed., Niñez y juventud de Felipe II (Madrid, 1941-1942), vol. I, ser. IV, no. 1, p. 90.
23. AHN Ordenes Militares, Pruebas de Caballeros de Alcántara, exped. 1.430, testimony of Andrés Vaes.
24. Ibid., testimony of Manuel de Mello Cotiño; Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, pp. 456-457.
25. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, pp. 456-457; Cabrera de Córdoba, Felipe II , vol. IV, lib. VII, cap. V. p. 158; AHN Ordenes Militares, Pruebas de Caballeros de Alcántara, exped. 1.430, testimony of Andrés Vaes.
26. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Francisco de Eraso, from Madrid, 25 November 1552, Archivo General de Simancas (AGS), Secretaría de Estado (Estado), legajo 89, no. 123.
27. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 457.
28. Cabrera de Córdoba, Felipe II , vol. IV, lib. VII, cap. V, p. 158; Badoero, "Relazione," p. 240. There is, however, no reason to credit Badoero's suggestion that Ruy Gómez's mother was Philip's wet nurse.
29. Albalá of Charles V, Madrid, 1 March 1535, in March, Niñez y juventud , vol. I, ser. VII, no. 3, pp. 282-283 (quotation at p. 282). The prince's governor was to receive a salary and ayuda de costa totaling 2000 ducats per year. Zúñiga commissioned the Libro de la cámara real of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and doubtless consulted it while arranging Philip's household. See Juan Beneyto Pérez, Historia de la administración española e hispanoamericana (Madrid, 1958), p. 345.
30. Estefanía de Requesens [wife of Juan de Zúñiga] to Hipólita de Liori, Condesa de Palamós [her mother], 17 March 1535, in March, Niñez y juventud , vol. II, ser. XIII, no. 25, pp. 225-227. Presumably the lifelong friendship of Ruy Gómez and Luis de Requesens stemmed from their youthful association in this household.
31. My account of this incident and its aftermath is based on the following documents, printed by March in Niñez y juventud: Estefanía de Requesens to the Condesa de Palamós, from Madrid, 5 December 1535, in vol. II, ser. XIII, no. 53, p. 285; Report of Juan de Zúñiga, 1535 (day and month missing), in vol. II, ser. XVI, III:3, pp. 411-412; El Cardenal presidente (Tavera) to Charles V, 1535 (day and month missing), in vol. II, ser. XVI, III:3, pp. 409-411; Juan de Zúñiga to Charles V, from Madrid, 11 February 1536, in vol. I, ser. VI, no. 11, p. 230. Direct quotations will be identified specifically.
32. The president is not identified in March's volume, but Tavera held this post in 1535. See Jules Gounon-Loubens, Essais sur l'administration de la Castille au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1860), p. 174; Hayward Keniston, Francisco de los Cobos, Secretary of the Emperor Charles V (Pittsburgh, 1960), p. 167.
33. Report of Juan de Zúñiga, in March, Niñez y juventud , vol. II, p. 411.
34. El Cardenal presidente to Charles V, ibid., vol. II, p. 410.
35. Ibid. The two young men were to be held in separate fortresses, "one in Zorita [de los Canes] and the other in another." Later in life, Ruy Gómez de Silva would have a happier connection with the fortress of Zorita. He was named its governor in 1559 by Philip II (AHN, Sección Osuna, leg. 2015, no. 1).
36. El Cardenal presidente to Charles V, in March, Niñez y juventud , vol. II, p. 411.
37. Report of Juan de Zúñiga (Charles V's marginal comment), ibid., vol. II, p. 412. The emperor's acquiescence in leniency contradicts Badoero's dramatic account of this incident. The Venetian ambassador, writing twentyodd years after the fact, claimed that only the pleas of young Philip saved Ruy Gómez from execution by command of Charles V (Badoero, "Relazione," p. 240; for the same version, told even better, see William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain , vol. III [Boston, 1858], p. 399).
38. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 458. He quotes from the albalá of Empress Isabel, countersigned by Juan Vázquez de Molina, Madrid, 24 December 1535. Again, Badoero's account, echoed by Prescott, of Philip's tearful intercession with his father to lift Ruy Gómez's exile seems unlikely, not least because Charles was absent from Spain in this period (Badoero, "Relazione," pp. 240-241; Prescott, Philip the Second , vol. III, pp. 399-400).
39. Estefanía de Requesens to the Condesa de Palamós, 5 December 1535, in March, Niñez y juventud , vol. II, ser. XIII, no. 53, p. 285. It may be that Zúñiga too had an interest in dismissing this matter rather lightly, since the other page involved may have been his relative (the ayo 's full name was Juan de Zúñiga y Avellaneda). Niñez y juventud , vol. I, ser. IV, intro., pp. 83-84.
40. On Zúñiga's character, ibid., vol. I, pp. 215-225. Perhaps as a result of his mother's efforts, Philip evinced a marked predisposition toward the Portuguese throughout his life. Both of his privados , and arguably the two men he trusted most, Ruy Gómez de Silva and Cristóbal de Moura, were Portuguese, a fact first remarked by Agustín Manuel de Vasconcelos (quoted in Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 518).
41. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 458. Two months before, Ruy Gómez had been among a select group of the servants of the empress who had accompanied her funeral cortege to Granada (March, Niñez y juventud , vol. II, editor's intro. to ser. XIV, pp. 355-357). It was at the end of this journey that Francisco de Borja, marquis of Lombay and the leader of the funeral retinue, experienced the epiphany that caused him to rededicate his life to religion (March, Niñez y juventud , vol. II, pp. 454-455).
42. "Memoria de las carretas y azemilas," etc., ibid., vol. II, ser. XVI, II:2, pp. 405-408. The document is undated. March makes no estimate, but it must date from the period 1540-1543, since it refers to Siliceo as the bishop of Cartagena (he was named to that diocese upon the death, in March 1540, of the incumbent), and since it makes no mention of the princess or her household (Philip was married in November 1543).
43. AGS, Guerra y Marina, leg. 23, nos. 92-93.
44. "Relación del casamiento del Príncipe Don Felipe con Doña María de Portugal," in March, Niñez y juventud , vol. II, ser. XI, no. 14, p. 87.
45. "Torneo celebrado en Valladolid con ocasión de la Boda del Príncipe Don Felipe con la Infanta Doña María de Portugal (1544)," in Amalio Huarte, ed., Relaciones de los reinados de Carlos V y Felipe II (Madrid, 1941), pp. 87-88.
46. Ibid., p. 94.
47. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 458.
48. Ibid.; Juan Cristóbal Calvete de Estrella, El felicissimo viaje del muy alto y muy poderoso principe don Phelippe (1552) (Madrid, 1930), vol. I, pp. 1-2; Cabrera de Córdoba, Felipe II , vol. I, lib. I, cap. II, p. 11.
49. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 458. The original grant had covered the period 1546-1555; Ruy Gómez was now to have 1/8 of the mines' yield for 1531-1545 as well. This income had apparently been held in escrow pending the outcome of a legal dispute between the Crown and the heirs of its previous owner.
50. Ibid., p. 459; Calvete de Estrella, El felicissimo viaje , vol. I, pp. 2-5; Francisco López de Gómara, Annals of the Emperor Charles V , trans. R. B. Merriman (Oxford, 1912), p. 257; Maltby, Alba , pp. 66-70; Elliott, Imperial Spain , p. 160. In "Habsburg Ceremony in Spain: The Reality of the Myth," Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques 15:1 (1988), Helen Nader refutes the tenacious notion that the introduction of Burgundian ceremonial sparked a xenophobic reaction in Castile.
51. Antonio Ballesteros y Beretta, Historia de España y su influencia en la historia universal (Barcelona, 1927), vol. IV, part II, p. 518. Ballesteros's account condenses that of Antonio Rodríguez Villa, Etiquetas de la Casa de Austria (Madrid, 1913?), pp. 62-64.
52. Calvete de Estrella, El felicissimo viaje , vol. I, p. 19; Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 459.
53. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, pp. 459, 464.
54. Ibid., p. 517, for quote from Garibay; Cabrera de Córdoba, Felipe II , vol. IV, lib. VII, cap. V, p. 158.
55. Prescott, Reign of Philip the Second (Philadelphia, 1904), vol. IV, p. 351.
56. William, Prince of Orange, The Apologie of Prince William of Orange against the Proclamation of the King of Spaine , ed. by H. Wansink after the English edition of 1581 (Leiden, 1969), p. 45.
57. Martin Hume dismissed the notion of a marriage but stated, without offering proof, that "subsequently for some years marital relations certainly existed between them [Philip and Isabel Osorio]." Similarly, A. W. Lovett asserts, again on uncertain evidence, that Philip did indeed have an affair with Isabel Osorio "either just before, or just after, the death of Mary of Portugal." See Hume, Philip II of Spain (1897) (New York, 1969), p. 27; Lovett, Early Habsburg Spain, 1517-1598 (Oxford, 1986), p. 119. Be this as it may, nothing has surfaced to either confirm or refute William the Silent's charges against Ruy Gómez de Silva.
58. Badoero, "Relazione," p. 241.
59. For Lerma, see Ciríaco Pérez Bustamante, Felipe III: Semblanza de un monarca y perfiles de una privanza (Madrid, 1950), pp. 38-41; for Olivares, Gregorio Marañón, El Conde-Duque de Olivares , 15th ed. (Madrid, 1980), p. 41. According to these authors, Lerma and Olivares won points with their young protégés by providing them with money to supplement their rather lean allowances. Ruy Gómez lacked the private financial resources of these men, so it seems unlikely that he was often in a position to advance funds to Philip.
60. Marañón attempted to refute these charges, but his righteous indignation is not altogether convincing ( Conde-Duque de Olivares , pp. 40-41); more recently, R. A. Stradling concluded that "it must be held probable that Olivares was privy to Philip's sexual adventures" ( Philip IV and the Government of Spain, 1621-1665 [Cambridge, 1988], p. 53; for his discussion of this subject, see pp. 20, 51-54).
61. Agustín G. de Amezúa y Mayo, Isabel de Valois, Reina de España (1546-1568) (Madrid, 1949), vol. I, pp. 427, 430 (citing Saint-Sulpice to Charles IX, 7 October 1564).
62. Charles V to Prince Philip, letter of instructions, 4 May 1543, in Francisco de Laiglesia y Auset, Estudios históricos (1515-1555) (Madrid, 1918), vol. I, p. 75. This instruction is also reproduced in March, Niñez y juventud , vol. II, ser. IX, no. I (quoted passage at pp. 18-19).
63. March, Niñez y juventud , vol. II, ser. IX passim .
64. Cabrera de Córdoba, Felipe II , vol. II, lib. X, cap. I, p. 140.
65. Gustav Ungerer, ed., A Spaniard in Elizabethan England: The Correspondence of Antonio Pérez's Exile (London, 1974-1976), vol. II, p. 335.
66. Elliott, Imperial Spain , p. 208. López de Gómara gives 1545 as the year of Zúñiga's death ( Annals of the Emperor , pp. 121-122).
67. López de Gómara, Annals of the Emperor , pp. 121-122.
68. Maltby, Alba , p. 70.
69. See Chapter 5.
70. María of Portugal died in childbirth in 1545.
71. Charles V to Prince Philip, 6 May 1543, in March, Niñez y juventud , vol. II, ser. IX, no. II, p. 27.
72. In the documents and histories consulted in preparing this study, I have never seen Ruy Gómez accorded this title except by Venetian ambassadors.
73. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 465; Gregorio Marañón, Antonio Pérez (Madrid, 1951), vol. I, p. 169, n. 6.
74. The most detailed account of this journey is, of course, Calvete de Estrella, El felicissimo viaje . There is also a useful summary, focused on Ruy Gómez's role in these events, in Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, pp. 459-462.
75. Calvete de Estrella, El felicissimo viaje , vol. I, pp. 14-19.
76. Ibid., vol. I, p. 21.
77. For Ruy Gómez's participation in various festivities in Italy and the Low Countries, see ibid., vol. I, pp. 82-88, 142, 189-204, 306-311; vol. II, 13-15, 396-400, 404-409. For the juego de cañas , Milan, 6 January 1549, see ibid., vol. I, pp. 87-88. For the damas tudescas , see ibid., vol. I, p. 310.
78. Ibid., pp. 396-400.
79. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 462.
80. Ibid., pp. 464-465.
81. A rather confusing entry in AGS Estado, leg. 89, no. 195, seems to give the value of Argamasilla in 1552 as 500,000 maravedís , or 1,333 ducats. In the Actas of the general chapter of Calatrava for 1600/1602, one of the order's encomiendas is listed as "Obrería y Argamasilla." Assuming that this is the right encomienda and that it corresponds to the 1523 listing for "La encomienda de la Obra" and to the 1573 designation of "La Obrería," Argamasilla was worth 830 ducats per year in 1523 and 2,256 ducats per year in 1573. See Hermann Kellenbenz, ''El valor de las rentas de las encomiendas de la Orden de Calatrava en 1523 y en 1573," Anuario de historia económica y social 1 (1968), pp. 588, 595, 597. See also Antonio Domínguez Ortiz, La sociedad española en el siglo XVII (Madrid, 1964), vol. I, pp. 199-200.
82. AHN Ordenes Militares, Pruebas de Caballeros de Calatrava, expeds. 1074 bis and 2742. The allowance paid a caballero was probably in the neighborhood of 80 ducats per year (Kellenbenz, "El valor," p. 584).
83. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, pp. 464-465.
84. Kellenbenz, "El valor," p. 595.
85. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 463.
86. Antonio Domínguez Ortiz, El antiguo régimen: los Reyes Católicos y los Austrias (Madrid, 1973), p. 115, observes that hábitos were greatly prized by lesser noblemen even though they "did not produce income," since the possession of one "afforded public testimony that its holder was of noble and pure blood."
87. Ruy Gómez de Silva to Francisco de Eraso, from Madrid, 25 November 1552, AGS Estado, leg. 89, no. 123; see also AGS Estado, leg. 508, no. 58.
88. AGS Estado, leg. 89, no. 196.
89. Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza to Ruy Gómez de Silva, March 1550, in R. Foulché-Delbosc, ed., "Cartas de Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza," Archivo de investigaciones históricas , II (1911), pp. 273-274. Neither the exact object nor the outcome of these negotiations is clear from this letter, but Ruy Gómez had evidently asked Mendoza's aid in securing a papal dispensation, which the latter thought could be obtained more cheaply should the present pope die of his dropsy. Mendoza's comments indicate that the negotiations had been delayed and that Ruy Gómez feared that the family of the prospective bride would back away from the match, but I have been unable to find any other letters that shed light on this affair.
90. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 465.
91. Such evidence as there is indicates that further children of this marriage were rendered unlikely because of the personal animosity between the count and the countess, rather than impossible because of sterility. This issue will be taken up below.
92. Maltby, Alba , p. 71.
93. Salazar y Castro, Casa de Silva , vol. II, p. 465; Gaspar Muro, Vida de la Princesa de Eboli (Mexico City, 1883), ch. II, pp. 114-115, 118. The numbering of the pages in this edition is hopelessly muddled; for example, the same page numbers recur in ch. III.
94. Ibid., ch. II, p. 118.
95. "Lo que se asienta, e capitula entre el Principe nro S or y conde y condesa de Melito, sobre el Cassamiento que se ha tratado entre Ruy Gomez de Silva sumilier de Corps de Su Alteza y D a Ana de Mendoza hija delos dhos condes," Madrid, 18 April 1553, AHN Osuna, leg. 2029, no. 13 1 . There is another copy of this document in AGS, Guerra y Marina, leg. 50, no. 171.