A Distant Council, Nearby Problems. The Duke of Medinaceli, Naples, and the Unity of the Spanish Monarchy, 1696-1702 = Consejo lejano, problemas cercanos. El duque de Medinaceli, Nápoles y la unidad de la Monarquía Hispánica, 1696-1702

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role of the duke of Medinaceli in face of the Spanish succession crisis. By rejecting historiographical attempts to include the duke within one or other dynastic party, the essay emphasizes instead his total loyalty to the united Spanish Monarchy. By doing so, the defense of the unity of the Monarchy attempted by Medinaceli is understood not only in a territorial viewpoint but as a safeguard of a distinctive political model: the so-called ‘aristomanzia’. Thanks to it, Spanish nobility had been traditionally able to control the King by way of the Council of State and the consensus of the Grandees, a practice threatened at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century and defended, but without success, by Medinaceli.This paper analyzes the role of the Duke of Medinaceli in the face of the Spanish succession crisis. By rejecting historiographical attempts to include the duke within a dynastic party, the essay emphasizes the idea of his loyalty to the Spanish Monarchy. In this way the defense of the unity of the Monarchy undertaken by Medinaceli is understood not only in a territorial viewpoint but as a pragmatic safeguard of a political model: the so-called ‘aristomanzia’. Thanks to it, the Spanish nobility had been traditionally able to control the King by way of the Council of State and the consensus of the Grandees, a practice that languished at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century and defended with no success by Medinaceli.