Juana I by Gillian B. Fleming

Author:Gillian B. Fleming
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

8.4 Juana’s Triumvirate

This brief overview of Juana’s effective period of government outlines the challenges that royal authority faced from corregidores, prelates and nobles and from the king of Aragon. On another issue, too, the Inquisition’s activities in the south, the queen’s Council and closest advisers diverged from Fernando’s.

Fernando had ordered Martire to watch the queen. 85 Thus, at Torquemada and Hornillos she was accompanied by Martire and two bishops: Villaescusa, whom he describes as “researcher of the secrets of the skies,” and Diego de Muros III, bishop of Mondoñedo, and “more acute than Mercury.” The “triumvirate,” as Martire calls them, had common literary, theological, political and educational interests. They shared Cisneros’ criticisms of aristocratic abuse of power and an interest in Erasmian ideas and were influential in the birth and development of Spanish humanism. All three had been protégés, or close associates, of Isabel’s former confessor, and Juana’s erstwhile teacher, Talavera. Muros, like Villaescusa, was a former student of Salamanca and future founder of a college there. In 1494, he became dean of Santiago de Compostela and was the first administrator of the Hospital Real for pilgrims. In 1507, he was at court, at least in part to try to recover diocesan property from local nobles. 86 Villasescusa , as bishop of Málaga, a suffragan diocese of Seville, had clashed with Seville’s archbishop, Diego de Deza, who had slipped back into his role as grand inquisitor after Philip’s death. The archbishop had claims on Antequera, and Villaecusa was troubled by Deza’s inquisitorial activities in the diocese. 87 In an unpublished treatise, De christiana religione, dating from around 1502, Villaescusa had set out the view that the Inquisition should draw a clearer distinction between simple error and ignorance on one hand and the wilful and conscious preference for Mosaic over Christian doctrine on the other. 88

Juana’s ‘triumvirs’ discussed a number of religious, ecclesiastical and political topics with her. 89 Martire, who stressed Villaescusa’s ascendancy over her, boasted that they were “the only people whom the Queen allows to be seated in her presence …” and declared in June that he could not leave court because she “does not consent that anyone beyond us three … should take part with her in the ceremonies … She does not tolerate the presence of any cleric, apart from ourselves, except for the cantors.” 90 Juana’s favours conferred prestige upon Villaescusa and his friends at a time when the zealous inquisitor for Córdoba, Diego Rodríguez Lucero, had, with the backing of Fernando and Deza, charged Talavera with involvement in a network of “Judaising” conversos in Córdoba and Granada. 91

Since Granada remained Juana’s destination, her discussions with the triumvirs would, inevitably, have touched on the situation in the south. In an appeal to their “native-born mistress” the Cordoban municipal and church authorities claimed that they had substantiated allegations that Lucero used torture, threats and extortion to extract false confessions and that he and Deza had brought “infamy” to Córdoba and offended Juana’s royal person by arresting Córdoba’s emissary to Juana, Alonso de Toro, on the royal road to Burgos.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.