DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67375#0131
PHILIP III. AND PHILIP IV.
93
No autocrat could be more regardless of the rank of his
subjects, nor more insulting in his treatment of those who
offended him than were these Spanish viceroys in Naples.
De Reumont gives some examples of this : —
“ lu the year 1614 the Count of Lemos imprisoned the
Prince of Conca and the Duke of Bovino, the first Lord High
Admiral, and the other High Seneschal of the kingdom, and
sent one to Castel Nuovo and the other to S. Elmo, because, as
supporters of the dignity of the crown, they had refused to
appear at a review amongst the crowd of nobles, but claimed
reserved places. A year afterwards the same Count of Lemos
caused the Duke of Nocera, one of the most distinguished feu-
datories of the house of Carafa, to be seized in his palace by a
number of Sbirri, because he had disobeyed the injunction of
the king and married without his consent. Arrests for debt,
even for very small sums, were not unusual; and the vanity as
well as the pretensions to rank of the Neapolitans was hurt by
the Spaniards in this and in all ways. . . .
“ When the Duke of Alva, in August, 1629, made his first
visit to his successor, the Duke of Alcala, who had landed at
the Palazzo di Trajetto at Posilipo, he summoned almost the
whole body of the great nobility, that he might be attended by
a brilliant escort: after these nobles had waited for a long
hour in the hall, they were informed that his Excellency did
not require their services to-day, as he had changed his mind.
The princes and dukes left the house in disgust; but the next
day Alva summoned them again, and they all hastened back
to the palace, —proof enough, says a contemporary chronicler,
that the worse they are treated, the more submissive they be-
come. Such things must the men submit to, whose origin may
be traced to the time of the Lombards, to the ancient Grecian-
Italian races who inhabited the shores of Amalfi, who were
descendants of the valiant followers of a Bras de Fer, of a
Guiscard, and of a Roger.”
There were slight differences in the degree of personal
magnificence assumed by the viceroys, but the result was
93
No autocrat could be more regardless of the rank of his
subjects, nor more insulting in his treatment of those who
offended him than were these Spanish viceroys in Naples.
De Reumont gives some examples of this : —
“ lu the year 1614 the Count of Lemos imprisoned the
Prince of Conca and the Duke of Bovino, the first Lord High
Admiral, and the other High Seneschal of the kingdom, and
sent one to Castel Nuovo and the other to S. Elmo, because, as
supporters of the dignity of the crown, they had refused to
appear at a review amongst the crowd of nobles, but claimed
reserved places. A year afterwards the same Count of Lemos
caused the Duke of Nocera, one of the most distinguished feu-
datories of the house of Carafa, to be seized in his palace by a
number of Sbirri, because he had disobeyed the injunction of
the king and married without his consent. Arrests for debt,
even for very small sums, were not unusual; and the vanity as
well as the pretensions to rank of the Neapolitans was hurt by
the Spaniards in this and in all ways. . . .
“ When the Duke of Alva, in August, 1629, made his first
visit to his successor, the Duke of Alcala, who had landed at
the Palazzo di Trajetto at Posilipo, he summoned almost the
whole body of the great nobility, that he might be attended by
a brilliant escort: after these nobles had waited for a long
hour in the hall, they were informed that his Excellency did
not require their services to-day, as he had changed his mind.
The princes and dukes left the house in disgust; but the next
day Alva summoned them again, and they all hastened back
to the palace, —proof enough, says a contemporary chronicler,
that the worse they are treated, the more submissive they be-
come. Such things must the men submit to, whose origin may
be traced to the time of the Lombards, to the ancient Grecian-
Italian races who inhabited the shores of Amalfi, who were
descendants of the valiant followers of a Bras de Fer, of a
Guiscard, and of a Roger.”
There were slight differences in the degree of personal
magnificence assumed by the viceroys, but the result was