Of all the viceroys who governed the kingdom of Naples for over two hundred years, Gaspar de Haro, 7th Marquis of Carpio, represents a very special case: an extremely skillful propagandist of himself, he was capable not only of earning the favor of the main chroniclers of his time, but also of gaining almost unanimous appreciation, in the centuries that followed, from historians and scholars of various disciplines. A great collector and refined interpreter of the courtly culture of the Baroque age, Carpio has long been interpreted, during his four years of Neapolitan rule (1683–87), as a viceroy who was decisive in imposing a state order on the kingdom, curbing the overpowering of the barons and defeating, at least temporarily, the rampant plague of banditry. Rereading the manuscript documentation, and building on the most recent historiography on the Spanish monarchy and the kingdom of Naples in the 17th century, the article aims to reevaluate this established view and propose different perspectives, in order to understand the government of the Marquis of Carpio within a peculiar way of doing politics in the 17th century, in the context of the still lively rivalry between France and Spain.
Il viceré tra nobili e banditi. Una proposta di rilettura del governo napoletano del VII marchese del Carpio (1683-87)
Giuseppe Mrozek Eliszezynski
2025-01-01
Abstract
Of all the viceroys who governed the kingdom of Naples for over two hundred years, Gaspar de Haro, 7th Marquis of Carpio, represents a very special case: an extremely skillful propagandist of himself, he was capable not only of earning the favor of the main chroniclers of his time, but also of gaining almost unanimous appreciation, in the centuries that followed, from historians and scholars of various disciplines. A great collector and refined interpreter of the courtly culture of the Baroque age, Carpio has long been interpreted, during his four years of Neapolitan rule (1683–87), as a viceroy who was decisive in imposing a state order on the kingdom, curbing the overpowering of the barons and defeating, at least temporarily, the rampant plague of banditry. Rereading the manuscript documentation, and building on the most recent historiography on the Spanish monarchy and the kingdom of Naples in the 17th century, the article aims to reevaluate this established view and propose different perspectives, in order to understand the government of the Marquis of Carpio within a peculiar way of doing politics in the 17th century, in the context of the still lively rivalry between France and Spain.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
