Juan Rena and the construction of the Hispanic monarchy (1500-1540)

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Juan Rena and the Construction of the

Hispanic Monarchy (1500-1540)

Jose Miguel Escribano-Páez

Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to

obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute

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European University Institute

Department of History and Civilization

Juan Rena and the Construction of the Hispanic Monarchy

(1500-1540)

Jose Miguel Escribano-Páez

Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to

obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute

Examining Board

Prof. Jorge Flores, European University Institute (supervisor) Prof. Regina Grafe, European University Institute

Prof. Wolfgang Kaiser, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne (external advisor) Prof. Pedro Cardim, Universidade Nova de Lisboa

No part of this thesis may be copied, reproduced or transmitted without prior permission of the author

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Researcher declaration to accompany the submission of written work Department of History and Civilization - Doctoral Programme

I José Miguel Escribano Páez certify that I am the author of the work Juan Rena and the Construction of the Hispanic Monarchy (1500-1540) I have presented for examination for the Ph.D. at the European University Institute. I also certify that this is solely my own original work, other than where I have clearly indicated, in this declaration and in the thesis, that it is the work of others.

I warrant that I have obtained all the permissions required for using any material from other copyrighted publications.

I certify that this work complies with the Code of Ethics in Academic Research issued by the European University Institute (IUE 332/2/10 (CA 297).

The copyright of this work rests with its author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This work may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. This authorisation does not, to the best of my knowledge, infringe the rights of any third party.

I declare that this work consists of 158,258 words.

Statement of language correction:

This thesis has been corrected for linguistic and stylistic errors. I certify that I have checked and approved all language corrections, and that these have not affected the content of this work.

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Abstract

This thesis offers an innovative study in the construction of the Hispanic Monarchy during the first half of the sixteenth century. Focusing on a king’s man: Juan Rena (Venice, ca. 1480-Toledo 1539); I explore subjects such as the Spanish expansionism in Europe and beyond, the configuration of the empire’s frontiers, the shaping of the new imperial administration, and the functioning of Charles V’s military machinery in the Mediterranean. In analysing Juan Rena’s activity as a crown’s servant, this work reveals how the Hispanic Monarchy was constructed from below, out of multiple interactions between a wide array of socio-political actors. Furthermore, and this is one of the main contributions of this research, it will allow us to rethink the role that the myriad of king’s men, like Rena, played in the configuration of early modern empires. Hence, this thesis seeks to do more than simply reconstructing the activities of a royal servant, it aims to provide an in-depth study, which will contribute to our historical understanding of the construction of early modern empires.

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Image 1. Maghrebi localities engaged in negotiations with the Spanish authorities. 35

Image 2. Vélez de la Gomera (1522). 43

Image 3. Castill de Pescadores (1522). 45

Image 4. Map of the Alcaide de los Donceles’ dominions. 93

Image 5. Map of Navarre 113

Image 6. A drawing of one’s of Pamplona’s bulwarks with Rena’s annotations. 117 Image 7. Rena’s main connections within the imperial administration. 176

Image 8. Map of Tunis kept in Rena’s archive (1534). 205

Image 9. Map of Laredo’s jurisdiction (1611). 228

Image 10. Map of the Koroni campaign (1532). 239

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Acknowledgements

This thesis could not have been completed without a help and support of others, to whom I am indebted. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Jorge Flores, who helped me to broaden my intellectual horizons to a point beyond even my expectation. His advice and support have been crucial in the development of this dissertation. I will be forever in his debt. I am also more than grateful to my external advisor, Professor Wolfgang Kaiser, for his comments on my work in Paris and his kindness in accepting to be my external advisor. I am, likewise, very thankful to professor Pedro Cardim for his kindness in being a part of my jury. Finally, I could not overlook the contributions of my esteemed second readers at the European University Institute, Bartolomé Yun and Regina Grafe, who improved my work with their unconditional support and constructive criticisms. I only lament that I was not always able to follow their useful advice.

My stay at the European University Institute (EUI) has been fundamental for this research, as well as my formation as a researcher. However, I cannot forget that this research began a long time before, in an office at the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, when Alfredo Floristán introduced me to Juan Rena. At that moment, it could not have known, that I would spend the next six years working on that obscure character. No matter how “complicated" my story with Rena turned out to be, I will always thank Professor Floristán for having introduced me to Rena. Furthermore, I have to thank him for his guidance during the initial stage of this research, and for the opportunity to work with him for those two years. My first steps in the world of historical research were also guided by Alicia Esteban, who generously shared her expertise and her limited time with me. I was more than lucky for having the opportunity to share research interests, and lunches at Casa Juan, with Fernando Chavarría. Finally, I owe thanks to Emilio Sola, who allowed me to start working on La Frontera many years ago.

Many scholars have contributed to making this dissertation possible. Antonella Romano taught me a many things on how to conduct historical research during an unforgettable seminar in the winter of 2012. More importantly, she also taught me that seminars can be a perfect place for laughter. I also have to thank her for giving me the opportunity to discuss my ideas about biographical research with Jacques Revel and

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xiii Anthony Molho. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Bernard Vincent who received me as a research fellow in the École des Hautes Études en Sciences

Sociales. In addition to them I have to mention here Zacarías Moutoukias, Stéphane Van

Damme, Luca Molà, Jocelyne Dakhlia. Fernando Bouza, Jaime Contreras, Manuel Herrero, Igor Pérez, Antonio Jiménez Estrella, Juan Francisco Pardo Molero, María Baudot, Klemens Kaps, Antonio Castillo, Agustín González Enciso, Rafael Torres, Luis Fe Cantó, Gennaro Varriale, Bastien Carpentier, Manuel Lomas, and Davide Maffi.

I cannot but once again thank the personnel of the Archivo Real y General de Navarra, for their extraordinary work on Rena’s archive. Nevertheless, my gratitude goes beyond the professional sphere, as Carlos, Felix, Diego and Berta have always welcomed me in Pamplona with open arms. In addition, Peio Monteano shared his immense knowledge on Navarrese history with me during our coffees in Pamplona and during a memorable travel to Maya. Last but not least, I would like to thank Mercedes Chocarro for having brought Rena back to life with her impressive work, and making his archive accessible again. Furthermore, I will never be able to thank her enough for her help and support during these years. Needless to say, I would also like to thank the personnel of all the archives that I have visited during these years, looking for a character completely unknown to them. Blanca and Isabel, from the Archivo General de Simancas, deserve a special mention here for having allowed me to conduct my research far away from the capital of the early modern history.

I also owe a debt of thanks to Antonella, Paola and Gullia (I do not forget Mamen and Luisa) for having supplied me with the coffee necessary to keep me awake while I was living my dream. Thanks is also due to Carlo il Sardo for having made us a place in his ‘Polanyian’ bar at piazza Annunziata. To the Arno River, it was brief, but intense. I give thanks to Massimo, and the canottieri, for pushing me to be e-norme!!! I have to thank Françoise Thauvin, Anna Coda and Miriam Curci for their administrative support during my eternal struggle against Spanish bureaucracy. My stay in Paris during the ‘winter’ of 2014 would have not been the same without the many colleagues that I met there. Believe it or not, I found a friend, Michele Bosco, at the Rue d’Ulm while attending the seminars at the ENS. I shared countless hours of work at the BnF, readings, lunches, beers and dinners with Giulia Bonazza, Jorge Luengo, Étienne Bourdeu and Fabien Montcher. Cecilia Tarruell, owes me plenty of beers, but I have to admit that I will be

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forever indebted to her for her hospitality, for an unforgettable Gavotte en rondeau, and for having shared a little bit of Paris with me during a brief “eternity”.

The list of friends is short, but it cannot be better. I cannot forget here my beloved Historieitors, especially Ali Casero and Joaco, a place to come back. Lourdes Antón is the reason that I keep the faith in humankind. I apologise to Dani and Victor Hugo for having disappeared. Guada Adámez was a wonderful partner during these years. Javier Barbas continues being a true friend, regardless of time and distance. I continue missing the surrealistic nights with Carlos, Dani, Javi, Rubio and Panche in the deposit. Lucky as I am, I continued making good friends in Florence. I have had the privilege of discussing about history (and more important things) with Angel Alcalde in Florence, Paris, Rome and Zaragoza. Nico Rodríguez continues to have the capacity of fascinating me with his profound reflections on a wide array of topics, past and present. Someday Marta Cantero will inherit the Villa Schifanoia. Hopefully, on that day she will remember our conversations and our beers together. I also expect to have a place in the future adventures of Nacho, Mireia and Dominik, in Madrid and New York. It has been an honour for me to run the famous Gran Hotel San Marco for two years. I give thanks to all its guests (except one or two) for having made it a space for fun and intellectual exchange. Tom and Kasus always keep our place full of smiles and cakes. Octavio Vara made my first year in Florence more than fun, despite all our problems. I love Dr. Pablo Abascal ‘con limón y sal’ because of our good times at Rue Bailleul when we were rich. Miguel Palou (Niño Miguelli) has become a friend but also a brother even in spite of the years we lived together. I will always remember our nights in Florence, our talks on the terrace and, above all, his capacity to bring the whole tribe together around a table.

During all these years I have also shared countless hours in the library and in conversation with Carol Obradors and ‘her’ citizens. Brian Olesen continues surprising me with his capacity to keep thinking about history in the most adverse conditions. Ozden Mercan has always answered my questions about Ottoman history. I have had the privilege of sharing seminars, lunches and conversations with Ana Belem Fernández Castro. I cannot forget here the garage gang: Pol Dalmau and his particular seny and Alan Granadino and his remarkable style. Avec Romain Bonnet j’ai partagé combats pour l’histoire, croisades en vélo, expériences aux limites de l’autorité étatique et la propriété privée, et apparitions mariales. I will always remember Davide Romano's piano concerts

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xv at the Villa Schifanoia. Guilherme Sampaio and I have shared many conversations about important matters such as football and the fauna of the BnF. Ievgen Khalkov and his stakhanovist work deserves my sincere admiration, as does Michal Wasiucionek for his multilingual skills. Spero di poter prendere una birra con Giovanni Lista uno di questi giorni. Alfredo Mazzamauro has been an example to follow in many fields except in one: the bar Fiasco. Lisa Dallavalle has helped me to navigate my problems with the Venetian archives and English grammar. In addition to this, I have had the honour of sharing many hours working with her in the Vasco de Gamma room where we disturbed many of our colleagues with our endless conversations on historical research and many other topics.

It seems that I will never manage to take a beer with Jose Juan Beltrán, but I have enjoyed many conversations with him during our improvised meetings in the corridors of the library. With Miquel de la Rosa and Óscar Lema I have shared unforgettable moments (and pains) in the gym and on the boat. I would like to thank Pablo Hernandez Sau (‘Alcarreneans abroad’) for a question in a workshop but also for organising his memorable Menéndez Pidal’s dinners and to Josep San Ruperto for bringing us his Levantine happiness. I cannot remember the moment when Felipe Vidales passed from being just a colleague to a friend, but I will always remember our conversations and our beers in the city centre of Madrid. Angella Ballone was wonderful company during her stay at Florence. With Alejandra Franganillo I have shared endless conversations about (the past and the present) courts and unforgettable nights in Florence, Madrid and Simancas. I can only say the same about Cloe Cavero de Carondelet, who also taught me some crucial lessons even before we met. My landing in Florence would have been much more traumatic without the presence of Jose Luis Gasch and Natalia Maillard, who introduced me to the night seminars at Sant Ambroggio. Florentine nights could have not been the same without Asli Okyay and her unbelievable stories. A couple of Janissaries, Alejandro García Montón and Francisco Apellániz, honour me with their friendship and their advice. I am more than proud of being Jandro’s trench mate because if I have learnt to engage in historical debate it was only because of his continuous advice and his enviable capacity of analysis. Patxi took me under his wing for an unknown reason some years ago. I will be forever grateful to him for that, as I am grateful for his having opened the doors of his house to me where Elena, Isabel, and Alvar, have made me feel at home. I would like to think that we share a mutual friendship and a common conception of the historian’s craft.

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I am grateful to my extended family, but especially to my grandmothers, Maria and Antonia (the work and the laughter); to my sisters, Silvia for her contagious vitality, and Maria, for our endless conversations. To my nephews, César, who arrived in this world only some months ago, but who is already showing a tenacity for learning. Lucas, who has a magical smile; Nicolas, with whom I share a special connection through laughter. I owe plenty of histories, and a dinosaur, to Alejandro. Since the last year and a half I am also indebted to the families Collado and Estela for their hospitality. A special mention is to Elena, who came back in to my life and has helped me to face the difficult last stage of this research with a smile. Her unconditional love and support, her happiness, her enthusiasm, and her astonishing capacity to create magical moments on a day-to-day basis, makes me want to face all the adventures to come next to her. I cannot but end this list without mentioning my father, ‘Don’ José María, who taught me to keep working regardless of the difficulties, and my mother, Lucia, who was my first teacher many years ago in the kitchen of an old house in her little village. Even if I know that they will never read a single page of it, this thesis is devoted utterly to them.

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Introduction

This thesis focuses on an individual, Juan Rena, but also on one of the first global empires: the Hispanic Monarchy.1 This vast political entity has attracted the attention of many scholars and, in fact, the way of studying its inner workings has changed completely in recent decades, giving place to a more complex understanding of its functioning. Undoubtedly, the crown’s servants like the one here analysed are among the main beneficiaries of this profound renovation. Nevertheless, they continue to appear as “passive” characters as they have mirrored the progressive evolution of a political history that has become more complex and rich. While this study on Juan Rena relies to a great extent in comprehending these characters, it also seeks to reverse this trend by studying a king’s man like him as a way to better understand the construction of early modern empires.

The main character on the stage, Juan Rena, was born in Venice around 1480 and was active in the service of the Hispanic Monarchy between 1504 and 1538. Rena’s interest for historians does not arise from his celebrity, or from his condition as servant of a world-wide famous character like Charles V. I decided to study him because I consider that using an actor based approach for a case study is a useful research tool for a problem-solving agenda on early modern empires. Rena deserves our attention due to his multiple activities in the service of the Hispanic Monarchy, which throw light on unsolved historical problems relating to the construction of this polity. Described by contemporaries as a king’s man his many occupations include: chaplain, merchant, diplomatic agent, royal officer, councillor, and bishop. Despite this astonishing accumulation of offices he was by no means unusual in combining all these activities. In fact, to a great extent if Rena stands out as a unique character it is just because his personal archive has survived in an almost complete form, so unlike many early modern actors, we can learn a good deal about him, the people related to him and, especially, his activities in the service of the Hispanic Monarchy during the first half of the sixteenth century.

1_{In this work I will refer to the Hispanic Monarchy as an empire, even if it is problematic to consider the}

Iberian monarchies as empires. Nevertheless historians agree in applying that label to this polity during the chronological framework of this wor. In fact this period is known as ‘the truly ‘imperial’ period’. C. Hausser and H. Pietschmann, “Empire. The Concept and its Problems in the Historiography on the Iberian Empires in the Early Modern Age,” Culture & History Digital Journal 3, nº 1 (2014): 8 and 9.

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Needless to say, any subject should not be explored only because there are abundant or new sources. Nevertheless, I decided to focus on Rena’s case because using his perspective allows us to appreciate the role that people like him had in shaping an early modern empire. The case study will shed light on the construction of the Hispanic Monarchy in a number of ways. The first due to the fact that the study of crown’s servants and their influence in the construction of the empire has been focused almost exclusively on the main figures of the court and the imperial administration. However, this is not the main reason that makes Rena’s career an excellent case study. The main reason is that focusing on his career we can study the influence of king’s men in the empire building process. In fact, as we will see, Rena’s diplomatic, political, and administrative activities on the ground, appropriately reflect the different challenges of an empire “under construction”.

State of the Art

In a recent survey on comparative rulership Jeroen Duindam, pointed out that more research needs to be done on the imperial agents who were responsible for making the empire work in the peripheries.2_{Interestingly, in a reflection about the state of the art}

on the empire of Charles V Wim Blockmans and Nicolette Mout made a similar claim, when they asserted that, even after the massive publications that followed the 500th

anniversary of the emperor’s birth, new avenues of research still have to be explored. According to them, one of the key aspects to analyse was the men who served the emperor not as subjects but as actors who were actively involved in the imperial administration. Given that there are several excellent works on the emperor’s court, would be to study the relationships between the administrative centres and the peripheries.3

2_{Jeroen Duindam, “Towards a Comparative Understanding of Rulership: Discourses, Practices, Patterns”}

in The Dynastic Centre and the Provinces: Agents and Interactions, ed. J. Duindam and S. Dabringhaus (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 231.

3_{Wim Blockmans and Nicolette Mout, “The Harvest of a Celebration: What More Do We Need to Know}

about Charles V after the Year 2000,” in The World of Emperor Charles V, ed. W. Blockmans and N. Mout (Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2004), 7. The celebration of Charles V’s born provoked an astonishing amount of publications on his reign. In order to avoid a long list of works I will quote only two mayor synthesis built on them. Wim Blockmans, Emperor Charles V, 1550-1558 (London: Arnold, 2002) and Ernest Belenguer Cebrià, El imperio de Carlos V: las coronas y sus territorios (Barcelona: Península, 2002). While the first one employs a mayor number of works published in central and northern Europe the latter makes use of most of the Spanish and Italian bibliography.

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3 My decision to bring here their call is in part because all three found the same gap which tells us a lot about the way that historians have analysed early modern empires so far. These authors were asking for more research to be conducted on the upper echelons of the crown’s servants as a way to understand the functioning of early modern empires. Blockmans and Mout called for more works on councillors and secretaries, while Duindam was pointing to provincial governors. These calls for more studies on such characters underlines the traditional top-down approach on the study of early modern empires. Saying that, I cannot but agree with these authors’ claims, more research has still to be done on the men who made the empire work, but contrary to their opinion I strongly believe that given our current understanding of early modern empires we can learn a lot about how they worked by focusing on a king’s man like Rena who was neither a provincial governor nor a royal secretary.

In order to understand the place that Rena could occupy in the current scholarship on early modern empires it is necessary to trace some of the major lines of enquiry in this area of study. In recent decades the way in which we understand early modern monarchies and empires has completely changed, giving place to a new interest on the men who served the crown. Traditionally, early modern monarchies were understood as clear precedent of the modern state due to their centralised character.4_{Thus, it is not strange to}

find that the studies on the crown’s servants identify these characters as bureaucratic tools that the crown needed to reinforce its power.5_{Different authors have shown that the}

Iberian monarchies (frequently considered as emblematic examples of power centralisation) were not a precedent of the modern state because of the plural character of their power.6 In fact, in these works royal officers did not fulfill their traditional image as

4_{The classic are Joseph Strayer, On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State (Princeton: Princeton}

University Press, 1970) and Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990-1990 (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1990). On our field of study: José Antonio Maravall, Estado moderno y mentalidad

social (siglos XV a XVII) (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1972). For a complete overview on the

state-building debate in the Spanish historiography, see Pablo Fernández Albaladejo, “Les traditions nationales d’historiographie de l’État: l’Espagne,” in Visions sur le développement des États européens. Théories et

historiographies de l’État modern, eds. W. Blockmans and J-P. Genet (Rome: École Française de Rome,

1993), 219-233.

5_{José María García Marín, La burocracia castellana bajo los Austrias (Alcalá de Henares: INAP, 1986).}

See also Id., “La burocracia de Carlos V,” in Carlos V. Europeísmo y universalidad, ed. J. L. Castellano Castellano and F. Sánchez Montes González (Madrid: SECC, 2001), 275-291.

6_{Bartolomé Clavero, Tantas personas como estados. Por una antropología política de la historia europea}

(Madrid: Tecnos, 1986); António M. Hespanha, As Vésperas do Leviathan. Instituiçoes e poder político

Portugal – Séc XVII, 2nd ed. (Coimbra: Livraria Almedina, 1994); Pablo Fernández Albaladejo, Fragmentos de monarquía. Trabajos de historia política (Madrid: Alianza Universidad, 1992). For a

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tools of political centralization.7_{In addition, the deep renovation of political history, and}

its new focus on power relationships, has raised a new understanding of the royal servants in the complex politics of the Iberian monarchies.8

Nevertheless, figures like Rena were eclipsed by the rise of a promising field of study: the royal court.9 In addition to the studies on the royal court as a political space, historians have approached the court’s institutions providing us with new insights which have renewed our understanding of these core institutions of the imperial administration.10 The rise of court studies showed the important role of courtiers and court factions in early modern politics, and has also provided us with complete surveys of the

questione dello stato,” Quaderni Storici 36, nº 1 (1995): 9-49; and P. Cardim, “Centralização Política e Estado na Recente Historiografia sobre o Portugal do Antigo Regime,” Nãçao e Defesa 87 (1998): 129-158.

7_{Hespanha, As Vésperas do Leviathan, 160-293.}

8_{For a literature review on the impact of this renovation in the study of the Iberian monarchies, see X. Gil}

Pujol, “Notas sobre el estudio del poder como nueva valoración de la historia política,” Pedralbes, Revista

d´història moderna 3 (1983): 61-88 and P. Cardim, “Politics and Power Relations in Portugal

(Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries),” Parliaments, Estates and Representatives 13, nº 2 (1993): 95-108.

9_{There is a huge number of studies on the early modern courts but I will only quote the works related with}

my field of study. Volker Press, “The Habsburg Court as Center of the Imperial Government,” Journal of

modern history 58, Supplement: Politics and Society in the Holy Roman Empire, 1500-1806 (1986):

S23-S45; Id., “The Imperial Court of the Habsburgs: From Maximiliam I to Ferdinand III, 1493-1657,” in

Princes, Patronage, and the Nobility: the court at the beginning of the modern age, c. 1450-1650, ed. R.

Asch and A. M. Birke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 289-312; José Martínez Millán, “Para un estudio del imperio de Carlos V a través de la corte,” in El imperio de Carlos V. Procesos de agregación y

conflictos, ed. B. J. García García (Madrid: Fundación Carlos de Amberes, 2000), 325-343. An excellent

study on Charles V’s court can be found in José Martínez Millán ed., La corte de Carlos V (Madrid: SECC, 2000). An English reader can consult a brief but complete synthesis on Spanish historigraphy on this topic in Manuel Rivero Rodríguez, “Court Studies in the Spanish World,” in The Court in Europe, ed. M. Fantoni (Rome: Boldizzoni, 2012), 135-147. On the relationships between provincial courts and the royal court, see Antonio Álvarez-Ossorio Alvariño, La República de las Parentelas: el Estado de Milán en la Monarquía

de Carlos II (Mantua: G. Arcari, 2002).

10_{Antonio Álvarez-Ossorio Alvariño, “La corte: un espacio abierto para la historia social,” en La historia} social en España, ed. S. Castillo Alonso (Madrid: Siglo XXI, 1991), 247-260; José Martínez Millán ed., Instituciones y élites de poder en la Monarquía Hispana durante el siglo XVI (Madrid: Ediciones de la

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 1992). For a therotical reflection on this matter, see J. Martínez Millán, “Las investigaciones sobre patronazgo y clientelismo en la administración de la Monarquía Hispana durante la edad moderna,” Studia historica. Historia moderna 15 (1996): 83-106. See also the monographs on the main court councils: Carlos Javier de Carlos Morales, El consejo de Hacienda de Castilla, 1523-1602:

patronazgo y clientelismo en el gobierno de las finanzas reales durante el siglo XVI (Valladolid: Consejería

de Educación y Cultura, 1996); Manuel Rivero Rodríguez, Felipe II y el gobierno de Italia (Madrid: SECC, 1998); Santiago Fernández Conti, Los consejos de estado y guerra de la Monarquía Hispana en tiempos

de Felipe II (1548-1598) (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, 1998); Juan Carlos Domínguez Nafría,

“Carlos V y los orígenes de la polisinodia hispánica,” in De la unión de coronas al imperio de Carlos V, ed. E. Belenguer Cebrià (Madrid: SECC, 2001), vol. 1, 497-531; and René Vermeir, “La construction de l’Empire. L’origine des transformations institutionnelles en Espagne au XVIe siècle,” in Charles V in

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5 men who composed the core institutions of the imperial government.11_{In addition, several}

historians made interesting contributions on the study of the empire’s politics by looking at the men composing the inner circle of the emperor.12_{There is little doubt about the}

important contribution of these studies but, as Michael J. Braddick asserted, the historians’ concentration on the institutions of the court and its personnel has contributed to obscuring the fundamental role played by the agents acting in the system’s peripheries.13 In the case of the Hispanic Monarchy this problem was mitigated to a certain extent thanks to a productive line of research focusing on imperial administration. Different studies focused on the activity of high ranking officers have shown the initiative of magistrates who influenced decision making in Madrid, or who shaped the colonial domains according to their own interests.14 To a great extent, these works also showed the active role that royal officers had in the empire’s political life, and as such these actors and their networks were portrayed as the backbone of the imperial rule.15

11_{Martínez Millán ed., La Corte de Carlos V, Vol. III. For instance, there is a monographic study listing all}

the men serving the Habsburgs in their royal councils. José Antonio Escudero, Los hombres de la

monarquía universal (Madrid: RAH, 2011).

12_{For instance, the royal secretaries and councillors of Charles V have been extensively studied and}

continue receiving attention even nowadays. Hayward Keniston, Francisco de los Cobos: Secretary of the

Emperor Charles V (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburg, 1960); Daniel Antony, Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle. Premier conseiller de Charles Quint, (Besançon: Les Éditions du Sekoya, 2006). Unfortunately,

we do not have a modern work on Cobos’ influence in the shaping of Charles V’s empire, like the recent work on his counterpart, Kaya Sahin, Empire and Power in the Reign of Süleyman. Narrating the

Sixteenth-Century Ottoman World, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013). The most evident case at the

point is that of Mercurino di Gattinara, the political architect behind Charles V’s imperial project, as there are at least three major monographs on him. John M. Headley, The Emperor and his Chancellor: a Study

on the Imperial Chancellery under Gattinara (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983); Manuel

Rivero, Gattinara, Carlos V y el sueño del Imperio (Madrid: Sílex, 2005); and Rebecca Ard Boone,

Mercurino di Gattinara and the Creation of the Spanish Empire, (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2014). 13_{Michael J. Braddick, State Formation in Early Modern England, c. 1550-1700 (Cambridge: Cambridge}

University Press, 2000), 13.

14_{John Leddy Phelan, The Kingdom of Quito in the Seventeenth Century: Bureaucratic Politics in the} Spanish Empire (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1967); and Ethelia Ruiz Medrano, Reshaping New Spain: Government and Private Interests in the Colonial Bureaucracy, 1531-1550

(Boulder: Universiry of Colorado Press, 2006).

15_{Zacarías Moutoukias, “Power, Corruption and Commerce: the Making of the Local Administrative}

Structure in Seventeenth Century Buenos Aires,” The Hispanic American Historical Review 68, nº 4, (1988): 771-801; Id., “Réseaux personnels et autorité coloniale: les négociants de Buenos Aires au XVIIIe siècle,” Annales, Économies, Sociétés, Civilizations, 47, nº 4-5 (1992): 889-915; Michel Bertrand,

Grandeur et misère de l’office. Les officiers de finances de Nouvelle Espagne (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles) (Paris:

Publications de la Sorbonne, 1999).Two interesting selections of both theorethical essays and case studies in J. L. Castellano Castellano and J. P. Dedieu eds., Réseaux, familles et pouvoirs dans le Monde Ibérique

à la fin de l´Ancien Régime (Paris: CNRS, 1998) and J. L. Castellano Castellano, J. P. Dedieu and M. V.

López Cordón Cortezo eds., La pluma, la mitra y la espada. Estudios de historia institucional en la edad

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6

Another step forward in our understanding on the functioning of the early modern empires came with the works of historians who studied ‘the practice of empire’ in its different territories.16_{During the last decades many historians have addressed the imperial}

politics from its practical application in each of the territories composing the empire. This approach was very closely related to Elliott’s model of “composite monarchies”. In this model the crown and the territorial elites of every single territory appear as the protagonists of a political life that was made out of dyadic negotiations between the crown and the different local elites.17 To a great extent this line of enquiry was simply the outcome of a common assumption that saw the crown and the different elites as the sole actors of the political life in the ancien regime.18 The concept of “composite monarchy” set the scent to analyse early modern empires, due to the composite character of the monarchies that gave them birth.19 Elliott’s ideas were also at the base of the “negotiated

16_{The classic work is Helmut G. Koenigsberger, The Government of Sicily under Philip II of Spain: a Study} on the Practice of Empire (New York: Staple Press, 1951). On the influence of this book on the Spanish

historiography, see Pablo Fernández Albaladejo’s epilogue to the Spanish edition. Helmut G. Koenigsberger, La práctica del imperio (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1989), 245-258.

17_{J. H. Elliott, “A Europe of Composite Monarchies,” Past & Present 137 (1992): 48-71. The concept of}

Composite Monarchy applied to the reign of Charles V is developed in John Elliott, “Monarquía compuesta y Monarquía Universal en la época de Carlos V,” in Carlos V. Europeísmo y universalidad, ed. J. L. Castellano Castellano and F. Sánchez-Montes González (Madrid: SECC, 2001), Vol. 5, 699-710. This concept lies also at the base of recent surveys on the entanglements between the Iberian empires, which have been labelled as “composite empires”. S. Subrahmanyam, “Holding the World in Balance: the Connected Histories of the Iberian Overseas Empires, 1500-1640,” The American Historical Review 112, nº 5 (2007): 1359-1385, and Jorge Flores, “The Iberian Empires, 1400 to 1800,” in The Cambridge World

History: The Construction of a Global World, 1400-1800 CE, ed. J. Benthley, S. Subrahmanyam, and M.

E. Wiesner-Hanks (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), Vol. VI, Part. I, 271-296.

18_{This common assumption is more than obvious in the works on the so-called modern state. Many scholars}

underlined the central government’s need to use intermediary agents and patronage in the symbiotic relations between centre and peripheries. Wolfgang Reinhard, “Élites du pouvoir, serviteurs de l´État, classes dirigeantes et croissance du pouvoir d´État,“ and Gerald E. Aylmer, “Centre et périphérie: définition des élites du pouvoir,” both in Les Élites du pouvoir et la construction de l’État en Europe, ed. W. Reinhard (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1996), 7-12 and 77-102; Wim Blockmans, “Patronage, Brokerage and Corruption as Symptoms of Incipient State Formation in the Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands,” in

Klientelsysteme im Europa der Frühen Neuzeit, ed. A. Maczak (München: Oldenbourg, 1988), 117-127;

James Casey, “Some Considerations on State Formation and Patronage in Early Modern Spain,” in

Patronages et clientélismes 1550-1750 (France, Anglaterre, Espagne, Italie) (London: Institute Français

du Royaume-Uni, 1995), 103-115. For an interesting study on the patronage mechanics used by the Spanish Crown during the eighteenth century, see Christian Windler, Élites locales, señores, reformistas. Redes

clientelares y Monarquía hacia finales del Antiguo Régimen (Córdoba: Universidad de Córdoba, Sevilla:

Universidad de Sevilla, 1997); Id., “Clientèles royales et clientèles seigneuriales vers la fin de l´Ancien Régime: un dossier espagnol,” Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 52, nº 2 (1997): 293-319. See also A. Feros, “Clientelismo y poder monárquico en la España de los Siglos XVI y XVII,” Relaciones 19, (1998): 17-49. From a wider perspective, see José María Imízcoz Beuza, “Comunidad, red social y élites. Un análisis de la vertebración social en el Antiguo Régimen,” in Élites, poder y red social. Las élites del País

Vasco y Navarra en la Edad Moderna (Estado de la cuestión y perspectivas), ed. J. M. Imízcoz Beunza

(Bilbao: Servicio Editorial. Universidad del País Vasco/EHU, 1996), 13-50; Id., “Actores, redes, procesos: reflexiones para una historia más global,” Revista da Facudade de Letras. História 5 (2004): 115-140.

19_{John H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830 (New Haven:}

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7 empires”, an interpretation that suggests that early modern empires functioned according to a bargaining process between the imperial centre and the so-called peripheral authorities.20_{This approach coincided in time with a more nuanced vision on the active}

role of regional elites in the shaping of early modern political regimes.21 As a result of the emphasis on vertical power relationships between rulers, their agents, and their subjects, the intermediary elites occupied a hegemonic place in the narratives of imperial history.22 In the case of the Iberian Empires this interplay between crown and territorial elites was easy to analyse from the study of a crucial figure in the middle: the viceroy. In fact, due to the central role of these characters nowadays we have excellent works on the viceroys of these extended polities.23

Needless, to say, in a historiographic landscape dominated by the crown and the elites there was no room for a modest king’s man like Juan Rena. Nevertheless, further advances in our understanding of the early modern empires contributed to change this. For instance, several works on the political history of the Hispanic Monarchy started to include rich descriptions on the characters whose activities showed how much councillors and high ranking officers relied on them to implement the political measures decided at the royal court.24_{These examples opened up a window into the crucial role these}

characters played in the political life. However, the main actors on the stage continued to be the members of the inner court of the imperial government.

One of the main contributions towards a new understanding these figures come with the recent studies on the state building process from below. André Holstein, the

20_{Jack P. Greene, “Negotiated Authorities: The Problem of Governance in the Extended Polities of the}

Early Modern Atlantic world,” in Negotiated authorities: essays in colonial political and constitutional

history, ed. J. P. Greene (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1994), 1-24; and C. Daniels and M.

V. Kennedy eds., Negotiated Empires: Centers and Peripheries in the Americas, 1500-1820 (New York: Routledge, 2002).

21_{Xavier Gil Pujol, “Culturas políticas y clases dirigentes regionales en la formación del estado moderno,”}

in Les élites locales et l'État dans l'Espagne modernne du XVIe au XIXe siècle, ed. M. Lambert-Gorges (Paris: CNRS, 1993), 171-192.

22_{Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference}

(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010), 13-15.

23_{Carlos José Hernando Sánchez, Castilla y Nápoles en el siglo XVI: el virrey Pedro de Toledo: linaje,} estado y cultura (1532-1553) (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, 1994); Manuel Rivero Rodríguez, La edad de oro de los virreyes. El virreinato en la Monarquía Hispánica durante los siglos XVI y XVII,

(Madrid. Akal, 2011); and P. Cardim and J-L. Palos eds., El mundo de los virreyes en las monarquías de

España y Portugal (Frankfurt: Vervuert-Iberoamaricana, 2012).

24_{Jean-Frédéric Schaub, Le Portugal au temps du Comte-Duc d'Olivares (1621-1640). Le conflict de} jurisdictions comme exercice de la politique (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2001), 222-226 and 335-348.

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8

author of the theoretical framework behind these works, suggested that the state ‘resulted from the initiatives of officeholders and all the other local actors, who were able to instrumentalize it for their interests. This state was the outcome of a multitude of practices, which succeeded in transforming individual and group interests’. In this interpretative framework the state local officeholders were called to play a prominent role in the new research agenda considering that: ‘they –in the true sense of the word– embodied the state.’25_{Beyond this theoretical proposition, the authors studying this state}

building process from below have pointed out the important role that these characters played in the shaping of the state while acting as power brokers mediating in the negotiations between rulers and their subjects.26

Royal officers acting on the ground gained momentum when the common understanding of the Iberian empires as polities in which power was exercised in a center-periphery way started to fall into pieces due to the emergence of a more complex research agenda dominated by a plurality of powers.27 As a result of this change the attention of historians moved beyond the negotiations between the crown and elites, or the vertical relationships connecting the king and the local notables. Hence, for instance, the horizontal linkages between characters from the different territories of the empire were made visible as crucial factors that influenced the operation of these vast polities.28

25_{André Holstein, “Empowering Interactions: Looking at Statebuilding from below,” in Empowering} Interactions: Political Cultures and the Emergence of the State in Europe, 1300-1900, ed. W. Blockmans,

A. Holstein and J. Mathieu (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 21.

26_{Holstein, “Empowering Interactions,” 21; See also Stefan Brakensiek, “Lokale Amtsträger in deutschen}

Territorien der Frühen Neuzeit. Institutionelle Grundlagen, akzeptanzorientierte Herrschaftspraxis und obrigkeitliche Identität,” in Staatsbildung als kultureller Prozess, ed. R. G. Asch and D. Freist (Cologne: Böhlhau, 2005), 49-67, and Id., “New Perspectives on State-Building and the Implementation of Rulership in Early Modern European Monarchies,” in Structures on the Move. Technologies of Governance in

Transcultural Encounter, ed. A. Flütchter and S. Richter (Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2012), 33. 27_{António Manuel Hespanha, “A constitução do Império português. Revisão de alguns enviesamentos}

correntes,” in O antigo regime nos trópicos. A dinâmica imperial portuguesa (séculos XVI-XVIII), ed. J. Fragoso, M. F. Bicalho and M. Gouvêa (Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 2010), 163-188. A state of the art on the study of early modern politics in the Portuguese world in Pedro Cardim, “La jurisdicción real y su afirmación en la Corona portuguesa y sus territorios ultramarinos (siglos XVI-XVIII): Reflexiones sobre la historiografía,” in De Re Publica Hispaniae. Una vindicación de la cultura política en los reinos

ibéricos en la primera modernidad, ed. F. J. Aranda Pérez and J. D. Rodrigues (Madrid: Sílex, 2008),

349-388. On the Spanish case see Bartolomé Yun-Casalilla, Marte contra minerva. El precio del imperio

español, c. 1450-1600 (Barcelona: Crítica, 2004), A. Irigoin and R. Grafe, “Bargaining for Absolutism: A

Spanish Path to Nation-State and Empire Building,” Hispanic American Historical Review 88, nº 2 (2008): 173-209; and J. J. Ruiz Ibáñez, “Les acteurs de l’hégémonie hispanique, du monde à la peninsule Ibérique,”

Annales 69, nº 4 (2014): 927-954.

28_{Bartolomé Yun-Casalilla, “Entre el imperio colonial y la monarquía compuesta. Élites y territorios en la}

Monarquía Hispánica (ss. XVI-XVII),” in Las redes del imperio. Élites sociales en la articulación de la

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9 Unsurprisingly, when historians took notice of the importance of the horizontal linkages between the territories royal officers became a group whose extreme geographical mobility influenced the empire’s cohesion.29

New changes in our way of understanding the Iberian empires have brought us new ways of approach royal officers. Scholars working on the Portuguese empire have drawn attention to the relational dynamics among a variety of individuals who shaped the empire.30 In this framework, royal officers appear, for instance, as crucial actors who contributed to create the practical knowledge needed to keep the empire working.31 Royal servants continued gaining momentum as a subject of study when a group of historians working on the Iberian empires proposed to study these polities as “polycentric monarchies”. This analytical proposition aimed to move beyond a centre-periphery narrative focused mainly on what was happening in the court, in order to show that these extended political entities were built on the local level.32 These new understandings of the Iberian monarchies have raised a renewed interest on the study of royal officers as a

29_{Luis Miguel Córdoba Ochoa, “Guerra, Imperio y Violencia en la Audiencia de Santa Fe, Nuevo Reino}

de Granada. 1580-1620” (Ph.D. diss, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, 2013), 60-119; and Domingo Centenero de Arce, “Una monarquía de lazos débiles. Veteranos, militares y administradores en la Monarquía Católica 1554-1621” (Ph.D. diss., European University Institute, 2009). A brief resume of some of its central ideas in Id., “¿Una monarquía de lazos débiles?,” in Oficiales reales. Los ministros de la

Monarquía Católica (siglos XVI-XVII), ed. J. F. Pardo Molero and M. Lomas Cortés (Valencia: Universidad

de Valencia, 2012), 137-161; Yuen-Gen Liang, Family and Empire: The Fernández de Córdoba and the

Spanish Realm (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). An interesting case study in J. J.

Ruiz Ibáñez and G. Vallejo Cervantes, “Vivir "sin dexar parte donde las cruzes españolas no hayan sido conocidas" Don Diego de Villallobos y Benavides en la administración imperial de la Monarquía Hispánica,” Historia Mexicana 61, nº 3 (2012): 1109-1170.

30_{João Fragoso and Maria de Fátima Gouvêa: “Desenhando perspectivas e ampliando abordagens – De O}

Antigo Regime nos trópicos a Na trama das redes,” in Na trama das redes. Política e negócios no império

português, séculos XVI-XVIII, ed. J. Fragoso and M. de F. Gouvêa (Rio de Janeiro, Civilização Brasileira,

2010), 11-40.

31_{M. Gouvêa, G. Almeida Frazão and M. Nogueira dos Santos, “Redes de poder e conhecimento na}

governação do Império Português, 1688-1735,” Topoi 5, nº 8, (2004): 96-137; Maria de Fátima Silva Gouvêa, “Instruments of Knowledge and Administrative Practices in the Portuguese South Atlantic in the 17th and 18th centuries,” in Connaissances et pouvoirs les espaces impériaux (XVIe-XVIIIe siècles),

France, Espagne, Portugal, ed, C. de Castelnau-L’Estoil and F. Regour (Bourdeaux: Presses Universitaires

de Bourdeaux, 2005), 147-166; and Id., “Redes governativas portuguesas e centralidades régias no mundo português, c. 1680-1730,” in Na trama das redes. Política e negócios no império português, séculos

XVI-XVIII, ed. J. Fragoso and M. Gouvêa (Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 2010), 155-202.

32_{Pedro Cardim, Tamar Herzog, José Javier Ruiz Ibáñez and Gaetano Sabatini, “Polycentric Monarchies.}

How did Early Modern Spain and Portugal Achieve and Maintain a Global Hegemony?,” in Polycentric

Monarchies. How did Early Modern Spain and Portugal Achieve and Maintain a Global Hegemony?, ed.

P. Cardim et al. (Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2012), 3-8. For a critic towards this proposal see M. Rivero Rodríguez, “La reconstrucción de la Monarquía Hispánica: la nueva relación de los reinos,” Revista

Escuela de Historia 12, no. 1 (2013): 1-16. For a useful critic on the concepts composing the

centre-periphery narrative, see Anne Radeff: “Centres et périphéries ou centralités et décentraltés,” in Per vie di

terra. Movimenti di uomini e di cose nelle società di antico regime, ed. A. Torre (Milan: Francoangeli,

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10

way of analyse the internal politics of these vast polities.33_{If some decades ago the royal}

officers were just a mere tool in the hands of the crown, nowadays they have become privileged protagonists in the study of early modern politics.

This thesis aims to contribute to this line of enquiry by showing the paramount role that characters like Juan Rena played in the empire building processes.34 As we will see, Rena spent most of his life serving the crown in spaces that we can label as peripheral. Furthermore, he was frequently in a difficult position between the interests of the imperial administration and the notables and the different local communities. Nevertheless, his political influence did not only rely on his capacity to adapt orders coming from the royal court in different local settings, or in his role connecting peripheries. In paying attention to his activity as a royal servant we can see that king’s men like him played a key role in shaping the early modern empires from below. I aim to show this by answering two main questions: first, how was Rena able to carry out his multiple tasks in the service of the crown? And second, what were the consequences of his activity in the shaping of the empire building process that he was involved in?

The empire here analysed has been extensively analysed as a political project.35

When the historians have addressed the question of how this project was put into practice they have frequently resorted to narratives in which the crown, the different territorial

33_{Juan Francisco Pardo Molero and Manuel Lomas Cortés eds., Oficiales reales. Los ministros de la} Monarquía Católica (siglos XVI-XVII) (Valencia: Universidad de Valencia, 2012).

34_{In this thesis I will refer frequently to the construction of the Hispanic Monarchy as an empire building}

process. In so doing I aim to mark a clear distinction towards the term “state building” and its teleological connotations. On the long-lasting tradition pointing at Charles V as the clear counterpoint to the development of the so-called modern state, see Jean-Philippe Genet, “Charles Quint: entre Empire et État moderne, un rêve imposible?,” in Charles V in Context: the Making of a European Identity, ed. M. Boone (Ghent: Ghent University Press, 2003), 313-330; and P. Fernández Albaladejo, “Imperio e identidad: consideraciones historiográficas sobre el momento español,” Semata 23 (2011): 131-148.

35_{José Antonio Maravall, Carlos V y el pensamiento político del Renacimiento (Madrid: Instituto de}

Estudios Políticos, 1960); Frances A. Yates, Astraea: the Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century (London: Routledge, 1975), 1-28; Anthony Pagden, Lords of All the World: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain

and France c. 1500-1800 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 31-62; Juan Carlos D’Amico, Charles Quint maître du monde: entre mythe et réalité (Caen: Presses Universitaires de Caen, 2004); On the debate

on the medieval or modern origins of this imperial project, see the two opposed views in Giuseppe Galasso, “El proyecto imperial de Carlos V,” in Id., Carlos V y la España Imperial. Estudios y ensayos (Madrid: CEEH, 2011), 35-69; R. Ard Boone, “Empire and Medieval Simulacrum: A Political Project of Mercurino di Gattinara, Grand Chancellor of Charles V,” Sixteenth Century Journal 42, nº 4 (2011): 1027-1049; See also, Thomas J. Dandelet, The Renaissance of Empire in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 74-134.

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11 elites, the aristocracy, the church, or the cities are the protagonists.36_{The general picture}

emerging from these works is that of an empire that existed only thanks to the support of elites to this political project.37_{As a result, little attention has been paid to the crucial}

question of how this empire came to life beyond the negotiations between the monarch and elites. Needless to say, the collaboration of these actors was more than crucial, but in the end it was just a cog in the imperial machine. Rena’s case is useful precisely because it opens a window on to how this ambitious political project came to life, not only beyond the palace gates, but also in the frontiers, the navy, etcetera.

The empire that Rena helped to shape was a human one, that is, an institution that existed only because it was conceived, experienced and practiced by people.38 In adopting this actor-based approach, this thesis connects with the recent interest on the so-called agents of empire.39 Nevertheless, I propose an understanding of these imperial agents much more plural that includes not only diplomats, courtiers or high military officers, but also modest individuals who, like Rena, did not act in the sphere of the high politics. Following Rena as the main actor in this study will show how this empire was constructed

36_{Jaime Vicens Vives, “Imperio y administración en tiempo de Carlos V,” in Charles-Quint et son temps}

(Paris: CNRS, 1959), 9-21; A critic to Vives’ interpretation in Pablo Fernández Albaladejo, “Imperio y administración bajo Carlos V: una reevaluación,” in Hernán Cortés y su tiempo (Mérida: Editora regional de Extremadura, 1987), vol. 2, 520-527. On the multiple negotiations between Charles V and his subjects, see James D. Tracy, Holland under the Habsburg Rule, 1506-1566: The Formation of a Body Politic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990); Juan Francisco Pardo Molero, La defensa del Imperio:

Carlos V, Valencia y el Mediterráneo (Madrid: SECC, 2001); Carlos José Hernando Sánchez, El reino de Nápoles en el Imperio de Carlos V: la consolidación de la conquista (Madrid: SECC, 2001); Bartolomé

Yun Casalilla, “Carlos V y la aristocracia. Poder, crédito y economía en Castilla,” in Id., La gestión del

poder. Corona y economías aristocráticas en Castilla (siglos XVI-XVIII) (Madrid: Akal, 2002), 105-136;

Sean T. Perrone, Charles V and the Castilian Assembly of the Clergy: Negotiations for the Ecclesiastical

Subsidy (Leiden: Brill, 2008); and Aurelio Espinosa, The Empire of the Cities: Emperor Charles V, the Comunero Revolt, and the Transformation of the Spanish System (Leiden: Brill, 2009).

37_{Carlos José Hernando Sánchez, “Non sufficit orbis? Las estrategias de la Monarquía de España,” in} Historia Militar de España, ed. H. O’donell (Madrid: Laberinto, 2013), Vol. 3 T. 2, 33-37, and Rafael

Carrasco, La empresa imperial de Carlos V (Madrid, Cátedra, 2015), 474-477.

38_{This understanding of the empire owes a great deal to Bourdieu’s work on the state. Pierre Bourdieu, Sur} l’État: cours au Collège de France, 1989-1992 (Paris: Seuil, 2012). On the usefulness and risks of

Bourdieu’s theory on the state in the early modern period see J-P. Genet, “À propos de Pierre Bourdieu et de la genèse de l'état modern,” Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 201-202 (2014): 98-105. A study on the collapse of the Hispanic Monarchy from a similar approach in Jean Perre Dedieu, Après le roi. Essai

sur l’effondrement de la monarchie espagnole (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2010). A similar approach to

the construction of the Spanish empire in colonial Mexico, can be found in, R. Jovita Baber, “The Construction of Empire: Politics, Law and Community in Tlaxcala, New Spain, 1521-1640” (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 2005).

39_{Noel Malcolm, Agents of Empire: Knights, Corsairs, Jesuits and Spies in the Sixteenth-Century} Mediterranean World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). See also Michael J. Levin, Agents of Empire: Spanish Ambassadors in Sixteenth-Century Italy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005).

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12

on the ground.40_{While the construction of the Spanish empire is firmly associated with}

its expansion in the Atlantic world, Rena spent most of his life travelling around Europe and especially the Mediterranean. With his multiple activities serving the crown in: Malaga, Oran, Cartagena, Barcelona, Genoa, Naples, Tunis, and Koroni, Rena contributed to turn the political projects of Ferdinand the Catholic and Charles V into a reality in this region.41 By looking at the rise of the Hispanic Monarchy as an imperial power in the Mediterranean from Rena’s perspective we can see it, not as a de-humanised polity (as it has appeared in the narratives on the imperial clashes since Braudel’s work on the Mediterranean42) but as a collective construction, one that was created and shaped by the activity of thousands of characters like Rena.

In this study I will use the concept of king’s men to refer to Juan Rena and the men like him who played a key role in the construction of the empire. The term is by no means new and actually it has been frequently employed to refer to councillors, secretaries, courtiers, churchmen, or noblemen serving the king in higher offices.43 More recently the term has been used to refer to lower ranking agents closer to our object of study.44 However, despite the wide use of the concept a definition is still missing. Without aiming at providing a rigid definition, I use this concept to describe actors whose political agency and place in society was defined by their link to the monarch. This definition may come across as too vague but it allows me to refer to a wide array of people linked to the

40_{Jacques Revel, “L’histoire au ras du sol,” in Giovanni Levi, Le pouvoir au village. Histoire d’un exorciste} dans le Piémont du XVIIe siècle (Paris: Gallimard, 1989), I-XXXIII.

41_{Ferdinand’s strategy in the Mediterranean is now understood as an imperial policy closely related with}

the aspirations to universal monarchy. Andrew Devereux, “Empire in the Old World: Ferdinand the Catholic and His Aspiration to Universal Empire, 1479-1516,” in In and Of the Mediterranean: Medieval

and Early Modern Iberian Studies, eds. M. M. Hamilton and N. Silleras-Fernández (Nashville: Vanderbilt

University Press, 2015), 119-141. Nevertheless, universal aspiration was a long-lasting common place in the Iberian political culture and is not enough to label Ferdinand’s political project as an empire. J. Gil, “A apropriação da ideia de império pelos reinos da Península Ibérica: Castela,” Penélope 15 (1995): 11-30; Pedro Cardim, “La aspiración imperial de la monarquía portuguesa (siglos XVI y XVII),” in Comprendere

le monarchie iberiche: Risorsi materiali e rappresentazioni del potere, ed. G. Sabatini (Rome: Viella,

2010), 59-62; E. Botella Ordinas, “Exempt from Time and from its Fatal Change: Spanish Imperial Ideology, 1450-1700,” Renaissance Studies 26, nº 4 (2012): 580-604.

42_{Fernand Braudel, La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l’époque de Philippe II (Paris: Armand}

Colin, 1949) and Andrew C. Hess, The Forgotten Frontier: A History of the 16th-century Ibero-African

Frontier (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1978).

43_{Adolfo Carrasco Martínez, “Los hombres del rey. Letrados, nobles y eclesiásticos al servicio de Felipe}

II,” in Las tierras y los hombres del rey. Felipe II, un monarca y su época (Madrid: SECC, 1998), 55-69.

44_{Jean Aubin, Le latin et l’astrolabe. Études inédites sur le règne de D. Manuel 1495-1521 (Paris :}

Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, 2006), T. III, 201-212; R. Guerrero Elecalde, “Los hombres del rey. Redes, poder y surgimiento de nuevas elites gobernantes durante la guerra de sucesión española (1700-1714),”

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13 monarch through a service relationship.45_{It also permits me to refer to characters who,}

like Rena, served the crown for years without being officially appointed for a specific office. Moreover, it allows me to take some distance from the bureaucratic meaning associated to the concept of crown’s servants.46 Of course Rena can also be defined as a royal officer or as crown’s servant (in fact I will refer to him like that when addressing his activity in a specific office) but he was more than that. What made him an outstanding character was his service relationship with King Ferdinand the Catholic and Charles V. This relationship is what earned Rena a distinguished place in the Hispanic Monarchy. Furthermore, it was this relationship that allowed him to adopt a prominent role in the construction of this polity.

The case study: a brief presentation

It is difficult to sketch a biography of Juan Rena because of the many gaps in our knowledge of his personal life.47 His origin continues to be obscure and most probably we will never know anything about his early life before he entered the service of Ferdinand the Catholic in the opening years of the sixteenth century. He was born around 1480 according to his own references. We know that he came from Venice and in fact he was very proud of his Venetian origins.48_{We also know that he received a religious}

ordination during his early years in Venice.49_{Nevertheless as he did not belong to an}

important noble family, or to the Venetian elite it is very difficult to grasp his family background. The Venetian state archives hold only some scant sources by members of a

45_{On the concept of service, see Alicia Esteban Estríngana, “El servicio: paradigm de relación política en}

los siglos XVI y XVII,” in Servir al Rey en la Monarquía de los Austrias. Medios, Fines y Logros del

Servicio al Soberano en los Siglos XVI y XVII, ed. A. Esteban Estríngana (Madrid: Sílex, 2012), 11-45. 46_{Gerald E. Aylmer, The King’s Servants: The Civil Service of Charles I 1625-1642 (London: Routledge}

& Kegan Paul, 1974); and Id. The Crown’s Servants: Government and Civil Sevice under Charles II,

1660-1685 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).

47_{The most complete description on Rena’s life is Mercedes Chocarro Huesa and Félix Segurra Urra,} Inventario de la documentación de Juan Rena. Archivo Real y General de Navarra (Pamplona: Gobierno

de Navarra, 2013), 37-68.

48_{As a matter of fact, he trasmitted this feeling to his daughter, Juana Rena, who considered herself}

Venetian despite having born in Granada and living in Navarre. AGN, AP_RENA, Caj. 16, nº 13.

49_{A certain “Johanes Regina” received the general orders in March 1490 in the chapel of Saint Just. Despite}

this last name looks like a latin version of Rena’s last name, I cannot affirm that it was Rena. Most probably Juan Rena could have been one of the many “Jo. Di Venetia” ordering as a priest in these years. ASPVe, Archivio Segreto, Ordinazioni, Lib. 2 fols. 127, 136, 141 and 143; and Lib. 3, fol. 39. Unfortunately, the register of religious ordinances between 1495 and 1509, when Rena most probably received his religious orders, is missing.

Juan Rena and the construction of the Hispanic monarchy (1500-1540)

Juan Rena and the Construction of the

Hispanic Monarchy (1500-1540)

Jose Miguel Escribano-Páez

European University Institute

Department of History and Civilization

Juan Rena and the Construction of the Hispanic Monarchy

(1500-1540)

Jose Miguel Escribano-Páez

Abstract

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Acknowledgements

Introduction