Details

Subjects:

Pérez, Antonio, 1559-1637.
Escobedo, Juan de, 1530-1578.
Philip II, King of Spain, 1527-1598.
Alamos de Barrientos, Baltasar, approximately 1555-approximately 1644.
Spain -- History -- Philip II, 1556-1598.
Spain.
History.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Biographies (literary works)
Manuscripts, Spanish.
Manuscripts, European.

Language:

Spanish.

Summary:

Account of the case brought against Antonio Pérez, secretary to Philip II, precipitated by his role in the murder of Juan de Escobedo, secretary to John of Austria. Pérez, who at one time had enjoyed the King's confidence, had recommended that Escobedo be assigned to John of Austria in order to spy on him. When Escobedo turned out to be more loyal to John of Austria, who was the King's half-brother and Governor General of the Low Countries, Pérez leveraged his position as secretary for the affairs of the Low Countries by altering documents and correspondence in an effort to arouse suspicion against Escobedo, and indirectly, of John of Austria. His plan seems to have worked, for the King eventually tacitly agreed to Escobedo's extrajudicial murder, which Pérez appears to have arranged in 1578. This account deals with the period after the King realized he had been manipulated by Pérez and had him arrested in 1579. It primarily illustrates the bureaucratic side of the more than ten-year-long process of bringing charges against Pérez. It includes multiple letters from Pérez to the King; his confession made under torture; a brief account of the sentence carried out against Baltasar Alamos de Barrientos in 1590, a Pérez loyalist who seems to have been arrested for this reason; and the death sentence against Pérez also in 1590, issued by the president of Castile, Rodrigo Vázquez de Arce. Due to the fact that Pérez had escaped from several Castilian prisons, with the help of loyalists like Alamos, and ended up in his native Aragon, his extradition to Castile was hampered by Castilian and Aragonese antagonism. By the time royal troops were able to occupy Zaragoza in 1591, Pérez had fled to France, where he lived in exile until his death in 1611. Following the case of Pérez and Alamos, there is a letter from Philip II to Cristóvão de Moura e Távora, instructing him to deliver a letter to Diego de Chaves, the King's confessor. This is followed by de Chaves' reply, and a note explaining that this correspondence is connected with the King's refusal to remove Rodrigo de Arce from the Castilian presidency, as de Chaves had requested, and the latter's subsequent reluctance to administer the King's absolution.

Contents:

1. f.2r-171r: Memorial ajustado del processo y causa de Antonio Perez, secretario de Phelipe Segundo, sobre la muerte del secretario Escobedo, y otras cosas.
2. f.171v: Papel de Phelipe Segundo para el marques de Castel Rodrigo don Christoval de Mora / Philip II.
3. f.172r-173v: Respuesta de fray Diego de Chaves al pliego de Su Magestad que le dio don Christoval de Mora, marques de Castel Rodrigo / Diego de Chaves.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from title page (f. 2r).
For another manuscript of the case of Antonio Pérez, see Ms. Codex 1407, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania.
Foliation: Paper, i + 176 + i leaves; [1-176]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.
Layout: Written in 15-16 long lines.
Script: Written in a cursive script.
Watermark: Similar to Valls i Subirá, Moray, 617; similar to Valls i Subirá, Romeu, 854.
Binding: Contemporary calf.
Origin: Probably written in Spain in the 18th century.

Penn Provenance:

Gift of Manuel López to Francisco Corminas and from Corminas it passed to Sebastian Vilardebó (notes, f. 1r).
Formerly owned by José Vilardebó (bookplate, inside upper cover).
Formerly owned by Henry Charles Lea (inscription, f. 1r, 1891; bookplate, inside lower cover).

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 178 (Ms. Lea 150).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1406

Contributor:

López, Manuel, former owner.
Corminas, Francisco, former owner.
Vilardebó, Sebastian, former owner.
Vilardebó, José, former owner.
Lea, Henry Charles, 1825-1909, former owner.

Contains:

Moura e Távora, Cristóvão de, marquês de Castelo Rodrigo, 1538-1613, addressee.
Philip II, King of Spain, 1527-1598.
Chaves, Diego de.

OCLC:

310421687