Luis Méndez de Haro

The Most Excellent The Marquis of Carpio GE
Don Luis de Haro y Guzmán, anonymous painting from the Uffizi Gallery
Valido of the King of Spain
In office 23 January 1643 – 16 November 1661.
Monarch	Philip IV
Preceded by	Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares
Succeeded by	Gaspar Méndez de Haro
Personal details
Born	(1598-02-17)17 February 1598 Valladolid, Crown of Castile, Spain
Died	26 November 1661(1661-11-26) (aged 63) Madrid, Crown of Castile, Spain
Spouse	Catalina Fernández de Córdoba-Figueroa y Enríquez de Ribera ​ ​ (m. 1625)​
Parents	Diego Lopez de Haro y Sotomayor (father) Francisca de Guzman y Pimentel (mother)

Luis Méndez de Haro, 6th Marquis of Carpio or Luis Méndez de Haro y Guzmán, Grandee of Spain (in full, Spanish: Don Luis Méndez de Haro Guzmán y Sotomayor de la Paz, sexto marqués del Carpio, segundo conde de Morente, quinto conde y tercer duque de Olivares, segundo marqués de Eliche, primer duque de Montoro, 3 veces Grande de España, Comendador mayor de la Orden de Alcántara, Gran Chanciller de las Indias, Alcaide de las Alcázares de Sevilla y Córdoba, Caballerizo mayor, gentilhombre de cámara y primer ministro de Felipe IV y su gran privado), (17 February 1598 – 26 November 1661), was a Spanish nobleman, political figure and general.

Biography

Luis Méndez de Haro y Guzmán was the son of Diego de Haro, the marquis of Carpio, and of doña Francisca de Guzmán, the sister of Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares.

Career

Méndez de Haro made a career at the Spanish court under the protection of his uncle, the Count-Duke, whom he succeeded as Valido or the court favourite who enjoyed the friendship and trust of the King and who wielded political power, after the Count-Duke was driven from office in 1643. He would never exert the same type of influence or control as his uncle had, mainly due to King Philip IV's reliance upon Sister María de Ágreda's counsel. She was able to influence the King to abolish the function of valido.

Haro had a modest attitude; He was courteous, humble and prudent, in contrast to the favourites who had preceded him. A sign of his apparent modesty is the scarcity of his portraits: no oil painting of him survives and the six that exist are all by anonymous authors.

His main political and military success was the suppression of the Catalan uprising, and the reconquest of Barcelona in 1652. He assumed command of the military operations against Portugal in the summer of 1658 and achieved the lifting of the Portuguese siege of Badajoz (1658). Taking advantage of this sucsess, Haro, invaded Portugal and besieged Elvas, the main defensive system of Portugal - where the Portuguese army that had besieged Badajoz took refuge and was suffering a catastrophic plague. However the Portuguese managed to gather a relief army which inflicted a crushing defeat to the Spanish army at the decisive battle of the Lines of Elvas (14 January 1659).

Haro convinced Philip to officially recognize the Commonwealth of England and to seek English support against France. Though flattered by this immediate recognition, Cromwell was determined to take the side of France. He made such egregious and absurd demands in return for the amicable offers of the Spanish minister as to show at once his inimical purposes towards Spain.

Luis de Méndez Haro was the main Spanish negotiator of the Treaty of the Pyrenees on Pheasant Island in 1659. He was unable to avoid any perceived negative result of the treaty, nor was he able to reach an anti-French accord with the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Oliver Cromwell. The treaty was accompanied by the marriage of King Louis XIV of France and the Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain. Luis de Méndez Haro played the part of the bridegroom in the proxy marriage that took place at Fuenterrabia on 3 June 1660.

Haro died on 16 November 1661. He was buried in the Church of the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Madrid. On December 31, 1662, his remains were moved to the Dominican convent of Loeches, founded by the Count-Duke of Olivares.

Heroic and Flying Fame of the Most Excellent Lord Don Luis Méndez de Haro, Count-Duke of Olivares by Don Diego Fernández de Medrano y Zenizeros

Portrait of Luis Méndez de Haro y Guzmán by Cornelis Meyssens

The Count-Duke Luis Méndez de Haro was immortalized in Don Diego Fernández de Medrano's book "Heroic and Flying Fame of the Most Excellent Lord Don Luis Méndez de Haro, Count-Duke of Olivares," part of which reads:

"The greatest art in applying remedies and skills is brevity and comprehension, as well as the ability to pinpoint the exact spot where the harm resides and where the remedy can most easily be achieved. (...) The restoration, not only of the Spanish Monarchy but also of the entire world, is owed to the Most Excellent Lord Don Luis Méndez de Haro. (...) To apply his remedy, he knew how to seek the quintessence of true statecraft by establishing peace among princes, which was so necessary for all of Christendom. (...) He deserves not statues of fragile stone but rather enduring bronze that would make his fame immortal. His achievement is so significant that (...) he relied on a pillar and fundamental base of those that today hold up the Militant and Catholic Church."

The book is both a panegyric and a political treatise. A significant portion of the text is devoted to Haro’s pivotal role in negotiating the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659). The author Don Diego Fernández de Medrano y Zenizeros was a Priest, Chaplain, the lord of the Villa and Solar of Valdeosera and the Lord of Sojuela, inherited from his father Don Diego de Medrano y Zenizeros, Knight of the Order of Santiago. He was a knight of the Order of Santiago, owner of the House and Tower of La Vega and the Palace of Entrena, Commissioner of Spanish Infantry and Alcaide of the Castles of Villarejo de Salvanés and Fuentidueña (Guadalajara), which belong to the Order of Santiago.

Marriage and children

On 26 April 1625, in Barcelona, Luis Méndez de Haro married Catalina (26 April 1610 – 19 November 1647), the youngest daughter of Enrique de Córdoba Cardona y Aragón. They had 5 children:

• Gaspar, (1629–1687), his successor and the Viceroy of Naples.
• Juan Domingo (1640–1716), Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands and the Viceroy of Catalonia.
• Francisco was an illegitimate son of Luis, but acknowledged by his father. Francisco may have been conceived before Luis's marriage, while involved as majordomo for the young future King Felipe IV
• Antonia, who had married Gaspar Juan Pérez de Guzmán, 10th Duke of Medina Sidonia.
• Manuela, who had married Gaspar Vigil de Quiñones Alonso Pimentel y Benavides.
• María Méndez (1644–1693), who had married Gregorio María Domingo de Silva Mendoza y Sandoval.

Art collection

Following the execution of Charles I of England and the dispersion of his art collection, Luis de Haro commissioned Alonso de Cárdenas, the Spanish ambassador in London, to purchase some of the most valuable works. Cárdenas bought more than a hundred paintings at the auction organised by the Parliament, known as the Commonwealth auction. Among them were many of the most prized works in the collection, such as the Death of the Virgin by Andrea Mantegna, the Self-Portrait by Albrecht Dürer, La Perla by Raphael, The Virgin and Child between Saint Matthew and an Angel by Andrea del Sarto, The Washing of the Feet by Tintoretto, and Moses Saved from the Waters by Paolo Veronese, all of them currently in the Museo del Prado. The series of the Eleven Caesars by Titian was destroyed in the fire of the Royal Alcázar of Madrid in 1734.

Haro purchased the large Christ and the Centurion by Paolo Veronese from Lady Alethea Talbot Howard, wife of the Earl of Arundel.

Sources

• Evans Crowe, Eyre (1837). Lives of the Most Eminent Foreign Statesmen: Louis de Haro. Cardinal Dubois. Cardinal Alberoni. John William, duke of Ripperda. Vol. 4. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green. pp. 1–63. Retrieved 15 October 2008.
• Instituto de Salazar y Castro. Elenco de Grandezas y Titulos Nobiliarios Españoles (in Spanish). periodic publication.
• Lynn Williams, ed. (2000). Letters from the Pyrenees. Don Luis Méndez de Haro's correspondence to Philip IV of Spain, July to November 1659. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. ISBN 978-0859896924.
• Valladares, Rafael (2016). El mundo de un valido: Don Luis de Haro y su entorno, 1643-1661. Madrid: Marcial Pons. ISBN 978-8415963943.