| Content from Wikipedia under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license ⇔ Maps from OpenStreetMap under the ODbL license |
Giulio Alberoni
| Giulio Alberoni | |
|---|---|
| Cardinal-Priest of San Lorenzo in Lucina | |
 Portrait of Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, by Giovanni Maria delle Piane. | |
| File:CardinalCoA PioM.svg | |
| Occupation | Prime Minister |
| Ordination | 1698 |
| Consecration | November 18, 1725 by Benedict XIII |
| Created cardinal | July 12, 1717 by Clement XI |
| Born | May 31, 1664 Fiorenzuola d'Arda |
| Died | June 26, 1752 Piacenza |
| Motto | Lex et Eclesia |
Giulio Alberoni (Fiorenzuola d'Arda, May 31, 1664 – Piacenza, June 26, 1752) was a prominent Italian cardinal and statesman, and the chief adviser to King Philip V of Spain.
Alberoni is remembered as a key figure in 18th-century Spanish history, whose influence was felt both in domestic politics and in the international diplomacy of the period.
Early years
Giulio Alberoni was born into a family of humble origins in northern Italy. His father was a gardener, and his first job in the ecclesiastical apparatus was as bell-ringer of the cathedral of Piacenza. Despite holding such a modest position, he managed to win the trust of the Bishop of the city. Influenced by him, Alberoni decided to train as a priest and later accompanied the Bishop's son on his journey to the city of Rome, where he settled.
He began his political career as secretary to Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme, the Commander-in-chief of the Hispano-French troops in Italy during the War of the Spanish Succession. In that capacity he accompanied him to the front and visited Paris in 1706, where he won the favor of King Louis XIV of France himself. He later entered the service of the Duke of Parma, from where he directed the negotiations between the Duke and Philip V of Spain that finally ended in the marriage between the new Spanish monarch and Elisabeth Farnese, the Duke's niece, in 1714.
Political career in Spain
Before that, Alberoni had arrived in Spain in 1711 as Vendôme's secretary. The latter's death in Vinaròs a year later led him to request the post of ambassador of Parma to the court of Philip V, where his influence grew little by little thanks to the help of Marie-Anne de la Trémoille, better known as the Princess of the Ursins.
The King's wedding to Elisabeth Farnese is a clear illustration of how far his influence over the King had grown, since it was Alberoni who had negotiated the marriage. The favor of the new queen allowed him, in barely a couple of years, to rise even further in his meteoric career, successively obtaining the title of Grandee of Spain, the office of Counselor to the King and the appointment as Bishop of Málaga. In 1715 the Spanish court actively pressed Pope Clement XI to make Alberoni a cardinal, which the Pontiff did two years later (in July 1717).
As a member of the state apparatus, Alberoni promoted a policy that combined the economic reforms undertaken in France by Jean-Baptiste Colbert with markedly conservative social measures, which reversed many of those approved during the career of Jean Orry, Alberoni's predecessor. He created a regular mail service with the Spanish colonies in America and a new school of navigation that only nobles could enter, and he restored the Holy Inquisition. In order to drive the economic reconstruction of the country after the War of Succession, he slightly reduced the powers of the Grandees of Spain and abolished the internal customs between the various kingdoms of the Spanish Crown (with the exception of those of Navarre and the Basque Provinces). He also stimulated trade with America by moving the Casa de Contratación of Seville to the city of Cádiz.
Alberoni's policy was not limited to economic matters. His ultimate goal was to restore to Spain its role as a European power, which had been taken from it, along with many of its possessions, in the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. So that the country might recover its former preponderance in the western Mediterranean, he embarked on an ambitious project that sought to recover the former Spanish possessions in Italy and to check the advance of the Habsburgs of Austria. Between 1717 and 1718 he carried out an active policy to win the support of the papacy and France for the new expansion, which materialized in the conquest of Sardinia and much of Sicily, until Great Britain decided to attack the Spanish fleet (in the midst of an armistice) at Cape Passaro.
In order to get his main opponent out of the way, Alberoni promoted a plan to invade England in 1719, which never came to fruition because of a storm that damaged the Spanish invasion fleet at the outset, and the numerous desertions of its Scottish allies, often in the middle of battle[1] |soldiers2= •260 soldiers of the Galicia Regiment,[2].
France did not support Spain this time, but instead joined Great Britain, Austria and Holland in the Quadruple Alliance, which in the end set Spain against the whole European continent. Before events could escalate further, Philip V decided to sacrifice Alberoni, ordering him on December 5, 1719 to leave Spain, something that not even the protests of Elisabeth Farnese could prevent.
Return to Italy
.jpg)
Fallen from grace, Alberoni went to Italy, where he was not short of enemies either. He escaped an attempted arrest in Genoa and took refuge in the Apennine Mountains. There he discovered that Pope Clement XI (probably annoyed by the pressure to which Spain and Alberoni himself had subjected him in previous years) had also ordered his capture. He managed to avoid it until Clement's death in 1721.
Since he was still a cardinal, he attended in that capacity the conclave that elected Innocent XIII as the new pope. The latter had him imprisoned after coming under pressure from Spain, but a commission of cardinals freed him from prison and cleared him of all charges. In 1724 he attended a new conclave and even gathered 10 votes in the round in which Benedict XIII was elected. Six years later he took part in his third conclave, at which Clement XII was elected.
The new pope appointed him legate of Ravenna, where in 1739 he had the city's Alberoni Gate built. That year he led the papal troops against the small Republic of San Marino, taking it on October 17. He achieved his objective, but the Pope did not approve of the methods used in the campaign and removed him as legate of Ravenna in 1740, withdrawing his troops from the republic on February 5.
He then returned to Piacenza, an Austrian possession, where he had been directing the Hospital of Saint Lazarus, devoted to the care of lepers, for a decade. With the decline in cases of leprosy in Italy in recent years, Alberoni asked the Pope for the suppression of the hospital and turned it into a school for the poor children and adolescents of the city.
Final years
Alberoni's taste for painting and cooking grew over the years. Evidence of the latter are some specialties of the cuisine of Piacenza such as the Coppa del Cardinale or the Timballo Alberoni.
In his art collections in Rome and Piacenza he kept all kinds of tapestries and paintings, including the Ecce Homo by Antonello da Messina.
On his death in 1752 he left his possessions and what remained of his Spanish fortune to his nephew, except for 600,000 ducats which he assigned to the seminary he had just founded.
The authenticity of the Political Testament published under his name in the Swiss city of Lausanne in 1753 is questioned.
References
- ↑ Miguel del Rey y Carlos Canales (2012). En Tierra Extraña: Expediciones Militares Españolas (in español). Edaf. Clío, crónicas de la historia. ISBN 978-84-414-3206-2.
- ↑ «Regimiento de Infantería 'Galicia' 64 de Cazadores de Montaña; Historial: Origen.» Ministry of Defence. Spanish Army. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
External links
- Profile at NNDB
- La boda, bajo engaño, de Felipe V que provocó una nueva guerra europea in El Debate (in Spanish)
