Manuel Godoy

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For other uses, see Manuel Godoy (disambiguation) and other people of the same name.
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Manuel Godoy
Portrait of Manuel Godoy, painted by Francisco de Goya (Academy of San Fernando, Madrid).
Secretary of State
In office
November 15, 1792 – March 28, 1798
MonarchCharles IV
Preceded byCount of Aranda
Succeeded byFrancisco de Saavedra
Personal details
BornMay 12, 1767
Badajoz, Spain
DiedOctober 4, 1851
(aged 84)
Paris, France
Spouse(s)María Teresa de Borbón y Vallabriga
Josefa Tudó y Catalán
Children
Parents
  • José Alfonso Godoy Cáceres Ovando y Ríos
  • Antonia Justa Álvarez de Faria y Sánchez Zarzoza
OccupationPolitician

Manuel de Godoy y Álvarez de Faria (Badajoz, May 12, 1767 – Paris, October 4, 1851) was a Spanish noble and politician, favorite and prime minister of Charles IV between 1792 and 1798, and the strongman behind the scenes from 1800 to 1808. He was Duke of la Alcudia and of Sueca, and Prince of the Peace for his negotiation of the Peace of Basel in 1795, a title that years later Ferdinand VII declared illegal and that Godoy, by then in exile, replaced with the Italian title of Prince of Bassano. The purchase of the fief of Bassano di Sutri, near Rome and Viterbo, gave him the right to this title, following a grant from Pope Pius VIII.[1]

Of hidalgo origin, he was raised meteorically to power by Charles IV, who showered him with titles and honors, married him to a cousin of his, endowed him with immense wealth and entrusted him with the highest offices of the State, in view of the inability of the court cliques of the beginning of his reign, headed by the Count of Floridablanca (Secretary of State from 1777 to 1792) and the Count of Aranda (likewise in 1792), to cope with the turbulence of the moment.

As Secretary of State (1792–1798) and generalissimo (1801–1808) he headed the Government of Spain during the European crisis provoked by the French Revolution and the ambitions of Napoleon Bonaparte, which culminated in the French invasion of 1808 and the War of Independence, a few months after the fall of Charles IV and of Godoy himself as a result of the Mutiny of Aranjuez. Throughout his time as favorite, full of lights and shadows, he managed to maintain Spain's position in the face of the might of France with a pragmatic foreign policy—while other powers such as Austria, Prussia or Holland were humiliated or annexed—while at home he tried to carry out an enlightened reformist program that generated deep rejection among many social groups, especially the nobility and the clergy.

Godoy, one of the most vilified figures in the History of Spain, has in recent times been the subject of a series of rehabilitating studies coinciding with the 150th anniversary of his death.

Early years

He was born at number 18 of Santa Lucía street[2] in Badajoz[3] on May 12, 1767, the son of José Alfonso Godoy Cáceres Ovando y Ríos (1731–1808)[4], perpetual alderman of Badajoz and Alcalde of the Santa Hermandad for the noble estate in 1768, 1778, 1779 and 1786,[5] and of his second wife María Antonia Justa Álvarez de Faria y Sánchez Zarzosa (1732–1836),[6] of Portuguese origin but born in Badajoz. Both belonged to the provincial nobility, which gave them access to offices that only nobles could hold in those times. He was baptized with the names Manuel Domingo Francisco.

His father, José Godoy, a Colonel in the army and holder of offices in the municipal government of Badajoz, took as much care as he could over the education of his children, both intellectual and physical, through the practice of horsemanship and fencing, indispensable for them to pursue a military career successfully. After finishing his elementary studies, Godoy acquired knowledge of mathematics, the humanities and philosophy.

In 1784 he arrived at the Court of Madrid and was admitted by Charles III into the Guardia de Corps, where his elder brother Luis served. He studied French and Italian with the Joubert brothers, to whom he declared he owed a great deal, as well as to his confessor.

Godoy's rapid rise

Manuel Godoy, young Guardia de Corps, painted by Francisco Folch de Cardona, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.

On November 15, 1792, eight years after joining the Guardia de Corps, Manuel Godoy was raised to the office of First Secretary of State or of the Office, that is, prime minister or universal minister, by the new sovereign Charles IV, who since ascending the throne in 1788 had not ceased to heap honors upon him: cadet, adjutant general of the Guardia de Corps, brigadier, Field Marshal and sergeant major of the Guard.

Already prime minister, Godoy signed on May 25, 1793 in Aranjuez the provisional agreement of defensive alliance against the French First Republic, with the titles of Duke of la Alcudia, Grandee of Spain of the first class, perpetual alderman of the city of Santiago de Compostela, knight of the Golden Fleece, Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III, Commander of Valencia del Ventoso and of Aceuchal in 1796 and 1793, respectively, Councilor of State, first secretary, secretary to the Queen, superintendent general of Posts and Roads, gentleman of the bedchamber in active service, Captain General of the Royal Armies, inspector and sergeant major of the Royal Corps of the Guardia de Corps.

To all these honors the monarchs would add that of Prince of the Peace for the signing of the second Treaty of Basel on July 22, 1795. Later, Godoy was named Lord of Soto de Roma and of the Estate of Albalá; perpetual alderman of the town of Madrid and of the cities of Cádiz, Málaga, Écija and Reus, the latter office carrying the title of Baron of Mascalbó; veinticuatro of Seville; knight grand cross of the Order of Christ and of the religion of Saint John; protector of the Royal Academy of Noble Arts and of the Royal Institutes of Natural History, Botanical Garden, Chemical Laboratory and Observatory.

In 1801 he was named generalissimo, a title never before granted in Spain. Finally, in 1807, already close to his fall, Charles IV granted him the title of grand admiral, with the style of Most Serene Highness, and that of President of the Council of State.

Reasons for his rapid rise

Rumors and the traditional historiography favorable to the reign of Ferdinand VII attributed it to the favor of Queen María Luisa and to their alleged love affair: beauty and intelligence were the virtues that the sovereign appreciated in her protégé, and she managed to instill in her husband as well the idea she had come to form of Godoy's political talent. His supposed affair with the Queen contributed to the discrediting of the monarchy. Godoy discreetly denies these rumors in his memoirs by describing the King as a person without blemish.

Another sector of modern historiography (such as Seco Serrano, Bullón de Mendoza, La Parra or Rúspoli) does not regard the Queen's affair with Godoy as plausible: María Luisa of Parma, besides having an almost nonexistent private life in her condition as queen, had thirteen pregnancies and eleven miscarriages, giving birth to fourteen children, seven of whom died. These authors confirm that Godoy's rapid rise was driven by the repercussions that the French Revolution and its increasingly radical turn had in the Peninsula. Faced with the events that forced Louis XVI to renounce the throne, the minister Floridablanca adopted a hesitant attitude, without daring to intervene, while trying to keep the country safe from revolutionary ideology (1789–1791). When this policy failed, Aranda took power, but he was unable to improve the delicate situation of the monarchy of Charles IV, nor that of the King of France, a country in which a republic had already been proclaimed. In view of these events, the King called Godoy to govern, a man free of influences and connections with Floridablanca or with Aranda's Aragonese party. He owed everything he was and everything he had to the monarchs, and for that reason he was loyal to them alone.

Some reforms undertaken by Godoy were aimed at limiting or controlling the power of the High Nobility. Charles IV raised Godoy to the very highest nobility (Grandee of Spain of the first class, duke and prince, husband of a cousin of the King) in order to give him authority before the nobility and to immunize him against the arguments against him stemming from his humble origin. By making him powerful, he would have authority over the powerful.

In his Memoirs, the favorite protests against those who attributed the monarchs' preferences to gallantry and to songs: "In my life I never understood anything about the guitar, nor about singing, nor could I resort to those skills, which I did not have, to sustain myself at court. I will say little about this, and I will observe the decorum that her memory requires, as is fitting among Spaniards." Nobility of intention cannot be denied in these words.

However, the Spaniards' repugnance for the upstart was great: thus testifies Abbé Muriel according to the general feeling of the time; not because of Godoy's youth, since a young man could govern well, and in England they had the example of Pitt, but because of the way in which he had reached the office. For his part, Carles, a member of the French embassy in Madrid and whose impartiality may be doubted, explains that the rapid rise of that "adventurer" was a cause of gossip among all social classes and that the lack of modesty of the "lascivious queen", who enriched her favorite at the expense of the public treasury, scandalized everyone. In 1908, Juan Pérez de Guzmán attempted for the first time the vindication of the discredited María Luisa. The Marquis of Villaurrutia, very fond of gossip and author of Palique Diplomático, once again lashed out at the sovereign in his 1920s work La reina María Luisa, esposa de Carlos IV. The Mexican Carlos Pereyra, in his edition of the Cartas confidenciales de la reina María Luisa y de don Manuel Godoy, in the 1940s, considered everything concerning the illustrious lady to be slanderous and subjected it to sharp criticism.

Idealized bust of Godoy, by Juan Adán (1794, R.A.B.A.S.F.). He is portrayed as a Roman emperor, thereby attempting to reflect the great political and military power he held at the time.

In the penultimate edition of the Memorias del Príncipe de la Paz, Carlos Seco offers perhaps one of the most dispassionate and complete versions of the origin of the favorite's ascendancy. He admits the possibility of a love affair with María Luisa, but gives it secondary importance. The origin of the fervor of both sovereigns—not only of the Queen—should be sought in their search, when they were Princes of Asturias, for someone who owed everything to them, to set against the omnipotent ministers of Charles III, with whom they had no sympathy.

The war with France and the Peace of Basel

On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI died on the guillotine. After some useless attempts to stop the execution, Godoy provoked the conflict to punish the regicide and the Convention opened hostilities. The War of the Convention was at first favorable to Spain. General Antonio Ricardos reached Perpignan, but the organization of the defense on the French side halted the initial thrust. In December 1794, the Spanish and the English, as allies, lifted the siege of Toulon, a stronghold that had been recovered by the French.

The French counteroffensive cooled the spirits of the Spaniards, who had gone to war in defense of religion and the monarchy. Godoy won the game against Aranda, who favored ending the fighting, and who was consequently exiled. The death of General Antonio Ricardos and the invasion of Catalonia, Navarre and the Basque Country by the republican French, as well as the adequate Spanish response, stabilized the fronts.

Given the exhaustion of both belligerents, the Peace of Basel was reached (July 22, 1795), in which Spain ceded to France its part of the island of Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) and certain economic advantages in exchange for the French withdrawal from the conquered peninsular territories.

Godoy portrayed by Agustín Esteve, Art Institute of Chicago.

Godoy hastened to collect the reward for the cessation of hostilities and was invested by his sovereign as Prince of the Peace, in addition to receiving four grandeeships of Spain, seven grand crosses of Charles III, ten sashes of María Luisa and many other rewards.

Alliance with the Directory and war with England

Godoy then forgot the enmity with France and allied himself with it through the first Treaty of San Ildefonso on August 18, 1796. The favorite feared that English rearmament would be used against the Hispanic overseas territories, owing to the displeasure caused in England by the signing in Madrid of the Peace of Basel without prior consultation with the former ally. Moreover, Charles IV and María Luisa needed French support regarding the future of the Duchy of Parma, since their daughter María Luisa was married to the heir to that territory.

Finally, Godoy sensed the growing hostility toward his person and, fearing his fall, as was shown by the failed conspiracy of Malaspina, he thought that by allying himself with the Directory he would silence the last republican flirtations that had arisen in Spain, which would earn him, even more if possible, the gratitude of his august masters.

Although the defeat of the Spanish squadron off Cape St. Vincent on February 14, 1797 and the English conquest of the island of Trinidad were offset by the defense of Cádiz, Puerto Rico and Tenerife, the intrigues against the favorite, stoked by the Directory itself, which opened peace negotiations with England without consulting Spain, bore fruit and Godoy had to retire as First Secretary of the Office on March 28, 1798.

Policy in Spain

Meanwhile, Godoy resumed reformist policies but was unable to lessen his discredit. He reduced guild monopolies, supported the agrarian law, abolished some taxes, liberalized the prices of manufactured goods and even, in 1797, assembled a government made up of the very best of the Spanish Enlightenment, most of whom had already held important posts under Charles III. Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos became Secretary of Justice, Francisco de Saavedra took charge of the Treasury, Francisco Cabarrús, one of the founders of the Bank of San Carlos, was sent as ambassador to Paris, and the writers and politicians Juan Meléndez Valdés and Mariano Luis de Urquijo also held important posts. It is no more than one episode of the ideological fracture that the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars produced in Spanish society.

Second ministry

Manuel Godoy portrayed as victor of the War of the Oranges, by Goya. Real Academia de San Fernando, Madrid.

Some ministers whom he had brought into his Council to give it a certain liberal tone had taken part in Godoy's fall. Such was the case of Saavedra and Jovellanos, who remained as the strongmen guiding the country's destiny, but they were soon replaced for health reasons. In 1801, Godoy rid himself of his rivals and, although the office of First Secretary was held by his cousin by marriage Pedro Cevallos, he once again became the preeminent figure of the government.

Napoleon, First Consul of France, offered the Duchess of Parma, daughter of Charles IV, the new Kingdom of Etruria as property of the Spanish royal family (Second Treaty of San Ildefonso, October 1800); in exchange, Spain promised Louisiana to France and was to join the destiny of its fleet to that of the French, as well as to open hostilities with Portugal to force it to renounce the English alliance. This brief war, called the War of the Oranges after the branch of that fruit that Godoy offered to the Queen,[7] lasted from May 16 to June 6, 1801, and marked the summit of the favorite's glory. Godoy achieved, almost without bloodshed, a peace favorable to Spain and Portugal and contrary to Bonaparte's interests: the Treaty of Badajoz, by which Portugal ceded to Spain the stronghold of Olivenza and undertook to close its ports to the English.

Although the outcome did not satisfy Napoleon, who was in need of a truce, he ended up signing the Peace of Amiens with England (1802), by which Spain recovered Menorca, lost during the conflict, and ceded the island of Trinidad to the British. For his part, the Prince of the Peace ratified the Treaty of San Ildefonso of 1800. On December 31, 1802, the Cabildo of Buenos Aires proposed to King Charles IV of Spain that he appoint his favorite and minister, the Prince of the Peace, honorary alderman of the Cabildo of Buenos Aires. The King agreed by Royal Decree of October 29, 1803.

Equestrian portrait of Godoy (1794), by Goya (Private collection).

On the pretext that Godoy favored the English, Napoleon forced Spain, with threats, to carry out his designs. Thus he first extracted from Charles IV a neutrality agreement and then a new alliance (1805), which brought about the defeat of the Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar (October 21, 1805) at British hands. Godoy then realized that his ascendancy was coming to an end. Those discontented with the favorite's policy gathered around the heir, Prince Ferdinand, and the favorite, fearing for his own fate and that of Charles IV, believed that, for the moment, the best course was to bind himself more closely to the French Emperor.

Napoleon appreciated Godoy as a man and as a minister, but he fostered those suspicions and ambitions for his own ends. Between 1805 and 1806, Godoy proposed to him that he take part in a partition of Portugal and that he be granted one of the portions. Apparently he even planned to change the order of succession to the Spanish throne in order to eliminate the heir, Prince Ferdinand, or to exercise the regency himself. In the winter of 1806, the Emperor granted the Kingdom of Naples to his brother Joseph after expelling Ferdinand IV of Naples, brother of the Spanish sovereign and father of María Antonia, who was married to the Prince of Asturias. Obtaining the approval of Charles IV would not have been easy without counting on Godoy's animosity toward the Prince.

Napoleon, at the height of his glory, ignored the favorite's pretensions and demanded instead men, money, Spain's adherence to the continental blockade against England, as well as the port of Pasajes or the Balearic Islands for the dethroned King of Naples. Godoy then realized the Emperor's true intentions and tried to distance himself from his orbit, even considering allying himself with his enemies (the Fourth Coalition), but the French victory at Jena forced him to dissemble.

The Prince of the Peace then gave in to the exorbitant Napoleonic demands, while the Frenchman pretended to believe in Godoy's sincerity and allied himself with the supporters of Prince Ferdinand. Spain joined the continental blockade (February 19, 1807) and gave Napoleon its military assistance. But since it was necessary for Portugal to join the blockade as well and the Regent of that kingdom opposed it, the French Emperor prepared with Eugenio Izquierdo, Godoy's secret agent, the Treaty of Fontainebleau (October 27, 1807), by which Portugal would be divided into three parts: the northern one, to compensate the dethroned monarchs of Etruria; the central one, to exchange it for Gibraltar and the other colonies seized by the English; and the southern one, for Godoy, as Prince of the Algarves. Charles IV, to whom Napoleon guaranteed possession of his States in Europe, would take the title of Emperor of the Americas. A French army would enter Spain on its way to Portugal, to be followed by a Spanish one. By the time Godoy discovered that Napoleon's calculations included, besides subjugating Portugal, occupying Spain itself, there would no longer be any remedy.

Mutiny of Aranjuez: the fall of Godoy

Main article: Mutiny of Aranjuez
Fall and imprisonment of the Prince of the Peace: March 19 in Aranjuez.

Shortly before the ratification of the treaty, French troops crossed the Pyrenees with the approval of Godoy, who trusted in what had been agreed, and of Prince Ferdinand, who, having drawn close to Napoleon in order to bring down the favorite, had tried, without success, to marry into the Emperor's family after being widowed by Princess María Antonia. But Godoy discovered the plans of the Fernandist party to overthrow Charles IV. In the El Escorial trial (October 1807 – January 1808), the Prince of Asturias, by being pardoned, contributed to Godoy's growing discredit.

The Franco-Spanish troops took control of Portugal, while the principal strongholds of Spain were garrisoned by the Emperor's troops. Napoleon then demanded a military road to Portugal or the line of the Ebro as the border with France. The monarchs, from Aranjuez, decided—on Godoy's advice—to set out for Cádiz, since there they would be better protected from the Emperor and would have a clear path to depart for America if they saw it as necessary. The people became alarmed and, although a proclamation was posted declaring the planned journey to be false, they held Godoy responsible for the unfortunate policy pursued until then.

Encounter between Ferdinand VII and Godoy as the latter was being taken to prison. Engraving of the period.

On the night of March 19, 1808, the populace, led by a part of the nobility resentful of the curtailment of its privileges promoted by Godoy, stormed the favorite's mansion, in the so-called Mutiny of Aranjuez, after which he was stripped of his offices and honors, as was King Charles, stunned by the coup d'état perpetrated by his son. Godoy was confined in the castle of Villaviciosa de Odón (Madrid) on the orders of Prince Ferdinand, and he barely escaped with his life thanks to the intervention of Murat, who took him to Bayonne, where he met Napoleon face to face for the first time. There he also met his masters and his enemy Ferdinand; neither father nor son were kings any longer, having ceded their rights to the Spanish Crown to the Bonaparte dynasty in the so-called Abdications of Bayonne.

Charles IV, a man of the old regime, could not conceive of his son's betrayal at El Escorial (although he forgave it) or at Aranjuez (which cost him the crown), nor could he conceive that the Emperor of the French had deceived him without honoring his word in any way, and subjecting Spain to destruction, blood and fire. Such treacherous behavior in an Emperor was something he was unable to understand, something he could not get into his head. It is said that, in order not to follow similar behavior, which involved deceit, Charles IV had indefinitely postponed Spain's expansion in North Africa.

Godoy's residence in Aranjuez.

Godoy's palaces and possessions were plundered. The court was in Aranjuez, so there was little political justification for the assault on the houses in Madrid. Mesonero Romanos remarks, in his Memorias de un setentón, that his father acquired, and he himself kept all his life, a couple of objects stolen by the mob from Godoy's residences on Barquillo street.[8] The State also took possession of many of these assets, giving some to the Duke of Wellington (possessions in Granada and even the very golden fleece displayed at Apsley House, which had belonged to Godoy), enriching the State itself with others (Buenavista Palace), while others of these assets followed the strangest paths until ending up in the National Gallery in London, such as the Venus at her Mirror, the Lázaro Galdiano Museum (Godoy's Table), the Prado Museum (the Clothed and Naked Majas) or the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (his portrait by Goya at the battle of the Oranges). The mutiny was therefore economically profitable for many.

Exile and death

Pepita Tudó, Godoy's lover, portrayed by José de Madrazo (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando).

From the time of the Abdications of Bayonne, Napoleon had been deciding the destination in exile of Charles, María Luisa and Godoy. First, Compiègne, a hundred kilometers from Paris. Then Marseille, where they lived with their numerous retinue for more than three years. Finally, and due in part to Godoy's participation in the escape plan, encouraged by Great Britain, which came to be called the "Midi conspiracy", Napoleon decided to move them all to Italy. Not to the Kingdom of Naples, as the former monarchs would have preferred, but to the papal court, in Rome. They arrived there on June 16, 1812. Their first residence was the Palazzo Borghese.[9]

In exile, Godoy remained loyal to his former sovereigns. His wife, María Teresa de Borbón y Vallabriga, cousin of Charles IV and Countess of Chinchón, whom he had married in 1797, left him, weary of his constant infidelity with Pepita Tudó, for whom Godoy had requested the titles of Countess of Castillofiel and Viscountess of Rocafuerte so that both titles could be passed on to the two children born out of wedlock whom he had had with her.

Manuel Godoy, Prince of Bassano, painted by José de Madrazo (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando).

In 1815, he settled with them in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome, where he accompanied María Luisa in the moment of her death, which occurred on January 4, 1819. A few days later, on January 19 of the same year, Charles died in Naples, where he had traveled at the invitation of his brother.[10] Ferdinand VII, by then King of Spain, persecuted Godoy constantly. He forced him to renounce the titles of Prince of the Peace and Prince of Bassano, the latter granted by the Pope, and invalidated the will that the Queen made in his favor to compensate for enormous losses that would lead him into poverty, which amounted to an exile accompanied by the confiscation of all his property without any legal proceedings whatsoever. Shortly before, his lawful wife had died in Paris and was buried in Boadilla del Monte, and Godoy hastened to regularize his union with Pepita Tudó, although she eventually moved to Madrid to follow closely the judicial proceedings and their interests in Spain and never returned to his side. Pepita Tudó died in Madrid and is buried in the Sacramental de San Isidro.

Having settled in Paris in 1832, Louis Philippe of Orléans granted him a modest pension, with which he was able to devote himself to writing his Memoirs, translated into French by Colonel Esménard and published in Paris between 1836 and 1838 and later in Madrid in a Spanish version. They are an indispensable document for understanding the actions of government and the principles that drove them.

Two decrees of 1844 and 1847 by Isabella II returned all his property to Godoy on paper. His honors, military posts and titles were restored to him, except those of Prince of the Peace, generalissimo and grand admiral. At eighty years of age, Godoy could finally have returned to his homeland, but he did not make up his mind to do so. In Paris he witnessed the revolutionary days of June 1848 and the rise to power of Napoleon III. The delay in handing over his property outlasted his death, and his heirs continued the claims, until in the time of the First Republic (1873) President Emilio Castelar declared the nationalization of all of Godoy's property, despite the fact that he held the titles of ownership over it and the court rulings in his favor declaring the confiscations he had suffered since 1808 to be illegal plunder.

Godoy's tomb in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

He died on October 4, 1851, with his passing arousing scarcely any interest in either France or Spain. At first his remains rested in the crypt of the church of Saint Roch. After a year had passed without anyone claiming his body, one of his last bankers bought a small plot in the Cemetery of the East, known today as Père-Lachaise, to which he was moved and where he remains, at the foot of a simple tombstone bearing his portrait.

The Badajoz City Council, of his native city, agreed in 2008 to repatriate his remains[11] and to place them beneath a monument erected in his honor in the plaza de San Atón,[12] the site of the seminary where he studied. On the other hand, Godoy's own wish was to be buried in the church of the former convent of San Gabriel in Badajoz, now called de la Concepción, if he died in his native city, since he had been patron of that convent since 1796.[13][14]

Descendants

Carlota Luisa de Godoy y Borbón, Godoy's daughter, painted in 1817 by Luis de la Cruz y Ríos.

From his marriage to the Countess of Chinchón he was survived by one daughter, Carlota Luisa de Godoy y Borbón, heiress to the county and Duchess of Sueca, who married Camillo Ruspoli, a Roman Prince whom she met during the long exile she lived in Rome alongside her father, and whose descendants live in Spain.

With Pepita Tudó he had four children, of whom two survived, Manuel de Godoy y Tudó (1805–1871) and Luis de Godoy y Tudó (1807–1818).

Assessment

He was the last of the validos of the Ancien Régime, with a power greater than that of Lerma or Olivares, since he managed to be placed on a par with royalty: his servants dressed the same as those of the Monarch, Charles IV visited him at his home and helped him to dress, he married a cousin of the King, etc.

With notable exceptions before 1990, such as Carlos Seco Serrano (editor and commentator of Godoy's Memoirs for the edition of the Biblioteca de Autores Españoles in 1956), Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza and very few others, history was in general merciless toward Godoy, especially because of the origin of his rapid elevation and the breadth of his powers, and his reputation and image were in general disastrous for decades. However, the most recent studies on Godoy, from 2001 onward, are beginning to convey a more positive image and assessment, showing how Napoleonic propaganda manipulated and distorted reality in order to turn the people against Godoy and the monarchs, and how the negative, and longer-lasting, propaganda of the restored Ferdinand VII later joined it, since Ferdinand had always considered Godoy a dangerous rival, especially after the latter's accession to the principality.

In the ideological sphere his conduct was wavering, for although he favored regalism and encyclopedism and kept the Inquisition in check, he sometimes made use of it for his own ends. He authorized the return of the enlightened Jesuits, after an expulsion and exile that were hardly justifiable, decreed by Charles III at the urging of the Count of Campomanes[15] and other regalists.

His opposition to the privileges of the high nobility (which he joined as a means of neutralizing it from within) ended up costing him the hatred of a part of this important estate, the part closest to Ferdinand VII, with Escoiquiz and Caballero at its head, which—as could be seen during Ferdinand's reign—constituted the most reactionary faction of the Spain of those years.

Scientific and cultural work

His scientific and cultural work, little known as a result of the aforementioned propaganda but reappraised in recent decades, following the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of his death, proved commendable. In 1793 he founded the first school of Veterinary Medicine and, two years later, a Higher School of Medicine in Madrid. He created the Corps of Cosmographer Engineers, the Botanical Garden of Sanlúcar, the Corps of Civil Engineers (Ingenieros de Caminos), the Hydrographic Depot, the Astronomical Observatory, the School for the Deaf and Mute, the Pestalozzian Institute, etc.

Recently (2001) his unknown role as a patron of Spanish Archaeology, together with the King himself, has come to light, and it is now known that archaeological excavations at Duratón, Segóbriga, Sagunto or Mérida were owed to the initiative of both, as well as the restoration of the Tower of Hercules in La Coruña, the creation of the position of judge-conservator of antiquities (in Sagunto and Mérida), or the sponsorship of several notable philological and archaeological publications, beginning with the Voyage pittoresque et historique de l'Espagne of Alexandre de Laborde, always assumed to be French.

Perhaps most noteworthy is his having sponsored the first legislation of national scope for the protection of antiquities, the Instrucción formada por la Real Academia de la Historia sobre el modo de recoger y conservar los monumentos antiguos descubiertos o que se descubran en el Reino, of July 6, 1803, a pioneering regulation that for the first time also required the protection of Hebrew and Arabic monuments, which was inspired by an interest in improving popular knowledge, and which had probably been in the making since the creation of the Hall of Antiquities of the Real Academia de la Historia in 1792.[16]

He was also a great patron of the arts: he protected Goya, Meléndez Valdés, Moratín, etc. It seems that it was he who commissioned from Goya the famous Majas (Prado Museum).

Titles and honors

Titles

Orders

Spanish

Foreign

Ranks and posts

Perpetual offices

Ancestry

Ancestry of Manuel de Godoy y Álvarez de Faria

Generation Ancestors
I 1. Manuel de Godoy y Álvarez de Faria, Prince of the Peace, Duke of la Alcudia and of Sueca
II 2. José de Godoy y Sánchez de los Ríos
3. María Antonia Justa Álvarez de Faria y Sánchez Zarzosa
III 4. Luis Vicente de Godoy Cáceres y Morillo
5. Antonia de los Ríos y Landero
6. Diego Álvarez de Faria y Rodríguez Pimienta
7. Juana Sánchez Zarzosa y Lozano
IV 8. Alonso de Godoy Ovando y Cáceres
9. Ana de Cáceres y Morillo
10. José Sánchez de los Ríos
11. Inés Rodríguez Landero
12. Rodrigo Álvarez de Faria y Pinto
13. Constanza Rodríguez Pimienta y Quirós
14. Alonso Sánchez y Zarzosa
15. Isabel Lozano y Vibas
V 16. Bartolomé de Godoy y Morillo
17. Petronila de Cáceres y Morillo
20. Francisco Sánchez de los Ríos Dorado
21. Francisca Sánchez
24. Diego Álvarez de Faria y Rodríguez
25. Beatriz Pinto y Serrano
26. Álvaro Rodríguez Pimienta
27. María Quirós
28. Francisco Sánchez y Pardo
29. María Zarzosa

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Espadas Burgos 2006, p. 230
  2. ↑ Julio Corrale (August 4, 2007). "En venta la Casa de Godoy". www.hoy.es (in español). Badajoz. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
  3. ↑ He confirms this himself in his Memoirs (book I, ch. II, p. 23), although it is often confused with a birth in Castuera, the town of origin and ancestral seat of the family, which had nevertheless moved to Badajoz as early as the first third of the 18th century, in the time of his grandparents. The ancestral house in Castuera was at that time almost in ruins.
  4. ↑ José Alfonso Godoy Cáceres Ovando y Ríos at the Real Academia de la Historia
  5. ↑ A. Barredo de Valenzuela and A. Alonso de Cadenas, Nobiliario de Extremadura, vol. III, Madrid, 1998: "Godoy", pp. 140–147.
  6. ↑ Thus her given names and surnames in the list of the Order of Queen María Luisa (1998 ed., p. 111).
  7. ↑ Pérez Galdós, Benito. La Corte de Carlos IV (in español). El favorito mandó construir unas angarillas que adornó con flores y ramajes, y sobre esta máquina mandó poner a la reina, que fue tan chabacanamente llevada en procesión ante las tropas, para recibir de manos del generalísimo un ramo de naranjas, cogido en Elvas por nuestros soldados.
  8. ↑ "[...] un precioso lienzo de media vara de alto, representando a la Purísima Concepción [...], así como también un título original de Regidor perpetuo de la ciudad de Llerena [...]". Mesonero Romanos, Ramón (2011). Memorias de un setentón, natural y vecino de Madrid (in español). Fundación Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. ISBN 978-84-15348-03-0.
  9. ↑ Espadas Burgos 2006, p. 219
  10. ↑ Espadas Burgos 2006, pp. 222 ff.
  11. ↑ Romasanta, A. M. (November 1, 2007). "Los restos de Godoy se traerán de París y reposarán en un monumento en San Atón". La Crónica de Badajoz (in español).
  12. ↑ "Monumento a Godoy, al fondo Teatro López de Ayala" (in español). Archived from the original on August 14, 2014. Retrieved March 31, 2011.
  13. ↑ F. León (March 18, 2011). "La última voluntad de Godoy, Príncipe de la Paz". El Periódico Extremadura (in español). Retrieved June 17, 2012.
  14. ↑ Cruz Villalón, María; Kurtz Schaefer, Guillermo S. (1994–1995). "La iglesia de San Gabriel-La Concepción de Badajoz, supuesta de Ventura Rodríguez" (PDF). Norba-arte (in español) (14–15): 195–218. ISSN 0213-2214.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  15. ↑ Rodríguez de Campomanes, P. Dictamen fiscal de expulsión de los jesuitas de España, 1766–67, cf. Archive of the Count of Campomanes.
  16. ↑ On all this see, continuing a preliminary work of 1994–1995, the two monographs by Alicia M. Canto, Mérida y la Arqueología Ilustrada. Las láminas de don Manuel de Villena (1791-1794) (Catalog of the exhibition of the same title at the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida), Madrid, 2001, esp. pp. 13–22 and La Arqueología española en la época de Carlos IV y Godoy. Los dibujos de Mérida de don Manuel de Villena Moziño (1791-1794), Madrid, 2001, esp. pp. 32–70.
  17. ↑ Almanach royal... : présenté à Sa Majesté par Testu (in français). A. Guyot et Scribe. 1829. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  18. ↑ Cesáreo Fernández Duro, Historia de la Armada española desde la unión de Castilla y de Aragón (1895–1903), vol. VIII, pp. 397–412.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Adolfo Barredo de Valenzuela y Arrojo and Ampelio Alonso de Cadenas y López. Nobiliario de Extremadura, s.v. "Godoy" (vol. III, Madrid: Hidalguía, 1998), op. cit., p. 142.

Bibliography

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