Count of Aranda
Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea y Ximénez de Urrea, x Count of Aranda (Siétamo, August 1, 1719 – Épila, January 9, 1798) was a Spanish nobleman, soldier and enlightened statesman., President of the Council of Castile (1766-1773) and Secretary of State of Carlos IV (1792).
Early Years
Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea y Ximenez de Urrea was born in the castle of Siétamo into an illustrious Aragonese family. He was educated first in Zaragoza and later in Italy, at the Bologna Seminary and in Rome. Being very young, he made many trips throughout Europe, receiving a solid and liberal education that soon made him be identified with philosophers and encyclopedists.
In 1740, his military vocation consolidated, he entered the army with the Count of Montemar and the Count of Gages. He later moved to Prussia, where he met Frederick the Great; he resided in Paris, briefly visited London and returned to Spain.
Because of his work, and thanks to the protection of Ricardo Wall, King Ferdinand VI appointed him ambassador in Lisbon (1755-1756); Thus he began to have powerful influences and gain popularity. During the reign of Carlos III, he was appointed ambassador in Warsaw and obtained the rank of captain general, with which he led the Spanish army that invaded Portugal in 1762, with disastrous results, because during the so-called Fantastic War, the army led by Aranda suffered 20,000 casualties, failing in his attempt to capture Lisbon. He was then appointed Governor of Valencia, a position he had to resign to preside over the Council of Castilla in 1765 and to be Captain General of Castilla la Nueva (April 11, 1766).
During the reign of Charles III
During the reign of Carlos III, three events, in which the Count of Aranda actively participated, marked his line and his political capacity. They were: the Esquilache mutiny, the fall of the Jesuits and his stage as ambassador in Paris.
The Esquilache Mutiny
The Count of Aranda became president of the Council of Castilla as a result of the Esquilache mutiny. The mutiny had ended thanks to the concessions wrested from Carlos III, which the people considered a victory. The spirit of sedition had spread, producing bloody episodes in Zaragoza (April 1766) and, later, in Cuenca, Palencia, Ciudad Real, La Coruña and Guipúzcoa.
Supported by lawyers such as Miguel de Múzquiz, Campomanes and Floridablanca, and Aragonese nobles such as Manuel Roda and Juan Gregorio de Muniaín, Aranda carried out the difficult mission of skilfully abolishing the unrealizable concessions granted by the king. It was about consolidating royal authority without arousing passions that could give way to new riots. He achieved it with great professionalism, since he knew how to take advantage of his popularity among the middle class and artisans, to whom he addressed himself more in the form of a plea than an imposition.
He got the hat and long cape replaced by the tricorne and short cape. The Walloon Guard returned to Madrid, and the Council of Castile issued a judgment declaring null and void the main demands granted to the authors of the Esquilache mutiny.
Aranda wanted to complete his pacifying work and proposed the return of the king who, insecure in Madrid, had moved to the Royal Palace of Aranjuez. Carlos III resisted, but then agreed to return.
During the years that he was in charge of the Council of Castilla, he established a reformist policy based on the principles of the Enlightenment with which he achieved popular appreciation and praise from Voltaire himself. To carry out the reforms he had the collaboration of Campomanes, person of maximum influence of the king during the time. The reforms focused on the agrarian question; colonization of Sierra Morena, in the royalist measures, in the support to the Economic Societies of Friends of the Country and in the elaboration of the so-called Censo del Conde de Aranda (1768-1769), the first population census which was made in Spain.
Expulsion from the Society of Jesus
The almost immediate consequence of the Esquilache mutiny was the expulsion of the Society of Jesus, one of the most controversial events of the reign of Carlos III. Indeed, Aranda, supported by Campomanes, opened a secret investigation in order to collect evidence that would testify to the intervention of the Jesuits in the Esquilache riot. The Marquis de la Ensenada, Abbe Gándara and Abbe Hermos were either exiled or imprisoned. The king ended up signing the decree of expulsion of the Jesuits in February 1767; this decree had the approval of five sixths of the Spanish prelates.
Likewise, it was used to abolish the private jurisdiction of ecclesiastics who intervened in riots and the possession of printing presses was prohibited in cloistered institutes or in places that enjoyed ecclesiastical immunity.
Having conformed to the opinion of those of my Royal Council [...] and of what have exposed me people of the highest character, stimulated of very serious causes concerning the obligation in which I find myself constituted to keep in subordination, tranquillity and justice my peoples, and other urgent, just and necessary ones that I keep in my real spirits; using the supreme economic authority that the Almighty has deposited in my hands for the protection of my vassals And for their uniform execution in all of them I give you full and exclusive authority, and that you may form the necessary instructions and orders, as you understand and esteem for the most effective, soon and quiet fulfillment. And I want not only the superior justices and tribunals of these kingdoms to execute your mandates on time, but also to understand with those who direct the viceroys, presidents, hearings, governors, corrections, mayors and other justices of those kingdoms and provinces, and that, by virtue of their respective requirements, any troops, militias or landslide of my necessary relief, did not fall.I, the King, February 27, 1767: Decree on the expulsion of the Society of Jesus.
The Jesuits were accused, among other things, of having a plan to build an empire in Paraguay, as well as being in relationship with the English when they took over Manila and defending the concept of tyrannicide, which his enemies translated as regicide. Finally, the general of the Company, Lorenzo Ricci, was accused of questioning the right of Carlos III to the throne, for being a sacrilegious and adulterous son.
_01.jpg)
It has been said that if the king made that decision it was due to the influence of men like Aranda, of whom it was even said that "he only based his glory on being counted among the enemies of the Catholic religion&# 34;. In turn, Voltaire said that "with half a dozen men like Aranda, Spain would be regenerated".
In 1773, Pope Clement XIV issued the bull of extinction of the Company in all of Christendom.
Ambassador in Paris
The tensions caused by the occupation of the Malvinas by the British brought the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Grimaldi, into conflict with the Count of Aranda. He was in favor of an armed intervention, a solution that was not favored by the international situation. Spain lost Port Egmont, which meant a defeat for the Aragonese party, led by Aranda. He was forced to abandon the presidency of the Council of Castile to become ambassador to France in 1773.
A failed punitive expedition to Algeria led Aranda to prepare, from Paris, the revenge of the Aragonese party, relegated to the background since its failure with the Falklands policy. The Count of Aranda got the support of the Prince of Asturias, and soon managed to see the fall of Grimaldi as Minister of State. However, Aranda was not appointed to succeed him; In his place, the Count of Floridablanca, a very short time adversary of Aranda, was appointed.
Her time at the French embassy was not wasted. Among other successes is the pact with England by which Menorca was returned to Spain (1783), thus achieving the peace treaty with Great Britain, which put an end to the War of Independence of the United States of America. By the treaty Spain also obtained the return of eastern and western Florida, as well as part of the coasts of Nicaragua, Honduras (the Mosquito Coast) and Campeche and the Providencia colony. However, he has to recognize English sovereignty over the Bahamas and fails to recapture Gibraltar.
His tenure in Paris lasted ten years, during which he was introduced to the encyclopedists and Enlightenment ideas. Aranda returned to Madrid in 1787. He surrounded himself with soldiers and noblemen who were dissatisfied with the management of Floridablanca, whose position he wanted.
During the reign of Charles IV
During the reign of Carlos IV, the French Revolution took place, a fact that meant the rise and final fall of the Count of Aranda.
The French Revolution and the fall of Aranda
.jpg)
After the death of Carlos III, on December 14, 1788, Carlos IV acceded to the throne, who tried to keep the policy and previous ministers intact.
From the revolutionary events in France in 1789, the greatest effort of Floridablanca's policy was focused on keeping French events in Spain secret, so that the revolution would not spread throughout the country. For this, he had the support of the Holy Office and important sectors of the clergy. Aranda attacked this alliance with the discredited inquisitor body and, supported by his Aragonese party, managed to get the king to dismiss Floridablanca, whose position he took over in February 1792.
Months after his promotion, Aranda had Floridablanca imprisoned in the Pamplona fortress, while evidence was being sought to accuse him of abuse of power. Aranda, as soon as he took power, began to change, in the opposite direction, the political course of his predecessor. At his request, the king abolished the supreme junta of State, while the Council of State reappeared, a bastion of the great in former times.
Aranda softened the official position towards the revolution and reduced vigilance over foreigners, to which Floridablanca had given so much importance: he tolerated the distribution of French newspapers, until the imprisonment of the French royal family and the abolition of the monarchy it gave rise to stricter orders in the inspection of all the writings coming from France. At the same time, Spain was invaded by a wave of refugees, most of them aristocrats and clergy. Refugee clergymen were prohibited from preaching, as well as from teaching, while forced to make no mention of events unfolding in France.
In November 1792, Aranda, too committed to reformism and to the encyclopedists —whose ideas were the ideological basis of the revolution—, was replaced by Manuel Godoy, a bodyguard who had earned the trust of the woman of the king, María Luisa, apparently as a lover. A few months later, King Louis XVI was guillotined and the War of the Convention broke out. Aranda continued to be dean of the Council of State, a position from which he grouped Godoy's enemies.
On March 14, 1794, in the presence of the king, Aranda attacked Godoy's decision to continue the war with France in the Council of State. The hardness of Aranda's attack was used by the favorite Godoy to put pressure on the king with Aranda's dismissal, which occurred that same day, in which he was also exiled to Jaén. He would never return to Madrid.
Foreshadowing of American might
He had an enormous vision of a statesman due to the long historical scope of his observations, which he presented before King Carlos III in response to the recent independence of the British colonies and the future independence furor in Latin America. In a well-known text issued in 1783, he explains the rise of the United States as a world power and its lust for consumption and power a hundred years in advance:
The solution he proposed, and which was never heard, to neutralize this new colony was the following:This federal republic was born a Pygmy, so to speak, and has needed the support and strength of two states as powerful as Spain and France to achieve their independence. It will come a day when it grows and becomes giant, and even colossus fearsome in those regions. Then he will forget the benefits he has received from the two powers, and will only think of his magnification... The first step of this power will be to take over the Floridas in order to dominate the Gulf of Mexico. After disturbing us like this and our relations with New Spain, it will aspire to the conquest of this vast empire, which we will not be able to defend against a formidable power established on the same continent and its neighbour.
... may VM be removed from all possessions of the continent of America, remaining only with the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico in the northern part and some that are most appropriate in the southern part, in order that they may serve as a scale or deposit for Spanish trade. To verify this vast thought in a convenient way to Spain, three infants must be placed in America: the one King of Mexico, the other from Peru and the other of the remaining Earth Firme, taking VM the title of Emperor. (...)
The lack of intellectual vision for Spanish society in the 18th century prevented them from seeing the need to reform their empire. Even with the reformist ideas of the ministers, Spain saw itself as the "mother" of America and, therefore, with iron tutelage over her colonies, the same attitude that the Bourbon reforms increased. This led to a clash of ideas with the aristocracy and Creole society of the overseas territories: they asking for a fair representation in the affairs of the empire, and the peninsulars jealously guarding what they believed were their privileges as a "European power" with imperial possessions. Spain wanted to avoid losing territory, just as they had helped the United States. The idea of commonwealth, to put it in more current terms, was not conceived in European minds.
In the long run, history would agree with the Count of Aranda and his vision of a federal Empire.
Relation of Spain with American Independence
The growing tensions that existed between the colony and the metropolis. With a growing, educated, bourgeois and liberal colonial population in opposition to the conservative metropolitan population with marked class inequality. It cultivates a broth of commercial and social conflicts that aggravated with the interference of France in favor of its independence. It causes a dangerous war between them that worries Spain. That in comparison with her French family partner subject to family pacts, she is worse off due to her greater colonial exposure to following the American example and causing attempts at independence as later happened.
This distrust on the Spanish side caused a haze of silence and concealment of deals and treaties on the Spanish side, which did not miss the opportunity to erode its English rival by helping the rebels. This fact led to contacts between all the parties and brought to Europe characters of the stature of Benjamin Franklin to gather support for his independence cause. Such a character had a direct relationship with the Count of Aranda himself as ambassador to France and the well-known animaversion of him against England. In his prudence he brought the meeting with this ambassador to the knowledge of his king.
The English fear of their loss of power after their failure in combat against the rebels, caused a hidden treaty with France and Spain with which they put their service in favor of the colony for its recognition by the European powers and the fixing its adjoining borders with Spain. That they remain subject to the peace with England that will be signed with the treaty signed as representative of the king by the count of Aranda in the aforementioned Treaty of Versailles of 1783.
Buildings, influences and companies of the Count in Spain
The Count of Aranda commissioned the design of the Salón del Prado to José de Hermosilla, although it was finally Ventura Rodríguez who would carry out this project. He contributed to the creation of a convent attached to his palace in Épila and a summer house in this Zaragoza town in Aragon. But he also acted as a patron to help in the most influential and strong work that occurred in his time in Europe, it was Ramón Pignateli's Imperial Canal of Aragón, which originally would link the Bay of Biscay with the Mediterranean in a navigable way and would be exploited for uses agricultural, distributing water throughout these territories and making a dream of the Kingdom of Aragon come true, to export its raw materials of cattle, fur, wool and fruit and vegetables; although it was not developed in its entirety due to the expensive and complex nature of its implementation.
_proyecto_de_canal_de_regad%C3%ADo.png)
In 1765, when urban planning was still drawn up by military engineers, Aranda wrote a memorandum of seven and a half pages, under the heading "Alicante", for Cartagena. In one of its paragraphs it is said: «In the wide street that would result from the demolition of the old wall, from the tower of San Francisco to that of San Bartolomé (that is, La Rambla, and before and successively, Paseo del Vall, de Quiroga y de la Reina), a promenade must be formed with trees and benches that, serving at the same time for traffic and transport, provide an interior place for people to walk and meet the decent people of the city». It could not be less. Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea, Count of Aranda, knew very well the importance and necessity that parks, promenades and green areas have for citizens. Not in vain, he created the Pardo, favored the Retirement and authorized masked parties. The Count of Aranda sent his writing, which is preserved in the Municipal Archive, to the governor and corregidor of this square, Juan José Ladrón de Guevara, with an attached letter, in which he warned him: «My Lord: consequent to the ideas of expansion of the wharf and other useful novelties for the convenience and beauty of that city that I formed during my stay in it, I have formed the concept and proposition of the points that have to be examined and on which the best has to be projected, which includes SEE a copy." And he adds: «The colonel of engineers Mr. Matheo Bodopich will go from one day to the next to that city, from Cartagena, to take charge of the promoted species and optionally project on them, also understanding with the War Commissioner Mr. Gerónimo Ontizá who will run in due time with the interests of the works. Your Excellency, as Governor, will give both the lights and help they need and it will give me particular satisfaction, in frequenting me as many reflections as they occur on the matter in question. The Count of Aranda insisted on adding new spaces "to the body of population, so that together with the existing one it facilitates, with its constructions, beauty to it and comfort to its inhabitants".
In 1770 he planned an irrigation canal to supply the countryside of Guadalajara and Alcalá de Henares, which took the waters of the Henares river in Humanes and ended in the Jarama river at Paracuellos de Jarama. With many years of delay and shortening its route, the Canal del Henares was completed.
He was an entrepreneur in the modernization of Alcora ceramics that he wanted to practice in the factory that he inherited from his father. This fact was fictionalized in the RTVE series El secreto de la porcelana, from 1999.
Trial of the black legend
He is a character on whom a black legend falls, formed by foreign nations and their national enemies, as well as other relevant characters of his time. It is important to know the context in which these accusations are made and the reasons for them.
The count was an important person in his time, on whom great power fell, with which he did and undid as he pleased, only corrected or ignored by the king. This power had been snatched with cunning and perhaps with lies and betrayals from another great illustrious, Floridablanca, at the same time disgraced, like him later. He polarized a broad sector of society, confronting the ideals of the Aragonese Enlightenment. Thus, Floridablanca was also a stumbling block to overcome, an enemy to silence at home and left him a poisoned farewell gift, such as the edict of expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain, which he had to carry out and which caused him great criticism. Although in the expulsion he tried to ensure that they ran as little risk as possible and arranged places for them to carry out functions; In addition, he ensured that there were no altercations by the mob against the Jesuits and skilfully made up for his absence at school, since the teachers took his place.
Another point to take into account is that the count, with his position, devised solutions to the problems that the Court had to solve. Although they did not see fit to do so, they awoke in the opposing nations, with reports from ambassadors and spies, a great animosity and a growing interest in getting rid of this influential character. Added to this were the following facts:
- Its decisions to hinder access to Gibraltar, without reason, to cause a war, as it was to place in all the surroundings of the bay of the Spanish part underwater obstacles that hindered the anchoring and entry of ships to the help of the Gibraltarians.
- His instructions against English trade in Spain following a conflict by the Falklands.
- The correspondence with Ricardo Wall within the Seven Years War between England and France, in which the Spanish crown weighed the invasion of England.
- The vision he had about the solutions to the colonies, because he saw with good eyes the involvement in the affairs of the crown and greater freedom and decision of their servants, having observed their discontent and the birth of insurrections. Having an idea of governance of common good, in the style of the later Commonwealth of Nations or British Commonwealth of Nations, where to exploit the common ties that all colonies had with the crown. And thus avoid the increase of nationalisms and idealisms that emerged from the French Revolution that exported the other nations, bearing in mind that they influenced Spain's own staff and colonies, and that they encouraged foreign ideals to the inflexible response of the crown to their suggestions.
In addition to his foreign enemies, he had to live in the shadow of the Court's favorite, Manuel Godoy, who took less than a year to supplant him.
Death and burial
In 1795, King Carlos IV authorized him to reside in Aragon, and the Count of Aranda then decided to retire to live in the Zaragoza municipality of Épila, where he died in 1798.
His corpse was first buried in the Monastery of San Juan de la Peña and was later transferred to the Pantheon of Illustrious Men, located in the church of San Francisco el Grande in Madrid. Finally, in 1985, his mortal remains were returned to the monastery of San Juan de la Peña. They currently rest in the Pantheon of Nobles of the aforementioned Alto Aragonese monastery.
In 2014, the epilense historian Pedro J. López, expert in his figure and also discoverer of Aranda's will, made a great discovery, which he also published: in the palace that his relatives the Dukes of Villahermosa have in Pedrola, Zaragoza, found the memories written by the count, where he defends himself and postulates his complaints about the treatment received by the monarch and his second son Godoy. In them, he shows his point of view about the events that occurred during his exile, the neglect of his services to the court and the reckless disregard of his ideas, ahead of his time. Subsequent events demonstrated his reason and courage.
Assessment
The Count of Aranda is considered one of the most discussed personalities in the history of Spain of the XVIII century and may fit into the group of characters that represent the Spanish enlightened reformism among which would be José Nicolás de Azara, the Marquis of Ensenada, Campomanes, Floridablanca, the Duke of Alba or Jovellanos.
He was a man who dedicated his life to the country and to the service of the kings Felipe V, Luis I, Fernando VI, Carlos III and Carlos IV, planning his enlightened reformist ideology for the government of the nation. He contributed to the improvement and quantification of the Spanish society of his time, with his population census, one of the first in Europe and his economic society of the Aragonese Party, with which he collaborated in works and development of Aragon and Spain. A lover of works of art, he introduced porcelain production to Spain through his own factory in Alcora, taking advantage of heirloom pottery and pitcher kilns.
In his favorite villa, where he lived and died (Épila), he left as testimony of his life, in addition to his palace, his summer house in Mareca, his personal archive, a royal gift of a collection of suits from the king of the military Easter and a convent attached to it, inherited from the family. This convent was perpetuated by the Count, which allowed it to survive to the present day. His family file, careful and complete, is one of the best on the kingdom of Aragon and Spain. His descendant, the Duchess of Alba, donated the archive in part to the government of Aragon, under tax benefits. It has not yet been properly housed in a building commensurate with its importance and keeps the dream of the just, filed in the provisional dependencies.
Also the dream frustrated by his death and almost financial bankruptcy by his repression of Godoy of a high-ranking theater in the most excellent town in keeping with his status. And the collection of royal costumes of King Juan I of Castile, who was born in this town and was lovingly guarded by the count, until the palace was evicted and sold to the town council due to ruin. The costumes, artwork, furniture, etc. they dispersed among the buildings of the Duchess of Alba.
Voltaire said of him: "with half a dozen men like Aranda, Spain would be regenerated. But unfortunately it seems that it was not possible to find half a dozen like him.
1998 Bicentennial
As part of the bicentenary that took place in 1998 in Épila, the act of homage to the Count of Aranda was included in the ceding of the palace to the people by its owner, the Duchess of Alba. This act, promoted and with social echo by this fact, was coordinated within an exhibition, under the title "The end of a life was written in Épila." The act of opening the palace to the public, which until then had never been open, was harmonized by the Count himself, who through the characterization of a local actor and his entourage, showed, explained and guided through the framework of the palace and indicated his life in this In truth, it must be said that the performance, characterization, documentation and integration was stupendous. But the visit through the palace, curious at first, turned sad, as the empty and dilapidated rooms appeared before the eyes. The dress cabinets and the library displayed shiny cobwebs from their glorious past and some rooms showed on the walls small witnesses of the latticework and tiles that covered them, which, at least, the one who tore them up, was kind enough to leave to let us know. idea of how they were, for their restoration.
II Conference on El Condado de Aranda and the Spanish nobility in the Old Regime
On the dates of November 6, 7 and 8, 2008, there were conferences open to the public which, under the title that heads this review, in the town of Épila, continued the path opened by the first conferences held in Híjar and the creation of his Ducal Archive. There were several talks with scholars, historians and archivists and from that family that is so important in Spanish and Aragonese history. Those on Thursday 6, by Professor Germán Navarro Espinach, from the University of Zaragoza, dealt with the formation of the Señorío-condado de Aranda; those of Friday the 7th, exposed by the professor, historian and discoverer Enrique Galé Casajus, on literary creation within a family clan, as well as the work of Pedro Manuel de Urrea and his subsequent presentation of the book on the travel book of that nobleman, who was believed to be lost and that he recovered with his research; finally, the one on Saturday 8, as the closing of the conference, under the title of The X Count of Aranda and Aragón, carried out by José Antonio Ferrer Benimelli and a subsequent guided tour where another historian explained the details and works of art that are kept in the Concepcionistas convent and its relationship with the adjoining palace and with the family of the Count of Aranda.