Juan Manuel Fernandez Pacheco

Old print of the VIII Marquis de Villena and Duque de Escalona

Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco y Zúñiga, by birth Juan Manuel María de la Aurora Fernández Pacheco Acuña Girón y Portocarrero (Marcilla, Navarra, September 7, 1650-Madrid, June 29, 1725), Grandee of Spain, VIII Duke of Escalona, VIII Marquis of Villena, VIII Count of Xiquena, XII Count of San Esteban de Gormaz, X Marquis of Moya. He was viceroy and captain general of the kingdoms of Navarre, Aragon, Sicily and Naples. Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, he promoted, founded and directed the Royal Spanish Academy (1713).

Biography

He was born in Marcilla (Navarra) when his father, Diego López Pacheco y Portugal, VII of his titles, was on his way to Pamplona to take office as viceroy of Navarra, and he was baptized right there the next day. He lost his mother at just two years old, and his father a year later. His uncle Juan Francisco Pacheco, Bishop of Cuenca, took him in when he was an orphan and educated him until he was fourteen years old. In these years he had very good teachers, who aroused in him a desire for knowledge, application to study and pleasure in acquiring books, especially the humanist from La Mancha, Gonzalo Navarro Castellanos, a disciple of Bartolomé Ximénez Patón and previously a teacher of Juan José de Austria.

He continued cultivating his understanding in such a way that at the age of twenty-six he was already hailed by all as one of the most educated men in Spain. After participating in several battles, he ended up retired in Castile, dedicated to the study and education of his children. In 1713, the King of Spain appointed him his greatest steward, being the head of his House and also that of his son Luis I during his brief reign, although both monarchs gave him complete freedom to dedicate himself to his studies, being said responsibility exercised de facto by the Sommelier de Corps, his relative, the Count of Altamira.

In the words of Alonso Zamora Vicente, «the biography of the man who was to be the first director of the Royal Spanish Academy was lively and representative. He took part in military expeditions of various kinds (Hungary, Italy). He was appointed viceroy of Navarre, Aragon and Catalonia;^{[citation required]} carrying out this last position, he lost the battle of Torroella against the French (May 27, 1694). With the coming of Felipe V he declared himself a strong supporter of the new dynasty. This adherence earned him the appointment of viceroy of Naples, where, by a half-warrior, half-political chance, he was taken prisoner by imperial troops and imprisoned in Gaeta. He was restored to Spain after the victory at Brihuega, in 1711. The king, who appreciated him very much, wanted to give him the archiepiscopal miter of Toledo, but the marquis refused it. In the end he agreed to be distinguished with the highest palatial office, that of Majordomo (1713), on the condition that he be exempted from continuing assistance in his charge and could devote himself to his studies with all intensity ».

The Duke of Saint-Simon, who knew him well, wrote of him:

Escalona, although more commonly called Villena, was virtue, honor, probity, faith, loyalty, courage, piety, the ancient cavalry even; [...] with much reading, knowledge, correction and discernment in the mind, without obstination but with firmness, very disinterested, always occupied, with a beautiful library and commerce with scholars in all countries of Europe.

He also comments that he never dressed the Spanish style, but rather the French one, because he couldn't stand the collar; He did not allow himself to be intimidated by anyone, so that he came to beat the very favorite, Cardinal Alberoni, with his cane, because, even though he was a major-domo, he once did not let him visit the King when he fell ill in one of his habitual melancholic crises. Thanks to this exemption from courtly work, he was able to devote himself to founding the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) in 1713, in imitation of the French Academy and that of Florence, together with various enlightened people (noblemen, clergymen and some high officials) who met from gathering at his house in Plaza de las Descalzas, following a proposal he made to King Felipe V. The regular members of this gathering were Father Juan de Ferreras, historian and scholar; the poet Gabriel Álvarez de Toledo; Andrés González de Barcia; the trilingual philologist Fray Juan Interián de Ayala; the Jesuit mathematicians and astronomers Bartolomé Alcázar and José Casani and the royal librarian Antonio Dongo Barnuevo. The same marquis was a member of the Academy of Arcadia in Rome since 1704 and a member of the French Academy of Sciences (he was, in fact, a novator or pre-enlightened, and doctor Diego Mateo Zapata assured in 1716 who was perfectly familiar with “modern philosophy”). He was elected its provisional director on August 3, 1713, being its first director as of October 3, 1714 (date of the Royal Decree), and perpetual according to the old statutes of the institution. He fulfilled this function until his death on June 29, 1725. In charge of the initial organization of the RAE, he promoted the publication of the first Dictionary, as well as the preparation of the work plan for the Dictionary of Authorities, whose first volume was never published. His organizational work was so effective that the Dictionary of Authorities was for a long time the true masterpiece of this institution. The important library that he came to amass, consisting of 6,997 printed volumes and 172 manuscripts, passed to his heirs, but was dispersed in the 19th century XIX .

Marriage and offspring

On September 29, 1674, he married María Josefa de Benavides Silva y Manrique de Lara, daughter of Diego IV de Benavides y de la Cueva, 8th Count of Santisteban del Puerto and 1st Marquis of Solera. His children were: Mercurio Antonio López Pacheco, IX Duke of Escalona, XII Marquis of Aguilar de Campoo, IX Marquis of Villena, VII Marquis of La Eliseda, IX Count of Xiquena, XVI Count of Castañeda and XIII Count of San Esteban de Gormaz and Marciano Fernández Pacheco, XII Marquis of Moya.

His son Mercurio Antonio López Pacheco and his two grandsons by him, Juan Pablo and Andrés López Pacheco, were perpetual directors of the RAE between 1726 and 1751, with which the first 40 years of the RAE were directed by the same house noblewoman of Villena-Escalona.

Works

• Two letters (1700) to Louis XIV, at C. Hippeau, Avénement des Bourbons au trone d’Espagne. Correspondance inédite du marquis d’Harcourt, Ambassadeur de France auprès des rois Charles II et Phlippe VParis, 1875, pp. 316 and 318-320.
• Memories for the History of Spain, drawn from the original notes written by Exmo. Mr. Don Juan Fernández Pacheco, Marquis de Villena, and existing at the House Library (ms. at the Royal Academy of History, Sempere Collection, t. XVI, fols. 94-108v., sign. 9/5218, Olim B-134).

Predecessor: Alejandro de Bournonville	Virrey de Navarra 1691-1692	Successor: Baltasar de Zúñiga y Guzmán
Predecessor: Antonio Ibáñez de la Riva Herrera	Virrey de Aragón (internal) 1693	Successor: Domingo Iudice
Predecessor: Manuel Alonso Pérez de Guzmán y Pimentel	Virrey of Catalonia 1693 - 1694	Successor: Francisco de Agurto
Predecessor: Pedro Manuel Colón of Portugal	Virrey of Sicily 1701 - 1702	Successor: Francisco Judice
Predecessor: Luis Francisco de la Cerda	Virrey of Naples 1702 - 1707	Successor: Austrian Naples
Predecessor: -	Academician of the Royal Spanish Academy Armchair A 1713 - 1725	Successor: Tomás Pascual de Azpeitia