Manuel Godoy

Manuel Godoy y Álvarez de Faria (Badajoz, May 12, 1767-Paris, October 4, 1851) was a Spanish nobleman and politician, favorite and prime minister of Carlos IV between 1792 and 1798, and a strong man in the shadows from 1800 to 1808. He was Duke of Alcudia and Sueca and Prince of Peace for his negotiation of the Peace of Basel in 1795, a title that years later Fernando VII declared illegal and that Godoy replaced, already in exile, by the Italian Prince of Bassano. The purchase of the fief of Bassano di Sutri, near Rome and Viterbo, gave him the right to this title, after granting it by Pope Pius VIII.

Of noble origin, he was meteorically elevated to power by Carlos 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, before the inability of the court cliques at the beginning of his reign, headed by the Count of Floridablanca (Secretary of State from 1777 to 1792) and the Count of Aranda (idem in 1792), to face 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 caused 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 Carlos IV and Godoy himself due to the mutiny in Aranjuez. Throughout his tenure, full of lights and shadows, he managed to maintain the situation of Spain before the power of France with a pragmatic foreign policy —while other powers such as Austria, Prussia or the Netherlands were humiliated or annexed—, while in the interior tried to carry out an enlightened reformist program that generated deep rejection in many social groups, especially among the nobility and the clergy.

Godoy, one of the most reviled characters in the history of Spain, has recently been the subject of a series of rehabilitation studies coinciding with the 150th anniversary of his death.

Early Years

He was born at number 18 Calle Santa Lucía in Badajoz on May 12, 1767, the son of José Alfonso Godoy Cáceres Ovando y Ríos (1731-1808), perpetual alderman of Badajoz and mayor of Santa Hermandad for the noble estate in 1768, 1778, 1779 and 1786 and his second wife María Antonia Justa Álvarez de Faria y Sánchez Zarzosa (1732-1836), of Portuguese origin but born in Badajoz. Both belonged to the nobility of the provinces, which allowed them access to positions that only the nobles could occupy in those times. He was baptized with the names of Manuel Domingo Francisco.

His father, José Godoy, colonel of the army and with positions in the municipal government of Badajoz, cared as much as he could about the instruction of his children in the intellectual and physical aspect through the practice of horse riding and fencing, essential for them to successfully pursue a military career. After finishing elementary studies, Godoy acquired knowledge of mathematics, humanities and philosophy.

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

Godoy's rapid rise

Manuel Godoy, young Corps Guard (1788), painted by Francisco Folch de Cardona, Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.

On November 15, 1792, eight years after joining the Corps Guard, Manuel Godoy was elevated to the position of first Secretary of State or Office, that is, prime minister or universal minister, by the new sovereign Carlos IV, who since he ascended the throne in 1788 had not ceased to shower him with honors: cadet, adjutant general of the Guardia de Corps, brigadier, field marshal and sergeant major of the Guardia.

Already prime minister, Godoy signed on May 25, 1793 in Aranjuez the provisional agreement of defensive alliance against the First French Republic, with the titles of Duke of Alcudia, Grandee of Spain and first class, perpetual alderman of the city of Santiago de Compostela, Knight of the Golden Fleece, Grand Cross of the Order of Carlos III, Commander of Valencia del Ventoso and Aceuchal in 1793 and 1796, respectively, State Councilor, First Secretary, Secretary to the Queen, General Superintendent of Posts and Roads, gentleman of the chamber with exercise, captain general of the Royal Armies, inspector and sergeant major of the Royal Corps Guard.

To all these honors the kings will add that of Prince of 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 State of Albalá; perpetual alderman of the town of Madrid and of the cities of Cádiz, Málaga, Écija and Reus, this last position entailing the title of baron of Mascalbó; twenty-four from 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 appointed generalissimo, a title never before granted in Spain. Finally, in 1807, close to his fall, Carlos IV granted him the title of Grand Admiral, with the treatment of Most Serene Highness, and President of the Council of State.

Reasons for his rapid rise

Rumors and traditional historiography favorable to the reign of Ferdinand VII attributed it to the favor of Queen María Luisa and their alleged love affair: beauty and intelligence were the virtues that the sovereign appreciated in her protégé, and the idea that came to forging Godoy's political talent, she managed to instill it in her husband as well. His alleged affair with the queen contributed to the discredit of the monarchy. Godoy discreetly denies those rumors in his memories by describing the king as a person without stain .

Manuel de Godoy (1792), by Francisco Bayeu, Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.

Another sector of modern historiography (such as Seco Serrano, Bullón de Mendoza, La Parra or Rúspoli) does not recognize the queen's affair with Godoy as plausible: María Luisa de Parma, in addition to an almost non-existent private life, in her Queen status, she had thirteen pregnancies and eleven abortions, 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 on the Peninsula. Faced with the events that forced Louis XVI to renounce the throne, Minister Floridablanca adopted a hesitant attitude, not daring to intervene, while trying to keep the country safe from revolutionary ideology (1789-1791). When this policy failed, Aranda took power, but was unable to improve the delicate situation of the monarchy of Carlos IV, nor that of the King of France, a country in which a republic had already been proclaimed. Faced with these events, the king called Godoy to govern, a man free from the influences and relations with Floridablanca or with Aranda's Aragonese party. He owed everything he was and had to kings, and so he was loyal only to them.

Some reforms undertaken by Godoy are intended to limit or control the power of the High Nobility. Carlos IV elevated Godoy to the highest nobility (first-class grandee of Spain, duke and prince, husband of a cousin of the king) in order to authorize him before the nobility and immunize him against the arguments against him stemming from his humble origins.. By making him powerful, he would have authority over the powerful.

In his Memoirs, the favorite protests against those who attributed courtship and tunes to the preferences of kings: «In my life I understood the guitar, or singing, nor could I resort to those skills, which I did not have, to support me at court. I will say few things about this, and I will observe the decorum that his memory requires, as is appropriate among Spaniards ».

However, the repugnance of the Spaniards for the upstart was great: this is what Abbé Muriel testifies to according to the general feeling of the time; not because of Godoy's youth, for a young man could govern well, and in England they had the example of Pitt, but because of the way in which he had come to office. For his part, Carles, a member of the French embassy in Madrid and whose impartiality can be doubted, explains that the rapid rise of that "adventurer" was the cause of gossip from all social classes and that the lack of modesty of the "lascivious queen », who enriched his favorite at the expense of the public treasury, scandalized everyone. In 1908, Juan Pérez de Guzmán tried for the first time to vindicate the discredited María Luisa. The Marquis of Villaurrutia, very fond of gossip and author of Diplomatic Gave, once again taunts the sovereign in his work from the 1920s Queen María Luisa, wife of Carlos IV. The Mexican Carlos Pereyra, in his edition of the Confidential Letters of Queen María Luisa and Don Manuel Godoy, in the 1940s, considered everything referring to the illustrious lady to be slanderous and subjected it to acute criticism.

Ideally searched for Godoy, by John Adam (1794, R.A.B.A.S.F.). He is portrayed as a Roman emperor, trying to reflect with it the great political and military power he had then.

In the penultimate edition of the Memories of the Prince of Peace, Carlos Seco offers perhaps one of the most dispassionate and complete versions of the origin of the favorite's privanza. He admits the possibility of love affairs with María Luisa, but gives them secondary importance. The origin of the fervor of both sovereigns —not only the queen— would have to be found in the search, when they were princes of Asturias, for someone who owed everything to them, to contrast him with the omnipotent ministers of Carlos III, with whom they did not they sympathized

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 assassination and the Convention opened hostilities. The War of the Convention was initially favorable for Spain. General Antonio Ricardos reached Perpignan but the French organization of the defense stopped the initial push. In December 1794, Spanish and English, allies, lifted the siege of Toulon, a place that had been recovered by the French.

The French counteroffensive cooled the spirits of the Spanish, who had gone to the fight in defense of religion and the monarchy. Godoy won the game against Aranda, a supporter of the cessation of the fight, for which he was exiled. The death of General Antonio Ricardos and the invasion of Catalonia, Navarra and the Basque Country by the French Republicans, as well as the appropriate Spanish reply, stabilized the fronts.

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

Godoy portrayed by Agustín Esteve, Chicago Institute of Art.

Godoy hurried to collect the prize for the cessation of hostilities and was invested by his sovereign as Prince of Peace, in addition to receiving four greatnesses from Spain, seven great crosses from Carlos III, ten bands from María Luisa and many other awards.

Alliance with the Directory and war with England

Then Godoy forgot his enmity with France and allied with her through the first treaty of San Ildefonso on August 18, 1796. The favorite feared that English rearmament would be used against the Spanish overseas territories, due to the disgust it caused to England the signing in Madrid of the Peace of Basel, without prior consultation with the former ally. In addition, Carlos IV and María Luisa needed French support for the future of the Duchy of Parma, since their daughter María Luisa was married to the heir to that territory.

Finally, Godoy felt the growing hostility towards him and fearing his fall, as manifested by Malaspina's failed conspiracy, thought that by allying himself with the Directory he would silence the latest republicanist dalliances that had arisen in Spain, which would still attract him more if possible, the gratitude of their august lords. Although the defeat of the Spanish squadron off Cape San Vicente on February 14, 1797 and the English conquest of the island of Trinidad was offset by the defense of Cádiz, Puerto Rico and Tenerife, the intrigues against the favourite, fueled by the Directory, —which opened peace negotiations with England without counting on Spain— bore fruit, and Godoy had to retire as first secretary of the Office on March 28, 1798.

Politics in Spain

Meanwhile, Godoy resumed reformist policies but was unable to lessen his discredit. He reduced the union monopolies, supported the agrarian law, abolished some taxes, liberalized the prices of manufactures and, even in 1797, assembled a government made up of the best of the Spanish Enlightenment, most of whom had already held relevant posts under Carlos III. Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos became Secretary of Justice, Francisco de Saavedra took charge of the Treasury, Francisco Cabarrús, one of the creators of the Banco de San Carlos, was sent as ambassador to Paris, the writers and politicians Juan Meléndez Valdés and Mariano Luis de Urquijo also held important positions. It is nothing more than an episode of the ideological fracture that the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars produced in Spanish society.

Second Ministry

Manuel Godoy portrayed as the winner of the Orange War, by Goya. 1801. Real Academia de San Fernando, Madrid.

In Godoy's fall, some ministers that he had incorporated into his Council had intervened to give it a certain liberal tone. This is what Saavedra and Jovellanos did, who remained as strong men of the country's destinies, but they were not long in being relieved for health reasons. In 1801, Godoy got rid of his rivals, and although the post of first secretary was held by his cousin-in-law Pedro Cevallos, he once again became the preeminent figure of the government.

Napoleon, the first consul of France, offered the Duchess of Parma, daughter of Carlos 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 had to link the fate of its fleet to that of the French, as well as open hostilities with Portugal to force it to renounce the English alliance. This brief war, called the war of oranges for the bouquet of said fruit that Godoy offered to the queen, lasted from May 16 to June 6, 1801, it was the peak of the glory of the valid. Godoy almost bloodlessly achieved a peace favorable to Spain and Portugal, and contrary to the interests of Bonaparte: the Treaty of Badajoz, by which Portugal ceded the Plaza de Olivenza to Spain and promised to close its ports to the English.

Although the result did not satisfy Napoleon, who needed a truce, he ended up signing the Peace of Amiens with England (1802), through which Spain recovered Menorca, lost during the war, and ceded the island of Trinidad to the British. For his part, the Prince of Peace ratified the treaty of San Ildefonso of 1800. On December 31, 1802, the Cabildo of Buenos Aires proposed to King Carlos IV of Spain that he name his favorite and minister the Prince of la Paz, honorary councilor of the Cabildo de Buenos Aires. The king agreed by Royal Decree of October 29, 1803.

Equestrian Portrait of Godoy (1794), by Goya (Private Collection).

Under the pretext that Godoy favored the English, Napoleon forced Spain, with threats, to carry out his designs. Thus, Carlos IV first wrested a neutrality agreement and then a new alliance (1805), which brought the defeat of the Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar (October 21, 1805) at British hands. Then Godoy realized that his privacy was coming to an end. Those dissatisfied with the favorite's policy gathered around Crown Prince Ferdinand, who, fearing for his fate and that of Carlos IV, believed that, for the moment, the best thing to do was to unite more closely with the French emperor.

Napoleon appreciated Godoy as a man and as a minister, but he fostered those misgivings and ambitions for his purposes. Between 1805 and 1806, Godoy proposed that he enter into an allotment 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 to eliminate the crown prince Ferdinand or exercise the regency. In the winter of 1806, the emperor granted the Kingdom of Naples to his brother José de him after expelling Fernando IV from Naples, brother of the Spanish sovereign and father of María Antonia, married to the prince of Asturias. Obtaining the approval of Carlos IV would not have been easy without counting on Godoy's animosity towards the prince.

Napoleon, at the height of his glory, ignored the claims of the favorite and instead demanded 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 true intentions of the emperor and tried to get away from his orbit, because he even thought of allying himself with his enemies (Fourth Coalition), but the French victory at Jena forced him to hide it.

The Prince of Peace then yielded 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 adhered to the continental blockade (February 19, 1807) and granted Napoleon his military contest. But since it was necessary that Portugal also enter the blockade and the regent of the kingdom was opposed. 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 north, to compensate the dethroned kings of Etruria, the center, to exchange it for Gibraltar and other colonies seized by the English, and the south, for Godoy, as prince of the Algarves. Charles IV, to whom Napoleon guaranteed possession of his European States, would take the title of Emperor of the Americas. A French army would enter Spain on its way to Portugal, followed by another Spanish. When Godoy discovered that Napoleon's calculations, in addition to subduing Portugal, included occupying Spain itself, he would no longer have a choice.

Aranjuez mutiny: the fall of Godoy

Fall and prison of the Prince of Peace: March 19 in Aranjuez.

Shortly before the ratification of the treaty, French troops crossed the Pyrenees with the approval of Godoy, who trusted the agreement, and Prince Ferdinand, who approached Napoleon to make the favorite fall, had tried, without success, to kin with the emperor, when widowed by princess María Antonia. But Godoy discovered the plans of the Fernandista party to overthrow Carlos IV. In the El Escorial Trial (October 1807-January 1808) the Prince of Asturias, by being pardoned, contributed to Godoy's discredit on the rise.

Franco-Spanish troops seized Portugal, while the main squares of Spain were garrisoned by the emperor's troops. Then Napoleon demanded a military road to Portugal or the line of the Ebro as a border with France. The kings from Aranjuez decided –advised by Godoy– to leave in the direction of Cádiz, since that way they would be more protected from the emperor and would have a free hand to leave for America if they saw it necessary. The people were alarmed, and although a proclamation was posted declaring the projected trip false, it made Godoy guilty of the unfortunate policy carried out until then.

Meeting of Fernando VII and Godoy when he was taken to prison. Recorded from the time.

On the night of March 19, 1808, the populace, led by a part of the nobility disdainful of the reduction in their privileges promoted by Godoy, assaulted the palace of the favorite, in the so-called riot of Aranjuez, after which it was removed from his positions and honors, as was King Carlos, stunned by the coup perpetrated by his son, being locked up in the castle of Villaviciosa de Odón (Madrid), by order of Prince Fernando, and with great difficulty saved his life thanks to the intervention of Murat, who led him to Bayonne, where he met Napoleon directly for the first time. There he also met his lords and his enemy Fernando; neither father nor son were already kings for having ceded their rights over the Spanish crown to the Bonaparte dynasty, in the abdications of Bayonne.

Charles IV, a man of the old regime, could not conceive of his son's betrayal in El Escorial (although he forgave her) or in Aranjuez (which cost him the crown) and neither could he conceive that the French emperor had deceived him without honoring his word, and subjecting Spain to destruction, blood, and fire. That treacherous behavior in an emperor was something that he was not able to understand, that he could not get into his head. It is said that by not following a similar behavior, which implied deceit, Carlos IV had indefinitely delayed the expansion of Spain in North Africa.

Godoy Palace in Aranjuez.

Godoy's palaces and possessions were looted. The court was in Aranjuez, so there was little political justification for the assault on the houses of Madrid. Mesonero Romanos comments, in his Memories of a Seventy-year-old, that his father acquired, and he kept all his life, a couple of objects stolen by the mob from the Godoy houses on Barquillo street. the State took possession of many of such assets, delivering some to the Duke of Wellington (possessions in Granada and even the golden fleece itself that can be seen in Apsley House that had belonged to Godoy), others enriching the State itself (Palacio de Buenavista) and following other such goods the strangest paths until ending up in the National Gallery, such as Venus del espejo, Lázaro Galdiano Museum (Mesa de Godoy), Prado Museum (Majas dressed and naked) o Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (his portrait by Goya in the battle of the Oranges). Therefore the riot was economically profitable for many.

Banishment and death

Pepita Tudó, lover of Godoy, portrayed in 1813 by José de Madrazo (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando).

Since the abdications of Bayonne, Napoleon had been deciding the fate in exile of Carlos, María Luisa and Godoy. First, Compiègne, a hundred kilometers from Paris. Later, Marseille, where they lived with their large entourage for more than three years. Finally, and due in part to Godoy's involvement in the British-inspired breakout plan, which came to be called the "Midi conspiracy," Napoleon decided to move everyone to Italy. Not to the kingdom of Naples, as the ex-monarchs would have preferred, but to the papal court, to Rome. They arrived there on June 16, 1812. Their first residence was the Borghese palace.

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

Manuel Godoy, Prince of Bassano (ca. 1816), painted by José de Madrazo (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando).

In 1815, he settled with them in the Barberini palace in Rome, where he accompanied María Luisa at the moment of her death, which occurred on January 4, 1819. A few days later, on January 19 of the same year, he died Carlos in Naples, where he had traveled invited by his brother. Ferdinand VII, already King of Spain, persecuted Godoy constantly. He forced him to renounce the titles of Prince of 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 to misery, which meant exile. which was accompanied by the confiscation of all his assets without formation of any cause. Shortly before, his legitimate wife died in Paris, who was buried in Boadilla del Monte, and Godoy hastened to regularize his union with Pepita Tudó, although she finally moved to Madrid to closely follow the judicial proceedings and her interests in Spain and never came back to him. Pepita Tudó died in Madrid and is buried in the Sacramental de San Isidro.

Installed in Paris in 1832, Louis Philippe of Orleans granted him a modest pension, with which he was able to devote himself to writing his Memoirs, translated into French by Jean-Baptiste Esménard and published in Paris between 1836 and 1838 and then in Madrid in Spanish version. They are an indispensable document to know the government actions and the principles that promoted them.

Two decrees of 1844 and 1847 of Isabel II returned Godoy all his assets on paper. His honors, military posts and titles were restored to him, except for those of Prince of Peace, Generalissimo and Grand Admiral. At eighty years old, Godoy would have finally been able to return to his homeland, but he did not decide. In Paris he attended the revolutionary days of June 1848 and the rise to power of Napoleon III. The delay in the delivery of his assets exceeded the moment of his death, his heirs continuing the claims, until in the times of the First Republic (1873) President Emilio Castelar declared the nationalization of all Godoy's assets, despite the fact that he he had on them the property titles and the judicial sentences in his favor that declared as illegal plunder the confiscations that he had suffered since 1808.

Tomb of Godoy in the cemetery of Père-Lachaise.

On October 4, 1851, he died, without his disappearance hardly being of interest in either France or Spain. At first his remains remained in the crypt of the church of San Roque in Paris. After a year passed without anyone claiming his body, one of his last bankers bought a small space in the Eastern cemetery, known today as Père-Lachaise, where he was transferred and remains, at the foot of a simple tombstone. with his portrait.

The City Council of Badajoz, his hometown, agreed in 2008 to repatriate his remains and deposit them under a monument that was erected in his honor in the Plaza de San Atón, where the seminary where he studied was located. On the other hand, Godoy himself wanted to be buried in the church of the old convent of San Gabriel de Badajoz, now called Concepción, if he died in his hometown, since since 1796 he had been patron of that convent.

Offspring

Carlota Luisa de Godoy and Borbon, daughter of Godoy, painted in 1817 by Luis de la Cruz and Rios.

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

He had four children with Pepita Tudó, 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 valid of the Old Regime, with a power superior to Lerma or Olivares, since he managed to be equated to royalty: his servants dressed the same as those of the monarch, Carlos IV visited him in his house and helped him to dress, married a cousin of the king, etc.

With notable exceptions before 1990, such as Carlos Seco Serrano (editor and commentator of Godoy's Memories for the Biblioteca de Autores Españoles edition in 1956), Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza and very few others, history was merciless in general with Godoy, especially due to the origin of his rapid rise and the breadth of his powers, and his fame and image in general were disastrous for decades. However, the latest studies on Godoy, from the year 2001, begin to convey a more positive image and assessment, showing how Napoleonic propaganda manipulated and distorted reality to turn the people against Godoy and the kings, and how it was later joined by the negative, and more lasting, propaganda of the spare Fernando VII, who had always considered Godoy, especially since his accession to the principality, as a dangerous rival.

In the ideological aspect, his performance was hesitant, because, although he favored regalism and encyclopedism and kept the Inquisition at bay, sometimes he used it for his purposes. He authorized the return of the enlightened Jesuits, after a hardly justifiable expulsion and exile, decreed by Carlos III at the request of the Count of Campomanes and other royalists.

His opposition to the privileges of the high nobility (of which he became a part as a means of deactivating it from within) ended up costing him the hatred of a part of this important establishment, the closest to Fernando VII with Escoiquiz and Caballero at the head, which —as could be verified during the Fernandino reign— constituted the most reactionary faction in Spain in those years.

Scientific and cultural work

His scientific and cultural work, little known as a result of the aforementioned propaganda but revalued in recent decades, as a result of commemorating the 150th anniversary of his death, was commendable. In 1793 he founded the first Veterinary School and two years later, a Superior School of Medicine in Madrid. He created the Corps of Cosmographic Engineers, the Sanlúcar Botanical Garden, the Corps of Civil Engineers, the Hydrographic Deposit, the Astronomical Observatory, the School for the Deaf and Dumb and the Pestalozzi Institute.

Recently (2001) his unknown role as patron of Spanish archeology has been made known, along with the king himself, and now it is known that they were due to the initiative of both archaeological excavations in Duratón, Segóbriga, Sagunto or Mérida, the restoration of the Tower of Hercules in La Coruña, the creation of the figure of the conservative judge of antiquities (in Sagunto and Mérida), or the sponsorship of several notable philological and archaeological publications, beginning with the always supposed French Voyage pittoresque et historique de l'Espagne, by Alexandre de Laborde.

Perhaps what is most remarkable is having sponsored the first legislation of national scope for the protection of antiquities, the Instruction formed by the Royal Academy of History on how to collect and preserve ancient monuments discovered or discovered discover in the Kingdom, of July 6, 1803, an avant-garde regulation that for the first time forced the protection of Jewish and Arab monuments, which was encouraged by an interest in improving popular knowledge, and that surely it had been developing since the creation of the Room of Antiquities of the Royal Academy of History, in 1792.

He was also a great artistic patron: he protected Goya, Meléndez Valdés, Moratín, etc. It seems that it was he who commissioned Goya for the famous Majas (Museo del Prado).

Degrees and honors

Titles

• Prince of Peace.
• I marquis and Duke of the Alcudia (with greatness of Spain of first class).
• I duke de Sueca (with greatness of Spain of first class).
• I Baron of Mascalbó.
• Lord of the Soto of Rome.
• Lord of the Albufera.
• Lord of La Serena.
• Mr. Alcudia Valley.
• VII Prince of Bassano, Pontifical States.
• I count of Evoramonte (October 10, 1797 in the Kingdom of Portugal).
• Count of Chinchón (by his first marriage, with greatness of Spain of 1.a class)
• Count of Boadilla del Monte (by her first marriage).
• Count of Castillo Fiel (for his second marriage).
• Great admiral

Orders

Spanish

• Knight of the Order of the Golden Toy (diploma n.o 833).
• Big Knight of the Order of Charles III.
• Big Knight of the Royal Military Order of St. Hermenegildo.
• Knight (1789) and diner (1790) of the Order of Santiago. He had the encomiendas of Valencia del Ventoso, Ribera and the Aceuchal.

Foreign

• I dance great cross of the Order of St John of Jerusalem.
• Big Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor (French Empire).
• Knight of the Supreme Order of Christ (Reino de Portugal).
• Knight of the Supreme Order of Christ (Pontifical States).
• Knight of the Order of San Jenaro (Kingdom of the Two Sicilies).
• Knight of the Order of Saint Ferdinand and Merit (King of the Two Sicilies).

Jobs

• Field Marshal (February 1791), Lieutenant General (July 1791) and General Superior (1801) of the Royal Army.
• Admiral General of Spain and Indias (1807), with treatment of Serene Highness.
• Prime Minister.
• Chief of the Royal Corps of Artillery and Engineers.
• General Assistant to the Royal Corps Guard Corps.
• General Colonel of the Swiss Pontificia Guard.
• Gentleman of the King's Chamber with exercise.
• General Superintendent of Post Rent (1792-1798)

Perpetual offices

• Perpetual governer of the cities of Santiago, Cadiz, Malaga, Écija, Burgos, Valencia, Segovia and Ronda.
• Twenty-four of the city of Seville.
• Perpetual governer of the villas of Madrid, Reus and others.

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