Tomás Fernández de Medrano

• 1. Introduction

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  Tomás Fernández de Medrano appears by name in a letter Philip II of Spain wrote on the 31st of January 1592 to his daughter Catherine, Duchess of Savoy. Philip had just received Medrano as an envoy from Catherine's husband, the Duke of Savoy. He was satisfied with the meeting. He planned to send Medrano back to Turin with a private message for the Duke: stop taking such personal risks on campaign.

  The letter was a private communication between a father and a daughter. Medrano appeared in it only as the trusted courier, just arrived at court and soon to depart. Yet there he was, named by a Spanish king in personal correspondence, trusted to carry royal counsel back across the Alps.

  He came from Entrena in La Rioja. He died around 1616. How a nobleman from a small northern Spanish town earned that kind of trust from two courts at once is the question this documentary follows.

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• 2. La Rioja Roots

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  The Medrano family had maintained a presence in La Rioja since the 11th century. A goshawk appeared on the Medrano family crest. The coat of arms of the municipality of Medrano in La Rioja bore a castle and a lion. Spanish heraldic tradition linked such symbols to royal descent.

  Their ancestral seat was the lordship of Valdeosera, deep in the Camero Viejo mountains near San Román de Cameros. The family traced their line to Sancho Fernández de Tejada. A chronicle compiled in 1601 described him as field master and captain general of King Ramiro I of Asturias at the Battle of Clavijo. That battle began, according to tradition, when Ramiro I refused to continue paying the Moorish emirs a tribute of one hundred virgins. Ramiro's forces pursued the army of Abderramán II, took refuge at Clavijo castle on Monte Laturce, and turned the tide. The Valdeosera estate that emerged was divided into thirteen shares, one for each of Sancho Fernández de Tejada's descendants.

  The institution governing Valdeosera was of Germanic legal origin. It functioned like a sippe, a collective of blood relatives centered around a shared ancestor. By the 16th century, such institutions were rare. Valdeosera was considered one of the last surviving examples of the Castilian lordships of behetría, governed by lineage rather than royal appointment. Henry IV of Castile formally recognized it as a noble institution in 1460. The Catholic Monarchs reaffirmed that status in 1481.

  In 1589, Tomás was officially registered as a divisero of Valdeosera, alongside his brothers, after proving their descent from the original lords. At a general assembly on the 1st of May 1600, the estate elected him Chief Magistrate and Lord. He was absent at the royal court at the time. A lieutenant served in his place. His son Fray Juan later summarized his full title: "lord, divisero and mayor of the knights hijosdalgo of the lordship, villa, solar and currencies of Valdeosera, counselor and secretary of State and War, of the Most Serene Highnesses of Savoy."

  The badge of the lordship carried a Latin inscription: "Let us praise glorious men and our ancestors in their generations." By 1579, Tomás was serving on the Mediterranean galleys under a Genoese commander.

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• 3. Mediterranean Service

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  Giovanni Andrea Doria was the Marquis of Torrilla, adoptive son of the legendary Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, who was also his great-uncle. From 1579 to 1581, Tomás Fernández de Medrano served as his secretary aboard the Genoese galleys. In one of his memorials, Tomás described the experience in plain terms. He had spent some years "at sea, near Prince Andrea Doria, with an armada, hunting and capturing enemy vessels."

  Corsair warfare shaped the Mediterranean during those years. The Knights of Saint John operated from Malta, regularly mounting campaigns against Barbary pirates. Those pirates had repeatedly raided Corsica, prompting the Genoese to build defensive towers along the coastline. By policing those waters, the Knights took on a role that had traditionally belonged to the naval city-states of Venice and Genoa.

  After leaving the galleys, Medrano moved to Rome. Enrique de Guzmán, 2nd Count of Olivares, served as the Spanish ambassador to the Holy See from 1582 to 1591. Medrano spent eight years working through the papers of that embassy, from 1582 to 1590. Enrique was the father of Gaspar de Guzmán, who would later govern Spain on behalf of Philip IV as the Count-Duke of Olivares. The relationship Medrano built with the father proved lasting. When Charles Emmanuel I sought to advance Medrano's career years later, Enrique de Guzmán was the only senior figure to respond positively. He granted an allocation of 2,000 escudos.

  Three of Tomás's brothers also served the Spanish crown in arms. His brother Diego served as a Squadron General. He commanded the São João galleys of Portugal during the 1588 invasion of England with the Spanish Armada. Another brother, Francisco, served as a captain of Spanish infantry. He later commanded a garrison in Paris under Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma. A third, Lázaro, served as an ensign and was registered in Valdeosera in 1596. A fourth, unnamed in surviving records, died in the expedition to England.

  On the 1st of August 1591, Medrano took up the role of Secretary of State and War. He served Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy.

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• 4. The Savoy Commission

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  On the 1st of May 1594, Charles Emmanuel I issued a formal letter reaffirming Medrano's appointment. The original document had been lost. This replacement was issued "because the title he held as secretary had been lost." In it, the Duke described Medrano as a man of "virtue, prudence, fidelity, secrecy, and skill."

  The appointment placed Medrano in Turin as the principal intermediary between Philip II of Spain and Charles Emmanuel I. Spain's protection was vital to the Duchy's survival. Shortly after his posting began, Medrano was dispatched to Madrid to negotiate urgent political and military matters with Philip II directly. He was intercepted by French forces near Marseille. His papers were seized. He was held "in great danger," in the words of his own memorial. He eventually made his way to Madrid, where Philip II ordered 1,000 ducats paid to cover his travel expenses on the return to Turin.

  On the 12th of February 1592, Philip II informed the Duke of Savoy that he had received Medrano and that they had "treated important matters for His Royal Service." The Duke had sent Medrano to Philip as a person through whose hands "everything has passed" and to whom Philip should give the same credit "as you would to my own person."

  Medrano served in the wars as well as the chancellery. He fought in the Duke of Savoy's campaigns against France throughout the 1590s, riding in the noble squadron near Charles Emmanuel on foot and horseback, and taking command of artillery in dangerous engagements. In early 1592, the French general Lesdiguières invaded Savoy. Medrano recalled the Duke's efforts to recover the Marquisate of Saluzzo and restore the Catholic faith in Tonon and the surrounding regions.

  Catherine Micaela died on the 6th of November 1597, giving birth, at the age of 30. Philip II's biographers described her as the apple of the sovereign's eye. That death altered the political landscape.

  The Peace of Vervins, signed on the 2nd of May 1598, ended the French wars. Philip II died the same year. Charles Emmanuel I, freed from the pressures that had kept him allied to Spain, gradually asserted his independence. The same quality that had made Medrano valuable, his direct line to the Spanish crown, now made him inconvenient to the Duke. Medrano was appointed secretary to the Duke's infant sons and stepped back from his central role. On the 9th of October 1598, he formally requested permission to return to Spain. The Duke gave him permission and the means to make the journey. With his wife and children, Medrano departed.

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• 5. Marriage and Connections

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  Isabel Ibáñez de Sandoval was a relative of Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, 1st Duke of Lerma. Her mother María had served as a lady-in-waiting to Princess Catalina Micaela of Spain. Medrano's position as secretary to the Duke and Princess kept him close to the Savoyard court. That proximity gave him regular occasion to see Isabel.

  By the 8th of December 1594, the Duke of Lerma had already recorded the match as settled. He noted that Tomás was "arranged to marry Isabel de Sandoval from the chamber of the Infanta, his wife." They married in 1595. The Duke of Savoy confirmed the union in a letter on the 24th of April 1596: "Tomás Fernández de Medrano married Doña Isabel de Sandoval."

  Isabel's sister Magdalena de Sandoval served as governess to the children of Cristóbal Gómez de Sandoval, 1st Duke of Uceda. Uceda was the firstborn son of the 1st Duke of Lerma. Isabel was also connected by family ties to Gaspar Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán y Sandoval, 9th Duke of Medina Sidonia. His sister Luisa de Guzmán y Sandoval had married John IV of Portugal, the newly proclaimed king.

  Back in Spain, the 1st Duke of Lerma had become the most powerful figure at the royal court. His patronage secured the pension that the Duke of Savoy's requests to Pope Clement VIII had not. Philip III granted Medrano 400 escudos per year on the 26th of July 1608. An earlier royal decree, dated the 11th of December 1601, had already assigned the couple a combined annual income of 274,200 maravedis. The breakdown included fifty gold escudos per month for Medrano, valued at thirteen florins and three grains, plus 39,000 maravedis for Isabel.

  Their son Juan Fernández de Medrano y Sandoval was born in 1595, the same year as the marriage. He later entered the Cistercian monastery of San Prudencio de Monte Laturce, in the diocese of Calahorra. He joined as a novice of the Order of Saint Bernard. Their daughter Ana María Fernández de Medrano y Sandoval was born in 1608. She served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Isabel de Borbón and married Rodrigo Martínez de Fresneda, a knight of the Order of Montesa. Fray Juan declared his sister Ana María as universal heir.

  Alongside these negotiations over his pension, Medrano had not been idle as a writer. He had been at work on a political treatise for years, and it would soon appear in print.

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• 6. The Mixed Republic

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  Juan Flamenco printed República Mista at the royal press in Madrid in 1602. The full title translates as "The Mixed Republic." Medrano described it as "the first treatise of seven" he had written. Only the first part went to press.

  The treatise was dedicated to Francisco de Sandoval, 1st Duke of Lerma. In a 1607 memorial, Medrano described the book as "pleasing to His Majesty." One of its central claims was that kings and princes must be religious in order to command the obedience of their subjects.

  Machiavelli's followers treated religion as a tool of governance. It was useful for controlling populations but not, in their view, essential to political order. Medrano took the opposite position. Religion was not a strategic instrument; it was constitutive. Good governance required it at its foundation.

  In making that argument, Medrano drew on Aristotle and Polybius, both of whom had written about the benefits of combining different forms of government. He identified three legitimate regimes: monarchy, aristocracy, and timocracy. He named their three corruptions: tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. Any republic governed by only one of these forms, he argued, would eventually slide into vice.

  The first volume opened with a 16-page prologue defining politics and tracing the formation of society from family through municipality, province, and kingdom. One passage captured the work's central contention: "For if Kings, Councils, and Magistrates on earth are the image of God, they should also strive to imitate Him in goodness, perfection, and justice."

  The República Mista also contained a personal disclosure. In the text, Medrano stated that he had studied mathematics under Christoph Clavius. Clavius was the Jesuit mathematician principally responsible for the Gregorian calendar reform. Medrano cited that training when attacking the errors of judicial astrology. His mathematical education, he argued, allowed him to draw a clear line between legitimate science and superstition.

  By 1617, Fray Juan de Salazar had drawn on Medrano's doctrine. He used it to present the Spanish monarchy as guided by virtue and reason, bound by divine and natural law. The bibliographer Nicolás Antonio later attributed the work to Tomás Fernández de Medrano without reservation.

  In 1605, Medrano turned from political philosophy to religious law. At his own expense, he translated and printed a brief from Pope Paul V. The brief confirmed the privileges of the Order of Saint John.

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• 7. Knight and Patron

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  Pope Clement VIII granted Tomás Fernández de Medrano the habit of Saint John in 1593, without vows, manu propria, meaning from his own hand. The recognition reflected longstanding claims associated with the House of Medrano. They were formally documented in papal bulls issued in Rome with hanging lead seals. Those bulls never reached their destination. On the journey from Barcelona to Madrid, thieves ambushed Medrano and stole them, along with other valuables. A letter from the Duke of Savoy dated the 12th of October 1593 recorded the loss.

  Medrano's relationship to the Order was grounded in years of sea-going service, not in formal profession. His 1607 memorial described him as having been "forged in encounters and skirmishes, battles and clashes, by the obligations of his habit." Letters in the archive confirm that the maritime service came first; the habit followed in recognition.

  Philip III wrote to Grand Master Fray Aloisio de Vignancourt on Medrano's behalf. He praised Medrano as a man of "great prudence and goodness" and acknowledged one particular achievement. Medrano had translated the Order's statutes from Latin into Castilian. The king described the translation as "of profit and much utility to the knights and religious" of the Order. He urged the Grand Master to support Medrano's family's claims with "all the grace and favor that may be possible."

  The Monastery of San Juan de Acre in Salinas de Añana had been linked to the Order of Saint John since 1185. María Ramírez de Medrano, Lady of Fuenmayor, had founded it that year. She established a hospital, commandery, and convent for the female branch of the Order. The Fernández de Medrano family had maintained patronage over the convent for generations. Their ancestors were buried in the side chapel of the main chapel.

  On the 22nd of June 1608, the four nuns of the convent held a chapter meeting. The prioress was Inés Hurtado de Corcuera y Mendoza. She joined with Manuela Hurtado de Corcuera y Mendoza, María de Xérica, and María de Corcuera. Together they appointed Tomás and his wife Isabel as co-patrons, with the right of inheritance passing to their heirs. In return, Tomás and Isabel pledged fifty ducats per year for two lifetimes. They also gave a one-time gift of a thousand ducats from their personal estate.

  Medrano was buried in that family chapel at the Monastery of San Juan de Acre in Salinas de Añana. The monastery still stands today, just outside the town walls. Nearby are the salt pans that the Crown incorporated in 1564, among the most important in Castile at the time.

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