Francisco de Moncada
Encyclopedia
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
diplomat, soldier and writer of the early 17th century. He was also a governor of the Spanish Netherlands.
Early life
Moncada, Ambassador in GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Governor at the Spanish Netherlands, a General and Commander of the Spanish-Flemish Armies, and a brilliant medieval historian, was born in Valencia to Gastón de Moncada, 2nd Marquis of Aitona,( 1554 - 1626), Ambassador to Rome Viceroy of Sardinia, 1590 - 1595, Viceroy of Aragon,1603 - 1610, and his wife Cataline de Moncada (her maiden name) baroness of Callosa. He was taught as a child of the great works of both chivalry
Chivalry
Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood which has an aristocratic military origin of individual training and service to others. Chivalry was also the term used to refer to a group of mounted men-at-arms as well as to martial valour...
and the troubadours, especially Joanot Martorell
Joanot Martorell
Joanot Martorell was a Valencian knight and the author of the novel Tirant lo Blanch, which is written in Valencian...
's Tirant lo Blanch which influenced Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
so much that he praises it in Don Quixote.
Literary work
Moncada wrote Expedicion de Catalanes y Argoneses al Oriente about the Catalan CompanyCatalan Company
The Catalan Company of the East , officially the Magnas Societas Catalanorum, sometimes called the Grand Company and widely known as the Catalan Company, was a free company of mercenaries founded by Roger de Flor in the early 14th-century...
. This history gives an account of the followers of Roger de Flor
Roger de Flor
Roger de Flor , also known as Ruggero/Ruggiero da Fiore or Rutger von Blum or Ruggero Flores, was a military adventurer active in Sicily, Italy and the Byzantine Empire...
in their cooperation and fighting the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
and later their capture of the Duchy of Athens
Duchy of Athens
The Duchy of Athens was one of the Crusader States set up in Greece after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade, encompassing the regions of Attica and Boeotia, and surviving until its conquest by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century....
.Editions:
(Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, 1623; Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, 1777, 1805, 1883;around 97 pages, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, 1841, in "Tesoro de los historiadores espanoles").
Moncada also wrote Vida de Anicio Manlio Torquato Severino Boecio. This Roman politician from an illustrious Imperial family of the 6th Century, can be found at Wikipedia under Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius was a philosopher of the early 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many consuls. His father, Flavius Manlius Boethius, was consul in 487 after...
, commonly called Boethius (ca. 480 – Senator 505 - Consul 510 - 524 or 525, executed by Ostrogoth
Ostrogoth
The Ostrogoths were a branch of the Goths , a Germanic tribe who developed a vast empire north of the Black Sea in the 3rd century AD and, in the late 5th century, under Theodoric the Great, established a Kingdom in Italy....
king of Rome Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , regent of the Visigoths , and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire...
when suspected of connivence with the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
, a matter treated before by XIV - XV Century Spanish Humanists. This work was not published until after Moncada's death, first going to press at Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1642.
Government service
Moncada served as the Spanish ambassador to the Holy Roman EmperorHoly Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
for a time. The emperor Ferdinand II
Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand II , a member of the House of Habsburg, was Holy Roman Emperor , King of Bohemia , and King of Hungary . His rule coincided with the Thirty Years' War.- Life :...
was very impressed with him.
He served as a counselor to Princess Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain
Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain
Isabella Clara Eugenia of Austria was sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands in the Low Countries and the north of modern France, together with her husband Albert. In some sources, she is referred to as Clara Isabella Eugenia...
, regent of the Spanish Netherlands. While serving in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
he tried to convince King Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...
to transfer the general management of affairs in his Netherlands possessions to Brussels and remove any responsibility for such matters from the government in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. His proposals to give the various peoples in the Netherlands still under Habsburg rule more say in their governmental affairs were rejected.
He was made the commander-in-chief of the Spanish navy in the Netherlands in 1630. On 12-13 March 1631, his seamen were defeated at the Battle of the Slaak
Battle of the Slaak
The naval Battle of the Slaak was a Dutch victory during the Eighty Years' War. The Dutch prevented the Spanish army from dividing the Dutch United Provinces in two.-Background:...
, the commander being then a Catholic member of the House of Orange-Nassau
House of Orange-Nassau
The House of Orange-Nassau , a branch of the European House of Nassau, has played a central role in the political life of the Netherlands — and at times in Europe — since William I of Orange organized the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule, which after the Eighty Years' War...
, namely Count Jan VIII van Nassau-Siegen, (Dillenburg
Dillenburg
Dillenburg is a town in Hesse's Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, 1583 - Count successor 1623 - Siegen
Siegen
Siegen is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia.It is located in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the Arnsberg region...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, 27 September 1623).
In 1632 he was put in charge of all Spanish forces in the Netherlands. In 1634 he was made governor of the Spanish Netherlands on the death of Spanish Netherlands Governees Isabella Clara Eugenia , (born 1566*, in December 1633.
He died of illness in 1635 at the Battle of Goch
Goch
Goch is a town in the district of Kleve, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated close to the border with the Netherlands, approx. 12 km south of Kleve, and 27 km southeast of Nijmegen.-Cultural ties:...
, North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, 51°41′2″N 6°9′43″E, very near the actual Dutch-German border.
External links
- Text of Francisco's Catalan Chronicle (in Spanish) http://manybooks.net/titles/moncadad13511351613516-8.html