Manuel de Moura

Manuel de Moura, 2nd Marquês de Castelo Rodrigo, Anonymous, Spanish school, 17th century

Dom Manuel de Moura Corte-Real, 2nd Marquês de Castelo Rodrigo , ( pt . : Manoel de Moura e Côrte-Real , born August 17, 1590 Madrid , † January 28, 1651 Madrid) was a Portuguese nobleman in the service of the Spanish king . He was governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1644 to 1647.

Life

Manuel de Moura Corte-Real was the son of Cristóvão de Moura (1538-1613), 1st Marquês de Castelo Rodrigo, and Margarita Corte-Real, head of the Corte-Real family. Although his family was in the service of the King of Spain, he was of Portuguese origin with roots in Lisbon . The origins are said to be in the conquest of Moura ( Alentejo ) during the Reconquista , which is dated to 1165. However, the family's fortune dates back to the late 16th century when Cristóvão de Moura supported Philip II of Spain's claims to the Portuguese throne, which led to the merger of the two countries.

Manuel de Moura inherited the title and property of his father in 1613 and entered Habsburg services in 1615 as gentilhombre de cámara of the future king Philip III. from Portugal . When the prince ascended the throne in 1621, he was appointed grandee of Spain ; then he participated in the palace intrigues that led to the overthrow of the Duke of Lerme . At first he belonged to the Olivares community , whose rise he favored, then he became embroiled in new intrigues - whereupon Olivares, whose position was not yet established, hired him to do foreign assignments to keep him away from court.

Castelo Rodrigo was sent to Lisbon in 1627 to equip a fleet, but was recalled to Madrid in 1630 when Olivares decided to deploy his rival as a diplomat. He was sent to Rome as ambassador in 1632, where he became the patron saint of Francesco Borromini and the sculptor François Duquesnoy . The stay in Rome ended with the uprising of Portugal in December 1640. He remained loyal to the Spanish crown, although his family suffered considerable losses in Portugal. Nevertheless, it was apolitical to have a Portuguese as the Spanish ambassador in Rome, although Olivares was still not sure of Castelo Rodrigo's loyalty.

In 1642 he was sent to Vienna, where he served until May 1644. From June 1644 he was in Brussels as governor of the Spanish Netherlands, where he replaced Francisco de Melo . He worked on peace between the Republic of the Seven United Provinces and Spain and was instrumental in the preliminary negotiations that set the peace conference in Munster in motion. He served as Philip IV's minister until he was recalled to Spain in 1647.

Castelo Rodrigo arrived in Madrid on January 14, 1648, where he is attested in 1649 as Mayordomo mayor in the Royal Palace. A portrait previously attributed to Diego Velázquez shows him at the age of around 60. He died in Madrid in 1651 at the age of 61.

marriage and family

Manuel de Moura married Leonor Álvarez Pereira de Melo († June 19, 1641). The couple had four children:

• Cristovão de Moura, Conde de Lumiares; ∞ 1649 Henriette von Lothringen (1611–1660), daughter of Franz II , Duke of Lorraine and Bar , Count of Vaudémont , and Christine Katharina zu Salm , Countess of Salm-Badenweiler, widow of Louis de Guise, and Carlo Guasco, Marchese di Sallerio, married in 1652, fourth marriage to Francesco Grimaldi (all three had the title of Prince of Pfalzburg and Lixheim )
• Francisco de Moura (1610-1675), 2nd Marquis de Castelo Rodrigo; ∞ 1639 Ana María de Montcada (* 1616), daughter of Antonio de Montcada, 6th Duca di Montalto, and Juana de la Cerda
• Margarida Francisca de Moura; ∞ Miguel Luis de Menezes (1614–1641), Duque de Camiña, son of Luis de Menezes, 7th Marqués de Vila Real, and Juliana de Menezes
• Maria de Moura; ∞ Miguel Luis de Menezes (1614–1641), Duque de Camiña, widower of Margarida Francisca de Moura, married in 1630 in third marriage Joana Juliana Maria Máxima de Bragança, Condesa de Faro

His son Francisco became the 3rd Marquis de Castelo Rodrigo. Like his father, he became governor of the Habsburg Netherlands.

literature

• Fernando de Castro Pereira Mouzinho de Albuquerque e Cunha, (1995). Instrumentário Genealógico - Linhagens Milenárias , 1995, p. 329f.
• Manuel José da Costa Felgueiras Gaio, Nobiliário das Famílias de Portugal . Volume 7, VII. Portugal: Beltroens.
• Dom António Caetano de Sousa, História Genealógica da Casa Real Portuguesa Volume 6 (2nd edition), Coimbra, Portugal: Atlântida-Livraria Editora, Lda, 1946
• Instituto de Salazar y Castro. Elenco de Grandezas y Titulos Nobiliarios Españoles , magazine
• Santiago Martínez Hernández, "Aristocracia y anti-olivarismo: el proceso al marqués de Castelo Rodrigo, embajador en Roma, por sodomía y traición (1634-1635)", in: José Martínez Millán, Manuel Rivero Rodríguez, Gijs Versteegen (eds.) , La Corte en Europa: Política y Religión (siglos XVI-XVIII) , Ediciones Polifemo, Madrid 2012, Volume 2, pp. 1147–1196.
• David García Cueto, "Mecenazgo y representación del marqués de Castel Rodrigo durante su embajada en Roma", in: Roma y España, un crisol de la cultura europea en la Edad Moderna , ed. by Carlos José Hernando Sánchez, SEACEX, Madrid 2007, Volume 2, 2007, pp. 695–716.
• Joseph Connors, Borromini and the Marchese di Castel Rodrigo , in: The Burlington Magazine , 133, 1991, pp. 434-440.
• Joseph Connors, The Portuguese Genealogy of Wenceslas Hollar and the Lost Lisbon Monuments by François Duquesnoy , in: Print quarterly, 36, 2019, pp. 17–30.

Remarks

predecessor	Office	successor
Francisco de Melo	Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands 1644–1647	Leopold Wilhelm of Austria
Cristóvão de Moura	Marquês de Castelo Rodrigo 1613–1651	Francisco de Moura