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1. Ortiz de Zúñiga, Anales eclesiásticos, 4:115. epilogue gentleman of prudence A gentleman of great prudence, truthfulness, and Christianity. —rodrigo de castro, archbishop of seville Seville’s physicians had declared the city plague free, and on 22 June 1582 a solemn procession wound its way through the streets, bearing the images of Santa Justa and Santa Rufina as well as San Roque and San Sebastián, “through whose sovereign assistance the disease had some temperance.”1 The cabildo and the Count of Villar, though relieved that the deadly disease had diminished its grip, continued to face other crises and, after a few months, a recurrence of sickness. The governor’s tenure at the city’s helm was nearing its end, and the Count of Villar began looking for new postings. As was customary with royal officials, the count’s “job performance” would be evaluated. The residencia was a long-established administrative inquiry undertaken at the end of an official’s tenure and designed to prevent graft and malfeasance in office. A judge (juez de residencia) conducted the investigation, following public announcement of the process. Potential complainants were given thirty days to press charges, both public and secret, and the judge then reviewed the evidence. If any faults were found the official under review could be fined, exiled, or barred from new appointments. There were problems with the review system, and charges could be petty, sometimes resulting from personality conflicts. But in general the residencia kept royal officials in check. The Count of Villar, in various letters to the king and the royal council, provided detailed reports of his accomplishments as Seville’s governor, boasting of his successes. He intended the documents to be favorably reviewed in order 264 | the plague files 2. The Battle of Lepanto (1571) against the Turkish fleet was won by the Spanish forces led by Don Juan of Austria, Philip II’s half brother. 3. BL, Mss. Add. 28343, fols. 345r–46v; BL, Mss. Add. 28344, fols. 213r–19r; regarding the count’s salary, see Domínguez Ortiz, “Salarios y atribuciones,” 209. For the political influence wielded by royal confessors, whose access to the monarch was not limited to spiritual matters, see Magdalena S. Sánchez, The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), 18–22. to secure future employment and reward. The normal period of service as governor of Seville was three years, and the Count of Villar was considering his future as early as the spring of 1582. In a subsequent letter to the king he complained about his health and the expenses incurred in office that far exceeded his stipend of 1,860 ducats. Furthermore, as he had indicated elsewhere, he had come often to the king’s and the city’s financial rescue, using his own money, during his tenure in Seville. Now he claimed he was financially strapped and blamed his “poverty” for his inability to provide sufficient dowry for one of his daughters, who consequently remained unmarried. He had many children, several of whom had died either in battle or from disease. The Count of Villar lamented the loss of four sons “in the naval war of the Lord Don Juan and in Flanders” and the sickness and death, from what he believed to be the plague, of two of his younger children after he arrived in Seville.2 He claimed that the years during which he had served the city had been exceptionally difficult, and he pointed out that he had stayed beyond the normal term because it would have been inopportune to have left at the height of the plague epidemic. He related to the king that he himself had been struck twice by the contagious disease , and although “Our Lord was served to deliver me from the said sickness,” the stress and general ailment that he had been suffering from while serving the city were endangering his life, according to his physicians. Indeed, his doctors recommended that he leave Seville as soon as possible. The count indicated that his“house and property have necessity of my intervention,”and he was ready to return to his estates to recuperate his health and wealth. He asked the king for “pensions for two of my sons for their studies.” In closing, the count requested an audience with the king or...

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