Juan de Ovando: Governing the Spanish Empire in the Reign of Phillip II (review)

To describe independent scholar Stafford Poole's book as merely a biography of the important letrado during the time of Philip II would not only be inaccurate but misleading. As his subtitle implies, the book's intent goes beyond that of biography. Rather, it is through Poole's meticulous and well-researched study of one of Spain's most powerful bureaucrats, that he examines and elucidates a number of institutions, issues and problems facing the Spanish empire in the sixteenth century.

Poole's book is well structured and organized. He begins by introducing the reader to a Spain in transition from the medieval "reino and communidad (city-state)" to "that of the nation-state, . . . that was embraced by the rising class of bureaucrats called letrados" (p. 5). The conciliar system of government; letrado versus noble rivalry for cherished council posts; the nature of patron-client political and ecclesiastical relationships (usually indistinguishable); the emergence of juntas (ad hoc committees of government); the dire financial situation of Philip's realm; and the complex religious picture (including the outcomes of the Council of Trent, the power of the Spanish Inquisition, and the increasing persecution of conversos and importance of the concept of limpieza de sangre), are all discussed by Poole to contextualize the "mysterious" life of Juan de Ovando.

The next short chapter begins Poole's biographical analysis: Ovando's early life as the illegitimate son of a hidalgo, the lowest class of nobleman. His relative poverty helped him obtain a scholarship to the colegio mayor of San Bartolomé, "almost a guarantee of a future career" (p. 25). The next three chapters portray Ovando's rise to political power as he begins his professional life as provisor, or chief ecclesiastical judge, of Seville, then takes on the role of visitador and reformer of the University of Alcalá de Henares, and finally becomes a member of the Supreme and General Council of the Inquisition. Poole's impressive research describing Ovando's roles in these various posts is made the more valuable by the superb contextualization of these chapters. The reader is provided clear and precise explanations of the often stormy relationship between bishops and chapters, and the workings of one of Spain's most important universities and the Inquisition.

Continuing to use Ovando's life as the unifying focus to explore Philip's governance, Poole turns to Spain's larger empire in the second half of the book. "An Empire Threatened" (Chapter 6) reviews the various internal and external threats and pressures on the Spanish empire, in particular those of the New World, which would be addressed by Ovando as visitador and then president of the Council of the Indies. Ovando's final but unwanted position as President of the Council of Finance is recounted in "The Road to Bankruptcy," before Poole ends with an overall assessment of the life of Ovando. As in the first half of the book, Ovando's actions are placed within clear expositions of the nature of a visita, the structure and functioning of the Council of the Indies, the Council of Finance, and the financial state of the empire.

Poole's book is impressive on several counts. Not only is his research exhaustive (using some sources for the first time), but his writing is clear and, above all, contextually illuminating and rich in detail. The work of an understudied but important bureaucrat is examined but so are the institutions and relationships in which he lived, acted and impacted. This reader missed a map of the Spanish empire at the time, and one might challenge Poole's assessment that Ovando's role in reforming the Council of the Indies led Philip's government "to regularize the situation in the Indies, . . . and to protect the rights of the natives" (p. 21). However, Poole makes a convincing case that Juan de Ovando, an important letrado and a...