Succession and Death: Royal Ceremonies in Colonial Puebla

On 6 March 1701, the municipal government of Puebla de los Angeles received a cédulacommanding the performance of an oath ceremony, or jura del rey, for the new Bourbon monarch, Philip V. Twelve days later, a second cédula arrived, ordering the celebration of royal funerary honors, or exequias reales, for the last Spanish Habsburg king, Charles II. ¹ Puebla's municipal leaders, or regidores, attributed great importance to public ceremony and began planning for the events immediately upon receiving Queen Mariana's instructions. Like the political elites of many early modern cities, Puebla's councilmen consistently dedicated a significant share of the city's resources to mount spectacles to commemorate such events as viceregal entrances, patron saints' days, royal births and marriages, and Spanish military victories. ² These occasions provided local leaders with opportunities to instruct the populace in the authority of the king's primary representative, the primacy of the Catholic faith, the power of the city's leaders, the importance of hierarchy in colonial society, and the loyalty due the royal family and the Spanish Empire. ³

Although Puebla's councilmen prided themselves on presenting a variety of public spectacles, the transition from one monarch to another threatened potential disorder, and therefore required careful management. ⁴ In 1701, Spain's subjects experienced not only the death of their king, but the end of an entire ruling dynasty, and the succession ceremonies reflected anxiety regarding the future of the Spanish Empire. Mexico City's exequias, for example, compared the death of Charles II to the eclipse of the sun, and bemoaned not only the death of the monarch, but also the demise of the "kingdom." ⁵ Seven years later, with the birth of crown prince Luis I during the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713), the poblano elite cautioned against rebellion. The city's militia captains sponsored a triumphal cart that equated Luis I to the mythological hero Hercules, warning that just as Hercules defeated the Hydra, the prince would quash internal rebels for siding with the Austrian Alliance. ⁶ Although the impact of the transition to Bourbon rule on colonial Spanish America has hardly been studied, New Spain's bureaucrats recognized the danger inherent in the change. Apprehensions regarding Philip V's reception eventually led New Spain's high-level bureaucrats to take concrete measures to contain disloyal influences. In 1706, for example, New Spain's viceroy, the Duke of Albuquerque, jailed several people for being desafectos, or indifferent, to Philip V. ⁷ In January 1707, Puebla's alcalde mayor announced that anyone who uttered disparaging remarks about the king would have his or her right ear cut off. ⁸

Because New Spain's leaders feared that the change in ruling dynasty would occasion disorder, they needed to establish continuity between the authority of the new ruler and that of his legitimate predecessors. ⁹ In general, succession ceremonies worked to do this by staying true to the accepted format and by incorporating symbolism used to legitimize previous rulers. Recently, however, scholars have begun to turn their attention to how these self-consciously traditional events evolved over time. Javier Varela, for example, has noted the impact of the Enlightenment on the protocol for royal funerary honors in Spain, while Linda Curcio has established a correlation between the Bourbon centralist initiatives and the increased ostentation of Mexico City's oath ceremonies. ¹⁰ Yet, as this study will emphasize, the succession rituals did not merely evolve according to changing imperial objectives, but could also adapt to meet unforeseen crises. Spain's succession ceremonies evolved slowly, partially because, as José Antonio Maravall noted, the Habsburgs mistrusted novelty and used choreographed rituals to "guide" subjects towards compliance. ¹¹ But even if the succession rituals resisted change, they had to adapt to changing circumstances. As anthropologist David Kertzer has argued, it is precisely during times of crisis that innovation is most likely to...