Alejandro VI y los Reyes Católicos. Relaciones político-eclesiásticas (1492-1503) (review)

One of the main virtues of this lengthy book is the broad range of issues it covers. It provides a systematic examination of diplomatic and political relations between the pope and the Spanish monarchs, of Spanish intervention in Italy, of Alexander's interest in and involvement in expansion into the New World, and the defense of the Mediterranean against Ottoman expansion, as well as of ecclesiastical relations, provisions to benefices, conflicts of jurisdiction, fiscal matters, and reform of the Church and of the clergy of the Spanish kingdoms.

Chronologically, it ranges throughout the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella, so despite the title of the book, it has much material concerning the pontificates of Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII as well—during which Alexander as a cardinal was vicechancellor of the Church—and something on the pontificate of Julius II. New material used by the author helps him to provide a detailed picture of the relations between Ferdinand and Isabella and Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, which seem in significant ways to have set the pattern for relations between the monarchs and the pope. Although strained at times, he concludes, ultimately the relationship benefited both parties, and they shared an interest in ecclesiastical reform and the expansion of Christianity. He examines closely the process of obtaining the bulls solicited after Columbus's first discoveries in the New World, bulls which he argues the monarchs viewed as confirming, not conferring, their rights to these territories. Alexander's interest in the evangelization of the New World is stressed. Yet Fernández de Córdova Miralles also makes it clear that most of the political and ecclesiastical benefits the monarchs obtained from the papacy were conferred during the years around the French campaign to conquer Naples in 1493-1495, when Alexander wanted Spanish diplomatic and military support. Papal bulls backing the monarchs' efforts to promote reform in the Spanish church were granted in return for concessions to the family interests of the pope. He is candid about the openly-expressed disapproval of Ferdinand and Isabella for Alexander's zeal, as cardinal and as pope, for the promotion of his family, and of the greed and corruption of the Curia.

While he makes it clear that the monarchs were as skilled and versatile in negotiation as the pope, and both were ready to mingle the secular with the sacred, little criticism is leveled at Ferdinand and Isabella, compared with that of the policies and motives of the pope. The whole book is written from a Spanish perspective, rather than a Roman one. So great is his concentration on Spanish diplomatic and military interventions in Italy, at the expense of their wider context, that it results in a distorted view of negotiations and events, and of the relative importance and influence of Spain in Italian affairs. He attributes Alexander's election to the papacy in large part to the support of Ferdinand and Isabella, arguing that the accounts of his election being greeted with disapproval at the Spanish court were developed later in, for example, Pietro Martire d'Anghiera's revision of his own letters for publication. Heavy reliance on the letters of Pietro Martire and on the Spanish chronicler Zurita may account for some at least of the errors to be found in the book (the description of Siena and Lucca as subject to Florence, for example). It is not always evident that Fernández de Córdova Miralles has read some of the many works he cites (the bibliography runs to over a hundred pages).

Nevertheless, there is much to recommend this book, which will be a valuable work of reference and a starting-point for any future consideration of the relations between the Catholic kings and the Borgia pope.