The Household of Archduke Albert of Austria from His Election as Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands until His Investiture as Sovereign Prince of the Low Countries (1595-1598 ) (1)
José Eloy HORTAL MUÑOZ
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid / Instituto Universitario para la Corte en Europa
Archduke Albert of Austria was one of the most important figures in the Spanish Monarchy of the Habsburgs during the reigns of his uncle, Philip II,
and his nephew Philip III. As yet, however, until this year, there was not a complete modern biography of him and, apart from his period as cosovereign of the Habsburgs Netherlands with Isabella Clara Eugenia, there were very few studies about particular episodes of his life (2). This represented
(1) This article has been funded as part of the project : “ La contradicción de la Monarquía Católica : la fijación de las ordenanzas y etiquetas cortesanas en el periodo de su declive” (Ref : HAR2009-12614-C04-02/ HIST) directed by Professor Fernando Suárez Bilbao, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, and financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy. The first part of this research, with the title of “ The Household of Archduke Albert of Austria from his Arrival in Madrid until His Election as Governor of the Low Countries : 1570– 1595”, in René VERMEIR, José Eloy HORTAL & Dries RAEYMAEKERS, eds., A Constellation of Courts. The Households of Habsburg Europe, 1555-1665, Louvain, Leuven Univeristy Press, 2014 (forthcoming). Abbreviations : AGP : Archivo General de Palacio, Madrid ; Personal : Sección de personal, expedientes ; AGR : Archives Générales du Royaume, Brussels ; SEG : Secrétaire d’État et de Guerre ; AGS : Archivo General de Simancas ; CSR : Casa y Sitios Reales and E. : Estado ; AHN :
Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid ; Consejos : Consejos Suprimidos ; ASV : Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Spagna : Segreteria di Stato, Spagna ; BNM : Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid ; BPRM :
Biblioteca del Palacio Real de Madrid ; DBE : Diccionario Biográfico Español, Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, 2011-2012, 50 vols. ; IVDJ : Instituto Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid ;
RAH : Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid. (2) There are two seventeenth century biographies : Auberto MIRAEUS (LE MIRE), De vita Alberti Belgarum principis, Antwerp, 1622, and Johannes Jean Chrysostome Brusle de MONTPLEINCHAMP, Histoire de l’Archiduc Albert, gouverneur général et puis prince souverain de la Belgique, Cologne, 1693, the edition by Aimé Louis P. ROUBAULX DE
SOUMOY, Brussels, 1870 (Collection de mémoires relatifs à l ´ histoire de Belgique, 34) being the one consulted here. On different periods of his life : for his stay in the court in Madrid in his youth, José MARTÍNEZ MILLÁN, “ El archiduque Alberto en la corte de Felipe
II (1570-1580)”, in Werner THOMAS & Luc DUERLOO, eds., Albert & Isabella, 1598-1621. Essays, Louvain, Brepols, 1998, p. 27-37 ; the outstanding study on his travels as governor of Portugal is by Francisco CAEIRO, O archiduque Alberto de Austria, vice-rei de Portugal,
Lisbon, Author ´ s Edition, 1961, with comments by Domingos MAURICIO in “ O Arquiduque Alberto de Áustria, Vice-Rei de Portugal (1583-1593)”, in Brotéria, vol. 24, 4, 1962, p. 422-429. Also, as a collector and patron of art, Annemarie JORDAN GSCHWEND, Archduke
Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire / Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Filologie en Geschiedenis, 91, 2013, p. 1011– 1056
