Reversing Course: Trial by the Council of Castile

This chapter challenges the view that Philip II enjoyed sufficient information and the capacity to implement policies. This challenge undermines the contention that his “centralization” constitutes a chapter in European “state-building” characteristic of an “early modern” era of European history. Instead, in the midst of a series of major political, military, and religious crises early in his reign, the king and his advisers, with a combination of anxiety and arrogance, often managed affairs in ways that appeared arbitrary and sapped support for royal policies. Sensing opposition within the commonwealth, the king appeared reluctant to grant too much authority to the officials of institutions over which he could not exercise direct supervision. In this context, it was the Council of Castile, rather than the audiencia of Granada, that would render the final verdict in the trial of the city of Toledo and the House of Béjar over control of the viscounty of Puebla de Alcocer.

In his early years as Castile's king, the multiple crises of the Hispanic Monarchy, discussed below, often overwhelmed Philip II. Out of the climate of fear gripping the royal Household and Court in their new permanent seat in Madrid emerged an authoritarian exercise of monarchical authority, which appeared quite different from the administrative leadership of Philip's father. Although Philip and his principal advisers may have felt that the resulting autonomy gained by the Crown would enhance the king's capacity to rule, the king found himself increasingly opposed within his domains even by the leaders of the Castilian commonwealth who were otherwise disposed to support him so that he would remain among them.