Carta de Felipe II al Duque de Medina Sidonia. Su nombramiento para comandar la Gran Armada.

Three documents, signed. Patents of appointment and instruction for Don Alonso Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia. Folio. Manuscripts on paper, in Spanish. Written in two italic hands of royal secretaries. 10 pp. written, plus an archivists title-page and additional blank leaves. Spanish early 18th-century vellum boards, in a half-morocco drop box.

Madrid, 8 January, 21 March 1588

CATALOGUE NOTE

The three documents by which Philip II conferred on the 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, the command of the Spanish Armada and his instructions for carrying out this office in preparation for the invasion of England. The crucial document, that by which he was appointed Captain-General of the Ocean Sea, amounts to Medina Sidonia's letter of appointment to command the Armada itself, then in an advanced stage of preparation and urgently required by the King to sail no later than the summer of 1588. This patent gives him full administrative and operational command and powers to represent the king at sea together with control of all existing naval commanders or "any other special service". This latter form of words was clearly intended to cover the great Armada already under sailing orders, though the document nowhere mentions the imminent operation against England.

A second document appoints the Duke Captain-General of the Coast of Andalusia, reinforcing his existing rank in the province of Andalusia, conferring on him powers as direct royal deputy in matters of defense and justice. The final document sets out his duties as Captain-General of the Ocean Sea. This is the standing instruction for the exercise of his office, ranging from the provision of health care and maintenance of discipline among the seamen, to the taking of musters and checking of the Armada's accounts. They instruct him to protect all ships sailing between Portugal and Spain and the East and West Indies and to care for all the prizes taken. The Duke is authorized in this document to draw a salary of 12,000 ducats a year. These are not, however, the King's detailed orders on the Armada's purposes and tactics - these were to follow on 1 April in two documents already printed by Fernandez Duro and M.A.S. Hume.

The text of these documents was printed in Col. de Doc. inéditos para la historia de España, XXVIII, pp. 376-392. The most significant documents that King Philip signed during the whole of the annus mirabilis of 1588, these are key pieces in the history of both England and of Spain.

The documents are:

 1. Philip II. Appointing Medina Sidonia as Captain-General of the coast of Andalusia. 24 lines, plus 3 of subscription. With autograph signature 'yo El Rey', signed subscription of the secretary Andrés de Prada and five paraphs of royal councillors. 1 leaf, large folio, folded, (ca. 430 x 300 mm. when unfolded). With fine impression of the royal seal and original wafer. Madrid, 8 January 1588.

2. Appointing Medina Sidonia Captain-General of the Ocean Sea. 87 lines, plus 4 of subscription. With autograph signature 'yo El Rey', signed subscription in the hand of the secretary Andrés de Alva, and six paraphs of royal councillors. 2 leaves, 3 pp. written. Folio (300 x 215 mm.). With impression of the royal seal and original wafer (small wormhole not affecting text). Madrid, 21 March 1588.

3. Instruction to Medina Sidonia on his duties as Captain-General of the Ocean Sea. With autograph signature "yo El Rey", counter-signature of the secretary Andrés de Alva, and paraphs of six royal councillors. 4 leaves, 6 pp. written. Folio (300 x 215 mm.). With autograph certificate of entry upon the books of the Armada by the accountant Pedro Coco Calderón. Madrid, 21 March 1588.

LITERATURE

C. Fernandez Duro, La Armada Invencible (1884-1885); Duke of Maura, El designio de Felipe II...(1957), pp. 239-248; P.O. Pierson, "A commander for the Armada," Mariner's Mirror 55 (1969), pp. 383-400; I.A.A. Thompson, "The Appointment of the Duke of Medina Sidonia to the command of the Spanish Armada," Historical Journal 12 (1969), pp. 197-216