The Royal Household of Marie-Louise of Orleans, 1679–1689: The Struggle over Executive Offices

Abstract

The marriage of Carlos II and the niece of Louis XIV, Marie-Louise of Orleans, was proposed and immediately confirmed after the two monarchies, Spain and France, signed the Peace of Nijmegen (1679), ending the pan-European conflict known as the Dutch War (1672-1678). On 13 January 1680, Marie-Louise entered the Spanish court in Madrid in an elaborate ceremony that marked the formal beginning of her reign; she encountered a court in the midst of a political transformation. The death of don Juan José of Austria, Carlos II’s influential half-brother, and the return from exile of Queen Mariana of Austria, Carlos II’s mother and former regent, in September 1679, followed several months later by the rise of Juan Francisco de la Cerda, 8th duke of Medinaceli, to the position of prime minister, contributed to a major reconfiguration of Carlos II’s court. In this article, I analyse the organisation and evolution of the household of Marie-Louise of Orleans in the context of these political changes. I decipher the mechanisms and strategies deployed by the various power groups at court to achieve control over the principal posts in each of the areas of the Queen’s household.