Ramiro Núñez de Guzmán, Duke of Medina de las Torres

Ramiro Núñez de Guzmán (1600-1668), second Duke of Medina de las Torres, was able to build a solid career in politics thanks to the support of the Count-Duke of Olivares, the favourite of King Philip IV and his first wife’s father. After the death of the latter, the second marriage with the heiress of the Steelyard Anna Carafa (1607-1644), Princess of Stigliano, was a turning point for his political ascension. As a crucial part in the complicated marriage negotiations, the Duke also got the post of Viceroy of Naples, where he served from 1637 to 1644. After the death of Anna Carafa, she married a third time with Catalina Vélez Ladrón de Guevara, the daughter of another Spanish aristocrat who held the office of viceroy of Naples, namely the Count of Oñate. His adulterous affair with the famous actress María Inés Calderón, known as La Calderona, also aroused suspicions about the real origins of Don John of Austria, the illegitimate son of Philip IV and the actress. In 1665, upon the death of Philip IV, Medina de las Torres suffered a serious political defeat, since he was not included in the regency council that was supposed to help the government of Queen Mariana de Austria until Charles II’s coming of age. (photo: Palazzo Donn’Anna, built by Cosimo Fanzago in honour of Anna Carafa, second wife of the Duke).

Read more:

• R.A. Stradling, A Spanish Statesman of Appeasement: Medina de las Torres and Spanish Policy, 1639-1670, in «Historical Journal», 19 (1976), pp. 1-31
• G. Galasso, Storia del Regno di Napoli, v. 3, Il Mezzogiorno spagnolo e austriaco (1622-1734), Torino 2006.