Pedro Fernández de Castro, seventh Earl of Lemos

Pedro Fernández de Castro, the seventh Earl of Lemos (1576-1622) was a leading figure in the reign of Philip III (1598-1621). The son of one of the sisters of the Duke of Lerma, the all powerful favourite of the sovereign, Lemos began his rapid and prestigious cursus honorum while he was still very young. In 1603, at age 27, he was appointed President of the Council of the Indies (Consejo de Indias). Later he served, from 1610 to 1616, as Viceroy of Naples, a post his father had already held years before, and during that time he built his reputation as a reformer and ruler and an illustrious patron and protector of artists and writers. Returning to Madrid, he was appointed President of the Council of Italy (Consejo de Italy), a position he held until the open enmity with his cousin, the Duke of Uceda, and with the king’s confessor, Luis de Aliaga, which forced him to leave the court in 1618. With the withdrawal from political life of his uncle, the Duke of Lerma, and the beginning of even short-term government of the Duke of Uceda, Lemos had no more chance to return to court and lived in retirement on his estates in Galicia. He died in 1622.

Read more: 

• E. Pardo de Guevara y Valdés, Don Pedro Fernández de Castro VII Conde de Lemos (1576-1622), 2 voll., Santiago de Compostela 1997.
• I. Enciso Alonso-Muñumer, Nobleza, poder y mecenazgo en tiempos de Felipe III. Nápoles y el conde de Lemos, Madrid 2007.