The Majorcan historians--War of succession--Families
ennobled--Cotoners--Raxa and Cardinal Despuig--Country houses
With the war of the ‘Comunidades’ the romance of Majorcan history ends.
During the seventeenth century the country was very slowly recovering
from the effects of that disastrous rising; but it was long before
the good relations between the different classes of the people were
restored. The island was governed under the Kings of the House of
Austria by Viceroys, of whom five were natives of Majorca. The names of
Moncada, Fuster, Pax, Zaforteza, and Sureda occur in the list.
But though the making of history seemed to be dead, the work of
recording the glorious annals of Majorca under her own kings was
zealously undertaken by natives of the island. The first official
chronicler, appointed by the Jurados, was Don Juan Dameto. He wrote the
‘Historia General del reino Balearico’ between 1621 and 1631, and died
prematurely in 1633. His work commences with the earliest Roman times
and is brought down to the death of Jayme II. Dameto had travelled
much and was an accomplished scholar. His work is by no means a mere
chronicle. The style is agreeable and full without being prolix, and
shows a sense of proportion and of the relative importance of events.
Don Vicente Mut, who was born at Palma in 1614, was the continuator of
Dameto. He was a military man and major of the militia of his island,
an accomplished mathematician, as well as a student of history. He
searched the archives with great diligence, and gives valuable details
respecting the administration of the island at different periods.
His history covers the ground from the accession of King Sancho to
the suppression of the ‘Comunidades,’ and contains spirited accounts
of the raids of Barbary pirates and histories of the monasteries and
hospitals. Mut died in 1687.
With him our accessible island histories end, for the history of
Geronimo Alemany, which would bring the record down to the death
of Charles II., the last King of the House of Austria, is still in
manuscript. We have to thank Don Miguel Moragues Pro and Don Joaquim
Maria Bover for having edited the histories of Dameto and Mut, with
very copious notes. The three thick volumes were published at Palma
in 1841, and a fourth volume containing the history by Alemany was
promised. Visitors to Palma who take an intelligent interest in the
history of the island will desire to possess and to read them. They
will find the three volumes at the excellent book-seller’s shop of Don
Felipe Guasp, No. 6 Morey Street, the first turn to the right after
crossing the Plaza de Santa Eulalia.
The eighteenth century opened with the war of succession. The French
claimant was a grandson of a sister of Charles II. The German claimant
was a grandson of Charles’s aunt. Catalonia and Majorca espoused the
cause of the German archduke, while the rest of Spain proclaimed the
French prince as Philip V. On October 1, 1706, Majorca was occupied
by the troops of the Archduke Charles, and all adherents of the
French claimant were persecuted or banished. Even after the fall of
Barcelona the Majorcans held out. But all was in vain. In June 1715
a large army landed and besieged Palma, which capitulated after a
siege of seventeen days, and the Bourbons forced the islanders to
submit to their yoke. All the ancient privileges and grants of the
Aragonese monarchs to the Majorcans were abolished, with their form of
government. Captains-general were substituted for the Viceroys, and the
present fortifications of Palma were constructed in the reign of Philip
V. Majorca suffered from the misgovernment of Bourbon rule with the
rest of Spain. From that time the people have had to rely upon their
own virility, energy, and skill for any advance in civilisation and
well-being, and not in vain. The Majorcans steadily progressed, while
their old families, claiming descent from the soldiers of King Jayme,
became distinguished in arms and letters and were ennobled, several as
early as the times of the Austrian kings. In 1625 the title of Marquis
of Bellpuig was given to the family of Dameto y Cotoner, in 1632 that
of Santa Maria de Formiguera to the family of Burgues Zaforteza y
Villalonga, in 1634 that of Count of Ayamans to the family of Togores
(formerly Moncada), in 1658 that of Count of Montenegro to the family
of Despuig, and in 1717 that of Count of Ariañy to the family of
Cotoner. Several titles were also conferred on Majorcan families during
the eighteenth century; generally well deserved.[23]
Among the distinguished sons of the Cotoner family was Rafael Cotoner,
who was Grand Master of Malta from 1660 to 1663. He built Fort Ricasoli
and the lines which are still known as the Cotonera. His brother,
Nicolas Cotoner, was Grand Master from 1663 to 1680. An almost equally
distinguished member of this family was the late General Cotoner, who
was Governor of Porto Rico, and was devotedly attached to his native
island and her interests.
But it was to members of the ancient family of Despuig that Majorca
owed its fame as a place of cultured learning during the eighteenth
century. Descended from Bernardo Despuig, a companion of the Conqueror
Jayme I., the family has always been closely connected with the history
of the island. Among them Juan Bautista Despuig served at Lepanto and
in Flanders; but his best title to fame was that he devoted his wealth
to the promotion of the well-being of his poorer neighbours and won the
title of ‘Father of the Poor.’ His grandson did such good service as
a military commander that in 1658 he was created Count of Montenegro.
The first Count’s son, Bernardo, was Grand Master of the Order of St.
John of Jerusalem at Malta from 1736 to 1741. Juan Despuig, the second
Count of Montenegro and also Count of Montoro by right of his mother,
espoused the Bourbon side in the War of Succession, and suffered a long
imprisonment in the castle of Belver from 1706 to 1715, the period of
the Austrian occupation of the island. Many other members of the family
were distinguished for their services to the State. The best-known is
Dr. Don Antonio Despuig, who was Archbishop of Valencia and of Seville
and Cardinal of San Calisto, a prelate not more famed for his learning
than for the love he always showed for his island home.
Cardinal Despuig has left many memorials which will ever secure for
him an honourable place in the island’s history. He devoted both time,
money, and a cultivated taste to enriching the country seat of his
nephew, the Count of Montenegro, as well as his palace in Palma, with
the most precious literary and artistic productions of Italy and Spain.
The country seat of Raxa is a place of enchantment at the foot of the
mountains, approached from Palma through miles of almond-groves in full
blossom during February. In Moorish times it was called Araxa, and
was granted by King Jayme I. to the Count of Ampurias, becoming the
property of the family of Despuig in 1620. Raxa is a large house of
three storeys, built round a courtyard, with an ancient elm-tree in the
centre. The rooms are exceedingly numerous, and all the furniture is
of a date at least 150 years ago. There are many beautiful Florentine
cabinets, some good pictures, and fayence. The dining-room has a carved
oak ceiling in squares, with an old fayence plate let into each. One
room is full of valuable Vatican engravings, another of paintings of
Rome as it was 150 years ago. One side of the house has balconies,
with arcades, looking on the garden and over a lovely view. The great
glory of Raxa is the museum of Roman sculpture. Cardinal Despuig
acquired a site near Albano, where once had stood the superb temple
to Egeria, built by the Emperor Domitian. Between 1787 and 1796 the
Cardinal conducted excavations which brought to light many statues,
busts, altars, and other remains, which he sent to Majorca to adorn his
nephew’s country seat. There is a very fine statue of Trajan, others of
Caligula, Hercules, a gladiator, &c. A full descriptive list is given
in Bover’s ‘Noticias Historico-topograficas.’[24] Opposite to the door
of the museum is that of the chapel, where there is a picture of Jesus
and the Woman of Samaria.
There is a charming garden, with fountains, in front of the house, and
orange-groves beyond. Behind there are garden terraces up the mountain
side, and two very large tanks. A long flight of steps, with statues
on either side and water flowing down in masonry channels, leads up to
loftier terraces with flower-beds and groves of cypress, pine-trees,
and laurustinus. It is like fairyland; and from a summer-house there
are views of the sea of almond-blossoms extending to Palma on one side,
and of the pine-clad mountains and serrated peaks on the other.
Many of the treasures collected by the Cardinal are in the Montenegro
palace in the city of Palma. This palace, in the street of the same
name, has a courtyard with palm-trees, whence a wide stone staircase
leads to a gallery, where is the front door. The rooms are large
and lofty, richly furnished, and warmed by _braseros_. At the back
of the house there is a good-sized garden with palm-trees and an
evergreen oak. In this palace are more of the treasures collected by
the Cardinal. The famous _portolano_ of Valseca has already been
fully described. At the top of the house is the magnificent library,
arranged in subjects. One of the most valuable books is a manuscript
‘Nobiliario’ of the Aragonese nobility of the fifteenth century,
with coats of arms beautifully painted. Here, too, is the original
manuscript of Alemany’s history. The poetical and historical works are
the most numerous, including fine editions of ‘Don Quijote.’ The room
is of great length, and at the end was the cabinet of coins, Roman
Consular and Imperial, Spanish-Arabian, Gothic, and Aragonese kings.
According to Bover, the finest collection of Majorcan coins is in the
cabinet of the Count of Ayamans.
Cardinal Despuig, who was an intimate friend of Pope Pius VI., died
at Lucca on May 2, 1813, leaving to his country a thousand memorials
which will give his name an honoured place in the Balearic _fasti_.
His nephew, for whom all these collections were made, died in the
same year. This Count’s son, Ramon, fifth Count of Montenegro, was
Captain-General of Majorca, and died in 1848. The present Count, to
whose great courtesy our knowledge of Raxa and the Cardinal’s treasures
is due, is a grandson of the Captain-General, and is the seventh Count
of Montenegro.
Majorca boasts other country houses almost as beautiful, though not
quite so interesting as Raxa. Alfavia has already been described, and
Canet, the home of the Torrellas, has been mentioned. Another charming
country seat is La Granja de Esporla, the home of the Fortuñy family.
It is in a valley, with mountain-spurs on either side and abundant
supplies of water. The house is built round a courtyard, one side
having a wide stone passage on the upper storey, with open colonnades.
Over the archway into the courtyard there is a stone coat of arms of
Fortuñy (_argent five pellets_, _two_, _two_, _and one_; quartering
Gual, Despuig, and Zaforteza). There is a very large stone-paved hall,
hung with pictures, which opens on to a narrow garden leading to
terraces up the mountain-side, fountains, and artificial grottos. In
front there is a long pergola of roses, orange and lemon groves, and a
splendid old yew-tree. The mountains are clothed with ilex as well as
pine-trees.
There are great advantages in the chief people of the island living in
their country houses during the summer and having personal intercourse
with their people. It encourages enterprise. Thus at Esporlas there are
extensive cloth-factories, and at Canet, under the patronage of the
Torrellas, there is a fayence-manufactory, producing vases with very
beautiful designs.