República Mista

República Mista
	Title page for volume one of República Mista (1602), A Treatise on Three Precepts by Which the Romans Were Better Governed.
Author	Tomás Fernández de Medrano
Original title	República Mista: Sobre los Tres Preceptos que el Embajador de los Romanos Dio al Rey Ptolomeo Respecto al Buen Gobierno de su República.
Language	Early Modern Spanish and Latin
Series	1 of 7
Subject	Political philosophy, governance, reason of state literature, moral-philosophical discourse, Catholic political theology, Spanish Baroque political literature
Genre	Mirrors for princes, political treatise
Publisher	Juan Flamenco
Publication date	5 March 1602
Publication place	Royal press, Madrid, Spain
Media type	Print
Pages	158

República Mista (English: Mixed Republic)^[1]^[2] is a seven-part politics-related treatise from the Spanish Golden Age, authored by the Basque-Castilian nobleman, philosopher and statesman Tomás Fernández de Medrano, Lord of Valdeosera, of which only the first part was ever printed. Originally published in Madrid in 1602 pursuant to a royal decree from King Philip III of Spain, dated 25 September 1601,^[2] the work was written in early modern Spanish and Latin, and explores a doctrinal framework of governance rooted in a mixed political model that combines elements of monarchy, aristocracy, and timocracy. Structured as the first volume in a planned series of seven, the treatise examines three foundational precepts of governance, religion, obedience, and justice, rooted in ancient Roman philosophy and their application to contemporary governance. Within the mirrors for princes genre, Medrano emphasizes the moral and spiritual responsibilities of rulers, grounding his counsel in classical philosophy and historical precedent. República Mista is known for its detailed exploration of governance precepts.^[3]

The first volume of República Mista centers on the constitutive political roles of religion, obedience, and justice. Without naming him, it aligns with the anti-Machiavellian tradition by rejecting Machiavelli’s thesis that religion serves merely a strategic function; for Medrano, it is instead foundational to political order.^[4]

Although only the first part was printed, República Mista significantly influenced early 17th-century conceptions of royal authority in Spain, notably shaping Fray Juan de Salazar's 1617 treatise, which adopted Medrano's doctrine to define the Spanish monarchy as guided by virtue and reason, yet bound by divine and natural law.^[5]

Overview and structure

Tomás Fernández de Medrano's political philosophy, as presented in the first treatise of República Mista, titled "A Treatise on Three Precepts by Which the Romans Were Better Governed," centers on the integration of monarchy, aristocracy, and timocracy into a unified system of governance grounded in religious devotion. He argues that each regime type holds distinct virtues and corresponding dangers, but when carefully balanced within a "mixed republic," their respective strengths can counteract each other's vices. This hybrid model, he proposes, is best suited to promote justice, stability, and the common good.^[6]

His República Mista was conceived as an ambitious seven-part series, with each volume addressing three key precepts from the seven most flourishing republics in history. However, only the first volume was ever published. Medrano structures the first volume as a dialogue between King Ptolemy and ambassadors from seven classical republics, each presenting three key precepts of their governance. Medrano conveys his political doctrine through a fictional framework that recalls the style of old Spanish literature influenced by Arabic traditions, blending narrative with philosophical reflection.^[7]

Tomás clearly defined his original intent in the beginning of his treatise:

I present only the first of seven treatises I have written, each addressing three points. This one focuses on the primary precepts of religion, obedience, and justice, to see how it is received. If it is well-received, the others will follow, collectively titled Mixed Republic. Since these matters concern everyone, I dedicate this to all, so that each may take what best suits their purpose.^[8]

In the first and only printed volume, Medrano illustrates these precepts through scriptural references, historical examples, and contemporary models of leadership. From classical antiquity, he draws on thinkers such as Cicero, Tacitus, Plato, and Aristotle, whose reflections on governance, virtue, and justice underpin much of his analysis.^[9]

Exemplary rulers including Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, and Alexander the Great are invoked as models of wise and ethical leadership, while figures like Codrus and Aristides are cited for their self-sacrifice and devotion to justice.^[9] Medrano also praises leaders of his own era—such as Pope Sixtus V, Pope Pius V, and Pope Gregory XIII—for their clemency, piety, and commitment to social order. He incorporates mythological references as well, using Deucalion to symbolize political renewal, Atlas to represent endurance and structure, and Bacchus as an emblem of communal joy and harmony.^[10]

Blueprint of legacy

Though deeply rooted in the political and religious debates of early 17th-century Spain, the work is far more than a mere period piece: it became the foundational blueprint for a doctrine of advancement, kingship, and delegated authority, that would shape dynastic, legal, military, educational, and architectural developments across generations. The treatise's enduring legacy transformed Medrano's ideas into a multi-generational grammar of noble ascent, legitimate authority, and institutional influence, leaving its mark on military and literary academies, noble orders, court reforms, mathematical works, and royal projects well beyond its orignal context.^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]

Authorship

Miguel Herrero García, in his introduction to Fray Juan de Salazar's book, declares:

Don Juan Fernández de Medrano y Sandoval, of the house of the Lords of Valdeosera, is credited as the author of this book, published in Madrid in 1602 under the title República Mista. However, despite what the cover states, we conclude that the book was written by his father, Tomás Fernández de Medrano.^[15]

The Spanish bibliographer Nicolás Antonio, knight of Santiago, unequivocally attributes the authorship of the Mixed Republic to Tomás Fernández de Medrano.^[16] This father-son collaboration is echoed in the Orazion Consotoria dedicated to Lord Carlo Emanuel, Duke of Savoy, with Tomás as the author and his son Juan responsible for its publication. Similarly, the funeral oration honoring the virtues of King Philip II is also credited to Tomás Fernández de Medrano.^[17]

According to the royal printing license issued by Philip III of Spain, Juan Fernández de Medrano y Sandoval discovered "a book titled A Treatise on Three Precepts by Which the Romans Were Better Governed" among the papers of his father, Tomás Fernández de Medrano.^[9]

Miguel Herrero García asserts that the royal printing license "leaves no room for doubt" regarding Tomás Fernández de Medrano’s authorship. He argues that this was not simply a harmless literary device of the time, citing several points: Medrano was alive when the license was granted, the book contains multiple first-person accounts of events in Italy, it simultaneously functions as a preserver of the oration by Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy—under whom Medrano served as advisor and secretary of state and war (1591—1598).^[18]

Author

Tomás Fernández de Medrano used a chivalric and theatrical metaphor to explain why he initially wrote República Mista anonymously:

Let no one inquire about the identity of this adventurer, who has dared to step into the public arena with a masked face, fearing the risk of gaining no honor. For that reason, I ask earnestly not to be commanded to reveal myself, for I come from the confines of a prison where I find myself, and I am running this course with these three lances. And if, due to their strength, I cannot break them, I humbly ask the judges to observe where the blows land. I promise they will all strike above the belt, and with such skill that no one will be harmed, offended, or dismounted from their horse. My intentions are truly good.^[19]

Born in Entrena, La Rioja, Tomás Fernández de Medrano of the influential House of Medrano held numerous civic, noble, and ecclesiastical titles. He served as Mayor, Chief Magistrate, Divisero, and Lord of Valdeosera, as well as a Knight of the Order of Saint John and Patron of the Convent of San Juan de Acre in Salinas de Añana.^[20] Medrano advised the monarchs of Spain and held high office abroad, including Secretary of State and War to Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and to Princess Catalina Micaela of Spain, daughter of Philip II.^[7]

From 1579 to 1581, he served as secretary to Prince Giovanni Andrea Doria, and later spent eight years in Rome under Enrique de Guzmán, 2nd Count of Olivares.^[7] Under Philip III of Spain, he was appointed Secretary of the Holy Chapters and Assemblies of Castile, maintaining a continued role in both religious and political governance.^[21]

Summary by Philip III of Spain

According to the royal decree of King Philip III of Spain in 1601:

Tomás Fernández de Medrano writes first, concerning the importance of kings and princes being religious in order to be more obedient to their subjects; the second, regarding the obedience owed to them by their subjects and the reverence with which they should speak of them and their ministers, councils, and magistrates; and the third, on the Ambassador's role among the Romans, where he discusses why it is important to reward the good and punish the bad.^[9]

Historical context

Philip III of Spain (1598–1621), ruler of the Spanish Empire at the height of its power, nevertheless faced challenges in governance.^[22]^[23] In the first volume of the República Mista, titled On the Three Precepts that the Ambassador of the Romans Gave to King Ptolemy Regarding the Good Governance of His Republic, Medrano frames his treatise as a guide grounded in Roman political virtue. He writes, "to discuss the three precepts and the specific laws of governance by which the Roman Republic were best governed,"—a subtle invitation for Philip to measure his reign against these classical ideals. Religion, obedience, and justice, the three Roman precepts at the center of the work, serve as both a tribute to the Catholic monarchy and a call for reform.^[9]

Reception and influence

Around 1607, a letter in the name of Tomás Fernández de Medrano indicates the book he wrote on the Republic was pleasing to His Majesty Philip III of Spain:

Secretary Tomás Fernández de Medrano says that... His Majesty and his ministers are well aware of the services he has rendered, by sea and land, in peace and war... His Majesty was pleased by the book he wrote on the Republic (dedicated to the Duke of Lerma), in which he discussed, among other things, how important it is for kings and princes to be religious in order to be better obeyed by their subjects.^[24]

Medrano's República Mista significantly influenced Philip III’s approach to kingship.^[25]^[26]^[27] His República Mista reinforced Madrid-Rome ties,^[28] and associated a religious foundation with the Spanish monarchy's "greatness" and prestige.^[29]

A contemporary defense of Philip III of Spain

While many modern historians regard Philip III of Spain as a weak and disengaged monarch,^[30] Medrano presents a strikingly different portrait in República Mista (1602), that of a holy and prudent Christian king who embodies the strength of virtue over conquest. He presents Philip as just for entrusting governance to wise ministers and magistrates, resolving public grievances personally, and prioritizing peace over war. He praises Philip's humility and restraint, contrasting him with rulers whose downfall stemmed from injustice and pride.^[9]

According to Medrano, all monarchies, no matter how great, are mortal:

Everything must have its limit; who can claim immortality under heaven?^[1]

Medrano urged prayer for the long reign of Philip III, whom he praises in a litany of virtues:

Holy, because his will conforms to God's law and he entrusts governance to "wise and religious magistrates."
Valiant, for raising a powerful fleet and army that subdued his enemies "without bloodshed or personal field command."
Magnanimous, for sparing those he could destroy, fulfilling Saint Isidore's teaching: "A just prince often knows how to overlook even the errors of the wicked... expecting the proper time for correction."
Just, for traveling throughout his realm to personally hear and resolve the complaints of his people.
Prudent, for voluntarily renouncing the distractions of the hunt and war to focus on governing well.
Compassionate, for choosing peace over power when urged by Pope Clement VIII, rejecting Sallust's maxim: "Even the good and gentle are feared when they hold power, for they may become otherwise."

Anecdotes, such as the king requesting permission from a baker to pass through his home, illustrate Medrano's view of divine kingship grounded in fairness. Even failed campaigns, like the expedition to Algiers or aid to Ireland, are defended as morally sound and strategically reasoned: "fortune nevertheless favors a well-laid plan." He reflects on the unjust standards of warfare: "All claim success in prosperity, while adversity is attributed to others."

Medrano commends Philip III for upholding the Inquisition, supporting the Church, and advancing the Gospel, concluding that without law, piety, and faith, as Seneca warned, no kingdom can endure.^[31]

Medrano's doctrine of royal sovereignty and its impact

In 1617, Medrano's doctrine is fully embraced by Fray Juan de Salazar in his attempt to define the Spanish monarchy.^[32]^[33] In the early 17th century, a strong royalist ideology emerged, asserting that the king was legibus solutus (not bound by laws) in civil matters, though still subject to divine and natural law. Phrases like scientia certa, motu proprio, and non obstante facilitated the development of absolute royal sovereignty, which was nevertheless distinguished from tyranny.^[34]^[35] This interpretation of royal power was so prevalent that República Mista (1602) by Tomás Fernández de Medrano explicitly defended unrestricted royal authority in civil affairs and outright rejected the notion that subjects had any right to resist, citing scriptural sources from 1 Samuel 8 to Jeremiah 27.^[35]

Two types of authority and the sacramental logic of the king's invisibility

Tomás Fernández de Medrano asserted there are two types of authority:

(1) One supreme and absolute, answerable only to God
(2) Subordinate and bound by law, exercised by magistrates for a limited time under royal commission (e.g. a valido).^[36]

In his República Mista, Medrano further advised King Philip III that royal withdrawal from public view could be perceived "as a form of religion," comparing the king's distance from his subjects to the veneration reserved for the Eucharist.^[37]^[38] In response to this vision, Philip III took the idea of royal inaccessibility even further than his father, restricting public access and delegating the management of audiences to the Duke of Lerma, reinforcing the king's sacred distance with the second type of authority.^[39]^[40] Medrano argued that what is rarely seen is more deeply revered, and that this deliberate isolation preserved the king's idealized image by concealing potential flaws, thereby legitimizing the presence of a valido to act as his public and political representative.^[41]^[27]

Medrano's defense of the valido

Tomás Fernández de Medrano's vision of kingship, rooted in sacred distance, obedience, and divine legitimacy, naturally called for a trusted intermediary to manage public affairs. In this context, the figure of the valido emerged not as a rival to the monarch, but as a functional extension of his will: a visible minister acting on behalf of an invisible king.^[42]

With the accession of Philip III in 1598, political literature increasingly turned its attention to the role of the valido. In República Mista (1602), Tomás Fernández de Medrano contributed to this discourse by defending the value of the valido through historical examples.^[43]

Drawing on lesser-known figures such as Callisthenes, adviser to Alexander the Great, and Panaetius of Rhodes, companion to Scipio Aemilianus, Medrano argued that trusted confidants could serve not as threats to royal authority but as prudent and loyal counselors who strengthened effective governance.^[44] He observes the value of such counsel:

We see that there has not been a great and prudent prince who did not have a servant as a faithful friend—someone (to discreetly moderate his passions, help him carry the burden, and speak the truth) with more authority than all others. Callisthenes served this role for Alexander, Panaetius for Scipio, and many other secretaries whose experience and prudence have brought much glory to the governance of many princes. These princes, if they are wise and experienced, shape their ministers to fit their needs. And conversely, expert ministers make prudent and glorious the princes who are not—if those princes are teachable. Happy, then, in my view, is the one who says this, and happy the republic when such a servant, friend, or confidant proves to be of such a nature that the deeds of his heart and courage correspond in greatness to the one whom kings and princes ought to have. For where there is nobility of blood, and noble habits and customs, there can be nothing that does not reflect it. And so, what shall we say when to all this is added such zeal, goodness, and piety as we now see, witness, and experience?^[45]

Amid growing criticism of the valido (royal favourite) during the early reign of Philip III, Tomás Fernández de Medrano offered a contrasting perspective in República Mista (1602). While many contemporary thinkers viewed the concentration of royal trust in a single individual as a threat to authority, Medrano, writing under the patronage of the Duke of Lerma, defended the political utility of the valido. He presented the figure of the valido not as a rival to the king, but as a necessary extension of royal governance, someone entrusted with distinct responsibilities that contributed to a more unified and effective administration.^[46] While defending delegated royal authority, Medrano simultaneously denounces favoritism and the corruption of courtly life. He strongly criticizes nepotism, flattery, and the promotion of the unworthy, urging sovereigns to honor merit and uphold justice as a foundational precept of their authority.^[47]

This vision of a prudent valido did not end with Tomás Fernández de Medrano, Lord of Valdeosera. His great-nephew, Diego Fernández de Medrano y Zenizeros—Lord of Valdeosera and Sojuela; a nobleman, a presbyter, and chaplain to Luis Méndez de Haro—carried the ideological tradition forward in a later panegyric-treatise titled Heroic and Flying Fame. Diego Fernández de Medrano y Zenizeros, great-nephew of Tomás, employed a similar rhetorical strategy in his panegyric. He invoked figures such as Aristotle, Euclid, Apelles, and Lysippus to frame Haro's statesmanship as surpassing the achievements of antiquity. Where Tomás drew on classical examples to justify the role of the valido, Diego used them to exalt Haro as its most refined expression. His work immortalizes Luis de Haro, nephew and successor of the Count-Duke of Olivares, as an exemplary valido whose conduct embodied wisdom, restraint, and virtue, notably during his negotiations at the treaty of the Pyrenees.^[48]

Dedication to the Duke of Lerma

Tomás Fernández de Medrano's son presented a spirited defense of the system of the valido that emerged with the rise of Philip III.^[5] The República Mista is openly dedicated to Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, 1st Duke of Lerma—the first great valido—as its patron, dated 22 August 1601.^[4]

Medrano's son, Juan Fernández de Medrano y Sandoval, addresses the Duke as follows:

The ship governed by two captains is endangered even without a storm. An empire that depends on more than one cannot endure, as experience teaches. If a second sun were joined to the fourth heaven, where our own sun shines, the earth would burn. Though this kingdom and monarchy may seem like the image of many bodies, it is but one, governed and animated by a single soul, when the members (as now) are united in preserving the whole—which is the public good. The King our lord made Your Excellency (God made it so) the captain of this ship, the soul of this body, and the sun that illumines us, knowing (as the Wise know) that in you resided the equal light required for such a role. From birth, you were as great in substance and form as you are now in action; all that was needed was a shadow to allow you, as His secondary cause, to exercise and extend the rays of your virtue across the globe. It seemed (and the world agreed) that Your Excellency’s heart and spirit, like Augustus’, could hold such greatness. His Majesty daily recognizes the truth of his choice through the effects it brings. There is no one of good faith who does not wish this blessing to endure and to show gratitude to Your Excellency. I, as your most obliged servant, child of grateful servants, offer these three bouquets—of Religion, Obedience, and Justice—colored with the civility that has ever cloaked Your Excellency. Though these are found in the garden of my father, open to all, there is no flower I would not cultivate especially for your service, as the universal father of the republic to whom all is owed. I humbly ask you to place them (so they do not wither) in the vessels of your grace, continuing the mercy Your Excellency has always shown us. In this, by your virtue and merits, we hope for what may be expected of so great a prince. To repay such a debt, I can only echo Ausonius: Nec tua fortuna desiderat remuneradi vicem, nec nostra suggerit restituendi facultatem ("Your fortune does not seek a reward in return, nor does ours offer the means to repay it").^[9]

Juan's dedication uses metaphor and political allegory to elevate the Duke of Lerma as the divinely chosen steward of the monarchy.^[2]

Critical analysis

República Mista has received sustained scholarly interest, from its favorable reception under Philip III to modern analysis, with Miguel Herrero García expanding on the king's summary through a detailed examination of the work's structure and classical foundations:

The author presents all political doctrine within a fictional narrative reminiscent of the old Spanish literature with Arabic influences. In this invention, the King Ptolemy of Egypt is depicted conversing at length with seven ambassadors from the most flourishing states of the time: Rome, Carthage, Sicily, Rhodes, Athens, Sparta, and Sicyon. Each ambassador outlines the three main principles of their country’s political system. The author concludes that if the twenty-one political principles practiced by the Romans, Carthaginians, Sicilians, Rhodians, Athenians, Spartans, and Sicyonians were mixed or combined, the result would be a mixed republic—or rather, a combined political system that would yield optimal results. The book in our possession only discusses the three principles of Roman politics, as presented by the fictional Roman ambassador: 'We have great respect and veneration for temples and the homeland. We obediently follow the mandates of our governors and magistrates. We reward the good and punish the wicked severely.'^[32]

According to Miguel Herrero García, República Mista centers its 158 pages on three key precepts: the preservation of religion, the maintenance of authority through obedience, and the proper administration of justice—focusing entirely on religious and legal-political matters. Preceding these chapters is a 16-page prologue in which the author defines politics and traces the development of society from the family to the municipality, and from municipalities to provinces and kingdoms. This introduction also explores forms of government and their supporting institutions, discussing the three good regimes—monarchy, aristocracy, and timocracy—and their corrupt counterparts: tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy.^[32]

Medrano accepts the classical view that no single form of government can stand alone without degenerating into its nearest vice unless it is moderated by others. To remain stable and just, republics must incorporate the virtues of multiple regimes. This doctrine, as García observes, was later fully embraced in Fray Juan de Salazar’s own attempt to define the Spanish monarchy.^[32]

Ultimately, Medrano’s work compiles historical sources and examples to affirm that the foundation of good government lies in religion, obedience, and justice.^[32]

María López-Asiain's political analysis

In a more recent critical study, María López-Asiain offers a political analysis of República Mista, situating it firmly within the political traditions of early 17th-century Spain. According to María López-Asiain, República Mista (1602) by Tomás Fernández de Medrano did not challenge the legitimacy of monarchical sovereignty, which he assumed as a given. His interest lay in the practical workings of monarchical government, which he believed required the obedience of subjects, respect for religion, and strong royal authority. This authority, he argued, could legitimately include reliance on a trusted favorite—"a friend as a faithful servant"—to whom certain powers might be delegated. Medrano described two types of public power: one absolute yet restricted by divine and natural law, and the other legitimate but limited, granted temporarily through commission.^[42]

Despite its title, the treatise did not advocate for a constitutional or limited monarchy. Instead, Medrano defended divine kingship and delegated authority, presenting the role of the favorite not as a threat but as a functional extension of the sovereign's will. His model of a 'mixed monarchy' was ultimately one of undivided sovereignty with executive functions delegated to a powerful minister—specifically, the Duke of Lerma. While Medrano acknowledged that such a figure should act within the bounds of the law and under the prince's authority, in practice, he was describing a delegated authority that validos like Lerma exercised in early 17th-century Spain.^[42]

Preface

In the preface, titled Princes, Subjects, Ministers, Medrano references ambassadors from various ancient republics to introduce precepts essential for maintaining a strong and enduring republic. Medrano sought to unify twenty-one precepts to showcase the diverse yet essential precepts underlying effective statecraft. Medrano describes:

When Ptolemy, King of Egypt, was discussing matters with the most distinguished ambassadors of the most flourishing republics of that era, he requested from each of them three essential precepts or laws by which their nations were governed.^[49]

The Roman ambassador said: "We Romans hold great respect and reverence for our temples and our homeland. We deeply obey the mandates of our governors and magistrates. We reward the good and punish the wicked with severity."
The Carthaginian ambassador states, "In our republic, the nobles never cease to fight, the officials and commoners never stop working, and the philosophers continually teach."
The Sicilian ambassador asserts, "Among us, justice is strictly upheld. Business is conducted with truthfulness. All are esteemed as equals."
The Rhodian ambassador remarks, "In Rhodes, the elderly are honorable, the young men are modest, and the women are reserved and speak sparingly."
The Athenian ambassador declares, "We do not allow the rich to be partial, the poor to be idle, or those who govern to be ignorant."
The Lacedaemonian (Spartan) ambassador proclaims, "In Sparta, envy does not reign because there is equality; greed does not exist because goods are shared in common; and idleness is absent because everyone works."
The Sicyonian ambassador explains, "We do not permit anyone to travel abroad, so that they do not bring back new and disruptive ideas upon their return; nor do we allow physicians who could harm the healthy, nor lawyers and orators who would take up the defense of disputes and lawsuits."

Medrano concludes that if these customs were upheld in a state, it would maintain its greatness for a long time. He encourages a deep study and thoughtful application of these precepts, integrating lessons from both sacred texts and historical accounts to guide governance and societal harmony.^[8]

Prologue

República Mista begins with a foundational 16-page prologue, establishing Medrano's vision of governance through history, philosophy, and divine law. Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, historian to Philip III, recognized its importance, advising the king that it was essential to understanding the work.^[9] The prologue explores the foundations of politics and society, including the progression from family to municipality, province, and kingdom. Medrano defines politics as "the soul of the city," equating its role to prudence within the human body, as it "directs all decisions, preserves all benefits, and wards off all harms." This opening lays a conceptual framework for understanding the intricate balance of governance within a mixed republic. Focusing on the three essential pillars of religion, obedience, and justice, Medrano writes:

Divine justice and human governance are so closely intertwined that one cannot exist among men without the other.^[9]

Building on this conceptual framework, Medrano introduces three virtuous forms of government—monarchy, aristocracy, and timocracy—contrasting them with their corrupt counterparts: tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy in its degraded form.

He explains that each virtuous form serves the public good, while the corrupt forms devolve into self-serving rule. By presenting these three opposites, Medrano reveals the need for a mixed republic that blends monarchy, aristocracy, and timocracy, creating a governance structure capable of resisting the vices of each individual system.

Drawing on historical and philosophical examples, Medrano demonstrates how this balance fosters societal harmony and stability while avoiding the pitfalls of purely singular forms of government. He argues that each system degenerates when it loses its foundational virtues and becomes consumed by selfishness or disarray. In chapter three of República Mista, on justice, he writes:

For if Kings, Councils, and Magistrates on earth are the image of God, they should also strive to imitate Him in goodness, perfection, and justice, as our superiors imitate Him to the extent of their abilities, in order to induce true piety and virtue to those under their charge with their example (which is the most powerful thing). For just as the heart in the body of animals always remains the last to corrupt, because the last remnants of life remain in it, it seems appropriate that, having some illness entered to corrupt the people, the Prince and Magistrates remain pure and unharmed until the end.^[2]

Monarchy

Medrano views monarchy as the most natural and cohesive form of governance. A single ruler, he argues, provides unity and decisiveness, ensuring that decisions are made in the interest of the entire state. He draws on philosophical reasoning, quoting Aristotle's assertion that "a multitude of rulers is not good," and emphasizes that a virtuous monarch must prioritize the public good over personal gain. However, Medrano warns of monarchy’s potential to devolve into tyranny if power becomes unchecked or if rulers lack moral integrity. Medrano identifies monarchy as the closest reflection of divine governance, citing the singularity of God as the ideal for unity and authority:

As there is one God, creator and ruler of all, so should there be one prince, governing with wisdom and justice... the governance of one represents the order of nature, by which all things are reduced to a primary ruling principle, just as all celestial orbs and moving things are ordered by the prime mover. Hence, we observe in the universe a single God, creator and governor of all (Rex Deus quifpiam humanus est); in the bees, one queen; in the flock, one shepherd. And for the sake of peace and the preservation of all things, what is more appropriate than to concentrate power in a single ruler?^[9]

A monarch, he argues, must emulate divine virtues, prioritizing the common good over personal desires. Medrano warns, however, that monarchy can devolve into tyranny if the ruler strays from these virtues, emphasizing the need for piety and humility to align earthly authority with divine will. Regarding tyranny, he states, "A tyrant governs not for the people, but for his own desires, treating the state as his possession rather than a sacred trust." Tyranny arises when a monarch abandons justice and piety, becoming an oppressor rather than a protector.

Aristocracy

Aristocracy, the governance by the virtuous, is extolled by Medrano for its focus on wisdom, experience, and the common good. He presents historical examples like the governance of Sparta, which achieved remarkable longevity and stability through a carefully structured aristocratic system. Medrano acknowledges that aristocracy is most effective when it selects leaders based on merit rather than privilege, but he cautions against its corruption into oligarchy, where power serves a narrow, self-serving minority. In aristocracy, Medrano sees the potential for collective wisdom and virtue to govern effectively. He compares the selection of aristocratic leaders to the idea of God entrusting His divine work to angels, revealing the importance of moral integrity and expertise:

Just as God surrounds Himself with those who serve Him faithfully, so too must an aristocracy be composed of virtuous and capable individuals.^[9]

Medrano acknowledges that aristocracy risks corruption into oligarchy if power is used for selfish ends rather than the public good. Such a system exploits the many for the benefit of the few, undermining the harmony of the state. He necessitates a divine moral framework to guide these leaders. Oligarchy, Medrano contends, is the result of aristocracy corrupted by greed and self-interest, stating that:

Oligarchy is nothing more than a conspiracy of the wealthy against the public, using power to advance their fortunes at the expense of justice.^[9]

Timocracy

Timocracy, which Medrano defines as governance by individuals of moderate wealth and merit, occupies a middle ground between monarchy and aristocracy. Drawing on Aristotle's insights, Medrano notes that this form of governance ensures that neither extreme wealth nor poverty dominates, fostering a more equitable society. However, he notes that timocracy is vulnerable to instability when personal interests outweigh collective responsibility. Medrano regards timocracy as a governance system rooted in moderation and equity, drawing parallels to God’s justice in rewarding virtue and punishing vice. He writes:

Cities are well-governed when power rests in the hands of those with sufficient means to be invested in the public good without succumbing to greed... God’s governance is neither arbitrary nor excessive, but measured and fair—qualities that must define a timocracy.^[9]

This form of government relies on individuals with sufficient means and merit to serve the public interest without succumbing to greed. Medrano warns, however, that without divine principles to temper human ambition, timocracy can degenerate into chaos or selfish governance. Timocracy's opposite, Democracy, which he calls "a depraved form of republic," while acknowledging its appeal to liberty, is described as unstable and prone to excess. Medrano writes:

When the multitude rules unchecked, their passions replace reason, and the state suffers from the clamor of conflicting desire.^[9]

Medrano warns that unchecked democracy, though appealing in its promise of liberty, can easily descend into mob rule (ochlocracy), where fleeting passions overpower reason and governance becomes erratic.

Mixed Republic

Tomás Fernández de Medrano's vision culminates in the concept of a mixed republic, where the strengths of monarchy, aristocracy, and timocracy are interwoven to create a balanced and enduring system. Thus, for Medrano, only a divinely guided mixed republic can sustain lasting stability, equity, and justice—anchoring human governance in the civil, natural and divine laws of God:

From these three forms, philosophers composed a mixed Republic, saying that any form of Republic established on its own and in simple terms soon degenerates into the nearest vice if not moderated by the others; and that, to sustain Republics in proper governance, they must incorporate the virtues and characteristics of the other forms, for none of them fears excessive growth that might lead it to incline towards its closest vice and consequently fall into ruin. For this reason, many ancient and modern thinkers have held the view that the Republics of the Lacedaemonians, Carthaginians, Romans, and other renowned Republics were composed and justly blended from Royal, Aristocratic, and Popular powers. To avoid any confusion or ambiguity, we can say that if authority lies in a single Prince, the Magistracy is a Monarchy, as in Spain, France, Portugal, and (in earlier times) England, Scotland, Sweden, and Poland. If all the people have a share in power, then the State is popular, like in Switzerland, the Grisons, and some free cities of Germany. If only the smallest portion of the people hold power (as in Venice, where it’s held by the nobles, and in Genoa, by the twenty-eight families), it is called a Signoria, and the State is Aristocratic, as it was with the Romans, the Athenians, and many other republics that flourished most when they incorporated elements of both popular and aristocratic governance. Although time’s injuries and the malice of people may strain the form of any of these governments against its own nature, its essence does not change even if it acquires a different quality.^[9]

He praises historical examples like the Roman Republic, which successfully blended these elements to achieve remarkable governance. "Republics that integrate the virtues of multiple systems of government," Medrano argues, "achieve a balance that guards against the excesses of any single form." For Medrano, power must always be tempered with virtue. He advocates for a governance structure that unites the authority of monarchy, the wisdom of aristocracy, and the equity of timocracy, ensuring that justice, stability, and prosperity endure.

At the core of his doctrinal framework lies a divine principle: just as God's singularity is absolute, so too must governance uphold unity, justice, and moral accountability. Thus, Medrano asserts, true leadership requires a reflection of divine virtues. Authority must not be wielded arbitrarily but must align with God's justice, shaping a government that is not only permissible but enduring. He writes:

As one ancient writer said, a prince should serve the same God, observe the same law, and fear the same death as his subjects. For in the end, all things of this world pass away, consumed by the flow of time, and when they reach their peak, their greatness and state come to an end. The Creator has set this law, so that men do not become arrogant, believing their kingdoms to be eternal, and thus realize that they are made of matter subject to celestial and incorruptible causes.^[50]

Chapter one: Religion

The first chapter of República Mista, which begins on page 17, establishes religion as the cornerstone of governance and societal harmony:

To begin at the true beginning, with the origin and end of all things—God—I will illustrate the importance for Princes to recognize this Supreme Majesty. In obedience and reverence, they must recognize that they, too, are His creatures, subject to His laws and divine will, just like everyone else. For the example of faith that they set becomes a law and a model for their subjects, fostering a society rooted in love and charity. This is the surest path to preserving, expanding, and fortifying the realms and borders of their kingdoms and empires.^[9]

In the religion chapter of Republica Mista, Tomás Fernández de Medrano argues that religion is the essential foundation of all civil governance. He draws from natural philosophy to show that everything—from celestial bodies to human societies—follows a divine order, stating: "This entire lower world obeys the higher, governed by it as a secondary cause."

Medrano insists that even the most isolated or undeveloped societies possess "some specific order, arrangement, and agreement... and some awareness of the divine," noting that no people exist without customs, laws, or spiritual practices. He sees this universal inclination toward religion as evidence of its necessity in human affairs.

Citing Plutarch, he writes: "A city might sooner do without the sun... than without some establishment of law or belief that God exists and upholds creation."^[51] He connects divine justice and human governance as inseparable, arguing that "one cannot exist among men without the other."

For Medrano, religion precedes and enables laws, obedience, justice, and the cohesion of republics. He praises ancient lawmakers—Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Solon, and others—for instilling reverence for the divine, noting that fear and hope in the gods secured social order and civic duty.

He echoes Aristotle in asserting that religion is natural to mankind and vital to leadership: "It is necessary that the prince... be esteemed as religious... for subjects more easily endure hardship when they believe rulers have the gods on their side."

Medrano surveys religious practices across cultures—from Egyptian sacrifices to Phoenician sky worship—to show that "all are moved by religion," quoting Cicero: "They believe that they must diligently worship and uphold the ancestral gods."

He also recounts Roman reverence for the divine, quoting Cicero and Virgil to highlight how "piety preserved the republic." In contrast, Medrano laments that when the Athenians, under the influence of skeptics like Protagoras and Diagoras, "began to show contempt for God and His ministers," their republic declined. The rise and fall of states correlate directly with the respect shown to religion and its institutions, warning: "No fault is greater than that of one who does not know God."

Religious Legitimacy and the Moral Foundations of Rule

In Republica Mista, Tomás Fernández de Medrano emphasizes that the prosperity and stability of monarchies are deeply tied to fidelity to their faith and their reverence for religious authority. He credits the expansion of the Spanish monarchy to the devoutness of its rulers, writing that since they "began to enjoy the special protection of the Holy Apostolic See," they have prospered by "persecuting the enemies of our holy faith." He recounts the story of King Alfonso the Chaste, whose devotion led to divine miracles—such as the appearance of angels crafting a jeweled cross—which affirmed Spain’s sanctified imperial mission.

In contrast, Medrano attributes the decline of France and England to their betrayal of religious fidelity: "By scorning the Apostolic See, the supreme pontiffs, and the Catholic faith," the English monarchy brought ruin not only to itself but also to Scotland and other allied nations.

He describes the sacredness of religious spaces, citing Theodosius and Valentinian’s decree that "those who forcibly remove anyone seeking refuge in the church should be punished with death," affirming that "one should be safer under the protection of religion than under arms."

Throughout, Medrano insists that true political order rests on respect for divine law, warning against rulers who disguise ambition with false sanctity. "Nothing is more deceptively attractive than false religion," he quotes Livy, "where the divine power of the gods is pretended to cover wickedness." He condemns the use of religion to justify factionalism and civil war, invoking the chaos caused by false prophets and reformers across Europe.

Medrano praises historical examples like Numa Pompilius, who instilled fear of God into a warlike people, showing that "if such a religious prince had not succeeded Romulus, the Roman people would have become uncontrollable and violent." A prince, he argues, must be "truthful and perceived as truthful," since "no power gained by crime is enduring."

He acknowledges that rulers may need to practice discretion in politics, but always within bounds: "Nothing must be done against faith, charity, humanity, or religion." According to Medrano, the prince's word, once given, should be as unbreakable as divine law:

His word should be as true, certain, constant, and reliable as the word of God.^[2]

Medrano warns that "God despises those who are false and deceitful," and sees the rise of corrupt rulers as divine punishment: "The Holy Spirit will make a hypocrite ruler as punishment for the sins of the people." Ultimately, he argues, religion is not merely personal but foundational to legitimate rule, and any governance that opposes it is destined to fail.

Oration of the Duke of Savoy

In Republica Mista, Tomás Fernández de Medrano recounts a powerful oration delivered by Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, to the people of Thonon and surrounding territories, urging their return to the Catholic faith. The Duke appeals to religious tradition and loyalty, asking:

If the lord has the authority to command his vassals… how much more so in matters that serve [God], glorify Him, and are for your own good?

He reminds them of their six-hundred-year history under Catholic rule and laments their departure into heresy, "living as heretics, though they claim the name of Christians." Appealing to history, doctrine, and royal duty, he urged his subjects to reject false religions and remain loyal to the Church of Rome, warning that religious division undermines both faith and sovereignty. He invoked ancestral loyalty, the sanctity of the sacraments, and the divine role of Catholic monarchs to defend orthodoxy and civil peace:

There is one true religion, just as there is only one true God; all else is ruin.^[9]

With this declaration, the Duke of Savoy aligned his rule with divine order, asserting that those who abandon the Catholic faith ally themselves with disorder, sedition, and spiritual death. His words sparked widespread repentance, restoring allegiance among towns, nobles, and clerics across the region. The oration denounces sectarianism and warns of the civil disorder it causes, citing examples such as Münster, La Rochelle, and Geneva, which became "fortresses of the devil within Christendom."

The Duke emphasizes that a prince who does not preserve the Catholic faith cannot expect to retain true sovereignty: "If the Catholic religion is not protected… it will be all too easy for another to take its place." He invokes historical and biblical authorities to reinforce that rulers must serve and uphold divine law to maintain peace and legitimacy.

Medrano, personally witnessing the Duke's address, affirms its transformative power: "This had such an impact on the minds of everyone that all begged for mercy." He praises the Duke's personal piety, military rituals, and protection of religious institutions, presenting him as an ideal Catholic ruler who embodies Cicero’s maxim: "In every republic, the first care is for divine matters."

The oration serves in Medrano's work as a living example of the harmony between political power and religious devotion—where kings are not only temporal rulers but also defenders and nurturers of the faith.

Piety, superstition, and the power of belief

In Republica Mista, Tomás Fernández de Medrano contrasts genuine religious devotion with the dangers of superstition and false belief. He praises figures like Francisco de Sandoval, Duke of Lerma, who, despite his immense power, invested in sacred architecture and remained mindful of mortality.

Medrano also highlights the zeal of Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy, who instructed his secretary to prioritize any matter that served both God and the king. These leaders, Medrano suggests, exemplify the ideal union of power and piety. When advised to act militarily against foreign alliances, Savoy replied that Spain's strength lay in having "a very Catholic king, a true friend of God," whose faith alone could secure divine protection.

He presents historical examples—from the Hebrews who defied Emperor Caligula, to Christian martyrs, and even pagan figures like Calanus the Indian philosopher—to show the enduring strength of belief. Even misguided religions, he argues, have inspired profound sacrifice: "Nothing rules the masses more effectively than superstition," he quotes Quintus Curtius, warning that uneducated people are particularly vulnerable to false wonders and omens.

For Medrano, true religion must be distinguished from superstition and astrology, which he condemns as deceitful distractions. Superstition, he says, is "empty appearance and false imagination," and leads people away from divine truth. He denounces judicial astrologers for misleading the public, undermining reason and faith alike. Citing authorities like Pico della Mirandola, Aquinas, and Varro, he warns that only through proper reverence and obedience to divine law can virtue, faith, and courage be sustained.

Patria

In the Religion chapter of República Mista, Tomás Fernández de Medrano presents Patria (love and service to one's homeland) as a sacred duty, rooted in natural affection, divine law, and moral conscience. Drawing on ancient and biblical examples, he argues that:

Every person is obligated to serve and aid the public good... for within its welfare lie the life, honor, and prosperity of each individual.^[53]

Medrano recounts the story of Nehemiah, who was moved to tears upon hearing of Jerusalem’s desolation and was granted royal support to rebuild his city. He cites Cicero, who said: "All affections are encompassed in our homeland, for which any noble person would seek death if it would be beneficial."

Examples such as Cato the Younger, who resisted unjust laws and rejected political alliances that compromised the Republic, show that true loyalty lies in justice and conscience: "Our conscience and the immortal gods are given to us, and they cannot be separated from us."

The chapter continues with patriotic acts across history: El Cid, despite exile, served Castile with valor; Juan Mendez of Évora opposed unjust taxation and was later vindicated by the king; and Lycurgus bound Sparta to his laws even after death. Medrano also recalls Codrus, who gave his life to ensure Athens' survival, asserting that "to die for virtue is no death at all."

He praises Spain's Catholic monarchs for defending the faith, founding churches, and extending the Gospel to distant lands. In particular, he honors Philip III for upholding the Inquisition as a "mighty shield and sacred institution." Medrano concludes that the strength of a kingdom depends on its moral and spiritual foundations, quoting Seneca: "Where there is no regard for law, holiness, piety, and faith, the kingdom is unstable."

Ultimately, he argues that good governance aligns with religious principles, embodying truth and virtue to earn the people’s trust and God’s favor, as only He bestows and withdraws power: "The Lord changes the times and seasons; He raises and deposes kings," quoting Daniel 4.

Chapter two: Obedience

Introduction to the Second Chapter

Before the second chapter of República Mista, Medrano begins with an introduction on obedience, and a meditation on the necessity of obedience for both spiritual life and civil harmony. Medrano opens by quoting Seneca: "Our minds, like noble and generous horses, are better governed with a light rein." He asserts that if even the ancient Persians taught their children to "love, obey, and revere their princes and magistrates," then Christians should not neglect what even pagans held as sacred.

He argues that the strength of the Roman Republic rested on this precept, and that Christians, called to serve and revere God, must likewise obey their earthly rulers. Obedience to Kings, Councils, and Magistrates, he writes, flows naturally from the teachings of the fourth commandment and should be instilled from the earliest age. Medrano's doctrine is deeply rooted in Spanish-Arabic tradition and serves both as a reminder to the wise and a guide to the unknowing. He closes the introduction with a pointed reflection:

To give counsel to a fool is an act of charity; to give it to the wise, one of honor; but to offer it in times of depravity, an act of wisdom.

Obedience to Princes and Magistrates

The second chapter of República Mista, which begins on page 69, elaborates on the importance of obedience to princes and magistrates as a safeguard against disorder and rebellion. Medrano states:

If knowing how to govern well is the most effective preventative against corruption, then knowing how to obey well—which is crucial among the people—is of even greater importance. Where obedience is lacking, order is lost, and disorder takes its place. The most important and advantageous quality that has been preserved in these kingdoms is the high regard we have always held for councils, magistrates, ministers, judges, and public officials, recognizing them as men placed there by the hand of God. For this reason, we honor and respect them as representatives of divine rule over all creatures. Just as the Almighty in His glory has created an order among beings (setting some to serve and others to govern) and placed certain stars in the heavens to shine more brightly than others, as a symbol of His divinity, with the Sun itself illuminating, warming, and nurturing all things on earth for humanity’s use, so too He wished that the supreme councils and magistrates in cities, provinces, and kingdoms would shine by virtue of their excellence.^[54]

Quoting Erasmus, Medrano affirms: "To command and to obey are two things that keep sedition away from citizens and ensure concord." He compares a well-ordered kingdom to a body where the ruler is the head and the law its soul, insisting that "where obedience is lacking, order is lost, and disorder takes its place."

Medrano recounts that Sparta’s success was not due to the wisdom of its rulers, but because "the citizens knew how to obey." He argues that Spanish unity and prosperity result from a careful balance of powers—ensuring that neither nobility nor commoners dominate—sustained by reverence for public officials as "men placed there by the hand of God."

He stresses that kings must be honored as God's representatives, with respect extended also to their ministers and councils. "This authority," he writes, "is the true source of their greatness... achieved not through intelligence, but through honoring the king and the realm."

Drawing heavily on sacred Scripture, Medrano cites Romans 13, Titus 3, and 1 Peter 2, reinforcing that "there is no power but from God," and that resisting rulers is resisting divine order. Subjects must obey not out of fear alone, but "for conscience' sake." As Tacitus writes, "There can be no peace without arms, no arms without pay, and no pay without taxes." He adds, "Render tribute to whom tribute is due... honor to whom honor."

Medrano also reflects on the burdens of rulership, writing: "While we sleep, they remain vigilant... they carry the weight of countless souls under their dominion." He quotes Seleucus: "If one truly knew the weight of a scepter, they would not have the courage to pick it up."

He warns against slandering magistrates, stating that "no one should judge the actions of Councillors... but the Prince himself," and praises emperors like Augustus and Vespasian for the honors they showed to senators. Vespasian declared: "I can respond to the injuries they commit, but [subjects] are not allowed to speak ill of them." He asserts that obedience, respect, and prayer for rulers are not only civic duties but sacred obligations that sustain both peace and divine order.

Ministers, Obedience, and Counsel

Medrano expands the concept of obedience to include reverence for the ministers and servants of kings, particularly those close to court. He affirms the high dignity historically granted to officers such as the Reyes de Armas (Kings of Arms), describing their role as "a profession akin to the heroic," with privileges dating back to Bacchus, Alexander the Great, Augustus, and Charlemagne. These included safe passage, exemption from common duties, the authority to judge dishonor, and the honor of wearing royal insignia. Such prerogatives, he argues, show that even humble servants of the king "are invested with mysteries," and should be respected accordingly. Medrano writes:

In my view, both the counselor and the realm will be fortunate when such a servant and confidant possesses qualities worthy of the royal station they serve, especially when their innate nobility and virtues align with the dignity required for such a role. Where noble lineage and habit join with noble actions, there can be no doubt of their merit. And when this is accompanied by piety, goodness, and holiness—as we see, experience, and witness in our time—such virtue indeed stands as a model worthy of our admiration and emulation, does it not?^[9]

Medrano cautions private individuals against interfering in public governance, stating that reform must come through proper authority. "No public display should be made," he writes, advising that concerns be directed to lawful superiors. Those who carry out the will of the prince, he says, "are his hands," and as such, are owed honor and obedience.

Quoting Plautus—"What a king does should be considered honorable; it is the duty of subjects to obey"—he defends rulers against misjudgment by the ignorant, stating that "what is done piously by the good is often judged as cruelty by the wicked." Empire, he writes, brings envy and misunderstanding, and "the reward... is to be maligned." Yet true rulers focus on justice and the common good, trusting that over time, their deeds will be recognized.

He contrasts the harsh Locrian law—where lawmakers faced execution for failed proposals—with Mecenas's advice to Augustus: "Praise and honor those who offer sound counsel... but neither disgrace nor accuse those who err." Moderation and prudence, Medrano insists, are essential in courtly matters.

He praises those counselors who temper princes' passions and offer discreet, virtuous guidance. "No wise and great prince has ever lacked a trusted confidant," he writes, naming Calisthenes, Panaetius, and others who brought wisdom and glory to their rulers. When such figures possess noble lineage, wisdom, and piety, they serve as "a model worthy of admiration and emulation." This understanding of obedience and royal council served as a justification for the valido in Habsburg Spain.^[45]

Types of Authority and the Dangers of Flattery

In República Mista, Tomás Fernández de Medrano distinguishes between two types of authority: one supreme and absolute—answerable only to God—and the other subordinate and bound by law, exercised by magistrates for a limited time under royal commission. The supreme prince, he writes, "acknowledges none greater than himself (after God)," and magistrates derive their authority from him and remain subject to his laws.

Medrano affirms that individuals must obey these powers in all matters not contrary to divine or natural law, even when commands seem unjust: "They should not judge their judges." The supreme magistrate is likened to "a father to the kingdom," tasked with maintaining peace, justice, and the common good.

He warns, however, of the widespread aversion to tyrants and the ease with which rulers who lack visible virtue may fall into contempt. Yet Scripture teaches obedience even to corrupt rulers, as they act as "instruments of [God’s] wrath, punishing the people’s wickedness." He quotes, "When God is angered, the people receive such a ruler as they deserve for their sins."

Citing Tacitus and Augustine, Medrano illustrates how power can corrupt even the seemingly virtuous. Tiberius, Nero, and Galba are presented as cautionary examples—men who ruled poorly despite early promise. "Things feigned cannot last long," Augustine warns.

Flattery, more than open enemies, is seen as the chief corrupter of rulers. Those "who make it a habit to praise all things in their rulers, be they virtuous or vicious," erode truth and judgment. Tiberius lamented: "Oh, men prepared for servitude!" Medrano recounts how Caesar, influenced by a flatterer, "came to a miserable end."

He writes: "Flattery has overthrown more than the enemy," criticizing courtiers who, instead of offering honest counsel, enable a prince’s whims to serve their own gain.

Obedience to rulers, just or unjust

In República Mista, Tomás Fernández de Medrano contends that obedience and reverence are due to all rulers, whether just or unjust. "Let the good not be scandalized to see the wicked exalted," he writes, asserting that the rise and fall of kings is governed by divine providence. Drawing on Daniel 4, he declares: "The Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men… and sets over them the lowliest of men," emphasizing that even seemingly unworthy rulers are chosen by God for a purpose.

Medrano cites the example of Nebuchadnezzar, whom God rewarded with Egypt despite his tyranny, and King Amasis of Egypt, who overcame public contempt for his humble origins through strength and wisdom. From 1 Samuel 8 to Jeremiah 27, Medrano presents biblical arguments for unconditional obedience: "I have handed over all these lands to my servant Nebuchadnezzar... all nations will serve him." He urges subjects to trust that God raises kings not only to reward the good but also to punish the wicked.

He praises the historical patience of Christians under pagan and heretical rulers such as Nero, Julian the Apostate, and Diocletian, highlighting their peaceable endurance. Even David refused to harm King Saul, affirming: "Who can lay a hand upon the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?" Medrano cites both religious and legal prohibitions against cursing rulers, warning that murmuring against authority invites divine judgment.

The duty of a good subject, he insists, is to remain "humble, gracious, obedient, and devout," without aspiring beyond their station. Those who suffer under harsh rule should interpret it as a correction from God: "I will give you a king in my anger" (Hosea), and endure it with prayer and patience, trusting that "He who wounds also heals."

Medrano explains that rulers hold Regalia—symbols of sovereign authority—which entitle them to create and enforce laws over all subjects. These Regalia are expressed through eight primary points, which, when properly observed in practice, ensure public obedience and preserve the order and stability of the realm.

The Eight Royal Prerogatives and Limits of Public Judgment

In República Mista, Tomás Fernández de Medrano outlines eight primary prerogatives, or Regalia, that define sovereign power:

To create and repeal laws
To declare war or establish peace
To act as the highest court of appeal
To appoint and remove high officials
To levy and collect taxes and public contributions
To grant pardons and dispensations
To set or alter currency and its value
To require unconditional oaths of loyalty

He argues that rulers may exercise these powers directly or through delegated ministers and must not be disrespected—even when their administration is imperfect. Their authority, Medrano states, is divinely instituted and must be regarded as sacred:

Established by God through countless decrees and testimonies, this authority ought to be respected and held as a source of majesty.^[2]

Subjects, he asserts, should not scheme against their superiors or question their actions. Public calamities—such as famine, plague, or war—should not be attributed to rulers without clear evidence. "One is not to be condemned if their thoughts are not laid bare," he quotes, warning against judging secret intentions or mistaking natural events for political failure.

Royal Virtue and the Nature of Public Speech

Medrano reaffirms that discretion, obedience, and reverence are owed not only in action but in speech and silence. Drawing on the example of Otho, he writes: "Tam nescire quædam milites, quam facere oportet"—"It is as necessary for soldiers to be ignorant of certain things as it is for them to carry out their duties." Just as commanders do not divulge all plans to their soldiers—who face constant danger—private citizens, even less so, should seek to uncover the secret intentions of princes.

Echoing Seneca's wisdom—"Qui plus scire velle quam satis sit; intemperantiæ genus est" ("To wish to know more than is sufficient is a kind of excess")—Medrano argues that excessive curiosity disrupts peace and loyalty. Silence and obedience are therefore "powerful means of attaining peace," reminding subjects that this world is not their final home:

Thus, the loyalty and silence of subjects toward their king and rightful lord, and toward his councils and magistrates, are crucial virtues within the populace and powerful means of attaining some peace in this life. This peace reminds us that it is not our permanent home nor our final destination and is best suited to remind us that we live and journey toward an eternal life, not this fleeting, mortal, and transitory one.^[55]

In República Mista, Medrano contemplates the mortality of even the greatest monarchies, emphasizing the need for prayer and moral vigilance. Within this reflection, he elevates Philip III of Spain as a living embodiment of Christian kingship, whose reign aligns with divine order and the spiritual duties of sovereign rule.

Medrano presents Philip as a king whose holiness is evident in his adherence to divine law and his appointment of virtuous and devout magistrates. His valor, though not expressed through personal combat, is manifest in his strategic leadership, having assembled a powerful fleet and army that defended the realm without bloodshed. His magnanimity is marked by clemency toward those he might have punished, fulfilling the counsel of Saint Isidore, who taught that just rulers must know when to defer judgment in favor of mercy.

Justice, too, defines his reign, as Philip personally traversed his dominions to hear and resolve the grievances of his subjects. His prudence is demonstrated by a voluntary retreat from the distractions of the hunt and the pursuit of military glory, choosing instead a path of stable and attentive governance. Finally, Medrano praises the king's compassion, particularly in his refusal to wage war against the French despite political opportunity—an act inspired by the counsel of Pope Clement VIII and rooted in the conviction that power must never corrupt the gentle spirit.

Through this portrait, Medrano casts Philip III not merely as a political figure, but as an exemplar of sacred monarchy, whose virtues affirm the doctrinal and moral principles articulated throughout the first volume of the República Mista.

Virtuous rulers and obedient subjects

Tacitus's wisdom—"Semper alicui potentium invisus, non culpa, sed ut flagitiorum impatiens" ("He who is hated by the powerful is not guilty, but impatient of their crimes")—guides Medrano’s counsel: those who cannot tolerate injustice may find themselves resented at court and should avoid its intrigues for a more peaceful life. "It is very dangerous to skin a lion."

He lauds princes who, like Alexander the Great, refused to punish those who insulted them, choosing to live virtuously and correct falsehood with example. "Posterity, and a glorious remembrance of oneself, well deserved," Tacitus wrote—Medrano holds this as the supreme goal of princely rule.

He cites Emperor Theodosius, who refused to punish those who insulted the government, urging compassion even toward malice, and commanding that no judge act unless ordered by the emperor himself. As Lipsius warned, "Not all rulers are Alexanders." Yet the best defense against criticism is to give the people no reason to murmur. "The one who disregards fame clearly values virtue lightly."

He quotes Solomon: "Nomen impiorum putrescet"—"The name of the wicked will rot." Writers may not harm rulers in life, but they tarnish them in memory. Medrano concludes with Tacitus: "False honor helps, and false infamy terrifies. Believe us to be just as our reputation is." Ultimately, Medrano intertwines theological and philosophical principles to argue that obedience is divinely ordained.

Chapter three: Justice

The third chapter of República Mista, which begins on page 111, titled On the Third Point of the Roman Ambassador, explores the fundamental role of justice in sustaining a republic. Medrano opens with Erasmus' maxim, "Respublica, duabus rebus continetur praemio, poena"—"A republic is held together by two things: reward and punishment." Medrano begins his third chapter as follow:

I shall treat here of that element—rule, commandment, law, and particular custom—that enabled the Romans to govern their republic effectively for so long. I align myself with justice, for it seems to me that justice is the force at the heart of this accomplishment.^[9]

Medrano praises justice as the queen of virtues, referencing Cicero:

Justice is the mistress and queen of virtues, the foundation of enduring honor and fame, without which nothing can be praiseworthy.^[56]

Justice, Medrano argues, is both divine and societal: the "bond of human society" and the principle that distinguishes good from evil. Without it, confusion and vice prevail: "To reward evil in place of good, to oppress the good without punishing the wicked—this is to confuse vice with virtue." Justice, he writes, reveals "the distinction between the good and the bad," serving as both divine law and the "bond of human society."

Drawing on classical authorities, he defines justice as inseparable from wisdom. Plato teaches that no state can endure without justice and divine counsel. Aristotle calls it a "general virtue," containing all others, and Solomon asks God for wisdom alone, recognizing that "there can be no justice without prudence." Medrano calls prudence "a firm pillar, strong foundation, and sure guide of all a prince’s enterprises."

Justice requires temperance, courage, and charity. A just ruler must resist ambition and passion, and defend the oppressed even at personal cost. "Justice instills strength and courage," allowing the ruler to approach "the divine nature." Medrano insists that faith depends on justice, warning that without it, power is reduced to mere force. He condemns those political theorists who advocate: "Neglect all that is right and good so long as it may grow their power."

Medrano draws on Cicero again to define justice as "the constant and perpetual will to give each their due." It is the duty of princes, magistrates, and counselors to uphold this principle impartially. Diogenes called justice the source of "peace and perpetual happiness," while Hesiod described it as a "chaste, venerable virgin," and Pindar as "the queen of the world." Pythagoras, more enigmatically, wrote: "The balance never tips."

For Medrano, justice must transcend kinship, wealth, or personal benefit. Citing Plato, he writes:

Justice requires that we set aside personal pleasures and private benefits to embrace the public good, even to our detriment.^[2]

He writes that wherever doubt enters judgment, injustice is near—for true equity, by nature, is "clear and resplendent."

Forms of Justice

Medrano follows classical philosophers in dividing justice into two principal forms:

Distributive justice: Distributive justice consists in "granting each their due—honor, dignity, or punishment," particularly relevant to governance.
Commutative justice: Commutative justice, by contrast, regulates fair dealings between individuals, grounded in the maxim: "Do not do unto others what you would not wish done unto you" (Quod tibi non vis, alteri ne feceris).

Medrano differentiates between distributive and commutative justice—the former concerning the allocation of honor or punishment, and the latter governing fairness in contracts and exchanges. Justice is portrayed as the "mother of virtues," nourishing temperance, moderation, courage, and wisdom. He calls attention to scriptural commands for justice, such as Jeremiah’s exhortation: "Render justice and righteousness; deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor." Without justice, neither household nor republic can endure. "If in it there are no rewards for right deeds nor punishments for wrongs," he warns, "then divine order itself is absent."

Benefits of justice

Justice, he asserts, exists to preserve human society. It is "guardian of the laws, defender of the good, mortal enemy of the wicked," and so essential to civilization that even criminals must rely on it in part. Medrano quotes Cicero: "Even pirates and highway robbers could not exist without some part of it."

Drawing on Pythagorean thought, Medrano states that justice should be "regarded as the mother from whose breast all other virtues are nourished," as no one could be temperate, moderate, courageous, or wise without it.

He presents justice as a reflection of divine providence: "governing the world and ruling over all things." Its influence extends to every domain, he writes:

In cities, justice is equity and peace; in households, it is the harmony between husband and wife; between masters and servants, it is goodwill; in the body, it is health and the perfection of each part.^[1]

For Medrano, justice is not only foundational to republics, but to all relationships, virtues, and divine order.

Justice and the Republic

Tomás Fernández de Medrano explores justice as the sustaining force of a republic, the principle that binds society together through reward and punishment.

Drawing from classical authorities—Plato, Aristotle, Isidore, Solomon—Medrano presents justice as inseparable from wisdom and prudence, without which no kingdom or republic can be stable. "There can be no justice without prudence," he echoes, underscoring that wise governance begins with self-governance.

He emphasizes temperance and courage as supports to justice, stating it helps moderate passions such as ambition, anger, and avarice. Medrano ties justice to faith itself, warning that if not upheld, "faith would lose its legitimacy," and power would become a prize for the most unscrupulous. He denounces power-centric political theories: "They should neglect all that is right and good so long as it may grow their power."

Quoting Cicero again, he defines justice as: "Iustitia est constans, perpetua voluntas ius suum unicuique tribuens"—"Justice is the constant and perpetual will to give each their due." True princes, he writes, are those who do good to all under their care and harm no one.

Reverence for justice

The ancients' reverence for justice is showcased in stories of Egyptian judges depicted blindfolded and handless, symbols of impartiality, and of Trajan, who told a governor, "Use this sword for me if I rule justly—and against me if I do not." Medrano rebukes skepticism toward Spanish heritage and traditions—such as the legacy of Apostle James or the deeds of El Cid—as impious and divisive.

Justice, he writes, must be free of personal bias, and magistrates must resist favoritism or vengeance. Examples from antiquity—Aristides the Just, Pope Sixtus V, and Emperor Hadrian—represent rulers who prioritized truth over grudge, and mercy over retribution.

He praises princes who rise above resentment, noting, "To refrain from doing good when able is to surrender one’s virtue." Anger, he says, destroys sound judgment: "Where there is anger, nothing is done rightly."

Historical exemplars—Scipio Africanus, Philip of Macedonia, Vespasian, Alexander Severus—are cited for their dedication to fair judgment, humility, and even humor in justice. Medrano celebrates how these figures used their authority to defend integrity, rather than inflate it.

He references a lesson from Sparta: "The republic thrived under laws and magistrates who upheld them." True greatness, Medrano asserts, lies not in titles but in virtue, and justice remains the defining mark of legitimate rule.

Justice, nobility, and the ruin of Republics through corruption

Medrano expounds upon the inseparable relationship between justice, noble virtue, and the preservation of republics. Law, he argues, is the very "rule of justice," and justice its purpose. Without it, states decay: "The law is the soul of the republic, the blood that gives it life, and the rule that sustains the state." A republic nears ruin when "those condemned by law are pardoned, and judgments are reversed."

Medrano provides historical examples—from the downfall of Philip of Macedonia and the exile of Demetrius, to the deposition of the Swedish king Henry—as evidence that denial of justice breeds discord, abandonment, and collapse. In contrast, acts of humility and fairness, such as King Philip III requesting permission from a baker to pass through his home, exemplify the sanctity of justice and divine kingship.

He warns that appointing unworthy individuals—particularly through the sale of offices—invites divine wrath and civil decline. "The fault lies with rulers who… place corrupt judges over the faithful," he writes, echoing the Sorbonne's admonition to King Francis II, denouncing the sale of ecclesiastical and secular offices as a betrayal of virtue and a root of religious schism.

Quoting both Titelman and a celebrated philosopher, Medrano laments that in his day, nobility is prized above merit:

Even the ignorant and the depraved [are considered] suitable for every office, whether civil or ecclesiastical… a misfortune within the Holy Church… that no amount of tears could rightly mourn.^[57]

Medrano defends true nobility as rooted in virtue, not lineage alone. To honor the corrupt sons of noble fathers is, he argues, to shame the ancestors themselves. He invokes the words of Mattathias: "Be zealous for the law and give your lives for the testament of your fathers," reminding nobles of their duty to emulate their forebears. Nobility, then, is not a privilege but a responsibility:

If there is anything good in nobility, it is that it places a certain necessity upon nobles to imitate their predecessors.^[2]

For Medrano, it is essential that princes honor virtue in both nobility and commoners, appointing those with merit, not wealth or flattery. To do otherwise, he warns, is to provoke the wrath of the loyal and suffer "great losses in matters of importance." He praises contemporary Spain as a model, where "distinguished and grave personages… occupy the offices" and uphold the republic through virtue and example.

Quoting the Partidas, he writes: "To know how to use nobility is a clear union of virtues… kings should greatly honor [knights and nobles], as those with whom they are to accomplish their work."

Rejecting favoritism and courtly corruption, Medrano offers examples of just rulers such as Trajan, Augustus, Pope Sixtus V, and Philip III, who all practiced restraint, impartiality, and forgiveness. He condemns nepotism, flattery, and the elevation of the unworthy, urging princes to recognize merit and safeguard justice as the foundation of their rule. "The reputation of the lord," he reminds, "grows from the nobility of those who serve him."^[47]

On the nobility of merit and the just dustribution of honors

Tomás Fernández de Medrano turns his attention to the relationship between nobility, virtue, and justice. He argues that noble birth alone does not warrant honor; rather:

He who acts contrary to his lineage... ought not to be honored and favored by the Prince simply because he was born of good lineage, but instead punished for having dishonored it.^[9]

Those who live without virtue stain their ancestral name and should be overlooked in favor of humble but valiant individuals who strive to emulate noble ideals through personal merit.

Medrano invokes the examples of Hannibal, who declared that any soldier who proved himself would be counted as Carthaginian, and the Duke of Savoy, who often rewarded poor soldiers over aristocrats. As Medrano notes, "He who serves should be rewarded, and he who has served the most should be rewarded the most." The value of personal deeds, he insists, outweighs inherited glories: "Just as one's present sins may be compounded by those of the past... so too can one's deeds accumulate honor or disgrace."

While acknowledging that princes may, in some cases, elevate individuals without visible merit, Medrano stresses that such appointments should be guided by divine providence:

What we perceive as favoritism... may actually be the means by which God's will is achieved.^[9]

He urges rulers to be mindful of the traditions, integrity, and capabilities of noble houses, citing Pope Gregory XIII's secret efforts to sustain Rome’s ancient families and Augustus Caesar’s financial support for the heir of Hortensius as examples of preserving honor through benevolence.

Medrano also warns against awarding honors as political favors or selling public offices. Such practices led to the downfall of states like Sparta and contributed to France's instability under Henry III. Instead, he advocates for a "symmetry" within the republic—a just distribution of responsibilities and honors according to proportion and merit. Quoting Ecclesiastes, he issues a grave warning: "A kingdom is transferred from one people to another due to injustice, injuries, offenses, and deceitful dealings."

Clemency, justice, and the moral example of princes

In the closing passages of República Mista, Tomás Fernández de Medrano reflects on the delicate balance between clemency and justice in governance. While he affirms that "gentleness and clemency are virtues worthy of a noble and magnanimous spirit," he cautions that these virtues must not be exercised to the detriment of the republic. "That state of the republic is most desirable and stable," he quotes Polybius, "in which, privately, all live uprightly and harmlessly, and publicly, justice and clemency prevail."

For Medrano, rulers must inspire both love and fear—"love among the people, fear among enemies"—and govern with dignity tempered by accessibility. He draws on Isocrates, who advised severity in investigations and mercy in sentencing, and emphasizes the importance of example: "We need more example than command."

The ruler’s conduct, he asserts, shapes the soul of the republic. Kings and magistrates should imitate God’s goodness, for:

Kings easily either uplift or undermine the lives of their subjects by their example; thus, it does not befit a prince to commit sins, lest he create a model of sin.^[2]

Public virtue, Medrano insists, is more instructive than law alone: "Devotion to the prince and the desire to emulate him are more powerful than any punishment prescribed by law."

He stresses that rulers should be models of temperance and morality, resisting the urge to impose reforms through decrees alone. "If the king desires what is honorable, everyone will desire the same," he writes, noting that Constantine converted many through example, just as Henry VIII led England into schism through his conduct.

Medrano warns that the vices of rulers are more harmful than those of private citizens, as they "infuse them into the state, and they harm more by example than by their actual sins." He praises rulers who restrain their excesses, citing Diogenes, Augustus, and Pope Sixtus V as models of self-restraint and moral discipline.

Conclusion

Medrano offers a reflection on the endurance of empire, asserting that if rulers consistently matched the virtue and vigilance of their founders—particularly in "the expansion and preservation of the Catholic faith"—and if subjects maintained their "obedience and reverence," the monarchy would continue to thrive. He credits Spain's strength in the 17th century to the effective administration of justice and flourishing military discipline, ex cuius sinu omnes triumphi manarunt ("from whose bosom all triumphs have flowed").

He adds that "there is no doubt" the monarchy may be preserved and strengthened "to the end of time," provided it does not stray from these founding precepts. Medrano concludes with a meditation on historical decline. Empires, no matter how well-ordered, will decay without fidelity to founding precepts:

The discipline of our ancestors sustains the republic, which, if it dissolves... we will also lose the empire.^[2]

Justice, labor, and virtue must be rewarded; deceit, sloth, and corruption must be punished. He quotes Cicero: "True justice and honest labor are adorned with honors... while the vices and deceits of men are punished with losses, shame, chains, scourges, exile, and death."

Medrano completes his first treatise with a quote on justice:

The truth of justice indeed requires that the wicked receive evil, and the good receive good.^[2]

His final chapter on justice aligns with a declaration made on 5 June 1595 by King Philip II of Spain in the Ordenações Filipinas:

And just as Justice is a virtue not for oneself but for others, since it benefits only those to whom it is given—by giving them what is theirs and enabling them to live well, the good through rewards, and the wicked through fear of punishment, from which peace and tranquility result in the Republic (for the punishment of the wicked is the preservation of the good)—so must the good King act, since he was given by God not for himself nor for his own gain, but to govern his People well and benefit his subjects as if they were his own children.^[58]

By 1595, King Philip II of Spain had already aligned with the precepts outlined in Medrano's doctrine, as Medrano himself served at court as an advisor, articulating a sovereign framework in which legitimate kings upheld virtue, obedience, and justice—governing not for their own gain, but for the good of their people, treating their subjects as their own family, and upholding the laws and customs of the realm with equity.^[58]

In 1601, Tomás authorized his son, Juan Fernández de Medrano y Sandoval, to initiate the process of presenting the first volume of the República Mista to the Royal Council and Philip III of Spain for official publication in Madrid.^[2]

Publication

República Mista was printed on the royal press and published in Madrid by Juan Flamenco in 1602 by royal decree.^[31]

Approval by the Chief Chronicler of Castile

Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas approved *República Mista* on 30 August 1601.

In Valladolid on 30 August 1601, República Mista was approved by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, the historian, writer and Chief Chronicler of Castile and the Americas during the reigns of Philip II and Philip III:

By order of Your Excellency, I have reviewed the book titled On the Three Precepts that the Ambassador of the Romans Gave to King Ptolemy Regarding the Good Governance of His Republic, brought to light by Don Juan Fernández de Medrano y Sandoval of the Lords of Valdeosera. It seems to me that the subject matter is very useful and beneficial, full of good teachings, examples, and history. Your Excellency, if served by it, may grant the requested license for its printing.^[31]

Royal printing license

Medrano’s son, Juan Fernández de Medrano y Sandoval, presented his father’s treatise to His Majesty and the Royal Council of Castile alongside the original manuscript for verification and pricing. Recognizing its significance, King Philip III of Spain issued a royal decree authorizing its publication.^[31] In Valladolid, on 25 September 1601, the king and royal council granted him the license and faculty to print his father's treatise, throughout all the Kingdoms of Castile:

Since it was brought to our attention by you, Don Juan Fernández de Medrano y Sandoval, that among the papers of Tomás Fernández de Medrano, your father... you discovered a book titled A Treatise on Three Precepts by Which the Romans Were Better Governed... You requested permission to print it... This, having been considered by our Council, has led us to issue this royal decree... granting you the license to print this Treatise throughout all these Kingdoms of Castile for six years... under penalty of forfeiture and a fine of fifty thousand maravedis for infringement. Provided that, before printing, you shall submit the book to our Council to ensure it conforms to the original... and that the price is determined. The printer shall not print the first folio nor distribute copies until the book is corrected and approved. Once completed, this royal decree shall be included. We command our Council and all justices to observe and execute this decree.^[31]

Approval for sale by the Secretary of the Chamber of His Majesty

In Valladolid, the treatise received permission for sale on 5 March 1602, granted by Juan Gallo de Andrada, Secretary of the Chamber of His Majesty:

I, Juan Gallo de Andrada, Secretary of the Chamber of His Majesty and member of His Council, certify that... The First Part of the Mixed Republic... was priced at three maravedis per sheet... with twenty-one sheets, the total price was set at sixty-three maravedis... to be sold in paper... this pricing be placed at the beginning of the book and... cannot be sold without it... Valladolid, on the fifth of March, 1602.^[31]

Legacy and continuity

Tomás Fernández de Medrano, high magistrate, lord and divisero of Valdeosera, passed on the family legacy of the República Mista (1602) and loyal service to both king and valido through his great-nephew Diego Fernández de Medrano, high magistrate, lord and divisero of Valdeosera and Sojuela, who served as chaplain and advisor to Spain's valido, Luis Méndez de Haro, as well as to Pedro Coloma, Secretary of State.^[48]

Diego's panegyric to Luis Méndez de Haro, valido of Philip IV of Spain, together with his political treatise Mirror of Princes: Crucible of their Virtues, Astonishment of their Failings, Soul of their Government and Government of their Soul, dedicated to Prince Philip Prospero, serves as both a reaffirmation and culmination of the doctrine first formulated by Tomás Fernández de Medrano in República Mista (1602). These works consolidate the House of Medrano's enduring role as architects of empire, shaping the political philosophy, theory of kingship, and structures of royal delegation that defined the Spanish Habsburg era.^[48]^[59]

Doctrine of medrar

Diego Fernández de Medrano Zenizeros, in his Mirror of Princes, affirms that:

When doctrines of greater gravity were needed to instruct a prince, it was always the Spanish who were most blessed with such enlightenment. They are the reflection of the House of Austria.^[59]

Rather than offering a mere exhortation to princely virtue, Diego's epistle and treatise articulate a fully developed doctrinal architecture, one in which ascent is not only moral but hierarchical, mirrored and legitimized through the noble path of moral cultivation, rational order, adherence to divine and natural law, and the historical continuity of Spanish governance, as codified in the doctrine of medrar.^[59]

Diego declared that "truth is the mirror of princes, and princes should be mirrors of virtue."^[59] He draws an unambiguous line between deceit and reason in his Mirror of Princes:

A broken mirror is the mirror of deceit, and that is no mirror at all—just a lie.^[59]

He affirms that a mirror is not for flattery, and that "though there are mirrors which reflect what the deceivers wish to see, the mirror that shows a prince or a nobleman how to govern rightly is the mirror of reason."^[59]

Diego presents a metaphorical mirror of reason, "not to praise particular individuals, nor out of vanity, but to describe—as a painter might," and to offer a sketch and report of his intent:

Let it be a mirror to all kings, princes, and great men, to guide them in virtue and expose them to their failings, so that all may learn: as many as are adorned by their virtues, and as many as are darkened by their vices. Let them see their image, and rise.^[59]^[11]

Diego's Mirror of Princes epistle is best understood as a distilled expression of a doctrine formally codified by the House of Medrano within the structure of the 17th-century Spanish Habsburg Empire. Rather than functioning as isolated rhetoric, the epistle represents the culmination of that doctrine, linking individual moral ascent to the stability and legitimacy of leadership and social order.^[59] The epistle did not merely express a courtly hope; it reflected a fully developed political and natural grammar—medrar—from which the Medrano name itself is etymologically linked.^[11]^[60]

Etymology and grammar of medrar

The linguistic and genealogical foundations of medrar can be traced through the Medrano surname, whose semantic link to political ascent predated the formalization of the valido system and helped shape its structure.^[61] The verb medrar, meaning "to improve," "advance," or "prosper," is widely recognized as the etymological root of the surname Medrano. The 15th-century grammarian Antonio de Nebrija defined it as "to improve" (Proficio, is), linking it to the Latin proficio ("to make progress").^[61]

Pedro Felipe Monlau described it as a variation of meliorar, derived from Latin melior ("better"), while Joan Corominas traced its early form medranza—meaning "hereditary improvement"—to a 1076 usage tied to noble succession.^[62]

Ramón Menéndez Pidal was the first to cite this documentary lineage, reinforcing the reading of Medrano as a name historically synonymous with noble service, political ascent, and dynastic legitimacy.^[63] This early etymology confirms that the idea of hereditary improvement, linked to noble legitimacy, laid the linguistic and genealogical groundwork for medrar as a grammar of power—transmitted across dynasties, institutions, and lineages.^[62] In this context, the Medrano surname is not coincidental, but a structuring syntax of legitimate ascent.^[64]

Functioning as a foundational doctrine for improvement and imperial structure, medrar shaped the Spanish Empire across architecture, music, heraldry, and patronage—alongside courtly arts, ceremonial ritual, military service, religious office, education, and political governance—transforming personal ascent into a visible language of virtue, hierarchy, proximity, and advancement.^[11]

This foundational role of the family was visibly enacted when Diego López de Medrano, serving as caballerizo mayor, accompanied the young Philip II throughout his ceremonial journey to Brussels in 1548–49, overseeing his public elevation as heir to the Spanish empire.^[65]^[66]

In 1555, Juan de Medrano, appointed Rey de Armas of Castile and England (Castilla y Inglaterra Rey de Armas), exercised supreme heraldic authority over the noble houses of both realms, ensuring that heraldry itself became a language of medrar. His office affirmed the Medrano family's function as guardians of dynastic legitimacy and architects of symbolic ascent under the reign of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Juan secured their place at the ceremonial and genealogical heart of imperial governance.^[67]^[68]

The Medrano family's role as doctrinal stewards was sealed when Tomás Fernández de Medrano delivered the official funeral oration for Philip II in 1598, extolling his virtues in a singular act of trust that affirmed the family's place as the voice of imperial memory and conscience at the highest level of Spanish statecraft.^[17]

By the reign of Philip III in the late 16th century, medrar had become firmly embedded in the royal court as a code of ascent—signifying proximity to power attained through service, virtue, and delegated authority.^[69] As Francisco Javier Fortún Pérez de Ciriza shows, these arrangements reflect the embedding of nobles within circuits of delegated power, patronage, and territorial exemption, laying the groundwork for later forms of institutionalized trust seen under the Habsburg valido model (royal favourite).^[69]

As the court matured into a centralized structure of delegated rule under the Spanish Habsburgs, the grammar of medrar found one of its most visible and potent expressions in the rise of the valido.^[11]

Medrar and the valido of Spain: delegated authority

In Spain, status and influence became increasingly tied to proximity to the sovereign, court patronage, and administrative roles, rather than independent territorial rule.^[70] As Ángel Campos-Perales notes, medrar was the operative verb of court society, especially under the validos and monarchs of Spain. Medrar operated as a coded system of social and political ascent grounded in visibility, favor, and proximity.^[11] Encapsulated in the triad "to medrar, to live, to die," the verb shaped not only careers but life cycles at court, defining both how one advanced and how one was remembered. Within this hierarchy, valimiento functioned as the central conduit of transmission of medrar: a radiating structure that began with the king, passed through the valido, and extended outward to his protégés, clients, and regional networks.^[71]

One of the most complete embodiments of this doctrine of noble ascent and delegated authority under Philip III of Spain and the valido was Alonso Molina de Medrano (1550–1616), jurist, royal advisor, and Knight of the Order of Santiago.^[72] A trusted figure under both Philip II of Spain and Philip III of Spain, Alonso was appointed Councilor of the Indies in 1592 and later became the first Chamberlain of the Chamber of the Indies (1600), a powerful institutional organ created under the Duke of Lerma to mirror the Chamber of Castile.^[73] His career exemplified the grammar of medrar: professor at the University of Seville and Inquisitor of Zaragoza and Córdoba, to Councilor of Castile (1608–1616), and member of the Board of Finance for the Indies and Portugal.^[74]

Alonso administered both the ideal and the legal machinery of virtue-based ascent, standing at the intersection of divine law, inquisitorial authority, colonial governance, and royal delegation.^[75] Patronage became central to the valido's expression of legitimate governance under Philip III of Spain. Far from nepotism, Alonso's rise as a protégé of the Duke of Lerma, reinforced by repeated royal and valido appointments, exemplifies the operationalization of medrar as a courtly system of advancement rooted in merit, virtue, hierarchy, and trust.^[72] In this context, Alonso exemplifies medrar not merely as an ethic of personal advancement, but as a sovereign grammar of governance enacted at the highest levels of Spanish imperial authority.^[72]

More than mere ambition, the grammar of medrar evolved into a sanctioned ethic of advancement under the valido of Spain at the beginning of the 17th century, linking individual rise to a broader framework of obedience, service, virtue, and royal delegated authority. This ethic was not merely practiced, but refined and codified—most notably by the House of Medrano—into enduring structures of political doctrine, institutional law, dynastic legitimacy, and pedagogical reform.^[76]^[77]

Codification and transmission of medrar

Tomás Fernández de Medrano, in his República Mista (1602), articulated the foundational ethic of medrar as one rooted in divine hierarchy and political obedience. He emphasized that just as subjects are taught from childhood to revere God through doctrine, so too must they internalize the laws governing their duty toward kings, councils, and magistrates.^[1]

This moral formation, he insisted, was faithfully upheld in Spain and served both those raised in its practice and those still learning its path:

And since serving, loving, and revering their eternal God, who made everything from nothing... it is fitting for us from the earliest age to impress upon our hearts the laws by which we must speak, fear, revere, obey, and serve Kings, Councils, and Magistrates for the common good. So much so that our Spain observes and keeps this with great punctuality. The doctrine will serve as theory for those who learned it through practice, and as advice for those who do not yet know it.^[78]

This passage crystallizes República Mista not merely as a guide for governance, but as a 'catechism' of medrar, where sacred duty, royal legitimacy, and national identity were forged through doctrinal instruction, moral formation, and generational service.

Through royal decrees and institutional reforms, the Medrano family codified the grammar of medrar: a unified doctrine of noble advancement, legitimate authority, and hierarchical ascent, embedded across political, legal, educational, military, mathematical, philosophical, and literary systems:

First theorized by Tomás Fernández de Medrano, in his República Mista (1602) dedicated to Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, 1st Duke of Lerma, 1st valido of Spain^[31]
Legalized through the statutes and jurisdiction of the Order of Santiago (1603 and 1605) by the jurist García de Medrano y Castejón, knight of the Order of Santiago and a councilor of the Council of Castile and the Council of Orders^[77]
Institutionalized in the educational royal reform of the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso (1666),^[79] the Colegio de San Eugenio, and numerous other colegios led and united by Dr. García de Medrano y Álvarez de los Ríos, Minister of Justice, Councilor of Castile, knight of the Order of Santiago^[80]^[81]
Illuminated through the arts and Baroque literature cultivated in the renowned Medrano Academy of Madrid (1616—1622), founded by Dr. Sebastián Francisco de Medrano, official censor of comedias in the Inquisition, chaplain, treasurer for Gómez Suárez de Figueroa, III Duke of Feria; author of Favores de las Musas (1631) and the juridico-theological treatise Caridad y Misericordia (1652), core expressions of medrar^[82]^[14]
Militarily and educationally propagated through the Royal Military and Mathematics Academy of Brussels (1675), founded and directed by Sebastián Fernández de Medrano, Royal Master of Mathematics in the States of Flanders, General Prefect to the King^[83]^[84]
Encoded medrar in sacralized mathematics, most notably in Cuadrados mágicos (1744), a treatise on divine governance through magic squares, dedicated to Queen Elisabeth Farnese by Phelipe Medrano, knight of the Order of Santiago.^[85]

These codifications—legal, educational, and literary—established the grammar of medrar as the sovereign architecture of rule. Yet its transmission did not remain confined to statute and school: it lived through the Medrano family's proximity to Spain's most powerful ministers.

Through advisory roles in the Council of Castile, the Council and Chamber of the Indies and the Chamber of His Majesty, the Council of Orders, as well as through treatises, strategic chaplaincies and alliances to the validos, diplomatic counsel, and spiritual authorship, the Medranos guided the conscience of royal power—ensuring that medrar would not only govern the empire's laws, but shape the souls of those entrusted to rule it.^[48]^[86]

This multi-generational system and foundational codifications not only advanced noble ascent, but also shaped the political, legal, educational, military, and literary institutions of the Spanish Empire. Through the Order of Santiago, the grammar of medrar became a legal codification within the Spanish Empire. García de Medrano y Castejón, knight and jurist, served on the Council of Orders and advised the General Chapter of Santiago. The Duke of Lerma employed this legal framework fully in his role as valido of Spain and as a knight of Santiago. García de Medrano y Castejón first gained recognition in 1601 with the publication of The Rule and Establishments of the Chivalry of Santiago of the Sword, with the History of its Origin and Beginning, a work reprinted in Valladolid in 1603 and later reissued in Madrid in 1627 as a tribute to the late publisher's widow.^[77]

Codification of Medrar by the jurist García de Medrano y Castejón

García de Medrano y Castejón, as a leading jurist, councilor of the Royal Council of Castile, a councilor of the Council of Orders, and knight of the Order of Santiago, embodied the grammar of medrar through the institutional realization of República Mista's political doctrine. Overseeing the history, governance and admissions of Spain's royal military orders, he was responsible for codifying noble service and regulating the mechanisms by which royal favor and delegated authority were granted.^[87]^[11]

By royal decree, García authored two foundational legal treatises—La Regla y Establecimientos de la Caballería de Santiago (1603)^[77] and Copilación de las leyes capitulares de la Orden de Santiago (1605)—which established, clarified, and updated laws while systematizing the statutes, privileges, and ceremonial structure of the Order of Santiago.^[88] This compilation, printed in Valladolid by Luis Sánchez, was part of a broader reform initiative undertaken between 1603 and 1609 to update and reissue the legal codes of Spain's military orders, including Santiago, Calatrava, and Alcántara.^[89]

Approval by King Philip III of Spain

King Philip III of Spain, invoking his Apostolic authority as perpetual administrator of the Order of Santiago, decreed that García de Medrano's newly corrected leyes capitulares (1605) be observed throughout the kingdom.^[90] Medrano analyzes 70 titles, which are developed into various laws and chapters.^[89]

Philip III of Spain explained in his royal decree that, due to the changes of time:

The laws needed to be reformed and re-established or ordained anew—dividing what had been corrected and ordained into two books to be printed: one being the book of the Rule and Establishments of said Order, which has already been printed and is to be followed and executed as ordered; and the other being the book of the Capitular Laws, particularly necessary for the good administration and governance of the provinces of this Order, and their districts and jurisdictions.^[90]

Issued alongside the Rule and Establishments (1603), García's leyes capitulares were formally compiled and published in 1605 to guide just governance and delegated authority.^[90] King Philip III of Spain himself confirms this reform in a royal decree:

And so that all may know the intent and authority behind it: I confirm and approve all the capitular laws in this volume—whether newly made or amended by the General Chapter—and I command all Priors, Commanders, Treces, governors, magistrates, and good men of the towns of the Order to observe and execute them precisely as written, including all corrections and declarations entered therein. My Council of the Orders shall ensure their fulfillment and enforce them in judgment.^[90]

The decree was issued in Valladolid on 15 January 1605, authenticated by Francisco González de Heredia, and verified by Gregorio de Tapia on 4 February for delivery to the Council of the Orders.^[90]

García's legal reforms reaffirmed the role of obedience, merit, patronage, and virtue in sustaining royal hierarchy and provided a juridical framework for codifying the emerging valimiento system under the Duke of Lerma, himself a knight of Santiago.^[77] In this context, Lerma actively relied on the Order of Santiago to legitimize his model of delegated authority, using the Order's legal structure to formalize noble ascent through favor, service, and proximity.^[22]

García's reforms transformed medrar from a cultural ethic into a legalized system of promotion within the monarchy's chivalric and administrative orders. His legal framework directly reinforced the political theology of Tomás Fernández de Medrano, whose República Mista (1602), dedicated to Lerma, articulated a moral logic of delegated rule. Together, their contributions helped formalize medrar as the operative grammar of noble ascent and royal delegation.^[11]^[2]

The Copilación de las Leyes Capitulares de la Orden de la Cavallería de Santiago del Espada, composed and ordered by Licenciado García de Medrano and printed in Valladolid by Luis Sánchez in 1605, followed the legal structure of the earlier compilation by Fernández de la Gama.^[91] It preserved the spiritual and temporal law titles for the Order's vassals, omitting only the sections pertaining to religious minorities that had been legally abolished. The compilation incorporated statutes approved from the Chapter of Mérida in 1387 to that of Écija-Seville in 1501–1502 and reflected a sovereign effort to unify centuries of legal tradition under a codified framework of governance.^[91]

Notably, García de Medrano had already published La Regla y Establecimientos in 1601 and 1603, which focused on the internal regulation of Santiago knights and drew heavily on the Establecimientos of 1577.^[91] While that earlier work preserved medieval elements, the 1605 Capitular Laws marked a definitive break with the past, integrating legislative acts from Chapters held under Prince Philip in Madrid (1551), Philip II (1560, 1574), and Philip III (1600).^[91] The result was a sovereign and institutional grammar of medrar, authorized by Philip III and the Order of Santiago, one that formalized medrar not just as an ethic, but as an administrative and legal structure within the monarchy itself.^[90]

Through García's royal reforms and Lerma's delegated government, the Order of Santiago became a formalized channel for legitimizing delegated authority and rewarding loyal service, embedding the logic of medrar within the legal and institutional structure of the Spanish empire.^[90]^[11]

Through his son García de Medrano y Álvarez de los Ríos, the grammar of medrar was institutionalized within the colleges of Spain, including the renowned Colegio de San Eugenio—also known as the Colegio de los Gramáticos—and the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso.^[92]^[93] Both were among the Spanish Empire's most prestigious academic institutions, dedicated to educating its future jurists, administrators, and councilors of state.^[94]

Educational reforms and codification of Medrar by Garcia de Medrano y Álvarez de los Ríos

After his father's codifications within the Order of Santiago, García de Medrano y Álvarez de los Ríos was given royal authority to personally shape educational reforms of the colleges in Spain during the 17th century. García served as a councilor of the Councils of Castile, the Indies and Chamber of His Majesty, minister of Justice, knight of Santiago, regent of the Kingdom of Navarre and Seville, Doctor of Canons, and professor at the University of Salamanca. His actions institutionalized and taught the doctrine of medrar within the most prestigious schools in Spain.^[95]

As regent of Navarre and Seville, he exemplified the full living embodiment of the grammar of medrar. Despite his brief time as regent of Navarre in 1645, he made a strong impact, leading the kingdom to request in 1648 that his replacement be of equal standing, describing him as "a distinguished figure in governance and letters, worthy as is Don García."^[96]^[97]

Unification of the Colleges and the Medrano Legacy

As Visitador General by royal commission, García de Medrano y Álvarez de los Ríos unified the colleges of Tuy, Vizcaínos, and Verdes in 1663–1664 into a single institution governed by uniform constitutions.^[98] Acting as heir and patron of their founders, and backed by the authority and endowments of the House of Medrano, he transformed fragmented noble foundations into a centralized system of merit-based fellowships.^[98]

This consolidation, approved by the Royal Council, institutionalized medrar, legalizing human ascent through learning, service, and lineage within a framework of royal and ecclesiastical oversight. The final incorporation of the Verdes college into the Colegio de Santa Catalina de los Medrano in 1668 affirmed the House's lasting role in codifying noble advancement through education.^[98]^[11]

The institutionalization of medrar through legal and educational reform did not arise from an idealized state, but in response to periods of perceived decline. It was shaped by efforts to reestablish order through discipline, service, and legal structure, ultimately culminating in its most fully articulated form, not merely as rhetoric or statute, but as a systematic framework for ascent grounded in moral, political, and symbolic order.^[76]^[77]

Reform of the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso

García de Medrano y Álvarez de los Ríos institutionalized the grammar of medrar through renowned colleges, including a 1666 royal reform at the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso, Spain's elite college for future statesmen.^[76]^[80] Enacted by Charles II of Spain on 4 November 1666 following a decree issued on 27 August 1665 by Philip IV of Spain, the reform was designed and implemented by García de Medrano y Álvarez de los Ríos, a senior jurist of the Royal Council of Castile.^[99]

In the aftermath of institutional decline at the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso, marked by absenteeism, corruption, and moral deterioration, the royal appointment of García de Medrano in 1665 did not merely impose discipline; it revived the ethical grammar of medrar.^[100]^[11]

The Colegio's collapse, emblematic of broader tensions in Habsburg Spain's educational and spiritual life, revealed the very human vulnerability to disorder and drift.^[100] But rather than deny this fallibility, the Medrano response, grounded in República Mista's precepts, was to restore virtue through structure, transforming decay into doctrinal opportunity. Medrar, then, was not the absence of failure but the form through which failure was met: with law, hierarchy, visibility, and purpose. The reform of the Colegio of Ildefsonso, and later San Eugenio, became not just a correction, but a reaffirmation that medrar is not divine distance, it is disciplined return to order and structure.^[76]

Commissioned by King Philip IV to restore academic and moral order, García produced 82 statutes regulating elections, lectures, residence, and governance—establishing one of the most comprehensive educational reforms of the seventeenth century.^[101]

The reform marked a decisive moment in the transmission of medrar as a political-educational ethic embedded in the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso.^[76] By formally linking academic excellence to royal service, the statutes framed advancement (medro) not merely as personal ambition but as the result of visible merit, hierarchical loyalty, and institutional discipline. Students were now evaluated not only on learning but on their conformity to the Medrano ethos of order, governance, and usefulness to the Crown, qualities explicitly cultivated by the lectures, statutes, and residential life designed by García de Medrano.^[76]^[80]

His reform at the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso effectively ended the university's traditional autonomy, long supported by the Catholic Church, and came to symbolize the intersection of royal power, legal rigor, and educational governance in seventeenth-century Spain.^[102] This reform, led by García de Medrano, consolidated all legislation issued since 1510 into a unified body of statutes.^[80]

Restructuring of the Colegio de San Eugenio

His educational reforms were not isolated; García also restructured the Colegio de San Eugenio, also known as San Ambrosio, historically referred to as the Colegio de los Gramáticos.^[103]

The San Eugenio college, documented in the Archivo Histórico Nacional, was explicitly devoted to the teaching of grammatica (grammar), forming students not only in language but in the structured logic of moral ascent, service, and legal reasoning. Here, medrar becomes pedagogy—the grammar of rule instructed to the empire's future statesmen. According to documentation preserved in the Archivo Histórico Nacional, the Colegio de San Eugenio, also known as San Ambrosio, formed part of a key educational complex in Madrid alongside the Colegio de San Isidro and the Hospital de San Lucas.^[94]

Originally housing 36 collegians studying Latin and Greek, the colegio de San Eugenio was formally restructured by García de Medrano, who reduced its numbers to 16 in a move toward intensified selectivity and doctrinal precision.^[103] By reforming this college, García extended the Medrano family's political doctrine into the realm of elite pedagogy, embedding the grammar of medrar (delegated rule through virtue and linguistic mastery) into the very heart of Spain's imperial humanist education.^[93]

Strikingly, the college of San Eugenio was located on Calle de Nebrija—named for Antonio de Nebrija, the very grammarian who defined medrar as "to improve" (proficio), making the educational institutions a literal and symbolic locus of the doctrine's linguistic, political, and educational codification.^[61]^[62]^[94]

Medrano chaplaincies for the valido of Spain

The doctrine of medrar continued to develop through the Medrano family's contributions and proximity to the validos of Spain in treatises, courtly panegyrics, treaty's, apologético's and chaplaincies:

Re-affirmed in the panegyric to Luis Méndez de Haro, valido of Spain, and the political treatise to Prince Philip Prospero by Diego Fernández de Medrano Zenizeros (1657–1661), who exemplified medrar in his role as chaplain and advisor of Haro and as the intellectual architect of the peace policy that led to the Treaty of the Pyrenees^[48]^[59]
Juan de Espinosa Medrano (1629–1688), known as El Lunarejo, chaplain of the valido of Spain, Luis Méndez de Haro,^[104] expressed Medrar as classical and scholastic ascent through his treatise Philosophia Thomistica (1688) and Apologético (1662), dedicated to the valido, Luis Méndez de Haro^[86]

Though widely institutionalized during the early modern Habsburg period, the doctrine of medrar did not originate there. Rather, it was codified and transmitted by the Medrano family, building on earlier systems of noble governance and classical political philosophy. This tradition drew directly from classical and historical models, incorporating influences from the Castilians, Navarrese, Egyptians, Moors, Persians, Romans, Greeks, and others.^[2]^[59] Within this tradition, first formalized in República Mista (1602), the grammar of medrar articulates a system of delegated authority and divine kingship, shaped not solely by inheritance or power, but by the sovereign's ability to reflect and embody the virtues cultivated within a nobility or society committed to service, justice, and order.^[31]

The doctrine of medrar came to embody not only a political and natural grammar, but a sacred architecture—rooted in religion and unfolding across doctrine, law, education, sacred mathematics, the arts, literature, the military, chivalric orders, and the architecture of statecraft.^[2]

Religion and the sacred grammar of governance

Regarding the importance of a sovereign's ability to reflect and embody virtues in divine order, Tomás Fernández de Medrano writes: "I will illustrate the importance for Princes to recognize this Supreme Majesty... For if Kings, Councils, and Magistrates on earth are the image of God, they should also strive to imitate Him in goodness, perfection, and justice, as our superiors imitate Him..."^[8]

Society, according to Medrano, thrives (medrado) when a prince is obedient to God, submits to divine and natural law, follows divine order, and remains in his position by the grace of God, "just as all celestial orbs and moving things are ordered by the prime mover."^[49]

According to Tomás Fernández de Medrano, religion is not merely a social construct but a universal condition, preceding and enabling laws, justice, and obedience.^[36] Medrano, in the first chapter of the República Mista titled Religion, insists that even the most isolated or undeveloped societies possess "some specific order, arrangement, and agreement... and some awareness of the divine," noting that no people exist without customs, laws, or spiritual practices. He sees this universal inclination toward religion as evidence of its necessity in human affairs.^[9] Citing Plutarch, he writes: "A city might sooner do without the sun... than without some establishment of law or belief that God exists and upholds creation."^[1]

Medrar constitutes the grammar of sacred and social order, reinforcing Medrano's claim that true political legitimacy depends on virtue cultivated through spiritual obedience and moral instruction.^[1] Thus, the doctrine of medrar finds its scriptural reflection in Wisdom 6:1–5, Proverbs 8:15–16, Psalm 72, and Daniel 4:17: a corpus of divine testimony that affirms the moral architecture of governance as inseparable from justice, formation, and reverence for the Most High.^[36]

However, the precept of religion, according to Tomas Fernández de Medrano, is not confined to Christian or European contexts. As further proof of his universal claim, Tomás Fernández de Medrano cites how even the Persians and Romans taught reverence for rulers as a civic virtue, arguing that if pagans upheld such principles for the strength of their republics, Christians are all the more bound—by Scripture and divine will—to do the same and lead by example among nations.^[1]

Modern examples—such as those presented in A Forest of History: The Maya after the Emergence of Divine Kingship (Stanton & Brown, 2020)—demonstrate that divine kingship among the Maya and Egyptians arose as an organic response to cosmic order, sacred law, and ritual obligation.^[105] Like the Egyptians and Persians, the Maya developed political systems that mirrored the same integration of religion, virtue, and justice that medrar makes explicit.^[105] Their historical continuity affirms Medrano's view in his República Mista (1602) that all legitimate civil structures emerge from a foundation of spiritual authority and belief in divine justice.^[2]

Embodiment of Medrar in the Americas

Tomas Fernández de Medrano's refusal to confine the República Mista and grammar of medrar to Christian or European contexts was not merely theoretical: in the Viceroyalty of Peru, the noble polymath, playwright, and archdeacon Dr. Juan de Espinosa Medrano—chaplain to the valido of Spain, Luis Méndez de Haro alongside Diego Fernández de Medrano Zenizeros—embodied the very integration of religion and governance articulated in the grammar of medrar.^[104]

Espinosa Medrano, a "Royal Fellow of the illustrious Seminary of San Antonio the Great, Professor of Arts and Sacred Theology therein; Rector Priest of the Holy Cathedral Church of the City of Cuzco, head of the Kingdoms of Peru in the New World," rose (medrando) through sacred office and imperial pedagogy, embodying his family's doctrine of divinely sanctioned ascent across cultural, ecclesiastical, and hemispheric boundaries.^[106]

His work re-affirmed the grammar of medrar through his Philosophia Thomistica (1688), which formally articulated a universal doctrine and ethic of divinely sanctioned elevation—grounded in classical metaphysics, Second Scholastic logic, and the Platonic-Thomistic tradition—through reason, virtue, and learned authority across Baroque, Indigenous, and imperial philosophical frameworks.^[107]

His Apologético (1662), dedicated to Luis Méndez de Haro, the valido of Spain, was the first of its kind in the Americas: a transatlantic defense of Luis de Góngora and a literary affirmation of Andean-Spanish nobility, written in the spirit of familial continuity with Diego Fernández de Medrano and Sebastian Francisco de Medrano, president of the poetic Medrano Academy. This work situated Espinosa Medrano within a tradition of courtly and conceptual authority, advancing medrar as both a political doctrine and a baroque literary theology of imperial and legitimate ascent. Far from isolated, his life exemplified the Medrano family's enduring system of noble ascent and royal delegation, cultivated across generations for centuries.^[86]

Juan Martínez de Medrano

274 years before the República Mista, its ethic was embodied in the figure of Juan Martínez de Medrano, ricohombre of Navarre, baron of Sartaguda and Arróniz, judge of the Navarrese Cortés, and regent of the Kingdom of Navarre from 1328 to 1329 during the Capetian-interregnum.^[109]

Following the death of King Charles IV of France, Juan was elected by the Estates of Navarre to exercise delegated sovereign authority and oversee the succession of Joan II of Navarre and Philip of Évreux.^[108] Juan Martínez de Medrano governed with the consent of towns, knights, and barons, and used the Medrano family seal as a sovereign representation of the Kingdom of Navarre.^[108]

During this eleven-month regency, he reorganized the kingdom's governance, redefined its symbols, and wielded full royal prerogatives—acting in effect as head of state in a kingdom without a king.^[108] He imposed loyalty oaths, confirmed succession protocols, restructured judicial appointments, reformed taxation, and represented Navarre diplomatically in negotiations with France and Rome.^[109]

His regency in 1328 anticipated all eight royal prerogatives that would later be codified in República Mista (1602)—from enacting laws and levying taxes to commanding allegiance and determining succession.^[2] This early Medrano regency marked a precedent for delegated royal governance and noble legitimacy, centuries before the valido system of the Habsburg court—embodying medrar as virtuous ascent through service, sovereignty, and institutional stewardship nearly three centuries before its formal codification in República Mista.^[108]

Juan's regency preceeded that of García de Medrano y Álvarez de los Ríos in 1645 and Pedro Antonio de Medrano's 1702 regency of Navarre. Pedro was a Knight of Alcántara, awarded a habit of the Order of Santiago, and served as an oidor on the Council of Orders. Pedro held symbolic authority over Navarre as a direct descendant of Íñigo Arista, Joan II of Navarre and Philip III of Évreux.^[110] Each regency represents sovereign embodiments of the doctrine of medrar, entrusted with royal authority to govern the Kingdom of Navarre through delegated power.^[111]

Diego de Medrano

Diego de Medrano, knight of the Order of Santiago, interim admiral of the 1588 Spanish Armada, and brother of República Mista author Tomás Fernández de Medrano, exemplified the grammar of medrar in his lifetime long before its formal codification in writing.^[1] On 10 July 1583, Diego de Medrano completed a successful and unprecedented Atlantic crossing to the Azores with twelve Spanish galleys of his own innovative design, in order to participate in the Battle of Terceira—a naval feat never before accomplished.^[112]

According to Luis Cabrera de Córdoba (1559–1623) in his Historia de Felipe II, "It seemed reckless to rely on low-lying, long and unstable ships in the face of high waves, yet these twelve arrived safely [with Captain Medrano] at the island of San Miguel, a thing to admire and celebrate in the hearts of the Spanish."^[113]

By securing the beachhead, landing the tercios, and defending the coastal approaches, Diego de Medrano's galleys established and preserved Spanish control during the Battle of Terceira.^[114] His leadership enabled one of the earliest successful amphibious assaults in Atlantic history, combining naval innovation with tactical precision.^[115] Medrano not only ensured the initial landing but maintained maritime dominance, preventing enemy reinforcements and securing the lines of communication. Medrano's galleys allowed for marine infantry to be used for the first time in order to occupy beaches and land.^[116] His actions were decisive in the defeat of the French-supported claimant António, and they directly enabled the unification of Spain and Portugal under Philip II—transforming Spain into the most powerful empire in the world.

Jorge Manrique wrote to King Philip II to commend Captain Medrano's exceptional leadership, recognizing his command as an act of unmatched naval daring.^[112] In his letter, Manrique recalled promising Medrano personally that he would inform the king, and fulfilled that duty with words that captured medrar in action:

Captain Diego Medrano crossed with the 12 galleys, and during the navigation, he was so vigilant and careful, and everything turned out so well, that he deserves to be shown great favor by Your Majesty, as a demonstration, so that others may be encouraged to take on what everyone judged to be so difficult.^[117]^[112]

Manrique concluded by emphasizing that he had done his part, and that "everything should be for your better service."^[117] After the success of Bazán and Medrano, the Empire of Spain reached the apex of its naval power as a result of the combined might of its navy with the Portuguese navy, effectively becoming the most powerful maritime force in the world. This moment captures the living grammar of medrar: distinguished ascent through prudence, earned recognition within hierarchy, and royal service framed as loyalty to divine order.^[11] This act of leadership, decades before the publication of República Mista, served as a living precedent for the doctrine later codified by his brother, Tomás Fernández de Medrano.^[1]

Diego Ros de Medrano

Among the family's most vivid embodiments of República Mista's ideals was Diego Ros de Medrano, Governor Captain General of the Kingdom of Galicia, and Bishop of the Diocese of Ourense. Personally chosen "like Gideon" and appointed in 1686 by Charles II of Spain,^[13] he held dual authority as both spiritual and political leader—mirroring the balance of ecclesiastical virtue and royal governance that Tomás Fernández de Medrano had championed.^[2]^[118]

In this theological-political role, Bishop Diego Ros de Medrano governed Galicia in accordance with the Medrano grammar of medrar: proximity to the monarch, service through sacred and civil office, and loyal stewardship of delegated power.^[11] His government realized the full Medrano model—sacrifice, virtue, royal favor, and institutional harmony. Praised in death as a "new Moses,"^[13] his life fulfilled the sovereign synthesis that República Mista sought to enshrine: a regime where divine selection, royal legitimacy, and noble virtue converge.^[2]

From 1729 to 1734, during the reign of Philip V, Giovanni Antonio Medrano transmitted the grammar of medrar to educate the Bourbon princes and future kings of Spain.^[12]^[60]

Giovanni Antonio Medrano

Through Queen Elisabeth Farnese, the Medrano family's mathematical and political-theological vision passed to her sons—where it was embodied in the education they received. The grammar of medrar, once articulated through law, literature, and education, was carried forward in practice and architecture by Giovanni Antonio Medrano, Major Royal Governor of Mathematics in Naples, chief royal engineer, and royal architect of the kingdom. Giovanni designed the Teatro di San Carlo—today the world’s oldest continually operating opera house (1737)—and the Royal Palace of Capodimonte (1738), both monumental expressions of Bourbon dynastic authority commissioned for Charles III of Spain.^[12]

Entrusted with educating the future Charles III of Spain, Ferdinand VI, and their brothers from 1729 to 1734, Giovanni taught them geography, history, mathematics, military science, architecture, and the principles of enlightened kingship—ensuring that medrar was not only inherited but enacted in the Age of Enlightenment.^[12]^[119]

In 1744, Phelipe Medrano encoded the family's political theology of ascent, delegated rule and noble kingship into mathematical doctrine, providing a sacred form of medrar to the Bourbon court.^[60]

Phelipe Medrano

In a dedicatory sonnet praising Phelipe Medrano's Quadrados mágicos, a doctrinal mathematical treatise dedicated to Queen Elisabeth Farnese, Joseph Cañizares—knight of the Order of Santiago—explicitly links the doctrine of medrar to the name Medrano, equating arithmetic, divine favor, and noble ascent (medrar) in 1744.^[120]^[121]

Joseph Cañizares, a member of the Academia Poética Matritense,^[121] addresses Phelipe (Philipo) Medrano in 1744 as follows:

Socrates immortal, divine Plato; If numeric seas they furrowed, Course they held, for the North they found, Following the Pythagorean path; If on the soul's affections the Tarentine, (And others with him) in numbers delved, Through Nicomachus the method they uncovered In learned and pilgrim Arithmos. Only you (Philipo), lack neither compass nor guide, By influence of Sovereign Numen’s might, You part the mists, revealing the day; Let the joyful Egyptian boast and preen, If my weak Arithmetic shows harmony— If it began to medrar, it is because of MEDRANO.^[120]

Therefore, what was first exemplified by the Medrano family, then theorized and codified, was expressed through poetry, philosophy, and mathematics.^[11]

Under Bourbon rule, Phelipe Medrano, a knight of the Order of Santiago and a member of the Academia Poética Matritense in Madrid,^[122] advanced the Medrano family's political theology by transforming their justification of delegated rule and divine kingship into a mathematical and alchemical architecture.^[123]

Phelipe Medrano's Quadrados mágicos, que sobre los que figuraban los egypcios, y pygthagoricos, para la superticiosa adoración de sus falsos dioses (1744), published in Madrid and dedicated to Queen Elisabeth Farnese, is often considered the numeric heir to Tomás Fernández de Medrano's República Mista.^[60]

Quadrados mágicos encoded the grammar of medrar, precepts of delegated rule and balanced sovereignty into increasingly complex magic squares, ranging from 3×3 to 32×32.^[124] In doing so, it constructed a numeric model of medrar and kingship within magic squares. The work stands as a unique fusion of political theory, alchemical symbolism, and mathematical statecraft.^[60]

This monumental work advanced the Medrano family's political theology into the realm of combinatorial mathematics. In contrast to the Egyptians and Pythagoreans—who employed magic squares for superstitious and astrological purposes—Phelipe explicitly sought to redeem and perfect the ancient art by offering his squares as a Christianized and mathematical grammar of governance to the Queen herself.^[85]

In this symbolic framework, Queen Elisabeth Farnese is elevated as the celestial recipient of Phelipe's doctrine—transforming ancient superstition into a Christianized geometry of rule. With "humility and gratitude," he dedicates it as "a true and constant benefit to the realm—one whose superior planet, with benevolent aspect, wards off danger and enriches the glory of Spanish Lords, that they may enjoy its treasures for long years."^[60]

In doing so, Phelipe Medrano extends the family's theological-political logic first articulated in República Mista, encoding its grammar not in prose, but in number and sacred form.^[124]

A sovereign grammar: the doctrine of medrar across time and empire

The doctrine of medrar, first embodied by the House of Medrano in grammar and sovereign acts and affirmed in its very etymology, was later codified in law and ultimately passed on through education, theology, and number, offers more than a noble family's legacy; it presents a structured grammar of rule that transcended generations, kingdoms, and continents. From Juan Martínez de Medrano's regency in Navarre in 1328 to Phelipe Medrano's mathematical offering to the Bourbon court in 1744, medrar emerged not as a passing custom, but as a durable architecture of ascent: a system in which legitimacy was not simply inherited, but earned through virtue, proximity, and service.^[1] Writers such as Girolamo Frachetta, a particular favorite of Philip, reinforced the foundations of this doctrine by promoting a conservative vision of reason of state grounded in princely prudence and just obedience to the established laws and customs of the realm.^[125]

In the epistle to his Mirror of Princes, Diego Fernández de Medrano addresses not only kings and counselors, but all who would rise. He urges students, nobles, and rulers alike to confront themselves through the uncompromising clarity of reason:

A mirror is not for flattery, as the courtly often use it. The mirror is faithful: to faults it gives proportioned truth. Truth is the mirror of princes, and princes should be mirrors of virtue... If anyone finds it too sharp, let him not accuse the mirror, but acknowledge the faults that it reflects.^[59]

In closing his epistle, Diego Fernández de Medrano makes clear that the mirror he presents is not offered "to praise particular individuals, nor out of vanity," but to reflect "not only what is clear, but all that is within."^[59] Diego's words were not made in abstraction, but within a framework of sacred obedience articulated by his great-uncle Tomás Fernández de Medrano.^[1]

Following the unification of the Portuguese Empire into the Spanish Crown, Philip II issued a proclamation in Portugal on 5 June 1595, as part of the preamble to the Ordenações Filipinas, that powerfully echoed the principles later codified by Tomás Fernández de Medrano.^[58]

In 1595, King Philip II of Spain declared in the Ordenações Filipinas:

As in a true mirror, [kings] must always examine and perfect themselves; for just as Justice consists in equality, and in giving to each his due with a just balance, so too must the good King be one and equal to all in repaying and rewarding each according to his merits.^[58]

In this vision of kingship, justice, merit, and divine service are inseparable—a royal articulation of Medrano's doctrine.^[1] Declaring justice to be "the principal virtue, and above all others the most excellent," Philip II affirmed that kings must act not for their own gain, but for the good of their people, rewarding each according to merit and sustaining the Republic through a balance of arms and laws.^[58] Tomás Fernández de Medrano echoes this principle in República Mista by citing Tacitus: "Neque quies gentium sine armis, neque arma sine stipendiis, neque stipendia sine tributis" — "There is no peace among nations without arms, no arms without pay, and no pay without taxes."^[1]

In his República Mista, Tomás cautions that "in His anger, God appoints for the people the kind of ruler they deserve for their sins, and kings who were once thought to be good become evil."^[1] Tomás affirmed good citizens:

as mirrors and exemplars of His goodness, [and] the bad, as scourges of His wrath, to punish the wickedness of the people.^[1]

Tomás offers preventative counsel, affirming that "if such people would fix their eyes on the word of God, it would lead them far from such a course," for it teaches obedience not only to princes who govern justly, but even to those "who think of nothing but their own desires," since "these, whatever they may be, hold no power except from His divine majesty."^[1]

By uniting divine order with legal rigor and educational formation, the Medrano lineage shaped an enduring imperial ethic and grammar where governance was both visible and moral, power was delegated yet sacred, and the ascent of individuals reflected the cosmic and political order they were entrusted to uphold.^[13]^[76]^[77]^[59]

References

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^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s Fernández de Medrano, Juan (1602). Republica mista... / por Don Iuan Fernandez de Medrano... ; parte primera. En Madrid: en la Imprenta Real: por Iuan Flamenco.
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^ ^a ^b Guadagnin, Erika (2022). "Capitolo IV. Philosophia Rationalis Naturalis Moralis". La Philosophia nella Grande Galleria (in Italian). Ledizioni. pp. 179–501. ISBN 978-88-5526-928-5.
^ ^a ^b Salazar, Fray Juan de (1997). Herrero García, Miguel (ed.). Política española. Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales.
^ "Republica Mista". Retrieved 2025-03-19.
^ ^a ^b ^c Tellez, Diego (2015). "Tomás y Juan Fernández de Medrano: una saga camerana a fines del s. XVI y comienzos del s. XVII". Berceo.
^ ^a ^b ^c República Mista by Tomás Fernández de Medrano, 1602. Page 2.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v Fernández de Medrano, Juan (1602). República Mista (in Spanish). Imprenta Real.
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^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Marías Franco, Fernando (2005). "Entre Sevilla y Napoles: Juan Antonio Medrano, Ferdinando Sanfelice y los Borbones de España de Felipe V a Carlos III". Atrio. Revista de Historia del Arte (10–11): 5. ISSN 2659-5230.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Phelipes, Jacinto Andres (1714). Aclamacion posthuma, immortal fama, panegyrico clarin de virtudes ... a ... Diego Ros de Medrano ... Obispo de Orense ... (in Spanish). en el Covento de la Santissima Trinidad.
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^ SALAZAR, FR. J. DE, Política española..., p. XVI
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External links

República Mista by Tomás Fernández de Medrano (1602), published in Madrid.
Heroic and soaring fame of the Most Excellent Lord Don Luis Méndez de Haro by Diego Fernández de Medrano y Zenizeros.
Mirror of Princes: Crucible of their Virtues, Astonishment of their Failings, Soul of their Government and Government of their Soul by Diego Fernández de Medrano y Zenizeros, Lord of Valdeosera and Sojuela.

[:33-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p Fernández de Medrano, Juan (1602). "Republica mista, dirigida a D. Francisco de Sandoval Duque de Lerma, ... Parte primera". Biblioteca del Banco de España (in Spanish).

[Medrano1602-Granada-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s Fernández de Medrano, Juan (1602). Republica mista... / por Don Iuan Fernandez de Medrano... ; parte primera. En Madrid: en la Imprenta Real: por Iuan Flamenco.

[3] "Republica Mista". granatensis.ugr.es. Retrieved 2025-03-19.

[Guadagnin2022-4] Guadagnin, Erika (2022). "Capitolo IV. Philosophia Rationalis Naturalis Moralis". La Philosophia nella Grande Galleria (in Italian). Ledizioni. pp. 179–501. ISBN 978-88-5526-928-5.

[:0-5] Salazar, Fray Juan de (1997). Herrero García, Miguel (ed.). Política española. Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales.

[6] "Republica Mista". Retrieved 2025-03-19.

[Tellez2015-7] Tellez, Diego (2015). "Tomás y Juan Fernández de Medrano: una saga camerana a fines del s. XVI y comienzos del s. XVII". Berceo.

[República_Mista'_1602._Page_2-8] República Mista by Tomás Fernández de Medrano, 1602. Page 2.

[Medrano1602-Google-9] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v Fernández de Medrano, Juan (1602). República Mista (in Spanish). Imprenta Real.

[10] "Republica mista Madrid en la Imprenta Real, por Juan Flamenco 1602". inventarios.realbiblioteca.es. Retrieved 2025-03-19.

[:6-11] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Campo-Perales, Àngel (2024-10-28). "Los validos valencianos del valido. Arte y legitimación social en tiempos del Duque de Lerma (1599-1625)". Espacio Tiempo y Forma. Serie VII, Historia del Arte (in Spanish) (12): 275–296. doi:10.5944/etfvii.12.2024.38583. hdl:10550/109086. ISSN 2340-1478.

[:17-12] Marías Franco, Fernando (2005). "Entre Sevilla y Napoles: Juan Antonio Medrano, Ferdinando Sanfelice y los Borbones de España de Felipe V a Carlos III". Atrio. Revista de Historia del Arte (10–11): 5. ISSN 2659-5230.

[:24-13] Phelipes, Jacinto Andres (1714). Aclamacion posthuma, immortal fama, panegyrico clarin de virtudes ... a ... Diego Ros de Medrano ... Obispo de Orense ... (in Spanish). en el Covento de la Santissima Trinidad.

[:36-14] Cervantes, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de. "Favores de las musas hechos a Don Sebastian Francisco de Medrano ..." Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-05-11.

[15] SALAZAR, FR. J. DE, Política española..., p. XVI

[16] N. Antonio, Biblioteca Hispana Nova sive hispanorum qui ab anno MC ad MDCLXXXIV flovuere notitia, vol. II, Madrid, Joaquín Ibarra, 1783, pág. 302

[RAH-Tomas-17] "Tomás Fernández Medrano". dbe.rah.es. Retrieved 2025-03-19.

[18] SALAZAR, FR. J. DE, Política española, Edición, estudio preliminar y notas de Miguel Herrero García, Madrid: Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales, 1997 (1619), pp. XV-XVI.

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