Abstract

The historiography of the Spanish Monarchy has long ascribed it the quality of an open space for élite careers in the service of the Habsburgs. This was the case for cardinals who were Spanish subjects in the King of Spain's Italian dominions and so belonged to the "Spanish faction". They played a difficult role, considering their multiple offices and sometimes conflicting loyalties: as princes of the Roman Church; as bishops of politically significant dioceses that were also important for pastoral care; as mediators for prestigious marriages and the ecclesiastical careers of their own relatives; in some cases even as viceroys to Italian domains. This article aims to reconstruct this complex of duties and ties through the career of Giannettino Doria, who belonged to a noble family of Genoa with a long record of service to the Spanish Monarchy. Doria was Cardinal (1604), Archbishop of Palermo (1608-42) and four times Viceroy ad interim of Sicily. In the latter role his multiple loyalties were particularly put to the test by the jurisdictional struggle between Rome and Madrid regarding the controversial Papal privilege of the Apostolic Legateship or "Regia Monarchia".