The Great Spanish monarch’s Hand. The Soldiers’ death and Viceroy Galve’s Power in New Spain, 1694

Abstract

In 1694 Viceroy Galve undertakes a complex situation due to lack of support and to the discredit his misgovernment generated. Funerary honours offered to soldiers slayed in previous battles provide him with the opportunity to reinforce his position among soldiers, the people and the viceregal oligarchy, as well as to reconcile himself before the king in the metropolis. This is ensued by means of a very learned iconography, deployed in the hieroglyphics which illustrate the tumulus —raised for said soldiers— invented and described —in the brochure that would reach the Court— by the Jesuit Francisco Méndez. A tumulus, decorated in such a manner would be an exception in honours for soldiers, in the XVII century and the reasons prove to be merely courtly towards viceregal power.