Giulio Alberoni - Middle Years

Middle Years

In 1711 he followed Vendôme into Spain as his secretary. He was very active in furthering the accession of the French candidate for the throne of Spain, Philip V. Two years later, Vendôme having died in the interval, Alberoni was appointed consular agent for Parma at Philip's court, where he was the royal favourite, being raised at the same time to the dignity of count. On his arrival at Madrid he found the princesse des Ursins (Orsini, born de la Trémoille) all but omnipotent with the king, and for a time he judged it expedient to use her influence in carrying out his plans. Upon the death of the Queen (Maria Luisa of Savoy), Alberoni in concert with La Trémoille arranged for a marriage in 1714 between the widowed King and Elisabetta Farnese, daughter of the Duke of Parma.

The influence of the grateful new queen being actively exerted on Alberoni's behalf— the princesse des Ursins having been chased out— within not much more than a year Alberoni was made a duke and grandee of Spain, a member of the king's council, appointed bishop of Málaga, and in 1715 prime minister, and was made cardinal by Pope Clement XI, under pressure from the court of Spain, in July 1717. His vigorous internal policy mixed the economic reforms of Colbert for Louis XIV with some conservative Spanish aspects: a regular mail service to the Americas was instituted, yet the school of navigation he founded was reserved for the sons of the nobility. By a series of decrees in 1717, Alberoni reduced the powers of the grandees in royal councils. His main purpose was to produce an economic revival in Spain by abolishing internal custom-houses, throwing open the trade of the Indies and reorganizing the finances along lines that had been established by the French economist Jean Orry.

With the resources thus gained he undertook to enable Philip V to carry out an ambitious foreign policy to undo the Treaty of Utrecht, with the aim of countering the Habsburgs and recovering Spanish possessions in Italy, where he was responsible for unwarranted invasions of Sardinia (November 1717, strongly supported by Sardinian politician Vicente Bacallar) and Sicily (July 1718), in spite of promises made to the Pope, while pressing Spanish causes in France with the Cellamare Conspiracy. Another extravagant scheme of Alberoni's was the plotted restoration of the Stuarts to the British throne in two Jacobite expeditions to Scotland in the spring of 1719. By provoking Britain, France, the Netherlands and the Empire to form the Quadruple Alliance, his hasty and ambitious plans brought a flood of disaster to Spain, for which Alberoni was held responsible. France launched an invasion of eastern Spain while the British successfully raided Vigo. On 5 December 1719, with Philip V fast becoming the common enemy of all Europe, Alberoni was ordered to leave Spain, Elizabeth herself having taken an active part in procuring the decree of banishment.