Jaime José Ignacio Vélaz de Medrano y Barros, 3rd Marquess of Tabuérniga (Santa Eulalia de Gorgullos, Tordoia, 6 February 1693 – Pinto, December 1753) was an aristocrat and nobleman from the House of Medrano. He served as Lieutenant of the Spanish Royal Guards and a respected courtier, later labeled a 'conspirator' by royal authorities for his role in a political movement critical of Queen Isabel de Farnesio's influence during the reign of Philip V. He married Petronila de Bracamonte y Villalón, the daughter of the 4th Marquess of Fuente el Sol. He played a pivotal role in secret peace negotiations between Spain and Britain during the War of Jenkins’ Ear, where he delivered British terms to First Secretary of State, Sebastián de la Cuadra y Llarena.
Birth and ancestry Jaime Velaz de Medrano was baptized on 6 February 1693 in the parish of Santa Eulalia de Gorgullos de Tordoya, in the region of Ordes, in the kingdom of Galicia. His parents were Jaime Vélaz de Medrano y Hurtado de Mendoza, II Marquis of Tabuérniga, who belonged to a family of Navarrese high nobility, and Francisca de Barros y Guillamas, Marchioness consort of Tabuérniga, who belonged to a family of Coruña nobility as they were lords of the Temple and Grajal.
Jaime Vélaz de Medrano was raised until he was five years old in La Coruña, in the house of his maternal grandparents. From this age, he was claimed by his father and came to reside at court with him. When he was not yet seven, his mother died in a drowning accident in the Jarama River. He then went on to live with his uncle, Antonio, with whom he lived until he joined the army.
Ancestry Jaime's ancestry traces back to the ancient Lords of the Palace of Vélaz de Medrano in Igúzquiza. Among the direct ancestors of Jaime Vélaz de Medrano, his grandfather Antonio Vélaz de Medrano, I Marquess of Tabuérniga (Labastida, 1637 – Spa, 1683) a prominent soldier in the reign of Carlos II, Knight of the Order of Santiago, Sergeant General of Battle, he held the position of governor of Nieuwpoort in West Flanders and who in 1680 carried out a curious diplomatic initiative when negotiating with the United Provinces of the Netherlands to crown himself prince of the island of Tobago.
His great-grandfather, Pedro Vélaz de Medrano (Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 28 July 1603 – Coímbra, c. 1659), Lord of Tabuerniga, Knight of the Order of Santiago and page of King Philip III. He was a prominent sailor and soldier in the reign of Philip IV who fought in the Battle of the Dunes in 1639 and was Captain General of the Armada de Barlovento and custodian of the New Spain Fleet, but who betrayed the crown in 1648, going to France, for whose King made several corsair raids in the Caribbean.Bibliotheca Americana et philippina. [Vol. 1, no. 3] https://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/philamer/AEZ2084.0001.003?rgn=main;view=fulltext
His great-great grandfather Antonio Vélaz de Medrano y Mendoza had served as a soldier in Naples and Sicily and would later become magistrate in the towns of Malaga (1609–12) and Cuenca–Huete (1612–14).
The Marquessate of Tabuérniga When Jaime José Ignacio Vélaz de Medrano came of age, a long lawsuit began between him and his cousin, Andrea Narcisa Vélaz de Medrano, to obtain the Marquessate. In fact, his uncle was recognized as the III Marquess of Tabuérniga during his minority. This dispute would end up being resolved in favor of Andrea Narcisa, although the king did not want to completely deprive Jaime of his privileges and allowed him to be titled Marquess of Tabuérniga "for his life," although without any other right associated with the title.
María Concepción de Garoña, acting as mother and legal guardian of Jacobo Ruiz de Berberana y Garoña, a resident of Anguciana (La Rioja), filed a lawsuit against Andrea Narcisa Vélaz de Medrano, Marquess of Tabuérniga, resident of Labastida (Álava) and residing in Miranda de Ebro (Burgos). The case, recorded in 1737 in the Archivo de la Real Chancillería de Valladolid, concerned the restitution of various landed estates and the title of the marquessate.Government of Spain. https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/12718676
Political intervention of the Marquess of Tabuérniga
Jaime José Ignacio Vélaz de Medrano, 3rd Marquess of Tabuérniga, sought to intervene in the succession crisis of Philip V out of a conviction that the monarchy, and Spain itself, were in decline under the influence of Queen Elisabeth Farnese. Far from an act of rebellion, his initiative reflected a broader struggle within the court, one which historian Pedro Luis Lorenzo Cadarso describes as "a series of conflicts that pitted different sectors of the ruling elite, both political and economic, among themselves or against the superior authority."Pedro Luis Lorenzo Cadarso, Fundamentos teóricos del conflicto social, madrid, Siglo XXI, 2001, pp. 53–54.
The 3rd Marquess of Tabuérniga served as a lieutenant in the Spanish Royal Guards, an elite corps reserved for men of noble lineage, admission to which required documented purity of blood.Francisco Andújar Castillo, «Élites de poder militar: las Guardias Reales en el siglo XVIII», en José Luis Castellano, Jean-Pierre DEDIEU y maría Victoria LÓPEZ-Cordon (eds.), La pluma, la mitra y la espada. Estudios de Historia Institucional en la Edad Moderna, madrid, marcial Pons, 2000, pp. 65–94 His position not only confirmed his aristocratic status but also gave him direct access to the inner circles of courtly and dynastic power.
Elisabeth Farnese and the Centralization of Court Power Elisabeth Farnese entered the Spanish court in 1715 during a time of instability and factional conflict. Philip V's poor health had weakened governance, and rival French and Spanish influences competed for control. Elisabeth quickly mastered court politics, creating a personal network of loyal administrators that replaced the older system of noble counsel.
Through ministers such as José Patiño and Manuel de Benavides y Aragón, 10th Count of Santiesteban, she consolidated royal power through direct command, secrecy, and surveillance, transforming the court into an instrument of centralization.Bourbon Reforms and State Capacity in the Spanish Empire Giorgio Chiovelli, Leopoldo Fergusson, Luis R. Martínez, Juan David Torres, and Felipe Valencia Caicedo March 2024 Amid this expansion of control, the House of Medrano endured through figures like Pedro Medrano, Knight of the Order of Santiago, who had served as Secretary of War for the Navy and later as senior Second Official of the Secretariat of State for the Negotiation of Italy under Elisabeth Farnese. Pedro Medrano formed part of a wider Medrano juridical and administrative network that preserved the doctrinal equilibrium of the monarchy from within the very Italian and military institutions Elisabeth Farnese sought to centralize.
The Intervention of Tabuerniga
The so-called "Tabuérniga conspiracy" unfolded during one of the most politically volatile periods of 18th-century Spain. At the time, the royal court had been relocated to Seville due to the fragile health of King Philip V, who was contemplating abdication for the second time. His wife, Elisabeth Farnese, fiercely opposed any shift in control and sought to maintain her influence over the king, resisting any prospect of retirement to La Granja de San Ildefonso. Her residence became an informal center of political gravity, drawing together courtiers dissatisfied with the direction of the monarchy.
In this charged environment, characterized by uncertainty and competing factions, Jaime Vélaz de Medrano conceived his plan as a strategic and loyal effort to safeguard the future of the Spanish Crown by transferring power to Prince Ferdinand. His initiative must be understood within the broader context of dynastic anxiety, institutional paralysis, and patriotic urgency.
Medrano's objective
The objective, on the surface, appeared straightforward: to persuade King Philip V to relinquish the crown in favor of his son, Prince Ferdinand. For Jaime Vélaz de Medrano, 3rd Marquess of Tabuérniga, this was an act of urgent loyalty to the crown intended to rescue it from what he saw as dysfunction and decline. Convinced that Ferdinand's ascension was vital to Spain's stability, Medrano devised a bold but nonviolent plan: the prince would discreetly leave Seville under cover of night, cross into Portugal, and there receive the moral and material backing of his father-in-law, King John V, to pressure Philip into abdicating. To support this plan, Medrano drafted a compelling memorandum: a 19-page handwritten representation addressed directly to Prince Ferdinand, urging him to take up his royal destiny for the good of the nation. Far from advocating rebellion, the document was a patriotic appeal to conscience and kingship.
In this notebook, Jaime Vélaz de Medrano presented the dire state of the monarchy under the name of his father, Jaime Vélaz de Medrano y Hurtado de Mendoza, the 2nd Marquess of Tabuérniga. With Dantesque overtones, he wrote: Spain, sir, respectable patrimony and most beloved homeland of Your Majesty, groans deafly its misfortune because not even breath has been left to try at least to make its pitiful complaints heard and like a living corpse, it lives in its agonies but it lives dying… According to Jaime Vélaz de Medrano, the Spaniards would sooner endure slavery than vassalage, for: If the slaves work, the lord supports them: but woe to the vassals! Woe to the vassals! Who sweat blood to be devoured by the insatiable rage of their ambition… The courts trade with justice; the servants of the Royal House suffer inclemency; the troops have been forced to miserable officers, full of work forced to extreme necessity, to the charitable pity of the bishops and convents; commerce suffers losses and scorn; not even the Church forgives such a voracious tooth. In short, all is pain and all is anguish.
He then urged Prince Fernando to take an active part in the solution: How long will Your Highness' dissimulation and tolerance last? All our hopes consist of Your Highness…
He then proposed the way out of the crisis: The means is very easy. If Your Highness keeps the secret and flies one night to Portugal, everything will be achieved at once, for You will see that at once the opposite machine begins to tremble and that by returning for such a just cause the earth and the heavens will be on Your Highness' side. The way for you to go quickly and without contingency is also very easy: but nothing would be achieved without dissimulation and silence.
Jaime José Ignacio Vélaz de Medrano concluded his memorial with professions of loyalty, devotion to the king and kingdom, and a tone of humility. He justified his actions with the following words: The satisfaction of my King, the good of my country and the glory of Your Majesty, in whose defense I will be as long as I live, I willingly and voluntarily shed my blood, aspiring to no other reward than the noble interest of merit.
Jaime Vélaz de Medrano's support for Ferdinand VI over Philip V was a reflection of his steadfast loyalty to the Spanish monarchy, his homeland, and the precepts of good governance. Convinced that Spain's stability required a generational transition, he acted in what he believed to be the nation's best interest. Medrano intended to deliver his representation to Prince Ferdinand personally on the night of 5 December 1730, taking advantage of a rare moment of private access to the royal family. He would never have the chance, just hours before the planned delivery, he was arrested upon leaving Seville Cathedral, where he had attended prayers. It remains unknown who betrayed his intentions or how the plot came to the attention of José Patiño, chief minister and close confidant of Queen Elisabeth Farnese.
Interrogation of the Marquéss of Tabuérniga