Calderon, the Courtier

Calderon, the Courtier by Edward Bulwer-lytton

Roderigo Calderon, Marquis de Siete Iglesias, holds absolute sway over Spain as secretary to the weak King Philip the Third, having risen from obscure origins through his zeal in the persecution and expulsion of the Moriscos and through the patronage of the Duke of Lerma and the Jesuit confessor Fray Louis de Aliaga. His true past is hidden: he is in fact Roderigo Nunez, a former Salamanca student who fled after killing a rival, Arraez Ferrares, in the mistaken belief that his wife Inez had been unfaithful. Calderon also secures the friendship of the young Infant of Spain, positioning himself for continued power under the next reign, while the Duke d'Uzeda, son of Lerma, conspires against both his father and Calderon to seize influence over the king. The soldier Don Martin Fonseca, once Calderon's pupil and an early benefactor of his rise, seeks Calderon's help to free his beloved, the actress-turned-novice Beatriz Coello, from the convent of St. Mary of the White Sword, so they may marry despite his family's objection to her low birth. Calderon agrees to help, but the Infant reveals he too desires Beatriz, having pursued her before her flight to the convent, and demands Calderon's aid in obtaining her instead. Calderon reluctantly agrees to arrange Beatriz's abduction for the prince, while also engineering Fonseca's arrest on a false charge of desertion (via Lerma) to remove him from the scene, promising Fonseca he will personally rescue Beatriz and reunite her with him later. Calderon abducts Beatriz from the convent himself and brings her to a secluded house, intending to test her virtue against the prince's advances before helping her escape. There, he discovers a letter and a miniature portrait revealing that Beatriz is his own daughter by Inez, whom he had wrongly murdered her supposed lover Ferrares over years before; Ferrares's deathbed confession and Inez's own final letter prove her innocence. Calderon is overcome with grief and paternal love. When the Infant arrives to claim Beatriz, Calderon defies him, declaring himself her father and protector, and flees the house with her. Fonseca, freed from prison through the intervention of Uzeda (enlisted by the sympathetic prison governor Juan de la Nuza), rushes to the house and, in the darkness and confusion, mistakes Calderon for Beatriz's abductor and violator. Attacking blindly, he fatally stabs Beatriz as she throws herself between them, and she dies forgiving him in her father's arms. In the aftermath, Calderon's mysterious absence from court is exploited by his enemies: Uzeda and Gaspar de Guzman engineer the appointment of Aliaga—now turned against his old ally—as Grand Inquisitor, and Lerma is forced from power. Calderon is arrested by the Inquisition on charges including sorcery, endures torture without confessing, and is later transferred to secular courts on a fabricated murder charge (tied to a body found buried in his garden), which he does not contest. He is executed, dying with a sense of atonement, believing his death somehow answers for Inez's fate. Fonseca is reported killed in battle. The new King Philip the Fourth, indifferent to his former favorite's fate, elevates Guzman (the future Count-Duke of Olivares) to power, who promptly banishes both Uzeda and Aliaga, ending the novel amid the cynical churn of court favor.

By Edward Bulwer-lytton · First published 1832 · Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Drama · 11 chapters · 25,342 words

First lines

The Tragi-Comedy of Court Intrigue, which had ever found its principal theatre in Spain since the accession of the House of Austria to the throne, was represented with singular complication of incident and brilliancy of performance during the reign of Philip the Third. That monarch, weak, indolent, and superstitious, left the reins of government in the hands of the Duke of Lerma. The Duke of Lerma, in his turn, mild, easy, ostentatious, and shamefully corrupt, resigned the authority he had thus received to Roderigo Calderon, an able and resolute upstart, whom nature and fortune seemed equally to favour and endow. But, not more to his talents, which were great, than to the policy of religious persecution which he had supported and enforced, Roderigo Calderon owed his promotion. The King and the Inquisition had, some years before our story opens, resolved upon the general expulsion of the Moriscos the wealthiest, the most active, the most industrious portion of the population.

What this Textopian page supports

Calderon, the Courtier is listed on Textopian as a novel by Edward Bulwer-lytton, dated 1832 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Good citation fit

Similar titles

Genres

Tags

Historical Fiction · Romance · Drama · Court Life · Intrigue · Politics · Power Struggle · Ambition · Rivalry · Love Triangle · Deception · Betrayal

Contents

More by Edward Bulwer-lytton