III The Court and Society in Madrid
Since the reign of Philip II. Madrid has been the unica Corte, or seat of the Court of Spain. Before the twelfth century, a Moorish Alcázar stood on the site of the present royal palace, which was built by Henry IV., added to by succeeding monarchs, and considerably enlarged by Philip III. The original architects were Herrera, Toledo, and other famous designers of the day; but this structure was burned down, and, in 1738, Giovanni Sachetti planned a still larger palace, which is said to have cost £3,000,000 in the building and embellishment.
The modern Palacio Real is rectangular, and stands on an eminence commanding a wide view of the undulating tableland and the distant mountains of Castile. It is built of granite and has wide wings. The chief façade is on the south side. The Princes’ Entrance is one of the several doorways of the fine façade. On the north is another portal of admirable design, leading to the great patio or inner court. The court is surrounded by a piazza on thirty-six arches with the same number of arches above, forming a gallery; and in the square are statues of the Roman Emperors who ruled in Spain.
The grand staircase is of white and black marble, with an allegorical ceiling painting by the Italian Giacinto. In the sumptuous Throne-Room the appointments and decorations are resplendent, and on the ceiling is a picture representing the Majesty of Spain, painted by Tiepolo. Gasparini designed the beautiful hall that bears his name, where the ceiling is of porcelain, and the walls decked with satin upon which flowers are worked. The State Dining-Room of marble contains fresco paintings. The Royal Chapel has columns of marble, and above the altar is a painting by Mengs. Near the Sacristy are stored the holy relics; and in the Tapiceria there is a very fine collection of tapestries after Dutch artists. Attached to the Royal Palace are the Armoury, of which something will be said later, the Royal Stables, excellently appointed, and the sequestered and beautiful gardens.
Such is the principal residence of King Alfonso of Spain. The royal ceremonial is under the direction of the Master of the Household and the Lord High Steward. These officers are always persons of high birth, who are invested with the honours of the Order of Charles III. and the Golden Fleece. The Chief Equerry of the royal household takes the position of Master of the Palace when that functionary is absent, and controls the King’s hunt, and directs several minor officials of the Court.
The Chief Chaplain to the King is the Archbishop of Toledo. One of the principal members of the household is the Keeper of the Queen’s Wardrobe. Then come the Lords of the Bedchamber, Maids of Honour, and the Mayordomos de Semana (of the Week). The military officer in command is the General of the Royal Halberdier Guards, and this functionary presides over the ceremony of opening the palace doors at six in the morning and closing them at eleven at night. In Spain the royal residences are regarded as fortresses, and protected by troops.
The Intendant-General of the Royal House and Patrimony holds a responsible post, and administers the King’s estates and incomes. Other officials are the Private Secretaries, the Director of the Royal Stables, the Chief Physician, the Chief Chemist, the Chief Architect, the Secretary of the Signet, the Secretary of the High Chamber, Keeper of the Archives, the Chief Librarian, the Director of the Royal Armoury, and the Chief of the Tapestry Collection. The gentlemen of the Royal Household wear a badge of office in the form of a silver key, and are clad in special uniforms for various occasions.
Pomp and ceremony attend the movements of the Spanish sovereign, and there is an elaborate “Court Guide” embodying all the ordinances and regulations governing the life at the palace. The rigidity of etiquette in the Court of Spain has, however, been exaggerated in the accounts written by strangers since the time of the Countess d’Aulnoy, for a modern Spanish writer asserts that the Court is “more democratic than most European Courts.”
This writer says: “Almost all the points of etiquette observed at present by the persons who have access to the King and Queen and members of their family are merely formulas of pure courtesy, with which those who are aware of them comply, but which are not imposed at the Palace, nor even mentioned to those who do not know them. Taking the glove off the right hand in order to shake hands with the King; treating him as is his due; rising when he rises and not speaking to him except in reply to his questions; these are the chief points to be observed, and which courtiers themselves sometimes forget without any notice being taken.”
Religious services and festivals are strictly observed in the Palace of His Catholic Majesty, and attended by all members of his Court. The chief solemnities are the Festival of the Immaculate Conception and Nativity, Epiphany and Purification, Ash Wednesday, Annunciation and Incarnation, Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Ascension Day, Whit Sunday, Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, All Saints, and the Patronage of our Lady. The public are admitted to the galleries of the Royal Chapel during the celebration of these festivals and services.
Uniform or court dress is worn by the King at these religious celebrations, the Queen always wearing a black or white mantilla, and a long train to her dress, which is borne by pages. The sovereign sits under a canopy, and the princes and princesses are on either side of the throne. Each grandee of the Court has his allotted seat.
The royal infants are baptized from a font in which St Dominic, the immortal founder of the Friars Preachers, was christened. In the Royal Chapel of the Palace the weddings of the princes and princesses are celebrated, but the Kings are married in the Church of the Atocha.
Foreign ministers are received in the Ante-chamber. There is an annual banquet for all the Diplomatic Corps. One of the court ceremonies is the conferring of the title of Grandee in the Ante-chamber.
Every night the Spanish monarch is guarded in his slumbers by the ancient corps of Monteros de Espinosa. These officers are bound to watch the King nightly, and after his death, until his body is sent to the Royal Panteon at the Palace of the Escorial.
The changing of the royal guard takes place every morning in the grounds of the palace, and is an interesting military spectacle, which attracts a large number of the natives of Madrid as well as visitors to the city. It dates from the time of Charles III. A regimental band plays during the ceremony under the windows of the palace.
The Queen Mother of King Alfonso XIII. is possessed of strong religious fervour, and is a pattern to Madrid society in the observance of the rules of the Church and the practice of charity. But piety is not one of the Madrileño’s conspicuous traits, and there is a notable want of restraint in his language! yet Valentin Gómez writes: “Religion is charity, love, and it cannot be denied that, in this respect, although the crust be hard and unsightly, the heart of Madrid is religious, and great and good work has sprung from its practical religion.”
Ecclesiastical festivals form an essential part of the life of Madrid. The Forty Hours is celebrated at thirty churches of the city. During Holy Week there are impressive services and solemn processions in the streets. Every one walks garbed in black; diversions of every sort and all except indispensable business is suspended. A solemn hush reigns over the feverish city. Traffic in the thoroughfares is forbidden on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and the tramcars do not run during certain hours. On Maundy Thursday the King washes the feet of twelve indigent men and women in the palace, and the public attend the ceremony. Good Friday is a day of grace, when the King, at his discretion, exercises clemency towards criminals accused of capital charges.
A romeria or pilgrimage is celebrated in the morning of Good Friday, when crowds visit the Cara de Dios, and afterwards promenade the streets. Imposing processions also take place on Good Friday, which are sometimes attended by the King and the Court dignitaries.
The Corpus Christi festivals are very important. A splendid procession is formed by the chief clergy, members of the court, and military officers. During these celebrations, fairs are held in the outskirts of the city. There is a curious ceremony in memory of St John during June. On the evening of June 23, the populace assemble in the Plaza de Madrid, and at the stroke of midnight the devout dip their hands in the fountain of Cybele, and scatter the water over the bystanders who are unable to reach the basin.
Advent is commemorated by the proclamation of an ecclesiastical decree in the streets of the city. This Bull refers to the Crusades, and is read by a dignitary of the Church, who is attended by guards and trumpeters. Upon Christmas Eve there is midnight Mass at many of the churches, followed by rejoicings in the streets, when the people sing, and beat drums, and make lively din with various instruments.
Madrid is an important military command, and members of the service are amongst the most fashionable sets in the city, as in other parts of Europe. In Spain, however, the uniform does not of itself confer social distinction, and officers continue to frequent the circles from which they were drawn. Military arrogance is not a characteristic of the Spaniard. Uniforms add to the brightness of the crowds in Madrid, and there is often the sound of regimental bands in the streets. At Caravanchel, eleven kilometres from the city, is a large camp and exercise-ground for the troops, where important reviews are held in the summer, attended by the King and his suite.
The Captain-General of the First Army Corps lives in Madrid, and directs two divisions of this body. Light infantry, cavalry, and artillery are quartered in or near the city. The chief barracks are the Montaña and the Queen Maria Cristina. The barracks of San Francisco are an old convent now utilised for military purposes.
The War Office is in Madrid at the Buena Vista Palace. The artillery and the engineers have their museums and laboratories, and there is a military casino, or club, in the city, containing a gymnasium, baths, fencing-room, and dining-hall.
The chief recreations of Madrid society are the bull-fight, the theatre, dancing, driving, and card-playing. The national pastime of bull-fighting demands a chapter to itself, and the theatre will be treated in another section of this volume. We may here devote a page or two to Spanish dancing, one of the favourite and most charming diversions of the country. Every province of Spain has its traditional dances, from the Jota Aragonesa of Aragon to the Seguidillas of Seville. Andalusia is the region of Moorish dances, survivals of the old days, descriptive of the passion of love. The Cachucha is said to be pre-Roman in its origin, and there is no doubt that most of the national dances are very ancient. Some of these dances are grave and slow, others gay and nimble, and all are marked by grace and charm. The Zarabanda, a Morisco dance of a voluptuous character, was at one period proscribed by the government, and was said to be the invention of the devil. The Fandango also came under reproof in former times.
Typical dances may be witnessed in two or three of the variety theatres of Madrid, but the best dancers are to be seen in the south, in Malaga and sunny Seville. Many ladies in society excel in the art of dancing, and at private gatherings they display their skill and lissom grace in beautiful movements to the accompaniment of the piano or guitar, and castanets. The hands and the trunk of the body play a no less important part than the feet in Spanish dancing.
Besides the characteristic national dances, there are the quadrilles and set dances of other countries which have been introduced into Spain. The minuet was at one time a part of the education of all upper class families in the Peninsula.
Dancing is often part of the entertainment provided at the tertulias, or evening gatherings, in fashionable society. It is the ambition of every handsome lady in Madrid to be famed for her hospitality and to shine as the centre of a tertulia, an institution suggestive in some measure of the salons of France.
Shooting, horse-racing, pigeon-shooting matches, and the ball game known as pelota are the principal out-door recreations of the leisured class in Madrid. The Spanish cazador, or sportsman, is usually a good shot, and capable of enduring severe fatigue in the pursuit of his game. Wild boars and deer are fairly abundant in the preserves of the old families, and these beasts of the chase are also found upon most of the wild mountain ranges. Hares and red-legged partridges afford sport within a league of Madrid, and the Montes de Toledo have always been famous for big game.
The Juego de Pelota is a popular game played in three or four courts in the city by professionals. Pelota is an old amusement of the countryside which has become a fashionable sport. The Basques and the Navarrese excel in this game. A protector for the hand is worn by the players, and the balls are made of india-rubber encased in leather. The ball is struck against a high wall, and hit so that upon the rebound it will fall into a court marked out upon the ground. In some respects pelota resembles fives, and has also a similarity to lawn-tennis. It is a spirited and highly interesting game, and the finest players may be seen in the public frontones of Madrid.
The Madrileños delight in frequenting clubs and cafés, but there is very little drunkenness in the city, although these places of resort are always crowded. Madrid is one of the soberest cities in Europe, and throughout Spain the word drunkard (borracho) is seldom used in polite society. Black coffee is the favourite beverage, to which a few drops of spirit are sometimes added. The wines of ordinary use are light clarets or white wines. A light lager is a favourite drink in the hot weather.
The popular cafés of the Puerta del Sol are used as clubs, where all classes resort to chat and smoke and to read the papers, or to play at billiards. These places are thronged in the evening, and often until the small hours of the morning one hears the buzz of conversation and the click of billiard balls.
As the centre of the Court and the residence of the reigning family, Madrid is, of course, the resort and the home of many members of the aristocracy. The Duke of Lerma, the Duke of Villahermosa, and the Osuna family had palaces in the city; and the first Duke of Alba lived in Calle de la Princesa, since renamed the Calle de Alba. The beautiful Liria Palace, designed by Ventura Rodriguez, is now the home of the young Duke of Alba and his brother and sister, Count de Montijo and Doña Sol.
The Liria Palace contains some fine tapestries, curious antique furniture, and valuable pieces of armour. There is also a collection of paintings in the possession of the family, containing many portraits of illustrious ancestors. The garden of the palace is extremely beautiful and sequestered.
The old Valencian family of Cervello own the palace in the Calle de Santa Isabel. The building stands in a garden, and it was restored some years ago. Very fashionable receptions, costume balls, and theatrical entertainments are held in this sumptuous palace.
The Duchess of Denia built the mansion in the Plaza de Colón. There is a magnificent Renaissance staircase at this palace, a chapel in the later Moorish style of architecture, erected by Arturo Mélida, and a fine reception hall.
The Portugalete Palace in the Calle de Alcalá belongs to the Castaño family. It is one of the most artistic houses in Madrid. In the Plaza de Castelar is the home of the Marquis of Linares, beautifully decorated within, and containing handsome carved furniture.
The Palace of the Larios is another imposing building in La Castellana. It contains a patio in imitation of the Court of the Lions at the Alhambra Palace.
Calderon built the mansion in the Recoletos, which is now in the possession of the Marchioness de Manzanedo, who resides there. The Infanta Isabel has a splendid house in the barrio de Argüelles. The Marquis de Cerralbo, the Duke of Valencia, and the Count of Peñalver reside in elegant houses in the city. The late Conde de Valencia de Don Juan, who was Director of the Royal Armoury, was a noted collector of pictures, objects of art, and antiquities.
Other palaces of interest are those of the Duke of Nájera in the Calle de Alcalá, the old residence of the Countess de Pinohermoso, in the Calle de Don Pedro, the house of the Count de Agreda, and that of the Marchioness de Casa López, near the Puerta de Alcalá. The residence of the Marchioness de Squilache is the rendezvous of the eminent in politics, literature, and art. Artistic gatherings are held in the salon of the Marchioness de Bolaños and that of Don Enrique Peñalver.