Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
L
Labrador, Pedro Gómez Labrador,
marqués de
(1775-1852)
Spanish diplomat
A native of A
RAGON
who represented suc-
cessive Spanish monarchs on diplomatic
missions, the marquis of Labrador served
C
HARLES
IV in Florence at the court of the
grand duke of Tuscany. When the dispute
between Charles IV and his heir led to the
latter's proclamation as F
ERDINAND
VII in
1808, Labrador sided with the new king. He
accompanied him to the conference at Bay-
onne in southwestern France to which
Napoléon Bonaparte summoned the whole
B
OURBON
family. Upon the arrest and con-
finement of the entire party, Labrador was
among those who accompanied Ferdinand
VII to his separate place of detention, where
he shared his master's company for the next
six years. Having established his fidelity to
the ruler and his loyalty to Spain's interests,
Labrador was appointed plenipotentiary to
the Congress of Vienna (1814). At this
international “summit conference” he
found his scope for action limited by the
recognition that Europe would henceforth
be dominated by the so-called Great Pow-
ers, which included Great Britain, France,
Austria, Russia, and Prussia. In this new
concept of European international relations
Spain was not included. Although the
country had been allied with Britain during
the P
ENINSULAR
W
AR
, its reduced standing
did not entitle it to a deciding role at Vienna,
and Spain's interests were not respected
despite the best efforts of Labrador. The
marquis served as envoy to the Kingdom of
Naples and to the papacy during the remain-
der of Ferdinand's reign. His Carlist sympa-
thies excluded him from further
employment after the defeat of the pre-
tender in 1838. During his retirement Lab-
rador wrote two topics:
Relación del Congreso
de Viena
and
Miscelánea . . . de la vida del mar-
qués de Labrador,
both of which give valu-
able glimpses of Spanish foreign relations in
the early 19th century.
La Mancha
Constituting the larger part of Castilla-La
Mancha autonomous region, this area is
nevertheless largely barren. Its name, signi-
fying “the wasteland,” reflects the unpre-
possesing image that existed even in the
Middle Ages, when La Mancha was a kind
of border zone or no man's land between
Christian and Muslim territory in Spain. In
later days La Mancha was chosen by C
ER
-
VANTES
as the site for the adventures of his
hero Don Quixote. The image of the deluded
knight and his stolid squire roaming about
La Mancha added a particular piquancy to
the tale for knowledgeable readers, and in
246
Search WWH ::
Custom Search