‘Very Pleased and Very Amazed with the Grandness and Royalness of this House of Aveiro’: The Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Torres Novas (Setúbal, 1618)

Abstract

This article examines the marriage of Jorge de Lencastre and Ana Doria Colona, the first duke and duchess of Torres Novas, by focusing on its context, negotiations and celebration. It recalls the family strategy of the duke and duchess of Aveiro to contextualize the matrimony that their firstborn son celebrated in the early seventeenth century. It also examines the negotiations leading up to this union to enquire whether the Crown intervened in this border-crossing marriage and to identify the benefits it produced for the House of Aveiro. The article pays attention to the ceremonial dimension of the event through a close analysis of a manuscript description of the festivities. In approaching the marriage from those perspectives, the intention is to evaluate the several layers of meaning for this marriage celebrated at a time when Portugal was incorporated into the Hispanic monarchy. Aside from its dynastic and material significance, the article discusses the political and identity discourses performed in the wedding celebrations and reproduced in the written report. Despite being short-lived, the marriage (and its related festivities) did achieve multiple goals, from serving the interests of the Habsburgs and earning valuable benefits in return for the family, to evoking the ‘grandness and royalness’ of the House of Aveiro.