Validos

Rises and falls of favourites

Some favourites came from very humble backgrounds: Archibald Armstrong, jester to James VI and I infuriated everyone else at court but managed to retire a wealthy man; unlike Robert Cochrane, said to have been a stonemason who became Earl of Mar before the Scottish nobles revolted against him and hanged him and other low-born favourites of James III of Scotland. Melchior Klesl, minister-favourite of Emperor Matthias (1609–1618) and cardinal, was the son of a Protestant baker in Vienna. Olivier le Daim, the barber of Louis XI, acquired a title and important military commands before he was executed on vague charges brought by nobles shortly after his master died, without the knowledge of the new king. It has been claimed that le Daim's career was the origin of the term, as favori (the French word) first appeared around the time of his death in 1484. Privado in Spanish was older, but was later partly replaced by the term valido; in Spanish, both terms were less derogatory than in French and English. Spain had a succession of validos during the reigns of Philip II, Philip III, and Philip IV.