1624 Tumult of Mexico in Perspective (c. 1620–1650)

Angela Ballone, Ph.D. (2012), University of Liverpool, works as a Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History of Frankfurt am Main. Previously, she has been Fellow at the Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rome (2016) and the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (2014–2015). She is currently working on the project ‘Translating Solórzano from Within’ on the jurist Juan de Solórzano Pereira (1575–1655).

• General Editor’s ForewordAcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsAbbreviationsTranscription SystemThe Tumult in BriefIntroductionThe Scale of the Mexican DisturbancesRoyal Authority as a Tool of Integration in the Iberian AtlanticHistoriographical Approaches to the Tumult of 1624Rethinking the Tumult in Perspective1 Theatre of the DisturbancesWindows onto the Iberian Atlantic WorldMetropolis of the New WorldThe Composite Nature of Mexican Urban PopulationThe Broad Urban ScenarioRoyal Authority in Flesh and Blood2 Pre-Dating the TumultThe Mexican Audiencia at the Time of GuadalcazarGuadalcazar: el Buen Rey or a Despotic Viceroy?Historiography on Guadalcazar’s MandatesFrom Mexico to LimaThe Logistics of Communication in the Iberian Atlantic3 A Viceroy in an Age of DeclineRoyal Appointment by Philip IIIGelves’s First Entry in Mexico CityFirst Impressions in the New WorldPositive Feedback to the CouncilReforming Local Custom and Patronising Municipal InstitutionsSupervising the Administration of JusticeThe First Arrest of Oidor Vergara GaviriaOld World Casuistry and New Instructions from Spain4 The Two Heads of the ViceroyaltyThe Administration of the Faith: A Sensitive TopicIdyll between Archbishop and ViceroyDeterioration of the Varaez CaseTwo Majesties in ConflictJuntas in Spanish AmericaAuthority from Theory to PracticeThe Cathedral of Mexico and the Scale of ConflictsNew Year and the Eve of the TumultThe Beginning of the EndReactions to the Exile5 Storming the Viceregal PalaceRoyal Authority Performed in the Mexican ZócaloThe King Arrested and the Pope ExiledSacred Objects in the BattlefieldA Heretic Viceroy in Mexico City?‘Long Live to the King and Death to Heretics!’The Insurgents’ RequestsFrom Fire to FirearmsThe RegencyThe Viceroy is MissingThe Tumult is OverWho were These Insurgents Anyway?IllustrationsThe Long Road to Resolution6 The Day AfterComuneros of New Spain?The Pillage of the Palace‘No God, nor King, nor Judges!’The Mexican DelegationThe Viceroy BesiegedJustice and Power Performed by the AudienciaSparkling the Transatlantic DebateA New Viceroy in an Age of CrisisRestoration of Viceregal AuthorityTwo Viceroys, Two Schools of PoliticsThe Archbishop of Mexico in Europe7 Tools of Control from the Metropolitan CourtPreparations for the General InspectionThe Beginning of the InspectionGelves’s Judicial ExaminationViceroys’ Authority above Everything ElseThe Second Arrest of Oidor Vergara GaviriaMexico City under Pressure AgainThe End of Gelves’s Juicio de Residencia (in Mexico)Unsettling Metropolitan Considerations about the Inspection8 From the Inspection to the General PardonAnother Extraordinary Junta at the Court of Philip IVThe Mexican Pardon in PerspectiveThe New Archbishop of MexicoRestoration of Religious AuthorityThe Edict of the PardonThe New InspectionDifferent Interpretations of the PardonMore Tensions in Mexico CityThe Resilience of the Gelvista Party9 Metropolitan Déjà VuTwo Heads in Opposition, Again‘There is Only One Viceroy in New Spain!’Assessing the Junta del Tumulto de MéxicoThe Members of the JuntaThe Hidden ‘Life’ of the Junta del TumultoAn Ongoing Discussion outside the JuntaRethinking Metropolitan Perceptions of Mexican PoliticsThe Viceroys’ SentencesConclusionsAppendix: A Fructibus Eorum Cognoscentis Eos (México, 1629)GlossarySelect BibliographyIndex

"What stood at the centre of this processes, indeed what made it possible for local power struggles to be resolved, was a shared understanding of the principles of law, power, and authority which bound the early modern Spanish world together and which, as Ballone demonstrates, were fundamentally the same on both sides of the Atlantic." - Francisco A. Eissa-Barroso, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, in: The International Journal of Maritime History 31(2) (June 2019) [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ijh]“Superando la narrativa de las historias nacionales, Ballone apuesta por un enfoque “atlántico” para estudiar el tumulto de 1624. Así, la autora concibe este conflicto no como algo restringido a la política interna del virreinato de la Nueva España, sino como un fenómeno cuyas causas y repercusiones deben ser ubicadas en ambos lados del Océano Atlántico, un espacio que es entendido más en términos de continuidad que de ruptura o separación.” - Francisco Quijano, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México – UNAM (Mexico), in: Los Reinos de las Indias en el Nuevo Mundo (blog), 22 January 2019 [https://losreinosdelasindias.hypotheses.org/]“La autora sugiere de un modo convincente que la solución del conflicto, - y los radicales cambios de postura de la corona - se explican tanto por la evolución de las relaciones de poder en Madrid, y por los imperativos de la política extranjera de España, como por el análisis que ella hace de la situación local. (...) Reexaminando la crisis mexicana de 1624, Ballone logra innovar. Poniendo a debate la noción de autoridad monárquica mediante el análisis de su ejercicio concreto, apropiándose de los objetos y de las herramientas de la historia de las redes y de los de la historia atlántica, la autora logra abrir nuevas perspectivas.” - Pierre Ragon, Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre (France), in: Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos (blog), 17 December 2018 [https://journals.openedition.org/nuevomundo/74030]. "In the finest tradition of Atlantic history, Angela Ballone’s monograph about the 1624 tumult of Mexico City brings us a broader understanding of how royal authority was made in New Spain and Spanish America". Gibran Bautista y Lugo, in Fifteenth–Seventeenth Centuries.