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A baroque vision of the conquest of Tunis in 1535 491

characteristics of baroque theatre in the 17th century: glorifying the
monarchy . Thus, in the case of Mulay, portrayed as the legitimate
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King of Tunis, the Emperor is presented to the audience (and thus
behaves) like a superior being not only because of his status as
emperor and the fact that he is providing military assistance, but also
because of his magnanimity since he gives Mulay back his kingdom.
And more importantly, because he advises the Muslim king to change
the way he rules, and to control his emotions when making decisions
about government. Charles V’s superiority vis-à-vis the nobles who
appear in the play is also clear, and not just because the highest-
ranking aristocrats cannot decide which of them has greater claim to
lead the military operation, but because of the way the emperor settles
the matter by saying that he will lead the campaign not as commander
but as lieutenant of Christ, whom he sees as the true Captain General
of the expedition . It is further worth noting in this regard that all the
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noblemen who appear in the play are of relevance not because of who
they are but because the Emperor had delegated authority to them.
Only a fraction of the nobles from diverse lands who accompanied
Charles V in the campaign are included here such as Alba, Vasto and
Doria . This enables the playwright to establish the supremacy of the
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king over his noblemen, and the pre-eminence of military expertise
over the nobilitas inherited by birth. Likewise, important servants of
the Emperor with no military functions who participated in the
campaign are left out of the play, even the imperial secretary of state,
Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle, who witnessed the agreement between
Mulay and Charles V , or his counterpart, Francisco de los Cobos.
77
What is especially surprising is that Garcilaso de la Vega, an

74 J.A. Maravall, La función educadora del teatro en el siglo de la ilustración, in
Estudios dedicados a Juan Peset Aleixandre, Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, 1982,
vol. II, p. 624. The same author revealed the way that monarchies and some republics
in the eighteenth century created what he calls resources of persuasion, the basis of the
culture of the Baroque within which there would be a propagandist attitude to
disseminate it by various means; in the case of theatre by trying to integrate the public
socially so that it supports the existing political powers. J.A. Maravall, Teatro cit., pp.
14-16, 22, 25, 26, 31ff.
75 This episode appears in many other contemporary accounts, and after the event.
76 For further information about the noblemen of the different territories under the
rule or auspices of Charles V who participated in the Tunis Campaign see P. de
Sandoval, Historia cit., vol. II, pp. 490-494. Some sources point out that the Tunis
campaign was the last time that the noblemen were requested to participate in such
military expeditions (A. de Ceballos-Escalera, Guerra y nobleza cit., p. 146). According
to Nordman over 1,500 Spanish nobles participated in the campaign (D. Nordman,
Tempête cit., p. 147).
77 A. Alvar Ezquerra, Los Mediterráneos de Carlos V y la empresa de Túnez, in A.
Alvar Ezquerra, J.I. Ruiz Rodríguez (eds.), Túnez 1535 cit., p. 218.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Agosto 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)