Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco, 8th Duke of Escalona

Trying an approach to later Pacheco's

We will refer here only to the 6th, and 7th Dukes of Escalona, ancestors of the 8th, 9th and 10th Dukes of Escalona, who were respectively 1st, 2nd and 3rd Directors of the Royal Spanish Academy, Juan Manuel, Mercurio Antonio and Andrés María respectively Directors between 1713 and 1746.

Meetings of the 24 strong Selected Group of "Academicians", quite a hard working lot indeed, even for today technical standards, took place at the Madrid Private Palaces of these 3 Escalona's Dukes.

Political and military background of the first 3 family related Royal Spanish Academy Directors

Don Juan Manuel father, the 7th Duke of Escalona, between other titles, had the name Diego Roque López Pacheco, (Alcázar de Belmonte, (16 August 1599, the day of Saint Roque in the Calendar - + Pamplona 27 February 1653, aged 52), a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and had married first in 1620 his cousin Luisa Bernarda de Cabrera y Bobadilla, but she died in 1638, 7th Marchioness of Moya, a title awarded by the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon to a family of Crown treasurers and financial royal accountants converted from Judaism to Catholicism .

The 7th Duke, Diego Roque, was sent then, as a widower, as a Viceroy and Captain General of Mexico, (1638-) detained and put in prison by Royal Appointee as New Viceroy Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza in 1642), marrying then again, in 1644, the lady described as Juana María Francisca de Zuñiga, (deceased at Pamplona, Navarre, on 17 February 1652), daughter of powerful Francisco Diego Lopez de Zuñiga y Sotomayor, 7th Duke of Béjar.

The reason by widower Diego Roque, 7th Duke of Escalona was detained in Mexico when he was the 17th Viceroy was the high suspicions in the Madrid Court concerning the Portuguese family of the powerful Dukes of Braganza.

The 7th Duque Teodosio II de Braganza (1568-Duke 1583-1630), had taken part, aged around 11, in the significant North African battle known as Battle of Alcazarquivir.

Portugal had become, as a consequence, a Kingdom ruled by King Philip II of Spain, being called there Philip I of Portugal. He took a lot of trouble however in getting both nobilities, Spanish and Portuguese, hating one another, as quite, peaceful and no mixings or misunderstandings as best as he could.

The amounts of lands in Asia, Africa, America and Europe was thus staggering when both powers were ruled by a same physical King and successful management must have been most difficult indeed.

Then, Duke Teodosio's II son, a cousin of the 7th Duke of Escalona and Viceroy of Mexico till his imprisonment in 1642 in Mexico, 8th Duke Juan II de Braganza (1604-Duke successor 1630-New King of Portugal after 1 December 1640 – 1656), was crowned and accepted as King of Portugal, as the first King of the new Braganza Royal Dynasty.

New King Juan II of Portugal since 1 December 1640 was married to the daughter of the Duke of Medinasidonia, accused of having tried to set up and Independent Andalusia. The new Spanish born Portuguese Queen got her father arrested and the Duke of Medinasidonia died while in prison.

This, one of many obscure pages of the then powerful but exhausted by widely extended military investments and wars Habsburg Imperial Spain has received, and will continue receiving, no doubt, the attention of world historians.

Therefore, the 7th Duke of Escalona, the suspected Mexico Viceroy replaced by the Madrid Court forecasters, who had inherited from the 6th Duke, (deceased without issue), died, 1653, when his son Juan Manuel was barely three years old, and while his 2nd wife, the daughter of the 7th Duke of Bejar, the mother of Juan Manuel, had died the year before, 1652.

Fortunately, the 6th Duke of Escalona, albeit dying without issue, have had several bastard brothers/sisters who had professed in the Holy Religion, namely the ones described as:

6Esc. B1) Diego Antonio Pacheco, Dean of Jaén Cathedral, (20 September 1594 - a prisoner in Istanbul, (Turkey), in 1616, aged 22 - ?).

6Esc. B2) Juan Francisco Pacheco, (baptized at Rome, Italy, 28 February 1606)), a Knight of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Fellow student at the Colegio Mayor de los Caballeros Manriques, at Alcalá de Henares, Canon and Dean at Jaén on 17 April 1622, sommelier of King Philip IV, Bishop of Cuenca, 1654, Bishop of Córdoba, 1658- deceased 1663). This Bishop had at least than two children, a nun, Juana Maria, resident at a Convent in Escalona, and Andres Mauricio, Cavalry Captain in the Spanish Governor ship of Milano Dukedom, Italy, deceased in Rome, Italy, 1654.

6Esc. B3) Maria Pacheco, Abbess of the Concepcion Convent at Escalona, (Toledo), where her bastard niece, daughter of his bastard brother, the later Bishop of Cuenca and Córdoba aforementioned, was a nun.

Furthermore, the 7th Duke of Escalona, itself, got another bastard son in Holy Religion, named

7Esc. B1) Antonio Pacheco, "colegial mayor en el Mayor de los Caballeros Manriques de Alcalá de Henares, deán y canónigo de la Santa Iglesia de Cuenca - + Cuenca 2.3.1676)".

As a bastard brother of the 8th Duke, Juan Manuel, he did not only have then bastard relative ancestors but also this bastard brother, Antonio.

He got from his bastard brother, also two nephews, the fruit of the sins of this Canon and Dean at Cuenca, Antonio:

7Esc. B1. 1) Juan Antonio Pacheco, engaged in military actions in Flanders.

7Esc. B1. 2) Juana María Pacheco, Abbess of the Concepcion Monastery at Escalona, as another bastard female ancestor, + 1674.

Clearly enough, his bastard relatives, spanning several generations, did everything they could to educate the fragile and nearly a baby Don Juan Manuel, the orphaned baby 8th Duke. They excelled in it, apparently.

The descendency: the 2nd Director of the Royal Spanish Academy

There is description, above, of Don Juan Manuel, 8th Duke, military and cultural assignments:

His son, named slightly different, Mercurio López Pacheco y Benavides, (Escalona 9 May 1679 - + Madrid 7 June 1738), was the 9th Duke of Escalona and many other titles and honours being the lifetime 2nd director of the RAE (1725–1738).

The 1st and 2nd Directors' descendants

His grandson, who was named Andrés María Fernández Pacheco y Moscoso, (Madrid, 13 August 1710 - Member of the Royal Spanish Academy 25 April 1726, aged 16 - married 21 October 1727, aged 17 - Third Director 1738, aged 28 – 27 June 1746, aged 36), was the 10th Duke of Escalona, twice a Grandee of Spain and many other titles.

Note the shifts on the Pacheco names branch: López/Fernández/López between the three generations as granted by the feeble Kings spanning the end of the XIV and the beginning of the 15th century, (1379–1474), Castilian throne: Juan I, Enrique III, Juan II, Enrique IV.