Spain, Toledo, day 7

Oh man, I’ve spent the day deep in the 1500s, and now I really have earned this bowl of peanuts and glass of wine

Today’s plan was two things: the hospital of Tavera, and the cathedral. Mission accomplished and they were both fantastic

There’s two guys you need to know about in the 1500s. Charles V, who is the grandson of Isabella and Fernando, and his son Phillip II. They were both serious characters, good at their jobs, possibly overwhelmed by them because their responsibilities were as big as it gets

Charles was born in 1500, his grandparents who together ruled Spain still lived but he grew up in Ghent, in Flanders, because his other grandfather was another mega hotshot and was the Holy Roman Emperor (which covered most of the germanic world, the netherlands etc, and bits of Italy). So when they all died, and he was not yet 20, he’d picked up the thrones and crowns to pretty much all of Europe. Not England, because Henry VIII was doing that, and not Scandinavia, France or Portugal. Although he did marry a portuguese princess and picked up that crown too

So honestly, I’m not sure how he even managed to get up in the morning with all that on his plate. The whole continent was an utter shambles with the reformation kicking in, everyone fighting everyone, and the protestant but valuable netherlands trying to break free. Oh yeah, and there was all of the new world too, huge swathes of the americas and asia that suddenly “belonged” to either spain or portugal

And somehow, in the middle of this quite well-run mess, he and his business partner the cardinal Tavera decided to build a fancy hospital in Toledo. The Hospital of Tavera, which was in part a charitable and rather beautiful infirmary, and in part a mausoleum for the hugely powerful cardinal. His tomb is at the heart of the chapel which is at the heart of the hospital complex

Toledo was at this stage a super important city by any standards. Charles had made it the capital of his entire operation; it was wealthy, had historic pondus, clever people in trade, politics, craftsmanship, religion, and scholarship. Madrid was just a dull little town down the road at this point

This Tavera guy was a generation older than Charles, he knew how to get things done, and actually was good at diplomacy. The line between church and state had not been invented at this point, and when Charles was away on business he ran the entire in tray. Oh, and he was chief inquisitor too. The mind boggles. Conflict of interest, anyone?

But this hospital was actually genuine. There were other hospitals in town, but this was to be a showpiece. It stands proudly on a hill on the outskirts of town, connected somewhat grandly to Charles’ new imperial gate into town

I went there looking to find hospital beds etc, but apart from the recreated apothecary there were none. It got taken over as a ducal palace centuries ago! The noble clan that took it over, the most noble of the nobles in Spain, have used it as a huge private library with a stunning collection of their business archives. Sorted by village, town and city, they owned the lot

Mid-1500s Charles abdicated to his monastery between here and Madrid. Son Phillip took over and, despite being somewhat anxious, managed to keep the ship afloat. He didn’t have to do all the Hapsburg stuff, that job went elsewhere in the family, but he did become king of england for a while by marrying Mary Tudor - daughter of Henry VIII by Isabell of Aragon who was Charles’ aunt. She died, so that didn’t last long, got replaced by her sister Elisabeth I, and it was on her watch that England went to war with Spain and won (spanish armada and all that). She was protestant, of course, and everyone from william of orange (dutch) and gustav vasa’s son erik (swedish) were trying to marry her. But, nope

So the hospital was cool. It was a compulsory guided tour of an hour, in english, and there were just two of us. Me and a portuguese guy.

Oh, and there were some fantastic El Grecos! He was supposed to do more, but he was old by this stage, and died

I then recouped with a coffee or two and took on the cathedral for some hours. But that might have to be a new post, this is sillylong already