Mercurino di Gattinara

File:Mercurino Gattinara.jpg

Portrait of Mercurino Gattinara by Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen

Mercurino Arborio marchese di Gattinara (b.1465 – d.1530) was an Italian statesman and jurist. Gattinara was a Christian, humanist, imperialist, and conservationist. He was made a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in 1529.

Over his career he served as:

• Legal advisor in Piedmont;
• Counselor to Margaret of Austria; and,
• Chancellor to Carlos V.

 

As Councelor

Mercurino Gattinara served as the legal advisor to Margaret of Austria in Savoy. Margaret considered Gatttinara as chief amongst her various counselors.

As Chancellor

Mercurino Gattinara served Emperor Carlos V as “Grand Chancellor of all the realms and kingdoms of the king.” Upon the death of Carlos’s counselor Chièvres, Gattinara would become the king’s most influential advisor. He was a Roman Catholic, humanist, Erasmian, jurist and scholar—at the same time idealist in his goals, and realist in his tactics. He was a scholar of jurisprudence, the classic theory of the state, and the Christian doctrine of duty. Gattinara would guide Carlos away from both his roots in dynastic Burgundy, and from the prevailing secular political theory of Spain at the time, toward a Christian humanist conception of Empire. His ideas of the primacy of the Empire in Europe were in direct contradiction with the growing trend toward the theory of the nation state.

In his capacity as Chancellor, he urged Carlos V to create a dynastic empire with the object of establishing global rule ("Dominium Mundi"). Gattinara in his policy advice and personal writings argued for Christian imperialism, based on a united Christendom, which would then combat or convert the Protestants, the Turks, and the infidels of the New World. His theory attempted to balance the solidarity of Christian nations, with the requirements of conquest for the establishment of one world empire.

Gattinara was instrumental in shifting Carlos V’s policy vision from that of a regional dynastic monarch to an empire-builder. Doubtless due in large part to Gattinara's cousel, the Spanish Empire would reach its territorial height under Carlos V, although it would begin to show signs of decay at the end of his reign, most importantly with the independence granted to the economically-thriving but tax-averse Low Countries.

Policies

Just as Gattinara is noted for his universalist idealism, he is also recognized as adept in the practice of realpolitik.

Further Reading

• Alvarez, Manuel Fernandez. Charles V: Elected emperor and hereditary ruler. Thames and Hudson, London: 1975.
• Brandi, Karl. trans. C.V. Wedgwood. The Emperor Charles V: The Growth and Destiny of a Man and of a World-Empire. Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, NJ: 1980.
• Habsburg, Otto von. trans. Michael Ross. Charles V. Praeger Publishers, Washington: 1970.
• Schwarzenfeld. Gertrude von. Charles V: Father of Europe. Hollis & Carter, London: 1957.