The nuncio Federico Borromeo and the fall of Father Nithard (1668–69)

Abstract

This article is focused on the intervention of Clement IX’s nuncio, Federico Borromeo, as mediator in the political crisis provoked by the expulsion of the Jesuit John Everard Nithard from the Spanish court and territories. Nithard was the confessor and favourite of the widow-queen Mariana of Austria during her first period as regent for her son, King Charles II, between the years 1668 and 1669. Both Borromeo’s correspondence, kept in the Vatican Archivio Apostolico (former Vatican Secret Archives) and the growing bibliography regarding this topic have encouraged the author to review the traditional analysis of those events in which don John of Austria, Charles II’s illegitimate brother, had a very important role, as well as the opposition to the Austrian confessor of prominent members of the Court.