Last confidences between Mariana and Garcia de Loaysa: the greatness of an archbishopric as ephemeral as its hopes for royal power

The contents of two Egerton manuscripts are analyzed in this paper. One, dating from 1598, is part of the correspondence between Mariana and Garcia de Loaysa. In it, Mariana recommends someone for his friend's government, refers to some issues of ecclesiastical policy, to his future publications (including the treatise De rege et regis institutione) and also expresses his gratitude for a personal favour. The second manuscript, dating from 1599, contains an epitaph written by Mariana after the death of Garcia de Loaysa, which includes biographical details and feelings of a family and personal nature. It amounts to a portrait which is strikingly different from other far more negative ones that history has bequeathed us.