John William, Baron Ripperda
Encyclopedia
Tétouan
Tetouan is a city in northern Morocco. The Berber name means literally "the eyes" and figuratively "the water springs". Tetouan is one of the two major ports of Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea. It lies a few miles south of the Strait of Gibraltar, and about 40 mi E.S.E. of Tangier...
), was a political adventurer and Spanish Prime Minister.
Origins
According to a story which he himself set going during his adventures in Spain, his family was of Spanish origin. But there does not appear to be any foundation for this assertion. His father, Baron Ludolph Luirdt Ripperda tot Winsum, was a Dutch military commander. In fact, the RipperdaRipperda
Ripperda is the name of and old and prominent family that belongs to the German and Dutch nobility. Members of this family have played a major role in European history as soldiers, politicians and diplomats.-Origins:...
s were one of the oldest and most influential noble families in Groningen, with origins going back to East Frisia. He was born a Roman Catholic and attended a Jesuit School in Cologne, he conformed to Dutch Calvinism
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
in order to obtain his election as delegate to the states-general
States-General of the Netherlands
The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...
from Groningen.
Dutch ambassador to Madrid
In 1715 he was sent by the Dutch government as ambassador to MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. Saint-Simon
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon
Louis de Rouvroy commonly known as Saint-Simon was a French soldier, diplomatist and writer of memoirs, was born in Paris...
says that his character for probity was even then considered doubtful. The fortune of Jean Orry
Jean Orry
Jean Orry was a French economist whose broad financial and governmental reforms in early 18th-century Bourbon Spain helped to further the implementation of centralized and uniform administration in that country.Jean Orry's career as a munitioneer for the army of Italy between 1690 and 1698,...
, Alberoni
Alberoni
Alberoni as a surname is an uncommon family name. It has been found in fewer than 200 families most with heritage in the province of Piacenza .-People with the surname Alberoni:*Francesco Alberoni , Italian sociologist and journalist...
and other foreigners in Spain, showed that the court of Philip V
Philip V of Spain
Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
offered a career to adventurers. Ripperda, whose name is commonly spelt de Riperdá by the Spaniards, devoted himself to the Spanish government, and again professed himself a Roman Catholic. He first attached himself to Alberoni, and after the fall of that minister he became the agent of Elizabeth Farnese, the restless and intriguing wife of Philip V. Though perfectly unscrupulous in money matters, and of a singularly vain and blustering disposition, he did understand commercial questions, and he had the merit of having pointed out that the poverty of Spain was mainly due to the neglect of its agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
. But his fortune was not due to any service of a useful kind he rendered his masters. He rose by undertaking to aid the queen, whose influence over her husband was boundless, in her schemes for securing the succession to Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
and Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
for her sons.
Spanish envoy to Vienna
Ripperda was sent as special envoy to ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in 1725 and was elevated to the rank of duke
Duke
A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...
. He behaved outrageously, but the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n government, which was under the influence of its own fixed idea, treated him seriously. The result of ten months of very strange diplomacy was the Treaty of Vienna (1725)
Treaty of Vienna (1725)
The Treaty of Vienna was signed on April 30, 1725 between Emperor Charles VI of Austria and King Philip V of Spain.The treaty guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction of the Habsburgs, which was first declared in 1713. Based on the terms of the treaty, the Austrian Empire relinquished all claims to the...
by which the Emperor promised very little, and the Ostend Company
Ostend Company
The Imperial Ostend Company was an Austrian private trading company established in 1717 to trade with the East and West Indies. For a few years it provided strong competition to the traditional colonial trading companies...
received commercial rights in the Spanish colonies in the Americas. Spain was bound to pay heavy subsidies, which its exhausted treasury was quite unable to afford. The emperor hoped to obtain money. Elizabeth Farnese hoped to secure the Italian duchies for her sons, and some vague stipulations were made that Charles VI
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VI was the penultimate Habsburg sovereign of the Habsburg Empire. He succeeded his elder brother, Joseph I, as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia , Hungary and Croatia , Archduke of Austria, etc., in 1711...
should give his aid for the recovery by Spain of Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
and Minorca
Minorca
Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....
. When Ripperda returned to Madrid at the close of 1725, he asserted that the emperor expected him to be made prime minister. The Spanish sovereigns, who were overawed by this quite unfounded assertion, allowed him to grasp the most important posts under the crown. He excited the violent hostility of the Spaniards, and entered into a complication of intrigues with the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and British
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
governments.
End of Spanish career
His career was short. In 1726 the Austrian envoy, who had vainly pressed for the payment of the promised subsidies, came to an explanation with the Spanish sovereigns. It was discovered that Ripperda had not only made promises that he was not authorized to make, but had misappropriated large sums of money. The sovereigns who had made him duke and grandee shrank from covering themselves with ridicule by revealing the way in which they had been deceived. Ripperda was dismissed with the promise of a pension. Being in terror of the hatred of the Spaniards, he took refuge in the British Embassy. To secure the favor of the British envoy, Colonel William StanhopeWilliam Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington
William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington, PC was a British statesman and diplomat.He was a younger son of John Stanhope of Elvaston, Derbyshire, and a brother of Charles Stanhope , an active politician during the reign of George I. His ancestor, Sir John Stanhope , was a half-brother of Philip...
, afterwards Lord Harrington, he betrayed the secrets of his government. Stanhope could not protect him, and he was sent as a prisoner to the castle of Segovia
Segovia
Segovia is a city in Spain, the capital of Segovia Province in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is situated north of Madrid, 30 minutes by high speed train. The municipality counts some 55,500 inhabitants.-Etymology:...
.
Last years
In 1728 he escaped, probably with the connivance of the government, and made his way to Holland. His last years are obscure. It is said that he reverted to protestantism, and then went to MoroccoMorocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, where he became a Mahommedan
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
and commanded the Moors in an unsuccessful attack on Ceuta. But this story is founded on his so-called Memoirs, which are in fact a Grubstreet tale of adventure published at Amsterdam in 1740. All that is really known is that he did go to Morocco, where he died at Tetuan in 1737.
Marriages
He was married twice. His first wife was Aleida van Schellingwoude from whom he inherited the lordships of Poelgeest and Koudekerk. Their son, Ludolph Luirdt, Baron Ripperda also served as Spanish ambassador to Vienna. Their daughter, Maria, married the Spanish Count Balthasar de Argumossa. His second wife was the Spanish lady Francisca de Xarava del Castillo who bore him two sons. The youngest son, Baron Juan María Vicencio de RipperdáJuan María Vicencio de Ripperdá
Juan María Vicencio, Baron de Ripperdá was the Spanish governor of Texas and Honduras.-Early life:He was born ca 1724,the son of Dutch political adventurer John William, Baron Ripperda and Francisca de Xarava del Castillo. His father became Duke of Ripperda and Prime Minister of Spain but was...
, became a Spanish officer and Governor of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
and Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
.
Ripperda escaped Spain with the assistance of the servant girl, Josepha Francisca Ramos. She bore him an illegitimate son, Francois Joseph, whose descendants still live near Lingen
Lingen
Lingen is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. In 2008 the population was 52,353, and in addition there are about 5,000 people who have registered the city as their secondary residence...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and across the USA. There are over 600 descendants in the United States.