1658. Carta de Inés María de Sousa y Carrillo para su hermano Juan Alfonso Sousa.

Letter from Inés María de Sousa y Carrillo to her brother Juan Alfonso Sousa.

Inés de Sousa informs his brother, Juan Alfonso Sousa, about the facts surrounding the attempt of the Marquis de Santaella to marry Isabel Galindo.

On the 5th of June, 1658, José Manrique and Aguayo, marquis of Santaella, left the city of Cordoba and went towards Écija, accompanied by Alonso Vélez de Guevara, son of the Chief Magistrate of Cordoba and administrator of the estate of the Marquis. There, he took Isabel Galindo out of the convent where she lived as a student, because he wanted to marry her. However, the marquis, who was seventeen years old, could not marry without the consent of his family and of the Council of Castile. For this reason, Juan Antonio de Heredia, public prosecutor of the Chancellery of Granada, was ordered to investigate the case. He tried to determine the guilt of the marquis, but also if there had been the complicity of other people. The people accused of complicity were Juan Vélez de Guevara, the aforementioned Chief Magistrate of Córdoba, and Alonso Vélez de Guevara, who was married with a sister of Isabel Galindo. They were accused of being informed of the plot of the marquis, and of having interest in becoming relatives with the marquis. Other people accused were Alonso Ruiz de la Portilla, tutor of the marquis, Baltasar Galindo and Francisco Manrique de Ayala. Eventually, nobody of the accused was sentenced, if not to pay fines. Many letters were joined to the proceedings, from which it is possible to read about the episode and the reactions it provoked in the family of the marquis.