Sumiller de Corps

This Office was created when, during the Habsburg dynasty, the Spanish Royal Court was shaped after that one that existed in the Court of Burgundy where this Office “Sumiller” from the French “Sommelier”, literally “Wine steward” existed from the old past. Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, but also King of Spain, imported the etiquette styled in the Court of his paternal grandmother Mary of Burgundy.

Diverse dispositions regulated the duties of the “Sumiller de Corps” distinguishing from those of the “Mayordomo mayor” to the King. Although this latter Office was hierarchically higher, the Office of “Sumiller de Corps” was mostly coveted by the high ranks of the nobility, the Grandees of Spain, as it gave full access to the intimacy of the King. And, certainly, thanks to this intimacy with the King, he could influence the concession and distribution of all kinds of graces and mercies. In fact, the Validos of the Habsburg Kings were always their “Sumilleres de Corps” as it happened with the Duke of Lerma and the Duke of Uceda with King Philip III or the Count-Duke of Olivares with King Philip IV.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the ceremonial laws regulating the Royal service confirmed the principal prerogatives that the traditional Burgundian etiquette granted to the “Sumiller de Corps”, in the measure in which they supposed a great intimacy and a physical daily contact with the Monarch. Those of the Royal Chamber of 1659 established that the organization of the closest service to the King corresponded to the “Sumiller de Corps” and, in this way, he might sleep in a bed in the same room of the Sovereign. If this was not possible, or the Monarch wanted to relieve him of this obligation, he had to sleep at least in the Royal Palace. He had, anyway, to deliver the King personally the towel, the shirt, the Golden Fleece, the clothes and the cap and, during meals and dinners, serve him the glass of wine.

Only a peer who had the rank of Grandee of Spain could be appointed for this Office.

With King Ferdinand VII this Office was losing the more and more importance. In fact, it was suppressed by his grandson Alfonso XII when monarchy was restored in 1875. It was not until 1906 that it was created again but with a pure symbolistic character and always attached to the Office of “Mayordomo mayor” as this was the highest office of the Royal Household. The sole exception to this rule was between 1925 and 1927 when the second one was exercised by the duke of Miranda and the first one by the Marquess of Viana, Caballerizo mayor, who in addition, had the privy seal of the King.

In spite of the latter circumstance, under the “Sumiller de Corps”, at least organically, and in agreement with his former function which t has been mentioned before, they were the royal servants who accompanied at all time the Monarch, the “Gentilhombres Grandes de España con ejercicio y servidumbre” (Gentlemen of the bedchamber Grandees of Spain) and those called “Gentilhombres de camara con ejercicio” (Gentlemen of the bedchamber).

Equally until their suppression in 1918, there existed under his command the ranks of “Gentilhombres de Casa y Boca” (literally the Gentlemen of House and Mouth), and “Gentilhombres de Entrada” (literally Gentlemen of Entry).

All this classes of royal servants were chosen between gentlemen, mostly from the nobility, and in the latter times of the reign of Alfonso XIII from people with prestigious professional background as famous officers of the Army, well-known physicians or businessmen, etc. Only the first one of these classes, the Gentlemen Grandees of Spain, had real functions close to the King and they had a weekly shift to stay with the Monarch in all sorts of activities.

• Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana. Volume 49. Hijos de J. Espasa, Editores.1923
• Gómez-Centurión Carlos. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Ministering the King,s body: The sumiller de corps in the 18th century. 2003
• Martínez Millán José. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Departamento de Historia Moderna. La Corte de Carlos V. 2000
• Martinéz Millán (dir). José. La Corte de Felipe II. Madrid. Alianza 1994
• Martínez Millán, José y Visceglia, Maria Antonietta (Dirs.). La Monarquía de Felipe III. Madrid, Fundación Mapfre, 2008/2009
• Archivo General de Palacio (AGP) . Patrimonio Nacional. Sección Personal