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In the summer of 1603, the princes Filippo Emanuele, Vittorio Amedeo and Emanuele Filiberto de Saboya set out from Turin to reach Valladolid, the city to which, in 1601, at the request of the Duke of Lerma, the valid of Philip III, the court Hispanic had returned. The city thus recovered, albeit in an ephemeral way, its status as capital. After pressure from the Hispanic monarchy and long negotiations, Carlo Enmanuele I, Duke of Savoy, agreed to send his three eldest sons to the court of his brother-in-law Felipe III with, probably, the objective of presenting his first-born son and heir before the Spanish court society, hoping that the throne could fall on him: the young princes of Savoy were the closest men in the line of succession, before the still uncertain succession of Felipe III who only had his daughter Ana.
In this context, Valladolid was the center of the court festivities: the chivalric games, held in the main squares and streets of the city, as well as in other more private spaces, were the most outstanding activities. Thus, on July 18, 1604, the faquin or staferm game arranged by Filippo Emanuele, prince of Piedmont, took place. The Relationship of the festivities narrates that on that day “estuvieron sus magestades y la infanta con las damas en las ventanas de Palacio, y los consejeros delante en tablados, y los embajadores y criados de la casa cada uno donde le tocaba”. It also describes the dazzling entrance of the Prince of Piedmont to the square, accompanied by various knights, the atabaleros and the faquin stuck in a castle on top of an elephant. Then the rest of the crews entered, with their costumes, pages, and trumpets.

Daphne Cornejo
Proyecto Estudios Indianos