Francisco Folch de Cardona came from a noble family on his mother's side (his father's surname was actually Tiller) and trained at the recently founded Academy of San Carlos in Valencia. Around 1780 he moved to Murcia, and in 1784 succeeded founder Francisco Salzillo as Head of the School of Drawing of the Royal Economic Society there. He married in Murcia and his children were born there. In around 1789 he moved to Madrid under the protection of the family of the Count of Floridablanca and began to work at court.

In 1790 Charles IV appointed him court portrait artist, and he produced a portrait of the royal family that slightly predates the one painted by Goya. Both are now held by the Prado in Madrid.

His works range from portraits of fairly average quality through frescoes at one of the chapels of the church of Santa María de Gracia in Cartagena to highly baroque religious paintings such as the Immaculate Virgin that hangs in the Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid and a curious allegorical portrait of Floridablanca as the protector of Murcia receiving the plans for the channelling of the River Segura, which hangs in Murcia City Hall.

Alfonso Pérez Sánchez

At the age of eight he entered the seminary of San Fulgencio in Murcia. He later went on to study at the University of Orihuela, where he graduated in Law in 1744. Back in Murcia, he held the Chair of Civil Law at the San Fulgencio seminary and joined the practice of lawyer Pedro Marín Alfocea as a clerk. In 1748 he moved to Madrid, where he joined the Royal Council as a lawyer. He practised law for eighteen years and also undertook a number of commissions from the Royal Council of Castile.

His character and his talent as a lawyer earned him the support and protection of powerful families from the nobility, including the Duke of Osuna and the Marquis of Perales. Charles III made him a Judge of the Royal House and Court in 1763. This distinction and his support for the book Tratado de Regalía de Amortización, published in 1765 by Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes, public prosecutor at the Council of Castile, helped him rise through the professional and political ranks.

Following the Esquilache riots in 1766 he was appointed criminal prosecutor at the Royal Council of Castile. In 1769 a third public prosecutor's district was created and he took over the district of New Castile, which covered the Chancellry of Granada and the Provincial Courts of Seville and the Canary Isles, while Campomanes, as the senior prosecutor, reserved Old Castile for himself. His years as a public prosecutor in the shadow of Campomanes gave him a sound reputation as a regalist; he was a prudent man who weighed things up carefully but was essentially firm, as shown in his responses and arguments on taxation.

In 1772 Charles III made him interim minister plenipotentiary to the Holy See. This post needed to be filled by a regalist, but one who was also convinced that the Jesuits should be disbanded. He had shown his support for this policy in a ruling on the need to abolish the order which he had drawn up jointly with Campomanes in 1767. Both prosecutors had accused the Jesuits of defending doctrines counter to temporal and royal power, and even preaching disobedience of the civil authorities, because of their absolute dependency on the Pope. In Rome he gradually chipped away at the resistance of Pope Clement XIV until a papal order abolishing the Company of Jesus was eventually signed on 21 July 1773. This order did not condemn the doctrine, customs or discipline of the order but simply suppressed it as a religious body. In 1774 he intervened in the choosing of the new Pope, Pius VI, to ensure that the candidate chosen was sympathetic to the Bourbon courts and an enemy of the Jesuits. In recognition for his services in Rome, Charles III granted him the title of Count of Floridablanca in 1773, along with other royal favours.

He remained in Rome until 7 November 1776, when he was recalled to replace Grimaldi, who had resigned as Secretary of State and Dispatch of Government. His appointment to this post was confirmed by a Royal Provision in 1777. In his new post, he gained the trust and affection of Charles III for his energy and skill in doing business. On the death of Manuel Roda y Arrieta, he took over as interim Secretary of State for Grace and Justice until 1790, when he was replaced by Antonio Porlier y Sopranis.

As Secretary of State and Dispatch, he personally directed foreign policy from 1777 to 1792. From the outset, he had to deal with serious matters: a border dispute with Portugal on the River Plate (in which he negotiated a favourable treaty); the issue of the independence of the British colonies in North America; and the renovation of the third Family Pact via the Convention of Aranjuez in 1779, whch brought Spain to the brink of war with Britain. Floridablanca was unable to maintain his neutrality or his desired role as an international arbitrator, and at the request of France (and with the support of Charles III) he had to sign the Convention of Aranjuez, which led to a declaration of war against Britain. The matter was concluded with the Treaty of Versailles on 2 September 1783, signed by Aranda, under which Spain regained Menorca and Florida. This success brought to light differences between Aranda and Floridablanca, which eventually led to the latter being ousted from power.

But during the final years of the reign of Charles III Floridablanca continued to consolidate his position of political predominance. The king entrusted the management of foreign policy to him, making him de facto prime minister, so that he supervised and coordinated the tasks of his colleagues. This dominant ministerial and political role resulted in the setting up in 1787 of a Supreme Council of State.

In domestic politics, he supported and promoted numerous wide-ranging reforms such as improvements in the postal service, the opening up of several ports in mainland Spain to free trade with the Americas and the creation of trading companies with special privileges such as the Real Compañía de Filipinas. He also helped develop the associations known as ‘economic societies of friends of the country’, worked for the social rehabilitation of ‘undesirables’; and helped found the Banco Nacional de San de Carlos via a Royal Decree of 2 June 1782 to handle the discounting of royal bonds. He ordered the construction of irrigation channels and ship canals, onshore ports and roads. He applied reforms in taxation such as the taxing of the revenues known as 'civil fruits' in 1785. He promoted agriculture, the organisation of the country by provinces, institutional education and culture reforms such as the plan to set up an Academy of Science and Letters and other, associated scientific bodies such as the Astronomy Office, the Royal Office of Machinery, the Office of Natural History and the Botanical Gardens, among others.

Floridablanca's political power was at its peak from 1787 to 1792, following the creation of the Supreme Council of State as an ordinary, permanent body for the joint passing of resolutions on matters that might be classed as general rules, for settling disputes on areas of authority between different secretariats of state, councils and higher courts, and for deciding on job proposals that could affect different departments. The Royal Decree establishing the Council was accompanied by confidential instructions that set out a comprehensive  government programme for the Spanish monarchy over the second half of the 18th century

Floridablanca's foreign policy goals involved maintaining close links with France and Naples and a distrust of Britain. He sought to maintain the traditional doctrine of balance in Europe that had prevailed since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. But he did not want to see Britain's power entirely overthrown, as that would have left France free to impose its will on Spain. Floridablanca's reluctance to make Spanish diplomacy entirely independent of that of France was turned on its head following the French Revolution in 1789.

The changes in the diplomatic and political map of Europe that followed in the wake of the French Revolution brought a loss of prestige and power for Floridablanca. Changes in the direction of Spanish diplomacy following 1789, the economic crisis that arose that same year, poor cereal crops and food shortages, his policy of establishing a 'cordon sanitaire' for fear that the revolution might be 'contagious' and the campaign to discredit him mounted by the Count of Aranda eventually led him to write a document known as the Memorial in 1788, in which he tendered his resignation, though Charles II refused to accept it. But the king died just a few months later. Charles IV kept him on as Secretary of State and Dispatch of Government, but his situation grew increasingly precarious.

Floridablanca's dismissal in 1792 was followed by institutional reforms that did away with the Supreme Council of State and reinstated the Council of State in its previous form. The Count of Aranda was appointed as Dean of the Council of State and interim Secretary for Dispatch in Floridablanca's place. The latter was banished. He moved to the house of his brother Francisco in Hellín, but he was later arrested there and imprisoned in the Citadel in Navarre. He was accused of abuse of authority and embezzelement of public funds in the financing of the Aragon Canal, and put on trial on overall counts of political responsibility. Aranda’s fall from grace and imprisonment in the Alhambra in Granada in 1792 worked in his favour, as Godoy then took over the reins of power. With the signing of the Peace of Basel in 1795 Floridablanca was absolved of all political responsibility and the attachment placed on his assets was lifted, though he was not set free until 1808, following the abdication of Charles IV.

News of Napoleon's invasion reached him in Murcia. The French Revolution had ousted him from power, but now Napoleon appointed him as the representative of the Provincial Council of Murcia, and in October that year he was elected Chairman of the Supreme Central and Governing Board of the Kingdom, the body in which civil authority was vested until Ferdinand VII, then held captive in France, was reinstated as King of Spain. The Board moved its operations to Seville. In spite of his advanced age he was much more than just a figurehead in his short time in the post until his death. He drew up to Manifiesto de la Nación Española ['Manifesto of the Spanish Nation'] in October 1808, inspired the wording of the Reglamento para el régimen de las Juntas provinciales ['Regulations for the Operation of Provincial Councils'] published in 1809 and was certainly the spirit behind, if not the actual author of, the regulations for internal government of September 1808.

He died in Seville on 30 December 1810 and was buried in the cathedral there with all the honours due to a Prince of Castile. Among other distinctions, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III on 28 March 1783 and the title of Knight of the Order of the Toisón d Oro ['Golden Fleece'] on 28 February 1791.

Extract from: J. M. Vallejo García-Hevia: Diccionario biográfico español, Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 2009-2013.

Paloma Gómez Pastor