Simon Harcourt Smith

Though this book is not particularly good, Cardinal Alberoni is himself interesting yet obscure. He was a poor northern Italian boy from Parma who rose to a position of some international prominence as friend and adviser to the Duke of Vendôme, a great French General of the War of the Spanish Succession. Later, after a mission to Spain, Alberoni entered the service of King Philip V of Spain, helping to arrange his marriage to the Parmese princess Elizabeth Farnese. There in Spain, he eventually became the King's chief minister, and was awarded by the Pope with a Cardinal's hat.

When I saw this book at a used-book store in Kansas, I was not sure whether or not I had ever heard of Alberoni before. It turned out that I had come across Alberoni previously in a biography of the King Philip V - but I'd forgotten all about him. So it goes.

Simon Harcourt-Smith (1906-1982) was an author of popular history and biography who served in the British Foreign Service. "Cardinal of Spain" was published in 1944, which may help to explain some of the looseness and infelicities of its writing. In his preface to the book, Harcourt-Smith expresses regret that, due to the war, he was not able to carry out research on his subject in continental archives. As a result, much of the text seems to be "padded out" with tangential material about other figures from Alberoni's time.… (altro)

3955. Cardinal of Spain: The Life and Strange Career of Alberoni, by Simon Harcourt-Smith (read 18 Nov 2004) This book, published in 1944, is a biography of Giulio Alberoni, born 21 Jan 1664 in Piacenza, Italy, a gardener's son,, who became prominent in the Spanish government, was made a Cardinal in July 1717, and soon thereafter fell from power and died June 15, 1752, in his home town. He was a favorite, for a time, of King Philip V of Spain, Louis XIV's grandson who became King of Spain and concerning whom the War of the Spanish Succession was fought. The book spends a lot of time on the political history of Europe from 1700 to 1719 which is an interesting period, full of dramatic events, and it is really quite a good solid book concerning an interesting figure about whom I heretofore knew little.… (altro)