Don Lope de Soria

Don Lope de Soria

Lope de Soria began his diplomatic career in the service of King Ferdinand of Aragon (the husband of Queen Isabella of Castile who had passed away in 1504), in 1513-1514; he was also held in high esteem by the Emperor Maximilian I. He was thus able to keep a good standing in court when Charles of Habsburg became King of Spain in 1516. The young king, then emperor, employed Lope de Soria for several sensitive diplomatic missions in italy and in the rest of Europe. Within the framework of the war in Italy against the King of France Francis I, Lope De Soria was appointed General Commissioner of the Court and Army, in charge of dealing with the logistic difficulties related to maintaining (that is to say, paying) Itailan troops deployed on Italian soil starting from 1527. Between 1530 and 1531 he was then sent as ambssador to Siena, where the regime (that had also helped Imperial-Papal toops, but was unstable due to the squabbles of internal faction) needed to be rearranged to ensure cooperation by the Republic for Imperial projects. After leaving town, Don Lope de Soria (who was knighted in Bologna, during the celebrations for Charles V's coronation by Pope Clement VII, continued to serve as a diplomat in Italy until his death, in 1544.