Juan Escoiquiz

Who was Juan Escoiquiz?

Juan Escoiquiz Morata was a Spanish ecclesiastic, politician and writer born in Navarre in 1762. His father was a general officer and he began life as a page in the court of King Charles III. He entered the church and was provided for by a prebend at Zaragoza. In his memoirs, Manuel de Godoy asserts that Escoiquiz sought to gain his favor by flattery. There is every reason to believe that this is an accurate statement of the ease. The mere fact that he was selected to be the tutor of the heir-apparent, Ferdinand, afterwards King Ferdinand VII, is of itself a proof that he exerted himself to gain the goodwill of the reigning favorite.

In 1797 he published a translation of Young's Night Thoughts, which does not of itself show that he was well acquainted with English, for the version may have been made with the help of the French. In 1798 he published a long and worthless so-called epic on the conquest of Mexico. Escoiquiz was in fact a busy and pushing member of the literary clique which looked up to Godoy as its patron. But his position as tutor to the heir to the throne excited his ambition.

He began to hope that he might play the part of those court ecciesiastics who had often had an active share in the government of Spain. As Ferdinand grew up, and after his marriage with a Neapolitan princess, he became the center of a court opposition to Godoy and to his policy of alliance with France. Escoiquiz was the brains, as far as there were any brains, of the intrigue. His activity was so notorious that he was exiled from court, but was consoled by a canonry at Toledo. This half measure was as ineffective as was to have been expected. Escoiquiz continued to be in constant communication with the prince. Toledo is close to Madrid, and the correspondence was easily maintained.