Philip II outmaneuvered his own general by rerouting orders around him

Evidence

Philip’s response, dated March 5, was to repeat the instructions, only this time making the measure applicable to all peaceful Moriscos in the whole kingdom and charging Deza, not Austria, with the task. Philip is obviously here employing his favorite tactic of setting one of his officials or ministers against another (and it is amusing to see Deza, who had in 1569 been used against Mond´ejar, now being used against John of Austria himself!). Austria continued to make difficulties. Like any other general in history, he told his commander-in-chief he simply could not spare any of his men to carry out the task. On March 21, Philip said that the problem of the lack of royal troops could be avoided by having Deza carry out the job of policing the deportations using the city contingents (the Hermandad, etc.) and the retainers of those noblemen present in Granada. Philip instructed Austria to pass his orders on to Deza. Clearly Austria was in this instance completely outmaneuvered by his father’s control of the machinery of government. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1061

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to how kingship and bureaucratic control work in the reader’s library on state power and institutional design — the pattern of a monarch circumventing a disobedient subordinate.