Grand Masters

Between 1891 and 1892 donations were made for the victims of the catastrophe at Consuegra and the great flood in Seville.

In 1892, their Majesties the King and Queen visited Seville  on the occasion of the celebration of the IVth Centenary of the Discovery of America, and this was the opportunity to obtain approval for the building of a group of Catholic primary schools, and for their assignment to the City Council.  Their Majesties were present at the beginning of the works, laying the first stone in a leaden chest containing several silver and gold coins bearing the bust of Alfonso XIII, together with newspapers from that day.

Another initiative of the Real Maestranza in the context of the IVth Centenary of the Discovery of America  was to pay for a sloop called Cortés for the sailor with the best merits, as a tribute to the Spanish Navy.

In 1894, in a solemn ceremony, the schools located in la Resolana de la Macarena were transferred to the City Council.

In 1898, noteworthy as yet another of the many contributions that were made to the Army, was the donation of a quantity of money to support the war against the United States.

On the occasion of the coming of age and swearing-in of His Majesty the King, the Real Maestranza decided to build a soup kitchen and a shelter school for infants in Triana, assigning them to the City Council. They were inaugurated in 1904 in the presence of its Hermano Mayor.

Also worthy of mention is a large donation for the reconstruction of the Church of Nuestra Señora de los Angeles, which collapsed in 1901.

In 1905, for town planning reasons, the Corporation had to abandon its Chapel of the Virgen del Rosario, situated in the convent of Regina Angelorum, giving up the site for the new extensions that were necessary for the plan of the city. Worship was provisionally transferred to the convent church of Santa María la Real.

During the regency of María Cristina, among the most noteworthy actions remembered in the co-operation of the Real Maestranza with the City was the donation of 120,000 reales to pay for the expenses resulting from the collapse of part of the cathedral.

In this period, and after 120 years of work and a process fraught with difficulties, the masonry work to complete the bullring was finished, finally replacing all the wooden tendidos.

Expenses were incurred for repairs and continuance of work at the bullring, and the total cost was borne by the Caballero Maestrante, as well as the costs of  celebrations and donations.

In 1854 a religious function was held to solemnize the declaration of the Mystery of the Immaculate Conception as a Dogma of Faith.

In 1859, for the war in Africa,  finance was provided for 24 artillery pieces of the four batteries of rifled muzzle-loading mountain guns, which were manufactured in the bronze foundry of this capital, and which were very useful for the Spanish troops in different scenarios.

Isabel II authorized these pieces to be inscribed with the mention that their cost had been defrayed by the Real Maestranza.

In 1860 sponsorship was provided for the first horse races to be held in Seville, the cost of training and of installing the racecourse on the plains of Tablada being for its account. This was the embryo from which the Sociedad de Carreras was formed.

This was a period of great ostentation, coinciding with the stay in Seville of the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier, who frequently visited the bullring together with members of their family. In spite of  difficulties, contributions continued to be made for these events, in the form of gifts and donations, such as those presented for the birth of the Infante Felipe, for the cholera epidemic of  ’65, and for the end of the Carlist War, among other occasions.

The XIXth century began with serious financial difficulties for the Corporation, as a result of limitations in the interptetation of its privileges and the suspension of bullfighting.

With the beginning of the War of Independence, the Real Maestranza agreed to send all of its income , and as many resources as it could finance, and even suspended the salaries of its staff.

In 1809 the point was reached when the bullring and its wood were given up to construct stables and trainers for the Army’s horses. More than two-thirds of the Corporation’s members, all those who were able to bear arms, joined the war against the French, many died in combat, and they were important in that campaign in places such as Úbeda and Almonacid.

Those who remained in Seville, in order to protect the statue of Our Lady of the Rosario from the abuses of the occupying troops, transferred it and its accoutrements from the Chapel of  Regina Angelorum to the Church of San Miguel (now disappeared), and kept up a tenacious resistance against the new governors.

In 1812 he was associated with the movement of the Cortes of Cadiz, swearing its Constitution. In 1814 the privilege of holding bullfights was restored. Two years later, Queen María Isabel Francisca was regaled.

In 1823, festivals and performances with bulls were held  in honour of Fernando VII, who granted a new and important privilege to the Corporation. Thenceforward, the Hermano Mayor of the Real Maestranza would be the King himself.

In 1833, the Real Maestranza came to Madrid together with the other Maestranzas to take part in jousting to celebrate the oath-taking of the Princess of Asturias, who was to become Isabel II.

He was an Infante of Spain, the sixth child of Felipe V of Spain and of his second wife, Isabel de Farnesio, Duchess of Parma. He had an ecclesiastical career and was Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of the Spanish Realms (1735), and Archbishop of Seville (1741). He abandoned the ecclesiastical state in 1754, and in 1761 became the  XIIIth Earl of Chinchón.

On 30 August, 1731, the second Ordinances were drawn up and approved to correspond with the new privileges granted by Felipe V to the Real Maestranza. Sixty six knights attended this Council.

Caballeros Maestrantes participated in several military expeditions during this period, such as the capture of Oran (1 July, 1732) and the Italian campaigns to put the Infante Don Carlos (the future Carlos III) on the throne of the Two Sicilies.

There was also participation in the campaign from 1741 to 1748.

In 1738 possession was obtained of the site where the provisional bullring was located, and construction of the material part of the bullring began. In that same year, festivities were organized in honour of the wedding of Carlos III and María Amelia Cristina. In 1765 the Real Maestranza participated in the festivities for the wedding of the Prince of Asturias (Carlos IV) and María Luisa de Parma.

In 1754 bullfighting festivals, which were the main support of the Real Maestranza, were suppressed by order of Fernando VI. They were reinstated in 1759.

In 1779 the Real Maestranza volunteered to take part in the war against England.