Diego Fernández de Medrano y Zenizeros

Diego Fernández de Medrano Zenizeros (in full, Spanish: Don Diego Fernández de Medrano Zenizeros, señor de la Villa de Sojuela, del Solar y Divisa de Valdeosera, de la Torre y de la Casa de la Vega en Rioja, etc.) was a 17th-century Spanish cleric, nobleman, and author, recognized for his political treatise, panegyric writings and his service to the Spanish Crown. A presbyter and lord of multiple noble estates—including the divisa and solar de Valdeosera and town of Sojuela, de la Torre and House de La Vega in La Rioja, and the Palace of Entrena—he held a prominent place within the religious, and intellectual landscape of his time. He served as a chaplain for both Luis Méndez de Haro, 2nd Duke of Olivares, and Pedro Coloma, Secretary of State for the Spanish Crown. He served two terms as the Chief Magistrate and Mayor of Valdeosera in San Román de Cameros, La Rioja.

He is best known for authoring a political treatise in the mirror for princes genre, dedicated to Philip Prospero, Prince of Asturias, as well as a political treatise-panegyric hybrid in honor of Luis Méndez de Haro, valido of Philip IV of Spain, in which he not only praised Haro’s statesmanship but subtly advanced his own doctrines of prudential governance and positioned himself as the intellectual architect behind Spain’s peace strategy culminating in the Treaty of the Pyrenees.