brother, Fernando, has become king and Cardinal Mendoza has become the
Protector, in a succession that departs radically from the historical record.
While they “all” “stand...still, yet let this divell [Eleazar] stand here”
( 1. 3. 507 – 8 ), the disenfranchised prince impugns Eleazar as a “Divell”
( 1. 3. 480 ), indicts the queen as “a Moor’s Concubine” ( 1. 3. 499 ), and accuses
both of “rip[ping] up the entrails of [Spain’s] treasury: / With Masques and
antick Revellings” ( 1. 3. 501 – 2 ). Claiming the “consent / Of all these peers,”
Mendoza consequently orders that Eleazar be “uterly deprive[d]” “of all those
Royalties [he] hold’st in Spain” ( 1. 3. 512 – 14 ). Although the queen (now the
queen mother) questions his “Commission,” asking that Eleazar be “try’d”
( 1. 3. 516 , 524 ), the cardinal shuts down her request with a cataclysmic pro-
nouncement. Insisting that the Moor’s “treasons” are “too plain” to “need...
tryal,” he warns Eleazar: “Come not within the Court, for if you do, / To beg
with Indian slaves I’le banish you” ( 1. 3. 525 – 28 ).
Eleazar is not banished, either from the court or to the domains of “In-
dian slaves,” but neither are the cardinal’s words an empty or insignificant
threat. Mendoza’s order catalyzes a serious breach within the court and presses
Spain to the brink of civil war. Notably, it is not the “lascivious” behavior of
the Moor but the proposal to ostracize him that is the disturbing source of
contention here. For starters, Fernando, who secretly lusts after Eleazar’s wife
and hopes to keep her in range, pledges therefore to overrule the Moor’s “late
receiv’d disgrace” with his own kingly “grace” ( 1. 3. 631 , 641 ) and challenges the
cardinal’s “authority, / To banish [Eleazar] the Court without our leav” [sic]
( 2. 1. 701 – 2 ). Eleazar himself protests that “the Cardinal / (Oh! rare) would
bandy me away from Spain, / And banish me to beg; I, beg with slaves”
( 1. 4. 544 – 47 ), and his noble father-in-law takes his and the king’s side, ques-
tioning “why should my sonne be banished?” ( 1. 4. 531 – 32 ). Meanwhile, Philip
joins forces with Mendoza, objecting to the fact that “this Divell” Eleazar re-
mains in their presence after the cardinal’s “sacred mouth” “pronounc’d the
sentence of his banishment” ( 2. 1. 662 ,667–68). Both Mendoza and the king
declare their own words “laws,” the one in asserting and the other in repeal-
ing the Moor’s banishment ( 2. 1. 685 , 687 ). As tensions escalate, the king cries
treason, the rebelling peers cry tyrant, and the cardinal cries pope, and the
showdown expands quickly into a more abstract contest for power between
the newly appointed king and his faction (which includes the Moor) on one
side and the disenfranchised prince and his faction (which includes the cardi-
nal) on the other. The Queen Mother temporarily resolves the crisis, induc-
ing both sides to “leave these arms” and “embrace” ( 2. 1. 774 – 75 , 777 ) by
Banishing “all the Moors” 121