| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alfonso de la Cueva-Benavides y Mendoza-Carrillo, 1st Marquis of Bedmar (1572–1655) was a Spanish diplomat, later a bishop and Roman cardinal. He was born in Bedmar, Spain, a place in the province of Jaen, belonging to the Military Order of Santiago but sold and "liberated" around 1570 by king Felipe II of Spain in benefit of these de la Cueva family relatives, connected to the "Benavides" family from Santisteban del Puerto, another sronghold there of the Military Order of Santiago later to become, senior branch, Counts and Dukes of Santisteban del Puerto. Don Alfonso, was the son of Luis de la Cueva-Benavides, 2nd señor of Bedmar, and Elvira Carrillo de Mendoza y Cárdenas, and was buried in Málaga cathedral.
Alfonso, Marquis of Bedmar in 1632[]
At the time of the Ring of Fire, Alfonso, Marquis of Bedmar was a diplomat nominally in the service of Habsburg Spain. His loyalties came into question after he befriended the American embassy party in Venice. He also executed a bit of diplomatic legerdemain by facilitating the journey of Anna Maria to the Netherlands. He chose to stay with the new King Ferdinand in the Netherlands as an adviser in his capital at Brussels. He later became chancellor of the new kingdom in the Low Countries.