Luis Francisco de la Cerda y Aragón, 9th Duke of Medinaceli, by Jacob Ferdinand Voet, circa 1684

Luis Francisco de la Cerda y Aragón, 9th duque de Medinaceli (2 August 1660, El Puerto de Santa María - 26 January 1711, Pamplona), Spanish noble and politician, eldest son of Valido Don Juan Francisco de la Cerda and Doña Catalina de Aragón Folc de Cardona y Córdoba. From his father he inherited the dukedoms of Medinaceli and of Alcalá de los Gazules, along with the marquisates of Cogolludo, of Tarifa, and of Alcalá de la Alameda. From his mother he inherited the dukedoms of Segorbe, of Cardona, of Lerma, and the maquisates of Denia, of Comares, and of Pallars. Moreover twice a Grandee of Spain, he was one of the most important Spanish aristocrats of his time.

During the reign of King Charles II of Spain he served in Italy, being ambassador to the Holy See of Pope Innocent XII, and in 1684 he was made Viceroy and Captain General of Naples; this portrait was likely painted in commemoration of that appointment. He was twenty-four.

From 1699 he was a member of the Spanish Council of State. And when Charles II died his successor, King Philip V, appointed the Duke of Medinaceli Prime Minister of Spain at the beginning of the War of Spanish Succession. More and more opposed to the strong French influence at the Spanish Court, in 1710 he leaked a secret plan to the English about efforts being made to conclude a separate peace between France and the Dutch Republic. For this, he was incarcerated in the Alcázar of Segovia and later transferred to the castle of Pamplona, where he died a prisoner the next year. He was fifty years old.

In 1678, at the age of eighteen, he had married María de las Nieves Girón y Sandoval, daughter of Gaspar Téllez-Girón, 5th Duke de Osuna; she survived him. Their only child had died at the age of three, and at the Duke's death all of his titles were inherited by his nephew, Nicolás Fernández de Córdoba, son of his sister, Feliche María de la Cerda y Aragón. Today, the 19th Duke and head of the house of Medinaceli is Marco de Hohenlohe-Langeburg y Medina, born in 1962, grandson of the 18th Duchess and son of Prince Maximilian von Hohenlohe-Langenburg; a relatively rare mingling of German and Spanish princely blood.

Five gentlemen by Voet

Sir Thomas Isham II, 3rd Baronet of Lamport *, circa 1678.

Thomas Burnet, 1675.

Portrait of a Young Man, circa 1660s.

Portrait of a Gentleman with a Lace Collar, circa 1660s.

Portrait of a Young Man of the Chigi Family, (Augusto Chigi?) circa 1660s.

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*  Because I'm always stumbling upon interesting things while just trying to make a simple post.... The handsome and very modern looking fellow in the first image? His story, as adapted from Wikipedia:

Sir Thomas Isham II (15 March 1656 - 9 August 1681), 3rd Baronet of Lamport from 1675-1681 is known for a diary he wrote from 1671-1673 of his observations as a teenage member of the English aristocracy.

Thomas Isham II was the eldest son and second child of Sir Justinian Isham I and his wife Vere Leigh. When his father died on 2 March 1675, Thomas succeeded at only 19 years of age to the baronetcy of Lamport, Northamptonshire. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford that June, just three months after becoming baronet, but he would have only been able to be spend a few months at most in his studies, as he embarked in October of the following year on a tour of Europe with his cousin and tutor the Reverend Zacchaeus Isham. Though it was not uncommon for the young English gentry of the time to tour the continent for several months as part of their education, Sir Thomas and Zacchaeus stayed a full two and a half years, a large part of their time spent in Italy collecting art works. Returning to Lamport, Sir Thomas contracted to marry Mary van de Bempde, the daughter of a Dutch merchant, but tragically he died of small pox in London on 9 August 1681 before his marriage could take place. [He was only twenty-five.] 

He was [...] succeeded in the baronetcy by his younger brother Sir Justinian Isham, who became the 4th baronet. Sir Thomas is remembered mainly for a diary that he wrote in Latin from 1671 to 1673 at the command of his father. It is made up largely of one-sentence entries, with occasional longer anecdotes of local news-worthy events, as relayed to the boy by visitors. His diary is noteworthy in that it provides a glimpse of the everyday life of a teenage member of the English gentry, as played out in a country estate. His diary first became widely available in 1875 when it was first published, but the most readily available edition is a 1971 publication of a translation by Norman Marlow with annotations by the 12th baronet Sir Gyles Isham.

Ornamented ladies - portraits of French and Italian women by Jacob Ferdinand Voet, circa 1670s

Gabriela Mancini.  *

Marie Mancini, principessa Colonna.

Anna Caffarelli Minuttiba, 1675.

Unknown noblewoman.

Unknown lady.

Anna Maria Carpegna Naro.

Hortense Mancini, duchesse de Mazarin. (?)

Hortense Mancini. (?)

Unknown lady.

Principessa Massimo Muti Papazzurri.

La marchesa Sacchetti.

Hortense Mancini. (?)

Unknown lady.

* Many of the names attached to the ladies in these portraits are questionable, at best.

Philippe de Bourbon, later duc de Vendôme, by Jacob Ferdinand Voet, circa 1670s

Philippe de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme (23 August 1655, Paris - 24 January 1727, Paris), called "Le Prieur de Vendôme" or "Le Grand Prieur", the fourth and last duc de Vendôme.

Born to Louis de Bourbon, second duc de Vendôme, and Laura Mancini, as the second of two surviving sons. Like most younger sons of the nobility he early made a career in the military. In time he was able to acquire the prestigious post of Grand Prior for France in the Order of Malta, with which he was able to attain numerous important commands, and would hold senior military positions throughout his life. During the Spanish War of Succession, Louis XIV briefly put him in command of French forces in Italy. But he was subsequently demoted to a position subordinate to that of his elder brother, Louis Joseph - then duc de Vendôme and a gifted commander - and served in that role during the remainder of the campaign.

His father had died when Philippe was only fourteen, and when his elder brother died, childless, in 1712, he inherited his family's ducal titles. But he had never married, and when he died fifteen years later at the age of seventy-one, the dukedom of Vendôme became extinct.

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Jacob Ferdinand Voet (circa 1639, Antwerp - circa 1689, Paris), Flemish Baroque portrait painter, the son of the painter Elias Voet. After training in Paris, he spent much time in Rome, then Florence and Turin, before returning to Antwerp in about 1684. Two years later, he returned to Paris, becoming court painter, and worked there until his death.