One of the Spanish nobles whom Cosimo meets in the trees of Olivabassa. When Cosimo learns that King Carlos III tortured El Conde’s son, Cosimo realizes that El Conde is the only Spanish noble who is truly suffering. This, however, means that El Conde is one of the only Spaniards to express genuine interest in Enlightenment ideas. He’s also the only one who insists that they need to put those ideas in practice by taking to the courts after King Carlos III invites the nobles to return to Spain.
El Conde Quotes in The Baron in the Trees
The The Baron in the Trees quotes below are all either spoken by El Conde or refer to El Conde. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Mariner edition of The Baron in the Trees published in 2017.
Chapter 18
Quotes
And there, with naive youthful fervor, he explained the ideas of the philosophers and the wrongs of sovereigns and how states could be governed according to reason and justice.
Related Characters:
Biagio Piovasco di Rondò (speaker), Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, Father Sulpicio, Frederico Alonso Sanchez, El Conde, King Carlos III
Related Symbols:
Ombrosa’s Native Trees
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Baron in the Trees LitChart as a printable PDF.
El Conde Character Timeline in The Baron in the Trees
The timeline below shows where the character El Conde appears in The Baron in the Trees. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 17
Father Sulpicio introduces Cosimo to an old man named El Conde . El Conde continually looks at a distant hill, and Father Sulpicio murmurs to Cosimo...
(full context)
Chapter 18
...threatening, but always end with a plea for forgiveness. At the end of every meeting, El Conde rises, speaks his heart, and everyone abandons the petition for forgiveness.
(full context)
...philosophers’ proposals that sovereigns are wrong, and that reason and justice can govern states. Only El Conde and a few smart girls can follow, however. Gradually, El Conde decides he wants to...
(full context)
One night, Cosimo wakes to the sound of someone crying. He discovers Father Sulpicio tying El Conde to a tree. Father Sulpicio announces that this is part of the Inquisition and Cosimo...
(full context)
...III, inviting everyone home. The people of Olivabassa help everyone down and nobody listens to El Conde when he says that they need to take to the courts. Don Frederico calls for...
(full context)