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Abstract: Between the end of the Aldobrandini papacy and the accession to the papal throne by Paul V, the embassy of the marquis of Villena, duke of Escalona (1603-1606) was marked by bitter conflict. The Castilian aristocrat, related to the Farnese, played a preeminent role in a sedition of the nobility triggered by a jurisdictional conflict: Cardinal Farnese’s faction faced the pontifical governor, ultimately forcing the Aldobrandini to «surrender». Although the Pope requested Villena's recall, the Council of State supported the ambassador both in his conflict with the papal family and in that with Cardinal Avila, protector of Castile and appointed to express the king’s wishes (la voz) in the conclaves. The climate in which the two conclaves of 1605 took place and the limits of the ambassador's political action in those circumstances weakened Villena who was replaced by Aytona during the political crisis of the Interdict of Paul V against Venice. A troubled embassy that emphasizes the contradictions of Phillip III’s reign and the problematic nature of the relationship between papacy and catholic monarchy during a phase of transformation of the European international equilibrium.