No sooner was Philip III king than he entrusted all authority to his favourite, who amassed power unprecedented for a "privado" or favorite and became the "king's shadow", the filter through whom all information passed, as he was appointed Sumiller de Corps and Caballerizo mayor to the King. Philip III, preoccupied with piety and indolence, soon created him Duke of Lerma (1599), pressured the papacy to form for his uncle Bernardo a Cardinalship and delegated to him governorship of certain public offices and management responsibility of particular lands, authorized by the King and Queen, of the Roman Catholic Christian Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.