Spain and Its World, 1500-1700: Selected EssaysIt used to be said that the sun never set on the empire of the King of Spain. It was therefore appropriate that Emperor Charles V should have commissioned from Battista Agnese in 1543 a world map as a birthday present for his sixteen-year-old son, the future Philip II. This was the world as Charles V and his successors of the House of Austria knew it, a world crossed by the golden path of the treasure fleets that linked Spain to the riches of the Indies. It is this world, with Spain at its center, that forms the subject of this book. J.H. Elliott, the pre-eminent historian of early modern Spain and its world, originally published these essays in a variety of books and journals. They have here been grouped into four sections, each with an introduction outlining the circumstances in which they were written and offering additional reflections. The first section, on the American world, explores the links between Spain and its American possessions. The second section, "The European World," extends beyond the Castilian center of the Iberian peninsula and its Catalan periphery to embrace sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe as a whole. In "The World of the Court," the author looks at the character of the court of the Spanish Habsburgs and the perennially uneasy relationship between the world of political power and the world of arts and letters. The final section is devoted to the great historical question of the decline of Spain, a question that continues to resonate in the Anglo-American world of today. |
Contents
Introduction | 67 |
Introduction | 139 |
Power and Propaganda in the Spain of Philip IV | 162 |
Introduction | 213 |
Selfperception and Decline in Early Seventeenth | 241 |
Art and Decline in SeventeenthCentury Spain | 263 |
287 | |
Common terms and phrases
Alonso American Aragon arbitristas aristocracy artists arts Barcelona Bartolomé Esteban Murillo Buen Retiro Casas Castile Castile's Catalan Catalonia ceremonial Charles contemporary Cortes Council Count-Duke of Olivares Count-Duke's crisis Crown of Aragon decline of Spain Diego de Velázquez Discursos Duke Duke of Lerma Dutch Early Modern Europe economic empire España española essay European foreign policy France Francisco de Quevedo González de Cellorigo Habsburg Spain Hernán Cortés imperial Indians Indies J.H. Elliott José Juan King of Spain kingship least Lerma letter London Madrid Memoriales y cartas Mexico military minister Murillo Netherlands nobles officials Olivares regime paintings palace patronage Peña Philip IV Política political population principal problem programme provinces Quevedo reform reign of Philip relationship revolution Richelieu royal ruling class seems seventeenth century seventeenth-century Spain Seville silver sixteenth century social society Spaniards Spanish court Spanish Monarchy suggests Toledo traditional viceroy Vilar wrote Zúñiga