Royal Favouritism and the Governing Elite of the Spanish Monarchy, 1640-1665
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A01=Alistair Malcolm
Author_Alistair Malcolm
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JPZ
Category=NHD
Category=NHTB
Category=NL-HB
Category=NL-JP
COP=United Kingdom
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=0
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Format=BB
HMM=223
IMPN=Oxford University Press
ISBN13=9780198791904
Language_English
PA=Available
PD=20161229
POP=Oxford
Price=€50 to €100
PS=Active
PUB=Oxford University Press
SMM=23
Subject=History
Subject=Politics & Government
WG=490
WMM=148
Product details
- ISBN 9780198791904
- Weight: 490g
- Dimensions: 148 x 223 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 15 Dec 2016
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication City/Country: Oxford, GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Royal Favouritism and the Governing Elite of the Spanish Monarchy, 1640-1665 presents a study of the later years of the reign of Philip IV from the perspective of his favourite (valido), don Luis Méndez de Haro, and of the other ministers who helped govern the Spanish Habsburg Monarchy. It offers a positive vision of a period that is often seen as one of failure and decline. Unlike his predecessors, Haro exercised the favour that he enjoyed in a discreet way, acting as a perfect courtier and honest broker between the king and his aristocratic subjects. Nevertheless, Alistair Malcolm also argues that the presence of a royal favourite at the head of the government of Spain amounted to a major problem. The king's delegation of his authority to a single nobleman was considered by many to have been incompatible with good kingship, and Philip IV was himself very uneasy about failing in his responsibilities as a ruler. Haro was thus in a highly insecure situation, and sought to justify his regime by organizing the management of a prestigious and expensive foreign policy. In this context, the eventual conclusion of the very honourable peace with France in 1659 is shown to have been as much the result of the independent actions of other ministers as it was of a royal favourite very reluctantly brought to the negotiating table at the Pyrenees. By conclusion, the quite sudden collapse of Spanish European hegemony after Haro's death in 1661 is represented as a delayed reaction to the repercussions of a flawed system of government.
Alistair Malcolm studied History at the Universities of St Andrews and Oxford, and is currently a lecturer at the University of Limerick. He is a specialist in the cultural and political history of Spain during its Golden Age. His current projects are a general study of the effects of court favouritism on policy-making in Spain during the seventeenth century, and a book of documents in translation to assist in the teaching of early modern Spanish history for undergraduates. His approach to the writing of history is one intended to appeal to specialists and general readers alike.
