The Spanish Habsburgs and Dynastic Rule, 1500-1700

• Main Author: Geevers, Liesbeth
• Format: eBook Book
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2023; Lund University; Taylor and Francis; Taylor & Francis
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: 17th Century; Diplomatic History; dynastic centralisation; Dynastic Rule; Early Modern Europe; Early Modern History 1500-1750; Europe; European History; family dynamics; General and world history; Historia; Historia och arkeologi; History; History and Archaeology; Humaniora och konst; Humanities and the Arts; Modern; Political History; Social & Cultural History; Spanish Habsburg; Spanish monarchy; Family Head; Philip III; Leopold III; Genealogical Narratives; Philip II; Dynastic Rule; Frederick III; Low Countries; Spanish Habsburg; Young Men; Grand Duke; Emperor Ferdinand II; Succession Law; Albert II; Ferdinand III; Pope Paul III; Spanish monarchy; family dynamics; Spanish Court; Grand Duke Ferdinando; Tuscan Ambassador; Spanish Habsburgs; Clerical Career; Wolfgang Lazius; Philip IV; Siete Partidas; Capilla Real; dynastic centralisation; Philip IV's Reign; Dynastic History
• ISBN: 9781032313474; 9781032313450; 1032313455; 1032313471; 1003309305; 9781003309307; 9781000909364; 1000909360; 1000909344; 9781000909340
• DOI: 10.4324/9781003309307

Providing a novel research methodology for students and scholars with an interest in dynasties, at all levels, this book explores the Spanish Habsburg dynasty that ruled the Spanish monarchy between c. 1515 and 1700. Instead of focusing on the reigns of successive kings, the book focuses on the Habsburgs as a family group that was constructed in various ways: as a community of heirs, a genealogical narrative, a community of the dead and a ruling family group. These constructions reflect the fact that dynasties do not only exist in the present, as kings, queens or governors, but also in the past, in genealogies, and in the future, as a group of hypothetical heirs. This book analyses how dynasties were ‘made’ by the people belonging to them. It uses a social institutionalist framework to analyse how family dynamics gave rise to practices and roles. The kings of Spain only had limited power to control the construction of their dynasty, since births and deaths, processes of dynastic centralisation, pressure from subjects, relatives’ individual agency, rivalry among relatives and the institutionalisation of roles limited their power. Including several genealogical tables to support students new to the Spanish Habsburgs, this book is essential reading for all students of early modern Europe and the history of monarchy.