EDITIONS

“Ibero-Dutch Imperial Entanglements in the Long Seventeenth Century: Geopolitical Shifts in Global Perspective.”

Co-edited by Silvia Z. Mitchell and Erica Heinsen-Roach

The entangled histories of the Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch empires can be traced back to the Habsburg succession in Spain (1516), a historical event that created an unprecedented political conglomerate, bringing together the Iberian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon (with territories extending into the New World and the Italian Peninsula) with the Burgundian inheritance in Low Countries and Central Europe (until 1556). Two major historical events in the later part of the century—the Dutch Revolt (1568) and the completion of the Iberian Union with the incorporation of the Kingdom of Portugal (1580)—deepened these entanglements, ushering in an era of conflictive interests within the Habsburg State.

Rejecting the current narrative of imperial decline and consciously focusing on change over time, “Ibero-Dutch Imperial Entanglements in the Long Seventeenth Century” explores the shifting entanglements before, during, and after the middle decades of the century—when the entanglements were redefined with the emergence of three distinct political entities: the Spanish Monarchy, the independent Kingdom of Portugal, and the Dutch Republic. Focusing on discreet periods and places, the contributions, when read together, demonstrate that the Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch empires engaged in complex relations and while loosely shaped by metropoles’ wishes, were equally shaped by local actors and needs. The twelve chapters analyze diplomatic, military, legal, financial, and commercial interconnections. Historical actors include missionaries, soldiers, inquisitors, merchants, slaves and slave traders, diplomats, regents, monarchs, indigenous and local agents as well as institutions, such as the Dutch West India Company (WIC), the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the Spanish Inquisition, state councils, and resident embassies. Entanglementstook place in and connected various places in Europe (Madrid, The Hague, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Münster, and London), Africa’s Gold Coast, the New World (Lima, Mexico, Buenos Aires), the Caribbean, and Asia (Japan).

This special journal issue of The Court Historian: The International Journal of Court Studies on “The Spanish Habsburg Court during the Reign of Carlos II” that I guest edited is the first in English to focus entirely on his court. The volume investigates how Habsburg etiquette traditions adapted to the needs of a child-king, explores the role of royal and aristocratic women at court, and locates Carlos II’s court as a hub of international diplomacy.

The future of the Spanish succession remained unresolved because Carlos II’s two marriages failed to produce heirs. This succession crisis formed perhaps the most important diplomatic issue in European and international politics in the 1680s and 1690s; yet, the historiography tends to focus on French and Imperial (and to some extent on Bavarian) activity, marginalizing Spain and the Spanish Habsburgs. Establishing the active role of the court of Carlos II in diplomatic affairs is an important step forward in placing the Spanish Monarchy at the center of the history of Europe as an active political agent rather than a pawn of entities such as France or the Holy Roman Empire. 

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