From Reinos to Monarquía - Political Association in late 16th Century Spain

Abstract

This essay argues that the term, the monarquía de España, commonly used by historians as a designation for the complex of territories ruled by the kings of Spain throughout the early-modern period, was, in fact, an innovation of the late-16th Century. It then goes on to examine some of the reasons, implications and consequences of the terminological shift from the particularism of "Reinos y estados" to the unitary concept of Monarquía, a term which gave concrete expression to the felt need, in the words of Baltasar Alamos de Barrientos, for "some other form of State which would unify the kingdoms"

Keywords

• Monarchy of Spain
• Baroque kingship
• composite states
• castilianization