Les massiers dans la Maison du roi de la monarchie espagnole

Abstract

In recent decades, thanks to a new methodology, studies on the court and the different departments and sectors that configured it have multiplied. In this context the analysis of one of the fundamental components of the court, the Royal Household, acquires a particular importance because it is the site of political articulation in European dynastic monarchies in general and the Hispanic monarchy in particular: it became the unifying element of the political elites of the kingdoms that made up the monarchy. In this regard, within the framework of the studies and methodological approaches of Professor Martínez Millán and his team, on which this work is based, a careful study has been carried out of a profession that plays an important role in the king’s public ceremonies, that of mace bearer, an office of honour that still exists and which plays an active role in public ceremonies. Thanks to documentation kept at the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan in Madrid, the Archivo General de Palacio de Madrid, the Biblioteca Nacional de España and, to a lesser extent, the Sección de Casas and Sitios Reales of the Archivo General de Simancas, I intend to analyse the evolution of this office, its role and participation in the ceremonies of power through the various organizational and standardizing measures established, essentially, at the time of Philip III (r. 1598-1621). The study will examine the changes that have affected this profession, dependant on the Master of the Horse, its duties as well as its obligations and rewards, and its participation in public ceremonies recorded in the protocol of the palace (Etiquetas generales de palacio). It will also examine the cursus honorum of the people who practised it.

Keywords

• court
• royal house
• etiquette
• protocol
• mace bearers
• Hispanic monarchy