City governors and the development if imperial power places in the Spanish Low Countries during the age of Philip the 2nd and the Archdukes

Abstract

The text explores the construction of places of royal power through the governors of towns in the Spanish Low Countries at the time of Philip II and the Archdukes. The Hispanic Monarchy managed to create a complex mechanism of political management of its towns entrusting them to Spanish officials as local nobles, both effective to guarantee a domination that mobilized social support and loyalty to a distant king. The Spaniards knew how to adapt to the local political world and the natives did not falter in their fidelity to the Habsburgs. Among them, a culture of service and direct government of an absent sovereign began to be created; a way to the promotion that was adapted to the realities of patronage and clientele and to the capacity of representation of the territory but that prioritized the capacity of integration and understanding of the municipal political culture.

Keywords

• Gobernadores de plazas
• monarquía Hispánica
• Países Bajos españoles
• poder regio
• nobleza
• servicio