Amazons of Secrets at the "Graf von Pötting" Embassy in Madrid (1663-1674)

Abstract

The article focuses on the study of the agents of secrets who served the Holy Roman Germanic Empire’s Ambassador in Madrid, Francisco Eusebio of Pötting, during the years of his embassy at the Court of Madrid (1663-1674). The count of Pötting acquired and read two of the most influential manuals of ambassadors of the period: El enbaxador, written by Juan Antonio de Vera (1620), and Cristóbal de Benavente y Benavides’s Advertencias para reyes, principes y embaxadores (1643). In these treatises, the authors illustrated ambassadors about the persons which they could trust for the hunt and custody of secrets. Among these trustworthy people pointed out by De Vera and Benavente, are the ambassador’s own wife, women and spies. The microhistorial analysis of the count of Pötting’s diary reveals that the Empire’s ambassador applied the theory of the cited works to his daily diplomatic practice.

Keywords

• secreto
• embajadora
• dama
• espía
• siglo xvii