Reason of state and propaganda in the Spanish Monarchy: the debates of political agents during French civil and religious war (1580-1598)

Abstract

This project aims to investigate the constitution of the network by political agent´s of Spanish Monarchy during the civil and religious wars in France, notably between the period of 1580-1590, which were responsable for the circulation of informations and ideas, with the goal to understand which images they were building of the Spanish Monarchy. It is assumed that these ensemble of knowledge and news were fundamental for the conduct of Philip II´s foreign policy over the last decade of his government. From the documentation that has been analysed, we intend to research the political ideas that were formulated by these agents, with emphasis in the construction of the hispanofilia's speeches and the debate regarding the theory of the reason of state. Furthemore, we want to analyse the relations between these scope of ideas and the wider political thought, to dialogue it with the political treatises, in a way to understand how the theory and the practice meddle with each other in front of the intellectual challenges faced by the violence of the religious wars in France and the demand of a mediation that would consider the religious tolerance adn the peace with the protestants. By the other side, the intensity of the conflicts had put in question the art of government itself, triggering a new reflexion of politics informed by the crudity of the practice and the experience of governance. That was this precisely tumultuous moment when the idea of the reason of state has spread, a speech that, a priori, seems to legitimate the sovereigns's actions in the name of the state's salvation. However, in practice, this speech has revealed to be very fluid and splited, being mobilized by the catholics as much as by the protestants to stand by their causes. After the presentation of the foundations of this research, we will identify the four main agents that are our principal object. They are: don Bernardino de Mendoza, ambassador in London and Paris (1584-1591), translator of Justus Lipsius' Politics to Spanish and author of so many works; Juan Bautista de Tassis, ambassador in Paris (1580-1584), general manager of Low Countries' army and counselor of the Crown; don Diego de Ibarra, manager of Low Countries' army and member of the Counsel of State; and don Lorenzo Suárez Figueroa, II Duque de Feria, Philip II's representative in the reunion of parliament (États Généraux) in 1593. The choice of studying these men is because they left a large, important and amazing documentation, both handwritten and printed, which allows us to understand how the speech of the reason of state was used and appropiated in the world of the practice of politics.