Valentina Caldari & Sara J. Wolfson 
Stuart Marriage Diplomacy 
Dynastic Politics in their European Context, 1604-1630

Dynastic marriages mattered in early modern Europe: the creation of alliances and the outbreak of wars were tied to continental dynastic politics.


Dynastic marriages mattered in early modern Europe. The creation of alliances and the outbreak of wars were tied to continental dynastic politics. This book combines cultural definitions of politics with a wider exploration of institutional, military, diplomatic and economic concerns with a view to providing a more comprehensive understanding of dynastic marriage negotiations. It covers a period from the signing of the Treaty of London in 1604 until afterthe Anglo-French and Anglo-Spanish peace treaties (1629-30).
Stuart Marriage Diplomacy explores how the search for a bride for Princes Henry and Charles started a long process of protracted consultations between the key players of Europe: Spain, Italy, France, Rome, Brussels and the United Provinces. It shows the interconnections between these courts, thus advancing a ‘continental turn’ in the analysis of Stuart politics in the early seventeenth century, and considers how reason of state was often considered as more crucial than religion or economic concerns in the outcome of the Stuart-Habsburg and Stuart-Bourbon marriage negotiations. It also reveals the extent to which the interactions between Europe and non-European actors in both the Atlantic and the East contributed to a redefinition of European identity. It will engage not only scholars and students of early modern Europe but, more generally, those interested in the history of European courts and royalty.


VALENTINA CALDARI is Departmental Lecturer in Early Modern History at Balliol College, University of Oxford.


SARA J. WOLFSON is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at Canterbury Christ Church University.


CONTRIBUTORS: Paul Arblaster, Valentina Caldari, David Coast, Thomas Cogswell, Robert Cross, Andrea De Meo, Kelsey Flynn, Rubén González Cuerva, Melinda J. Gough, Helmer Helmers, José Eloy Hortal Muñoz, Adam Marks, Steve Murdoch, Michael Questier, Manuel Rivero, Porfirio Sanz Camañes, Edmond Smith, R. Malcolm Smuts, Peter H. Wilson, Sara J. Wolfson

Table of Content

Introduction – Valentina Caldari and Michael Questier and Sara J. Wolfson

The French Match and Court Politics – R Malcolm Smuts

What Can Be Fuller of Wonder? Buckingham and the Revenge of the Hispanophiles in 1626 – Thomas Cogswell

Practical Proselytizing: The Impact of Counter-Reformation Catholicism at the Caroline Court, 1625-26 – Sara J. Wolfson

‘The onely soveraigne medecine’: Religious Politics and Political Culture in the British-Spanish Match, 1596-1625 – Robert Cross

James I and the Dissolution of the 1621 Parliament through Spanish Eyes – Valentina Caldari

War, Diplomacy and Stability in the North of Europe in the Early Seventeenth Century – Porfirio Sanz Camañes

The Atlantic Politics of Early Stuart Diplomacy – Kelsey Flynn

Mercantile Diplomacy: Corporations, States and International Negotiation – Edmond Smith

The Stuart, the Palatinate, and the Thirty Years’ War – Peter H. Wilson

Marital Problems? Stuart Alliances, Scottish Politics and the Protestant North 1603-41 – Steve Murdoch

Recognizing Friends from Foes: Stuart Politics, English Military Networks and their Alliances with Denmark and the Palatinate – Adam Marks

Secrecy, Counsel and Public Opinion during the Spanish and French Matches – David Coast

The Spanish Match and Anglo-Dutch Publicity – Helmer Helmers

Whereof the world now stands in admiration: Reporting on the Spanish Match from the Habsburg Netherlands – Paul Arblaster

A Peace in Context: Spanish Change in Italian Affairs – Manuel Rivero Rodriguez

The Court of Brussels: From Hostility to ‘good vicinity’ (1585-1604) – José Eloy Hortal Muñoz

The Austrian Match: The Dynastic Alternative of the Habsburgs and European Politics – Rubén González Cuerva

Dynastic Marriage, Diplomatic Ceremonial, and the Treaties of London (1604-05) and Antwerp (1609) – Melinda J. Gough

Spanish Architecture in Early Stuart London: Foreign Policy and Architectural Style in Inigo Jones’s Queen’s Chapel at St. James’s – Andrea De Meo Arbore

Bibliography