Bonds Between the Spanish Monarchy’s Court Structures and Spaces in the 16th–17th Centuries : Sections of the Royal Household and Their Location in Royal Geographies

Abstract

Up to only a few years ago, the royal household was of no interest to historians, and the few that researched the topic (always from an institutionalist approach), viewed it simply as a group of offices and people, extrapolating the reality of the 1800s and 1900s to previous centuries. However, the royal household was much more than that and, fortunately, over the past three decades it has begun to be examined in the context of late medieval and early modern discourses that gave shape to and justified royal power. Rulers each established their own households and forms of service. Although they all sought originality to give their monarchy a distinctive identity, most were similarly structured into sections or departments, and we therefore find six recurring elements. Although the hierarchy varied from monarchy to monarchy, the order of precedence was generally as follows: Chapel, Chamber, Household or Offices, Stables, Guard, and the Hunt. Each section in turn encompassed three different and complementary aspects: the section’s servants, the ruler and his family’s physical or spiritual need, and a physical space in the royal geographies. This article analyses the links between the various sections of the Spanish monarchy’s royal household and the physical spaces of its royal geographies, as well as their evolution during the Habsburg period (the 16th-17th centuries).