The Prince and the Infanta
WARNING
You are viewing an older version of the Yalebooks website. Please visit out new website with more updated information and a better user experience: https://www.yalebooks.com
The Cultural Politics of the Spanish Match
Glyn Redworth
View Inside
Format: PaperPrice: $24.00
On the night of March 7, 1623, the prince of Wales and the duke of Buckingham knocked on the door of the British embassy in Madrid. Their unsolicited arrival began one of the most bizarre episodes in British history, as the Protestant heir to the Stuart throne struggled to win the Spanish Infanta as his bride.
The prince’s visit marked the end of a decade of high-level negotiation to secure a marriage between the leading Protestant and Catholic royal families and heal Europe’s century-old division into warring Christian camps. The effort was a diplomatic disaster. It split political and religious opinion in Britain, alienated much of Italy and Germany, confused the Spaniards (who thought that the English crown was about to convert), and failed to secure a marriage or to resolve the Thirty Years’ War.
Drawing on archival material from five countries, Glyn Redworth provides the definitive explanation of this pivotal moment and tells a fascinating story of early modern politicking, cultural misunderstanding, and religious confusion.
"The first major study for some considerable time [on the Spanish Match]. . . . The author builds a detailed and readable account of the events surrounding the Spanish Match, one that is revealing about politicking in the early modern period, as well as about the confusion and misunderstanding that arose concerning both cultural and religious matters. . . . This story of the Spanish Match is a fascinating one."—British Bulletin of Publications
"A study such as this is long overdue. Richly descriptive, beautifully illustrated and engagingly written, it makes the fullest, most detailed and best documented account of Prince Charles's failed bid to win the hand of the Infanta Maria during his sojourn in Spain in 1623." —Brennan C. Pursell, Ecclesiastical History
"A well and wittily written account of the proposed Spanish match." —Studies in English Literature
"Redworth extensively uses both British and Spanish sources, with much of the work told from the Spanish point of view. His examination of the Spanish reaction to Charles and Buckingham's rash behavior is insightful and will explain the whole episode more fully for students of English history. . . . A comprehensive and in-depth study of one of the more unusual events in European history. . . . [A] worthy addition to the study of British history."—Laura A. Endicott, Sixteenth Century Journal
Publication Date: September 23, 2014
19 b/w + 25 color illus.
