Module Code - Title:
HI4227
-
GOLDEN AGE: POLITICS, CULTURE AND WARFARE IN THE SPANISH MONARCHY, 1598 - 1746
Year Last Offered:
2023/4
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
This final-year undergraduate elective module will replace the old HI4062 module Court Politics and Culture in early modern Spain, 1561-1665. Its aim will be to give students a perception of how an early modern state was expected to be governed, and how it actually was governed. On completion, students will have gained an understanding of how personal and family relationships had an impact on high politics; and they will have further developed their skills in written expression, and selective analysis of information. It is also anticipated that students will have gained experience in the interpretation of a variety of new primary sources, including artistic and architectural evidence, as well as translations of journals, letters and notarial documents.
Syllabus:
Philip III and the Duke of Lerma, 1598-1621; Cervantes and Góngora; palace construction and design; the household of the king; the household of the queen and royal children; Diego de Saavedra Fajardo and ideas of kingship and political theory; government by confrontation and consensus: the regimes of Olivares and Don Luis de Haro; the court of Philip IV, 1621-1665; marriage, birth and death within the Spanish elite; painting and theatre as a mirror of politics; foreign policy, the Vienna alliance and the triumph of reputation, 1618-1660; the Spanish court as a model for Europe in the mid-seventeenth century; grandees and faction-fighting and the question of the Spanish Succession, 1665-1713; the revival of Bourbon Spain and the reconquest of Italy under Philip V.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
On successful completion of this final-year module, students should be able to:
* Define the key factors influencing the decline of Spain as a great power during the seventeenth century;
* Explain the role of the court in the cultural and political development of later Habsburg and early Bourbon Spain;
* Assess the merits of literary and artistic primary sources;
* Analyse the contribution of the privileged orders to the development of Spanish society in the seventeenth century;
* Define the wider implications of government by minister-favourite;
* Define the key themes of the social, political and cultural history of Spain in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries;
* Perfect a discursive and analytical approach to History writing; and
* Enhance their ability to work independently within a structured and supervised environment.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
On completion of this first-year module students will demonstrate an appreciation of the importance of an especially formative period in European cultural and political history.
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
Upon completion of the module students will have developed knowledge of the past and skills of analysis which will serve them in a variety of professional, cultural and social contexts.
The module will provide a basis for future research at postgraduate level, because students will have been introduced to on-line and hard-copy primary resources, and will have been taught the approach to correct History writing at university level.
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Elliott, J. H. (1963)
Imperial Spain, 1469-1713
, Harmondsworth: Penguin
Lynch, John (1992)
The Hispanic World in Crisis and Change, 1598-1700,
, Oxford: Blackwell.
Brown, Jonathan, and Elliott, John H. (2003)
A Palace for a King: The Buen Retiro and the Court of Philip IV , 2nd ed.,
, New Haven and London
: Yale University Press.
Robbins, Jeremy (1998)
The Challenges of Uncertainty: An Introduction to Seventeenth-Century Spanish Literature
, London: Duckworth.
Elliott, J. H. and Brockliss, L. W. B., eds. (1999)
The World of the Favourite
, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Cowans, Jon, ed.
(2003)
Early Modern Spain: A Documentary History
, Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press.
Brown, Jonathan, (1998)
Painting in Spain, 1500-1700
, New Haven and London: Yale
University Press.
Orso, Steven N., (1986)
Philip IV and the Decoration of the Alcazar of Madrid ,
, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Lynch, John, Bourbon.
(1989)
Spain, 1700-1808
, Oxford: Blackwell
Kamen, Henry (2001)
Philip V of Spain: The King who Reigned Twice
, New Haven and
London, Yale University Press.
Other Relevant Texts:
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
BAARTSUEA - ARTS (EVENING)
BAENHIUFA - English and History
BAHPSSUFA - History, Politics, Sociology and Social Studies
Semester - Year to be First Offered:
Module Leader:
Alistair.Malcolm@ul.ie