Charles, the Prince of Wales at the Court of Philip IV of Spain: the «Incognito» Trip and the Problem of Exchanging Gifts

The article studies the tradition of exchanging gifts during diplomatic negotiations for marriage using a historical reconstruction of the trip of the English Prince Charles Stuart to Madrid in 1623 to negotiate his marriage with the Spanish Infanta Maria as a crucial case. The heir to the English throne personally arrived in Madrid «incognito» to speed up the negotiations. These circumstances created problems for the Spanish side because the reception ceremony was not developed for such a case. Besides, the «incognito» trip complicated the question of exchanging gifts. Later, such trips of monarchs would become a common practice. However, this case was one of the first precedents which forced the existing ceremonial procedure of gift exchange to undergo modifications. The article focuses on functions of exchanging gifts during marriage negotiations and studies the effects of an «incognito» trip on the course of the negotiations.

The research is based on the letters of king James and his son Charles and eyewitness reports from the English and Spanish sides. The article claims that Prince Charles’ trip «incognito» changed the traditional procedure of exchanging gifts: the exchange happened before the prince’s departure and was initiated by the Spanish side. Nevertheless, this ritual has not lost its symbolism and significance in the rhetoric of negotiations. Gifts were used as a means of communication, an indicator of the influence of states and the way of their self-presentation.

1. Akrigg G.P.V. 1967. Jacobean Pageant or the Court of king James I. New York: Atheneum.

2. Anderson M.S. 1993. The Rise of Modern Diplomacy, 1450–1919. London, New York.

3. Arroyo F.L. 2014. La formación de las Etiquetas Generales de Palacio en tiempos de Felipe IV: la Junta de Etiquetas, reformas y cambios en la Casa Real. La Casa de Borgoña: la casa del rey de España. Ed. by J.E.H. Muñoz, F.L. Arroyo. Leuven: Leuven University Press. (In Spanish)

4. Barrios F. 1988. Práctica diplomática de la Corte de España. Notas a un reglamento de Ceremonial de 1717. Revista de Estudios políticos. No62. P. 163-183. (In Spanish)

5. Bashet A. 1862. La diplomatie venitienne. Paris: Plon. 616 p. (In French)

6. Bischoff C. 2009. Complicated Exchanges: the Handling of Authorized and Unauthorized

7. Gifts. The Court Historian: gift-giving in eighteenth-century courts. Boston. 14(2). P. 133 – 148. Boyden J.M. 1995. The Courtier and the King: Ruy Gómez de Silva, Philip II and the Court of Spain. London.

8. Brotton J. 2006. The Sale of the Late King's Goods: Charles I and his Art collection. Oxford: Pan books.

9. Cuttino G.P. 1940. English Diplomatic Administration, 1259–1339. Oxford. 280 p. Domínguez Ortiz A. 1960. Politica y Hacienda de Felipe IV. Madrid. 659 p.

10. Elliott J.H. 1963. Imperial Spain, 1469–1716. London: Edward Arnold publishers;

11. Elliott J.H. 1987. The court of the Spanish Habsburg: a peculiar institution? Politics and culture in early modern Europe. Essays in Honor of H.G. Koenigsberger. Ed. by P. Mack and M.C. Jacob. Cambridge.

12. Evans J.A. 1953. History of Jewelry 1100–1870. Faber and Faber. London.

13. Garcia Sierra M.J. 1994. El aposentamiento de personajes reales europeas y embajadores extraordinarios en la Corte de España en el siglo XVII. Madrid en el contexto fe lo hispánico desde la época de los descubrimientos. Madrid. (In Spanish)

14. Goodwin R. 2015. Spain, The Centre of the World 1519–1682. London, New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.

15. Hill D.J. 1925. A History of Diplomacy in the International Development of Europe. New York.

16. Hofmann C. 1985. Das Spanische hofzeremoniell von 1500-1700. Frankfurt am Main. 315 S. (In German)

17. Howell J. 1892. Epistolae Ho-Elianae: The Familiar Letters of James Howell. Vol. 1.

18. Hume M. 1907. The Court of Philip IV. London. 569 p.

19. Jansson M. 2005. Measured Reciprocity: English Ambassadorial Gift Exchange in the 17th and 18th Centuries. Journal of Early Modern History. 9(3-4). P. 348–370.

20. Kunz G.F., Hugh C. 2011. The Book of the Pearl: Its History, Art, Science, and Industry. Dover publications, inc. Mineola, New York.

21. La vida española en el Siglo de Oro según los extranjeros. 1990. José María Diez Borque (ed.). Barcelona. (In Spanish)

22. Lee M. 1967. The Jacobean Diplomatic Service. The American Historical Review. Jul. Vol. 72. P. 1264–1282.

23. Mattingly G. 1955. Renaissance Diplomacy. Baltimore.

24. Maulde-la-Claviere R. 1892–1893. La diplomatie au temps de Machiavel. Paris: E. Leroux. Vol. 1–3. 494 p. (In French)

25. Nader H. 1988. Habsburg Ceremony in Spain: The Reality of the Myth. Historical Reflections. Réflexions Historiques. 15(1). P. 293-309.

26. Pursell B. 2002. The End of the Spanish Match. The Historical Journal. 45(4). P. 699–726.

27. Queller D.E. 1967. The Office of Ambassador in the Middle Ages. Princeton, New Jersey.

28. Redworth G. 2003. The Prince and the Infanta: The Cultural Politics of the Spanish Match. New Haven: Yale University Press.

29. Redworth G., Checa F. 1999. The kingdoms of Spain, the courts of the Spanish Habsburgs 1500–1700. The princely Courts of Europe. Ritual, Politics and Culture under the Ancien Régime 1500–1750. Ed. by J. Adamson. London: Seven Dials, Cassel & Co.

30. Reumont A. 1867. Della diplomazia italiana dal secolo XIII al XVI. Firenze. 424 p. (In Italian)

31. Rodríguez Villa A. 1913. Etiquetas de la Casa de Austria. Madrid. 264 p. (In Spanish)

32. Rodríguez-Salgado M. 1991. The Court of Philip II of Spain. Princes, patronage and nobility: The Court at the Beginning of the Modern Age, 1450–1650. R.G. Asch and A.M. Birke (eds.). Oxford. P. 205–244.

33. Roosen W. 1980. Early Modern Diplomatic Ceremonial: A Systems Approach. The Journal of Modern History. Vol. 52. P. 452-476.

34. Strong R. 1966. Three Royal Jewels: the Three Brothers, the Mirror of Great Britain and the Feathe. The Burlington Magazine. 108(760). P. 350–353.

35. The courts of Europe. Politics, patronage and royalty, 1400–1800. 1977. Ed. by A.G. Dickens. London: Thames and Hudson.

36. Valgoma y Díaz-Varela D. de la. 1958. Norma y ceremonia de las reinas de la Casa de Austria. Madrid. (In Spanish)

37. Bojcov M.A. 2009. Velichie i smirenie. Ocherki politicheskogo simvolizma v srednevekovoj Evrope [Greatness and Humility. Essays on Political Symbolism in Medieval Europe]. Moscow: Russian political encyclopedia. (In Russian)

38. Domnina E.G. 2011. Ceremonial prijoma anglijskih poslov v Venecii v rannee Novoe vremya [The Ceremonial Reception of English Ambassadors in Venice in Early Modern Times]. The Middle Ages. Issue 72. Moscow. P. 214-224;

39. Domnina E.G. 2020. Diplomatiya v epohu peremen: Tyudory i rimskaya kuriya (14851558) [Diplomacy in the Era of Change: The Tudors and the Roman Curia (1485-1558)]. Saint Petersburg, Moscow: Centr gumanitarnyh iniciativ.

40. Ehea Fernandes M.A. 2015. Priyom russkogo posoljstva 1667–1668 gg. pri dvore Karla II: (po materialam ispanskih arhivov) [Reception of the Russian Embassy 1667–1668 at the Court of Charles II: (based on the materials of the Spanish archives)]. Moscow.

41. Gurevich A.Ya. 1984. Kategorii Srednevekovoj kul'tury [The Categories of the Medieval Culture]. Moscow: Iskusstvo (In Russian)

42. Istoriya diplomatii [The History of Diplomacy]. 1959. Pod red. [ed.] V.A. Zorina, V.S. Semenova, S.D. Skazkina, V.M. Hvostova. Vol. 1. Moscow: Gospolitizdat (In Russian)

43. Moss M. 2011. Obshchestva. Obmen. Lichnost'. Trudy po social'noj antropologii [Societies. Exchange. Personality. Works on social anthropology]. Moscow: KDU (In Russian)

44. Na yazyke darov: pravila simvolicheskoj kommunikacii v Evrope, 1000–1700 gg. [In the Language of Gifts: Rules of Symbolic Communication in Europe, 1000–1700] 2016. Pod red. [Ed.] G. Al'thofa i M. Bojcova. Moscow: Russian political encyclopedia (In Russian)

45. Rossijskie diplomaty v Ispanii [Russian Diplomats in Spain]. 2016. Ed. by O.V. Volosyuk. Moscow: International Relations. 672 p.

46. Vud D., Sarre Zh. 1974. Diplomaticheskij ceremonial i protokol [The Diplomatic Ceremonial and Protocol]. Moscow: Progress. (In Russian)

47. Zallet P. 1956. Diplomaticheskaya sluzhba. Ejo istoriya i organizaciya vo Francii, Velikobritanii i Soedinyonnyh Shtatah [Diplomatic Service: History and Organization in France, Great Britain and the United States]. Moscow.