Spanish Treatises on Government, Society and Religion in the Time of Philip II: The de regimine principum and Associated Traditions

This volume centres on a dozen texts in Spanish or Latin composed by Spaniards, both laymen and clergy, in the Spanish Netherlands as well as Spain. The study follows the debate during Philip II’s reign concerning the principles, purposes and values - both secular and religious - relevant to rulers and to society at large. Part 1 examines three treatises produced in the Spanish Netherlands in the 1550s; parts 2 and 3 respectively study works form the Kingdoms of Castile and the Crowns of Aragon in the 1570s and 1580s; part 4 considers three Jesuit treatises of the 1590s.