The political culture of empire: The Spanish Council of State and foreign policy under Philip III, 1598--1621

At his death in 1621 Philip III of Spain left his son an empire at war across the globe, just as he had inherited it from his father, Philip II, in 1598. At the close of both reigns Spain struggled against Dutch Rebels and battled Protestant foes in Central and Northern Europe in defense of Catholicism and hereditary empire. Military expenditures were nearly equal at the beginning and at the end of the period. Yet despite these apparent similarities, Philip III's reign marked a revolution in Spanish foreign policy as the young king turned away from a century of imperial expansion and consolidated Spanish power through peaceful means. To steer Spanish policy during these troubled times, Philip III utilized a reorganized and powerful Council of State to develop a rational approach to foreign policy, an approach that saw Spain conclude treaties with its Protestant foes in the first decade of the reign before changing strategic realities led to a renewal of war during the second.;This dissertation focuses on the influence of the Tacitean rhetoric of reason of state on the elite political culture of the Spanish Council of State as a key explanation for the dramatic shift towards a pacific imperial foreign policy under Philip III. Through an examination of five foreign policy "crisis points," the work reexamines the role of the Council of State in policy formation, demonstrating that far from being of limited importance, the Council was in reality filled with educated, experienced aristocrats who understood the challenges facing Spain throughout its vast empire, and who employed new strains of political thought to shift Spain's foreign policy priorities. Many of the counselors of State were proponents of the recently defined ideas of reason of state, which counseled a calculated policy based on Tacitean ideals of dissimulation and imperial conservation. The Council meetings recorded in position papers known as consultas provide an unparalleled view into this important intersection of political theory and political action as they illuminate the influence of discursive limits on political action.