Administrer la frontière. La monarchie espagnole et ses agents dans le Val d'Aran, 1600-1720

Abstract

Through the example of the representatives of the central power within a border march not fully integrated yet to monarchy in the early XVII th century, this article intends to show to which extent two political and military major crises (1640-1652 : Catalan upheaval ; 1702-1714/1720 : Spanish Succession wars and the Quadruple Alliance wars) play a fundamental part within the process, quite advanced indeed, of bringing closer to the centre and integrating that territory inside the monarchy, through the implication of a reliable local elite to the royal service finding thus in those critical moments the way to affirm their faithfulness. An opening of the Bourbons during the XVIII th century offers the opportunity to raise a few questions about the future of those local actors inside a state that is striving to create a completely faithful administration, independent of the old local oligarchies. Through the Val d'Aran's case, and reaching beyond that simple frame, are unveiled the processes that monarchy used to control and incorporate its periphery.