Court Cities Celebrate Prince Baltasar Carlos: Loyalty, Status, and Identity in the Early Modern Spanish World

Abstract

Upon the birth of the Spanish prince Baltasar Carlos in 1629, Spanish subjects feasted and put on pageants and processions in celebration. Numerous relaciones , or official reports, recounted the responses to the royal birth in the court cities of Madrid and Lima. Although the authors of these relaciones sought to project royal power, they also alluded to the ways in which local experiences, rank, race, and the particular aims of Spanish subjects complicated their imperial identities and their performances of loyalty. Subjects were not merely spectators; they were also participants and actors in these festivals. By performing loyalty to the new prince, people in court cities advanced their own corporate and individual agendas. In the process, they rewrote their relationships to the crown and each other.