The Spanish and English Chronicles in King James's and Sir George Buc's Dossiers on the Anglo-Spanish Peace Negotiations

Abstract

T he Anglo-Spanish peace settlement of 1604/5 put an end to the hostilities that had been straining the financial resources of both England and Spain in the last two decades of the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and Philip II. The political and religious implications of this historic rapprochement have been amply addressed by historians, but the cultural aspect of the reconciliation between the two hostile nations, which had been demonizing each other in vitriolic pamphlets, has not been given due attention. The present article seeks to throw some light on the cultural dimension of the rapprochement by tracing the response to the publications recording the celebrations of the peace in both countries, particularly the interest reflected in dossiers kept by King James and Sir George Buc, the Deputy Master of the Revels.1 In both countries, the negotiations with the former enemy fostered official documents chronicling the sumptuous celebrations imposed by the etiquettes of the two courts. Whereas the English publications were rather slow to appear, the Spanish court embarked in 1603 on a public campaign redolent of cultural selfrepresentation and self-assertion. The first such item published in Spain, the Relacidn muy verdadera del recibimientoyfiestas que se hizieron en Inglaterra a Don Juan de Tassis, Conde de Villamedianaz,2 records the resumption of the diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1603 and the subsequent court festivities. It was followed by La segundaparte de la embaxada de Don Juan de Tassis3 and the