“Vna bien fundada relación del modo del gouierno que al presente tienen estos reynos [y] de la priuanza del duque de Lerma”: un dispaccio segreto di Hans Khevenhüller, ambasciatore cesareo alla corte di Madrid (1574-1606) all’Imperatore Rodolfo II

Abstract

In 1574 the Carinthian aristocrat Hans Khevenhüller became a Caesarean ambassador to the court of Madrid. Thanks to the rich documentation produced by the ambassador, we have access to a considerable amount of information on both the imperial reality and the Spanish court of the second half of the ‘500 up to the very first ‘600. Among these documents, the Bien fundada relación, written at the end of 1605 at the request of Emperor Rudolph II and secretly sent to Prague in 1606, stands out as a political testament of the Caesarean ambassador. The Bien fundada relación configures itself as a precious account of the genesis and strengthening of the prominent position of the Duke of Lerma, as well as of the characteristics of court life under Philip III, from the privileged point of view of the maximum Caesarean representative in Madrid.