From the Bible to Álvaro de Luna. Historical Antecedents and Political Models in the Debate on the Valimiento in Spain (1539-1625)

The presence of a powerful favourite alongside the legitimate ruler has been a fundamental point in the history of the main European monarchies of the seventeenth century. In addition to the concrete political struggle at court, the conflict between opponents and defenders of the phenomenon of favouritism was fought even on a theoretical level, in the vast political literature focused on this issue from the sixteenth century and then, with increasing intensity, in the following century. This article aims to examine, through the analysis of political works centered on the figure of the favourite during the valimiento of the Duke of Lerma, in which way various characters and ages of the past were used and re-read for political purposes inside of this debate. The political use of history emerges as a central element to understand the characters who more than any other influenced an entire era of European history.