Monarchs throughout the ages have commissioned official histories that cast their reigns in a favorable light for future generations. These accounts, sanctioned and supported by the ruling government, often gloss over the more controversial aspects of a king's or queen's time on the throne. Instead, they present highly selective and positive readings of a monarch's contribution to national identity and global affairs. In Clio and the Crown, Richard L. Kagan examines the official histories of Spanish monarchs from medieval times to the middle of the 18th century. He expertly guides readers through the different kinds of official histories commissioned: those whose primary focus was the monarch; those that centered on the Spanish kingdom as a whole; and those that celebrated Spain's conquest of the New World. In doing so, Kagan also documents the life and work of individual court chroniclers, examines changes in the practice of official history, and highlights the political machinations that influenced the redaction of such histories. Just as world leaders today rely on fasttalking press officers to explain their sometimes questionable actions to the public, so too did the kings and queens of medieval and early modern Spain. Monarchs often went to great lengths to exert complete control over the official history of their reign, physically intimidating historians, destroying and seizing manuscripts and books, rewriting past histories, and restricting history writing to authorized persons.Still, the larger practice of history writing -- as conducted by nonroyalist historians, various scholars and writers, and even church historians -- provided a corrective to official histories. Kagan concludes that despite its blemishes, the writing of official histories contributed, however imperfectly, to the practice of historiography itself.''A masterful, comprehensive survey of the history of 'official' historiography in medieval and early modern Spain, from Isidore to Charles III.'' -- Jorge CañizaresEsguerra, The University of Texas at Austin
PrefaceList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Official History1. Empire and History2. Historia pro Persona: Emperor Charles V3. Historia pro Patria: Philip II4. ''His Majesty's History''5. Defending Imperium6. ''To Mortify Our Enemies'': History and Propaganda at the Court of Philip IV7. Critical History or Official History?Conclusion: Rethinking Official HistorySelected BibliographyIndex
""Richard Kagan's Clio and the Crown offers an insightful approach to the study of Spanish historiography by analyzing the social and political history of the official historiographers who worked for the kings of Spain from the Middles Ages to the Enlightenment... Thanks to Kagan's work, we know more about the interactions of a significant number of these historiographers with the other scholars involved in the social circulation of the past during the early modern period.""
