Governo, corte e città a Napoli: la fine del Parlamento e la crisi del governo vicereale (1637-1647)

This Doctoral Thesis analyses viceregal Naples between 1637 and 1647 with an investigation on three levels: government, court and city. This is done through the study of the government of Naples, with special attention to the General Parliament of the Kingdom, which was convened for the last time in 1642. With the privileged viewpoint provided by this institution between the viceregal and urban administration, it is possible to understand local interests, the Neapolitan agenda in the global dynamics of the Monarchy, the lineage or "public" interests of the viceroys and, in short, it reveals a new perspective that starts from the Neapolitan reality itself to understand the structure of government, through unpublished sources and archival work, in a turbulent period for the Spanish Monarchy. All in all, the institutions are inserted into the political and ceremonial dynamics of the city and Kingdom of Naples. Moreover, all this is studied through the channel of the court of Madrid, since the viceroys were appointed by the king and represented him in the Kingdom. Therefore, government decisions were affected by court circumstances. In particular, this period coincided with the years of the "privanza" of the Count-Duke and the subsequent rise of Luis de Haro. Thus, the viceroys Duke of Medina de las Torres, Almirante of Castilla and Duke of Arcos were involved not only in Neapolitan politics, but also in that of the monarchy of Philip IV. Finally, the city is the main actor of this research, in its physical and symbolic configuration, since the capital had a singular significance in the Neapolitan case due to the sociography of its elites and their involvement in the municipal government.