Cities of war and power : Cartagena and Marseille and the making of absolutism in the Hispanic and French monarchies during Early Modern Centuries

Abstract

This thesis offers an innovative insight into the analysis of the state-building processes during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by analysing the making of Absolutism in the Hispanic and French monarchies. Comparing the cases of Cartagena during the central years of the sixteenth century and Marseille during the seventeenth century, I explore the disputed nature of Absolutism focusing my attention on the performativity of agents, practices, and discourses. First, I use the case of Sebastián Clavijo (C. 1580-1554) and his role on the transformation of Cartagena into a naval base in the service of the king of the Spains to analyse how the king’s power was constructed on a periphery of the monarchy through a complex system of political competition among a myriad of jurisdictional agents. Second, I focus my attention on the ideological conceptualisation of the relationship between the republic of Marseille and the jurisdiction of the king of France through the critical reading of a series of literary sources. By doing so, I underline the existence of diverging concepts of Absolutism mobilised by supporters and antagonists of the jurisdictional supremacy of the king. Consequently, the thesis seeks to provide an elaborated case study for the comprehension of the complex and diverging paths followed by western European societies during this period. It, consequently, aims to provide with a valuable contribution to our understanding of the political making of early modern monarchies.