![]() In his Creighton Lecture (1991), ‘Illusion and Disillusionment: Spain and the Indies’, Elliott ruminates on a subject – the impact of Spain’s empire on Spain itself – which is certainly not new, as he notes, but into which he manages to breathe some new life, connecting it with his over-riding interest in the Olivares project. In ‘The Seizure of Overseas Territories by the European Powers’ (1990), which has appeared in two previous collections, Elliott considers the two different inspirations to overseas exploration and empire, the desire for trade and that for conquest, and seeks to answer the question just why European expansion took the form of seizure and settlement of the territories of others. In ‘Part II: A Wider World’, Elliott considers Europe’s overseas expansion, with particular emphasis – not surprisingly – on that of Spain. In the final essay in this section, ‘Europe after the Peace of Westphalia’ (1999), Elliott reflects upon the view that the Peace of Westphalia was a turning point in European history, suggesting that if that was the case, this was not so much the consequence of the peace itself as of the long conflict which that settlement ended. In this way, Elliott throws into relief the subject of loyalty in the past, a theme which historians have arguably neglected for its opposite, disloyalty, rebellion, treachery. In ‘A Non-Revolutionary Society: Castile in the 1640s’ (1990), Elliott explores the paradox that Castile exhibited all the ‘preconditions’ of revolution in that disturbed decade, but did not in fact revolt. ![]() One further observation by Elliott in this essay is elaborated in that which follows. In ‘The General Crisis in Retrospect: A Debate Without End’ (2005), Elliott provides an invaluable history of, and commentary on that debate, reiterating his view that it was the state which was revolutionary and the upheavals conservative he also takes the opportunity to repeat a contention familiar to readers of his work, the importance of the broad canvas and of comparison of one state and society with another, to tease out the crucial features of a historical situation. Nevertheless, his exploration enables Elliott to draw some broader conclusions about a subject which greatly interested the honorand of the lecture – ‘why societies become dynamic at certain moments in their history’, for example Europe between 15 – and to suggest that the explanation included a readiness (here, on the part of the competing states of early modern Europe) to contemplate the achievements of others. ![]() ![]() For their part, Spaniards were less inclined to look to England for solutions to Spain’s problems, at least before the 18th century, and not always then. In ‘Learning from the Enemy: Early Modern Britain and Spain’, an otherwise less easily-found Dacre Lecture, given in Oxford in 2007 in honour of Hugh Trevor-Roper, one-time mentor of the author, Elliott explores what he identifies as a rather obscure side to the relationship between England and Spain in the later 16th and early 17th centuries: alongside the very negative reaction of the former to the latter, encapsulated in the so-called ‘Black Legend’ of Catholic cruelty, there was an understandable readiness to admire and imitate some aspects of a dominant Spanish culture and practice, until a reversal of attitude occurred in face of Spanish decline in the later 17th century. ‘Part 1: Europe’ opens with Elliott’s important and widely cited Past and Present article, first published in 1992, on ‘A Europe of Composite Monarchies’, in which he explores more sympathetically than has traditionally been the case this distinctive early modern political structure, its strengths and weaknesses. In this collection of some of his most recent articles, essays and lectures, Elliott continues to demonstrate the remarkable qualities which have underpinned that reputation. Professor Sir John Elliott is surely the most distinguished Anglophone historian of early modern Spain and its empire and his mastery of that topic has enabled him to make an equally distinguished contribution to our understanding of Europe as a whole between the 15th and 18th centuries.
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