ABSTRACT
This chapter illuminates the social and cultural tenor of late Habsburg Spain. Through the vignettes and close examination of Spanish culture, the author seeks to capture Spain's mentality, social practices and culture as the sun set on its hegemonic position in the peninsula and abroad. During the halcyon years of Philip II's early rule, it would have been very difficult to foresee the disasters that befell Spain and other Iberian lands in the late sixteenth and throughout the entire seventeenth century. By the late sixteenth century and throughout the seventeenth century, religious festivals overtook royal ceremonials. For Philip and his father Charles V, the entry into Antwerp represented perhaps the most important stage in the round of festivities that introduced Philip as the soon to be heir to the Low Countries. It confirmed the Habsburgs' rights over Flanders, Brabant and other regions in the area as direct descendants of Philip the Fair and Philip's grandfather.
