Music in the service of Spanish Hegemony in early modern Rome

The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, signed in 1559, cemented Spain’s position as the dominant political power in Italy and put an end to French hopes of seriously challenging that dominance for the rest of the century. In subsequent years the French position in Rome was further weakened due to its wars of religion, while the popes of the Catholic Reformation found a natural, if prickly, ally in Philip II in their moves towards reform. Spanish hegemony continued through at least the first quarter of the following century, a period which Fernand Braudel has labelled the ‘pax hispanica’. ¹ Rivalry between the major powers continued but it was now played out diplomatically, in arguments over precedence, or through processions and other religious and secular celebrations, part of the function of which was to aggrandize the nation organizing them.