ABSTRACT
In June of 1660 the Bourbon king of France, Louis XIV, was betrothed to the eldest daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, Maria Teresa. The marriage formed part of the negotiations for the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which ended the long and bitter conflict known as the Franco-Spanish War and helped resolve the corollaries of the French civil war known as the Fronde. Modern scholarship dedicated to the early reign of Louis XIV generally locates Maria Teresa, as a marginalized figure at the French court. Upon her arrival in France, manifestations of the new queen's cultural inheritance were utilized by the Bourbon regime to expand its influence within the operations of the state. The meanings embedded within these actions were situational, constructed within the unfolding series of diplomatic exchanges inspired by the Treaty of the Pyrenees, and their legitimacy ran deeper still and were supported by the very foundations of French early modern political thought.
