ABSTRACT
In addition to expounding his theories as to the ideal form of government (see Chapter Six), Quevedo also wrote on some of the specific problems faced by the Spanish monarchy, both in terms of home and foreign policy. 1 He did so, fundamentally, in eight pieces variously labelled 'iistle', 'annals', 'compendium', 'panegyric', and 'manifesto'. 2 These are observations on people and on events which took place between 1621 and I643, the years of the royal favourite Olivares and of the first stage of the reign of Philip IV, so complicated a period in Spain's history that historians tend to describe it as a moment 'of conflict', 'of crisis', or as 'decadent'. Only five of these works were printed in Quevedo's lifetime, and it is not known whether he could not, or did not wish to, publish the others, the extent of their diffusion being unknown. 3
