ABSTRACT
This chapter reconstructs the demography of the dynastic crypt at the Escorial, where a large and diverse family group was gathered over the decades, including rulers, their spouses, siblings, legitimate and illegitimate children and several nephews and cousins. This chapter argues that two dynamics drove this development: a pull dynamic which meant family heads exercised increased authority in mandating burials in the Escorial, including for individuals who had indicated other wishes. And a push dynamic, which meant that peripheral relatives who previously would not have had any expectation of being buried in the dynastic crypt actively pushed for burial in the Escorial, by handing control of their place of burial to the family head. Together these ‘pull’ and ‘push’ dynamics gave family heads much more authority in arranging for their relatives’ post-mortem destinies. From the late sixteenth century, the dynasty's women chose burial in the Descalzas monastery, a female courtly space. Thus, the crypt in the Escorial become a more male space. While the family group in the Escorial expanded, it also became more stratified when the remains of rulers were separated from the others in the exclusive Pantheon of Kings.
