| Sumario: | This volume addresses one of the most debated topics in the historiography of the Spanish Monarchy in the Early Modern Age: its political nature. It examines the most interesting aspects of the Hispanic polycentric model, which presents the Monarchy as a political entity composed of several interconnected units that not only interacted with the king, but also with each other. These connections contributed to the modulation of Court politics and the generation of new forms of collaboration, competition and negotiation. The analysis of four case studies, involving individuals, families and power groups that managed to move within or on the margins of institutional channels, between the Italian and Iberian territories of the Monarchy, allows us to interpret this political entity as something more than the simple juxtaposition of kingdoms under a single king. The result was a State capable of strengthening itself also through the interactions that took place between the local and global spheres thanks to the presence of an articulated system of networks.
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