Finding Macro-patterns in Pre-modern Iberia: An Initial Approach

This paper will seek to complicate historical understandings of pre-modern Iberia, which is most often depicted as a history of regions in isolation from the others, or otherwise developing in parallel fashion. It will propose a comparative methodology  as a means of investigating macro-historical phenomena, and thereby transcend the commonly accepted regional/national narratives. Specifically, it will present a macro view of the political networks associated with both royal/civic ceremonies and ecclesiastic/civic ceremonies across the regions of Portugal, the Crown of Aragon, and Castile. It will argue that there were not only a great many similarities between the regions, but instances when they were co-participants in a variety of peninsula-wide processes, which should be recognized. In so doing, the paper will seek to initiate—along with the other presentations of the panel—a dialogue for how to re-conceptualize the political sphere in pre-modern Iberia in ways other than isolation or parallel development.