“Selling” the Bourbon Monarchy across the Atlantic: Disloyalty and Propaganda in Mexico City, 1701–14

     In 1700, the death of the Habsburg Charles II and the rise of the Bourbon Philip V to the Spanish throne ignited the War of the Spanish Succession.  Although Spain and France spent the next thirteen years fighting the Austrian Alliance on Spanish territory, historians of Spanish America have demonstrated little interest in how the succession crisis effected New World subjects.  Scholars have assumed that as long as people remained out of harm’s way, most cared little as to whether a Habsburg or Bourbon sat on the throne.

     Yet,  Mexico City’s residents did not transfer their long-nurtured loyalty easily to the young Bourbon king.  In fact, a large number of the capital’s elites and plebeians fell under suspicion for proclaiming their loyalty to Austria’s Archduke Charles, the Habsburg contender for the Spanish throne. Furthermore, New Spain’s religious and governing elite struggled to explain the succession to a populace long trained to revere the Habsburg dynasty as legitimate rulers.  Using manuscript documents housed in Mexico City and Spain, as well as a large collection of printed sermons and official accounts of public spectacles, this paper examines how administrators and prelates worked to “sell” the Bourbon dynasty to the populace.  Through funerary sermons for Charles II and the official oath ceremony for Philip V, sermons of thanksgiving to honor various military victories, sermons of supplication on behalf of Philip V, and funerary sermons for soldiers who died during the war, Mexico City’s religious and bureacratic elite encouraged people to transfer their loyalty.  Their concerted efforts betray deep-seated anxieties regarding the transition and indirectly reveal many peoples’ ambivalence regarding the outcome of the war.  After almost two centuries of Habsburg rule, Mexico City residents needed to be encouraged to accept a Bourbon king.