Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at how the culture of the gift exchange works through the figure of the queen Mariana of Neuburg, second wife of Charles II of Spain (1661-1700) and how it began an interesting exchange between the Spanish Monarchy and the Empire that had an important cultural and also political impact in the Spanish court in the latest years of Charles II’s reign.

Paper long abstract:

Queen Mariana of Neuburg was the second wife of Charles II of Spain and one of the most important political figures in the Spanish court during the latest years of the XVIIth century. In her correspondence with her brother, the elector of Palatinate Johann Wilhelm of Neuburg, the political matters had an enormous importance, but it also reflect a constant exchange of products between Madrid and the Elector court in Düsseldorf. The queen asked her brother for all kind of products she missed from her homeland, from beer to food, and she even asked her to send her a baker from Germany because she missed the bread from Germany. At the same time, her brother asked her for luxury gift from the Spanish court, like product from America or even important paintings that were hangings in the walls of different Spanish palaces to decorate his own, a petition that his sister usually granted (with or without Charles II’s license, by the way). Also, Johann Wilhelm, who needed to keep her powerful sister happy, also sent her everything he could think of to woo her and her husband, from musicians to coaches and fashionable trinkets of all kinds. But there were other people who tried to get and maintain themselves into the queen’s good graces this way, like the elector of Bavaria, Maximilian Emmanuel, or the king of France himself, Louis XIV. Thus, this cultural, political and familiar exchange will be the central topic of this paper, in which we will examine the meaning and importance of these gifts and the trip they made from Germany to Madrid and vice versa.