Les gardes royales des monarques Habsbourg hispaniques et l’étiquette : la lutte pour la proximité avec le souverain

The Royal Guards of the Spanish Habsburg kings played a fundamental role in the complex arrangements involved in managing the monarch’s public appearances, both within the court environment and outside it. Although the Stables were the section of the Household most concerned with the prince’s exterior appearance and his image in the public sphere, the Royal Guard occupied a privileged position in such appearances. These appearances, moreover, were fundamental in the projection of the royal image because most of the Royal Household Protocol and ceremonies in which the monarch intervened took place inside the palace and therefore out of sight of the subjects. This function became increasingly important to every monarchy in the course of the Modern Age, not least to one of the most powerful in the world. Within the protocol, proximity to the king determined the importance of each corps in the Royal Household and therefore in the kingdom. This premise established the hierarchy of the different guard units, especially of their captains and lieutenants, so that the worst disputes arose from attempts to be as close to the monarch as possible, as will be examined in this article