On 15 November 1649, Mariana of Austria made her formal entry into Madrid as the new Queen consort of Philip IV of Spain (r. 1621–65). The welcome awaiting her was especially euphoric because her engagement had been announced as long ago as January 1647, almost three years earlier. While moving female Habsburgs around Europe had always been a major logistical enterprise, on this occasion international circumstances had contributed to make the journey particularly hazardous. A Swedish invasion of Bohemia, the outbreak of revolts in southern Italy and the Ottoman siege of Crete had forced the governments in Madrid and Vienna on three separate occasions to revise their complicated travel arrangements. So, it was no wonder that her new subjects were pleased to see her, and their celebrations marked a double triumph because the Queen's arrival also served to restore a sense of festivity to the Spanish court that had been missing for nearly ten years. During the 1640s there had been several deaths in the royal family, along with military defeats, political upheavals, and the enforcement of a variety of unpopular moral reforms that included the closure of the theatres. In fact, the prohibition of comedias had still not been officially lifted at the time of Mariana's arrival, but their staging was regarded as intrinsic to the occasion. The reappearance of comedias would constitute one facet of a new informality that began to characterize the reign of Philip IV at this time, and which would be reflected in the way his government came to be conducted and how his court would be presented during the second half of the reign.

This chapter will consider the theatre closure that took place between 1646 and 1651 within the broader context of the movement for the reform of customs and behaviour that briefly flourished during the seven or eight years before Mariana's arrival. Matters such as the closure of the theatres, restrictions on court fashions and the punishment of political corruption were central to the Spanish government's duty to nurture and promote the Catholic credentials of the monarchy, and it is therefore important to see them as a group, rather than as isolated issues. Moral reform was a subject that concerned everyone. For several decades already, court preachers and writers from the religious orders had been expressing their disquiet that the nobility had allowed its rectitude to be undermined.