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8. Harry S. May argued that the Corrector was Samuel D. Luzzato, but Almbladh strongly disagreed. ha-Kohen, Joseph, The Vale of Tears, trans. May, Harry S. (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1971)Google Scholar, x–xi; ha-Kohen, Joseph, Sefer ‘emek ha-bakha, ed. Almbladh, Katherine (Uppsala: Uppsala University, 1981)Google Scholar, 31. The Hebrew ‘emek is variously translated as vale or valley.

9. Elliott, John H., “A Europe of Composite Monarchies,” Past & Present 137, no. 1 (November 1, 1992): 48–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10. John Elliott illustrates the massiveness of Spain's administration by its growing use of paper. At the end of Philip II's reign, a report on the viceroy of Peru took more than thirteen years and 49,555 sheets of paper to complete. By contrast, a generation earlier Charles V is said to have asked for pen and paper, but none was to be found in the palace! Elliott, John H., “Spain and Its Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” in Spain and Its World, 1500–1700 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989)Google Scholar, 15. The proliferation of universities and students in training for government service was necessary to support this growing administration; see Kagan, Richard L., Students and Society in Early Modern Spain (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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13. Segre, Gli ebrei lombardi nell'etá spagnola, 3–10: “[I]n order to protect Christians from the occasion of sin, in the form of usurious depravity, as well as to provide assistance to their poor and needful subjects.” Francesco Sforza, cited by Bonfil, Roberto, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 29–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14. Segre, Gli ebrei lombardi nell'età spagnola, 18–28.

15. Indeed, Lombardy became the heart of Spain's logistical support system. Jews and non-Jews alike helped to supply Spanish soldiers, a process that intensified as demands for arms kept increasing—especially after Spain's 1575 bankruptcy when it banned Genoese bankers. See Parker, Geoffrey, The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567–1659 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972)Google Scholar and Giuseppe De Luca, “Trading Money and Empire Building in Spanish Milan (1570–1640),” in Polycentric Monarchies, 108–25.

16. For estimates on the numbers of Jews and their distribution from 1488 to 1686, see the table in Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 1:xlix. Florence was another example of a Jewish community with many scattered settlements and little central organization; Siegmund argues that the term “constellation” may be more appropriate than “community.” Siegmund, Stefanie B., The Medici State and the Ghetto of Florence: The Construction of an Early Modern Jewish Community (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2006), 135–70.Google Scholar

17. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 1:xxviii–xlix; Magnoli, Giovanni B., “Il gran disordine de giudei: Storia di una communita sotto assedio,” in Gli ebrei a Cremona. Storia di una communita fra Medioevo e Rinascimento (Firenze: Giuntina, 2000), 54–92Google Scholar; and Magnoli, Giovanni B., Gli ebrei a Cremona: Storia di una communità fra Medioevo e Rinascimento (Firenze: Giuntina, 2002)Google Scholar.

18. Israel, “The Jews of Spanish North Africa, 1600–1699,” 71–86; Israel, “The Jewish Community of Spanish Oran and Their Expulsion,” 235–55; Schaub, Les Juifs du roi d'Espagne; Sanchez Belen, “La Expulsion de los judios d'Oran en 1669,” 155–98; Gitlitz, David M., Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002)Google Scholar; and Bodian, Miriam, Dying in the Law of Moses: Crypto-Jewish Martyrdom in the Iberian World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007)Google Scholar.

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20. Jonathan Israel defines mercantilism not only as the wide-ranging trade networks established by Sephardic refugees and their descendants but also as all instances in which Jews were perceived to provide economic benefits. On p. 2: “Mercantilism as used here signifies the deliberate pursuit of the economic interest of the state, irrespective of the claims of existing law, privilege, and tradition, as well as of religion.” See Israel, Jonathan I., Diasporas within a Diaspora: Jews, Crypto-Jews, and the World of Maritime Empires 1540–1740 (Boston: Brill, 2002), 2–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21. Moreover, De Luca has shown that Philip II considered Milanese financiers essential to the state's economy and also that they helped support long-distance trade—not to the Mediterranean, but to Poland and Portugal. De Luca, “Trading Money and Empire Building in Spanish Milan (1570–1640),” 109–119.

22. Joseph ha-Kohen, the famous Jewish historian and writer who lived in neighboring Genoa, ascribed this condotta to astute and timely financial intervention by the Jews that had helped repel a French attack: “The Lombards, hearing of the arrival of the French, began to panic because the French excelled in cruel deeds. But since there was no money available in the entire country, the senators in Milan sent for the Jews to negotiate with them a loan and for equipment for the army. After they had handed over ten thousand ducats, they were given permission, in the name of the emperor, to remain in the country over a period of another twelve years. It was initialed with the imperial insignia. The cardinal and the senators acted as mediators between the emperor and the Jews.” ha-Kohen, The Vale of Tears, 69. (The translations of the text are based on May's, which I amended when necessary using Almbladh's Hebrew edition.)

23. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 1:xxviii–xlix. Francesco II Sforza first issued his charter of privileges in 1523 and reconfirmed it in 1533. See Archivio di Stato. Milan (hereafter ASM), Registri Ducali 69, ff. 126–123, Mf bob 49, Fondo Culto 2159; and ASM, Albinaggio 3.

24. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 1:xxviii–xxix.

25. Segre, Gli ebrei lombardi nell'etá spagnola, 18–45; Magnoli, “Il gran disordine de giudei. Storia di una communita sotto assedio,” 54–92.

26. ha-Kohen, Sefer ‘emek ha-bakha, 94–5.

27. For critical evaluations of Joseph ha-Kohen's work, see Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim, Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory, The Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures in Jewish Studies (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982), 53–75Google Scholar; Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim, “Exile and Expulsion in Jewish History,” in Crisis and Creativity in the Sephardic World, 1391–1648 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 3–22Google Scholar; Jacobs, Martin, “Joseph ha-Kohen, Paolo Giovio and Sixteenth-Century Historiography,” in Cultural Intermediaries: Jewish Intellectuals in Early Modern Italy, ed. Ruderman, David and Veltri, Giuseppe (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 67–85Google Scholar; and Raz-Krakotzkin, Amnon, “Jewish Memory between Exile and History,” Jewish Quarterly Review 97, no. 4 (2007): 530–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Some historians see him as the archetype of the “Jewish lachrymose conception of history”: see Gutwirth, Eleazar, “Joseph ha-Cohen, Sefer Emeq Ha-bakha,” Journal of Semitic Studies 1, no. 28 (1983): 173–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Bonfil thinks that Baron, who coined the expression, may have drawn it from the title of Joseph's chronicle, ‘Emek ha-bakha (The Valley of Tears). Bonfil, Roberto, “How Golden Was the Age of the Renaissance in Jewish Historiography?,” in Essential Papers on Jewish Culture in Renaissance and Baroque Italy, ed. Ruderman, David B. (New York: New York University Press, 1992)Google Scholar, 284 n. 24; and Salo Baron, Wittmayer, A Social and Religious History of the Jews, 2nd ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1952)Google Scholar, 4:18. I do not deny the validity of their concerns; overall, the ‘Emek is an ideological piece of work. But in the handful of passages where Joseph or the Corrector describe events that happened in Genoa or Milan during their lifetimes, the level of accuracy is high.

28. For example, Rossana Urbani has reconstructed much of Joseph ha-Kohen's life using archival material from Genoa. Urbani, Rossana, “Indizi documentari sulla figura di Joseph Ha Cohen e della sua famiglia nella Genova del XVI secolo,” in E andammo dove il vento ci spinse, ed. Zazzu, Guido Nathan (Genoa: Radici, 1992), 59–67Google Scholar.

29. For more on the Morello family see Segre, Gli Ebrei lombardi nell'etá spagnola, 20–1. The Morello family was more commonly known by the name of Levita and were the owners of the largest Jewish bank in Pavia. Jacob Levita was a canny businessman who did not like competition. His bank was already operating in 1527; in 1548 Emperor Charles V granted him exclusive lending rights. He had three sons, Donato, Simone, and Leone; the latter is the Italian name for Yehuda.

30. Segre, Gli Ebrei lombardi nell'etá spagnola, 24. Archivio General Simancas (hereafter AGS), Papeles de Estado, Milan, 1239 # 12. In 1574 the governor of Milan wrote to Philip II: “Vidal el hebreo es muy intelligente y ha servido ally desde el tiempo del duque de Sessa.”

31. For a recent and detailed review on ethnic divisions among Italian Jewry, see Cooperman, Bernard Dov, “Ethnicity and Institution Building among Jews in Early Modern Rome,” AJS Review 30, no. 1 (2006): 119–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32. Governors were usually secular administrators, but Madruzzo served for just two years (1556–57) between the tenures of the dukes of Alba and Sessa. Monti, Antonio, Filippo II e il card. Cristoforo Madruzzo, gobernatore di Milano (1556–1557) (Milan: Dante Alighieri di Albrighi, Segati & C., 1924).Google Scholar

33. ha-Kohen, Sefer ‘emek ha-bakha, 91–99.

34. Stow, Kenneth, Catholic Thought and Papal Jewry Policy, 1555–1593 (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1977)Google Scholar and Stow, Kenneth, “The Papacy and the Jews: Catholic Reformation and Beyond,” in The Frank Talmage Memorial Volume, ed. Talmage, Frank and Walfish, Barry, vol. 2 (Haifa: Haifa University Press, 1992), 257–75Google Scholar.

35. Bonfil, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy, 66–7.

36. Wright, Anthony D., “Relations between Church and State: Catholic Developments in Spanish-Ruled Italy of the Counter-Reformation,” History of European Ideas 9, no. 4 (1988): 385–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37. Prodi, Paolo, The Papal Prince: One Body and Two Souls: The Papal Monarchy in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987)Google Scholar; Dandelet, Thomas James, Spanish Rome, 1500–1700 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38. de Boer, Wietse, The Conquest of the Soul: Confession, Discipline, and Public Order in Counter-Reformation Milan, Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought (Leiden: Brill, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, xiv; and Segre, Gli ebrei lombardi nell'etá spagnola, 49.

39. The Jews’ opinion of him was overwhelmingly negative. See ha-Kohen, Sefer ‘emek ha-bakha, 99: “Pope Pius IV died in 5326 [1565] and the cardinals elected Pius V… As soon as he began to reign, he promulgated hostile decrees against the Jews, such as the wearing of the yellow hats on their heads… . At that time, Archbishop Borromeo, who was regarded as a holy man in the eyes of the people, also lived in Milan. He made his appearance as an enemy of the Jews in the territory of Milan in that he enforced the decrees and bulls which the pope had issued against the Jews most expeditiously.”

40. Segre, Renata, “Il mondo ebraico nel carteggio di Carlo Borromeo,” Michael 1 (1972): 166–67Google Scholar; using Borromeo's correspondence, Segre argues that Borromeo became increasingly convinced that the “Jewish problem” had no solution. On expulsion he wrote: “Scacciarli non ha gran senso perche significa spostarli semplicemente dall'uno all'altro Stato cattolico.”

41. Renata Segre, “Il mondo ebraico,” 166–167: “Io gli ho poca fede, et son stato ingannato piu volte da questa sorte di persone... perche sotto pretesto di venire alla nostra fede ho trovato che molti di loro cercavano et havevano altri fini et intressi temporali, con fraudi et inganni.”

42. On the complicated relations between church and state in Milan during Borromeo's tenure, see Borromeo, Agostino, “Archbishop Carlo Borromeo and the Ecclesiastical Policy of Philip II in the State of Milan,” in San Carlo Borromeo: Catholic Reform Ecclesiastical Politics in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century, ed. Tomaro, John B. and Headley, John M. (Washington, DC: Folger Books, 1988), 85–111Google Scholar; Eric W. Cochrane, “Counter Reformation or Tridentine Reformation? Italy in the Age of Carlo Borromeo,” in San Carlo Borromeo: Catholic Reform Ecclesiastical Politics, 31–46; and Agostino Borromeo, “The Crown and the Church in Spanish Italy in the Reigns of Philip II and Philip III,” in Spain in Italy, 517–54.

43. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1200, fols. 206–207.

44. For more on concepts of absolutism in the Spanish Empire, see Anthony Pagden, Lords of All the World, 44–45; and Lynch, John, Spain Under the Habsburgs, 2nd ed. (New York: New York University Press, 1981), 267–292Google Scholar.

45. ASM, Albinaggio 3: “eijici de jure non possunt.”

46. ASM, Albinaggio 3.

47. Chabod, Storia di Milano, 412–15; Sella and Capra, Il ducato di Milano, 21–7.

48. ASM, Albinaggio 3.

49. ASM, Dispacci Reali 20: “Havendo il governor d'esso stato per ordine di quella per scacciar detti hebrei da quello stato haver fatto cride et bando ch'essi hebrei non facessero piu l'arti del prestare et ch'havessero portare segnale… che cedeva et cede in ogni danno et roina non solo d'essi et d'infiniti poveri… et anco de gentilhuomini… et buon numero de soldati et spetialmente spagnoli de quali diversamente son creditori di gran soma de danari.”

50. ASM, Dispacci Reali 20: “Et secondo la sorte di marcantie fanno fare diversi essercitii et lavorerii che risulta grande utile a la detta camera et alli poveri a quali danno da lavorare… Et speso in tenere spie contra nemici di V. M^ta dandoni ogni aviso a ministry suoi per loro rispetto da la natione hebrea ce habita in Tunesi.” The reference to spying suggests that Vitale Sacerdoti and his son Simon were among the authors of the letter.

51. ASM, Dispacci Reali 20: “C'essi diano mal documento et essemplo a christiani non si puo dire per che gli hebrei viveno retiramente da essi et il solito loro fu sempre in vivere modestamente senza alcuno inconveniente che habbio comertio con christiani non si ritrovera questo et se mai si fosse ritrovato quello tale e stato severamente punito et castigato secondo loro leggi.”

52. ASM, Dispacci Reali 20: “Che in ogni parte che va essa natione porta universalmente et particolarmente commodo et utile per le cause sudette senza inconveniente alcuno sono stati et sono tolerati da tutti i principi christiani et dal summo pontefice capo qualche ha confirmato a quelli che habitano in Roma loro concessioni.”

53. ASM, Dispacci Reali 20: “Il che sin qui ha permesso V. Mta et permette in Fiandra se bene vulgarmente non si chiamano hebrei con maggior interesse del prestato di quello fanno quelli del stato di Milano.” Acording to Segre, this refers to Lombard moneylenders. Segre, Gli ebrei lombardi, 55.

54. Israel, European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism.

55. ASM, Albinaggio 3.

56. AGS, Estado 1792 # 191.

57. AGS, Estado 1793 # 26.

58. The Jews’ representatives included Nicola Maria Dugnano, Gaspare de Schina, and Johanne de la Sisla. The latter two also represented the Vitale-Sacerdoti family. After the expulsion, Simon Sacerdoti himself would spend considerable time in Madrid. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 1:xxxi n. 87.

59. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1792, fol. 26.

60. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1793, fol. 48: “Three thought that despite the profits that usury brings to the State, it should not be allowed. The other three said that if an exemption can be obtained from the pope and that interest rates were reduced, then the governor… explained that for reasons of state and good government, they should be permitted to lend money.”

61. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1793, fol. 48.

62. This was the king's usual way of working, see Koenigsberger, Helmut G., “The Statecraft of Philip II,” European Studies Review 1 (1971): 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar. “Everyone knows the picture of the lonely king in his small work-room at the Escurial, poring over reports and maps, annotating minutes in his illegible, loopy handwriting—itself almost a visual image of the circles of command and power—endlessly returning back to the writer.”

63. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3:1684–87, 1694–5. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1209, fol. 284, and libro 1213, fols. 6–7.

64. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1209, fol. 284.

65. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1213, fols. 6–7: “La ultima prorogacion… es tan breve que por esta causa no pueden ni osan proverse de differente generos de mercaderias que se van vendiendo despacio ni formar companies ni corres.”

66. Lynch, Spain under the Habsburgs, 369–85.

67. ha-Kohen, Sefer ‘emek ha-bakha, 112.

68. Segre, Renata, “Il mondo ebraico nei cardinali della controriforma,” in Italia Judaica: Gli ebrei in Italia tra Rinascimento ed età barocca, ed. Colorni, Vittore et al. (Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1986), 240–41.Google Scholar

69. ha-Kohen, Sefer ‘emek ha-bakha, 112.

70. Segre, “Il mondo ebraico nel carteggio di Carlo Borromeo,” 237–60.

71. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1160, fols. 10–11.

72. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 1:xxxii.

73. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1160, fols. 10–11.

74. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1160, fols. 10–11.

75. ha-Kohen, Sefer ‘emek ha-bakha, 112: “And the king wrote to his governor: ‘Please, travel to all the Milanese cities and count all the people of Israel so that I may know the numbers.’ Thus a census was taken.” AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1220, fols. 124–125.

76. ASM, Fondo Culto 2159. Also published in full in Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3:1813–19.

77. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3:1815–1816.

78. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3:1816.

79. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3:1816.

80. On the reception of Augustine's ideas through history, see Cohen, Jeremy, Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity, 1st ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

81. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3:1817.

82. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3:1816, 1818. This and the testimonies of local officials mentioned above challenge the idea that Jewish moneylenders charged exorbitant rates. The majority of Milan's Jews lived in small towns where they served a poor clientele that borrowed money for sustenance. Such a business model probably did not allow for inflated rates.

83. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3:1819.

84. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3:1819.

85. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1795, fol. 261, and Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3:1850.

86. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1795, fol. 261, and Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3:1850.

87. ha-Kohen, Sefer ‘emek ha-bakha, 112–13:“There was a Jew in Alessandria by the name of Samuel Hacohen. He offered to go to Spain on behalf of the Jews to plead for his fatherland.… [A]fter he arrived in Spain, he conferred with the councilors about the plight of the Jews. He even succeeded in getting all the way into the palace where the king and his highest ministers were. He spoke in the name of the Jews and asked why he planned to deal in this way with his servants who had assisted him and his father in times of trial. He said that they were still ready today to help him with as much and more for the poor and indigent in case this became necessary, and that they could bring witnesses to justify them. But if the king had once decided to expel them, he would then demand, in the name of the Jews, that he first repay them what they could rightfully claim; for this is what justice demanded.” Here, ha-Kohen mistook Samuel Sacerdoti for his brother, Simon. Numerous documents in Simancas confirm that the man in question was indeed Simon.

88. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1795, fol. 333.

89. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1796 fol. 33.

90. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales libro1221, fols. 127–129 and libro 1222, fols. 207–208.

91. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1795, fol. 333.

92. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1795, fol. 333.

93. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1160, fols. 77–78.

94. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1796, fols. 37–38. The edict of expulsion of 1492 prohibited Jews from residing in Spain, however there is evidence that the king granted dispensations on an ad hoc basis for commercial, financial, and political reasons. This practice was rare in the sixteenth century, but increased in the seventeenth. For more, see Jonathan I. Israel, “Spain and the Dutch Sephardim, 1609–1660,” Studia Rosenthaliana, no. 12 (n.d.): 1–61; García-Arenal, Mercedes and Wiegers, Gerard Albert, A Man of Three Worlds: Samuel Pallache, a Moroccan Jew in Catholic and Protestant Europe (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 4–12.Google Scholar

95. Even the footnotes and references to specific laws, councils, and works of theology were similar. For the senate report and identification of the main sources, see Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3: 1814–1819. For Sacerdoti's memo, see AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1796, fol. 34.

96. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1796, fol. 34.

97. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1796, fol. 34.

98. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1796, fol. 34.

99. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1796, fol. 34.

100. This was not a common way of raising interest rates. In August 1565 the treasury of Milan and a group of rentiers agreed to make a distinction between income derived from rents paid in cash and income derived from credit: the former could accrue interest at a rate of 8% and the latter at 5%. In an effort to reduce the treasury's debt, the king and his council rejected the claim that this distinction should apply to the Jews: “This applies only to rentiers and not to money lenders [creditors of hard currency] such as the said Jews.” AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1161, fols. 62–64. In reality, the distinction between moneylenders and rentiers was fuzzy. Kamen, Henry, Early Modern European Society (East Sussex, UK and New York: Psychology Press, 2000)Google Scholar, 99.

101. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 1:XXIX.

102. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1161, fols. 62–64.

103. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3:1883.

104. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1161, fols. 62–64.

105. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1225, fols. 138–140.

106. Segre identified the convert as Giovanni Ludovico Cadamosto, formerly Joseph Levi and probably the brother of Moise Levi—who, under his conversion name of Giovani Domenico Vistarini, became a censor of Hebrew books. Renata Segre, Gli ebrei lombardi nell'etá spagnola, 95–98.

107. ASM, Fondo Culto 2159; and Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 3: 1890–1891.

108. ha-Kohen, Sefer ‘emek ha-bakha, 113. This is also how the book of Esther describes the Jews’ enemy, Haman, see 6:2.

109. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1161, fol. 128.

110. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1161, fols. 129–130 and libro 1223, fols. 240–241.

111. Parker, Philip II, 178–99; Kamen, Henry Arthur Francis, Philip of Spain (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 301–21.Google Scholar

112. According to Kamen: “Though he felt deeply about religion, not until the later years of the reign did he display signs of religiosity.” Kamen, Philip of Spain, 232.

113. Parker, Philip II, 182.

114. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1160, fols. 138–139.

115. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1160, fol. 185.

116. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1224, fol. 168.

117. Parker, Philip II, 185–99; Kamen, Philip of Spain, 301–21.

118. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1161, fol. 245.

119. For a summary of Simon Sacerdoti's activities, see AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1796, fol. 34.

120. ha-Kohen, Sefer ‘emek ha-bakha, 112–13.

121. AGS, Secretarias Provinciales, libro 1213, fols. 6–7.

122. Unlike historians such as Parker and Simonsohn have posited. Parker, Geoffrey, Philip II, The Library of World Biography (Boston: Little, Brown, 1978)Google Scholar, 193; Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, 1: xxviii–xxxviii.

123. AGS, Estado 1792 #191.

124. Kamen, Philip of Spain, 310–11.

125. In a short subsection titled “Understanding Spain,” Braudel described the Jews as victims of Spain's “drive or destiny” to become the country that it is today, but rejects the idea that the country and its leaders gave in to some ingrained antisemitism or that expulsion was a specifically Spanish policy. Braudel, Fernand, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 823–36.Google Scholar

126. For more on that process, see Thompson, Ian A. A., War and Government in Habsburg Spain, 1560–1620 (London: Athlone Press, 1976)Google Scholar; Thompson, Ian A. A., War and Society in Habsburg Spain (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1992)Google Scholar; Lynch, John, Spain under the Habsburgs, 2nd ed. (New York: New York University Press, 1981)Google Scholar; Elliott, John H., Imperial Spain 1469–1716 (New York: New American Library, 2002)Google Scholar; and, more generally, Anderson, Perry, Lineages of the Absolutist State (London: N.L.B., 1974)Google Scholar; Ertman, Thomas, Birth of the Leviathan: Building States and Regimes in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Nexon, Daniel H., The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

127. Cardim et al., eds., Polycentric Monarchies.

128. Alberto Marcos Martin, “Polycentric Monarchies: Understanding the Grand Multinational Organizations of the Early Modern Period,” in Polycentric Monarchies, ed. Cardim et al., 217–26. For example: in the Azores, a Spanish governor and military were superimposed onto local institutions that continued to exist and function. As a result, Spanish governors were constantly forced to negotiate with local powers that resisted by all possible means, including taking their case to Madrid. Jean-Frederic Schaub, “Maritime Archipelago, Political Archipelago: The Azores under the Habsburgs (1581–1640),” in Polycentric Monarchies, ed. Cardim et al., 11–26. See also Elliott, “A Europe of Composite Monarchies,” 48–71.

129. In fact, it was located on the “Spanish Road” that Philip II used to send a constant stream of soldiers (and supplies) to fight the rebels in the Netherlands. Parker, The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567–1659.

130. Koenigsberger, “The Statecraft of Philip II,” 9.

131. In addition to an impending succession crisis, and military and financial difficulties, there was a widespread and damaging perception among Spaniards themselves that the empire was on the wane. See for example Elliott, John, “Self-Perception and Decline in Early 17th-Century Spain,” Past and Present, no. 74 (1977): 41–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Kagan, Richard L., “Politics, Prophecy, and the Inquisition in Late Sixteenth-Century Spain,” in Cultural Encounters: The Impact of the Inquisition in Spain and the New World, ed. Perry, Mary Elizabeth, Cruz, Anne J. (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1991)Google Scholar.

132. Kamen, “The Mediterranean and the Expulsion of Spanish Jews in 1492,” 30–55.