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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 March 2021
Sixteenth-century Spain was at the vanguard of European collegiate bureaucratic rule and imperial governance. This article argues that its Council of the Indies became substantially more bureaucratic partly due to the influence of women. Vassals’ attempts to shape ministers’ decisions via female connections prompted the council's fundamental 1542 and 1571 guidelines. Subsequently, Madrid's anxieties about women's sway, and surfeits of Indies commodities, stirred misogynistic treatises, royal scrutiny, and an increasingly explicit masculine ministerial ethos. Women's influence over council operations nonetheless persisted, through near-invisible labor contributions and petitions. One female author in Peru even envisioned influential women directing the empire.
Sincerest thanks to my anonymous reviewers; to Jessica Wolfe and Colin Macdonald (Renaissance Quarterly); to Miriam Bodian and Courtney Meador (Institute for Historical Studies); to Renate Dürr, Philip Hahn, Heike Bäder, and Andrea Kirstein (University of Tübingen and the German Research Foundation's SFB-923-F04); to John O'Neill (Hispanic Society), María Ángeles Santos Quer (Instituto Valencia), Mercedes Noviembre (Biblioteca Zabálburu), and José Luis del Valle Merino (Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial); and to Altina Hoti, Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, Kristie Flannery, and Juan Carlos de Orellana.