Los avisos de Luis Valle de la Cerda en contexto (1598-1599)

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to place the publication of Luis Valle de la Cerda’s Avisos within the historical context in which it took places, that’s to say, Philip II’s last days in government. The author, having achieved a long experience in the war at Flanders, believed to find then some similarities with the historical circumstances surrounding the Pacification of Ghent (1576), to which Valle had devoted a Discurso in 1583 addressed to Philip II which remains unpublished. A convinced proponent that in the struggle against heresy it is the duty of catholic kings to deploy available means to them, Valle wants to advise the new monarch about the dangerous course that, in his opinion, Philip II had followed along his last days on duty, and on the need for a change of direction towards one that put the maintenance of catholic religion above all, very much on a ligueur leaning.