Forging Faithful Subjects: Philip V and Dynastic State Formation in Early Modern Spain (firm for publication with Louisiana State University Press, fall of 2026)

The Habsburg dynasty in Spain came to an end with the death of Charles II (r.1665-1700), and his replacement by Philip V (r.1700-1746), the teenage grandson of Louis XIV of France and founder of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain. The transition was complicated by the continent-spanning War of Spanish Succession (1702-1714), which provided an opportunity for the transformation and renewal of the Spanish state. Forging Faithful Subjects traces the Habsburg precedents for these reforms, the dynamic transition in the crucible of war, and Philip’s governing strategies implementing these reforms to demonstrate how they established a remarkably durable non-democratic politics in the changing world of the age of enlightenment.

Forging Faithful Subjects challenges conventional accounts of Spanish political history and European state formation in this innovative study. Philip V’s experience of the war and sense of betrayal by the Catalans and others drove him to cultivate loyalty in his subjects. Philip’s sensitivity to his subjects’ interests led him to balance royal control with local privilege, sometimes choosing to preserve administrative complexity rather than impose simpler centralizing reforms. These decisions paradoxically enabled Philip to secure his family’s rule, increase royal resources, and recover some of the territory lost in the War of Spanish Succession. By showing how dynastic concerns inspired such flexible strategies of governing and patronage, Forging Faithful Subjects reveals new approaches to the study of early modern state formation and the administration of empires.

Forging Faithful Subjects provides an accessible narrative account of this often-neglected period that draws on political, social, and economic history to make a groundbreaking argument demonstrating the logic behind European and Atlantic state formation during the long eighteenth century.

Negotiating the Borders of Church and State in Bourbon Spain, 1700-1759 (in progress)

Negotiation the Borders of Church and State in Bourbon Spain examines the shifting relationship between the Spanish monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church over the course of the eighteenth century. Ecclesiastical privileges were open for negotiation because of the collapse in the relationship between the monarchy and the papacy the collapse of good diplomatic relations between the Spanish monarchy and the Papacy during the War of Spanish Succession (1702-1714) when Pope Clement XI (r.1700-1721) declared the Habsburg claimant to the throne, the Archduke Charles (later Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI) as the legitimate King of Spain in 1709. This led Philip V of Spain (r.1700-1746) to end all diplomatic relations with the Papacy from 1709-1714. Relations between the Spanish Crown and the Papal See were not fully normalized until the Concordat of 1753. Negotiating the Borders of Church and State in Bourbon Spain explores the ways in which religious and political concerns were entwined during this period, including religious interpretations of the War of Succession, the limits of ecclesiastical tax exemptions, dramatic conflicts around sanctuary privileges, and diplomatic negotiations that significantly curtailed the flow of Spanish wealth to the Roman Curia. These practical reforms provide insights into the ways in which Enlightenment ideas informed and shaped the ecclesiastical rights and privileges throughout the Spanish monarchy.