Page 106 - sfogliabile 49

372 María José Rodríguez Salgado, Rubén González Cuerva, Miguel Ángel de Bunes Ibarra

Goleta which was handed over to Charles V. González Cuerva traces the
creation of a Habsburg protectorate over the ancient Hafsi kingdom
from the point at which both sovereigns met, and describes how they
were able to communicate and how they negotiated their personal
encounters. He places their relationship in the context of the rich, late-
Medieval Iberian tradition of alliances between Christian and Muslim
monarchs. He also demonstrates the important role of intermediaries,
and how the exchange of gifts and rituals of mutual courtesy were
employed both to project the emperor’s magnificence and the good faith
and friendship of the Tunisian ruler.
The volume ends with Miguel Deyá’s study of José de Cañizare’s long
forgotten play, Carlos V sobre Túnez, written around 1705. At first sight
it seems surprising that so long after the event, both contenders for the
throne of Spain during the War of Spanish Succession should have
turned to this campaign at a crucial moment in their conflict. For
supporters of the Habsburg candidate it was a testimony to the
greatness of their dynasty. For the Bourbons it was a way to associate
themselves with, and even to appropriate, an important event in
Spanish history and share its reflected glory. Consequently, the play
avoided criticism of the French which had been such an integral part of
the original campaign propaganda and subsequent narratives. Less
obvious is why the play should have remained relatively popular during
the XVIII, particularly in the final decades, as is demonstrated by Deyá’s
detailed data of new productions and revivals. He offers a multi-layered
explanation that merges an analysis of the message of the play with the
national and international political context, the importance of its
author, and the situation in Spanish theatres. Its revival during the War
of Independence against Napoleon is attributed primarily to a surge of
Spanish patriotism which resonated with that running through the
play. The article confirms how the emperor’s campaign had become a
fundamental element in Spanish nationalism.
With these original and diverse contributions we have sought to
widen the study of the important topic of European and Ottoman
expansion in North Africa during the early-modern period, and to
highlight how much more there is still to research on the struggle for
control of Tunis.

María José Rodríguez Salgado
Rubén González Cuerva
Miguel Ángel de Bunes Ibarra

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Agosto 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)