Estrategias de promoción y circulación de la información de la comunidad escocesa: los agentes de la Misión de Escocia y la Monarquía Hispánica (1627-1635)

Abstract

The Anglo-Spanish war of 1625-1630 revived plans to invade Ireland and it intensified the links with the Irish communities on the Iberian peninsula. However, on this occasion, they were complemented and confronted by the emergence of asmall but politically active community of Scottish Catholics present at the court in Madrid, organized through the Mission of Scotland. This article analyses the composition of this community, its aims and relations to highlight its presence at court and the creation of transnational communication and information networks with the British Isles, which served to assert their own interests. With the foundation of the Royal Scots College in Madrid in 1627, the Scottish community obtaind a physical space that allowed it to project the visibility of the group, both externally and internally, hierarchising and structuring the community’s own identity around a centre. It was a complex and dynamic system whose agents spread throughout Madrid, Brussels, Antwerp, Edinburgh, London and the Highlands. This fact allowed them to achieve the necessary flexibility to adapt themselves to a changing diplomatic situation.