Confesionalismo y razón de estado en la Edad Moderna. El caso de la Valtellina (1637-1639)

Abstract

The control of the Valtelline passes in the early Seventeenth Century play a relevant role in the Spanish strategy and in the European politic, but the question was no more a mere strategic problem. The religious aspect was also fundamental: the inhabitants of the region were Catholics and the Grisons, with the valley to belong from the early Sixteenth Century, Protestants. In 1637, after the expulsion of the French Army from the valley, a large debate to interest the Spanish Council of State on the possibility, for a catholic State, to sign a formal treaty of alliance with a heretic people.