Estado, iglesia y sociedad en la Monarquía Hispana de Carlos IV. Las apreciaciones de un embajador austríaco en Madrid

Abstract

This writing deals with an historiographical analysis of the contents of the diplomatic dispatches sent to Vienna by the imperial ambassador, John Frederick count of Kageneck, accredited at the Court of Charles IV. They concern to the first seven years of that reign (1789-1795). Provide issues, appreciations, and commentaries about the conditions of the contemporaneous Hispanic kingdom in the matter of institutional, administrative, political, economic, social, religious, military affairs, international relations and geostrategical interests. The Austrian diplomat pays much attention to the consequences of the French revolution in Spain; to the measures adopted by the Spanish authorities against the spread of the subversive ideas, as much in the metropolis, as in the overseas dominions, with special reference to the outstanding rôle played by the clergy, as the ideological and moral bulwark against the impetuous attacks of the French revolutionary activity; to the attitude of Spain with regard to the purpose of forming an international coalition against the revolutionary France; and to the later access of Spain in the war against the France of the Convention (1793-1795).