Coches, carrozas y sillas de mano en la monarquía de los Austrias entre 1600 y 1700: evolución de la legislación

Abstract

The introduction of carriages at the European Courts was a process which took place during the 16th Century. In Castille its use established in the course of the definitive settling down of the Court in Madrid (1561). From this time on, coaches contributed considerably to change staff and etiquette of the Royal Stables, as well as the public appearences of the King. At the same time, from the end of the 1570’s, the coach was adopted by the aristocracy, the social class which was beginning to rule in stead of the «Letrados», as the «pragmaticas» (laws against luxury) of 1578 an 1593 reveal. The alliance between carriage and courtier however became definitive from 1611 on, when the use of carriages was institionalized. From that moment on it was necessary to obtain a licence from the «Consejo de Castilla » in order to go by carriage, wich in deed converted its use in an exclusive domain of the elites governing the monarchy, that is, of the court aristocracy, the ministers and servants of the royal house, the high clergy and those habitants of great urban centres with good relations to the latter. Once the institutionalisation was concluded around 1630, on the one hand efforts were made to fiscalize carriages (in 1651, 1658, 1667, 1675, 1684 and 1688) and of the other, several measures aiming to maintaing the monopoly of a small cout elite were carried through, the most important of wich were the pragmáticas of 1674, 1678, 1684 and 1691.