Así en la Corte como en el Cielo. Patronato y clientelismo en las Comunidades conventuales madrileñas (siglos XVI-XVIII)

Abstract

In recent decades, the analysis of patron-client relations has become a recurring theme within Social History. However, the mayority of investigations does not take into account the fact that differing historical economic structures defined the limits and forms of these relationships. To support this theory, the present study investigates the self-reproductive dynamics of the Madrid religious orders during the Early Modern Period through the complex and specific urban based network of client relations. To do this, we have resorted to the use of an innovative source: the church memorial service records of seven religious communities in Madrid. Their study allows us to explain not only the long-term modifications produced in the social composition of the convent clients, but also their repercussions on the patrimonial and finacial structure of the urban regular clergy until their inexorable decline in the aftermath of the Ancien Régime.