‘Give no quarter’: Representations of War and Peace in Lope de Vega’s Carlos V en Francia (1604)

Abstract

From Miguel de Cervantes to Calderón de la Barca, many Spanish Golden Age plays use war and its counterpart, peace, or that first step towards it, truce. This article explores the treatment of the temporary interruption of hostilities between two antagonistic forces, taking as a yardstick Lope de Vega’s early play, Carlos V en Francia (Charles V in France), written in 1604. Although other plays dramatized Charles’s reign, this play is of some importance as its date of composition corresponds to Philip III’s accession to the Spanish throne in 1598. His reign was characterised by a quest for peace following decades of war between the Spanish Crown and almost every major state of Europe – as well as further afield. Philip II had been at war with the Turks in the Mediterranean; with the English with whom peace was concluded in the summer of 1604; with the French (with whom the occasion for peace arose in 1598 with the Treaty of Vervins and once again in 1610 after Henri IV’s assassination); with the United Provinces where a truce was agreed in 1609 and lasted until 1621. Philip’s father, Charles V, had essentially fought against three foes: the Turks in the Mediterranean, North Africa and Central and Southern Europe, the French in Spain and Italy, and the Protestants in German principalities. These two kings had spent just about all of their adult lives at war.