Monsters and Saints: Tudors, Stuarts, and English Catholics in Early Modern Spanish Discourses

This dissertation is a comprehensive study of Spanish literary works about the English Schism (published 1580-1630) that provides a richer understanding of contested views on Anglo-Spanish rapprochement and collaboration in early modern Spain. I discuss the importance of the ecclesiastical histories of Pedro de Ribadeneyra and Fray Diego de Yepes in popularizing in Spain a monstrous view of the Tudors and a hagiographical portrayal of English Catholics. I then compare these with later representations of the same characters and events across various genres: the letters of Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza; Calderón de la Barca’s tragedy, La cisma de Ingalaterra; Lope de Vega’s comedy, El amor desatinado, and poems, La Dragontea, Rimas Humanas, and La corona trágica; and Cervantes’ novella, La española inglesa.