La culminación del proceso de castellanización de los Requesens: una incorporación buscada a la nobleza castellana

Abstract

The culmination of the process of Castilianization of the Requesens: a sought-after assimilation into the Castilian nobility

The Castilianisation of the Catalan high nobility is a widely-known process that affected the great lineages of the Principality. As a result of the ability of the great Castilian families to attract the nobility of the other kingdoms of the Hispanic Monarchy, gradual assimilation took place. This process was not foreign to the Requesens, one of the leading Catalan houses during the fifteenth century. The Requesens family underwent progressive Castilianisation during the sixteenth century. This text will deal with the final phase of this process, that of Luis de Requesens y Zúñiga (1548–1576), the great figure of the family during the sixteenth century. It aims to show the reality of his mental distancing from Catalonia, the opinions of his Catalan contemporaries, and his desire to become related to the high Castilian nobility.