(Con)divide et impera. Consenso e integrazione nella Sicilia spagnola tra titoli nobiliari e benefici ecclesiastici

Abstract

The redistribution of resources to subjects under the Sicilian viceroyalty was a constant practice of government by the Spanish sovereign during the two centuries of Habsburg rule on the island. Offices, titles, ecclesiastical benefices and pecuniary prebends were solicited by the Sicilian elites and assigned relentlessly by Madrid in exchange for services to the Crown and a guarantee of political loyalty. However, there was no shortage of cases in which the initiative in the concession of this wide range of "mercedes" was taken directly by the Crown, which "bought" in this way political consensus in advance, thus tying entire family and clientele networks more firmly to itself.