Alistair Malcolm

My research concentrates on elite culture within the Spanish Habsburg monarchy, with particular reference to the largely unstudied period between 1640 and 1700. As such, it is concerned not just with Iberian history, but with the history of elites in the Netherlands, Italy and the Holy Roman Empire. I am interested in examining the repercussions arising in court politics and foreign policy from the rulers tendency to delegate their authority to minister-favourites. However, my research also seeks to understand the history of families within the titled nobility, and to reconstruct their ties of patronage and kinship.

After studying History at the Universities of St Andrews and Oxford, I have worked at the University of Limerick since 2001, and have published extensively in English and Spanish on the subject of early modern Spanish culture and politics. My current projects are for a general study of the effects of court favouritism on policy-making in Spain, as well as a book on Spanish policy covering the middle decades of the seventeenth century that takes the views and actions of the count of Peñaranda, one of the most important ministers of Philip IV and Carlos II, as its central focus. I am also working in collaboration with other scholars on smaller projects relating to the diplomatic community in Madrid during the seventeenth century. My approach to the writing of History is one intended to appeal to specialists and general readers alike.