Heather McTaggart

Research Topic

The Spanish Ambassadors in the Elizabethan Court: Collaboration, Conflict and Contempt before the Anglo-Spanish War

My research topic, funded by the Keith Murray Scholarship, examines Anglo-Spanish diplomacy and Iberian politics in the sixteenth-century. Utilizing the methodological approaches of the 'New Diplomatic History', my research elucidates the informal social interactions, epistolary practices, and information communities at work in the Elizabethan court. Examining the correspondences of Philip II's ambassadors in England, I seek to demonstrate the intelligence networks behind Spanish foreign policy, England's place within the Iberian world, and early modern conceptions of ambassadorship.

Supervisor: Professor Giuseppe Marcocci and Dr Tracey Sowerby