Nobiliary Patronage and the Individual. The Macanaz and the “Hours” of the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

The renewal of government elites located at the beginning of the century XVIII has attracted the attention of a part of historiography since the work of Caro Baroja. At the moment, the historians has proposed various approaches to interpreting a process of enormous social and political consequences. The case of Macanaz has a number of characteristics that make it suitable for its analysis. The important role played by the aristocratic house of Villena and the low weight of the local or regnícola in his rear projection, serve to question the size of the hypothetical Macanaz as initiators of a “murciana time”. We emphasize the importance of other complementary elements such as the nobiliary patronage, merit, training and weight of individual initiatives.