Unas reflexiones sobre el servicio de información español en la época de los Reyes Católicos y los Austrias

United by the Catholic Kings and developing the world’s empire under the rule of the Habsburgs, Spain pursued its interests through various instruments. The most important were diplomacy andthe intelligence service. During the reign of Charles I and Philip II, efforts were made to institutionalize the intelligence structures that were subject to the authority responsible for foreign policy, i.e. Consejo de Estado. The exten-sive Spanish espionage network in Europe was based on the Brussels–Milan–Vienna triangle, which was the logistical basis for its activities and information flow. The Spanish intelligence service served the monarchy in the difficult period of decadence of the second half of the seventeenth century, maintaining the territorial coherence of the state in the era of the French dominance of Louis XIV.