Aristocratic Draft-Dodgers in 17th-Century Spain

Historians have long been familiar with the Marxist concept of the trahison de la bourgeoisie, coined to describe the failure of the middle class to shoulder its 'legitimate' social and political functions. But there is another lesser- known phenomenon which we might call the trahison de la aristocratie – the unwillingness of certain European nobilities to accept and play their traditional role in early modern society. The reluctance of the Spanish aristocracy to serve in the military during the reign of Philip IV is a good case in point.