Dialogue between two Hispanists on Spain and its history
The second session of Hispanglia is a dialogue between Robert Goodwin and Alexander Sampson, a broad-ranging conversation, a mutual interview that will touch on politics, colonialism, imperialism, art, literature, theater, and British attitudes to Spain across the ages. As a touchstone to that discussion, we make the most of the usual introductory questions about how and why we fell in love with Spain and Spaniards in order to bring in Dr. Samson's fascinating recent research into the question of ¿what did it mean to be a "Spaniard" or español in the Habsburg period? We will also reflect on Dr. Samson's recent research into the relations between England and Spain during the early modern period (Mary and Philip: the Marriage of Tudor England and Habsburg Spain (Manchester 2020) and his long standing love of Golden Age theater. We will endeavor to set those subjects within the broader story of Castile and her empire as told in Spain: the Centre of the World, 1519-1682 (Bloomsbury 2015) and América: the Epic Story of Spanish North America, 1492-1898 (Bloomsbury 2019).
Dr. Robert Goodwin’s major trade books are Crossing the Continent: The Story of the First African American, 1527-1539 (HarperCollins 2008), Spain: The Centre of the World (Bloomsbury 2015), and América: The Epic Story of Spanish North America, 1493-1898 (Bloomsbury 2019). For many years he has divided his time between London and Seville, and latterly the Lake District. He has written opinion pieces on a range of historical and political topics for the Spanish newspaper ABC. He has a Ph.D from the University of London, is an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London, and regularly contributes papers to scholarly journals and conferences.
Dr. Alexander Samson is a Reader in Early Modern Studies at University College London. His research interests include the early colonial history of the Americas, Anglo-Spanish intercultural interactions and early modern English and Spanish drama. He has edited volumes on The Spanish Match: Prince Charles’s Journey to Madrid, 1623 (Ashgate, 2006), with Jonathan Thacker A Companion to Lope de Vega (Woodbridge: Tamesis, 2008) and Locus Amoenus: Gardens and Horitculture in the Renaissance, a monographic Special Issue of Renaisance Studies (2012), as well as having published articles on the marriage of Philip II and Mary Tudor, historiography and royal chroniclers in 16th century Spain, English travel writers, firearms, maps, John Fletcher and Cervantes, and female Golden Age dramatists. His book Mary and Philip: the Marriage of Tudor England and Habsburg Spain was published by Manchester University Press. An edition of Lope de Vega’s Lo fingido verdadero also with Manchester and James Mabbe’s Exemplary Novels with Modern Humanities Research Assocation are in progress. He runs the Golden Age and Renaissance Research Seminar and is director of UCL’s Centre for Early Modern Exchanges and the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters.
