In November 2016 I spent one month on an Erasmus+ scholarship in Spain. A very valuable visit as the main focus of my research is the architectural commissions of Charles of Croÿ (1560-1612), one of the highest ranking nobleman of the Low Countries and the only Grande de España outside of the Spanish territory at the time. A lot of the archives concerning his military exploits are kept in archives scattered around the Iberian peninsula. I started my visit in Madrid, where I visited the Biblioteca Nacional de España, Real Biblioteca, Biblioteca y archivo del Fundación Francisco Zabálburu, Archivo del Instituto Valencia de Don Juan and the Archivo de la Fundación Casa de Alba. From Madrid I went on an excursion to Toledo, visiting the Sección Nobleza del Archivo Histórico Nacional and the cathedral of Toledo, where a portrait of William of Croÿ – archbishop of Toledo- is decorating the walls. I concluded my stay in Madrid with a research seminar on the residential system of the high nobility in the Habsburg Low Countries at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (included in the course Crítica y edición de textos históricos, organized by Dr. Bernardo J. García García).
This mobility greatly improved the quality of the research and my own research skills, as I gained experience with foreign archives and international perspective on the relation between Spain and the Low Countries at the turn of the sixteenth century. I became acquainted with different methodologic approaches and strengthened my international competence and research methods, mainly through the contacts established at the research group on early modern history of the Universidad de Complutense.
I continued my travel, going from Madrid to Valladolid, the capital of the region Castille & León. There I spent one week visiting the Archivo General de Simancas, looking for information concerning the Croÿ residences in France and the boundary regions.