In 1797 Robert Southey published a richly detailed account of his journey in Spain and Portugal between December 1795 and May 1796, from his arrival in Coruna in the northwest of the Spanish coast to the heart of Castile and into Madrid, before making his way to Lisbon. Structured as a series of letters written as he travelled across the Iberian Peninsula, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Spain and Portugal engages with the tradition of English travelogues, while borrowing traits from other genres such as the journal, translation, literary criticism, history, and the picturesque guidebook. On his way, Southey comments on every aspect of Spanish and Portuguese society, from local food and wine, bizarre customs, literature and theatregoing, to Iberian politics and religion. In his letters Southey, who would grow to become one of the leading Hispanists in late Georgian England, contrasts the political, religious, cultural and social systems of Britain and two of the oldest nations in the European continent in a way that raises important questions about cultural contact and transmission during the Romantic period. This edition critically reassesses Letters Written During a Short Residence in Spain and Portugal by looking at Southey’s deeply ambiguous cultural cosmopolitanism and his life-long investment in all things Spanish and Portuguese.

Catherine of Braganza left her home in Portugal to come to the notoriously licentious court of England to marry the newly restored King, Charles II. Before she left her home, Catherine had rarely been outside the walls of the palaces or the convent where she was educated; she had dreamed of a legendary prince who had been exiled from his court after his father's execution. Charles seemed all that she had thought him to be and she was deeply in love with him. Then came realization, when she was brought abruptly face to face with the true state of affairs and shattered and bewildered she was overcome by despair. She was surrounded by enemies.