| Summary: | La mayor corona – a play written by Mira de Amescua at the beginning of the 17th Century – depicts the martyrdom of Saint Hermenegilde. Nevertheless, elements of the comedy of intrigue compete with the characteristics of the hagiographic drama in the first act. Indeed, the character of Recarede, Hermenegilde's younger brother, takes on the image of a brother devoured by jealousy towards his elder brother, far from the exemplary nature that would correspond to his historical status as the first Visigothic Catholic king.This study offers a reading of the representations of the intriguing character of Recarède built by Mira de Amescua in the mirror of the political stakes of the Spanish dynastic context of the early 17th Century – a period that saw, for the first time in a century, a prince of Spain accede to the throne in the presence of adult younger brothers. A doctrine of the status and rights of the youngest Spanish royal was developed at that time.
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