At dawn on 13 September 1598, King Philip ii of Spain died at the Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial. As the news spread through Spain and the other vast territories over which Philip had ruled for more than forty years, preparations began throughout his realms to mark the King’s passing with exequies (exequias reales or honras fúnebres) of a suitable dignity and scale. In the major cities of Philip’s Iberian and New World possessions it was by this time customary following such a death within the royal house to make the exequies a major civic event, with ceremonies usually lasting two days, and centred upon a great túmulo or catafalque, specially commissioned and constructed, and most often sited in the crossing of the cathedral or other principal church. The catafalque represented the most imposing element of what were often lavish and complex iconographic schemes within the church (the interior of which was commonly transformed with drapes of black cloth) and beyond. After preparations occupying several weeks, and with the (often hundreds of) candles on the catafalque lit, there began the two days of liturgical ceremonies. On the first day (the Vigil) Vespers, Matins and Lauds of the Dead were sung, and on the second day there was usually a series of three Masses, culminating in the Missa pro defunctis. Great processions were also a feature of these events. The whole enterprise involved the local architects, painters, poets and, of course, musicians, for music was a prominent element in the exequies.

The architecture and art of royal exequies were by nature ephemeral, but fortunately it was quite common to publish an account of the honras performed in a particular city. While such accounts have a natural tendency towards hyperbole (the authors being anxious to emphasise the lavish demonstration of a city’s wealth, prestige and loyalty to the crown manifest in their local exequies), they nevertheless provide abundant evidence, some of it vivid and – as for example in the description of catafalques and their iconographic schemes – highly detailed. These accounts remain, however, a largely untapped source of information about music on such occasions.