Loquacious

I'm looking for some information on Spanish citizenship.

But there's a twist.

I need to know about citizenship in the 17th century. You see, in my book there is a scene where a diplomat from the protagonist-type nation goes to Spain and is executed there because he was born in Spain and is thus guilty of treason. It's complicated, I suppose.

Upon further self-question, I decided it would be best to make sure this is a plausible possiblity.

Did the Spanish Empire have the idea of citizenship at this point in history, or were they still on an "oath of fealty" basis? Could someone pledge allegiance to another lord without renouncing their first oath?

You know, all that jazz.

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Umm... My signature has escaped me.

Oh dear.

Mallignamius

The information I found on this is not much, I'm afraid. There is a little bit here that might give you some idea (the first few pages are in Spanish, but the rest is English):

Historiographical Reflections on Citizenship: the Spanish Case (in pdf):
http://www.cliohres.net/books/7/18.pdf

or via Google's conversion to html:

Historiographical Reflections on Citizenship: the Spanish Case

What I read seems to suggest citizenship, and describes very briefly it's origin.

Here's a Wikipedia article on Spanish history for that period that may also fill in some details:

Habsburg Spain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If that fails, here is an Asturian-American forum that might help:
Asturian-American Migration Forum :: Index

And a Stanford Professor who might be bothered with a simple question:
Tamar Herzog

Loquacious

Thanks for the references! I'm going to try emailing Professor Herzog, and if that doesn't work... Well I might just make something up.

__________________
Umm... My signature has escaped me.

Oh dear.