María Calderón

María Inés Calderón also known as La Calderona and Marizápalos, was a Spanish actress, the mistress of Philip IV and the mother of his only recognized natural son, John of Austria the Younger.

Mercury-based cosmetic face whiteners

Women used a face whitener made from corrosive mercury sublimate to achieve the desired pale complexion.

Price of smoke cloaks

In 1680, the price for a yard of smoke cloak, a popular thin black accessory, was set at seven and a half reales.

Musical Instruments for Domestic Education

In domestic settings, keyboard instruments, the guitar, and the harp were the preferred instruments for the musical education of women.

Popular and Controversial Zarabanda Dance

The zarabanda was a popular but controversial folk dance accompanied by the guitar, castanets, and tambourine; it was frequently banned for its perceived lascivious nature and vulgar gestures.

Common methods of travel

Most people traveled on foot or horseback, though wealthy individuals used litters carried by mules or human-powered sedan chairs.

Freight carts daily travel speed

Freight carts typically carried up to 1,000 pounds of cargo and traveled at a speed of ten to twelve miles per day.

Cooking in the kitchen

Cooking was done over low-burning fireplaces, using iron trivets to support pots or a "llar" chain to hang caldrons. Food was often prepared and eaten in the kitchen, which served as a primary gathering space for poorer families.

Water storage in homes

Most homes lacked a private well, requiring residents to fetch water from nearby public fountains. Large clay jars were then used to store this water inside the house.

Affordability of basic food items

With 1 blanca, which was worth half a maravedí, a person could buy nine salted or fresh sardines. At the time, an average laborer or muleteer earned 17 maravedís per day.

Subsistence diets in northern regions

In some regions like Asturias, families survived for six or more months each year on a diet based on chestnuts, nuts, fruits, and herbs due to grain shortages.

Annual clothing needs in Madrid

In early seventeenth-century Madrid, the estimated annual expenditure for one person included two pairs of shoes.

Cost of footwear

In the early 17th century, a pair of men's shoes with two soles cost half a ducat or six reales, while a pair of women's shoes cost two and a half reales.

Regulated daily wages for agricultural workers

Agricultural workers in Castile had wages strictly set by local councils, earning between 1.5 and 2 reales per day plus meals during autumn and winter, and up to 4 reales plus meals during the wheat harvest.

Strikes and municipal control of labor

Agricultural workers once went on strike in Cordoba in 1595 demanding higher wages; the city responded by arresting strikers in taverns and sentencing them to public pillory time and jail. In other instances, municipal councils prohibited harvest workers from leaving the town until all local crops were fully reaped.

Duplicating letters to ensure delivery

Sea mail to the Americas was so uncertain that people often sent duplicate or even sextuplicate copies of letters via different routes to ensure delivery.

Letters took weeks to arrive

Communication was notoriously unreliable, and a letter between Madrid and Brussels typically took around two weeks to arrive.