"Philip II is a fascinating and enigmatic figure in Spanish history, but it was his letrados - professional bureaucrats and ministers trained in law - who made his vast Castilian empire possible. In Juan de Ovando, Stafford Poole traces the life and career of a key minister in the king's government to explore the role that letrados played in Spanish society as they sought to displace the higher nobility in the administration through a system based upon merit."--BOOK JACKET.