Carmen Sanz Ayán, who was granted a special degree award (1984) and a special PhD award (1988), is professor of Modern History at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid and a permanent member of the Real Academia de la Historia, for which she delivered her inaugural lecture on Pedagogía de Reyes: el teatro palaciego en el reinado de Carlos II. She was shortlisted for the National History Prize (1990) and received the Ortega y Gasset Essay and Humanities Prize (1993). Her research has given rise, among other studies, to Los banqueros de Carlos II (1988), Estado, monarquía y finanzas en tiempos de los Austrias (2004), Hacer escena. Historia de la empresa teatral en el Siglo de Oro (2013), and Los banqueros y la crisis de la Monarquía Hispánica de 1640 (2014).