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This paper aims to analyse the early international career of Carlos Aragón y Tagliavia, duke of Terranova, as well as the events, personalities and issues that influenced his decision-making. Our focus is on the duke's links with the courtly circle in Madrid, which favoured the king's choice of the duke as ambassador with full powers in the uprising Flanders. Our ultimate intention is to contextualise this episode within the general mechanism of election of diplomats who had temporary, but trategic, positions for the most sensitive issues of the Spanish Monarchy; the extraordinary opportunities for success that it entailed; the underlying conflict of a nobility that was struggling with the public organisation of its main protagonists; and, finally, the “fluidity of representation” that allowed some of these characters to alternate in different positions, displaying their skills, establishing courtly relations, making political alliances and obtaining family support.