Maurits Ebben is lecturer at the Institute for History of Leiden University, where he teaches Dutch early modern history and specialises in the external relations of the Dutch Republic, particularly those with the Iberian world. He has published widely on Spanish and Dutch early modern history, e.g., Un holandés en la España de Felipe IV. Diario del viaje de Lodewijck Huygens, 1660-1661 (2010). His current research focuses on European and Dutch diplomatic history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Forthcoming: (with Louis Sicking) Beyond Ambassadors: consuls, missionaries and Spies (Brill, Leiden and Boston 2020). Work in progress: Ambassadors, Consuls and Commerce: The Dutch Diplomatic Service in the Later Seventeenth Century, 1648-1700.