This article studies the polemics surrounding the minority of Charles II which opposed Juan José de Austria, bastard son of Philippe IV, to the successive favorites of the queen mother. At the end of these pen wars, which triggered an unprecedented circulation of defamatory pamphlets throughout Spain, Don Juan secured the exile of the favorites and became Prime Minister. Relying on the powers of writings, Don Juan held his ground against the authorities while avoiding openly disobeying them and thus gaining access to the government. His dissidence is no longer concealed behind the anonymity of defamatory pamphlets in order to avoid reprisals. Don Juan fully uses the stage of polemic writing in order to become popular and thereby untouchable. Through various means of persuasion and mobilization (e.g., a massive spread of printed material, manuscripts, defamatory documents, rumors and the organization of marches to Madrid), the Juanists mounted pressure on the establishment but managed to avoid the realities of rebellion while channeling violent outbursts. By doing so, they can expand the contours of public policies as to include the common people who consider Don Juan a great hero. Twice, a struggle of small political factions became an opinion trend in Spain. Should we interpret this as the advent of “public opinion”€ and of “public space” in the Habermassian sense? How could “€œopinion”€ be considered a doxa integrated into a government culture centered on the establishment of a relationship of obedience to the monarch? How could a public, which we assume to be motivated with political understanding, rise up? This article examines the possible formation of a “€œpublic space”€ by questioning the validity of our modern analytical categories in order to put the forms of political dissidence back into their original, political and cultural context. We analyze the way pamphleteers employed publicity to subdue and expand a public constituted from an original interest in conflict. This allows us to think about original spheres of publicity, which are clearly different from the monarch’s approbative sphere and from the public opinion of the Enlightenment.