   #copyright

Habsburg Spain

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General history


   This is a featured article. Click here for more information.
   Tiepolo's The Glory of Spain
     History of Spain series
   Prehistoric Spain
   Roman Spain
   Medieval Spain
   - Visigoths
   - Al-Andalus
   - Age of Reconquest
   Age of Expansion
   Age of Enlightenment
   Reaction and Revolution
   First Spanish Republic
   The Restoration
   Second Spanish Republic
   Spanish Civil War
   Spain under Franco
   Transition to Democracy
   Modern Spain
              Topics
   Economic History
   Military History
   Social History

   During the reign of Emperor Charles V (Carlos I of Spain), who ascended
   the thrones of the kingdoms of Spain after the death of his grandfather
   Ferdinand, Habsburg Spain controlled territory ranging from Philippines
   to the Netherlands, and was, for a time, Europe's greatest power. For
   this reason, this period of Spanish history has also been referred to
   as the "Age of Expansion". Although usually associated with its role in
   the history of Central Europe, the Habsburg family extended its realm
   into Spain from 1516 to 1700, where the Habsburg senior line reigned
   for that period. Under Habsburg rule, Spain reached the zenith of its
   influence and power, but also began its slow decline.

   Spain's 16th century maritime supremacy was demonstrated by the victory
   over the Ottomans at Lepanto in 1571 (which was symbolically important
   to the Spanish), and then after the setback of the Spanish Armada in
   1588, in a series of victories against England in the Anglo-Spanish War
   of 1585-1604. However during the middle decades of the 17th century
   Habsburg Spain's maritime power went into a long decline with mounting
   defeats against the United Provinces and then England; that by the
   1660s it was struggling grimly to defend its overseas possessions from
   pirates and privateers. On land Habsburg Spain became embroiled in the
   vast Thirty Years' War, and in the second half of the 17th century the
   Spanish were defeated by the French, led by King Louis XIV. Habsburg
   rule came to an end in Spain with the death in 1700 of Charles II which
   resulted in the War of the Spanish Succession.

   The Habsburg years were also a Spanish Golden Age of cultural
   efflorescence. Some of the outstanding figures of the period were Diego
   Velázquez, El Greco, Miguel de Cervantes, and Pedro Calderón de la
   Barca.

The beginnings of the empire (1504-1521)

   Joanna the Mad, Queen of Castile (r. 1504-1506)
   Enlarge
   Joanna the Mad, Queen of Castile (r. 1504-1506)

   Spain as we know it today did not come into being until the death of
   Charles II and with him the extinction Hapsburg Dynasty, and the
   ascention of Phillip V and the inaguration the Burbourn Dynasty and its
   reforms. The political area refered to as Spain was, in fact, a
   confederacy comprised of several ancient, individual kingdoms
   --Catalonia, Valencia, Andalucia, Castile, Leon, Aragon, Galicia,
   Asturias, Vizcaya, Guipozcoa, Roussillon, and Navarre. The push to
   drive the Moors from Spain, its capstone being conquest of Granada,
   united (somewhat) these many and fiercely independent kingdoms. The
   subsequent marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile
   in 1469 was brought to pass in hopes of maintaining and strengthened
   these alliances, which it did (somewhat).

   In 1504, Queen Isabella died, and although Ferdinand tried to maintain
   his position over Castile in the wake of her death, the Castilian
   Cortes Generales (the royal court of Spain) chose to crown Isabella's
   daughter Joanna queen. Her husband Philip was the Habsburg son of the
   Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy and simultaneously
   became king-consort Philip I of Castile. Shortly thereafter Joanna
   began to lapse into insanity. In 1506, Philip assumed the regency on
   her behalf, but he died later that year under mysterious circumstances,
   possibly poisoned by his father-in-law . Since their oldest son Charles
   was only six, the Cortes reluctantly allowed Joanna's father Ferdinand
   to rule the country as the regent of Joanna and Charles.

   Spain was now united under a single ruler, Ferdinand II of Aragon. As
   sole monarch, Ferdinand adopted a more aggressive policy than he had as
   Isabella's husband, enlarging Spain's sphere of influence in Italy,
   strengthening it against France. As ruler of Aragon, Ferdinand had been
   involved in the struggle against France and Venice for control of
   Italy; these conflicts became the centre of Ferdinand's foreign policy
   as king. Ferdinand's first investment of Spanish forces came in the War
   of the League of Cambrai against Venice, where the Spanish soldiers
   distinguished themselves on the field alongside their French allies at
   the Battle of Agnadello (1509). Only a year later, Ferdinand joined the
   Holy League against France, seeing a chance at taking both Naples - to
   which he held a dynastic claim - and Navarra, which was claimed through
   his marriage to Germaine de Foix. The war was less of a success than
   that against Venice, and in 1516, France agreed to a truce that left
   Milan under French control and recognized Spanish hegemony in northern
   Navarre. Unfortunately Ferdinand died later that year.

   Ferdinand's death led to the ascension of young Charles to the throne
   as Charles I of Castile and Aragon, effectively founding the monarchy
   of Spain. His Spanish inheritance included all the Spanish possessions
   in the New World and around the Mediterranean. Upon the death of his
   Habsburg father in 1506, Charles had inherited the Netherlands and
   Franche-Comté, growing up in Flanders. In 1519, with the death of his
   paternal grandfather Maximilian I, Charles inherited the Habsburg
   territories in Germany, and was duly elected Emperor Charles V that
   year. His mother remained as titular queen of Castile until her death
   1555, but due to her health, Charles (titled there as king also)
   exercised all true power. At that point, Emperor and King Charles was
   the most powerful man in Christendom.

   The accumulation of so much power to one man and one dynasty greatly
   concerned the king of France, Francis I, who found himself surrounded
   by Habsburg territories. In 1521, Francis invaded the Spanish
   possessions in Italy and inaugurated a second round of Franco-Spanish
   conflict. The war was a disaster for France, which suffered defeats at
   Biccoca (1522), Pavia (1525, at which Francis was captured), and
   Landriano (1529) before Francis relented and abandoned Milan to Spain
   once more.

An emperor and a king (1521-1556)

   A map of the dominion of the Habsburgs following the Battle of Mühlberg
   (1547) as depicted in The Cambridge Modern History Atlas (1912);
   Habsburg lands are shaded green
   Enlarge
   A map of the dominion of the Habsburgs following the Battle of Mühlberg
   (1547) as depicted in The Cambridge Modern History Atlas (1912);
   Habsburg lands are shaded green

   Charles’s victory at the Battle of Pavia, 1525, surprised many Italians
   and Germans and elicited concerns that Charles would endeavor to gain
   ever greater power. Pope Clement VII switched sides and now joined
   forces with France and prominent Italian states against the Habsburg
   Emperor, in the War of the League of Cognac. In 1527, due to Charles'
   inability to pay them sufficiently his armies in Northern Italy
   mutineed and sacked Rome itself for loot, forcing Clement, and
   succeeding popes, to be considerably more prudent in their dealings
   with secular authorities: in 1533, Clement’s refusal to annul Henry
   VIII of England’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon (Charles' aunt) was a
   direct consequence of his unwillingness to offend the emperor and have
   his capital perhaps sacked a second time. The Peace of Barcelona,
   signed between Charles and the pope in 1529, established a more cordial
   relationship between the two leaders that effectively named Spain as
   the protector of the Catholic cause and recognized Charles as king of
   Lombardy in return for Spanish intervention in overthrowing the
   rebellious Florentine Republic.

   In 1543, Francis I, king of France, announced his unprecedented
   alliance with the Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, by
   occupying the Spanish-controlled city of Nice in cooperation with
   Turkish forces. Henry VIII of England, who bore a greater grudge
   against France than he held against the Emperor for standing in the way
   of his divorce, joined Charles in his invasion of France. Although the
   Spanish army was soundly defeated at the Battle of Ceresole, in Savoy,
   Henry fared better, and France was forced to accept terms. The
   Austrians, led by Charles’s younger brother Ferdinand, continued to
   fight the Ottomans in the east. With France defeated, Charles went to
   take care of an older problem: the Schmalkaldic League.
   Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor at his victory over the Protestants at
   the Battle of Mühlberg (1547), painted by Titian
   Enlarge
   Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor at his victory over the Protestants at
   the Battle of Mühlberg (1547), painted by Titian

   The Protestant Reformation had begun in Germany in 1517. Charles,
   through his position as Holy Roman Emperor, his important holdings
   along Germany's frontiers, and his close relationship with his Habsburg
   relatives in Austria, had a vested interest in maintaining the
   stability of the Holy Roman Empire. The Peasants' War had broken out in
   Germany in 1524 and ravaged the country until it was brutally put down
   in 1526. Charles, even as far away from Germany as he was, was
   committed to keeping order. Since the Peasants' War, the Protestants
   had organized themselves into a defensive league to protect themselves
   from Emperor Charles. Under the protection of the Schmalkaldic League,
   the Protestant states had committed a number of outrages in the eyes of
   the Catholic Church— the confiscation of some ecclesiastical
   territories, among other things— and had defied the authority of the
   Emperor.

   Perhaps more importantly to the strategy of the Spanish king, the
   League had allied itself with the French, and efforts in Germany to
   undermine the League had been rebuffed. Francis’ defeat in 1544 led to
   the annulment of the alliance with the Protestants, and Charles took
   advantage of the opportunity. He first tried the path of negotiation at
   the Council of Trent in 1545, but the Protestant leadership, feeling
   betrayed by the stance taken by the Catholics at the council, went to
   war, led by the Saxon elector Maurice. In response, Charles invaded
   Germany at the head of a mixed Dutch-Spanish army, hoping to restore
   the Imperial authority. The emperor personally inflicted a decisive
   defeat on the Protestants at the historic Battle of Mühlberg in 1547.
   In 1555, Charles signed the Peace of Augsburg with the Protestant
   states and restored stability in Germany on his principle of cuius
   regio, eius religio, a position unpopular with the Spanish and Italian
   clergy. Charles' involvement in Germany would establish a role for
   Spain as protector of the Catholic Habsburg cause in the Holy Roman
   Empire; the precedent would seven decades later lead to involvement in
   the war that would decisively end Spain's status as Europe's leading
   power.

   In 1526 Charles married Infanta Isabella, the sister of John III of
   Portugal. In 1556 Charles abdicated from his positions, giving his
   Spanish empire to his only surviving son, Philip II of Spain, and the
   Holy Roman Empire to his brother, Ferdinand. Charles retired to the
   monastery of Yuste ( Extremadura, Spain), where he is thought to have
   had a nervous breakdown, and died in 1558.

St. Quentin to Lepanto (1556-1571)

   The Triumph of Death (c. 1562) by Pieter Brueghel the Elder reflects
   the increasingly harsh treatment the Seventeen Provinces received in
   the 16th century
   Enlarge
   The Triumph of Death (c. 1562) by Pieter Brueghel the Elder reflects
   the increasingly harsh treatment the Seventeen Provinces received in
   the 16th century

   Spain was not yet at peace, as the aggressive Henry II of France came
   to the throne in 1547 and immediately renewed the conflict with Spain.
   Charles' successor, Philip II, aggressively conducted the war against
   France, crushing a French army at the Battle of St. Quentin in Picardy
   in 1557 and defeating Henry again at the Battle of Gravelines the
   following year. The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, signed in 1559,
   permanently recognized Spanish claims in Italy. In the celebrations
   that followed the treaty, Henry was killed by a stray splinter from a
   lance. France was stricken for the next thirty years by civil war and
   unrest (see French Wars of Religion) and was unable effectively compete
   with Spain and the Habsburgs in European power struggle. Freed from any
   serious French opposition, Spain saw the apogee of its might and
   territorial reach in the period 1559-1643 .

   Charles and his successors, while they may have been most comfortable
   with and fond of Spain, regarded it as just another part of their
   empire, rather than nurturing and developing it, as France, England,
   and the Netherlands might have in their countries. Achieving the
   political goals of the Habsburg dynasty – which primarily meant
   undermining the power of France, maintaining Catholic Habsburg hegemony
   in Germany, and suppressing the Ottoman Empire – was more important to
   the Habsburg rulers than the welfare of Spain. This emphasis would
   contribute to the decline of Spanish imperial power.

   The Spanish Empire had grown substantially since the days of Ferdinand
   and Isabella. The Aztec and Inca Empires were conquered during Charles'
   reign, from 1519 to 1521 and 1540 to 1558, respectively. Spanish
   settlements were established in the New World: Florida was colonized in
   the 1560s, Buenos Aires was established in 1536, and New Granada
   (modern Colombia) was colonized in the 1530s. Manila, in the
   Philippines, was established in 1572. The Spanish Empire abroad became
   the source of Spanish wealth and power in Europe, but contributed also
   to inflation. Instead of fueling the Spanish economy, American silver
   made Spain dependent on foreign sources of raw materials and
   manufactured goods. The economic and social revolutions taking place in
   France and England had no counterparts in Spain.
   The Battle of Lepanto (1571), marking the end of the Ottoman Empire as
   the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean
   Enlarge
   The Battle of Lepanto (1571), marking the end of the Ottoman Empire as
   the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean

   After Spain's victory over France in 1559 and the beginning of France's
   religious wars, Philip's ambitions grew. The Ottoman Empire had long
   menaced the fringes of the Habsburg dominions in Austria and northwest
   Africa, and in response Ferdinand and Isabella had sent expeditions to
   North Africa, capturing Melilla in 1497 and Oran in 1509. Charles had
   preferred to combat the Ottomans through a considerably more maritime
   strategy, hampering Ottoman landings on the Venetian territories in the
   Eastern Mediterranean. Only in response to raids on the eastern coast
   of Spain did Charles personally lead attacks against holdings in North
   Africa (1545). In 1565, the Spanish defeated an Ottoman landing on the
   strategically vital island of Malta, defended by the Knights of St.
   John. The death of Suleiman the Magnificent the following year and his
   succession by the less capable Selim the Sot emboldened Philip, who
   resolved to carry the war to the Ottoman homelands. In 1571, a mixed
   naval expedition led by Charles' illegitimate son Don John of Austria
   annihilated the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto, in one of the
   most decisive battles in naval history. The battle ended the Ottoman
   naval threat in the Western Mediterranean and initiated a long period
   of decline for the Ottoman Empire.

The troubled king (1571-1598)

   The time for rejoicing in Madrid was short-lived. In 1566,
   Calvinist-led riots in the Spanish Netherlands (roughly equal to
   modern-day Netherlands and Belgium, inherited by Philip from Charles
   and his Burgundian forebearers) prompted the Duke of Alva to conduct a
   military expedition to restore order. In 1568, William the Silent led a
   failed attempt to drive the tyrannical Alva from the Netherlands. This
   attempt is generally considered to signal the start of the Eighty
   Years' War that ended with the independence of the United Provinces.
   The Spanish, who derived a great deal of wealth from the Netherlands
   and particularly from the vital port of Antwerp, were committed to
   restoring order and maintaining their hold on the provinces. In 1572, a
   band of rebel Dutch privateers known as the watergeuzen ("Sea Beggars")
   seized a number of Dutch coastal towns, proclaimed their support for
   William and denounced the Spanish leadership.
   The defense of Cadiz, by Velázquez
   Enlarge
   The defense of Cadiz, by Velázquez

   For Spain, the war was a creeping disaster. In 1574, the Spanish army
   under Luis de Requeséns was repulsed from the Siege of Leiden after the
   Dutch destroyed the dykes that held back the North Sea from the
   low-lying provinces. In 1576, faced with the costs of his 80,000-man
   army of occupation in the Netherlands and the massive fleet that had
   won at Lepanto, Philip was forced to accept bankruptcy. The army in the
   Netherlands mutinied not long after, seizing Antwerp and looting the
   southern Netherlands, prompting several cities in the previously
   peaceful southern provinces to join the rebellion. The Spanish chose
   the route of negotiation, and pacified most of the southern provinces
   again with the Union of Arras in 1579.

   The Arras agreement required all Spanish troops to leave these lands.
   In 1580, this gave king Philip the opportunity to strengthen his
   position when the last male member of the Portuguese royal family,
   Cardinal Henry of Portugal, died. Philip asserted a weak claim to the
   Portuguese throne and in June sent an army under the leadership of the
   Duke of Alba to Lisbon to assure his succession. Though the duke and
   the Spanish occupation, however, were little more popular in Lisbon
   than in Rotterdam, the combined Spanish and Portuguese empires placed
   into Philip’s hands most of the explored New World along with a vast
   trading empire in Africa and Asia.
   The Spanish Armada (1588)
   Enlarge
   The Spanish Armada (1588)

   To keep Portugal under control required an extensive occupation force,
   and Spain was still reeling from the 1576 bankruptcy. In 1584, William
   the Silent was assassinated by a half-deranged Catholic, and the death
   of the popular Dutch resistance leader was expected to bring an end to
   the war; it did not. In 1586, Queen Elizabeth I of England, supported
   the Protestant cause in the Netherlands and France, and Sir Francis
   Drake launched attacks against Spanish merchants in the Caribbean and
   the Pacific Ocean, along with a particularly aggressive attack on the
   port of Cadiz. In 1588, hoping to put a stop to Elizabeth’s meddling,
   Philip sent the Spanish Armada to attack England. Of the 130 ships sent
   on the mission, only half returned safely to Spain, and some 20,000
   troops perished. Some were victims of English ships, but most were
   victims of severe weather encountered on their return trip. The
   disastrous outcome, resulting from a combination of the unfavorable
   weather and a good deal of luck for the English under Lord Howard of
   Effingham, resulted in a complete overhaul of the Spanish navy's ships,
   weapons and tactics. It struck back at English attacks and with the
   help of a bungled English counter attack ( English Armada) quickly
   recovered its preeminent position which it maintained for another half
   of a century. Spain also provided support to a gruelling Irish war
   which drained England of resources and also raided English coastal
   towns. However now the Spanish Habsburgs had yet another powerful enemy
   with which to contend, forcing Spain to maintain an even stronger, more
   expensive navy, atop of massive expenditures for its armies in its many
   scattered territories.

   Spain had invested itself in the religious warfare in France after
   Henry II’s death. In 1589, Henry III, the last of the Valois lineage,
   died at the walls of Paris. His successor, Henry IV of Navarre, the
   first Bourbon king of France, was a man of great ability, winning key
   victories against the Catholic League at Arques (1589) and Ivry (1590).
   Committed to stopping Henry from becoming King of France, the Spanish
   divided their army in the Netherlands and invaded France in 1590.

"God is Spanish" (1596-1626)

   Faced with wars against England, France, and the Netherlands, each led
   by extraordinarily capable leaders, already-bankrupted Spain was
   outmatched. Struggling with continuing piracy against its shipping in
   the Atlantic and the disruption of its vital gold shipments from the
   New World, Spain was forced to admit bankruptcy again in 1596. The
   Spanish attempted to extricate themselves from the several conflicts
   they were involved in, first signing the Treaty of Vervins with France
   in 1598, recognizing Henry IV (since 1593 a Catholic) as king of
   France, and restoring many of the stipulations of the previous Peace of
   Cateau-Cambrésis. A treaty with England was agreed upon in 1604,
   following the accession of the more tractable Stuart King James I.

   Peace with England and France implied that Spain could focus her
   energies on restoring her rule to the Dutch provinces. The Dutch, led
   by Maurice of Nassau, the son of William the Silent and perhaps the
   greatest strategist of his time, had succeeded in taking a number of
   border cities since 1590, including the fortress of Breda. Following
   the peace with England, the new Spanish commander Ambrosio Spinola
   pressed hard against the Dutch. Spinola, a general of abilities to
   match Maurice, was prevented from conquering the Netherlands only by
   Spain’s renewed bankruptcy in 1607. Faced with ruined finances, in
   1609, the Twelve Years' Truce was signed between Spain and the United
   Provinces.

   Spain made a fair recovery during the truce, ordering her finances and
   doing much to restore her prestige and stability in the run-up to the
   last truly great war in which she would play as a leading power. In the
   Netherlands, the rule of Philip II's daughter, Isabella Clara Eugenia
   and her husband, Archduke Albert, restored stability to the southern
   Netherlands and pacified anti-Spanish sentiments in the area. Philip
   II’s successor, Philip III, was a man of limited ability uninterested
   in politics, preferring to allow others to take care of the details.
   His chief minister was the capable Duke of Lerma. Lerma, a financial
   wizard, succeeded in turning Spain’s account books around and made
   himself one of the richest men in Europe with a fortune of some 44
   million thalers, Lerma’s personal success attracted enemies and
   well-founded allegations of corruption; in 1618, the king replaced him
   with Don Balthasar de Zúñiga. While the Duke of Lerma (and to a large
   extent Philip III) had been disinterested in the affairs of their ally,
   Austria, Zúñiga was a veteran ambassador to Vienna and believed that
   the key to restraining the resurgent French and eliminating the Dutch
   was a closer alliance with Habsburg Austria.
   The Surrender of Breda (1625) to Ambrosio Spinola, by Velázquez.
   Missing is the usual triumphalism of victory.
   Enlarge
   The Surrender of Breda (1625) to Ambrosio Spinola, by Velázquez.
   Missing is the usual triumphalism of victory.

   In 1618, beginning with the Defenestration of Prague, Austria and the
   Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II of Germany, embarked on a campaign
   against the Protestant Union and Bohemia. Zúñiga encouraged Philip to
   join the Austrian Habsburgs in the war, and Ambrogio Spinola, the
   rising star of the Spanish army, was sent at the head of the Army of
   Flanders to intervene. Thus, Spain entered into the Thirty Years’ War.

   In 1621, the inoffensive and ineffective Philip III was replaced by the
   considerably more active and pious Philip IV. The following year,
   Zúñiga was replaced by Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, Count-Duke of
   Olivares, an able man who believed that the centre of all Spain’s woes
   rest in Holland. After certain initial setbacks, the Bohemians were
   defeated at White Mountain in 1621, and again at Stadtlohn in 1623. The
   war with the Netherlands was renewed in 1621 with Spinola taking the
   fortress of Breda in 1625. The intervention of the Danish king
   Christian IV in the war worried some (Christian was one of Europe’s few
   monarchs who had no worries over his finances) but the victory of the
   Imperial general Albert of Wallenstein over the Danes at Dessau Bridge
   and again at Lutter, both in 1626, eliminated the threat. There was
   hope in Madrid that the Netherlands might finally be reincorporated
   into the Empire, and after the defeat of Denmark the Protestants in
   Germany seemed subdued. France was once again involved in her own
   instabilities (the famous Siege of La Rochelle began in 1627), and
   Spain's eminence seemed irrefutable. The Count-Duke Olivares stridently
   affirmed “God is Spanish and fights for our nation these days,” (Brown
   and Elliott, 1980, p. 190) and many of Spain’s opponents may have
   grudgingly agreed.

The road to Rocroi (1626-1643)

   King Philip IV of Spain (r. 1621-1665) by Velázquez
   Enlarge
   King Philip IV of Spain (r. 1621-1665) by Velázquez

   Olivares was a man sadly out of time; he realized that Spain needed to
   reform, and to reform it needed peace. The destruction of the United
   Provinces of the Netherlands was added to his list of necessities
   because behind every anti-Habsburg coalition there was Dutch money:
   Dutch bankers stood behind the East India merchants of Seville, and
   everywhere in the world Dutch entrepreneurship and colonists undermined
   Spanish and Portuguese hegemony. Spinola and the Spanish army were
   focused on the Netherlands, and the war seemed to be going in Spain's
   favour.

   In 1627, the Castilian economy collapsed. The Spanish had been debasing
   their currency to pay for the war and prices exploded in Spain just as
   they had in previous years in Austria. Until 1631, parts of Castile
   operated on a barter economy as a result of the currency crisis, and
   the government was unable to collect any meaningful taxes from the
   peasantry, depending instead on its colonies ( Spanish treasure fleet).
   The Spanish armies in Germany resorted to "paying themselves" on the
   land. Olivares, who had backed certain tax measures in Spain pending
   the completion of the war, was further blamed for an embarrassing and
   fruitless war in Italy (see War of the Mantuan Succession). The Dutch,
   who during the Twelve Years’ Truce had made their navy a priority,
   devastated Spanish and (especially) Portuguese maritime trade, on which
   Spain was wholly dependent after the economic collapse. The Spanish,
   with resources stretched thin, were increasingly unable to cope with
   the rapidly growing naval threats.

   In 1630, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, one of the most able commanders
   of the time, landed in Germany and relieved the port of Stralsund that
   was the last stronghold on the continent held by German forces
   belligerent to the Emperor. Gustav then marched south winning notable
   victories at Breitenfeld and Lutzen, attracting greater support for the
   Protestant cause the further he went. The situation for the Catholics
   improved with Gustav's death at Lutzen in 1632 and a shocking victory
   for Imperial forces under Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand and Ferdinand II
   of Hungary at Nordlingen in 1634. From a position of strength, the
   Emperor approached the war-weary German states with a peace in 1635;
   many accepted, including the two most powerful, Brandenburg and Saxony.

   Cardinal Richelieu had been a strong supporter of the Dutch and
   Protestants since the beginning of the war, sending funds and equipment
   in an attempt to stem Habsburg strength in Europe. Richelieu decided
   that the recently-signed Peace of Prague was contrary to French
   interests and declared war on the Holy Roman Emperor and Spain within
   months of the peace being signed. The more experienced Spanish forces
   scored initial successes; Olivares ordered a lightning campaign into
   northern France from the Spanish Netherlands, hoping to shatter the
   resolve of King Louis XIII's ministers and topple Richelieu before the
   war exhausted Spanish finances and France's military resources could be
   fully deployed. In the "année de Corbie", 1636, Spanish forces advanced
   as far south as Amiens and Corbie, threatening Paris and quite nearly
   ending the war on their terms.
   The Battle of Rocroi (1643), the symbolic end of Spain as the dominant
   great power.
   Enlarge
   The Battle of Rocroi (1643), the symbolic end of Spain as the dominant
   great power.

   After 1636, however, Olivares, fearful of provoking another disastrous
   bankruptcy, stopped the advance. The Spanish army would never again
   penetrate. The French thus gained time to properly mobilise. At the
   Battle of the Downs in 1639 a Spanish fleet was destroyed by the Dutch
   navy, and the Spanish found themselves unable to adequately reinforce
   and supply their forces in the Netherlands. The Spanish Army of
   Flanders, which represented the finest of Spanish soldiery and
   leadership, faced a French invasion led by Louis II de Bourbon, Prince
   de Condé in the Spanish Netherlands at Rocroi in 1643. The Spanish, led
   by Francisco de Melo, were devastated, with most of the Spanish
   infantry slaughtered or captured by French cavalry. The high reputation
   of the Army of Flanders was broken at Rocroi, and with it, the grandeur
   of Spain.

The last Spanish Habsburgs (1643-1700)

   Supported by the French, the Catalonians, Neapolitans, and Portuguese
   rose up in revolt against the Spanish in the 1640s. With the Spanish
   Netherlands effectively lost after the Battle of Lens in 1648, the
   Spanish made peace with the Dutch and recognized the independent United
   Provinces in the Peace of Westphalia that ended both the Eighty Years'
   War and the Thirty Years' War.

   War with France continued for eleven more years. Although France
   suffered from a civil war from 1648-1652 (see Wars of the Fronde) the
   Spanish economy was so exhausted that they were unable to capitalize on
   French instability. Naples was retaken in 1648 and Catalonia in 1652,
   but the war came effectively to an end at the Battle of the Dunes where
   the French army under Vicomte de Turenne defeated the remnants of the
   Spanish army of the Netherlands. Spain agreed to the Peace of the
   Pyrenees in 1659 that ceded to France Roussillon, Foix, Artois, and
   much of Lorraine.

   Portugal had rebelled in 1640 under the leadership of John IV, a
   Braganza pretender to the throne. He had received widespread support
   from the Portuguese people, and the Spanish – who had to deal with
   rebellions elsewhere and the war with France – were unable to respond,
   and the Spanish and Portuguese had existed in a de facto state of peace
   from 1644 to 1657. When John IV died in 1657, the Spanish attempted to
   wrest Portugal from his son Alfonso VI, but were defeated at Ameixial
   (1663) and Monte Claros (1665), leading to Spain's recognition of
   Portuguese independence in 1668.
   Charles II, the last Habsburg king of Spain (r. 1665-1700)
   Enlarge
   Charles II, the last Habsburg king of Spain (r. 1665-1700)

   Philip IV, who had seen over the course of his life the devastation of
   Spain's empire, sank slowly into depression after he had to dismiss his
   favorite courtier, Olivares, in 1643. He was saddened further after the
   death of his son Baltasar Carlos in 1646 at the young age of seventeen.
   Philip became increasingly mystical near the end of his life, and
   ultimately attempted to undo some of the damage he had done to his
   country. He died in 1665 before anything could be changed, hoping his
   son might somehow be more fortunate. Charles, his only surviving son,
   was seriously deformed and mentally retarded, and remained under the
   influence of his mother all his life. Struggling with his deformities
   and the expectations and ridicule of his family and the court, Charles
   led a miserable existence.

   Charles and his regency were incompetent in dealing with the War of
   Devolution that Louis XIV of France prosecuted against the Spanish
   Netherlands in 1667-1668, losing considerable prestige and territory,
   including the cities of Lille and Charleroi. In the Nine Years' War
   Louis once again invaded the Spanish Netherlands. French forces led by
   the Duke of Luxembourg defeated the Spanish at Fleurus (1690), and
   subsequently defeated Dutch forces under William III, who fought on
   Spain's side. The war ended with most of the Spanish Netherlands under
   French occupation, including the important cities of Ghent and
   Luxembourg. The war revealed to the world how vulnerable and backward
   the Spanish defenses and bureaucracy were, though the ineffective
   Spanish government took no action to improve them.

   The final decades of the seventeenth century saw utter decay and
   stagnation in Spain; while the rest of Europe went through exciting
   changes in government and society - the Glorious Revolution in England
   and the reign of the "Sun King" Louis XIV in France - Spain remained
   adrift. The Spanish bureaucracy that had built up around the
   charismatic, industrious, and intelligent Charles I and Philip II
   demanded a strong monarch; the weakness of Philip III and IV led to
   Spain's decay. As his final wishes, the childless king of Spain desired
   that the throne pass to the Bourbon prince Philip of Anjou, rather than
   to a member of the family that had tormented him throughout his life.
   Charles II died in 1700, ending the line of Spanish Habsburgs exactly
   two centuries after Charles I was born.

Spanish society and the Inquisition (1516-1700)

   An auto de fe, painted by Francisco Ricci, 1683
   Enlarge
   An auto de fe, painted by Francisco Ricci, 1683

   The Spanish Inquisition was formally launched during the reign of the
   Catholic Monarchs, continued by their Habsburg successors, and only
   ended in the nineteenth century. Under Charles I the inquisition became
   a formal department in the Spanish government, hurtling out of control
   as the sixteenth century progressed. Charles also passed the Limpieza,
   a law that excluded those not of pure Old Christian, non-Jewish blood
   from public office. Although torture was common in Europe, the way the
   Inquisition was practiced encouraged corruption and betrayal, and it
   became a driving factor in the decay of Spanish power. It became a
   method for enemies, jealous friends and even quarreling relations to
   usurp influence and property. An accusation, even if largely unfounded,
   led to a long and agonizing trial that might take years before coming
   to a verdict, during which time the accused's reputation and esteem was
   destroyed. The notorious auto de fe was a combination of public
   humiliation of the repentant and a gross spectacle of human torture for
   the "guilty".

   Although Charles continued the practice of the inquisition, Philip II
   greatly expanded it and made church orthodoxy a goal of public policy.
   In 1559, three years after Philip came to power, students in Spain were
   forbidden to travel abroad, the leaders of the Inquisition were placed
   in charge of censorship, and books could no longer be imported. Philip
   vigorously tried to excise Protestantism out of Spain, holding
   innumerable campaigns to eliminate Lutheran and Calvinist literature
   from the country, hoping to avoid the chaos taking place in France.

   The church in Spain had been purged of many of its administrative
   excesses in the fifteenth century by Cardinal Ximenes, and the
   Inquisition served to expurgate many of the more radical reformers who
   sought to change church theology as the Protestant reformers wanted.
   Instead, Spain became the scion of the Counter-reformation as it
   emerged from the Reconquista. Spain bred two unique threads of
   counter-reformationary thought in the persons of Saint Theresa of Avila
   and the Basque Ignatius Loyola. Theresa advocated strict monasticism
   and a revival of more ancient traditions of penitence. She experienced
   a mystical ecstasy that became profoundly influential on Spanish
   culture and art. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order, was
   influential across the world in his stress on spiritual and mental
   excellence and contributed to a resurgence of learning across Europe.
   In 1625, a peak of Spanish prestige and power, the Count-Duke of
   Olivares established the Jesuit colegia imperial in Madrid to train
   Spanish nobles in the humanities and military arts.
   The expulsion of the Moriscos from Valencia
   Enlarge
   The expulsion of the Moriscos from Valencia

   The Moriscos of southern Spain had been forcibly converted to
   Christianity in 1502, but under the rule of Charles I they had been
   able to obtain a degree of tolerance from their Christian rulers. They
   were allowed to practice their former custom, dress, and language, and
   religious laws were laxly enforced. In 1568, however, under Philip, the
   Moriscos rebelled (see Morisco Revolt) after the old laws were enforced
   again. The revolt was only put down by Italian troops under Don John of
   Austria, and even then the Moriscos retreated to the highlands and were
   not defeated until 1570. The revolt was followed by a massive
   resettlement program in which 12,000 Christian peasants replaced the
   Moriscos. In 1609, on the advice of the Duke of Lerma, Philip III
   expelled the 300,000 Moriscos of Spain.

   The Enlightenment chiefly critiqued the Spanish for excessive religious
   zeal and "laziness". Among the members of the aristocracy, who enjoyed
   increasing security in their positions of power (unlike their
   colleagues in France and England who were increasingly competitive) the
   argument of "Spanish sloth" might apply. The expulsion of the
   industrious Moriscos and Jews certainly did little to help the Spanish
   economy and society that relied on their work and expertise far more
   than the Christians realized.

The Spanish bureaucracy (1516-1700)

   The Seville House of Trade, today the Archive of the Indies
   Enlarge
   The Seville House of Trade, today the Archive of the Indies

   The Spanish received a massive influx of gold from the colonies in the
   New World as plunder when they were conquered, much of which Charles
   used to prosecute his wars in Europe. It was not until the 1540s that
   large deposits of silver were found in Potosí and Guanajuato and a
   steady source of income was obtained. The Spanish left mining to
   private enterprise but instituted a tax known as the "quinto real"
   whereby a fifth of the metal was collected by the government. The
   Spanish were quite successful in enforcing the tax throughout their
   vast empire in the New World; all bullion had to pass through the House
   of Trade in Seville, under the direction of the Council of the Indies.
   The supply of Almadén mercury, vital to extracting silver from the ore,
   was controlled by the state and contributed to the rigor of Spanish tax
   policy.

   Although the initial conquests in the Americas provided sharp spikes in
   gold imports from the colonies, it was not until the 1550s that they
   became a regular and vital source of Spain's income. Inflation - both
   in Spain and in the rest of Europe - was primarily caused by debt;
   Charles had conducted most of his wars on credit, and in 1557, a year
   after he abdicated, Spain was forced into its first bankruptcy.
   A Spanish galleon, the symbol of Spain's maritime empire.
   Enlarge
   A Spanish galleon, the symbol of Spain's maritime empire.

   Faced with the growing threat of piracy, in 1564 the Spanish adopted a
   convoy system far ahead of its time, with treasure fleets leaving the
   Americas in April and August. The policy proved efficient, and was
   quite successful. Only two convoys were captured; one in 1628 when it
   was captured by the Dutch, and another in 1656, captured by the
   English. Nevertheless even without being completely captured they
   frequently came under attack, which inevitably took its toll. However
   not all shipping of the dispersed empire could be protected by large
   convoys, allowing the Dutch, English and French privateers and pirates
   the opportunity to devastate trade along the American and Spanish
   coastlines and raid isolated settlements. This became particularly
   savage from the 1650s, with all sides falling to extraordinary levels
   of barbarity, even by contemporary standards. Spain also had to deal
   with Barbary piracy in the Mediterranean and Oriental and Dutch piracy
   in the waters in and around the Philippines.

   The growth of Spain's empire in the New World was accomplished from
   Seville, without the close direction of the leadership in Madrid.
   Charles I and Philip II were primarily concerned with their duties in
   Europe, and thus control of the Americas was handled by viceroys and
   colonial administrators who operated with virtual autonomy. The
   Habsburg kings regarded their colonies as feudal associations rather
   than integral parts of Spain. The Habsburgs, whose family had
   traditionally ruled over diverse, noncontiguous domains and had been
   forced to devolve autonomy to local administrators, replicated those
   feudal policies in Spain, particularly in the Basque country and
   Aragon.

   This meant that taxes, infrastructure improvement, and internal trade
   policy were defined independently by each region, leading to many
   internal customs barriers and tolls, and conflicting policies even
   within the Habsburg domains. Charles I and Philip II had been able to
   master the various courts through their impressive political energy,
   but Philip III and IV allowed it to decay, and Charles II was wholly
   incapable of controlling them. The development of Spain itself was
   hampered by the fact that Charles I and Philip II spent most of their
   time abroad; for most of the sixteenth century, Spain was administrated
   from Brussels and Antwerp, and it was only during the Dutch Revolt that
   Philip returned to Spain, where he spent most of his time in the
   seclusion of the monastic palace of El Escorial. The patchy empire,
   held together by a determined king keeping the bloated bureaucracy
   together, unraveled when a weak ruler came to the throne.

   There were attempts to reform the antiquated Spanish bureaucracy.
   Charles, on becoming king, clashed with his nobles during the Castilian
   War of the Communities when he attempted to fill government positions
   with effective Dutch and Flemish officials. Philip II encountered major
   resistance when he tried to enforce his authority over the Netherlands,
   contributing to the rebellion in that country. The Count-Duke of
   Olivares, Philip IV's chief minister, always regarded it as essential
   to Spain's survival that the bureaucracy be centralized; Olivares even
   backed the full union of Portugal with Spain, though he never had an
   opportunity to realize his ideas. After Charles abdicated, the
   bureaucracy became increasingly bloated and corrupt until, by
   Olivares's dismissal in 1643, it was rendered obsolete.

The Spanish economy (1516-1700)

   The city of Zaragoza, by Velázquez
   Enlarge
   The city of Zaragoza, by Velázquez

   Like most of Europe, Spain had suffered from famine and plague during
   the 14th and 15th centuries. By 1500, Europe was beginning to emerge
   from these demographic disasters, and populations began to explode -
   Seville, which was home to 60,000 people in 1500 burgeoned to 150,000
   by the end of the century. There was a substantial movement to the
   cities of Spain to capitalize on new opportunities as shipbuilders and
   merchants to service Spain's impressive and growing empire.

   Inflation in Spain, as a result of state debt and the importation of
   silver and gold from the New World, triggered hardship for the
   peasantry. The average cost of goods quintupled in the sixteenth
   century in Spain, led by wool and grain. While reasonable when compared
   to the twentieth century, prices in the 15th century changed very
   little, and the European economy was shaken by the so-called price
   revolution. Spain, along with England was Europe's only producer of
   wool, initially benefited from the rapid growth. However, like in
   England, there began in Spain an inclosure movement that stifled the
   growth of food and depopulated whole villages whose residents were
   forced to move to cities. But unlike England, the higher inflation, the
   burden of the Habsburg´s wars and the many customs duties dividing the
   country and restricting trade with the Americas, stifled the growth of
   industry that may have provided an alternative source of income in the
   towns.

   Sheep-farming was practiced extensively in Castile, and grew rapidly
   with rising wool prices with the backing of the king. Merino sheep were
   annually moved from the mountains of the north to the warmer south
   every winter, ignoring state-mandated trails that were intended to
   prevent the sheep from trampling the farmland. Complaints lodged
   against the shepherds' guild, the Mesta, were ignored by Philip II who
   received a great deal of revenue from wool. Eventually, Castile became
   barren, and Spain was wholly dependent on imported food that, given the
   cost of transportation and the risk of piracy, was far more expensive
   in Spain than elsewhere. As a result, Spain's population grew much
   slower than France's; by Louis XIV's time, France had a population
   greater than that of Spain and England combined.
   The Harvesters by Pieter Brueghel the Elder
   Enlarge
   The Harvesters by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

   Credit emerged as a widespread tool of Spanish business in the
   sixteenth century. The city of Antwerp, in the Spanish Netherlands, lay
   at the heart of European commerce and its bankers financed most of
   Charles V's and Philip II's wars on credit. The use of "notes of
   exchange" became common as Antwerp banks became increasingly powerful
   and led to extensive speculation that helped to exaggerate price
   shifts. Although these trends laid the foundation for the development
   of capitalism in Spain and Europe as a whole, the total lack of
   regulation and pervasive corruption meant that small landowners often
   lost everything with a single stroke of misfortune. Estates in Spain
   grew progressively larger and the economy became increasingly
   uncompetitive, particularly during the reigns of Philip III and IV when
   repeated speculative crises shook Spain.

   The church had always been important to the Spanish economy, and
   particularly in the reigns of Philip III and IV, who had bouts of
   intense personal piety and church philanthropy, large areas of the
   country were donated to the church. The later Habsburgs did nothing to
   promote redistribution of land, and by the end of Charles II's reign,
   most of Castile was in the hands of a select few landowners, the
   largest of which by far was the Church.

Spanish art and culture (1516-1700)

   The Spanish Golden Age was a flourishing period of arts and letters in
   Spain which spanned roughly from 1550-1650. Some of the outstanding
   figures of the period were El Greco, Diego Velázquez, Miguel de
   Cervantes, and Pedro Calderón de la Barca.

   El Greco and Velázquez were both painters, the former most notably
   recognized for his religious depictions and the latter—now regarded as
   one of the most important figures in all of Spanish art—for his
   precise, realistic portraiture of the contemporary court of Philip IV.
   Cervantes and de la Barca were both writers; Don Quixote de la Mancha,
   by Cervantes, is one of the most famous works of the period and
   probably the best-known piece of Spanish literature of all time. It is
   a parody of the romantic, chivalric aspects of knighthood and a
   criticism of contemporary social structures and societal norms. Juana
   Inés de la Cruz, the last great writer of this golden age, died in New
   Spain in 1695.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habsburg_Spain"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
