OLIVARES, GASPAR DE GUZMAN, count of Olivares and duke of San Lucar Spanish royal favourite and minister, born at Rome, Jan. 6, 1587. He kept his inherited title of count in combination with the new honour of duke granted him by Philip IV.: hence he was commonly spoken of as el conde duque. During the life of Philip III. he was appointed to a post in the household of the heir-apparent, and obtained such influence over the young prince that Philip IV. on his accession ordered that all papers requiring the royal signature should first be sent to the count-duke. For 22 years Olivares directed the policy of Spain. It was a period of disaster abroad and of rebellion at home. The Spaniards too thoroughly monarchical to blame the king, held his favourite responsible for the country's misfortunes, and the count-duke became the accepted model of a grasping and incapable favourite, but under the inspiration of Canovas, there was a certain reaction in his favour.
It would be unjust to blame Olivares alone for the decadence of Spain. The gross errors of his policy—the renewal of the war with Holland in 1621, the persistence of Spain in taking part in the Thirty Years' War, the lesser wars undertaken in Sicily, and the entire neglect to promote the unification of the different states forming the peninsular kingdom—were shared by him with the king, the Church and the commercial classes. His fall was
immediately due to the revolts of Portugal and Catalonia in 164o. The king parted with him reluctantly and only under the pressure of a strong court intrigue headed by Queen Isabella. Driven from office in 1643, Olivares, by the king's order retired to Toro, where he composed the apology El Nicandro, written, some say, by an agent, but undeniably inspired by the fallen min ister. The Nicandro was denounced to the Inquisition, and it is not impossible that Olivares might have ended in the prisons of the Holy Office, if he had not died on July 22, 1645.