The period of 102 years covered by the reigns of Philip III., Philip IV. and Charles II., was one of gradual decadence, mainly in the spheres of politics and economics. On the other hand and until the end of the reign of Philip IV. it was the golden age of Spanish literature, art and science. The dynasty continued to make the maintenance of the rights and interests of the house of Austria its main object. The policy of James I. of England, the civil wars of Charles I., the assassination of Henry IV. of France, the troubles of the minor ity and reign of Louis XIII. and the Fronde (q.v.), preserved Spain from concerted and persistent foreign attack. After a futile attempt to injure England by giving support to the earl of Tyrone in Ireland (see TYRONE, EARLS OF) peace was made between the powers in 1604. In 1609 a 12 years' truce was made with the Dutch. But the temporary cessation of foreign wars brought no real peace to Spain.
The death of Philip III. (March 21, 1621) brought no real change. His son, Philip IV., was an abler man and even gave indications of a wish to qualify himself to discharge his duties as king. But he was young, pleasure-loving, and wanted the strength of will to make his good intentions effec tive. For 20 years the administration was really directed by his favourite the count of Olivares (q.v.) and the duke of San Lucar, known as the "Conde-Duque," the count-duke. Olivares possessed the sense of the national unity of Spain as opposed to the par ticularism of the old kingdoms, which was a source of certain weakness in international disputes. But he could only keep his place by supplying his master with the means of dissipation and by conforming to his dynastic sentiments. The truce concluded in 1609 with Holland ended in 1621, and was not renewed. The commercial classes, particularly in Portugal, complained that it subjected them to Dutch competition. War was renewed, and the Dutch Invaded Brazil. As their fleets made it dangerous to send troops by sea to Flanders, Spain had to secure a safe road overland. Therefore she endeavoured to obtain full control of the Valtellina, the valley leading from Lombardy to Tirol, and from thence to the German ecclesiastical states, which allowed a free passage to the Spanish troops. War with France ensued. The failure of the treaty of marriage with England (see BUCK INGHAM, GEORGE VILLIERS, first duke of) also led to war, for the English court was offended by the Spanish refusal to aid in the restoration of the count palatine, son-in-law of James I., to his dominions. In Flanders the town of Breda was taken after a famous siege. The French conducted their campaign badly. The Dutch were expelled from Bahia in Brazil, which they had seized. An English attack on Cadiz in 1625 was repulsed.
by 164o the feeble ness of the political power of the Spanish European empire was notorious. In that year Portugal fell away without needing to
strike a blow. Then followed the revolt of Naples (see MASAN IELLO) and of the Catalans, who were bitterly angered by the excesses of the troops sent to operate against the French in Roussillon. They called in the French, and the Spanish Govern ment was compelled to neglect Portugal. Olivares, who was de nounced by the nation as the cause of all its misfortunes, was dismissed, and the king made a brief effort to rule for himself. But he soon fell back under the control of less capable favour ites than Olivares. In 1643 the prestige of the Spanish infantry was ruined by the battle of Rocroy. At the Peace of Munster, which ended the Thirty Years' War in 1648, Spain was cynically thrown over by the German Habsburgs for whom she had sacri ficed so much. Aided by the disorders in the minority of Louis XIV., she struggled on till the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659, by which Roussillon was ceded to France. An attempt was now made to subdue Portugal, but the battle of Montesclaros in 1665 proved the futility of the effort. The news of the disaster was followed by the death of the king on Sept. 17, 1665. Catalonia was saved by the reaction produced by excesses of the French troops, and in Naples the revolt had collapsed ; but Portugal was lost forever.
During the whole of the reign of Charles II., the son of the second marriage of Philip IV. with his niece Mariana of Austria, the Spanish monarchy was saved from dismemberment only by the intervention of England and Holland. The wars of 1667-68, 1672-78, 1683-84, and the war of the League of Augsburg, 1689-96, were some of them fought wholly, and all of them partly, because the French king wished to obtain one or another portion of the dominions of the Spanish Habs burgs. But Spain took a subordinate and often a merely passive part in these wars. The king was imbecile. During his minority the Government was directed by his mother and her successive favourites, the German Jesuit Nithard and the Granadine ad venturer Fernando de Valenzuela. In 1677 the king's bastard brother, the younger Don John of Austria, defeated the queen's faction, which was entirely Austrian in sentiment, and obtained power for a short time. By him the king was married in 1679 to Marie Louise of Orleans, in the interest of France. When she died in 1689, he was married by the Austrian party to Mariana of Neuburg. At last the French party, which hoped to save the monarchy from partition by securing the support of France, per suaded the dying king to leave his kingdom by will to the duke of Anjou, the grandson of Louis XIV., and of Maria Teresa, daughter of Philip IV. by his first marriage. On the death of Charles II., on Nov. 1, 1700, the duke of Anjou became king.