During this period the English had not been inac tive in retaliating by deeds the threats of Spain. Cor unna was sacked, Lisbon endangered, and saved only through a misunderstanding between the English commanders, and the outward-bound India fleet in the port of Cadiz plundered and destroyed. These losses and insults instigated Philip to another attempt upon England, which, however, was similarly unfortunate as the former, the elements seeming to combine with his enemies in discomfiting his best laid and most confident plans. This was the expiring effort of his reign. He died in the following year, leaving Spain drained of her wealth and her population; for it hap pened with this prince that while he meditated the destruction of other kingdoms, the very means which he employed exhausted his own.
Philip ill. had neither the ambition nor the abili ties of his father; and both from his education and dispositions, was altogether incompetent to manage the weighty concerns of an extended empire. Ile consequently gave himself up entirely to the direc tion of his favourite the duke of Lerma, who, though not endowed with splendid talents, possessed great prudence, mildness, and moderation. His accession to the throne was immediately followed by the ratifi cation of a peace with France, and in a few years af terwards with England. The contest in the low countries, which occasioned such a waste of troops and treasure, as was gradually wearing out the strength of the monarchy, became also the subject of consider ation; and a truce for twelve years was concluded, in which the Dutch republic was acknowledged as a free state. This disposition, on the part of the king's advisers to adopt moderate and pacific measures, promised that tranquillity to Spain of which she stood so much in need for recruiting her resources and re storing vigour to her government. But unfortunately the spirit of intolerance still predominated in her councils, which was encouraged by the bigotry of the priesthood, and the superstitious fears or her monarch; and which led, in spite of the vigorous opposition of the barons and landholders, to the expulsion of the Moors, a measure both impolitic and inhuman, and which lost to the state 600,000 of its most industrious and wealthy population.
Spain still maintained her superiority in Italy, but with difficulty and at great expense; and the intrigues and ambition of her governors in that country ren dered her authority odious and insupportable to the Italians.
The disgrace of the duke of Lerma, through the intrigues of his own son, who succeeded him in the affectioms of the king, produced little change in the foreign policy of the kingdom; but the death of Philip soon after threw the administration of affairs into other hands, who, disdaining the pacific measures of their predecessors, were eager in the prosecution of plans of aggrandizement.
The same system of favouritism still prevailed, and Philip IV. entrusted all to the Count d'Olivares, a man of considerable talent, but boundless ambition. The political horizon of Europe had continued toler ably serene during the last reign; but it now began to be overcast; and the eventful contest of the thirty years war had already commenced. Dissensions in Germany and Italy called for the interference of Spain; and the renewal of the war with the Dutch republic, notwithstanding that power evinced a strong dispo sition to prolong the truce, or even to convert it into a solid peace, demanded exertions which the diminished resources of the government were little able to sup port. The policy of Olivares was ruinous to his country. It excited the resentment of all her neigh bours, who, without the ceremony of a general alli ance, concerted to attack her on every side; and although she suffered little from their hostility, yet being compelled to exert herself beyond her strength, she was shaken to the foundation. New exactions from the people already overburdened, and disorders abroad, increased the general discontent, which, being accompanied by the revolt of the Catalans, the revo lution in Portugal, and a series of ill-fortune in the Netherlands, brought her to the very brink of ruin. The removal of Olivares led to the adoption of more moderate measures. Peace was concluded with the Dutch; and though the war was continued with France, she was greatly relieved by the civil discords which arose in that country during the minority of Louis XIV. The Catalans, who had been treated with greater severity, had thrown themselves into the arms of that power, by which a foreign enemy was admit ted into the heart of the kingdom. This unnatural contest was prosecuted with various success until 1652, when Don John of Austria, a natural son of the king's, compelled the surrender of Barcelona, when the whole country, except Rosas, followed the fate of the capital.