HISTORICAL DICTIONARY A–Z - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 222

H

Habsburg
The consolidation of Spain's regional king-
doms was completed between 1469 and
1479 by the marriage of F ERDINAND V and
I SABELLA I, her accession to the throne of
C ASTILE , and his to the throne of A RAGON .
These two royal cousins both belonged to
the House of Trastamara. In 1495 the mar-
riage of their daughter J OANNA to Philip,
the heir to the Austrian ruling house of
Habsburg prepared the way for the start of
a new dynasty in the newly established
kingdom of Spain. Although Joanna was
queen in her own right from 1504, her hus-
band was designated co-sovereign as P HILIP
I. Their son ruled as C HARLES I, but his
accession to the throne of the Holy Roman
Empire as Charles V emphasized Spain's
Habsburg connection, and the ruling family
would generally be referred to as the “Casa
de Austria.” After Charles I abdicated his
multiple thrones in 1556, the imperial title
passed to his brother, Emperor Ferdinand I,
and, through him, to subsequent Austrian
rulers until 1918. P HILIP II succeeded his
father Charles I as king of Spain and its
worldwide dominions. The relationship
between the two branches of the House of
Austria remained close, and there would be
frequent intermarriages. The Spanish house
of Austria was continued by P HILIP III, P HILIP
IV, and C HARLES II from 1598 to 1700.

Support given to their Austrian kinsmen
drew the Spanish rulers into the Thirty
Years' War (1618-48). Spain's decline as a
great power was paralleled by the physical
and mental deterioration of her last
Habsburg king, and, on his death in 1700,
his will conferred the Crown on his great-
nephew, a prince of the French ruling
house of B OURBON .

Haro, Luis de (marqués de Carpio)
(1598-1661)
Spanish statesman
Of noble birth (he succeeded his father as
marqués de Carpio in 1648), his most
important relationship was with his moth-
er's brother, the count duke of O LIVARES .
Although on good terms with this chief
minister of P HILIP IV, Haro facilitated the
end of his uncle's tenure in office and suc-
ceeded him as privado (political favorite) of
the king in 1643. During the latter half of
the reign Haro was Philip's principal adviser
in foreign and domestic affairs. Although
the king had learned from the failure of
Olivares's policy how dangerous it was to
confide total authority to a single politician,
his own attempts to play a more direct role
in ruling his country proved sporadic and
unsuccessful. Haro lacked the gifts to either
fill his uncle's shoes or remedy the king's

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