Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Philip IV (Felipe IV) (1605-1665)
king of Spain
Son of P HILIP III, he succeeded his father in
1621. A self-indulgent and imprudent mon-
arch, he left the task of government to his
privado (political favorite) and only took
heed of Spain's desperate situation when it
was too late to avert military disaster. Unlike
his contemporary Louis XIII of France, also
an idle and inept monarch, Philip did not
have the good sense (or good fortune) to
choose a first-class chief minister to manage
the country for him. Instead of Richelieu,
he had the count-duke of O LIVARES . Both
Philip and his favorite were overconfident
advocates of aggressive policies. Unlike the
pacifistic regime that had preceded them,
they made war with the Dutch, the English,
and the French, while provoking resent-
ment and revolt within the Iberian Penin-
sula. Drawn into support for the Austrian
Habsburgs on dynastic and religious
grounds, Philip IV became involved not
only in the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) but
in a struggle for mastery of Europe that
lasted for still another 11 years. Even before
the military disaster at R OCROI (1643) that
marked the end of Spanish military hege-
mony and would forever scar the memory
of his reign, Philip had resolved to dispense
with the services of Olivares. However, dur-
ing the second half of his reign he merely
substituted one privado for another, choos-
ing L UIS DE H ARO , the retired favorite's
nephew as his new chief minister, with no
better results.
Although the king showed somewhat
more personal concern and involvement
in policy making during these later years,
he was not able to effect any real reversal
of fortune. Portugal, which had rejected
his rule in 1640, was never regained
(though he was still seeking to assert con-
trol there down to the time of his death).
His authority was reestablished in C ATALO -
NIA only at great cost, and even in A NDA -
LUSIA he was obliged to struggle against an
incipient secession. His rebellious subjects
in the Kingdom of Naples were finally
beaten down, but the independence of the
Dutch had to be conceded in 1648. Even
the overseas empire began to slip away
when he was obliged to yield J AMAICA to
England in 1654.
Exactly a century after his grandfather
had established Spain's dominance by forc-
ing a defeated France to surrender its pre-
tensions to European leadership, Philip IV
was obliged to sign the humiliating Peace of
the Pyrenees in 1559. Not only did he hand
over territory to France, he also gave his
daughter in marriage to the young Louis
XIV, preparing the way for the ultimate
accession of the House of B OURBON to the
Spanish throne. When the depressed,
exhausted, and prematurely aged Philip IV
died in 1665, leaving only a sickly boy to
succeed him, the once glorious era of
Habsburg Spain was virtually at an end.
Thanks to the artistic gifts of D IEGO
V ELÁZQUEZ , his court painter and greatest of
all Spanish artists, Philip IV has established
a presence in the minds of subsequent gen-
erations that far outweighs his personal
capacity or his significance in Spanish his-
tory. In numerous portraits of the monarch
the arrogant upsweep of his mustache pro-
claims a self-confidence that was far from
justified by performance. The royal family,
too, has been immortalized by Velázquez,
from the little infantes and infantas to the
sinisterly ambitious Don Juan José, the
king's bastard son. Even Olivares, in a
splendid equestrian study, perpetuates the
 
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