Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Spain and the European powers
The de facto union of C ASTILE and A RAGON
in 1479 coincided with the emergence of a
united France and an England free from
feudal divisions. The emergence of three
major political powers at the end of the
15th century was followed by a struggle for
mastery in Europe that lasted some 500
years. At the beginning of this struggle
Spain was clearly dominant. During the
I TALIAN W ARS (1494-1559) Spain was
repeatedly challenged by France, under the
leadership of Charles VIII, Louis XII, and,
most significant, François I. Despite the
persistence of this monarch and his will-
ingness to ally with the Ottoman Empire,
Habsburg Spain emerged triumphant,
although it was not the great warrior-
statesman C HARLES I (Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V) but his son, P HILIP II, who
finally delivered the death blow to French
ambitions when he imposed a humiliating
peace on Henri II.
The third major power in Renaissance
Europe, England, had aligned itself with
Spain under Henry VII and during the early
years of Henry VIII. Following the Protes-
tant Reformation the latter and his succes-
sor, Edward VI, had maintained an
essentially neutral position. Mary I, a Cath-
olic, not only renewed the Spanish alliance
but married the future Philip II. After her
death in 1558 and the reestablishment of
Protestantism in England under her half
sister, Elizabeth I, England returned to a
posture of neutrality. This was gradually
abandoned as Spain's enemies in France
(Henri of Bourbon), the Netherlands (Wil-
liam of Orange), and Germany pressed Eliz-
abeth to join them in resisting Philip's use
of the Counter-Reformation as an excuse
for establishing Spanish hegemony through-
out Europe. England's aid to Spain's oppo-
nents incited Spanish support to Irish
Catholic rebels and the A RMADA 's failed
invasion of England in 1588.
By the early 1600s Spain and England
had arrived at a truce. Spain, still dominant
in Europe, was now challenged again by a
revived France. The Bourbon kings Louis
XIII and Louis XIV and their cunning min-
isters, Richelieu and Mazarin, proved more
than a match for P HILIP IV and his privado,
the count-duke of O LIVARES . France not
only gained ascendancy on the battlefield
but incited rebellion among Spain's sub-
jects, notably Portugal which had been sub-
jugated to Spain in 1580 but regained its
independence in 1640. By 1700, at the
death of the last H ABSBURG , the ineffectual
C HARLES II, Spain was actually claimed
under that monarch's will by a French
B OURBON prince.
Louis XIV established his nation's mas-
tery of Europe during the W AR OF THE
S PANISH S UCCESSION (1701-14). His grand-
son was acknowledged as P HILIP V of Spain,
and that proud nation was at last obliged to
acknowledge its fall from dominance.
While the French boast “There are no more
Pyrenees!” proved premature, much of the
18th century saw Spanish policy subordi-
nated to that of France. The Bourbon Fam-
ily Compact led M ADRID into repeated
clashes with London. The Hanoverian
Georges were mere ciphers for parliamen-
tary government in England, but Great
Britain was now emerging as a colonial and
trading power that rivaled not only France
but the global pretensions of Spain. The
ablest Spanish Bourbon, C HARLES III, was
imprudently drawn into support of his
kinsmen in Paris, and Spain's overseas
realm began to collapse.
 
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