CHRONOLOGY - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 427

lina, sister of the king, to Charles II of
England (1662), strengthening the rela-
tionship between the two countries. These
glory days are followed by the increas-
ingly dissolute and eccentric behavior that
leads to Afonso's deposition by his brother
Peter. Afonso VI is banished to the Azores,
where he dies in 1683.

as well as political dominance in Europe.
Termed the Siglo de Oro in Spanish (liter-
ally “golden century”), Spain's Golden
Age actually spans a period of some two
centuries during which the achievements
of Spanish writers, artists, and thinkers
command the attention and stimulate the
imagination of the Western world.
Among the greatest of these are Miguel
de Cervantes, the creator of Don Quixote;
Mateo Alemán, master of the picaresque
genre; the Renaissance poets Juan Boscán
and Garcilaso de la Vega; and the baroque
poets Luis de Góngora and Francisco de
Quevedo. Poetical impulses and mystical
visions inspire John of the Cross and Te-
resa of Ávila, as well as Luis de León.
Drama, from England to Italy, is influ-
enced by the playwrights Félix Lope de
Vega, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and
Tirso de Molina (who gives the world the
eternal archetype Don Juan). Among
Europe's greatest painters of the 1600s
are El Greco, Diego Velázquez, Bartolomé
Murillo, and Francisco de Zurbarán. In
Portugal Nuno Gonçalves is the central
figure in the school of Renaissance paint-
ing. There is also a group of accomplished
poets of whom Luíz Vaz de Camões at-
tains the status of national icon, albeit
posthumously. Within a few years of
Camões's death his country passes under
Spanish dominance and is overshadowed
culturally as well as militarily by Spain
throughout the 16th century.

1659
Treaty of the Pyrenees ends the war be-
tween Spain and France. Philip IV is
obliged to surrender border territories in
the Spanish Netherlands and the Pyre-
nean region and agree to the marriage of
his daughter María Teresa to Louis XIV of
France.

1665-1700
Charles II, king of Spain, the only surviving
son of Philip IV, is four years old at his
accession. Even after coming of age he
remains under the guidance of advisers
due to physical and mental disabilities.
During his reign Spain participates in a
number of European coalitions designed
to block the rising power of Louis XIV but
accomplishes little and loses several valu-
able territories. When his declining health
and lack of a direct heir induces his allies
to plan the partition of the Spanish Em-
pire, Charles is provoked into drawing up
a will leaving his entire inheritance to
Philippe, duke of Anjou, grandson of
Louis XIV and the Spanish princess María
Teresa (and therefore his own great-
nephew). Thus, the last of the Spanish
Habsburgs rejects the claims of his Aus-
trian kinsmen and paves the way for a
general European war.
The extinction of the Spanish Habsburg dy-
nasty marks the end of an age of cultural

1683-1706
Peter II, after serving as regent since his
brother's ouster, assumes the kingship
upon Afonso's death. Peter is dedicated to
strengthening the English connection
and ratifies the Treaty of Methuen of