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The Kings of Spain and the
Spanish Colonial Era in
America
Philip II
Philip II ascended the
Spanish throne on the
abdication of his father,
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V
, who had previously made
over to him Naples and
Sicily, the Low Countries,
Franche-Comté, and the duchy
of Milan. His first wife,
Maria of Portugal, died
giving birth to the
unfortunate Don Carlos
(1545-68), and in 1554
Philip married Queen Mary I
of England. Continuing his
father's war with France, he
drew England into the
conflict in 1557. In the
same year Spain won the
major victory of
St.-Quentin, but in 1558
England lost Calais to
France. After Mary's death
(1558), Philip offered his
hand to her sister,
Elizabeth I of England, but
he was refused. In 1559 the
war with France was brought
to an end by the Treaty of
Cateau-Cambrésis , which was
sealed by Philip's marriage
to Elizabeth of Valois .
 Although Philip was a devout
Roman Catholic who sought to
repress heresy whenever
feasible, he subordinated
religious questions to his
political aims. His
relations with the papacy
were generally bad, because
most of the popes feared
Spanish power in Italy.
Religious persecution and
the Spanish Inquisition were
used to eliminate resistance
to Philip's policy of
centralizing power under an
absolute monarchy. The
repression of the Moriscos ,
especially after the revolt
from 1568 to 1571, assured
Spanish religious unity; its
main purpose, however, was
to prevent the Moriscos from
helping the Ottomans to
invade Spain. Philip's
half-brother, John of
Austria (1545-78), defeated
the Ottomans at the battle
of Lepanto (1571), and Tunis
was captured and held
briefly (1573-74). For
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The second half of Philip's
reign was dominated by the
revolt of the Netherlands
(see also Netherlands,
Austrian and Spanish ).
Philip appointed (1567) the
duque de Alba to replace his
half-sister, Margaret of
Parma , as governor, but
when Alba's harsh methods
failed to quell the revolt,
Philip supported the more
conciliatory tactics of
Alba's successors—Luis de
Zúñiga y Requesens , John of
Austria, and Alessandro
Farnese , duke of Parma—who
managed to reconquer the S
Netherlands (approximately
present-day Belgium).
English support of the Dutch
rebels and their persistent
attacks on Spanish shipping
led Philip to plan the
invasion of England in 1588.
However, the “Invincible
Armada” (see Armada, Spanish
) was ignominiously
defeated. The Dutch also
received support from the
French Protestants, and
Philip intervened (1590) in
the French Wars of Religion
to aid the Catholic League
against the Protestant Henry
of Navarre ( Henry IV ). He
claimed the French throne
for his daughter Isabella
but was finally forced
(1598) to recognize Henry.
The only major military
success of Philip's later
reign was the conquest of
Portugal, to which he had a
claim as the son of Isabella
of Portugal, daughter of
Manuel I. When King Henry of
Portugal died (1580) without
issue, Alba overran the
country, and Philip was
recognized as king by the
Portuguese Cortes. The main
stage of Spanish colonial
expansion was completed
before Philip's accession;
during his reign, however,
the Spanish established
colonies and garrisons in
the present S United States
and conquered the Philippine
Islands (named for the
king). The debilitating
effects of depopulation, of
colonial overexpansion, and
of the influx of gold began
to make themselves strongly
felt in Philip's Spain.
American gold and the
proceeds of an increasingly
burdensome taxation were not
enough to finance Philip's
foreign wars and
interventions and had to be
supplemented with loans. The
king repudiated his debts
four times during his reign.
He was succeeded by Philip
III, his son by his fourth
wife, Anne of Austria.
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Philip III
 Philip III, 1578–1621, king
of Spain, Naples, and Sicily
(1598–1621) and, as Philip
II, king of Portugal
(1598–1621); son and
successor of Philip II of
Spain. He was as pious as
his father, but lacked his
intelligence and capacity
for work. Preferring to
pursue his own pleasure,
Philip left the actual
government to his favorite,
the duque de Lerma. Peace
had been made with France by
the Treaty of Vervins
(1598)
shortly before Philip III's
accession.
Peace with
England followed in 1604,
and in 1609 a 12-year truce
was made with the United
Provinces of the
Netherlands. In Italy,
however, Spain was involved
in war (1615–17) with Savoy
over Montferrat and in
clashes with Venice. In
1620, Spain entered the
Thirty Years War by sending
troops into the Palatinate.
The Spanish occupation of
the Valtellina in the same
year also led (1622) to war
with France. Philip's reign
saw a growing decline in
Spain's economy, partly as a
result of the expulsion
(1609–14) of the Moriscos,
while the grandees
accumulated huge estates and
the church prospered.
Yet
Spanish culture was in the
midst of a glorious period
which gave the world
Cervantes, Lope de Vega, El
Greco, and Zurbarán. Philip
III was succeeded by his
son, Philip IV. His
daughter, Anne of Austria,
married Louis XIII of
France.
Philip IV
Philip IV, 1605–65, king of
Spain, Naples, and Sicily
(1621–65) and, as Philip
III, king of Portugal
(1621–40); son and successor
of Philip III of Spain.
Philip IV was intelligent
but lacked interest in the
 affairs of state, which were
handled (until 1643) by the conde de Olivares. During
his reign, Spain continued
to decline politically and
economically.
Spanish
involvement in the Thirty
Years War increased as
war
was resumed (1621) in the
Netherlands and fighting
started (1622) with France
over the Valtellina
question. The war with
France continued after the
Peace of Westphalia (1648),
became
complicated by
Spanish intervention in the
French Fronde, and ended
(1659) with the humiliation
of Spain (see Pyrenees,
Peace of the). The war gave
Portugal the opportunity to
revolt (1640). Catalonia
also rose and was long
occupied by the French.
Spain had to recognize the
independence of the United
Provinces of the Netherlands
at the Peace of Westphalia
and lost Roussillon and part
of the Spanish Netherlands
to France at the Peace of
the Pyrenees.
Philip's
daughter, Marie Thérèse, was
married to Louis XIV of
France. Thanks to the
presence of Velázquez at his
court, Philip was probably
one of the most frequently
portrayed monarchs in
history. He was also a
patron of Rubens and Cano
and was largely responsible
for building up the royal
collection of paintings,
which later became the basis
of the Prado Museum.
Calderón de la Barca and
Tirso de Molina continued
the great tradition of
Spanish drama during his
reign. Philip was succeeded
by his son, Charles II.
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Charles II
Charles II (Carlos Segundo)
of Spain (November 6,
1661–November 1, 1700) was
king of Spain, Naples, and
Sicily, nearly all of Italy
(except Piedmont, the Papal
States and Venice), and
Spain's overseas Empire,
stretching from Mexico to
the Philippines. Charles was
the only surviving son of
his Habsburg predecessor,
King Philip IV of Spain and
his second Queen (and
niece), Mariana of Austria,
another Habsburg. His birth
was greeted with joy by the
Spaniards, who feared the
disputed succession which
could have ensued if Philip
IV had left no male heir.
Carlos Segundo is known in
Spanish history as El
Hechizado ("The Bewitched")
from the popular belief — to
which Charles himself
subscribed — that his
physical and mental
disabilities were caused by
"sorcery" rather than the
much more likely cause:
centuries of inbreeding
within European families (in
which first cousin and
uncle/niece matches were
commonly used to preserve a
prosperous family's
 hold on
its multifarious
territories) — especially
the Spanish Habsburgs.
Still, the king was
exorcised, and the exorcists
of the kingdom were called
upon to put straight
questions to the devils they
cast out. His
great-great-great
grandmother, Juana I, La Loca, mother of the greatest
of the Habsburgs — the
Spanish King Charles I who
was also Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V — became
completely insane early in
life; the fear of a taint of
insanity ran through the
Habsburgs. Charles II was
the last of the Spanish
Habsburg dynasty, physically
disabled, mentally retarded
and disfigured (possibly
through affliction with
mandibular prognathism). His
tongue was so large that his
speech could barely be
understood, and he
frequently drooled. He may
also have suffered from the
bone disease acromegaly.
Charles was sadly weak in
mind and body, barely able
to walk and speak. He was
treated as virtually an
infant in arms until he was
ten years old. Fearing the
frail child would be
overtaxed, he was left
entirely uneducated, and his
indolence was indulged to
such an extent that he was
not even expected to be
clean. When his brother John
of Austria the Younger, a
natural son of Philip IV,
obtained power by exiling
the queen mother from court,
he insisted that at least
the king's hair should be
combed.
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Philip V
Philip V, 1683–1746, king of
Spain (1700–1746), first
Bourbon on the Spanish
throne. A grandson of Louis
XIV of France, he was
titular duke of Anjou before
Charles II of Spain
designated him as his
successor. Louis XIV
accepted the Spanish throne
for his grandson and thus
precipitated the War of the
Spanish Succession
(1701–14), which severely
reduced Spanish power. The
peace treaties (see
 Utrecht,
Peace of) left Spain its
colonial empire, but forced
it to cede the Spanish
Netherlands, Sardinia,
Milan, and Naples to Austria
and Sicily to Savoy. For
having sided with Philip's
chief rival in the war,
Archduke Charles (later Holy
Roman Emperor Charles VI),
Philip deprived Catalonia, Aragón, and Valencia of most
of their autonomous
privileges.
Of an indolent and
melancholy disposition,
Philip was dominated by
women. At first the
princesse des Ursins, lady
in waiting to Philip's first
consort, Maria Luisa of
Savoy, dominated his court.
In 1714, Philip married
Elizabeth Farnese, who took
complete control of her
husband's policies and who
was in turn dominated by the
chief minister, Cardinal
Alberoni. The attempt by the
queen and Alberoni to
reconquer the former Spanish
territories in Italy led to
the formation of the
Quadruple Alliance of 1718,
to which Spain had to submit
in 1720. In 1724, Philip
abdicated the throne of
Spain to his eldest son,
Louis, but resumed it later
that year after Louis died
of smallpox.
Spain's foreign policy
continued to be governed to
a large extent by dynastic
ambition and became
successful so far as the
house of Bourbon was
concerned. In the War of the
Polish Succession (1733–35)
Naples and Sicily passed to
Don Carlos (later Charles
III of Spain), son of Philip
and Elizabeth; in the War of
the Austrian Succession
(1740–48) Parma and Piacenza
passed to Charles's younger
brother Philip.
Spain's
entry into the War of the
Austrian Succession was
preceded (1739) by the
outbreak of the War of
Jenkins's Ear with Great
Britain. In 1733 the first
Franco-Spanish Family
Compact was concluded. Under
Philip, Spain began to
recover from the economic
stagnation of the 17th
cent., especially after the
rise (1743) of the reforming
minister Ensenada. Philip
was succeeded by Ferdinand
VI, his son by Maria Luisa.
Charles III
Charles III, king of Spain,
(1759–88) , son of Philip V
and Elizabeth Farnese.
Recognized as duke of Parma
and Piacenza in 1731, he
relinquished the duchies to
Austria after Spain
reconquered (1734) Naples
and Sicily in the War of the
Polish Succession. His reign
in Naples was beneficent. In
1759 he succeeded his half
brother, Ferdinand VI, to
the Spanish throne, Naples
and Sicily passing to his
third son, Ferdinand (later
Ferdinand I of the Two
Sicilies).
Charles at first was neutral
in the Seven Years War, but
after concluding the Family
Compact of 1761 with France,
he involved Spain in the war
in time to share France’s
defeat. By the Treaty of
Paris of 1763 he ceded
Florida to England but
received Louisiana from
France. Territorial disputes
with Portugal in the Río de
la Plata region were settled
by the Treaty of San
Ildefonso (1777). In the
American
 Revolution, Charles
entered (1779) the war on
the American side and by the
Treaty of Paris of 1783
regained Florida and
Minorca. Spain prospered
under the rule of Charles,
who is regarded as the
greatest Bourbon king of
Spain and one of the
“enlightened despots.” His
reign is noted for economic
and administrative reforms
and for the expulsion of the
Jesuits (1767). Charles was
ably assisted by Aranda,
Floridablanca, Campomanes,
and Jovellanos. He was
succeeded by his son Charles
IV.
Charles III married Maria
Amalia of Saxony
(1724-1760), daughter of
Augustus III of Poland, and
they had 13 children, but
only seven reached
adulthood:
María Josefa (1744-1801)
Maria Luisa (1745-1792).
Married Leopold II, Holy
Roman Emperor.
Philip (Felipe) (1747-1777).
Excluded from the succession
due to his imbecility.
Charles IV (1748-1819),
though whom the Spanish
branch of Bourbons continues
Ferdinand I of the Two
Sicilies (1751-1825),
founder of the Sicily branch
of Bourbons
Gabriel (1752-1788). Married
Mariana Vitória Josefa of
Portugal (daughter of Maria
I of Portugal) and had
issue.
Anthony (Antonio)
(1755-1817). Married his
niece María Amalia, daughter
of Charles IV.
Sources:
Wikipedia Online
encyclopedia.
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