351-06
II. Spanish
government in crisis
The Rule of Olivares
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 | Olivares was impatient of Spain's hideously slow bureaucracy and established juntas of his own relatives and clients to try and circumvent the red tape. He also tried (unsuccessfully) to reduce the number of government employees and discourage youths from embarking on long years of useless academic education. |
| Olivares wanted to improve morals by banning brothels and frivolous literature. He did patronize the great writer, Francisco de Quevedo Villegas (1580-1645) who wrote biting satires on Olivares' behalf. |
| Olivares wanted to create a single unified army for all Spain, by the Union of Arms (1625), and to distribute the burden of taxation more evenly across the country. Naturally, the less heavily taxed areas (the provinces of Aragon) resented this attack on their privileges (fueros.) |
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Olivares also tried to stimulate trade and increase the prestige of merchants relative to
that of the clergy, scholars and aristocrats. His encouragement of trade made little
impact on popular culture, and the widespread venality in minor
government offices compromised all attempts to reduce the size of
government. |
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Ambrogio Spinola (1569-1630) |
| In 1609 Spain had concluded a twelve year truce with the Dutch. In 1621 when this expired, Olivares decided to take advantage of Austrian Hapsburg victories in the Thirty Years War to resume hostilities. He hoped, if not to re-conquer the United Provinces, at least to obtain better terms from them. | ||
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Initially the Spanish forces
were successful. In June 1625, General Spinola captured Breda - an important Dutch fortress.
They also successfully fought off a Dutch attempt under Boudewijn Hendrikszoon to seize Puerto Rico. | ||
| Olivares ordered Spinola to pursue the Netherlands campaign vigorously, but without providing enough funds for the offensive. Spinola, who wanted peace, resigned. | ||
| Although Spain was already over-extended, Olivares decided to support the intervention of Gonzalo de Córdoba (Governor of Milan) in the Mantuan succession dispute. This brought Spain into direct conflict with France - supporter of the Duke of Nevers' claim. |
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Another disaster was the loss of the Spanish treasure fleet to the Dutch privateer Piet Heyn in 1628. The Spanish crown's parlous finances could not afford the loss of the four million ducats (twelve million guilders) - particularly when the money went directly into their enemies' coffers. |
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Olivares tried to cover the
costs of the war by increasing taxation. Protests erupted in Vizcaya (the ship-building center of Spain) in the "Salt Tax Revolt" of 1631. When Olivares tried to raise more taxes from the Portuguese, there were outbreaks of popular unrest centered on Evora in 1637. Olivares backed down only temporarily; renewed demands led to a general Portuguese rebellion in 1640. |
| In 1639 Olivares tried to make the Catalans contribute to the war effort directly by billeting a large army in Catalonia. The army was posted there in order to attack France, but instead it provoked a Catalan uprising that that helped France against Spain. |
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As economic problems increased and the war went still more badly, the Spanish grandees began to plot against Olivares. Finally, Philip IV was obliged in 1643 to dismiss his favorite. Olivares retired to his estates in 1643 and died soon afterwards in 1645. |
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"Olivares was well trained and used to responsibility, a man of great vigor and energy as well as overweening ambition. He was not after personal gain, however, but sought power — the direction and vindication of the Spanish empire. The dark, heavy count-duke was by far the most forceful Spanish figure of the century — authoritarian, stubborn, but also hardworking, attentive to detail, persistent, and devoted to government rather than patronage."(Stanley G. Payne) Olivares "…had the breadth of vision to devise plans on a grand scale for the future of a world-wide Monarchy: a statesman whose capacity for conceiving great designs was matched only by his consistent incapacity for carrying them through to a successful conclusion". (J. H. Elliiott) |
The Crisis of the 1640s
| By 1640, Catalan resentment of Castilian "oppression" was deep-rooted. When soldiers were sent to Catalonia, local officials protested and peasants attacked royal officials. The troops sent to reestablish order clashed with a Catalan mob on 7 June 1640 (the feast of Corpus Christi) in a day afterwards known as el Corpus de Sang. |
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The Catalan Diputació de la Generalitat (a standing committee of local officials) led by Pau Claris not only encouraged the revolt, but sent emissaries to Louis XIII of France asking for assistance. They then deposed Philip and proclaimed Louis their sovereign. |
| 26 January 1641, Philip's hastily assembled army was defeated at the Battle of Montjuïc (or Monjuich - it was the fort overlooking Barcelona). An offensive to take Lerida (1642) also failed and Philip's army lost 3,000 dead. (The Spanish royal army did manage to take Lerida in 1644, which then withstood French sieges in 1646 and 1647). |
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Many Catalan nobles soon found that France's domination was even less
to their taste than Madrid's. Luis de Haro took advantage of these
internal dissensions and of French weakness occasioned by the
Fronde to regain Catalonia. Ravaged by hunger and plague that
killed one in three of its inhabitants, Barcelona finally surrendered
13 October 1652. |
 John (João) IV of Portugal (1604-56) |
Like the Catalans, the Portuguese resented Castilian attempts to
extend taxation and conscription. They also had additional grievances.
One was the exclusion of Portuguese merchants from Spanish
American imperial possessions. Another was the zealous efforts of
the Spanish Inquisition against Portuguese merchants of Jewish
extraction, who were suspected of being Christians only in name.
The harassment of these merchants was leading many to leave
Portugal and take their capital with them. Another grievance centered on the Portugal's own overseas empire in Brazil and the East Indies. The Dutch in 1630 had captured Pernambuco and in 1640 defeated a naval expedition sent to regain it. The Portuguese resented demands for further taxes at a time when Spain was failing to protect Portuguese interests. When the Spanish crown demanded that the Portuguese send men to suppress the Catalan revolt, its nobles instead seized control of Lisbon and proclaimed John, Duke of Braganza as King of Portugal. John was descended from an illegitimate branch of the medieval kings of Portugal, and was extremely wealthy. The Portuguese revolt was very popular, uniting all classes, and virtually all of Portugal's colonies chose to join it. Olivares saw the Catalan Revolt as the greater threat (because of France's involvement there) and the Spanish army was too thinly stretched to attempt to suppress both. By the time that the Spanish crown was free to turn against the Portuguese in the 1650s, the new regime was too well consolidated to be overthrown. Spain was finally obliged to recognize Portuguese independence in 1668. Under Peter (Pedro) II, Portugal became a close ally of Great Britain. |
(More on the Portuguese revolt can be found in Stanley G. Payne, Portugal in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries).
