Philip III, succeeded his father, Philip II. He was king

of the Hispanic Monarchy from 1598 until 1621.

•Philip III did not care about the

government so he handed power over the

Duke of Lerma.

• From this point onwards, kings would not

rule by themselves, instead leaving power

in the hands of nobles, called validos.

• The first spanish valido was the Duke of

Lerma. He took advantage of his position

and power to increase his wealth.

The Duke of Lerma moved the

capital from Madrid to

Valladolid, his hometown,

where he could better

manipulate the king.

He also expelled the Moriscos in 1609.

275.000 moriscos were expelled. Depopulation ruined manyregions, especially affectingagriculture, since moriscos werein charge of it in most of Valencia and Aragon.

•The Monarchy was suffering a

economic crisis due to the

expenses of preserving the

territories.

•Thus, the Duke of Lerma convinced

Philip III to develop a pacifist

foreing policy.

•This led to the signing of a peace

treaty with England in 1604 and

the Twelve Years Truce with the

United Provinces in 1609.

Philip IV, succeeded his father, Philip III. He was king

of the Hispanic Monarchy from 1621 until 1665.

Like his father, King Philip

IV left government

responsabilities in the

hands of his favourite, the

valido Count-Duke of

Olivares.

He was a good primer

minister who tried to rebuilt

and strengthen the

Hispanic Empire.

Olivares main objectives were:

To share military expenses among all the territories

of the Monarchy.

To increase the king’s power by reducing the

autonomy of the territories.

These reforms met withstrong opposition. Thiscentralist policy causedvarious revolts in theHispanic Monarchy.

The most seriousuprisings took place in Catalonia and Portugal. The rebellionin Catalonia wassuppresed in 1652, butthe Portuguesedeclared theirindependence in 1668.

In 1621, when the

truce with the

United Provences

came to an end,

Philip IV started

the war against

the Flemish rebels

again.

It was a religious and politicalconflict with affected much of Europe.Protestant nobles rebelledaginst the Hapsburg’s HolyRoman Emperor, Ferdinand II, who asked King Philip IV for help.

The Peace of Westphalia (1648) ended the war and set up boundaries and regulations overthe Holy Roman Empire. Religiousprovisions were made to insurethe protestants had the samerights.

The Peace of Westfalia signified the loss of Spanishsupremacy in Europe as it recognized the northern Protestantsection of the Netherlands as the independent country of Holland. While the Catholic Spanish Netherlands later becameBelgium.

Charles II, succeeded his father, Philip IV. He was

king of the Hispanic Monarchy from 1665 until 1700.

Charles inherited thethrone when he wasonly 4 years old.

His mother, Maianna of Austria, ruled as regentuntil 1675. She was nota good regent so theking’s half-brother, MrJuan José de Austria, led the first coup d’etatof Spanish history, ending the governmentsof validos.

As King Charles II

was mentally and

physically ill, when he

came of age he could

not rule.

Thus, Mr. Juan José

de Austria and other

royal favourites ran

the government.

Spain was suffering a crisis due to:

An agriculturalcrisis.

The decline of trade

because of wars.

Population hadshrunk as a result of badharvests, warand plagues.

Society wasunproductive

because therewere a lot of nobles who lived off rents.

Mr. Juan José de Austria and the other Prime

Ministers tried to reform the economy that was

beginning to recover again by the end of the

century.

A lot of wars with

European countries,

especially with

France

impoverished the

Hispanic

Monarchy.By the

end of the reign,

some territories had

been lost.

However, King Louis

XIV of France returned

all the lost territories to

Spain and signed a

treaty because Charles

II had no heirs and he

wanted one of his

grandsons to be

elected as Charles II’s

successor.

With no heirs, a war broke

out in Spain and Europe.

The War of the Spanish

Succession was between

those who wanted Philip

of Bourbon, the grandson

of Louis XIV of France as

successor.

And those who wanted

Charles of Hapsburg,

son of the Emperor of

the Holy Roman

Empire and grandson

of Philip IV of Spain, as

successor.

http://www.fuenterrebollo.com/faqs-numismatica/sucesion-1700.html

http://www.phistoria.net/reportajes-de-historia/EL-CONDE-DUQUE-DE-OLIVARES-&-SU-EPOCA_98.html

http://alerce.pntic.mec.es/lsam0005/2bach_historia/tema7_ocaso_imperio.html

http://sentia.cz/?q=system/files/l.thehapsburgs.pdf

http://www.phistoria.net/reportajes-de-historia/La-Guerra-de-Sucesi%F3n-(1700-13)--y--Felipe-V-de-Espa%F1a_454.html