CARLOS I DE ESPAÑA

 CARLOS I

BIOGRAFHY

Carlos I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire, called the Emperor or Caesar (Ghent, Flanders County, February 24, 1500-Cuacos de Yuste, September 21, 1558), reigned together with his mother, Juana I of Castile, the latter only nominally and until 1555, in all the Hispanic kingdoms and territories with the name of Carlos I from 1516 to 1556, thus bringing together for the first time in the same person the Crowns of Castile the Kingdom of Navarre inclusive and Aragon.

INTERNAL POLITIC

The arrival of Carlos to Castile meant the arrival of an inexperienced young man who did not know the customs and language of his kingdom, given which he placed his trust in his Burgundian collaborators who had accompanied him from the Netherlands, to whom he procured high dignities and access to income and wealth. This upset the Castilians and they made it known to them in the Cortes of Valladolid in 1518, which was ignored by the king. Taking advantage of the War of the Communities of Castile with a partial demilitarization of the Kingdom of Navarre, the third counter-offensive of the Navarrese to recover the kingdom in 1521. On this occasion, Enrique II of Navarre with the support of the French King Francisco I, achieved the recovery in a short time. However, the humble population remained almost entirely passive, without showing loyalty to Carlos I but without showing support for the legitimists

 

EXTERNAL POLITIC

Against the Ottoman Empire with the help of the Protestant German princes and a good part of the Castilian nobility, Carlos went in 1532 to the aid of his brother Ferdinand of Habsburg to defend Vienna from the attack of Suleiman the Magnificent, a city to which he arrived on the 23rd. September of that year, but Francis I of France, who feared that the emperor would defeat the Turks and thus focus on the war against him, advised the sultan not to attack the imperial army and it ended up withdrawing without offering hardly any battle. I had four wars with Francisco I of France, who also aspired to the imperial crown, and who demanded the return of Burgundy.

 

 

FELIPE II DE ESPAÑA

 FELIPE II

BIOGRAFHY

Felipe II of Spain, called "El Prudente" (Valladolid, May 21, 1527-San Lorenzo de El Escorial, September 13, 1598), was King of Spain from January 15, 1556 until his death

INTERNAL POLITIC

In 1567 Pedro de Deza, president of the Royal Chancellery of Granada, proclaimed the Pragmatic under the order of Felipe II. The edict limited the religious, linguistic and cultural freedoms of the Moorish population. This caused a rebellion of the Moors of the Alpujarras that Juan de Austria reduced militarily. Antonio Pérez, Aragonese, was the king's secretary until 1579. He was arrested for the murder of Juan de Escobedo, Don Juan de Austria's henchman, and for Abusing royal trust by conspiring against the king. Felipe II, like his predecessor, was an authoritarian king, he continued with the institutions inherited from Charles I, and with the same structure of his empire and autonomy of its components. But he ruled as a national king, Spain and especially Castile were the center of the empire

EXTERNAL POLITIC

Felipe II maintained the wars with France, for the French support to the Flemish rebels, obtaining a great victory in the battle of San Quentin, fought on August 10, 1557, feast of San Lorenzo, in memory of which he had the monastery built from El Escorial, a building with a grid-shaped plan that symbolizes the martyrdom of the saint (1563-1584). In this monumental and sober palace, the largest of its time - already called then the eighth wonder of the world - specifically in the Royal Crypt, almost all the Spanish kings and their closest family members have been buried since then. Added to this victory against the

French was a decisive later triumph at the Battle of Gravelinas in 1558.

As a consequence of these sudden Spanish successes, the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis of 1559 was signed.

  

FELIPE III DE ESPAÑA

 FELIPE III

BIOGRAFHY

Felipe III of Spain, called "the Pious" (Madrid, April 14, 1578-ibid, March 31, 1621), was King of Spain and Portugal from September 13, 1598 until his death.

 

 

 

He was the son and successor of Felipe II and Ana de Austria (1549-1580). On April 18, 1599, he married Archduchess Margarita de Austria-Estiria, daughter of Archduke Carlos II of Styria and María Ana de Baviera, and therefore granddaughter of Felipe's paternal great-uncle, Emperor Ferdinand I. Under his reign, Spain reached its maximum territorial expansion.

 

INTERNAL POLITIC

The policy of the Duke of Lerma was aimed at maintaining international peace, expelling the Moors and their desire for personal enrichment.In the religious sphere, with Felipe III the foundation of monasteries and the Society of Jesus increased enormously, treated with certain suspicious of her father, she was favored by the monarch and increased her influence at court and in society.

EXTERNAL POLITIC

Although the reign of Felipe III has stood out for "international peace", Spain had several open fronts: the Ottoman Turks, the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Savoy. In North America, the Spanish conquests north of Florida deepened.

 

In 1610 Muali Ech Cheich sold the city of Larache to Felipe III as compensation for his help in the war of succession to the throne. Spain will occupy this city from 1610 to 1689, with the aim of pursuing movements of corsairs and pirates in the area. Spain would also acquire La Mamora in 1614. When Felipe III came to the throne in 1599, the war against England continued and a fleet was sent of 50 ships under the command of Martín Padilla to attack the coasts of Protestant England, given the success of expeditions such as that of Cornwall in 1595, however the fleet was totally destroyed by a storm, before reaching the Azores islands

FELIPE IV DE ESPAÑA

  

FELIPE IV

BIOGRAFHY

Felipe IV of Spain, called "the Great" or "the Planet King" (Valladolid, April 8, 1605-Madrid, September 17, 1665),

was King of Spain from March 31, 1621 until his death, and of Portugal from the same date to December 1640. His reign of 44 years and 170 days was the longest of the Austrian house and the third in Spanish history, being surpassed only by Felipe V and Alfonso XIII, although the first sixteen years of the reign of the latter were under regency.

During the first stage of his reign, he shared responsibility for State affairs with Don Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, who deployed an ambitious warmongering policy abroad and a reformist policy in the interior that sought to maintain Spanish hegemony in Europe.

 

INTERNAL POLITIC

Domestic policy

The uprisings in Catalonia and Portugal continued, to which Aragon joined.

In Naples, in 1647, there was an uprising due to lack of food, which spread through Sicily, but the mutineers were controlled by the local authorities.

 

In Catalonia, the war lasted until in 1652, after a 15-month siege, Felipe IV managed to take Barcelona.

That same year in Andalusian cities there were small uprisings due to lack of bread, discontent over the alteration of the currency - fleece currency -, tax pressure and levies

EXTERNAL POLITIC

After the fall of Olivares, the Spanish thirds were defeated by the French at the Battle of Rocroi in 1643. By the Treaty of Westphalia, Spain recognized the independence of the United Provinces and the preservation of Flanders.

 

He  war in France continued because of demands made on Flanders, Franche-Comté, and Roussillon. As a civil war broke out in France and peace with Holland had already been signed, the balance was equalized and the Spanish defeated the French at Valenciennes in 1656

CARLOS II DE ESPAÑA

CARLOS II

BIOGRAFHY

Carlos II of Spain, called "the Bewitched" (Madrid, November 6, 1661-ibid, November 1, 1700), was king of Spain between 1665 and 1700. Son and heir of Felipe IV and Mariana of Austria, he remained under the regency of his mother until he reached the age of majority in 1675. Although his nickname came from the attribution of his lamentable physical state to witchcraft and diabolical influences, it is It is probable that the successive consanguineous marriages of the royal family caused his serious health problems, with symptoms such as weak muscles and infertility.

EXTERNAL POLITIC

Carlos II was proclaimed king in 1665, at the age of three. He was a person educated by theologians, but his poor health made one suspect that he would die young, so his education in government tasks was neglected ..At that time the fight against Valenzuela increased until twelve years later, in 1677, Juan José de Austria marched on Madrid and took power relying on the nobility. Valenzuela was exiled and the Queen Mother left the Court, establishing her residence in the Alcázar of Toledo. Juan José de Austria, with popular support, became the new valid. His government was overshadowed by the political struggle against his adversaries and the dramatic situation of the Hispanic monarchy, forced to cede Franche-Comté to France through the Peace of Nijmegen in 1679

 

INTERNAL POLITIC

In that same year, the 18-year-old king married Maria Luisa de Orleans, niece of Louis XIV of France. Although she was never truly in love with her husband, over the years María Luisa came to feel a genuine affection for him. Carlos, for his part, loved his wife dearly. In the absence of a successor, the queen went on pilgrimages and venerated sacred relics. He finally died in 1689, leaving the king in a depressed state probably because of the potions they made him drink.