35. From the Seven Year's War (1635-1642) to the French Revolution (1699-1704)
Fernando VII (1593-1639
), the son of Francisco II, was the soul behind the Spanian war effort during the Seven Years' War, but his death in 1639 had not been a terrible disaster as his heir,
Fernando VIII (1639-1667) was aware of his own limitations and trusted the kingdom in the hands of capable "validos" as Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 6th Duke of Alba. Aside from this and giving a heir to the Empire, Fernando VIII did little else for the good of his subjects. Thankfully for him, Spania emerged from the war as a great power whose importance could no longer be challenged. His personal reputation was enormously enhanced -even if his good fortune was his good generals and not his military skills, as well as the English support.
However, all this was forgotten and the memory of his energy and his military "genius" (he had enough brain to be able to say the last word in the right moment and in the right way) remained, so, during his time, he was considered, by friends and foe alike, as a kind of modern Alexander the Great To compensate for his lack of military skills, Fernando was lucky. Thankfully for him and for his country, his mere reputation was fearful enough to keep Spania out of most wars. In adittion to this, Spania was blessed by two facts: first, France was exhausted and broke after the war. Second, neither the French king nor his ministers saw it that way.
Thus, Spania had half a century of peace. The quiet but relentless Spanian expansion in America, the exploration of the African coast that led to the creation of small colonies along its Atlantic coast (San Luis -1- (1648), San Fernando -2- (1649)) were to fill the coffin of the Empire. However, the troubles with the Ashantis was to stop for a few years the African exploration (which led to Spain being overtaken by English, Germans, Frenchs and the Dutch), until it was resumed again, with
Alfonso VI (1667-1690), who repeated his father's way and hardly bothered about ruling a country but just to reap the harvest. The African exploration was to lead to a short war with Portugal that gave two colonies to Spain, Fernando Poo and Santo Tomás. However, the American gold kept the attention of both the king and his ministers and, by the 1680s, the African adventure was abandoned.
Half a century of peace had done wonders for Spanian glory, for her treasury and for her pride, but little for her army. Thus, when France erupted in revolution in 1694, both king
Alfonso VII (1690-1701), his ministers, his generals and his people felt as flabbergasted as appalled.
It all began a few years earlier, in 1683 when the General States refused to accept the new taxes proposed by the ministers of king Louis XIV, who, in rage, dissmissed the General States and ruled without even bothering to ask his ministers for advice. However, things came to a head (money, again), in 1694, but with a twist. This time, when Louis XIV dimissed the General States, they refused to obey and remained "in session" for the next thirteen months, when the king tried to arrest the main leaders of the States (January 1694). Thus, revolt explode. The people of Paris, angered at the news of the king's soldiers marching towards the Parliament, stormed the Bastille and armed themselves, ready to fight the royal army. However, the soldiers refused to shoot against the revolters and peace followed until November, when the king mustered the army again and move to crush the States, who had raised an army of their owen. War ensued.
By May 1699, Louis XIV was on the ropes. Then, Prussia joined the war on his side followed by the United Kingdom of England, Scotland and Ireland on the next year. In spite of the help, Louis XIV had to surrender and the victorious General States managed to win a white peace that returned things to the status quo ante bellum... but for the role of the king. Now France was a parlamentarian monarchy, like the British one. But Louis did not like that. Not a bit. Thus the war resumed in 1701, with Austria, Prussia, the United Kingdom, Russia and Spain supporting Louis. Amazingly, the General States' forces held their ground and, by January 1702, the royal armies had been defeated and Louis XIV found himself exiled to Austria. Monarchy returned to France two years later, when Louis XIV abdicated on his son and Louis XV "The Beloved" returned to Paris in 1704.
In 1732 Louis "The Beloved" was Louis "The Traitor" and had to fled to the United Kingdom when France rose again in arms and a foreign invader army entered France, with a prince at its head, a prince that would become king of France.
He was Carlos, Infante of Spain, second son of María Teresa, heir to the throne, grandson of
Francisco II (1711-1739), who was the grandson of Alfonso VII. Now France had a Spanian king, Charles IX, with a small trace of Visigothic blood in him.
-1- Present Day Dakar
-2- Present Day Conakry