The Habsburg Empire
Part 1: The Kingdom of Spain
To say that the sixteenth century was that of Spain is a euphemism inaugurated by the discovery of America by Cristobal Colon. This century will also be that of the rise of the House of Habsburg. Carlos V by inheriting the Kingdoms of Spain, the Burgundian possessions and the crown of the Holy Roman Empire became the most powerful sovereign of Europe. Add to this the conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires in America and the exploitation of their many riches and it could be said that Spain was an Empire on which the Sun never sets.
Carlos V, Holy Emperor and King of Spain (1500-1558).
However, the Habsburg hegemony of Carlos V was very strongly contested by numerous opponents. In Western Europe, the France of Francis I had sought to obtain the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, which was taken by Carlos V in 1519. The rivalry between the Valois and the Habsburgs led to the numerous Italian wars. Moreover, the appearance of the Reformation led by Martin Luther in 1517 after having published his ninety-five theses provoked a violent schism within the Catholic Church. Supported by the German Princes of the north of the Holy Roman Empire, Protestantism spread throughout Europe like wildfire, provoking revolts and conflicts. Finally, the increasingly worrying expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans and the Mediterranean made the Christian world fear the arrival of the Mohammedan infidels. The occupation of the former Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt in 1517 as well as the Hungarian defeat at Mohács and the partition of the Magyar Kingdom and the alliance between Suleiman the Magnificent and Francis I, despite their different religions, led to fears that the Habsburg Empire would be dismembered.
Despite the many challenges, Carlos V will resist and succeed in protecting his Empire. The many Italian wars led by Francis I and later his son Henry II will end with the bitter defeat of France and the end of the transalpine dream for the Valois. Moreover the death of Henri II will make sink the Kingdom of France in numerous and bloody wars of religions. To the great joy of the Habsburgs. In the Holy Empire the Protestant Reformation after having provoked many struggles and conflicts forced Carlos V to reconsider the reformed cult. In 1555 he concluded the Peace of Augsburg with the converted princes of the Empire, recognizing as Protestant land the land ruled by a prince of the same religion. Finally, the Ottoman threat was vigorously fought by the Habsburg monarch, leading to a settlement in Mohammedan North Africa and the acquisition of the Bohemian crown and the crown of Hungary.
In 1555, Carlos V abdicated his titles as King of Spain, ceding Spain, its dependencies in the Mediterranean and America and the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands to his son, Felipe II.
1) The Spanish Decadence (1568-1621)
Decadence is a strong word to describe this period. Although it was later named so by Spanish historians, the end of the 16th century was not perceived as a decline by the people of the time. However, as the years went by, sclerosis was already appearing in the Spanish system of governance, without a solution being found to counter this degradation.
The reign of Felipe II was marked by the will to defend the Roman Catholic faith wherever it was seen as being in danger. He is the model of the Catholic monarch promoting the Counter-Reformation. Felipe II led many wars in North Africa to drive the Ottomans out of the region but also to preserve the strongholds already present on the barbarian coast. After having had to quell the Moriscos' revolt of 1568, Felipe II joined the Holy League with Venice and the Papacy and together they won a resounding victory at Lepanto in 1571 against the Ottomans. However, the Spanish presence in Africa was reduced at that time. The Spanish ambitions will be even very quickly slowed down after his defeat with Portugal in 1578 in Morocco, which will see the death of King Sebastian I of Portugal. This death will be at the origin of the crisis of succession in Portugal which will see Felipe II march on Portugal, then declare himself King of Portugal and found the Iberian Union.
Christian galleys facing the Turkish galleys at Lepanto.
At the same time, Felipe II took advantage of the wars of religion in France to interfere militarily in the domain of the Valois and thus weaken France. The desire to oppose Protestantism also encouraged him to actively support the Catholic League when it became clear that the Protestant Bourbon family was preparing to succeed the Valois in France.
However, the reign of Felipe II will not be covered only by success. In 1566 in the Northern Provinces of the Netherlands Protestantism was strengthened during the reign of Felipe II. The fiscal pressure and the Inquisition provoked a terrible revolt that led to the foundation of the United Provinces of the Netherlands in 1579. The Dutch sailors will contest the colonial hegemony of Spain, whether in India or America. In addition, the beginning of the war with England and the defeat of the Invincible Armada in 1688 allowed London to establish itself on the American continent. The capture of Breda by surprise in 1690 by only 70 Dutchmen also marks a hard blow to the credibility of Spain. Finally, the coronation of Henry IV of Bourbon in 1594 after his conversion to Catholicism marked the end of the Wars of Religion in France and Spanish interference.
At his death in 1598, Felipe II left his son a kingdom with weak finances and many conflicts to lead throughout the Empire. Felipe III will be an erased King, leaving the management of the Empire to favorites. Spain under his reign will sign Peace with England in 1604 and a truce with the United Provinces in 1609.
2) The reign of Felipe IV and the Olivares government (1621-1644)
In 1621, the death of Felipe III gave way to the reign of Felipe IV and his government, that of the ministry of Gaspar de Guzman, the Count of Olivares.
The Count of Olivares began a very active fight against the corruption that had become widespread during the previous reign in the high spheres of the Court. Moreover, Olivares tried to reform the tax system of the Empire, although his attempts were unsuccessful. What will mark the ministry of Olivares is the creation of "The Union of Armas", which will allow a better mobilization and coordination of the different kingdoms.
After twelve years of truce and long negotiations with the United Provinces, Olivares resumed hostilities with Holland by taking over Breda in 1624. The resumption of the conflict by Spain was also linked to the outbreak of the Twenty-five Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire. The seizure of the Palatinate by the imperials and the Spaniards was also to open the "Spanish road" through northern Italy and the Holy Roman Empire leading to the Spanish Netherlands.
Felipe IV of Spain (1605-1644).
Around the globe, the Dutch harass Spanish ships and colonies. In 1624 the settlement of the Dutch in Recife and the raids of Dutch pirates on the Brazilian coast irritated the Portuguese Cortes demanding a stronger protection of the Portuguese colonial empire. Madrid will grant a stronger protection of the Portuguese possessions in Insulinde against the Dutch raids [1]. The arrival of Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassau in 1629 allowed the Dutch to retake Groenlo and Bois-le-Duc from the Spaniards. Spain seemed to retreat to the Netherlands.
However, the situation is about to change. The appointment of Cardinal Infant Ferdnando of Austria as governor of the Spanish Netherlands puts him at the head of a powerful army of Tercios, departing from Milan, crossing the Alps to enter the Empire. The Cardinal Infant crushed Hesse Kassel [2] with the imperials and pursued Wallenstein's army into Saxony before finally returning to the Rhine valley to fight the Dutch and save Maastricht from the United Provinces [3].
In 1635, after the Spanish occupation of Trier, France went to war and attempted with its Dutch ally the siege of Louvain, a bitter failure against Cardinal Infant, who even had the luxury of making the French retreat and take Corbie the following year.
This period of success allowed Felipe IV to try to better protect the colonial empire in America but also in India. In 1637, a revolt is crushed in Algarve by the Duke of Medina Sidiona.
Spanish Tercios of the Cardinal Infant liberating Maastricht (1634).
Although the priority for Spain remained the Netherlands, there was a certain willingness to protect (at least) the colonies of the Empire. However, the destruction of the fleet in 1639 at Downs against the United Provinces would partly compromise the project.
In Spain itself, the increasing tax burden on the population became untenable. The Union of Armas was also very unpopular in Portugal and Aragon. It was moreover on 7 June 1640 in Catalonia that an uprising in Barcelona took control of the city, refusing to enlist the Tercios and the fighters. It didn't take more than that for France to rush into the breach and support the revolt. After a short-lived Catalan Republic, Louis XIII was proclaimed the year after Count of Barcelona.
For the Count of Olivares, the revolt is an opportunity to apply the Union of Armas by appealing to the Portuguese aristocracy.
That was all it took for the Portuguese nobility to plot against the monarchy and Olivares. Forty conspirators planned a plan that would lead to the Restoration of the Portuguese monarchy led by Jao, Duke of Bragança. In spite of the careful and secret planning, their plot will be disrupted at the last moment by Miguel de Vasconcelos, Secretary of State of the Vice-Rector of Portugal, the Duchess of Mantua [4].
Unable to stop the plot, Vasconcelos evacuated the Duchess of Mantua and the few garrisons loyal to Spain the day before and withdrew to Setubal. The next day, on December 1st, the Duke of Bragança was proclaimed Jao IV of Portugal in Lisbon in front of a delirious crowd. However, despite the uprising in the days that followed in the cities of Porto, Santarem and Evora, the Duchess of Mantua was able to prevent the revolt in Beja and Faro, hardly holding the Algarve in southern Portugal.
Gaspar de Guzman Count of Olivares (1587-1645).
The news of the uprising in Portugal combined with the war in Catalonia and the Netherlands revealed the dangerous slope the Spanish monarchy was taking.
The Spanish defeat at Montjuïc against the Franco-Catalans in January 1640 thwarted the attempt to retake Barcelona. Moreover, as Olivares' popularity fell, that of one of his enemies increased. While the Duchess of Mantua was driven out of Setubal by the Portuguese, the Duke of Medina Sidiona, as in 1637, replaced the Duchess of Mantua and began to fight the revolt in Portugal and the Algarve from Faro [5]. At the same time the Duke of Medina Sidiona received the support of Queen Elizabeth of France, a fierce opponent of Olivares. She was part of the double marriage between France and Spain. Although she became Queen of Spain in 1621 she remained very self-effacing in politics. After numerous miscarriages, Elisabeth of France gave birth to Balthazar-Carlos (1629) and Maria Theresa (1638). France's entry into the war against Spain in 1635 encouraged her to sell her own jewellery to finance the armies of the Empire, and despite her French birth she encouraged the court to help the Spanish monarchy against France.
In 1640 the disastrous situation and the growing opposition of the Court allowed her to gather the opponents of the Count of Olivares around her. In 1642 she encouraged her husband, Felipe IV, to go to the front in Catalonia despite Olivares' opposition. Felipe chose to listen to his wife and left for Zaragoza, forcing Olivares to join him, leaving the Regency and the Capital to Elisabeth. The Queen, now the sole authority in Madrid, visited the city's barracks and began to control the administration and raise new troops. The previous year, Cardinal Infant had returned from the Spanish Netherlands. The fall of Breda in 1637 and the many rumours at court accusing him of collaborating with France to become independent King of the Netherlands made him fear that Felipe IV would bring him down in disgrace. He chose to return to Spain to defend himself [6].
Although on arriving in Madrid it was hoped that he would succeed in effectively crushing the revolt in Portugal, his hasty departure from Brussels would indirectly cause the disaster of 1643. Francisco de Melo's Tercios were annihilated by the army of the Duke of Enghien. Within a few months, the Spanish Netherlands were completely conquered by France. The disaster is such that the Count of Olivares presents his resignation to Felipe IV and Spain is obliged to negotiate the end of the war with France and the United Provinces.
3) The Regency of Queen Elizabeth (1644-1650)
Despite Spain's stinging defeat, the conditions for peace were not as terrible as feared in Madrid. Under the Pyrenean Treaties Spain had to cede the whole of the Spanish Netherlands to France and recognise the independence of the United Provinces. However, Paris and The Hague in exchange pledged to withdraw their support from the Catalan and Portuguese revolts. The death of Louis XIII was the occasion for the Regent Anne of Austria to renounce her son, Louis XIV as Count of Barcelona. France even surrendered the city of Perpignan and its region in exchange for 100,000 ecus [7].
In colonial matters it was much more complicated. Madrid recognised France's settlement on the western part of the island of Hispaniola and in the Caribbean islands. Moreover, in Africa it had to yield to the United Benguela Provinces but was able to keep Luanda. Finally, in India, Holland undertook not to launch incursions on the Portuguese Swahili coast, to stop supporting the Kingdom of Kandi in Ceylon, to return the Portuguese trading posts in Insulinde and to recognise the Portuguese presence in Dejima in Japan [8]. Spain, however, refused to officially recognise the existence of Dutch Brazil, although de facto it did not seek to expel them from the region.
The Treaties of the Pyrenees allowed Spain to concentrate on internal revolts. The Spanish armies of the Holy Empire were repatriated to Spain. Part of them were sent to the Catalan front. The withdrawal of the French to Catalonia allowed Spain to retake Barcelona before the end of 1643. The fiscal and military pressure that France put on the Catalans allowed Madrid to retake the region with the strong support of the war-weary population.
Portuguese peasants lynching Spanish prisoners.
In Portugal the situation was much more difficult to pacify. After defeating Catalonia, the Spanish veterans were on the Portuguese front, joining the army of the Duke of Medina Sidiona in Fara or that of Cardinal Infant in Salamanca. On 8th June 1644 the Duke of Medina Sidiona defeated a weak Portuguese army at Ameixial. A month later it was the Cardinal Infant who crushed the Portuguese at the battle of Castelo Rodrigo, opening the road to Porto.
In Lisbon it was nothing more and nothing less than chaos. Jao IV seeing his rare armies defeated and the loss of foreign support saw his dream of an independent Portugal crumble. On 9 October 1644, when the Spanish troops arrived, Jao IV and most of the conspirators of 1640 fled Lisbon, preferring exile to death. On 12th October, the Spanish troops marched through the city.
But Felipe IV did not see this victory, and after a slow agony, the monarch died of St Anthony's fire on 6th October 1644. He leaves behind him a 14-year-old son, Balthazar-Carlos, and a Queen competent to assume the Regency [9].
The Regency of Elizabeth of France in Spain is very often compared to that of Anne of Austria in France, a period of peace led by a peaceful princess who was to allow their son a radiant reign.
Elizabeth of France did everything in her power to save Spain from decadence. She made sure to pacify the Iberian Peninsula by reducing taxes on the population of the different kingdoms as best she could, making her popular with the working classes.
Elizabeth of France, Queen and Regent of Spain (1602-1663).
In the case of Portugal, she pardoned the nobles for their rallying to the revolt of 1640, except for those who were part of the forty conspirators. Moreover, in exchange for the recognition of Balthazar-Carlos as King of Portugal and the renewal of the Cortes' loyalty to the Habsburg monarchy, the Regent Elisabeth chose the Duke of Medina and Sidona as Viceroy and undertook for her part to protect the Portuguese colonial empire. Between 1645 and 1648, an expedition to restore order in Brazil was successful. In addition, at the same time Elisabeth reformed the viceroyalties in the West Indies. Thus the regent created the viceroyalty of New Grenada in 1648 [10]. Elisabeth also developed Spain's merchant and military fleet to vigorously combat piracy in the Atlantic and the Caribbean.
Elisabeth redeveloped Asian trade with the Portuguese colonial possessions. In 1650 she promoted an expedition to re-establish the Portuguese presence in Oman. She also promoted trade between the Philippines, Sulawesi, the Swahili coast and Europe. Trade in the Far East also flourished under the Regency, with both Tokugawa Japan and Ming China.
Foreign policy under the Regency of Elizabeth was very peaceful. Relations with France, although not the most friendly, remained cordial despite the previous conflict. Elisabeth of France and Anne of Austria had a very flourishing correspondence during their respective regencies. They drew up a marriage project between Louis XIV and Maria Theresa of Austria, which was completed in 1659.
The relationship with the Habsburg cousins was more distant. Elisabeth renounced the marriage of her son to Mariana of Austria. She preferred to marry the English Stuarts. In 1648 in Madrid, Princess Henriette-Marie, after a long journey, converted to Catholicism on her own initiative and married Balthazar-Carlos.
4) The beginning of the reign of Carlos II (1644-1670)
On 17 October 1650, at the age of 21, Balthazar-Carlos became fully King of Spain Carlos II, although his mother remained a wise adviser to him until her death.
Carlos-Balthazar in his youth (1645).
The reign of Carlos II will also be marked by the influence of his uncle, the Infant Cardinal, who gave him his religious education after the death of his father. Although he was not a devotee, Carlos II gave great preference to the clergy during his reign. He encouraged Jesuit missions in America as well as in Africa and Asia. In 1663, when he was about to found the Viceroyalty of the Plata [10], he granted the Jesuit missionaries the lands of Paraguay, which had become forbidden to colonisation, where only missionaries were allowed to enter into contact with the Indians.
It was also on this occasion that Carlos II renewed the ban on slavery on Indian peoples, especially converted Indians. Faced with the anger of the Portuguese colonists in Rio, he renegotiated the borders of Brazil.
It was also at this time that Spain regained a renewed interest in Africa. In 1661 he was able to obtain from King Antonio I of the Kongo that missionaries could return to his kingdom, although Antonio I formally forbade the incursion of slave hunters, threatening to ask for help from the Dutch to hunt the Portuguese in case of violation. In 1663 the Portuguese re-established their protectorate over the Kingdom of Mutapa in Mozambique, exploiting the many slaves and gold mines in the region.
It was at this time that Carlos II wanted to launch a new military campaign to cover himself with glory. Still remembering his country's bitter defeat at the hands of France, he did not seek to fight in Europe. He quickly turned his gaze towards the barbarian coast. Muslim pirates were wreaking havoc on the Mediterranean trade, and they even captured slaves on the coasts of Europe. But the withdrawal of the Ottomans from the region and the surrounding anarchy in the regency of Algiers gave the King of Spain the opportunity to settle the barbarian question.
Barbarians pirates preparing to attack a European ship.
Thus, in 1665, Spanish ships gathered in Mediterranean ports, mobilising sailors and ships from Castile, Aragon, Sicily, Naples and Genoa and even the Order of the Knights of Saint John. On 14th June the ships set out to conquer the North African cities in a modern-day crusade. Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Bougie, Bône and many other cities on the coast fell into the hands of the Spanish King in the months that followed. After taking the coast, Carlos II allied himself with the Kingdom of Koukou and together they fought the remains of the Regency of Algiers. Djerba was taken by the Knights of Malta in 1666. In spite of these successes, Carlos II expedition was not as easy as his subjects believed. The war would be long and costly and it would take years to see the regions taken by the Spaniards pacified. Constantine would only fall in 1673 after several unsuccessful Spanish sieges.
However, this expedition to North Africa made him a significant sovereign for the Spanish monarchy. The beginning of Carlos II reign and his conquests in North Africa made him a King loved by his subjects. However, as the years went by, Carlos II found himself caught up in the European wars of the time in spite of himself, as the wealth of his Empire attracted many covetous desires.
The Kingdom of Spain and its European dependencies in 1670.
[1] OTL there has been no strengthening of the defence of the Portuguese Insulinde.
[2] OTL it won at Nördlingen, a battle that was ITL butterfly.
[3] OTL the city fell to the Dutch.
[4] OTL they didn't guess the plot, the conspirators stormed the palace, captured the duchess of Mantua and defenest Vasconcelos.
[5] OTL the Duke of Medina Sidiona was very suspicious, refusing the troops that Madrid gave him to defeat. Moreover, his marriage to the sister of Jao IV of Portugal made him very close to the Portuguese cause. Finally he would have started to plot for the independence of Andalusia even if some people thought he only wanted to overthrow Olivares. ITL with the Duchess of Mantua in the south of Portugal, the Duke did not refuse the troops, did not try to plot and did not get himself arrested.
[6] OTL there were many rumours about Cardinal Infant. However he died in disgrace and died in Brussels in November 1641.
7] OTL France kept Perpignan.
[8] I will tell you more about the impact on the whole Portuguese colonial empire in the chapters to come.
[9] OTL it was Elisabeth who died in 1644.
[10] OTL the viceroyalty of New Granada was only created in 1717 and the viceroyalty of La Plata in 1776.
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Chapter that took a long time to come. I am happy to have finished it. I hope it will live up to your expectations.
As for the Colonial Empire and the expedition to North Africa, I intend to come back to it in the next chapters. If you have any questions, remarks or corrections to share with me do not hesitate to contact me.
Many thanks to
@Zygmunt Stary and
@Basileus_Komnenos who helped me a lot with this chapter.