Habsburgs

The Habsburgs

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Habsburgs

The Habsburgs were a dinasty of long history but we are going to focus on five of their rulers, the Lesser Habsburgs and the Greater Habsburgs, words that refer to the role they played in the Spanish monarchy between 1516 and 1700.

Greater Hansburgs

Charles l of Spain

Charles I of Spain was crowned in 1520 in Aquisgran.This king inherited from his grandparents, the Catholic Monarchs: Castile, North Africa and America; and from his grandfather Maximiliam I: Aragon, Naples, Sicily and Sardinia.He was named Emperor of the Holy Roman German Empire.

Charles l of Spain

Charles I fought against the Lutherans kingdoms. He finally won in the war of Mühlberg. He had a really strong Christian empire. He abdicated in 1556 and passed all his titles to his son Felipe II.

He gathered into an extensive territory that included much of Europe and the Spanish possessions in America. The latter were consolidated with the conquest of the Aztec Empire (1521) and the Inca Empire (1532).

Philip ll

He inherited all the territories from his father Charles I. During his reign Spain reached the peak of its power. He held several wars between other empires like France and The Ottoman Empire. He also unified Portugal. He died in the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in 1598. He help Spain to get to the peak of its power, expanded its borders and defeated its enemies and all those who questioned its control were kept at bay (through constant wars, unfortunately).

The Counter Reformation

The Counter-Reformation was the answer of the Catholic Church to the Reformation. This movement was made to give power to the Church to fight against the Protestants. The Counter-Reformation was made by Felipe II, who created also the Inquisition.

Empires

The Spanish empire during XVI was reign by two kings: Charles I of Spain and then by Philip II. When Charles I of Spain started to rule the Holy Roman German Empire was unified and then he conquered the Aztec Empire and the Inca Empire. Then, during the rule of Philip II, Portugal was unified within the Empire, then he held some wars that made that the empire couldn’t grow more.

Lesser Habsburgs

Phillip lll

Philip III reigned as King of Spain from 1598 to 1621. He succeeded his father, Philip II, and continued his policies, emphasizing Catholic dominance and colonial expansion. His reign faced challenges including economic decline, military setbacks, and internal strife. He expelled the Moriscos from Spain in 1609-1614, impacting the economy. His rule was influenced by his favorite, the Duke of Lerma. Despite continuity with his predecessors, Philip III's reign witnessed Spain's diminishing power, laying groundwork for further decline under his son, Philip IV.

Philip lV

Felipe IV of Spain, also known as Philip IV, ruled from 1621 to 1665. His reign was marked by both cultural flourishing and political challenges. He patronized artists like Diego Velázquez, contributing to the Spanish Golden Age of art. However, he faced economic difficulties, military conflicts like the Thirty Years' War, and internal unrest, including rebellions from nobles and regions like Catalonia and Portugal. Despite his efforts, Spain's global influence declined during his reign. Felipe IV's legacy is a mix of cultural richness and struggles to maintain Spain's power and unity.

Charles ll

Charles II was the last king of the Habsburgs dynasty, and it is the worst period, decadence is already unstoppable. The king was incompetent and he was even unable to have an heir because of his health issues. Economy slowly worsen, people gets seriously ill because of plagues... After his death, war broke out because of the succession matter.

The change of times...

Although the period of previous two kings was very good because they accomplished great deeds for the Spanish Empire (there was a lot of territorial expansion and also not so many conflicts), the next rulers did not do such a good work. Philip II was a very hardworking king, who spent the day with affairs of state, but his son, Philip III, was not...

The Favourites

These three kings, Philip III, Philip IV and Charles II, the ones who were called the Lesser Habsburgs, succeded Charles V and Philip II. Philip III started to delegate many functions of government on his valido (favourite) Duque de Lerma, who became a very powerful person. The Favourites were people who acted on behalf of the kings. They had as much authority as kings, and they could even sign with the king's name

Decadence

It was a time of decadence, there were several wars like the 30 Years War that was with the Netherlands, from 1618 to 1648. The consequences of this war were the state coffers trembling because of empty, as all the money was invested in the war. Later, Philip IV had war with France that lasted 10 years, from 1648 to 1658. Apart from these two wars, there were major internal conflicts within the Empire. Among other problems it was the uprising of Catalonia and Portugal that rebelled against the Spanish crown in 1640. Also, in 1641 Andalucia revolted, Sicily in 1646 and Naples in 1647.

Other consequences...

There were many conflicts during this reign, there were many positive things to highlight. For example, even though politically everything was quite bad, especially in foreign policy, they ran out of money, if you run out of money a kingdom suffers of hunger, diseases, etc. Among the consequences of the continuous wars and conflicts were the decline in demographics, the enormous rise in inflation and the definitive secession of Holland.

War of Succession

The fact is that the Habsburg period ends with a war from 1701 to 1713, 12 years. That is the war of succession and what causes the war of succession, as the name says, because they did not want Felipe de Borbón.

Not everything was bad...

Despite this big crisis, it is surprising that there were many good things, like the huge flourishing in the Arts and Humanities in general, during the dark period of the last three Habsburgs. The 17th century the golden century in Spain and will mention only a few of the artists thatwere meaningful in their time, like Cervantes, Góngora, Calderón, Quevedo or Velázquez..

The End