Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/214

 SPAIN

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SPAIN

With the death of Philip II the decay of Spanish power began. The monarchy, which needed the shoulders of a giant to support it, fell upon those of the pious but feeble PhiUp III (1598-1621), who left the task of government to a favourite or minister — first, the Duque de Lerma and then his son the Duque de Uceda. In the Low Countries he arranged the Twelve Years' Peace. He brought aid to the Cath- olics of Ireland, sending an expedition under Aguilar (1602), and intervened in behalf of the German Cath- olics in the first period of the Thirty Years' War. While thus aiding Cathohcs abroad, he resolved to guard against the danger that threatened reUgious unity at home in the presence of the Moriscoes, or subjugated Moors, who were suspected of conspiring with the Moors of Africa; these he expelled from Spain. In this reign and the nex-t-, Castilian hterature and art attained their finest flower. Philip IV (1621- 65), less pious than his father, was nevertheless a bet- ter ruler. For his prime ministers and favourites he had, first, the Conde-Duque de Olivares and then Don Luis de Haro. In this reign the colossal mon- archy of Phihp II began to crumble. The Duke of Braganza was proclaimed King of Portugal as John IV; Catalonia rose and maintained a war lasting twelve years; Naples and Sicily also rebelled, the famous Spanish infantry regiments {tercios espanoks) were beaten at Rocroy, and Spain, by the Peace of the Pyrenees with France, lost Roussillon and, by the Treaty of WestphaUa (1648), a great part of her importance in Europe.

The weakening of Spain continued under the sickly Charles II (1665-1700), who succeeded his father at the age of four. The regency fell to the queen. Dona Mariana, who shifted the burden of government on her confessor, Padre Nithard, and, after him, on her favourite Valenzuela, the husband of one of her ladies- in-waiting. Spain, after intervening on the side of Catholicism in all the conflicts of the European states, now saw herself an object of ambition to foreigners. The failure of the king's health obhged him to leave the duties of government to ambitious ministers, w-hile France reached her apogee in the reign of Ix)uis XIV, and Spanish power abroad continued to decline. The king being without issue, the rivalries of France and Austria for the succession began even in his lifetime and led up to the project for the dismemberment of the Spanish monarchy. Following the advice of Cardinal Portocarrero, Charles disinherited his Aus- trian kindred and designated as his heir the Duke of Anjou, afterwards Philip V. Upon the death of Charles II, the reign of the House of Austria ended in Spain, and that of the House of Bourbon commenced, bringing French centrahsm into Spanish administra- tion, and helping to change the national character by hnking the nation more closely with France.

Philip V (1700-46) had to sustain the War of the Succession with French assistance. By the Peace of Utrecht, which terminated that war, Gibraltar and Minorca fell to the share of England; the Italian pos- sessions and the Low Countries, to Austria. Cata- lonia, having vigorously defended the rights of the Archduke Cliarles, was despoiled of a part of her constitutional rights {Fiieros). Philip V, who had been under iMciich influence during the lifetime of his first wife, Maria Lui.sa of Savoy, gave himself up to Italian influenc<' after his marriage with Isabel Far- nese, being directed by Alberoni. To find possessions for the children of Isabel Farn<'se, the Italian claims of Spain were revive<l; Alberoni, however, fell l)efore he succeeded in obtaining anything more than the cardinalate for himself and the Duchies of Parma and Tuscany for the Infante Don Carlos. In 1724 Philip abdicated in favour of his son (i\iis, but the death of the latter in the same year obliged liis father to resume the Crown. By the 'I'reaty of \ienna (1735) Naples and Sicily were given to the Infant e Don Carlos. Un-

questionably the most glorious reign of the Spanish Bourbons was that of Ferdinand VI, thanks to the care with which he maintained neutrality between France and England. The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) ended the wars undertaken to find crowns for the children of Isabel Farnese: the Duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla were given to Don Fehpe (Phihp). The king thenceforward left the task of government to his ministers, Carvajal and the Marques de la Ensenada, while he surrendered him- self to the enchantment of Farinelli's music. By the concordat which he made with Benedict XIV, the Real Patronato (royal patronage) over all the Churches within the monarchy was recognized, as it had already been in force in the foreign possessions and the King- dom of Granada. Although the English party, led by the ambassador, Keene, and the minister. Wall (successor to Carvajal), succeeded in overthrowing Ensenada, and although the French offered the res- toration of Minorca, and the English of Gibraltar, the king persevered in his neutrality, with the result that the nation prospered, and the coffers of the treasury were filled almost to bursting.

Ferdinand died of a broken heart occasioned by the loss of his W'ife, Dona Barbara (1759). He was suc- ceeded by his brother Charles III, who was already King of Naples, and whose greatest mistake was the abandonment of his predecessor's policy of neutrality by that fatal "Family Compact" (1761) which united the fortunes of Spain with those of the degenerate French Bourbons. With this began a war with Eng- land, issuing in the loss of Havana and Manila (1763). Meanwhile Spain was governed by two foreigners, Grimaldi and Esquilacce, and the people rose in the famous " Hat-and-Cloak Riots" {motin de las capas y sombreros), which led to the Madrileiios being pro- hibited the use of the national dress. Pombal and Choiseul had driven the Jesuits out of Portugal and France, and their enemies in Spain exploited this tu- mult to persuade the king that the Society was a menace to public order. Adding other calumnies (such as the storj- that the Jesuits denied the king's being the legitimate son of Phihp V), they succeeded in inducing Charles III to order the Jesuits out of his dominions without stating any reason, reserving "in his royal breast" the motive of their banishment. Under the ministry of Floridablanca Spain inter- vened in support of the independence of the United States. During this reign many public buildings were constructed — the Fine Arts Academy, the Botanical Gardens of Madi"id, etc. — with money saved during the preceding reign. But the king's shortsightedness admitted to his counsels men imbued with Voltairean ideas, who, however little they may have been aware of it, were the allies of the Revolution that was to ruin the Bourbons.

Charles IV (1788-1808), even more deficient in ability and character than Charles III, had to suffer the consequences of pohtical errors conmiitted in the preceding reign. In his time the French Revolution- broke out, and the Spanish Bourbons went so far as to ally themselves eventually with that Revolution- ar>' France which had beheaded Louis XVI. The Aranda ministry, having overthrown that of Florida- blanca, was in turn overthrown by Don Manuel Go- doy, the queen's favourite no less than the king's, who made the Treaty of S. Ildefonso, allying Spain with France against England, and leading up to the disaster of Trafalgar (1805). This reign ended in a most disgraceful manner: Prince Ferdinand having reljelletl against his father and the inept Godoy, the Aranjuez rising resulted in the abdication of Charles IV, when the Frencli had already treacherously gained a footing in Spain. The king and qiieen having sought refuge at Bayonne, Napoleon made them sur- render till- Crown of Sjiain to liiiu, intending it for his brother Jose|)h Bonaparte. But this humiliation the