Nick Boalch → Spanish → Siglo de Oro

Calendario del Siglo de Oro, 1469–1700

In his day Charles V was the most powerful ruler on earth. He owned most of Europe and a lot of America, yet nobody has ever been able to get excited about him.
— Will Cuppy, The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody

15^th century

1469

Isabel I of Castile
Gerard David, La Virgen de la Mosca (c. 1520)

Isabel
Fernando II of Aragón
Source unknown

Fernando
Isabel, half-sister and heir of King Enrique IV of Castile, marries Fernando, son of King Juan II of Aragón. As a result, Henry disinherits her and names his illegitimate daughter Juana la Beltraneja as his heir, betrothing her to her uncle King Alfonso V of Portugal.

Kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula at the marriage of Fernando and Isabel
From William Ward et al., The Cambridge Modern History Atlas (1912)

Kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula at the marriage of Fernando and Isabel.

1474

Enrique IV dies.
Isabel accedes to the throne of Castile, but the Portuguese quickly invade Castile in the name of Juana and Alfonso, who proclaims himself King of Castile at Plasencia.
Louis XI of France invades Catalonia.
Civil War breaks out (the War of the Castilian Succession). Doh.

1476

The Portuguese are defeated at the Battle of Toro.
Isabel gradually becomes recognised in Europe as the legitimate ruler of Castile, thanks in no small part to Fernando's activities and the resources of the Aragonese throne, plus the Aragonese influence with the Pope.

1478

A branch of the Inquisition is established in Castile, primarily to deal with 'conversos' (converted Jews and their descendants) suspected of maintaining their original religious beliefs.
Castilian forces occupy the Portuguese-controlled Canary Islands.

1479

War with Portugal is brought to a close by the Treaty of Alcáçovas, confirming Isabel as Queen of Castile. Castile retains its newly-won control of the Canaries, while Portugual gets a trade monopoly on the west coast of Africa.
Fernando succeeds to the Aragonese throne on the death of his father. Isabel and Fernando become joint rulers of Castile and Aragón, with the two kingdoms gradually becoming identified as 'Spain'. (Portugal, Navarre and Granada, though, are all still separate kingdoms.)
Factors uniting proto-Spain:
- The various countries were as one in an international sense.
- Religious uniformity in the common Roman Catholic faith.
Factors dividing proto-Spain:
- Linguistic boundaries: less serious in Castile and Aragón proper, but creating serious difficulties in Valencia and Catalonia.
- Economic boundaries: throughout the 16^th and 17^th centuries Castile and Aragón remained separated by Customs and managed their monetary systems separately, and in widely different styles.
- Governmental differences: major constitutional differences between Castile and Aragón. In Aragón royal power was strictly limited (e.g. taxes could only be obtained by a vote of the Cortes of Catalonia, Aragón and Valencia, violations of the law by royal officials were subject to immediate enquiry, etc.) whereas in Castile it was the Cortes which were in a more vulnerable position with respect to the royal family.

1481

A fictionalised example of an auto de fé
Pedro Berruguete, Auto de fé presidido por Santo Domingo de Guzmán (1475)

Auto de fé
The Spanish Inquisition holds its first auto de fé in Seville; six people are burned alive. Over the next century some 2000 people were executed by the Inquisition.

1483

The Inquisition is formally extended to Aragón, and Tomás de Torquemada is appointed Inquisitor-General.

1484

After a long revolt in Catalonia by the Remensas (peasant farmers), Fernando restores order by dismantling the feudal system: the Sentencia de Guadalupe frees the peasants from their feudal lords and gives monetary compensation to the nobles, creating a stabilising class of peasant farmers who effectively owned their own lands.

1492

The last Moorish kingdom in Spain, Granada, is handed over to Fernando and Isabel after its surrender late the previous year, completing the Christian Reconquista.
In a heady atmosphere of Catholic fervour and grotesque anti-semitism, Fernando and Isabel sign the Alhambra Decree, expelling the Jews from Spain. Of some 80,000 Spanish Jews, it is estimated that around half chose to convert to Christianity and remain in the country.
Cristóbal Colón bumbles into America on his way to somewhere else.

1494

The Treaty of Tordesillas carves up the newly-discovered lands between Spain and Portugal in one of the more spectacular displays of colonial arrogance in history.

16^th century

1500

Persecution of the remaining Moors in the south of Spain leads to an armed uprising, the First Rebellion of the Alpujarras. The revolt is suppressed (1502), but provides a ready excuse for Fernando and Isabel to abrogate their commitment to allow the Moors religious freedom: they are forced to convert to Catholicism (becoming 'Moriscos') or leave the country.

1504

Aragonese forces capture the Kingdom of Naples.
Juana I of Castile
Unknown source

Juana I
Felipe I of Castile
Portrait by unknown artist (c. 1500)

Felipe I
Isabel dies and Fernando (rather unwillingly) retires from Castilian public life after the Cortes decide not to appoint him Regent, instead passing the crown of Castile to his daughter Juana the Mad (seemingly not asking too many questions about her slightly worrying epithet!).
Juana's husband Philip the Handsome, son of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, becomes King-Consort (as Felipe I of Castile): the first Spanish monarch of the Hapsburg Dynasty.

1506

Juana and Philip finally arrive in Spain. Philip dies soon after and Juana goes properly insane. Their only son, Carlos, is only six years old, and Fernando is therefore recalled from Aragón and appointed regent of Castile.

1508

The territorial ambitions of Venice provoke the War of the League of Cambrai, between the city-state and an alliance of European powers including Spain, France, the Holy Roman Empire and the Papal States brought together by Pope Julius II.

1510

Strong military successes by the French in the Italy, particularly the Battle of Agnadello (1509), cause the Pope to fall out with King Louis XII. Shuffling the participants in the League of Cambrai, he allies with Venice against France in a new Holy League that is quickly joined by Switzerland, England, the Holy Roman Empire and Spain (1511).

1512

Profiting from the ongoing War of the Holy League, Fernando's forces conquer much of Navarra, and the Navarrese Cortes are forced to accept union with Spain on condition that their historic laws, rights and priveleges (the fueros) are respected.

1513

The explorer Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crosses the Isthmus of Panamá and claims the Pacific Ocean for Spain. He is rewarded with the Governership of Panamá.

1516

Carlos I of Spain
Titian, Emperor Charles V at Mühlberg (1548)

Carlos I
Fernando dies. Childless from his second marriage, he names his grandson Carlos his heir. Carlos becomes King Carlos I (although technically speaking Juana is still the Queen of Castile): the first monarch to be sole ruler of both Castile and Aragón.
War with France comes to an end after the collapse of the Holy League and the signing of the Treaty of Noyon, in which Spain recognises French claims to Milan in return for French recognition of Spanish control of Naples.

1517

Carlos, who does not speak Spanish, travels to Spain to assume the throne. He brings officials from the court in Brussels whom he appoints to high office, causing resentment among Castilian courtiers. The Castilian Cortes eventually agree to recognise his regency on condition that he learns Spanish, refrains from appointing foreigners to positions of authority and undertakes not to remove precious metals from the country.

1519

On the death of his other grandfather, Maximilian, Carlos inherits the Hapsburg lands in Austria and is elected Holy Roman Emperor (as Charles V). The development worries a wide variety of people in Europe:
- Spanish nobles, who foresee Spain being ruled by a permanent absentee (and, in any case, weren't too happy about the fact that the King of Spain was Flemish).
- The French, in particular King Francis I (who had stood as a candidate himself), now almost completely surrounded by territory belonging to Carlos.
- The Germans, fearing reduced autonomy because of the vast political power now concentrated in the hands of one man.

1520

Carlos leaves for Germany, leaving his tutor Adrian of Utrecht as regent.
Pushed by demands for increased taxation to support Carlos's European ambitions, Castile erupts in the Guerra de las Comunidades de Castilla (often known in English as the 'Revolt of the Comuneros'). A revolutionary Cortes is declared at Ávila and Adrian's troops burn down the town of Medina del Campo, rather inflaming the situation.
Execution of the Comuneros
Antonio Gisbert, Los Comuneros de Castilla (1860)

Comuneros

1521

The Comuneros suffer a terminal defeat at the Battle of Villalar, and the leaders of the rebellion are captured and executed.
Seeking to turn the unstable situation in Spain to his advantage, Francis I invades Navarra and the Low Countries, triggering the Four Years' War (First Franco-Hapbsburg War). The French troops are beaten back and an alliance of Spain, England and the Papal States opens hostilities in Italy, quickly capturing Milan and driving the French out of Lombardy.
Hernán Cortés completes the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire of Mexico.

1522

Carlos returns to a pacified Castile, and proceeds to use its resources as a bank to sustain his world-wide empire, and to bankroll his wars and the exploration of the 'New World'.
The Spanish Conquistador Pascual de Andagoya becomes the first recorded European to set foot in Perú.

1525

The French are routed at the Battle of Pavia, effectively ending the war. Francis I is taken prisoner and forced to sign the Treaty of Madrid (1526), giving up his claims in Italy and Burgundy; once released, though, he quickly abrogates these commitments.

1526

Worried by increasing Hapsburg dominance of Italy, Pope Clement VII changes sides and forms an alliance with his former enemies France and Venice against Carlos in the War of the League of Cognac (Second Franco-Hapbsburg War). The League achieve some initial military successes but quickly lose control of Milan to Carlos's forces.

1527

Carlos's troops sack Rome and capture Pope Clement.
Henry VII of England joins the League. An Anglo-French army beseiges Naples, but the siege is broken by an outbreak of plague.

1529

The Treaty of Cambrai ends hostilities between France and the Hapsburgs, with similar terms to the Treaty of Madrid except for those relating to Burgundy, which now remains French.

1530

After a rapprochement with Pope Clement, Carlos is formally crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
Imperial forces capture Florence, the last active participant in the Cognac War, after a lengthy siege. The fledgling Florentine Republic is crushed and the House of Medici restored to power.

1533

Francisco Pizarro completes the conquest of the Inca Empire of Perú.

1534

Ignacio de Loyola
Perry-Castañeda Library, University of Texas at Austin

Ignacio de Loyola
Ignacio de Loyola and six others found the Compañía de Jesús; the Jesuits quickly become an influential religious order.

1535

When the Duke of Milan dies, Carlos's son Felipe inherits the duchy. Francis I invades, triggering the Third Franco-Hapsburg War, but French forces fail to capture Milan.

1536

Pedro de Mendoza founds the city of Buenos Aires.

1538

The Truce of Nice, negotiated by the Pope, ends the Third Franco-Hapsburg War.

1539

The Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto lands in Florida, claiming it for Spain. He sets off to explore much of the southern part of North America, becoming the first documented European to see the Mississippi River (1541).

1541

Pedro de Valdivia founds the city of Santiago de Chile.

1542

Francis I opportunistically allies himself with the Ottoman Empire and attacks Italy once again (Fourth Franco-Hapbsburg War); he is resisted by Carlos and Henry VIII of England.

1544

The French win a crushing victory at the Battle of Cérisoles, but fail to go on to capture Milan. Carlos and Henry retaliate by invading northern France. The Treaty of Crépy makes peace between France and Spain, with Francis agreeing to relinquish his claim to Naples and Carlos his claim to Burgundy.

1551

Having succeeded his father Francis to the French throne despite Spanish interference (1547), Henry II invades Lorraine to start the Fifth Franco-Hapsburg War.

1554

The French invasion of Italy is beaten back at the Battle of Marciano.
Carlos's son Felipe marries Queen Mary I of England, providing an alliance that proves useful in the ongoing war with the French.

1556

Felipe II of Spain
Alonso Sánchez Coello (c. 1570)

Felipe II
Carlos I abdicates and retires to a monastery. He leaves the Dukedom of Austria and the title of Holy Roman Emperor to his brother Ferdinand and the rest of his territorial possessions to his son, who becomes King Felipe II of Spain.

Hapsburg lands in Europe at the abdication of Carlos
From William Ward et al., The Cambridge Modern History Atlas (1912)

Hapsburg lands at the time of Carlos's abdication (not including the Holy Roman Empire).
Felipe and Henry II sign the Treaty of Vaucelles, ceding the Franche-Comté to Spain, but the treaty is broken shortly afterwards as the war continues in the Low Countries.

1557

Carrying a large part of the financial burden for the ongoing Hapsburg wars and unable to deal with rampant inflation, the Spanish government is forced to declare itself bankrupt.

1558

Carlos, former King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, dies at the age of 58.
A Turkish fleet under Piyale Pasha captures the Balearic Islands, an ideal base from which to raid the Spanish mediterranean coast.
Felipe's wife Mary dies and his influence in England is removed as her protestant half-sister Elizabeth I accedes to the throne.

1559

The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis formally ends the war with France. France retains the territories it had conquered in Lorraine, but Spain keeps control both of the Franche-Comté and its vassals in Italy. Felipe agrees to marry Henry II's daughter, Élisabeth of Valois, who had previously been engaged to his son Carlos.
Henry dies shortly afterwards and France collapses into thirty years of religious civil war, neatly removing it from its position of Spain's principal antagonist.
Felipe leaves the Netherlands for Spain, leaving his half-sister Margaret of Parma as Governor in his place.

1561

Felipe moves his court to Madrid, where building had already commenced on the magnificent palace of El Escorial. Felipe's decision to place himself at the heart of Castile, surrounded by Castilian nobles, begins to cause resentment amongst the other Spanish kingdoms.

1565

Miguel López de Legazpi claims the Philippines for Spain.
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founds the first permanent settlement in what is now the United States at San Agustín, Florida.

1566

Popular dissatisfaction in the Netherlands fueled by high taxation and the rigorous suppression of Calvinism boils over into rioting; the beginning of the Dutch War of Independence.

1567

Fernando Álvarez, 3^rd Duke of Alba
Antonis Mor (1557)

Duke of Alba
The riots in the Netherlands are ruthlessly suppressed by an army under Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba, and the ringleaders are executed.
Margaret of Parma resigns the governorship and is replaced by Alba; his hardline stance, including the summary execution of 3,000 alleged subversives, alienates Hapsburg support and unites Dutch nationalists.
Worried by rumours of the persistence of Islam among the Moriscos, Felipe issues a decree forbidding traditional Muslim dress and the use of the Arabic language. This leads to —

1568

Second Rebellion of the Alpujarras: the Moriscos of Granada rebel.
William of Orange
Adriaen Thomas Key (c. 1570)

William of Orange
William of Orange-Nassau begins a series of raids into the Spanish Netherlands, winning the Battle of Heiligerlee, the first military success for the free Dutch.
Alba wins a crushing victory over William's brother Louis of Nassau at the Battle of Jemmingen, but William remains at large and comes to be identified as the figurehead of the Dutch revolt.
The Watergeuzen ('Sea Beggars'), Dutch rebels with the benefit of a substantial navy, swear allegiance to William and begin to harry Spanish shipping.

1571

Don John of Austria
Source unknown

John of Austria
Felipe's half-brother Don John of Austria suppresses the Morisco revolt after a three-year guerilla war. As punishment, the Moriscos are forced from their homes and dispersed throughout the Iberian peninsula.
Lepanto
Paolo Veronese, Battle of Lepanto (c. 1572)

Lepanto
In the great naval Battle of Lepanto, Holy League forces under John of Austria comprehensively rout the Turkish fleet, curtailing Ottoman supremacy in the Mediterranean.

1572

The Dutch states of Holland and Zeeland revolt against Spanish rule and recognise William of Orange. Spanish forces lay siege to Haarlem, the capital of Holland.

1573

Haarlem surrenders after a seven-month siege; its defenders are executed, mostly by drowning.
Setbacks for the Spanish: the Waterguezen win a decisive victory over the Spanish fleet at the Battle on the Zuiderzee, capturing its Commander, while the city of Alkmaar withstands a siege. The hated Alba is replaced as Governer by Luis de Zúñiga y Requesens.
Spanish troops lay siege to Leiden.

1574

A Dutch force sent to relieve Leiden is crushingly defeated at the Battle of Mookerheyde.
The siege of Leiden is lifted after the Dutch cut open the dykes and the Spanish army is forced to retreat to higher ground.

1575

War in the Netherlands peters out into an ongoing stalemate: Spain cannot conquer Zeeland because of its geography and highly-mobile fleet (and is also running out of money), whereas the Dutch cannot beat back the Spanish from the high ground because of their superior army.

1576

De Requesens dies and is replaced as Governor of the Netherlands by Don John of Austria.
Spain once again declares itself bankrupt. The troops in the Netherlands, frustrated over their absent pay, mutiny and sack Antwerp.
The Dutch states agree the Pacification of Ghent, putting aside their North/South religious divide and uniting against the Spanish.

1577

Don John signs the Perpetual Edict accepting the terms of the Pacification of Ghent and agreeing to the removal of Spanish troops from the Netherlands, briefly calming the war; but continuing Spanish campaigns against the rebels prolong the uprising.

1578

The Free Dutch army suffers a crushing defeat at the Battle of Gembloux.
Don John dies and is replaced as Governor of the Netherlands by Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma.

1579

Artois, Hainaut, and Walloon Flanders – the Catholic, French-speaking states of the southern Netherlands – agree the Union of Arras, reconciling them to Spanish rule.
The majority of the Dutch-speaking states respond by agreeing the Union of Utrecht, uniting them in opposition to Spain.

1580

Cardinal-King Henry I of Portugal dies, leaving his succession unresolved. Felipe, in the line of succession through his Portuguese mother, assumes the throne after a Spanish army under the Duke of Alva routs the troups of another claimant, Anthony of Crato, at the Battle of Alcântara and occupies Lisbon.
The entire Iberian peninsula was thus placed under the rule of a single sovereign, and the acquisition of Portugal's merchant fleet and Far Eastern, African and Brazilian colonies brought enormous wealth and strength to Spain. As a result, the economy was for the first time able to sustain the Hapsburg's large-scale foreign policy intrigues and military initiatives.
Problems in the woodwork of Spanish society, though, include:
- The atmosphere of religious intensity created by commitments to multiple crusades, first against Islam and then the North European Protestants. The unswerving Catholicism this required among Spaniards proves socially problematic in a country that had only recently suppressed its own Jewish and Moorish minorities.
- The fear inspired by the Inquisition, which by now holds an firm grip of terror upon Spanish life (and, not to put to fine a point on it, death), and is given a new lease of scary life by the Protestant Reformation.
- The intellectual and cultural isolation caused by misguided attempts to seal off the peninsula from foreign heresy and influences percieved as 'dangerous' (e.g. an edict of 1558 forbidding the import of foreign books; an edict of 1559 forbidding Spanish students to study abroad, except at specially exempted institutions).
- Ongoing setbacks in foreign policy, particularly the continuing attempt to uphold the Spanish-Catholic cause against the Free Dutch, which placed a severe strain on Spanish resources through most of the late sixteenth century without achieving any real victory.

1581

The Free Dutch provinces swear the Oath of Abjuration, formally declaring their independence and founding the Dutch Republic.
Felipe responds by dispatching a substantial new army to the Netherlands, which captures the central states of Brabant and Flanders (including the cities of Bruges, Ghent and Ypres) during the next years' campaigns.

1584

William of Orange is shot dead – the first Head of State to be assassinated by handgun.

1585

The Dutch attempt to secure military assistance from both Henry III of France and Elizabeth I of England, but neither is keen to become overtly involved in the conflict. Elizabeth does dispatch an expeditionary force of volunteers under Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, but he quickly alienates the Dutch and returns to England.
Antwerp surrenders to the Spanish after a thirteen-month siege.

1587

Felipe's plans for war against England – fueled by English interference in the Netherlands, the execution of the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots and the excommunication of Elizabeth I by the Pope – are disrupted when a fleet under the command of Sir Francis Drake sails into Cádiz harbour and sinks much of the Spanish fleet.
William's son Maurice of Orange is appointed to head the Free Dutch army.

1588

The defeat of the Spanish Armada at Gravelines
Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg, Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 8 August 1588 (1796)

Spanish Armada
The Grande y Felicísima Armada sails from Lisbon under the command of Alonso de Guzmán El Bueno, Duke of Medina Sidonia. After skirmishes with the English and Dutch fleets in the English Channel off Calais and Gravelines scuttle a planned rendezvous with Parma's army, the Armada attempts to return home by circumnavigating Scotland and Ireland, but bad weather and uncharted hazards sink around half of the 130 ships.
Dutch forces under Maurice of Orange raise the Spanish siege of Bergen op Zoom.

1589

The retaliatory 'English Armada' sacks the lower town of La Coruña but fails to take Lisbon.

1590

Alarmed by Protestant successes in the French civil wars, Felipe sends his Dutch army under Parma to relieve the Siege of Paris.

1591

Dutch forces capture the cities of Zutphen, Deventer, Delfzijl and Nijmegen.
Revolt breaks out in Aragón over perceived Castilian interference in Aragonese affairs. A force of 12,000 men enters Aragón, suppresses the revolt and executes its leaders.

1592

Dutch forces capture the cities of Steenwijk and Coevorden.

1594

Dutch forces capture Groningen to complete the liberation of territories north of the Rhine from Spanish control.

1595

In retaliation for Spanish interference in the French civil wars, King Henry IV of France declares war on Spain, further weakening its ability to sustain military operations in the Netherlands.
A Spanish fleet under Carlos de Amésquita sacks Penzance.

1596

An English fleet under Charles Howard, Earl of Effingham sacks Cádiz.
Spain again declares itself bankrupt.

1598

The Peace of Vervins ends the war with France, essentially reiterating the terms of the previous Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis.
Felipe III of Spain
Juan Pantoja de la Cruz (1606)

Felipe III
Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, Duke of Lerma
Peter Paul Rubens, Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma (1603)

Duke of Lerma
Felipe II dies. He is succeeded by his son Felipe III, who would become a weak and indecisive King, heavily reliant on his advisers, notably Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, Duke of Lerma.
The Dutch, meanwhile, begin to take their war overseas by invading parts of Spain's extensive colonial empire.

1599

A bad year:
- Both Castile and Andalusia are struck by famines and plague, creating a massive labour shortage and destroying industrial competitiveness.
- The government begins to tamper arbitrarily with the value of the coinage, resulting in severe monetary instability.

17^th century

1604

Peace with England, under its new king James I, is concluded by the Treaty of London.
The Spanish capture Ostend after a three-year siege. The Dutch capture Aardenburg, but are beaten back from Antwerp.

1605

Title page of the 1504 edition of Don Quixote

Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes publishes part one of Don Quixote.

1607

The naval battle at Gibraltar
Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom, Battle of Gibraltar (c. 1621)

Battle of Gibraltar
A Dutch fleet commanded by Jacob van Heemskerk captures Gibraltar.
Spain goes bankrupt yet again.

1609

A ceasefire is agreed between Spain and the free Dutch: the Twelve Years' Truce.

1614

The last Moriscos are expelled from Spain.

1618

The Defenestration of Prague sparks a revolt by the Electorate of Bohemia against the Holy Roman Empire, which blossoms into the Thirty Years' War. Spain is able to interfere in the opening stages of the war with some success.

1620

Bohemian troops are routed by the Catholic armies at the Battle of Bílá Hora. Spanish forces move to occupy the Palatinate of the Rhine.

1621

Felipe IV of Spain
Diego Velázquez (1656)

Felipe IV
Caspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares
Diego Velázquez, Retrato ecuestre del Conde-Duque de Olivares (1634)

Count-Duke of Olivares
Felipe III dies and is succeeded by his son Felipe IV. Assisted by his capable adviser Caspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, Philip embarks on a rigorous program of administrative, fiscal and economic reform, including campaigns against corruption in the government and attempts to circumvent the cumbersome bureaucracy.

1622

War in the Netherlands, now part of the general Thirty Years' War, resumes as the Spanish lay siege to Bergen op Zoom.

1625

Breda surrenders to Ambrosio Spinola
Diego Velázquez, La rendición de Breda (1635)

Siege of Breda
Spanish troops in the Netherlands capture Breda after a long siege, but the conflict as a whole quickly develops into further stalemate.

1632

The free Dutch capture Venlo, Roermond, and Maastricht in the 'March along the Meuse'.

1635

France, disturbed by the change in the European balance of power provoked by Spain's victory over Sweden in the 1934 Battle of Nördlingen, declares war on Spain and becomes openly involved in the Thirty Years' War on the Protestant side.
French troops quickly influence the course of the war, occupying Spanish troops in the Netherlands and cutting off the Spanish supply lines to Genoa, the 'Spanish Road'. Spanish and Imperial armies, meanwhile, invade eastern France and occupy the provinces of Champagne and Burgundy.

1636

French forces under Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar hold the invading Spanish and Imperial armies at Saint-Jean-de-Losne, just 50 miles from Paris.

1639

A Spanish fleet aimed for Flanders is destroyed by the free Dutch at the Battle of the Downs.

1640

The Guerra dels Segadors (Reapers' War or Catalan Revolt) breaks out in Catalonia over Catalan dissatisfaction with the financial and military impositions of the ongoing wars.
Meanwhile, the Portuguese Revolutionary War starts with the deposition of the Spanish governer and the crowning of João IV as King of Portugal. The Inquisition mounts a speedy counter-revolution which is suppressed by the Portuguese.

1641

The President of the Generalitat, Pau Claris, declares an independent Catalan Republic under the protection of France. Catalan troops repulse the Spanish at the Battle of Montjuïc.

1643

The French win a decisive victory in north-eastern France at the Battle of Rocroi over Spanish forces weakened by the ongoing domestic troubles.

1648

The Peace of Westphalia brings both the Thirty Years' War and the Dutch War of Independence to a formal end, forcing Spain to accept the independence of the Dutch Republic. France refuses to sign a peace treaty and the Franco-Spanish War continues.

Europe at the Peace of Westphalia
From William Ward et al., The Cambridge Modern History Atlas (1912)

Europe at the Peace of Westphalia.

1652

The rebellion in Catalonia is suppressed as Spanish troops occupy Barcelona.

1654

Spanish troops lay siege to Arras but are driven back by French reinforcements.
Oliver Cromwell's England begins the Western Design, a series of intrigues aimed at Spanish colonies in the West Indies.

1655

The English capture Jamaica.

1657

England becomes directly involved in the Franco-Spanish War via the Treaty of Paris. An English fleet and army link up with French troops in Flanders.

1658

The Spanish are defeated at the decisive Battle of the Dunes and lose control of Dunkirk.

1659

The Treaty of the Pyrenees concludes peace with France. Financially overextended and in no real position to bargain, Spain cedes its territories in Artois and Northern Catalonia (Roussillon, Conflent, Vallespir, Capcir and Northern Cerdanya) to France and Dunkirk to England. Felipe's daughter María Teresa marries Louis XIV.
Portuguese forces slaughter a Spanish army at the Battle of the Lines of Elvas.

1663

Spanish forces occupy southern Portugual and capture Evora, but are beaten back at the Battle of Ameixial and forced to retreat to Spain.

1665

Carlos II of Spain
Juan Carreño de Miranda

Carlos II
Felipe IV dies and is succeeded by his sickly son Carlos II, at the age of only 4. His mother Mariana is appointed regent.
The Portuguese win a decisive victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Montes Claros, effectively ending the Revolutionary War and assuring Portuguese independence.

1667

Louis XIV of France claims ownership of the Spanish Netherlands on the basis that they should have been inherited by his wife María Teresa on the death of her father Philip IV. Spain denies the claim and armed conflict escalates into the War of Devolution. French troops besiege and capture the towns of Charleroi and Lille.

1668

French forces occupy the Franche-Comté.
Concerned by French expansionism in Northern Europe, various enemies (England, Sweden and the Dutch Republic) form the Triple Alliance against her. Louis's unwillingness to fight a war on two fronts leads to:
The Treaty of Aachen brings the War of Devolution to an end. Under the terms of the treaty, France takes the territory it had gained in Flanders while the rest of the Spanish Netherlands, including the Franche-Comté, is returned to Spanish control.
Spain finally recognises Portuguese independence via the Treaty of Lisbon.

1674

Spain is drawn into the Franco-Dutch War (which had begun in 1672) when French forces again occupy the Franche-Comté. In retaliation, the Spanish invade Roussillon.

1678

The Treaty of Nijmegen ends the Franco-Dutch War, with the Franche-Comté ceded to Spain. Spanish military weakness allows Louis to gradually annexe more territories in the Spanish Netherlands over the next decade through his controversial 'Reunion Policy' without serious opposition.

1684

The Truce of Ratisbon makes peace for twenty years with Spain; the French retain control of the annexed territories in the Netherlands.

1686

Resentment across Europe at Louis XIV's 'Reunions' leads to the creation of the League of Augsburg, including Spain, to resist French expansionism.

1689

The ongoing tensions in Europe kick off the War of the Grand Alliance, in which the League of Augsburg allies with post-Glorious Revolution England to fight the French.

1694

French forces invade Catalonia, win a decisive victory at the Battle of Toroella and capture the town of Girona.

1697

French forces besiege and capture Barcelona in the last major military action of the War of the Grand Alliance.
The war is ended by the Treaty of Rijswijk. Catalonia, Luxembourg and the other annexed territories in the Southern Netherlands are returned to Spain.

1700

Felipe V of Spain
Jacint Rigau

Felipe V
Charles II dies, naming his heir as Philip, Duke of Anjou (Felipe V of Spain), the grandson of Louis XIV and María Teresa, and thus passing control of Spain from the House of Hapsburg to the House of Bourbon, triggering the War of the Spanish Succession and definitively ending the Siglo de Oro.

Sources

Elliott, J.H., Imperial Spain, 1469–1716 (London: Arnold, 1970)
Ganse, A., 'History of Spain', World History at KMLA, http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/spain/ xspain.html [accessed September 2003]
Le Flem, J.P., La frustración de un imperio, 1476–1714 (Barcelona: Editorial Labor, 1982)
Ruíz, T., Spanish Society, 1400–1600 (Harlow: Longman, 2001)
Thompson, M.P., 'Spain's Golden Age: key dates, people and processes', http://www.dur.ac.uk/ m.p.thompson/goldenagechron.htm [accessed September 2003]

Nicholas Boalch (nick.boalch@gmail.com)
Last updated: 14th September 2007 (v. 1.4)

Calendario del Siglo de Oro, 1469–1700

15th century

1469

1474

1476

1478

1479

1481

1483

1484

1492

1494

16th century

1500

1504

1506

1508

1510

1512

1513

1516

1517

1519

1520

1521

1522

1525

1526

1527

1529

1530

1533

1534

1535

1536

1538

1539

1541

1542

1544

1551

1554

1556

1557

1558

1559

1561

1565

1566

1567

1568

1571

1572

1573

1574

1575

1576

1577

1578

1579

1580

1581

1584

1585

1587

1588

1589

1590

1591

1592

1594

1595

1596

1598

1599

17th century

1604

1605

1607

1609

15^th century

16^th century

17^th century