Philipp III.

Philip III of Spain, known as Philip II in Portugal, was born in Madrid on 14 April 1578, the son of Philip II of Spain and his fourth wife, Anna of Austria. He belonged to the House of Habsburg, whose members were closely connected through numerous marriages between relatives: his parents were uncle and niece as well as first cousins. Philip inherited a vast realm in 1598. As king of Spain and Portugal, he ruled until his death in 1621. He was also king of Naples and Sicily, duke of Milan, and lord of the Seventeen Provinces. His education was intended to prevent him from suffering the fate of his older half-brother, Don Carlos, whose political conflicts, mental instability, and disobedience Philip II partly attributed to a troubled upbringing. Philip studied Latin, French, Portuguese, and astronomy. His tutors placed particular emphasis on moderation, personal discipline, piety, and respectful conduct. Contemporaries described him as friendly, serious, and lively, though physically rather weak. Although he knew several languages and dealt cautiously with court intrigues, later historians questioned his intellectual and political abilities. As a teenager, Philip met the Marquis of Denia, the future Duke of Lerma. The two became close friends. Philip II initially regarded Lerma as an unsuitable influence and sent him to Valencia as viceroy in 1595. Lerma soon returned to court, however. When Philip II died in 1598, his son ascended the throne. Within hours of taking power, Philip III made Lerma his royal counsellor. The duke became the king’s chief favorite and soon the valido, a royal representative with extensive political authority. In 1599, Philip married his cousin Margaret of Austria, a sister of the future Emperor Ferdinand II. Their marriage was considered close and affectionate, particularly after Margaret gave birth to a son in 1605. The queen was deeply pious and politically skilled. Together with Philip’s grandmother and aunt, Empress Maria, and Maria’s daughter Margaret of the Cross, she formed an influential Catholic and pro-Austrian group at court. Among other things, these women persuaded Philip to provide financial support to Ferdinand. Margaret also remained in an ongoing conflict with Lerma, whose influence over her husband she viewed critically. She died in 1611. Philip increasingly withdrew from direct contact with his subjects and from the day-to-day business of government. Access to him was severely restricted and was almost entirely mediated by Lerma. Government proposals had to reach the king in writing through the favorite; in 1612, Philip ordered the royal councils to obey Lerma as if he were the king himself. This system gave the monarchy a symbolic distance and made the valido the central intermediary of royal authority. Contemporaries attributed nearly all important decisions to Lerma. More recent assessments, however, present a more nuanced picture and regard his actual influence over daily government as more limited than his reputation suggests. Lerma’s administration soon became unpopular. His relatives, servants, and political allies filled numerous offices, while his personal enrichment, extravagant spending, and debts provoked widespread resentment. From 1612 onward, his political position began to collapse. His son, Cristóbal de Sandoval, Duke of Uceda, joined forces with Baltasar de Zúñiga against him. Philip still supported Lerma’s elevation to the cardinalate in March 1618, but in October of that year he stripped him of his powers and announced that he would rule personally. Uceda initially became the most important voice at court, while Zúñiga took responsibility for foreign and military affairs. Philip also moved symbolically against Rodrigo Calderón, a former secretary of Lerma. Calderón was tortured and executed for the murder of a soldier; he had previously also been accused of causing Queen Margaret’s death through witchcraft. Domestically, Philip III was chiefly associated with the expulsion of the Moriscos. In 1609, he issued a decree expelling from Spain the descendants of Muslims who had converted to Christianity. Between 1609 and 1614, approximately 275,000 to more than 300,000 people were forced to leave the country. Although the measure was presented in religious terms, it also served financial interests, since the Crown and those close to it could seize the expelled people’s wealth and land. Valencia, Aragon, and Murcia suffered particularly from the loss of laborers, property owners, and agricultural production. Philip’s reign was marked by severe economic difficulties. Poor harvests, famine, and an outbreak of plague that began after 1599 and is said to have killed more than ten percent of the population weakened the economy. The Crown was heavily indebted and continued to rely largely on Castilian taxation and Genoese bankers. Attempts to provide relief by issuing new copper coins and converting short-term loans into long-term bonds created instability and further reduced the government’s financial freedom. For most of Philip’s reign, significant reforms were not undertaken. In foreign policy, Philip initially pursued an aggressive strategy against the rebellious Dutch provinces and Protestant England. After the financial crisis of 1607, however, he was forced to retreat. The Twelve Years’ Truce with the Dutch in 1609 inaugurated a period of relative peace that some historians call the Pax Hispanica. Spain was temporarily able to recover, while the Dutch Republic was effectively recognized as independent. At the same time, Spanish representatives in Italy and the Netherlands often acted on their own initiative. The military commander Ambrosio Spinola was especially successful, achieving victories without fully involving Madrid. After Lerma’s fall, Philip became more committed to Habsburg interests in the Holy Roman Empire. He supported his cousin Ferdinand of Bohemia in his path to the imperial throne. When conflict broke out in Bohemia in 1618 between Catholic and Protestant forces, Spain sent troops. Spinola in the Palatinate and Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, in Bohemia achieved a decisive victory at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620. Spain thereby entered the early stages of the Thirty Years’ War, while a renewed war with the Netherlands became increasingly likely. In his overseas territories, Philip sought to preserve the Spanish-Portuguese position against Dutch and English competitors. In Chile, he initially supported the continued enslavement of captured Indigenous opponents, but later backed the so-called Defensive War against the Mapuche, proposed by the Jesuit Luis de Valdivia. In the Philippines, Spanish troops conquered Ternate in 1606, but they were unable to eliminate Dutch influence permanently. Plans for new trade routes between Seville and Manila and for closer cooperation with Persia likewise failed because of inexperience, piracy, Portuguese resistance, and conflicts with local elites. In 1619, Philip traveled to Portugal, where he was initially received with enthusiasm. The high cost of the visit and the harsh treatment of Portuguese nobles by the Duke of Uceda nevertheless intensified discontent. After returning, Philip fell seriously ill in Covarrubias. He was bedridden for 53 days and died in Madrid on 31 March 1621, aged 42, from a pulmonary embolism caused by prolonged immobility. His son, Philip IV, succeeded him and soon removed the last remnants of the Sandoval regime. Philip III’s historical reputation remained highly negative for a long time. Many historians regarded him as a weak and insignificant ruler who preferred hunting and travel to governing and relied too heavily on Lerma. Other scholarship emphasizes that, despite his personal shortcomings, Spain in 1621 possessed new territories, was at peace with France, held a strong position in the Empire, and stood on the eve of an initially successful campaign against the Dutch. His reign is therefore seen both as a period of political delegation and economic weakness and as a time of temporary peace and decisive developments that shaped the later decline of Spanish Habsburg power.