The Habsburgs are a dynasty whose representatives ruled the Spanish throne in 1516-1700. It is curious that it was during the reign of the Habsburgs that the coat of arms of Spain was approved: a black eagle (a symbol of the emperors of the "Holy Roman Empire"), around whose head a golden halo shines - a symbol of the sanctity of power. The bird holds a traditional Spanish shield with a semicircular pommel, on which are red lions (a symbol of power) and Castilian castles (a symbol of state power). On both sides of the shield are two crowns - the memory of the unification of Castile and Aragon, which occurred as a result of the marriage of Isabella I with Ferdinand of Aragon. The coat of arms is crowned with the country's motto: “Great and free”.
The history of the Spanish line of Habsburgs dates back to the moment when the famous royal couple - Isabella I and Ferdinand II of Aragon - became related with the emperor of the "Holy Roman Empire" Maximilian of Habsburg. This happened through the marriages of the Infante Juan (1479-1497) and the Infanta Juana (1479-1555) with the emperor's children, concluded in 1496. And although the Spanish crown, as before, belonged to Isabella and Ferdinand, its further fate was a foregone conclusion: the infant did not live long and died during the honeymoon, leaving no offspring; the right of succession to the throne thus passed to Juana, the wife of Emperor Maximilian's heir, Philip the Fair.
Unfortunately, the Spanish kings no longer had legal heirs (the illegitimate offspring of Ferdinand II of Aragon were not taken into account), since the Infanta Isabella (Portuguese queen, 1470-1498) died in childbirth, and her tiny son Miguel died suddenly in 1500. one daughter of the royal couple, Maria (1482–1517), became the Portuguese queen, having married the husband of her deceased sister. As for Catherine (1485-1536), she managed to be married - to King Henry VIII of England - and did not claim the crown.
And the hopes pinned on Juana did not come true: the young woman soon after marriage showed signs of a serious mental disorder. It all started with the fact that the newlywed began to fall into severe melancholy, avoided communicating with the courtiers, suffered from unreasonable bouts of furious jealousy. Juana all the time thought that her husband neglected her, and she did not want to dutifully endure, like her mother, her husband's love affairs.
At the same time, the Infanta was not just angry or showed displeasure, but fell into wild rage. When the young couple arrived in Spain in 1502, Isabella I immediately noticed the obvious signs of her daughter's mental confusion. She, of course, wanted to find out how such a state could threaten Juana. After listening to the doctors' prognosis of the possible course of the disease, Isabella I made a will, in which she appointed her daughter as her heiress in Castile (in fact, the queen had no other choice!), But stipulated that King Ferdinand would have to rule on behalf of the Infanta. This condition came into force in the event that Juana was unable to bear the burden of public duties. It is curious that Isabella did not mention her son-in-law, Philip the Fair, in her will at all.
But after the death of the queen (1504), when her half-mad daughter, nicknamed Juana the Mad, ascended the throne, her husband, Philip the Fair, announced that he would take over the regency. Ferdinand, defeated in palace intrigues, was forced to go to his native Aragon. The situation changed dramatically in 1506, when Isabella's son-in-law unexpectedly followed his mother-in-law into the afterlife.
Juana by that time could not really rule the country, so Cardinal Cisneros intervened in the affairs of Castile, where anarchy was gaining momentum, and asked Ferdinand of Aragon to return to power and restore order in the state. He had already managed to marry the niece of the King of France Germaine de Foix and was going to calmly live out his life at home. But the tragedy of the mad daughter forced her father to shoulder the burden of governing all of Spain again. And how could Ferdinand have done otherwise when he heard that Juana, not knowing what to do, was traveling around the country with her husband's corpse?
Emperor Maximilian I
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Whether or not Juana was truly insane is debated to this day. Some historians question the fact of the Infanta's mental disorder, attributing her antics only to a passionate temperament. However, it is rather difficult to explain the fact that the Queen of Castile ordered the opening of her husband's coffin several times. Experts believe that in this case it is necessary to talk about necrophilia and necromancy. In addition, the unfortunate woman clearly suffered from agoraphobia (a disease of open space), avoided human society and often sat in her room for a long time, refusing to go out and let anyone in.
As you can see, Ferdinand did not doubt his daughter's insanity. Although Juana was still considered queen and the question of her deposition was never raised, the disease progressed very quickly, because Ferdinand became regent of Castile. And in 1509, his father sent Juana to the Tordesillas castle - under vigilant supervision. There, in 1555, the mad queen, who spent half her life in prison, ended her tragic and woeful life.
1512 - thanks to the efforts of Ferdinand of Aragon, Navarre was annexed to Castile. When this man died in 1516, Juana, for obvious reasons, did not rule the state, since there was no need to transfer power into the wrong hands: the Spanish crown crowned the grandson of Ferdinand, the firstborn of the flawed Infanta and Philip the Fair - Charles I of Ghent. It was from 1516 that the Habsburg dynasty officially took the throne of Spain.
Charles I (1500-1558; reigned 1516-1556), baptized in honor of Charlemagne, was born in Flanders and spoke Spanish with great difficulty. From birth, he was considered the future heir to a vast kingdom, parts of which were scattered throughout Europe. Although the son of Juana the Mad could hardly count on such brilliant prospects, if not for the tragic events that took place in this family.
Quite quickly, Charles was the only contender for the Castilian crown. True, at one time there were competitors. Charles' grandfather, Ferdinand of Aragon, married a second time and seriously intended to raise not only grandchildren, but also children. But the son of Ferdinand of Aragon and Germaine de Foix, who was born on May 3, 1509, died almost immediately after birth, and they had no more children.
Karl's father died very early; the mother was unable to govern the country due to insanity, therefore the grandfather of the heir to the throne, Ferdinand of Aragon, gave his grandson to be raised in the Netherlands. The boy was to be taken care of by his aunt Maria, the wife of Manuel of Portugal.
Having ascended the throne at the age of 16, the young king immediately became the ruler of not only Castile and Aragon, but also the Netherlands, Franche-Comté and all American colonies. True, Charles received the crown under special circumstances: his mother was still considered queen, so an attempt at the Brussels court to proclaim Juana's son the Mad King of Castile and Aragon (March 14, 1516) caused a real riot. As early as 1518, the assembly of the Castilian Cortes did not forget to remind that a mother still has more rights to the throne than her son.
Karl, meanwhile, was promoted quite quickly. 1519 - he lost another relative - his grandfather Maximilian, the emperor of the "Holy Roman Empire", and inherited this title as the eldest man in the family. Thus, King Charles I became Emperor Charles V, under his rule were Spain, Naples, Sicily, Austria, the Spanish colonies in the New World, as well as the possession of the Habsburgs in the Netherlands.
As a result, Spain became a world power, and its king, accordingly, became the most powerful ruler of Europe. Nevertheless, after his election as emperor, Charles faced another problem: the new title was higher than the previous one, and therefore, when listing titles, it was called first. However, in Castile, they continued to put the first name of Juana. Then a compromise was invented for the official documents: the first was Charles, called the "King of Rome", and then the queen of Castile. Only in 1521, after the suppression of the uprising of the Castilian cities, the name of the unfortunate madness completely disappeared from the documents, although for a long time the king ruled with a living mother queen, whom no one declared deposed.
In the state itself, Charles could not boast of the particular popularity and love of his subjects. The monarch appointed his supporters (Flemings and Burgundians) to key posts, and made the Archbishop of Toledo regent during his absence. All the time when Charles was on the throne, Spain all the time was involved in solving problems that have a very distant relationship to its national interests, but directly related to the strengthening of the power of the Habsburgs in Europe.
It is for this reason that the wealth of Spain and its army were thrown into the suppression of the Lutheran heresy in Germany, the fight against the Turks in the Mediterranean and the French in the Rhineland and in Italy. The Spanish monarch clearly had no luck with either the Germans or the Turks; the military operations of the Spaniards against France, which began in triumph, ended in a painful defeat. Only the church reforms were successful. Through the efforts of Charles in 1545-1563, the Council of Tridenum succeeded in carrying out a number of significant changes and additions to church institutions.
Despite the many difficulties that the Spanish monarch had to face at the beginning of his reign, he quickly figured out what and how, and after a few years he gained a reputation as a capable and wise king.
Charles V of Habsburg
1556 Charles abdicated in favor of his son Philip. The Austrian possessions of the crown passed to the brother of the former ruler, Ferdinand, and Spain, the Netherlands, lands in Italy and America went to Philip II (ruled 1556-1598). Despite the fact that the new monarch was of German origin, he was born and raised in Spain, therefore he was Spanish to the bone. It was this Habsburg that proclaimed Madrid the capital of Spain; he himself spent his whole life in the medieval castle Escurial, where he said goodbye to his loved ones for the last time.
Philip II, of course, lacked the reckless courage that distinguished his father, but he was distinguished by discretion, prudence and incredible perseverance in achieving his goal. In addition, Philip II remained in the unshakable confidence that the Lord himself entrusted him with the mission of establishing Catholicism in Europe, and therefore tried his best to fulfill his mission.
Despite his sincere desire to work for the good of the country, the new monarch was disastrously unlucky. The series of failures stretched over many years. Too harsh policies in the Netherlands led to a revolution that began in 1566. As a result, Spain lost power over the northern part of the Netherlands.
The Spanish king tried to draw the Habsburgs and England into the sphere of influence, but to no avail; moreover, the English sailors unleashed a real pirate war with the Spanish merchants, and Queen Elizabeth clearly supported the rebellious Dutch. This greatly annoyed Philip II and prompted him to take up the creation of the famous Invincible Armada, whose task was to land troops in England.
Philip maintained correspondence with the Queen of Scots, Catholic Mary Stuart, promising her all-round support in the fight against her English relative, the Protestant Elizabeth I. the British in several sea battles. After that, the state of Philip lost forever its dominance at sea.
The king of Spain actively intervened in the French religious wars, so that Henry IV, being a Huguenot, could not calmly sit on the French throne. But after he converted to Catholicism, Philip was forced to withdraw the Spanish troops and recognize the new king of France.
The only thing that Habsburg could boast of was the annexation of Portugal to the Spanish possessions (1581). The monarch did not need special valor for this, because he received the Portuguese crown by inheritance. After the death of King Sebastian, Philip II laid claim to the Portuguese throne; since he had good reason to claim this crown, there were no people willing to argue with him. It is curious that the Spanish monarchs held Portugal for only 60 years. At the first opportunity, its inhabitants preferred to get out of the rule of the Habsburgs.
In addition to the annexation of Portugal, the brilliant naval victory over the Turks in the battle of Lepanto (1571) was a major achievement of Philip II's policy. It was this battle that undermined the naval power of the Ottoman dynasty; after it, the Turks did not manage to restore their influence on the sea.
In Spain, Philip did not change the existing administrative system, he only strengthened as best he could and centralized his power. Nevertheless, the reluctance to carry out reforms led to the fact that many of the orders and instructions of Philip II himself were often not carried out, simply getting bogged down in the wilds of an extensive bureaucracy.
Philip's piety led to an unprecedented increase in such a terrible machine as the infamous Spanish Inquisition. At the same time, the king of the Cortes convened extremely rarely, and in the last decade of the reign of Philip II, the cornered Spaniards were generally forced to give up most of their freedoms.
Philip II could not claim to be the guarantor of the rights and freedoms of his subjects, because more than once he backed down from his word and violated the laws and agreements that he himself approved. So, in 1568, the monarch authorized the persecution of the so-called Moriscos - forcibly baptized Muslims. Naturally, they responded with a mutiny. It was possible to suppress the performances of the Moriscos only after three years and with great difficulty. As a result, the Moriscos, who previously held in their hands a significant part of the trade in the southern part of the country, were evicted to the interior barren regions of Spain.
Thus, Philip II brought Spain to a crisis. Although it was considered a great world power in 1598, it was actually a stone's throw from disaster: the international ambitions and commitments of the House of Habsburg almost completely depleted the country's resources. The revenues of the kingdom and receipts from the colonies amounted to a huge amount and in the 16th century seemed incredible, but Charles V, despite this, managed to leave his successor equally incredible debts.
It got to the point that Philip II was forced twice during his reign - in 1557 and 1575 - to declare his country bankrupt! And because he did not want to reduce costs and refused to reform the tax system, Philip's economic policies caused Spain great harm. The government in the last years of the stubborn Philip's life barely made ends meet; short-sighted financial policy and negative trade balance of Spain (achieved by his own efforts) dealt a powerful blow to trade and industry.
The continuous influx of precious metals from the New World into the country turned out to be especially harmful. Such "wealth" led to the fact that in Spain it became especially profitable to sell goods, and to buy - on the contrary, unprofitable, because prices in the country were many times higher than in Europe. The 10% tax on trade turnover, which was one of the main points of income for the Spanish treasury, helped to finally destroy the economy of the once mighty state.
Naturally, Philip III (ruled 1598-1621), who received the kingdom in such a deplorable state, could not in any way improve the difficult situation in the Spanish economy. The next Hapsburg - Philip IV (ruled 1621-1665) also failed to improve the situation. Nevertheless, both of them tried to overcome the difficulties that they inherited from their predecessor to the best of their ability.
Philip III, in particular, in 1604 was able to conclude peace with England, and in 1609 he signed an armistice with the Dutch for 12 years. Although both of Spain's main opponents were temporarily neutralized, this did not greatly affect the economy of the state, because the king was distinguished by exorbitant spending on lavish entertainment and on his many favorites.
In addition, the monarch in 1609-1614 generally expelled the descendants of the Moors - the Moriscos (Mudejars) from the country, thereby depriving Spain of more than a quarter of a million (!) Of the most hardworking citizens. Many of the Moriscos were tough farmers, and their expulsion precipitated an agricultural crisis in the state.
Charles II - the last of the Habsburgs
In general, by the middle of the 17th century Spain, which was again on the verge of state bankruptcy, lost its former prestige and lost a considerable part of its possessions in Europe. The loss of the northern Netherlands was especially hard on the country's economy. And when, in 1618, Emperor Ferdinand II did not get along with the Czech Protestants and the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) broke out in Germany, in which many European states were involved, Spain sided with the Austrian Habsburgs - thus Philip III hoped to regain the Netherlands.
And although the aspirations of the monarch were not destined to be justified (instead, the country acquired huge new debts, continuing to decline), his son and successor, Philip IV, adhered to the same policy. Initially, the Spanish army achieved some success in the battles for some unknown ideals; Philip IV owed this to the famous General Ambrogio Di Spinola, an excellent strategist and tactician. However, Spain's military fortune turned out to be very fragile. From 1640, Spain suffered one defeat after another.
The situation was complicated by the uprisings in Catalonia and Portugal: the huge chasm between the wealth of the royal court and the poverty of the masses caused many conflicts. One of them, the mutiny in Catalonia, gained such proportions that it required the concentration of all the military forces of Spain. Meanwhile, taking advantage of this situation, Portugal achieved the restoration of its own independence: in 1640, a group of conspirators seized power in Lisbon. The Spanish king did not have the slightest opportunity to cope with the rebels, so in 1668 Spain was forced to recognize the independence of Portugal.
Only in 1648, at the end of the Thirty Years War, did the subjects of Philip IV receive a great respite; at that time, Spain continued to fight only with France. The end of this conflict was put in 1659, when both sides signed the Iberian Peace.
The last ruler of the Habsburg dynasty in Spain was the painful, nervous and suspicious Charles II, who reigned in 1665-1700. His reign did not leave a noticeable mark on Spanish history. Because Charles II did not leave heirs and died childless, after his death the crown of Spain passed to the French Prince Philip, Duke of Anjou. The King of Spain himself appointed him as his successor, stating that henceforth the crowns of France and Spain would be severed forever. The Duke of Anjou, who was the grandson of Louis XIV and the great-grandson of Philip III, became the first representative of the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbons. The Habsburg royal family in Spain thus ceased to exist.
M. Pankova