Spain: Military History and Notable Events

1478 - 1834 - Spanish Inquisition (All Facts)

• It begun under the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, with reluctant permission from Pope Sixtus IV, who regarded it as a breach of Church privilege

  • Spain’s Catholic kings obtained Pope Sixtus IV’s consent to appoint the namesake members of the namesake institution

  • Although it was set up by order of the Pope, it was mainly responsible to the Spanish crown

  • Although its first Inquisitor General was a Dominican Friar, it gradually became run by Catholic lawyers rather than monks

• It persecuted converted Jews and Muslims as well as Catholic intellectuals like St. Ignatius Loyola

  • Its main target was conversos, thousands of which were arrested, imprisoned, burnt at the stake, and sometimes tortured to extract confessions that they were still practicing their old faith

    • They were encouraged to betray their friends and family

  • It denounced the Jews as blasphemers and usurers, and encouraged every form of intolerance towards them

  • It acquired a fiercesome reputation for the cruel persecution of “deviants” in general and Jews in particular

• In Seville and Barcelona, many were being vigorously prosecuted

  • It spread to other cities in Aragon, despite local protests

• Each instance of the namesake institution began with edicts offering people a chance to confess their errors and also to denounce others

  • Only one informer was necessary for anyone to be charge

  • When anyone was convicted, they were liable to be “relaxed” (burnt alive)

• Institution in which most penitents / converts

  • suffered heavy fines

  • could not ride horses

  • could not bear arms

  • were forbidden to wear anything but the coarsest clothes

  • were sometimes forced to dress only in green, with cloth crosses on their clothes

• In the first 20 years of the namesake institution,

  • several thousand people were thought to have been burnt at the stake

  • more than 500 people were “relaxed” (burnt alive)

  • more than 5,000 people were “reconciled” by their confessions

  • many were sentenced to march for six Fridays to the cathedral, whipping themselves in the streets

• Around 100 years into the namesake institution,

  • only 3-4 people in the whole of Spain were executed by it, generally “Old Christians” who were neither Jewish nor Protestant but did not conform to prevailing views

    • For instance, people brought before the tribunal had been charged with witchcraft, marital misbehavior, and superstition

  • in rural areas it handed out minor sentences for trivial offenses like blaspheming while drunk or using love-potions to seduce the opposite sex

  • it was used to stamp out homosexuality

  • it was still a powerful force restricting what went into people’s minds as it had been effective as a censor

  • it jumped on and censored Juan de Mariana after he had published a work reminding Spain of the namesake institution’s cruel past

1482 - 1492 - Granada War (All Facts)

• Conflict in which the namesake Andalusian (Muslim) state in then-unified Spain was defeated by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain and their forces

• Conflict which ended the Reconquista of Spain that began more than 700 years prior

• Conflict after which the surrender of the namesake city was hailed by Christians as “the most signal and blessed day there had ever been in Spain whereas Muslims described it as one of the most terrible catastrophes to ever befall Islam

• War directed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, with months of continual skirmishing by the Christian armies eventually having worn down the beleaguered Muslims

• Conflict after which the Christian victors were considered to have been extremely generous, virtually granting all the Muslims their petitions in which they allowed Muslims to

  • emigrate freely

  • keep all arms except firearms

  • continue to enjoy their own communal life and maintain their own judicial system and local officials

  • continue to enjoy their own religion, free of interference

• Conflict after which bullfights were being held in celebration and people had rejoiced throughout Spain and in papal Rome while states such as Venice were sending more or less sincere congratulatory messages

1493 - Treaty of Barcelona (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain and King Charles VIII of France

• Treaty in which King Charles VIII of France agreed to return Cerdagne and Roussillon to Spain

1494 - Treaty of Tordesillas (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between King Ferdinand and Queen Isabela of Spain and King John II of Portugal

• Treaty which

  • divided all the land explored on, discovered, owned, and/or controlled thus far by the two kingdoms; and any others that may be discovered in the future

  • divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Spain, along a meridian west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa, a line of demarcation that was about halfway between Cape Verde (already Portuguese) and the islands visited by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage

  • divided the lands, with the lands east of the demarcation line belonging to Portugal, and west of the demarcation line belonging to Spain, thus, in hindsight, slightly favoring Spain

1494 - 1559 - Italian Wars (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts between the Valois (France) and the Habsburgs (Spain and Holy Roman Empire) that began with the First Italian War and ended with the Ninth Italian War and mostly took place in (Northern) Italy

1494 - 1498 - First Italian War (All Facts)

• Conflict in which the Habsburgs (Spain), with support from the Papacy and League of Venice, defeated the Valois (France)

• Conflict that began with King Charles VIII of France’s invasion of the Kingdom of Naples

• Conflict in which King Charles VIII and his army infected the Kingdom of Naples with the “French Pox” disease

• Conflict in which King Charles VIII and his army was forced to retreat from Italy, thus halting French expansion and preventing France from securing a permanent foothold in the Kingdom of Naples

1499 - 1501 - Second Italian War (All Facts)

• Conflict in which the Valois (France), with support from the Papacy, Venice, Florence, and Switzerland, defeated the Habsburgs (Spain)

• Conflict in which King Louis XII of France, with the help of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio and his Italian forces, seized and conquered the Duchy of Milan

• Conflict after which Ludovico Sforza fled from the Duchy of Milan

• Conflict in which the Milanese rebelled against Gian Giacomo Trivulzio and his Italian forces and the French, thus Sforza returned and took advantage of the revolt and attacked the French back

  • He was eventually deserted by his troops, however, and handed over to the enemy and imprisoned by the French

1502 - 1504 - Third Italian War (All Facts)

• Conflict in which King Ferdinand and the Habsburgs (Spain) defeated the King Louis XII and the Valois (France)

• Conflict in which King Ferdinand and the Habsburgs (Spain) took back the Kingdom of Naples from King Louis XII and France

1502 - 1697 - Spanish Conquest of the Maya (All Facts)

• Prolonged campaign during which

  • the Spanish gained control of the Mayan region of Mexico (New Spain) after crushing a serious revolt by the Mayan people there

1508 - 1516 - Fourth Italian War / War of the League of Cambrai / War of the Holy League (All Facts)

• Conflict in which the Valois (France) and Venice defeated the Habsburgs (Spain and the Holy Roman Empire) and England

• Conflict in which the Valois (France) and Venice defeated the Habsburgs (Spain and the Holy Roman Empire) and England

• Conflict which began when King Louis XII of France, Pope Julius II and the namesake league sought to punish the Republic of Venice for annexing papal provinces on the Adriatic Sea and thus attacked and defeated the Republic of Venice as a result in the Battle of Agnadello

• Conflict in which Pope Julius II and the namesake league (including Venice, Spain, and Switzerland) then turned against France, whose foothold in northern Italy became too strong for the papacy and namesake league

  • Conflict in which Pope Julius II raised the cry to “clear the Barbarians out of Italy” (the French under King Louis XII), turning against the King of France after previously lifting the excommunication of Venice

• Conflict which saw protracted war in Lombardy, the Romagna, and Veneto in northern Italy

• Conflict in which King Francis of France secured the Duchy of Milan for the French

• Conflict triggered by a Genoese revolt against French forces that had occupied the city

• Conflict which saw the following battles take place including

  • Battle of Agnadello

  • Siege of Mirandola

  • Battle of Ravenna

  • Battle of the Spurs

  • Siege of Tournai

  • Battle of Novara

  • Battle of Marignano

• Conflict which ended with

  • The Treaty of Fribourg

  • The Concordant of Bologna

1508 - 1511 - League of Cambrai (All Facts)

• (Temporary, short-lived) Military Alliance between King Louis XII of France, Maximilian of the Holy Roman Empire, Pope Julius II and the Papacy, and King Ferdinand of Spain aimed at conquering the Republic of Venice and its Italian possessions that initiated the Fourth Italian War / namesake War

• Alliance which was the brainchild of Pope Julius II, ostensibly set up as a “Holy League” against the Ottoman Turks

  • The pope’s more immediate use for the league was to recover for the papacy the towns of the Romagna region under Venetian rule

  • However, the French gained too strong a foothold in northern Italy; and the namesake league eventually turned against France during the Fourth Italian War / namesake War

1509 - Battle of Agnadello (All Facts)

• Battle in which Louis XII and his French forces, with support from France’s allies in the League of Cambrai (the Holy Roman Empire, the Papacy, and Spain) defeated the Republic of Venice during the Fourth Italian War / War of the League of Cambrai

• Battle which allowed Pope Julius II to reoccupy the Romagna

• Venice would eventually ally with France in the Fourth Italian War / War of the League of Cambrai

• Battle which gave France a much stronger foothold in northern Italy

• Battle after which the League of Cambrai turned against France, recognizing how strong it was becoming in the region of northern Italy

1511 - Siege of Mirandola (All Facts)

• Battle in which Pope Julius II and his forces, with help from the Habsburgs (Spain) and the Republic of Venice, defeated France during the Fourth Italian War / War of the League of Cambrai

• Battle that was part of Pope Julius II's campaign to keep France from dominating northern Italy during the Fourth Italian War / War of the League of Cambrai

1512 - 1529 - Conquest of Navarre (All Facts)

• War begun by King Ferdinand and completed by King Charles

• War which begun when Pope Julius II declared the Holy League of Cambrai against France, and Navarre attempted to remain neutral

  • Ferdinand used this as an excuse to attack Navarre

• War in which the namesake kingdom was fully conquered by the end of the reign of King Charles

1512 - Battle of Ravenna (All Facts)

• Battle in which France defeated Spain and the League of Cambrai / Holy League during the Fourth Italian War

• Battle in which honors were declared even

1513 - Battle of Novara (All Facts)

• Battle in which Milan, with help from Pope Leo X and his “Holy League, along with Switzerland, defeated France and the Republic of Venice during the Fourth Italian War / War of the League of Cambrai

1519 - 1521 - Conquest of the Aztec Empire (All Facts)

• Campaign of military conquest to conquer the lands that became Mexico (New Spain) led by Hernan Cortes

• Campaign in which Hernan Cortes

  • first landed at Veracruz (modern-day Mexico) with over 500 Spanish troops in search of gold

  • made sure there would be no retreat and ordered his 700 men to burn the Aztec ships before marching inland to the high plateau of Mexico and Tenochtitlan

  • then marched on Tenochtitlan which Moctezuma II and the Aztecs surrendered without a fight

  • found Tenochtitlan to be a “well organized and most orderly” center where 60K people traded goods daily

  • returned Moctezuma II’s messengers fitted with clothes for a god sent to him with a terrifying show of firepower

  • took prisoners in a skirmish at Tabasco, including a beautiful female slave named Marina / La Malinche

  • burned a steady and bloody road uphill with armor, crossbows, firearms, cannons, and horses (all unknown to the Aztecs)

  • committed the Massacre at Cholula

  • was supported by tribes long suppressed by the Aztecs that flocked to him

  • led Moctezuma II away after he and Moctezuma had met in Tenochtitlan, where, since, the arrival of his expeditionary force, Moctezuma II was not seen since; and thus, nine months of bloody conquest was over

• When Pedro de Alvarado and Cortes’s Spanish expeditionary forces had told Aztecs to go to a temple courtyard for a religious festival, they massacred them all soon after without warning

  • This unleashed general warfare in which the Aztecs, armed with bows, had besieged their own capital and cut off the freshwater for it

• Campaign in which Cuauhtémoc, Moctezuma II’s successor, drove back Cortes and his forces from Tenochtitlan; where they retreated to Tlaxcala

• Campaign in which Tenochtitlan was besieged by Cortes and his forces a second time

  • Cortes returned to Mexico, after being away for some time, with official Spanish blessing

  • Since the siege of Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma II died in captivity and Cortes returned to lift the siege

  • This time, however, there was tougher resistance from the Aztecs, who exchanged formal war procedures for guerrilla tactics

  • This siege was fought in boats across lakes and canals, and ashore among city streets

  • As Cortes led his people out, they were ambushed and many were killed

  • On their way out to the coast they wiped out another Aztec village and left an epidemic of smallpox

• Campaign in which Aztecs beheaded Spanish prisoners and Spanish horses, displaying the heads of both on the same racks

• Campaign in which Tenochtitlan was deprived of drinking water and were forced to surrender their capital a second time to Cortes and his men

1519 - Cholula Massacre (All Facts)

• Massacre of the namesake Aztec city and its 6K inhabitants in less than 2 hours by Hernan Cortes and his Spanish expeditionary forces during the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire

1520 - 1521 - Revolt of the Comuneros (All Facts)

• Revolt of the namesake cities of the (former) Kingdom of Castile in the Kingdom of Spain against the Flemish administration of (the new) King Charles led by Juan de Padilla

  • Revolt prompted by King Charles’ having left Spain after bring crowned there as king to go to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor

• Revolt in which the Castilian rebels protested against

  • high taxes

  • top jobs going to King Charles’ foreign advisors

• Revolt in which the Castilian rebels appeared to have temporary control over all of Spain, with the revolt spreading to Catalonia and Andalucia

  • However, their “junta” collapsed after a split between rebel leaders

1521 - Battle of Villalar (All Facts)

• Battle in which King Charles’s Royalist forces defeated Juan de Padilla and his Comuneros forces, ending the Revolt of the Comuneros

• Battle after which Juan de Padilla was executed

1521 - Fall of Tenochtitlan (All Facts)

• Battle in which Hernan Cortes and his Tlaxcalan forces defeated and set fire to the namesake Aztec capital city during the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire

1521 - 1526 - Fifth Italian War / Four Years’ War (All Facts)

• Conflict in which Charles V and the Habsburgs (the Holy Roman Empire and Spain) defeated King Francis and the Valois (France)

  • Conflict upon which King Francis of France lost his war with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V for supremacy in Europe

• Conflict which saw the

  • Holy Roman Empire’s invasion of Champagne

  • Battle of Bicocca

  • Siege of Marseilles

  • Battle of Pavia

• Conflict which saw

  • a modernization of European military forces, especially with regards to new arms (guns), defenses (Bastion Fort), and tactics / strategies

  • new tactics being developed for mounted troops using new carbines (arquebus) and horse pistols, which became the masters of the battlefield, replacing and eventually contributing to the elimination of armored cavalry and knights in armor

  • the implementation of the Bastion / Star Fort (“trace italienne;” a circuit of low, thick walls punctuated by square bastions), which

    • replaced the high and thin walls of the Middle Ages as new defenses

    • were designed to absorb the punishment of the heavy siege guns which were a part of every successful army by that time

    • changed the entire pattern of warfare because the cities protected by them could no longer be taken by traditional methods of blowing a hole in the walls and pouring infantry through the breach and instead forced towns to be encircled by siege-works and batteries and starved and frightened into submission

    • essentially made warfare more a matter of engineering and logistics

  • the advent of the gun bring about great changes at sea since

    • ships no longer rammed and boarded each other, but pounded each other with formidable arrays of guns firing through ports in ships’ sides

    • gunships eventually set the pattern which all maritime nations must have followed if they wanted to avoid facing inevitable defeat

• Conflict which ended with the Treaty of Madrid

1522 - Battle of Bicocca (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Habsburgs (Spain and the Holy Roman Empire), supported by the Papacy and the Duchy of Milan, defeated the Valois (France), supported by the Republic of Venice and Switzerland, during the Fifth Italian War / Four Years’ War

• Battle after which the imperial army of the Holy Roman Empire occupied the Republic of Genoa, where a doge who supported Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was appointed

1525 - Battle of Pavia (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Habsburgs (Spain and the Holy Roman Empire) defeated King Francis and the Valois (France) during the Fifth Italian War / Four Years’ War

• Battle which took place in Lombardy in Italy

• Battle before which

  • Pope Clement VII tried and failed to mediate between its two parties and battle was joined before first light in the morning

• Battle which began when

  • King Francis of France decided to lay siege to the namesake city; with an army of French and Italian infantry, German and Swiss mercenaries, and a strong train of artillery

• Battle during which

  • the siege initially went well; the French guns having broke down the defenses and King Francis’s regiments having stormed into the breaches

  • Antonio de Levya, the Spanish governor of the namesake town, had built new fortifications inside the walls, making it so that the French were routed by the namesake town’s defenders

  • the French forces retreated to mount a classic siege throughout the winter

  • King Francis, reinforced by Venetian troops, became sure of victory as the namesake town ran short of food and ammunition

  • the imperial forces of the Holy Roman Empire had been gathering at the town of Lodi, near the namesake, and had had marched on the namesake earlier in the month catching King Francis between the anvil of the namesake and the hammer of the attacking imperial army

  • the French guns have King Francis and France the advantage at first, but, he eventually ordered his forced to cease fire, since he believed in chivalry rather than guns

  • King Francis led his knights in a disorganized charge without waiting for the infantry and in the shambles that ensued 6K Frenchmen died

• Battle which ended when

  • King Francis of France had his horse shot from under him by an arquebus (a new type of gun at the time) and demounted, fought on foot, only to have his face blooded and his having surrendered his sword to the enemy

• Battle after which

  • King Francis of France was held captive by Lannoy (the viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples)

  • King Francis of France essentially lost his war with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V for supremacy in Europe

  • King Francis of France was forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

1526 - Treaty of Madrid (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between King Francis of France (Valois) and Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain (Habsburgs), which ended the Fifth Italian War / Four Years’ War

• Peace Treaty in which

  • Holy Roman Emperor Charles V agreed to

    • release King Francis of France from captivity

  • King Francis of France agreed to

    • abandon and concede Burgundy to the Holy Roman Empire

    • give up claims to Flanders, Artois, Tournai, and all of Italy

    • pardon the rebel Charles of Bourbon

• Peace Treaty which was declared null and void by King Francis of France following his release from captivity

1529 - Treaty of Zaragoza (All Facts)

• Treaty between King Charles of Spain and King John III of Portugal which confirmed the prior Treaty of Tordesillas, by which Spain and Portugal had divided up the New World

  • This relied on the confirmation given in the Badajoz Conference held prior

• Treaty which fixed the dividing line between the Spanish and Portuguese in the Pacific Ocean 17 degrees easy of the Moluccas

• Treaty in which the Portuguese regained control of the archipelago in return for paying compensation to King Charles of Spain

1529 - Treaty of Barcelona (All Facts)

• Treaty between King Charles of Spain and Pope Clement VII of the Papacy, in which the two leaders settled their differences

1532 - 1572 - Conquest of the Inca Empire (All Facts)

• Campaign of military conquest to conquer the lands that became (Spanish) Peru led by Francisco Pizzaro

• Campaign in which Francisco Pizzaro

  • had with him only 150 soldiers, including 62 horsemen

  • held Atahualpa hostage with a fortune in gold to be ransomed

  • and his Spanish forces defeated Atahualpa and his Incan forces in the Battle of Cajamarca

  • traveled over thousands of miles with a small force with no supply lines against apparently overwhelming odds

  • clearly paid his dividends as the remnants of Atahualpa’s army limped away from its own tribal territory ahead of the Spanish invaders upon their defeat

  • emulated Hernan Cortes’ strategy of conquering by exploiting the prior Incan Civil War so as to divide and rule

  • continued to march towards and eventually enter the Incan capital city of Cusco following the Battle of Cajamarca

1532 - Battle of Cajamarca (All Facts)

• Battle in which Francisco Pizzaro and his Spanish forces defeated Atahualpa and his Incan forces

• Battle in which Francisco Pizzaro

  • used surprise brilliantly, occupying peacefully some long, low buildings round three sides of a square in the upland valley of the namesake town

  • invited Atahualpa to meet him

    • When Atahualpa came, Pizzaro handed him a Christian prayer book, which Atahualpa threw down

  • then sprang his ambush of two hidden cannons, which blasted point blank range into the packed Incan ranks, while panic did the rest

  • led a squad which snatched Atahualpa from his litter while Pizzaro’s soldiers butchered the survivors

• Battle in which, in just two hours, 7K native Incans died and their leader was held captive

1535 - Conquest of Tunis (All Facts)

• War in which King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles and his forces defeated Hayreddin Barbarossa and his Ottoman Turk forces

• War in which 60K allied troops took the namesake city, along with the port of La Goleta and the bulk of Barbarossa’s fleet of 80 galleys

• War in which King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles allowed his soldiers five days of pillaging and 30K inhabitants were reported to have been killed

• War which began when King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles chose to invade after Barbarossa’s fleet had ravaged southern Italy at the behest of the Turkish sultan

  • As a result, King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles believed that Spanish possession of the namesake would effectively cut off Barbarossa from Constantinople

• War in which a combined fleet of Spanish and Genoan galleys sailed from Barcelona to Sardinia, where more ships joined their fleet with 22K German and Italian troops

• War in which King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles’ shock troops, the formidable “tercio” were the first to land at La Goleta, followed by artillery and a detachment of cavalry

• War in which Barbarossa chose to remain behind the walls, trusting the extreme heat to wear down the enemy

  • War in which many of King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles’s forces dying of dysentery

• War in which Barbarossa had not reckoned with the firepower of the fleet and land-artillery who pounded the walls for give hours before the infantry broke through, causing the namesake to fall more easily

1539 - Treaty of Toledo (All Facts)

• Treaty between King Francis of France and King Charles of Spain and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, in which they agreed that neither of them would form future alliances with England; given King Henry VIII’s split with the Roman Catholic Church

1540 - 1541 - Tiguex War (All Facts)

• War in which the Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and his Spanish forces defeated and suppressed the Pueblo Native rebellion against them

1542 - Battle of Chupas (All Facts)

• Battle in which Cristobal Vaca de Castro and his forces defeated Diego de Almagro II and his forces during the Spanish Conquest of the Incan Empire

1550 - 1551 - Valladolid Debate (All Facts)

• First public debate in European history to discuss the morality, rights and treatment of Indigenous people by European colonizers

• Debate that raged amongst Spanish intellectuals and colonialists surrounding the question of the moral justification(s) of the conquest of the Americas and its inevitable destruction of native American culture

• On one side, Bartolome de las Casas stated the case against the conquest and condemning the brutality of Spain’s troops

• On the other side, Juan Gines de Sepulveda stated the case for the conquest and justified Spain’s actions by the Biblical text that said to “go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in”

  • Sepulveda argued that the native Americans were a barbaric race, certainly not Christians and barely human

  • He said, “How can we doubt that these people - so uncivilized, contaminated with so many impieties and obscenities, have been justly conquered by such an excellent, pious, and most just king?”

1551 - 1559 - Ninth Italian War (All Facts)

• Conflict in which Charles V and Philip II and the Habsburgs (the Holy Roman Empire and Spain) defeated King Henry II and the Valois (France), ending the Italian Wars

• Conflict which began when

  • King Henry II of France declared war against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, with the intent of recapturing parts of Italy and ensuring French, rather than Habsburg, domination of European affairs

  • King Henry II of France publicly disavowed the Council of Trent

• Conflict which saw

  • The Siege of Metz

  • The Battle of Marciano

  • The Battle of St. Quentin

  • The Siege of Calais

  • The Siege of Thionville

• Conflict which included the Siege of Siena, a brutal 15-month blockade in which Cosimo de Medici and the Habsburgs (Holy Roman Empire) defeated the Valois (France) and took Siena from the French, during the namesake war

1556 - Truce of Vaucelles (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between King Henry II of France and King Charles of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire during the Ninth Italian War

1557 - Battle of St. Quentin (All Facts)

• Battle in which Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy and his Spanish forces defeated Anne de Montmorency and his French forces during the Ninth Italian War

• Battle after which King Philip II of Spain promised to construct a magnificent building to commemorate the victory over the French

1558 - Battle of Gravelines (All Facts)

• Battle in which Count Lamoral of Egmont and the (Spanish) Habsburgs defeated the Valois resoundingly during the Ninth Italian War

1559 - Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between King Henry II of France and the Valois and King Philip II of Spain and the Habsburgs, ending the Ninth Italian War and the Italian Wars altogether

• Peace Treaty in which France

  • agreed to withdraw from Savoy and Piedmont

  • retained Metz, Toul, and Verdun

  • regained Calais from England

• Peace Treaty in which Spain

  • controlled Sicily, Sardinia, Naples, Milan, and Tuscany in Italy

  • won the exclusion of France from Italy

  • won the most from the treaty

• Peace Treaty in which England

  • agreed to give Calais to France

• Peace Treaty sealed by two dynastic marriages between France and Spain

  • One of these dynastic marriages was between Elizabeth (daughter of King Henry II of France) and (the young) King Philip II of Spain

• Peace Treaty which humiliated the French, bound to cause bitterness amongst the French who shed so much blood for so little

• Peace Treaty prompted by the massive spending, to the point of bankruptcy, by both France and Spain, and their inability to continue fighting one another despite heavy political disagreement

• Peace Treaty in which it was said at its meeting that the only things the delegates agreed upon was the discomfort of their quarters

1568 - 1571 - Morisco Revolt (All Facts)

• Revolt of the namesake group led by Aben Humeya and Aben Aboo against King Philip II of Spain and his administration’s campaign of intolerance and persecution towards the namesake Spanish Muslims

• Revolt in which King Philip II’s system of government was directly responsible for the outbreak of the revolt

  • Revolt that occurred due to King Philip II of Spain’s issuing a decree which forbade the namesake group in Spain from speaking Arabic and wearing their traditional dress

• Revolt prompted by the namesake group being second-class subjects throughout Spain and having been exploited, hated, and feared, and plagued by bandits of their own race

• Revolt in which the defeated and sullen namesake population was dispersed throughout Castile while 50K settlers were brought to Andalucía to fill the gap

1566 - 1648 - Eighty Years War / Dutch Revolt (All Facts)

• War between Spain and the Habsburg (Spanish) Netherlands

• War which began

  • when King Philip II of Spain

    • decided to curb the Netherlands’ autonomy

    • bring the Spanish Inquisition into the Netherlands

  • when popular revolts against Spanish rule were

    • triggered by

      • bad harvests

      • increase in the price of bread

      • famine

      • mass unemployment

      • floods

      • resentment against the implementation of the Spanish Inquisition into the Netherlands

      • oppressive taxes (especially the “tenth penny” tax of Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the Duke of Alba)

    • encouraged by

      • anti-Catholic Dutch Calvinists

      • other anti-Spanish / anti-Catholic “heretics”

      • the Dutch Protestant Reformation

• War which began when

  • the three leaders King Philip II of Spain had appointed to rule the Habsburg (Spanish) Netherlands began to challenge him and Spain for these anti-Netherlandish measures, making them symbols of Dutch resistance

  • churches were ransacked

  • monasteries were sacked

  • gold and silver ornaments were looted in villages throughout the Low Countries, as magistrates looked on helplessly

  • Catholic nobles were removed from their town councils

  • Margaret of Parma used newly-arrived funds from Spain to build up an army

• War which began when Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the Duke of Alba, acting on the orders of King Philip II of Spain had

  • pledged himself to bring back the Spanish Inquisition into the Netherlands

  • pledged himself to establish a new order for King Philip II

  • turned his regime over the Netherlands into a dictatorship by which he

    • imposed the hated “tenth penny” tax on the (Spanish) Netherlands to help a bankrupted Spain and pay his army in the Low Countries

    • humiliated Margaret of Parma, the civil governor, by

      • forcing her to demobilize her army she raised

      • assuming many of her powers until she was forced to leave for Italy

    • established the “Council of Troubles,” a newer and more sinister form of the Spanish Inquisition within the Netherlands, in which he

      • organized the arrests of thousands just in one spring

      • oversaw the execution of 1,000 alleged heretics

      • oversaw the stripping of property of 8,000 alleged heretics

      • oversaw the seizing and burning of 500 alleged heretical books in the Calvinist city of Tournai

  • imposed the “tenth penny” tax to help a nearly-bankrupted Spain pay its armies in the Low Countries (Netherlands)

• War which began when Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the Duke of Alba, acting on the orders of King Philip II of Spain had

  • ordered the arrest of Counts Egmont and Hoorne, the leaders of the nobility there

  • ensured that William of Orange was deprived of his office of stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht

  • set up a new court in the Netherlands that tried suspected rebels

  • ordered the execution in Brussels of 20 noble leaders, including Counts Egmont and Hoorne

  • imposed crippling taxation on the rebel province of Groningen

  • oversaw the Count of Egmont’s execution via order of the repressive “Court of Unrest,” the so-called “Council of Blood”

  • suppressed the initial anti-Catholic, anti-Spanish Calvinist insurrection

  • came with 10K elite Spanish troops and marched through the streets of Ghent, organizing the troops into ranks of five, following them up with prostitutes in frilly dresses riding donkeys and bringing with a host of camp followers

  • made sure the behavior of his troops underlined the ferocity with which he approached his task

  • had the Dutch population, even the good Catholics there, insulted in the streets as “traitors” and “heretics”

  • had merchants beaten up

• War in which the “Sea Beggars” fled from Fernando Alvarez de Toledo’s repression in their native Netherlands to England

  • They harried shipping between Spain and the Netherlands for three years

  • They chanted the Lord’s Prayer addressed to Fernando Alvarez de Toledo saying, “cursed father who in Brussels doth dwell, cursed be thy name in Heaven and in Hell”

  • When they tried using Dover in England as the base for their operations, Queen Elizabeth of England expelled them from the port

  • They eventually controlled Brill, Enkhuisen, Flushing, Arnemuide, Veere, Holland, and Zeeland when Luis de Requenses y Zyniga assumed the governorship

• War in which the Dutch

  • raised their own revenue from their trade in the East and West Indies

  • captured an entire (Spanish) treasure fleet in the Caribbean one year, the proceeds of which enabled them to launch a major assault against Spain within the Netherlands

  • (from the Seven United Provinces) occupied the mouth of the Scheldt, halting any seaborne trade with Antwerp

• War in which Francis, Duke of Anjou tried to regain Antwerp for the Dutch Calvinists

• War in which Piet Heyn and his forces seized 80 tons of silver from (Spanish) Cuba, whom carried the namesake war across the Atlantic to colonies and shipping in the New World of the Americas

• War which saw the Pacification of Ghent

• War in which the Hague of the Netherlands deposed Philip II of Spain as ruler of the seven provinces which formed the Union of Utrecht, thus declaring war against and independence from Spain

• War in which Alexander Farnese of the Netherlands secured the submissions of the southern Netherlands, Flanders, and Brabant to the Spanish crown

• War in which Robert Dudley returned to England after failing to aid the Dutch in their revolt against Spain

• War in which a Twelve Year Truce was declared

  • However, this did not last because of a renewal of hostilities occurred because of Dutch ships having grown in numbers and trading throughout much of the world and threatening Spain’s trade monopoly with its colonial possessions

  • Apart from their success in trading, the Dutch waged war with Spanish shipping and settlements on the Pacific Ocean; which provoked their hostilities amongst one another

• War in which the Spanish court ended the Twelve Year Truce once

  • the Dutch established “Fort Orange” on Hudson’s River in North America

  • established their Dutch West India Company, which was formed to promote trade and war in Spanish South America

• War in which the Dutch were so desperate for military aid against Spain that they

  • appealed to Cardinal Richelieu and France for assistance, who gave them a subsidy of a million livres on the condition that Dutch ships join in a blockade of the Huguenot fortress in the Battle of La Rochelle

    • The Dutch leaders’ willingness to support a war against their fellow Huguenots (French Calvinists) angered the Dutch Calvinists of the Netherlands

  • struck at other American possessions of King Philip IV and Spain in order to inflict maximum damage on the king’s lucrative trade with the colonies

    • They ignored the claims of Spain (and Portugal) and dealt directly with the colonies to raise revenues

    • This trade became so large that

      • King Philip IV had to continue fighting because of what he would lose

      • The Dutch had to continue fighting because of what they had gained

    • They seized the Spanish (formerly Portuguese) capital of Brazil, the port of Bahia

• War during which the Dutch and the Spanish traded with each other despite the conflict in which

  • The Dutch levied port charges on ships sailing to Spanish territories, using the money to build warships

  • The Spanish needed the grain and naval stores brought by the Dutch from northern Europe for their own use

• War which dragged on for so long because the Spanish crown, despite being much more powerful

  • became bankrupt and could not pay its troops fighting for them in the Netherlands

    • Thus, mercenaries working for Spain frequently mutinied, walking out of forts and letting the Dutch take them over

    • Thus, Spanish military gains in the Netherlands were frequently lost

  • depended on a steady flow of precious metal from New Spain (the New World) to pay its troops; its entire empire existing solely to fund the war

  • had to pay heavily to move her troops across Europe from Italy

  • had a depleted navy which had to be deployed in protecting treasure ships in the Atlantic and escorting troop-ships to Genoa, leaving the North Sea and Baltic ports open for Dutch shipping

  • had leaders who were busy patronizing artists (whom some of their money went to)

  • had a gradual but demoralizing effect on Spain, it being an intolerable strain on Spain’s resources in manpower and money

• War which saw

  • The Capture of Brielle in which

    • monasteries were sacked there

    • Catholic nobles were removed from its town council

    • it provided the first foothold on land for the rebels at a time when the rebellion was all but crushed, which offered the sign for a new revolt throughout the Netherlands which led to the formation of the Dutch Republic

  • The Siege of Haarlem

  • The Battle of Mookerheyde

  • The Sack of Antwerp

  • The Battle of Gembloux

  • The Fall of Antwerp

  • The Siege of Ostend

  • The Siege of Bergen op Zoom

  • The Capture of Bahia

  • The Battle of San Juan

• War which ended with the Peace of Munster, in which the Netherlands gained their independence from Spain and were no more the Habsburg (Spanish) Netherlands but were known as the Dutch Republic

1571 - Holy League (All Facts)

• Alliance formed by Pope Pius V with Spain and Venice to counter Ottoman expansion; it lasted only a year

1571 - Battle of Lepanto (All Facts)

• Battle in which Don John of Austria and the Holy League defeated Ali Pasha and the Ottoman Turks

• Battle in which two great galleys, one flying the pennant of the Cross and the other the Crescent were being rowed directly at each other, gathering speed all the time as the galley-masters whipped their slaves to even greater efforts

  • Battle in which the Cross met the Crescent in which many believed will be the last great encounter between the two galley fleets

  • Battle in which the La Real and Sultana flagships struck each other so hard that they locked together

• Battle triggered by Sultan Selim II’s invasion of Cyprus

  • This brought the combined fleets of Spain, Venice, and the Papacy face-to-face with the larger Turkish fleet

  • Famagusta had fallen, and reports of unbelievable atrocities had incensed the Christians to a crusading fervor as they sailed from Messina

• Battle in which Don John of Austria

  • rode in La Real, the Spanish flagship

  • drew his sword and braced himself for the inevitable head-on crash

  • began to charge forward in the La Real after the Ottomans had moved out to attack in their crescent formation

  • led his men onto the Sultana’s foredeck and confronted Ali Pasha in person

• Battle in which Ali Pasha (the Turkish commander)

  • ordered his men on the Sultana, the Turkish flagship, to prepare to board

  • and his fleet was anchored in the gulf when the Christian fleet hove into sight

  • and the Ottoman Turks hesitated before moving out to attack in a crescent formation

  • was killed by a Spanish arquebus, his head struck off and presented to Don John of Austria

• Battle in which the Ottoman Turks lost 230 galleys

• Battle in which the Holy League of Christians lost just 16 galleys

• Battle whose victory by the Christian Holy League brought great rejoicing throughout the West

1572 - Capture of Brielle (All Facts)

• Incident in which the namesake port town was captured by William II de la Marck and his “Sea Beggars” forces

• Incident which marked a turning point in the uprising of the Low Countries against Spain in the Eighty Years' War

• The namesake port provided the first foothold on land for the rebels at a time when the rebellion was all but crushed

• Incident which offered the sign for a new revolt throughout the Netherlands which led to the formation of the Dutch Republic

1572 - 1573 - Siege of Haarlem (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Spanish took the namesake city from the Dutch during the Dutch Revolt / Eighty Years’ War

1573 - Conquest of Tunis (All Facts)

• War in which Don John of Austria and his 20K forces defeated the Ottoman Turks and retook the namesake region from them

1574 - Battle of Mookerheyde (All Facts)

• Battle in which Luis de Requesens y Zúñiga and his Spanish forces defeated the Dutch Protestant / Calvinist rebels during the Dutch Revolt / Eighty Years’ War

1574 - Conquest of Tunis (All Facts)

• War in which Spain was defeated by the Ottoman Turks

• War in which the Ottoman Turks recaptured the namesake, as well as Bizerta, out of La Goletta, from Spain and retook the namesake from Don John of Austria

1576 - Sack of Antwerp (All Facts)

• Incident which became known as the “Spanish Fury”

• During the Eighty Years’ War, the Spanish soldiers took and destroyed the namesake city in which they

  • mutinied yet indulged in extortion and robbery

  • rampaged through the city; burning, killing, and looting

  • killed 8,000 people

  • destroyed 1,000 houses

  • “spared neither age nor sex, time nor place, person nor country, profession nor religion, young nor old, rich nor poor, strong nor feeble, but, without any mercy, did tyrannously triumph”

  • killed hundreds of children

• It was prompted by a mutiny four years ago, by Spanish soldiers, that brought the hatred to the boiling point in the namesake conflict

  • This occurred as thousands of hardened veteran troops expelled their officers and formed their own revolutionary committees, with brutal excesses following

• It led to the negotiations which led to the Pacification of Ghent

1578 - Battle of Gembloux (All Facts)

• Battle in which John of Austria and his Spanish forces defeated the Estates-General of Dutch Rebels during the Dutch Revolt / Eighty Years’ War

1584 - 1585 - Fall of Antwerp (All Facts)

• Battle in which Alexander Farnese and his Spanish forces defeated the States General and took the namesake city to be submitted to the Spanish crown during the Dutch Revolt / Eighty Years

1585 - 1604 - Anglo-Spanish War / 1588 - Spanish Armada (All Facts)

• War (Battle) in which Lord Charles Howard of Nottingham and his English forces defeated Alonso de Guzmán y Sotomayor and his Spanish forces; in which

  • In the beginning, the Spanish

    • had twice as many ships

    • had some ships that were 1,000 tons

    • had many ships packed with soldiers with great grappling irons

  • In the beginning, the English, despite being outnumbered, outsized, and outmanned;

    • had highly maneuverable ships

    • had superior long-range gunfire

    • slipped past to the Spanish rear while they had sighted the fleet approaching the English Channel during the night prior to the conflict

  • During the battle, the English

    • darted in, releasing their broadsides and escaping before the heavier Spanish cannons could be brought to bear

    • created havoc among the enemy, although they initially could make no impact on the stout Spanish hulls

    • snapped at the flanks of the Spanish ships while they pushed up the English Channel

    • used their fireships, stacked with wood, pitch, and explosives and, a mile away from the retreating Spanish, went towards them at midnight, causing panic aboard the Spanish ships as they set a raging fire

    • struck repeatedly into the next day following the midnight

  • During the battle, the Spanish

    • pushed up the English Channel

    • expected a rendezvous with reinforcements and landing craft from the Spanish Netherlands, but neither ever came due to rebel Dutch “sea beggars”

    • anchored off Calais

    • collided and sank as anchors were abandoned and cables were severed

  • In the end, the English

    • lost

      • zero ships

      • fewer than 100 men

  • In the end, the Spanish

    • lost

      • 65 ships

      • 10K men

    • were

      • outgunned by the English

      • panicked by their fireships

      • battered by a raging southwesterly wind

      • sailing north, scattered and seeking to escape into the Atlantic around the Orkneys and Shetlands

      • completely scattered, sunk, or fleeing

• War which was prompted by Philip II’s wanting to teach England a lesson after Queen Elizabeth and the explorers and privateers under her such as Francis Drake and John Hawkins, had thoroughly raided and were unimpeded / encouraged by the Queen to continue the raids on various Spanish ships

  • War in which Queen Elizabeth allowed Francis Drake to launch a spoiling operation on Spanish ships after she had received a report detailing that Philip II was building up a huge fleet of ships

• War which was one of the most humiliating naval defeats in Spain’s history

  • It would have been even worse had the English ships pursuing the Spanish ships not have turned back when they ran out of food and ammunition

• War involving a number of battles aside from the latter namesake including

  • Battle of Cartagena de Indias

  • Battle of Zutphen

  • The Singeing of the King of Spain’s beard

  • Battle of Flores

• War after which Spain’s power began to decline

  • Although Spain remained a major power after its defeat, its prestige had been seriously damaged and its naval supremacy definitively lost

1586 - Battle of Zutphen (All Facts)

• Battle in which Philip Sydney and his English forces were defeated by the Spanish during the Anglo-Spanish War in the Netherlands during the Eighty Years’ War

• Battle in which Philip Sydney

  • charged recklessly with 500 English horsemen against 3,000 Spanish cavalry

  • was struck in the thigh by a bullet, and managed to ride back to camp where he called for water

    • When he saw a dying foot-soldier brought in, however, he handed him the bottle of water saying “thy necessity is yet greater than mine”

1586 - Battle of Cartagena de Indias (All Facts)

• Battle in which Francis Drake and his English forces capture Cartagena on the Spanish by a land and sea attack, plundering the city and ransoming it for 110K ducats; during the Anglo-Spanish War

1587 - The Singeing of the King of Spain’s Beard (All Facts)

• Series of attacks by Francis Drake on the Spanish fleet during the Anglo-Spanish War

  • They were commissioned by Queen Elizabeth of England, whom had sent Drake to launch the namesake operation of spoiling the Spanish ships

  • She did this after having received a report that Philip II of Spain was building up a huge fleet of ships to fight against the English

• Series of attacks that began with Francis Drake’s having pillaged Cadiz and ravaged the Spanish coast

  • He did this with 23 warships that descended with guns blazing onto Cadiz, having captured or destroyed 80 Spanish ships

1591 - Battle of Flores (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Spanish defeated Richard Grenville and the English during the Anglo-Spanish War

• Battle in which Richard Grenville was killed and the ship, the Revenge, was destroyed

1595 - 1598 - Franco-Spanish War (All Facts)

• War in which France fought against Spain, having ended in a stalemate

• War in which King Henry IV declared war on Spain to

  • show Catholics that Spain was using religion as a cover for an attack on the French state 

  • show Protestants that his conversion had not made him a puppet of Spain

  • reconquer large parts of northern France from the Franco-Spanish Catholic forces

  • prevent Spain from enforcing its claims of a Spanish pretender to the French throne

1595 - Battle of Fontaine-Francaise (All Facts)

• Battle in which King Henry IV and his French forces defeated the Spanish and drove them out of Burgundy during the Franco-Spanish War

1596 - Siege of Calais (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Spanish defeated King Henry IV and his French forces during the Franco-Spanish War

1596 - Capture of Cadiz (All Facts)

• Battle in which Robert Devereux, Charles Howard, Francis Vere, Walter Raleigh, and their combined English and Dutch forces defeated Alonzo Perez de Guzman and his forces and raided and captured the namesake Spanish city during the Anglo-Spanish War and Eighty Years’ War

1596 - Triple Alliance (All Facts)

• Pact established between England, France, and the Netherlands against Spain

1598 - Peace of Vervins (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between King Henry IV of France and King Philip II of Spain, it ended the Franco-Spanish War

• Peace Treaty which

  • made France belong entirely to King Henry IV and the House of Bourbon, ending King Philip II and Spain’s interference in France and attempts to put a Spanish pretender on the French throne

  • made Spain, particularly the Habsburgs, suffer a major setback in their ambitions

• Peace Treaty in which

  • Spain kept the provinces of Flanders, Artois, and Charolais

  • France kept the province of Picardy

1601 - 1604 - Siege of Ostend (All Facts)

• Three-year siege in which the Spanish took the namesake city from the Dutch during the Eighty Years’ War

1609 - 1621 - Twelve Years’ Truce (All Facts)

• Ceasefire during the Eighty Years War between Archduke Albert VII of Austria and Spain and Maurice Nassau and the Netherlands

• Truce that was formally agreed upon after months of negotiation, with envoys from England and (King Henry IV of) France acting as mediators

• Lasting for the namesake amount of time, it took effect universally a year into its implementation because of the need to inform troops and ships outside Europe

• Truce in which the Archduke tried desperately to secure a guarantee of improvement in conditions for Catholics in the north of the Netherlands

• Truce in which the Dutch, pressed for the right to trade with Spain’s colonies

• Truce that included a clause that allowed travel and trade between Spain and the Netherlands, but “as for the places, cities, ports, and harbors which King Philip III of Spain holds outside these limits, the States and their subjects cannot engage in any business in them without the permission of King Philip III”

1617 - Treaty of Pavia (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Spain and the Duchy of Savoy, which reinforced Spain’s alliances against France

• Peace Treaty signed during the reign of King Philip III

1618 - 1648 - Thirty Years War (All Facts)

1620 - 1626 - Vatellina War (All Facts)

• War between Spain and the Swiss League of Grisons that arose out of competition to control the namesake Alpine valley forming a key part of the Spanish Road; during the Thirty Years War

1622 - Siege of Bergen op Zoom (All Facts)

• Battle in which Ambrogio Spinola and his Spanish forces defeated Maurice of Nassau and his Dutch forces and seized the namesake fortress town during the Eighty Years’ War

1623 - Groot Desseyn / Grand Design (All Facts)

• Plan devised by the Dutch West India Company to seize the possessions of the Iberian Union (Spain and Portugal) in Africa and the Americas, in order to disrupt the colonial revenue stream the Spanish were using to fund their war against the Netherlands

1624 - 1625 - Siege of Breda (All Facts)

• Battle in which Ambrogio Spinola and his Spanish forces defeated Maurice of Nassau and his Dutch forces and took the namesake strategically vital town after it had surrendered during the Eighty Years War

• Battle in which every attempt by English mercenaries fighting under the banner of the Prince of Orange to break the Spanish siege was foiled

• Battle which thus poised Spanish forces to overrun the entire Netherlands

• Battle after which the namesake town was recaptured by the Dutch

1624 - Capture of Bahia (All Facts)

• Battle in which Dutch forces defeated the Spanish (and Portuguese) forces and took the namesake town from the Spanish (and Portuguese) in (Spanish / Portuguese) Brazil during the Dutch Invasions of Brazil during the Dutch-Portuguese War during the Dutch Revolt / Eighty Years’ War

1625 - Battle of San Juan (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Spanish forces defeated the Dutch forces despite a two month siege of the namesake Spanish town in (Spanish) Puerto Rico, preventing the Dutch from taking the Spanish colony during the Eighty Years’ War

1625 - 1630 - Anglo-Spanish War (All Facts)

• War ended by the Treaty of Madrid

• War which was disastrous for King Charles and England and which emptied the English treasury

1626 - Treaty of Monzon (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty which ended the Valtellina War

• Peace Treaty between France, Spain, and the Papacy which restored the status quo of the area of the Alpine Valley

• Peace Treaty in which

  • Spanish forts were to be destroyed

  • France was to have the use of the passes in and out of Valtellina, to be restored to the leaders of three associations of landlords known as the Grisons

• Peace Treaty involving France since France wanted an Alpine route directly into the Habsburg backyard in Italy

1630 - Siege of Recife (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Dutch captured the namesake sugar capital of Brazil from the Portuguese during the Dutch Invasions of Brazil during the Dutch-Portuguese War during the Dutch Revolt / Eighty Years War

• After their capture, the Dutch developed the namesake Brazilian city along the lines of Amsterdam,

  • with canals and tall town houses

  • in which architects, engineers, and artists all came from Holland to develop it

  • in which a policy of religious toleration was introduced, allowing Calvinists, Catholics, and Jews to practice their religion without interference

1630 - Treaty of Madrid (All Facts)

• Treaty which ended the Anglo-Spanish War of 1625-1630

1635 - 1659 - Franco-Spanish War (All Facts)

• War between King Louis XIII of France and King Philip IV Spain that mainly consisted of the Bourbon-Habsburg rivalry

• War which saw

  • The First / Second Siege of Corbie

  • The Battle of Rocroi

  • The Battle of Lens

  • The Battle of Dunkirk / The Battle of the Dunes

• War which caused Spain

  • to empty is treasury

  • to not be able to fight against France any longer when England came to aid France

• War during which an invading Spanish army in the south of France was repelled by French forces

• War during which the little village of St. Jean de Losne in France put up stiff resistance to Gaspar de Guzman and his Spanish forces

• War that ended with the Treaty of Pyrenees

1636 - First / Second Siege of Corbie (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Gaspar de Guzman and his Spanish troops defeated the French forces and occupied the namesake town 50 miles north of Paris, after an eight-day siege, during the Thirty Years’ War and Franco-Spanish War

1636 - Siege of St. Jean de Losne (All Facts)

• Battle in which the namesake town and its French forces put up stiff resistance against the Count of Olivares and his Spanish forces during the Thirty Years’ War and Franco-Spanish War

1640 - 1659 - Catalan Revolt (All Facts)

• Revolt in which the namesake revolted against King Philip IV, Gaspar de Guzman, and Madrid

  • Revolt which was nicknamed “The Reaper’s War”

• Revolt caused by Gaspar de Guzman’s “Union of Arms” in which

  • pressed Catalonia constantly to provide more men and money for the Franco-Spanish War

  • It eventually contributed to the namesake conflict against King Philip IV, Gaspar de Guzman, and Madrid as hatred of Madrid steadily mounted

• Revolt in which the namesake revolted against Dalmau de Queralt, the Viceroy of the namesake province, whom they murdered

• Revolt in which (King) John IV of Portugal took advantage of Gaspar de Guzman’s preoccupation with it and entered Lisbon and declared himself King, being crowned in the Lisbon Cathedral

  • Revolt which thus triggered the Portuguese Restoration War against Spain

1640 - 1668 - Portuguese Restoration War (All Facts)

• War in which King John IV took back Portugal from Spain and regained their independence, breaking the Iberian Union

• War which began when King John IV was declared King of Portugal and founded the House of Braganza for the Portuguese throne, replacing the previous House of Habsburg

• War which was supported by Cardinal Richelieu of France

• War which saw

  • The Battles of Montes Claros

1641 - Andalusian Independentist Conspiracy (All Facts)

• Alleged conspiracy of Andalusian nobility for Andalusia to secede from Spain

• It fell apart when it was discovered shortly after its commencement

1643 - Battle of Rocroi (All Facts)

• Battle in which Louis II de Bourbon and his French forces defeated Don Francisco de Melo and his Spanish forces during the Thirty Years’ War and Franco-Spanish War

• Battle in which Louis II de Bourbon

  • played a daring game, leading his horsemen in an attack across the field to cut his way through the center and drive de Melo’s horsemen into the marshes

• Battle in which, while the tercios, brave and skillful as ever, held their ground, but eventually died where they stood

• Battle which was France’s first military victory against a foreign power for over 100 years, wiping out the cream of the Spanish army

• Battle after which Louis II de Bourbon became famous, having given France a brilliant new commander

1647 - 1652 - Great Plague of Seville (All Facts)

• Outbreak of Disease that killed up to a quarter of the population of the namesake Spanish city during the reign of King Philip IV

1648 - Battle of Lens (All Facts)

• Battle in which Louis II de Bourbon and his French forces defeated the Spanish forces, during the Franco-Spanish War and ending the Thirty Years’ War

• Battle after which the regency government of France felt strong enough to arrest three of its most distinguished critics in the Parlement of Paris

1648 - Peace of Munster (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between King Philip IV of Spain and the remaining leaders of the Dutch Revolt of the Netherlands, ending the Eighty Years War / Dutch Revolt

• Peace Treaty in which Spain

  • recognized the Seven United Dutch Provinces as an independent nation, the Dutch Republic (despite their having already declared independence from Spain nearly a century prior)

  • surrendered its rights to the “generality lands” (of “Northern” Netherlands)

  • agreed that the Netherlands had the right to trade freely via its companies in the West and East Indies

  • confirmed Dutch conquests in Flanders and Brabant

  • closed the port of Antwerp

• Peace Treaty which was drawn up

  • despite strong opposition from the Dutch Calvinists of “Northern” Netherlands

  • due to Spain’s anxiety to relieve itself of the Netherlands in order to deal with the ongoing Franco-Spanish War with France

  • due to a carefully planted rumor by Spanish agents that the Dutch’s French allies were going to negotiate a separate peace and were planning on exchanging Catalonia for the Netherlands

1652 - Revolt of Seville (All Facts)

• Revolt in the namesake Spanish city triggered by

  • the Great Plague of the namesake city that had killed up to a quarter of its population

  • a decade of economic depression in Spain caused by the collapse of trade in the Americas

  • soaring food prices

1658 - Battle of Dunkirk / Battle of the Dunes (All Facts)

• Battle in which Turenne and his French forces defeated the Spanish forces during the Franco-Spanish War with help from the English forces

• Battle after which the namesake city surrendered

• Despite the split blood between the French and English, the namesake city was handed over to the English

1659 - Treaty of the Pyrenees (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Cardinal Jules Mazarin and Luis Mendez de Haro of Spain, ending the Franco-Spanish War

  • After a series of meetings between Mazarin and de Haro on the island in the Bidassoa River, the peace was signed, much to the relief of Europe

• Peace Treaty with 124 clauses, the most important of which were

  • the restoration of Roussillon and Perpignan to France from Spain after a century and a half of Spanish rule in those area, thus fixing the Franco-Spanish border at the Pyrenees Mountains

  • the dynastic marriage of King Louis XIV to Maria Theresa of Spain, with a dowry of 500K ecus, which was paid in full only after Maria Theresa renounced all claims to the Spanish throne

  • England’s taking of Dunkirk and Jamaica

  • France’s taking of a series of fortresses in Flanders and Artois

  • Spain’s Ally, the Duke of Lorraine, retaking the whole duchy (of Lorraine)

  • Amnesty for the Louis II de Bourbon, whom, out of pride, fought for Spain

1665 - Battle of Montes Claros (All Facts)

• Battle in which António Luís de Meneses and his Portuguese forces defeated the Spanish forces during the Portuguese Restoration War

1667 - 1668 - War of Devolution (All Facts)

• War in which Turenne and his French forces defeated the Spanish forces and took (some of) the Spanish Netherlands and Flanders

• War in which Turenne and his 70K French forces, the largest army seen in Europe since Roman times, invaded and defeated the Spanish Netherlands and Flanders, having taken dozen of fortresses with hardly any resistance from the dispirited and outnumbered Spanish army

• War which began when King Louis XIV claimed the right to lands belonging to Habsburg Spain and the Holy Roman Empire based on his wife Maria Theresa’s “infanta” rights

  • War in which England, the Netherlands, and Sweden formed the Triple Alliance to check such pursuits

  • War in which France gained most of these territories in the Spanish Netherlands and Flanders

• War during which Jean-Baptiste Colbert placed aggressive tariffs on England and the Netherlands in order to affect their ability to trade with France to bolster the French economy during the war

• War which ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

1668 - Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between King Louis XIV of France and Spain, ending the War of Devolution

1668 - Treaty of Lisbon (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty between Spain and Portugal, ending the Portuguese Restoration War, in which

  • Spain recognized Portuguese independence

1670 - Treaty of Madrid (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between King Charles II of England and Spain

• Treaty in which Spain, at that point, formally recognized English possessions in the West Indies

1675 - Messina Revolt (All Facts)

• The namesake Sicilian town revolted against the Spanish and appealed to King Louis XIV and France for help, which they sent, but as soon as they left, the Spanish returned to the namesake Sicilian town and instituted cruel reprisals; during the Franco-Dutch War

1686 - Grand Alliance / League of Augsburg (All Facts)

• Alliance formed between William III of England and the Netherlands, the Holy Roman Empire (Germany), the Habsburgs, Spain, and Portugal against King Louis XIV of France in the effort to prevent his expansionist policies and maintain the balance of power throughout Europe

• Alliance which included these entities as well as Savoy, Sweden, Bavaria, Saxony, and the Palatinate

1698 - Treaty of the Hague (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between England, France, and the Netherlands to solve the problem of the Spanish Succession anticipating the impending death of the childless King Charles II of Spain

• Treaty under which

  • Spanish possessions were to be divided between the dauphin, the electoral prince of Bavaria and Archduke Charles, son of the Emperor Leopold

1701 - Treaty of the Hague (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between England, Austria, and the Netherlands to reinstitute the Grand Alliance against France, since they were fearful of a union between Spain and France following the choice made by Charles II, the late king of Spain, of a Bourbon as his successor; in order to maintain the balance of power throughout Europe