Memoirs of Spain during the reigns of Philip IV. and Charles II. from 1621 to 1700

Front matter

VOL. DURING THE REIGNS OF PHILIP IV. AND CHARLES II. FROM 1621 TO 1700. BY JOHN DUNLOP, AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF FICTION, ETC. VOL. II. EDINBURGH, THOMAS CLARK, 38. GEORGE STREET; LONDON, WHITTAKER & CO. MDCCCXXXIV. PRINTED BY NEILL AND COMPANY, OLD F1SHMARKET, EDINBURGH. CONTENTS rrl VOLUME SECOND. Chap. I. Accession of Charles II, . . Page 1 II. Disputes between the Queen-regent and John of Austria, ..... 57 III. War with France, 76 IV. Rise and Fall of Valenzuela, . . .108 V. Marriage of the King, . . . .142 VI. Court Intrigues and Amusements, . . 176 VII. Misfortunes and Humiliation of Spain, . 218 VIII. Renewal of the War with France, . . 252 IX. Intriguesconcerningthe Succession. — Death of Charles II, ..... 284 X. Accession of Philip V. — Commencement of the War of the Succession, . . . 323 XI. Religion, Government, Manners and Customs of Spain in the Seventeenth Century, 337 Index, ........ &c

Chapter I. Accession Of Charles II

Vagituque locum lugubri t*omplet. ut æquum Cui tantum in vita restat transire malorum. Lucretius. On the 8th of October 1665, Charles the Second was proclaimed King by the Duke of Medina de-las-Torres, who, at this ceremony, was mounted on horseback, and was accompanied by all the grandees at that time in the capital. He was richly apparelled in a silk suit, embroidered with gold and silver, and set with diamond buttons. In his right hand he carried the royal standard, and by his left side rode the Corregidors of the city. The cavalcade first proceeded to the Placa Mayor, in front of the balcony from which the late king had been wont to view the bull-fights. The heralds who went before, ascended a scaffold, which was covered with rich tapestry, and then ranged themselves around the Duke, who lifted up the banner, calling three times, " Castilla for the Catholic King Charles, second of that name," and all the people shouted aloud Viva.

After the King had been thus pro claimed with due form in the great square, the ceremony was repeated at the Convent of the Descalcas Reales, — at VOL. II. A Chap. I. the Town house, — the gate of Guadalaxara, — and the Royal Palace.1 Spain, at the period of the accession of Charles II, was truly unhappy. Her finances were deranged, — her in dustry paralyzed, — her internal resources completely ex hausted, — and her arms disgraced abroad. Her throne was ascended by a sickly child, only four years old, who, when he first came into the world, was so small and ten der, that he was placed in a box of cotton.2 A few months before his succession, Sir Richard Fanshawe had written of him during an excursion of the Court to Aranjuez : — " The little prince remains here in the palace, as far as I can learn nothing so lively as his father ; pray God he prove so lasting!"3 After the proclamation, such was the debility of this royal infant, that his demise was al most daily expected ; and till he was ten years old he was brought up in the arms and on the knees of the ladies of the palace, without having ever been permitted to put his foot on the ground.4 His ceaseless wailings testified his bodily infirmities and sufferings, and alarmed his anxious subjects with the dread of a war, an interregnum, or sub jection to foreign dominion.

By the testament of Philip IV, the Queen-mother was called to the regency, with a council of government con sisting of the Cardinal Sandoval, Archbishop of Toledo, the President of Castile, the Vice-Chancellor of Aragon, the Inquisitor-General, and the Marques d'Aytona, as a representative of the Grandees. The Archbishop, how ever, having died nearly at the same time with the King, his place was supplied by Pascal, Cardinal of Aragon, who succeeded him as Archbishop of Toledo. In fact, however, the whole sovereign power was vested in the Queen, as completely as in France it had been in the 1 Menwirs of Lady Fanshaioe, p. 225. a D'Aulnoy, Voyage. 3 Letters. 4 DAulnoy, Voyage d'Espagne. l 66S. MEMOIRS OF SPAIN. hands of Anne of Austria during the minority of her son ; for though the Council had the privilege of advising, they had no power to control her wishes.

Unluckily she had neither the talents nor temper requisite for government. It was a still greater misfortune that she was inordinate ly fond of power, and jealous of its exercise ; and it was the greatest mishap of all, that she possessed it through a course of years sufficiently long to subvert the authority of the crown, to ruin its subjects, and to disable the mon arch, even had he been so inclined, from the power of re pairing the evils she had occasioned, or at least grievous ly augmented. The welfare of Spain was to her a mat ter of indifference, and the inhabitants of Madrid, from the first moment of her arrival in that capital, had been the objects of her special aversion. She was entirely de voted to the interests of the Court of Vienna, and was governed in all things by the instructions she received from it, except in points that regarded her private incli nations ; for in these she would listen to no counsel what ever, but persisted in their gratification against the remon strances of her wisest advisers.1 A regency, unless when exercised by the heir to the monarchy, is almost always a period of weakness : it is a state of temporary and some times not clearly defined authority, which imparts hopes, and not terror, to the ambitious and turbulent.

The Count of Castriglio and the Duke of Medina de-las- Torres, continued the factions and animosities which had divided them towards the close of the last reign, and oc casioned the formation of a political party, which was wholly dependent on the Queen, and subservient to her wishes. From the commencement of her regency, she devolved the immediate exercise of authority on her confessor the Jesuit Nithard, who had accompanied her to Spain at the period of her marriage, but had been 1 Universal History, t. xix. book 1. a Chap. I. MEMOIRS OF SPAIN. wisely kept at a distance from all public affairs during the lifetime of the late king. Soon after assuming the sovereign power, however, the Queen contrived to in troduce him into the Council, by engaging the Arch bishop of Toledo to resign in his favour the office of In quisitor-General, which gave him ex officio a place in the regency.

This low-born stranger, who now engrossed the whole administration of affairs, was a person of the most limited capacity, and though he had now reached the ma ture age of sixty, was totally inexperienced in the manage ment of public business. Accustomed only to the petty arts of monkish intrigue, he proved himself altogether un equal to the government of a vast but declining monarchy, and he rendered himself at once odious to the grandees, and ridiculous to the people, by affecting to imitate the haughtiness and austerity of the renowned Cardinal Xi menes. The general discontent against his administration was fomented by John of Austria, who often made Nithard the object of his invective and sarcasm. The Queen, availing herself of the reverses sustained by that Prince in Portugal, had persuaded the late King to exclude his once favoured son from all share in the ad ministration.

Though of confessed abilities both as a statesman and a soldier, — though esteemed by the Gran dees and adored by the people, he was obliged to continue for the present in exile at Consuegra, and yield to a narrow-minded monk, that share in the government to which he was so justly entitled by his talents. Such was the situation of Spain, and such the director of its counsels, at a time when the relations of the country with foreign states required, in all branches of the administration, the greatest skill, circumspection, and energy. The most imminent external danger to which the king dom lay exposed at the accession of Charles II, was on 1666. MEMOIRS OF SPAIN. its western frontier, from the incursions of the victorious Portuguese. At the close of the late reign, negotiations for peace had commenced under the mediation of Sii' R. Fanshawe, the English ambassador at the Court of Ma drid.

But in the mean while, Mareschal Schomberg re peatedly defeated the Spanish Generals, took several strong places without resistance, and ravaged the whole province of Spanish Estremadura. The Emperor of Germany was the natural and family ally of the King of Spain. Besides the connection of these two potentates as descended from the same ances tors, they were united by the ties of frequent intermar riages in their families, and still more by the bonds of political interest derived from a common dread of France, whose encroachments had reduced their respective dominions, and whose systematic enmity and ambitious de signs, furnished continual causes of alarm. At present, however, the Emperor was but inadequately provided with either troops or money, his resources having been recently exhausted in repelling a formidable invasion of the Turks, and in suppressing an insurrection among his Hungarian subjects.

The influence possessed in Ger many by former Emperors, was now greatly reduced by re cent changes which had taken place in the Germanic con stitution. Many princes of the empire were overawed by the extension of the French territory towards the Rhine and the occupation of a part of Lorraine ; while others, from interest and inclination, were devoted to France, which they regarded as their great support against the despotism and encroachments of their own imperial chief.1 At this period, Italy had, in a great measure, lost its weight in the balance of power. Of those states which yet retained a share of their former importance, the Re public of Venice was leagued with France, and the Duke 1 Coxe, Hist, of House of Austria, c. 63. MEMOIRS OF SPAIN. Chap. I of Savoy was still held by that power in a humiliating state of subjection, though he was impatient of the yoke imposed on him, and was anxiously watching for an opportunity to rescue himself from bondage.

Charles II. of England held in his hands, at his re storation, the balance of Europe. But that pre-eminence which the British nation had attained during the vigor ous sway of Cromwell, was lost in the course of his profuse, voluptuous, and dissipated reign ; and by his dishonour able dependence on Louis XIV, he contributed, more than any other prince in Europe, to the humiliation of Spain and the preponderance of France. The want of other allies was but ill compensated to Spain by the arrival of an ambassador from Alexis Michaelovitz, Czar of Muscovy, who proposed a treaty between the indolent Spaniards and his own barbarous subjects.1 This embassy, however, excited a greater sensation than any which had arrived in Spain since the beginning of the 15th century, when Tamerlane sent to Henry the Invalid, King of Castile, a Tartarian envoy, who appeared in barbaric splendour at Burgos, and presented the Spanish prince with two gorgeous Hungarian beauties who had been discovered by Tamerlane among the captives of the Sultan Bajazet, and whom he supposed would prove the most acceptable offering he could present to the Castilian Monarch.

While Spain had thus declined in her internal resources and in the power of her government, and while she was al together destitute of allies who might afford her the pro tection and support she so much required, France, her ancient hereditary enemy, was daily increasing her native strength as well as her external influence. It is true, that at this moment, a peace, solemnly concluded, and apparently firmly cemented, subsisted between the na- 1 Desormeaux, Abrege Chronol. t. v. 1666. 7 MEMOIRS OF SPAIN. tions. But the rainbow of the Pyrenees was already fa ding away, and various signs on the horizon portended an approaching tempest. Mazarin, by whom the peace of the Pyrenees was concluded on the part of France, and who regarded that treaty as his master-stroke of policy, — the consummation as it were, of his long and prosperous administration, — had died about a year after the celebration of those royal nuptials which had been the ultimate aim of all his in trigues, and which had raised him to the summit of civil glory.

It was regarded as a symptom of the continuance of his pacific disposition, that he bequeathed the Flora of Ti tian, a picture of prodigious value, to Luis de Haro, and a golden table-clock to the Count of Fuensaldagna,1 at that time ambassador to Paris from the Court of Madrid. His death had been therefore considered as a severe mis fortune by the Spanish ministry, whose principal object it was to preserve that peace which had been obtained with so much cost and trouble, and which seemed almost essential to the existence of the nation. A few months after the accession of Charles II. to the throne of Spain, the death of Mazarin was followed by that of the Queen Mother of France, Anne of Austria. Being much attached to her native country, she had always sup ported its interests at court, and had been instrumental in procuring for Spain, on reasonable terms, the peace of the Pyrenees.

As she had great influence over the mind of her son, it is believed that had she survived for some years longer, she might have moderated, or directed to some other channel, that ambition which Louis hastened to gratify at the expense of her country and kindred. Louis XIV. received the worst possible education, or rather his education had been utterly neglected. The Queen Mother and Mazarin had pursued with him the 1 Aubery, Hist, du Cardinal Mazarin, livre same self interested system which Olivarez had adopted with Philip, and which the present Regent of Spain was now following out with her hapless son. The little at tention which had been paid to the improvement of Louis in his youth, ought always to be taken into account while estimating the character of that wonderful monarch. On the death of Mazarin, to whom his proud sovereign had been so submissive, and to whom all affairs of state had been implicitly entrusted, Louis suddenly roused from his youthful dream of indolence and pleasure.

He resolved himself to govern the state, and announced that for the future he should be his own prime minister. Philip IV. had made a similar declaration on the disgrace of Oliva rez, but he had remained too long supine, to persevere in the unwonted effort. Louis, on the other hand, maintained his resolution ; and, by his judicious choice of ser vants, and the spirit which he inspired into his people, he quickly raised France to that power which enabled her to crush Spain into atoms, and spread consternation over all the rest of Europe. According to the system on which Louis proceeded, the duties of each minister were prescribed to him, and each was accountable to the Sovereign for his acts of ad ministration. In consequence of the adoption of this me thod, and his own discernment in estimating talents and character, Louis had more able and faithful servants than had ever yet fallen to the lot of a royal master.

Colbert, who had been bred under Mazarin, directed his attention to those objects of internal government, which had been somewhat neglected in France since the days of Sully. He restored to order the deranged finances of the state, and thus enabled his sovereign to purchase Dunkirk and Mardike from the English. The experience and address of the Marquis de Lionne, who had been also a pupil of Mazarin, were highly serviceable in negotiations and the 1666. MEMOIRS OF SPAIN. general management of foreign affairs. Louvois proved a zealous and effective minister in the war department, and so long as it was under his superintendence, the troops were regularly paid, the garrisons maintained, and the magazines adequately supplied. The warlike genius of Conde, Turenne, and Luxembourg, had now been fos tered by long experience, and an host of heroes who had fought under them were ready for the field.

The skill and science of Vauban were peculiarly useful from the nature of those wars in which Louis engaged, aud which were chiefly prosecuted in countries studded with forti fied towns. Those factions which had distracted the kingdom during the minority of Louis, disappeared be fore his dignity and condescension. The turbulent De Retz — the fiery rebellious Conde, had become the most submissive and obedient of his subjects. This change, from the extreme of popular discontent to the most de voted loyalty, is chiefly attributable to the personal qualities of the sovereign. There may have been greater kings than Louis ; but (in the words of Bolingbroke) he was the best actor of majesty that ever filled a throne. He was possessed of all those endowments which could flatter the pride or conciliate the affections of a vain, vo latile, and high-spirited people.

He was distinguished for manly beauty, and his majestic deportment was tem pered with affability and politeness. Fond of display and magnificence, he gratified the vanity of his subjects by the pomp of his public entertainments and the grandeur of his palaces. Though little skilled in military affairs, and for a son of Louis XIII. and grandson of Henry the Great, not even remarkable for personal cou rage, he possessed, in a surprising degree, the talent of in spiring his generals and troops with enthusiasm.1 Though 1 Louis les animant du feu de son courage, Se plaint de sa grandeur, qui l'attache au rivage. Boileau. illiterate himself, and even, according to some accounts, grossly ignorant, he was a munificent patron of learning, and a founder of academies for the promotion of science and art.

But even this liberality was rendered subser vient to that system of glory and eclat which formed the basis of his empire. Louis was animated by an ardent love of fame, and he soon showed that he was desirous to be respected by foreign princes as well as by his own subjects. Before the end of the reign of Philip IV, the ambassador of that monarch at the Court of London had, in an evil hour, claimed precedence over the representative of the Ma jesty of Louis. The French King immediately recalled his ambassador from Madrid, and threatened that unless he received solemn reparation for the injury, hostilities should immediately recommence. He was by that time well prepared for war, and would have been glad of any pretext to declare it. But the Court of Madrid averted his wrath by despatching an envoy extraordinary to Paris, who publicly offered a most submissive apology in presence of all the foreign ministers, as was recorded by a medal expressly struck for the occasion.

His treatment of the Pope was still more arrogant. Crequi, the French ambassador at Rome, having met with an affront from the guards of Alexander VII, that pontiff was obliged to punish the offenders, to send his nephew into France to ask pardon, and to allow in Rome itself the erection of a pillar as a monument of his humiliation. But the lofty spirit of Louis did not confine itself to points of mere ceremony and national honour. His views extended to an enlargement of the territorial limits of France, and he resolved to follow up that system of po licy which, planned by Henry IV, and pursued by Riche lieu, had humbled the House of Austria in both its brandies, and acquired for France that paramount in flu- 1666.. MEMOIRS OF SPAIN. ence in Europe, which was before possessed by her rival. Availing himself of the embarrassments of the Spanish government, and the weakness of the minor now seated on the throne of Spain, he resolved to appropriate a large portion of the Netherlands, though he had solemnly renounced his right to any part of the succession on his marriage with the Infanta, and had acknowledged the young king (who possessed the strongest claims on his guardianship and protection) as heir to the whole monar chy.

He founded his pretensions, on what was called the right of devolution, by which, according to the local customs in Brabant, Franche Comte and other parts of the ancient Burgundian possessions, a daughter of a first mar riage was entitled to succeed in private inheritances, in preference to the sons by a second union. This unu sual law of succession, which was applicable only to pri vate families, Louis now contended ought to be followed as the rule in claims to the sovereignty, and of consequence that his Queen Maria Theresa, daughter of Phi lip IV. by his first marriage, had a preferable right to the King of Spain, who was the offspring of his second nup tials. He justified the breach of his renunciation by the subterfuge, that it was null and void, from the minority of the Infanta, and that it was contrary to the fundamen tal laws both of Aragon and Castile ; and he pretended, that natural rights depending on blood and succession, could not be annihilated by any deed or contract what ever.

Besides, he maintained that, as the dowry of the Infanta never had been paid, he was not under any obli gation to observe his part of the stipulations. The appropriation of these territories, which included Brabant, Hainault, Artois, Luxemburgh, and Franche Comt£, with the lordships of Namur and Limburgh, had been in the view of Louis before the death of Phi lip IV ; and during the last illness of that monarch, Tu. renne had, at the request of his royal master, drawn up a memorial on the best steps to be adopted for securing these provinces in the event of Philip's decease. Immediately after the accession of Charles II. to the throne of Spain, the King of France preferred his claims to the court of Madrid, but, at the same time, expressed his anxiety that the matter should be brought to an ami cable adjustment.

Louis, likewise, caused his rights to be examined by his ministers and jurisconsults, who found that they were incontestable. The Queen of Spain, and her council of regency were far from seeing the matter in the same light. The lawyers of both nations maintained the claims of their respective crowns. Louis was always anxious to give to his ambitious projects the appearances of justice, and the pretensions of France were discussed in various political writings which were disseminated all over Europe. A manifesto from the King himself set forth his rights, and detailed his endeavours to obtain them without having recourse to arms. The Spaniards, in their publications on the subject, placed in the strongest light the efficacy of the renunciation, and showed that the law of inheritance, for which Louis contended, was applicable only to a private inheritance, and not to the royal suc cession.1 Spain had the best of the argument; and Louis, though desirous to cover his claims with specious pretences, was no doubt aware that they were less fit to be adjusted by reasoning than by arms, and in this sort of disputation he was abundantly sensible of his superiority.

While the controversy was proceeding, and his title was under 1 Of the publications on the Spanish side, the best was written by a celebrated Neapolitan jurisconsult, Francisco dAndrea, who employed his pen in the controversy at the request of the Vice roy of Naples, Don Pedro d' Aragon. (Giannone, Storia Civile di Napol. lib. xxxix. c 1 .) 1667. MEMOIRS OF SPAIN. 13 discussion at Madrid, he was busily preparing for the me ditated aggression. His army was placed on its fullest establishment, and he reviewed his troops at Compiegne, where they appeared in full array, in presence of his whole court, who assembled in the utmost magnificence. He deemed himself secure, at present, from any opposition on the part of the Dutch, who were at this time occupied by their naval war with England, and whom the Marques of Castel-Rodrigo, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands, had been at no pains to conciliate, but had, on the con trary, provoked, by an injudicious attempt to wrest from them the town of Williamstadt in name of the Bishop of Munster.

In England, the intrigues of Louis had proved eminently successful. Sweden he bound to his inter ests by a subsidiary treaty ; and, by threats or promises, he gained the neutrality or acquiescence of the German principalities. He even opened negotiations with the Court of Vienna, and it has been suspected that he con cluded a secret treaty with the Emperor, by which that potentate agreed to permit Louis to occupy the Nether lands, on condition that the sovereignty of Spain should pass into the Imperial family, in the event of the sickly child who now held its sceptre dying without issue.1 The Queen-regent of Spain, and her minister Father Nithard, had left the Netherlands defenceless in every quarter ; but even if the towns in the Low Countries had been more strongly garrisoned than they were, and the fortifications in a better state, the French King was prepared to overcome all difficulties.

He entered Flan ders at the head of an army of 35,000 men, with Turenne under him as Lieutenant-General ; while a corps of 5000 troops invaded Luxemburg, and another of 8000 advanced to take post in Dunkirk. Louvois, the French war minis ter, had placed large magazines in all the frontier towns : 1 Voltaire, Siccle de Louis Wherever the army turned, supplies were at hand ; and it was chiefly this new improvement in the war-department that contributed to the rapid success of this brilliant campaign. On thus entering Flanders, in the most hostile attitude, Louis published no declaration of war. He even dis avowed any design to violate the peace of the Pyrenees, and merely notified in a letter to the Regent of Spain, his intention to take possession of the territories which were unjustly withheld from his Queen, or to secure an equivalent for them.

The Spaniards in the Netherlands, though they had been long apprized of their danger, were in no condition to resist such a force as was now brought against them ; and Louis quickly possessed himself of the ill defended provinces of a crushed and fallen monarchy.1 He entered Charleroy as if it had been his own capital. Aeth, Tournay, and Douai surrendered in a few days at discre tion to the King in person ; while Courtrai and Oude narde were taken by Marshal d'Aumont, who command ed the corps which had marched to Dunkirk. The King next meditated the siege of Lisle, which was the best fortified town in the Netherlands, and was defended by a garrison of 3000 regular troops, besides the armed bur gesses. This enterprise appeared so difficult and hazard ous in the present conjuncture, that both Louvois, the war minister, and Turenne, attempted to dissuade the King from undertaking it.

The French army had been diminished by the garrisons which required to be left in the captured towns, and the largest force which the Spa niards had in the field lay in the neighbourhood, with the intention of affording it succour. This army was led by the Count Marsin, who began his treasonable career by withdrawing from Barcelona the French garrison Ibid. 1667. 15 MEMOIRS OF SPAIN. which he commanded. Subsequently to that period, his hostility to the Court of France had been so active and persevering, that he was exempted from the general am nesty extended to the other adherents of Conde. He had latterly served the King of Spain against Portugal, and he now commanded the Spanish forces in the Nether lands, which were opposed to the French arms. Louis, in spite of all obstacles, made his preparations for invest ing Lisle.

When he arrived before it, the Governor sent to inquire in what part of the lines were the King's quarters, that he might not fire in that direction. But his Majesty, who perhaps doubted the Governor's good faith, returned for answer, that they would be in every station in the camp of his army.1 Lisle presented the only resistance which the French arms had yet encounter ed. It held out nearly a month from the time of its first investment, and its garrison, after having made some vigorous but ineffectual sallies, surrendered on terms of capitulation. As soon as the King had entered Lisle, he received information that Marsin, who was yet igno rant of its capture, was advancing to its relief at the head of 6000 men. Mareschal Crequi was sent out against him with a superior force, and the Count, now learning the fate of Lisle, attempted to avoid an engagement.

He was, however, brought to action by Crequi, and defeated with the loss of 1500 prisoners.2 Thus, in a 1 De Quincy, Hist. Militaire de Louis le Grand, t. i. p. 284. 2 Jean Gaspar Ferdinand Count de Marsin, who has been so frequently mentioned, ( see above, vol. i. p. 497, &c), was never pardoned by the French King, and spent the remainder of his life in the Spa nish service. When, in 1657, Charles II. of England raised some troops in Flanders to aid in re-establishing him on his throne, Count Marsin was appointed, as we have seen, Lieutenant-General. Charles, who seems to have always entertained a grateful recollec tion of those foreigners from whom he had received any service or kindness while in Flanders or Spain, particularly recommended him MEMOIRS OF SPAIN. Chap. I. period of less than three months, Louis vanquished the only army which the Spaniards brought into the field against him, and rendered himself master of all the prin cipal fortresses between the Scheldt and the English Channel.