Gaspar de Guzmán, Conde de Olivares
Olivares' signature:
Gaspar de Guzmán, Count of Olivares , Duke of San Lucar, also known as Conde-Duque de Olivares (born January 6, 1587 in Rome , † July 22, 1645 in Toro ) was one of the leading ministers of Spain in the reign of King Philip IV. He ruled from 1623 to 1643. His aim was to strengthen central power in Spain, thereby triggering uprisings that ultimately led to his overthrow through court intrigues.
Life
Olivares' family was one of the most influential clans in Andalusia . In the first few years he owed his ascent to the support of his father, viceroy of the two Sicilies and Spanish envoy to the Holy See. The 3rd Count of Olivares studied at the University of Salamanca . He was a nobleman (gentilhombre) at the court of Philip IV of Spain (1605–1665) of Castile. When his uncle Baltasar de Zúñiga died in 1622 , he became Prime Minister. The king, who had assumed his rule in 1621, largely left the rulership to Olivares.
In terms of domestic politics, Olivares first tried to put an end to the mismanagement that under Philip III. had reached out. Outwardly, he firmly represented the Spanish imperialist tradition and thus a political program that relied on the hegemonic power of the Spanish Habsburgs in Europe. Because of immense tax pressure and paralyzed trade in America, the Castilian treasury was empty and human resources were exhausted. This forced Olivares to take economic and military measures against other parts of the country, in particular to renewed campaigns against the Netherlands, which was striving for independence . After initial successes in 1618 (in Valtellina and the Palatinate), defeats soon followed.
Olivares started a reform program (Junta de Reformación, 1623), which ultimately also failed. He tried a fairer distribution of taxes in Castile, a reorganization of the banking system based on the Castilian crown and a closer connection of the non-Castilian parts of the country (especially Portugal and Catalonia ) to this financing and military system. This program ( Memorial del 1624 ) included extensive changes to the organizations in the non-Castilian parts of the country and their Castilianization. It aimed at an absolutist, monarchical-Spanish-Castilian central state. Above all, the involvement in the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) in Germany on the part of the Habsburgs increasingly burdened the Castilian monarchy. The growing tax pressure and the demand for war support provoked great resistance and revolts against the Castilian monarchy in Portugal and Catalonia. Olivares proposed an arms union between the Aragonese crown and Castile, on the other hand spoke out against the Catalan-Aragonese constitution. Aragon and Valencia reject the arms union with Castile and limit their tax payments.
In Barcelona in 1626 an emergency session of the parliament took place on all controversial questions (Catalan recruits, insults and humiliations of Catalonia on the part of the king, question of the arms union). Count Olivares broke off the king's expensive visit to Barcelona, thus preventing a negotiated solution and returned to Madrid with the king without having achieved anything. In the following years Olivares resorted, among other things, to the confiscation of the income of large landowners, the confiscation of all income from trade with the American continent, tribute payments from officials for their income to the Castilian state (media annata, 1631) and the issue of war bonds. In 1632, the parliament in Barcelona failed again with mediation efforts. In 1635, during the war with France, Olivares had Castilian troops stationed in Catalonia, which were considerably increased in the war for Roussillon (1639–1640).
Olivares' policy, which wanted to force the integration of Catalonia and Portugal into the Pan-Spanish-Castilian policy, achieved its opposite: it provoked an uprising of Catalonia against Philip IV, the uprising of the reapers (1640-1652) (see also: Els Segadors ), as well as the removal of Portugal from the Spanish crown in December 1640. In 1643 Philip IV sent Olivares into exile in Toro because of his military defeats. Even parts of Andalusia wanted to break away from the Castilian crown in this situation. In exile Olivares wrote his justification under the title Nicandro , which remained ineffective , but which brought him persecution by the Inquisition .
Olivares is significant in terms of art history because he was one of Diego Velázquez 's early patrons and played a key role in his becoming a Spanish court painter. Velázquez has portrayed him several times. An equestrian portrait is one of the most significant paintings in art history.
progeny
The Duke of Olivares was married to his cousin, Inés de Zúñiga y Velasco (1584–1647). There is only one daughter from this marriage:
- María de Guzmán y Zúñiga (1609–1626), married to Ramiro Núñez de Guzmán (1612–1668), Duke of Medina de las Torres.
Child from his relationship with Isabel de Anversa:
- Enrique Felipe de Guzmán (1613–1646), married to Juana de Velasco y Tovar, comes from this marriage: Gaspar de Guzmán y Fernández de Velasco (1646–1648).
Second marriage children:
- Francisco Pacheco Tellez Giron, Count of Puebla de Montalban, married to Isabel Tellez Giron, 4th Duchess of Uceda
- Isabel Manuela Pacheco de Aragón y Velasco, married to Manuel Joaquín de Toledo y Portugal, Count of Oropesa
Third marriage children:
- Teresa Enríquez de Almansa, married to Luis Enríquez, Duke of Medina de Rioseco
- Francisca Enríquez de Almansa y de Velasco, married to Isidro de La Cueva y Enríquez, Marquis of Bedmar
- Mariana Enríquez de Almansa y Velasco
literature
- John Huxtable Elliott : Richelieu and Olivares . Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History. Cambridge Univ. Press (English), 1984, ISBN 978-0-521-27857-7 .
- Gregorio Marañón : Olivares - The decline of Spain as a world power. Georg DW Callwey, Munich 1939.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Guzmán, Gaspar de, Conde de Olivares |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Count of Olivares |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish Prime Minister at the time of Philip IV. |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 6, 1587 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rome |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 22, 1645 |
| Place of death | Toro |