Spain, Habsburg Kingdom of
State | Defunct
1561 CE to 1700 CE
Spain becomes one of history's first global colonial empires in the early modern period, leaving a vast cultural and linguistic legacy that includes over five hundred million Spanish speakers, making Spanish the world's second most spoken first language, after Mandarin Chinese.
Habsburg Spain refers to the history of Spain over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (1516–1700), when it is ruled by kings from the House of Habsburg (also associated with its role in the history of Central Europe).
The Habsburg rulers (chiefly Charles I and Philip II) reach the zenith of their influence and power.
They control territory that includes the Americas, the East Indies, the Low Countries and territories now in France and Germany in Europe, the Portuguese Empire from 1580 to 1640, and various other territories such as small enclaves like Ceuta and Oran in North Africa.
This period of Spanish history has also been referred to as the "Age of Expansion".
Under the Habsburgs, Spain dominates Europe politically and militarily for much of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries but experiences a gradual decline of influence in the second half of the seventeenth century under the later Habsburg kings.
"Spain" or "the Spains" in this period covers the entire peninsula, politically a confederacy comprising several, nominally independent kingdoms in personal union: Aragon, Castile, León, Navarre and, from 1580, Portugal.
In some cases, these individual kingdoms themselves are confederations, most notably, the Crown of Aragon (Principality of Catalonia, Kingdom of Aragon, Kingdom of Valencia, and the Kingdom of Majorca).
The marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1469 had enabled the union two of the greatest of these kingdoms, Castile and Aragon, which led to their largely successful campaign against the Moors, peaking at the conquest of Granada in 1492.
Isabella and Ferdinand had been bestowed the title of Most Catholic Monarchs by Pope Alexander VI in 1496, and the term Monarchia Catholica (Catholic Monarchy, Modern Spanish: Monarquía Católica) remains in use for the monarchy under the Spanish Habsburgs.
The Habsburg period is formative of the notion of "Spain" in the sense that is institutionalized in the eighteenth century.
From the seventeenth century, during and after the end of the Iberian Union, the Habsburg monarchy in Spain is also known as "Spanish Monarchy" or "Monarchy of Spain", along with the common form Kingdom of Spain.
Spain as a unified state comes into being de jure only after the death in 1700 of Charles II and with it the extinction of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, and the ascension of Philip V and the inauguration of the Bourbon dynasty and its central reforms, comparable to those in France.
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…Jamaica by the 1520s.
Pope Leo X had made Adrian a cardinal in 1517, naming him Cardinal Priest of the Basilica of Saints John and Paul.
During the minority of Charles, Adrian is named to serve with Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros as co-regent of Spain.
Charles, now King Carlos I of Spain, arrives in his new kingdoms from the Netherlands in the autumn of 1517 to claim his maternal inheritance, accompanied by a large retinue of Burgundian Netherlandish councilors and courtiers.
His regent Jiménez de Cisneros comes to meet him, but falls ill along the way, not without a suspicion of poison, and dies before meeting the King.
Following the death of Jimenez, Adrian is on March 14, 1518, appointed General of the Reunited Inquisitions of Castile and Aragon, in which capacity he will act until his departure for Rome in late 1522.
Charles, formally recognized as King of Castile, institutes a government that is little better than foreign rule.
His Flemish court provokes much scandal, as de Croÿ shamelessly sells government privileges for personal gain and installs other Flemish nobles into government offices.
The different Cortes of Castile, Aragon, and Catalonia grant his financial demands but attach to them much pointed advice and criticism.
The young foreign monarch—ugly, inexperienced, and speaking no Spanish in a country with whose customs he is unfamiliar—is unpopular with his Spanish subjects.
Charles travels in May 1518 to Barcelona in Aragon, where he will remain for a year.
Here, he haggles with Aragon's slightly stronger cortes for privileges and his formal recognition as King of Aragon.
Aragon manages to maintain more local control than Castile did, but mostly because Aragon is poorer and there is no point in pressing the issue for extra tax money that isn't there to be collected.
Valencia is dealing with a variety of problems in the early sixteenth century.
In King Ferdinand II's later years as ruler, the government had slowly decayed and become more corrupt.
The economy in Aragon is not as vibrant as in Andalusia, as it is more based on agriculture and less on the lucrative maritime trade.
Valencia's economy is dominated by two somewhat static factions: the landed nobles, who control agriculture and the countryside, and the Germanies (guilds), which control light manufacturing, crafts, and the cities.
Outbreaks of famine, flood, and plague impede the economy still further.
However, the most imminent threat to the country is that of warfare.
Ferdinand had pursued an ambitious foreign policy, participating in the Italian Wars and invading Navarre in 1512 during a war against France.
This had stretched the finances of Aragon and Castile to their limit.
Spanish relations with Muslim nations and North Africa are still exceedingly poor after the Reconquista, and the coast of Aragon is constantly raided by Barbary pirates.
Revolt of the oppressed Muslim-convert population in the recently conquered Granada is also a concern.
Royal troops are required to be stationed in Granada and Navarre to maintain order.
In order to maintain a coastal defense against the pirates without the cost of deploying the army, Ferdinand had given the Germanies permission to arm themselves and form their own paramilitary brigades.
The local nobles did not approve of this and initially tried to prevent the Germanies from arming, fearful of the consequences of an armed citizenry.
When the King's paternal grandfather, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, dies in 1519, Charles competes with King Francis I of France to win the imperial election by aggressively bribing prince-electors.
Charles wins, becoming Emperor Charles V. He leaves Aragon to return to the wealthier Castile to raise funds to pay down the debts he had incurred in the election.
The taxes granted to Charles at a Castilian cortes in Corunna help spark the Revolt of the Comuneros of Castile.
Of more importance for Aragon, in the summer of 1519 Charles grants his permission to the Germanies to arm themselves against the raiding Muslim fleets.
While permission had previously been granted under Ferdinand, Charles is able to force the Valencian nobles to accept this decision.
The plague strikes Valencia in 1519.
Several of the most important nobles die, and many of the others flee to the countryside.
The superstitious population concludes that the disease is punishment for immorality, and riots against people suspected of being homosexual as well as Muslims.
The government tries to contain the rioters, but the rioters depose the government instead.
The Germanies step into this power vacuum, and gradually replace the royal government of the capital of Valencia.
The "Council of Thirteen", comprising one representative from each union, becomse the new government of the capital city.
Joan Llorenç (Juan Llorens) emerges as the leader and intellectual statesmen of the Germanies, and seeks a representative government similar to the Italian republics such as the Republic of Genoa.
Llorenç and the Council of Thirteen give power to the Germanies, which reestablish their monopolies on their professions and forbid anyone to work who does not affiliate with one of the guilds.
The Emperor is preoccupied with the issue of Luther and his growing following.
Charles views Catholicism as a natural way of binding the diverse principalities of the Holy Roman Empire to him.
Since Pope Leo X, for his part, is unwilling to tolerate such open defiance of his own authority, he and the Emperor are forced to support one another against Luther, who is now backed by Frederick III, elector of Saxony, and Franz von Sickingen.
The Imperial Diet, the representative assembly of the German princes and cities, assembles from January to 28 to May 25, 1521 at Worms.
Luther, excommunicated by Leo X at the beginning of 1521 and summoned to appear before the emperor and the princes on April 17 and 18, has to defend his theses.
The Augustinian monk defends his reformist beliefs and refuses to recant his alleged errors unless proven wrong by the Bible or by clear reason.
Luther holds that salvation is a free gift to persons through the forgiveness of sins by God's grace alone and received by them through faith in Christ.
Luther's powerful testimony of faith at the Diet makes an indelible impression upon the mind of George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, who turns his eyes to the new faith earlier than any other German prince or any other member of the House of Hohenzollern.
Moreover, Luther will soon enter into correspondence with him, discussing with him the most important problems of faith.
The reformer's appearance represents a first challenge to Charles, who has his own confession of faith, beginning with a sweeping invocation of his Catholic ancestors, read out to the Diet.
Although not persuaded by Luther, Charles recognizes the need for a thoroughgoing reform of the Roman Catholic church.
Nevertheless, Charles places Luther under the ban of the empire.
Luther receives the protection of Frederick of Saxony, and other German princes—partly out of intellectual and religious conviction, partly out of the desire to seize church property, and partly to assert independence of imperial control.
The first meeting of Philip of Hesse with Luther takes place in at the Diet of Worms, where he is attracted by Luther's personality, though he has at first little interest in the religious elements of the gathering.
Charles, despite the outbreak of war with France, hurries back to Spain, where his followers have meanwhile gained the upper hand over the comuneros.
Even though he grants an amnesty, the young monarch is proving to be an intransigent ruler, bloodily suppressing the revolt and signing two hundred and seventy death warrants.
Girolamo Aleandro, born on February 13, 1480, in Motta di Livenza, in the province of Treviso, part of the Republic of Venice, had studied in Venice, where he had become acquainted with Erasmus and Aldus Manutius, and at an early age was reputed one of the most learned men of the time.
He had gone to Paris in 1508 on the invitation of Louis XII as professor of belles lettres, and held for a time the position of Rector of the University of Paris.
He was an early teacher of Greek at the University and edited texts by Isocrates and Plutarch printed in 1509/1510 by Gilles de Gourmont.
Entering the service of Eberhard, prince-bishop of Liège, he had been sent by that prelate on a mission to Rome, where Pope Leo X had retained him, in 1519 giving him the office of librarian of the Vatican.
He had gone to Germany in the following year to be present as papal nuncio at the coronation of Emperor Charles V.
He is also present at the Diet of Worms, where he heads the opposition to Luther, advocating the most extreme measures to repress the doctrines of the reformer.
His conduct evokes the fiercest denunciations of Luther, but it also displeases more moderate men, especially Erasmus.
The edict against the reformer, which is finally adopted by the emperor and the diet, is drawn up and proposed by Aleandro.
The Edict of Worms, promulgated on May 25, declares Luther to be an obstinate heretic and bans the reading or possession of his writings.
This is the culmination of the ongoing struggle between Martin Luther and the Catholic Church over reform, especially in practice of donations for indulgences.
However, there are other deeper issues that revolve around both theological concerns: on a theological level, Luther has challenged the absolute authority of the Pope over the Church by maintaining that the doctrine of indulgences, as authorized and taught by the Pope, is wrong.
Luther maintains that salvation is by faith alone (sola fide) without reference to good works, alms, penance, or the Church's sacraments.
Luther maintains that the sacraments are a "means of grace," meaning that while grace is imparted through the Sacraments, the credit for the action belongs to God and not to the individual.
He has also challenged the authority of the Church by maintaining that all doctrines and dogmata of the Church not found in Scripture should be discarded (sola scriptura).
To protect the authority of the Pope and the Church, as well as to maintain the doctrine of indulgences, ecclesiastical officials persuade Charles V that Luther is a threat and persuade him to authorize his condemnation by the Holy Roman Empire.
Despite the agreement that Luther can return home safely, it is privately understood that he will soon be arrested and punished.
To protect him from this fate, Prince Frederick will seize him on his way home and hide him in Wartburg Castle.
Charles V Sends Georg Schenck van Toutenburg to Subdue Netherlandish Rebels (1522)
In 1522, following his full accession to the extensive Habsburg inheritance three years earlier, Emperor Charles Vdispatches an army under the command of Georg Schenck van Toutenburg to suppress ongoing rebellion in the Netherlands. Charles, now ruler of vast territories including the Spanish kingdoms, Burgundy, and the Low Countries, seeks to consolidate his authority firmly over regions that had resisted Habsburg rule, notably in Friesland and other rebellious northern provinces.
Toutenburg, a capable and experienced military leader of German origin, undertakes vigorous military campaigns aimed at re-establishing centralized Habsburg control. His forces employ a combination of disciplined warfare, strategic sieges, and direct confrontation with local rebel factions, most notably against Frisian insurgents led by leaders like Wijerd Jelckama, who continue the resistance begun by the legendary Frisian rebel Pier Gerlofs Donia.
The intervention by Toutenburg represents Charles's determination to stabilize and centralize authority within the Habsburg Netherlands, reflecting broader imperial objectives of political consolidation and territorial integration.
Long-term Consequences and Significance
The campaign led by Toutenburg significantly weakens the rebellious factions, leading to the gradual pacification and reintegration of Friesland and other northern territories into the broader Habsburg dominion. This military action not only reinforces Charles V's political authority in the region but also sets a precedent for future Habsburg efforts to suppress regional autonomy and enforce centralized governance, laying the foundations for greater political cohesion—and subsequent tension—in the Low Countries.
The Muslims of Valencia and …