Category: This entry was posted in France, History, Spain by MSW. Bookmark the permalink.

The Loss of Breda 1637 Spain’s mounting problems concerned the Empire because they undermined Philip IV’s war against the Dutch. A Spanish success in the Netherlands would enable Ferdinand III to withdraw his troops from Luxembourg, while a Spanish defeat would free France to reinforce its army in Germany. As the war dragged on, Ferdinand […]

Clutching at Straws Olivares grew increasingly desperate, renewing contacts with the French malcontents who had been plotting against Richelieu since 1636. Several had fled to London where they backed Spain’s fruitless efforts to persuade Charles I to join an alliance against Louis XIII. The outbreak of the British Civil Wars rendered this a lost cause. […]

Francisco Franco with fellow soldiers in Ras Medua, 1921. “Moroccan Bomber: American Fighters in the Rif War, 1925” (by Colonel Paul Ayres Rockwell, ed. Dale L. Walker; Aviation Quarterly, Volume 5, Number 2, 2nd Quarter 1979) Territory under the control of the Republic of the Rif (bordered in red) within Spanish Morocco. Colonial administrators in […]

Louis XIV presents his grandson, the King of Spain to the Court and to the Spanish Ambassador. The dichotomy of Castile-Aragon could not be summarily removed by the stroke of a pen – not even the pen of a Bourbon. The fall of Oropesa in 1691 left Spain without an effective Government. Indeed, it was […]