Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV ruled Spain for forty-four years, from 1621 to 1665, and presided over the collapse of its European hegemony while presiding over the greatest period of its art. Born in Valladolid in 1605, he succeeded at sixteen and delegated government for two decades to the Count-Duke of Olivares. Olivares was a genuine reformer who understood that Castile alone was carrying the empire's costs, and his Union of Arms sought to spread the burden of men and money across all the crown's territories. The attempt to impose it produced simultaneous revolts in Catalonia and Portugal in 1640; Portugal became independent permanently, and Catalonia took twelve years to recover. Spain re-entered the German war in 1635 against France. The infantry that had dominated Europe for a century was broken at Rocroi in 1643, and the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 conceded Dutch independence after eighty years. The Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 ceded Roussillon and Artois to France. The finances failed repeatedly — four bankruptcies in his reign, silver receipts falling, the vellón coinage debased. His court was the setting for a cultural flowering without parallel in Spanish history. He appointed Diego Velázquez court painter at twenty-four and kept him for thirty-seven years, sitting for him repeatedly and allowing an unflattering honesty. He bought Titians and Rubenses on a great scale, and patronised Calderón, Lope de Vega and Quevedo. He fathered many illegitimate children, dismissed Olivares in 1643, and left a sickly son by his niece. He died in 1665. His collection is the core of the Prado.
- Lived: 1605 CE – 1665 CE
- Nationality: Spanish
- Roles: king, head_of_state
