The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe by Nexon Daniel H.; Nexon Daniel H. H.;

Author:Nexon, Daniel H.; Nexon, Daniel H. H.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2009-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

The Dynamics of Spanish Hegemony in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries

NEITHER THE PEACE OF AUGSBURG nor Charles’s abdication brought an end to military conflict in Western Europe. Charles’s son, Philip II, prosecuted the Habsburg-Valois rivalry with renewed vigor. Free of German entanglements, Philip routed the French in Italy and in northern France. But the costs of chronic warfare once again outstripped the capacities of early modern rulers to extract revenue and resources from their domains. In 1557 Philip’s government entered into bankruptcy; Henry II’s court soon followed suit.

Other factors also inclined both monarchs toward peace. Henry II, whose manipulation of Protestant grievances against Charles had proven so successful in advancing French interests, became increasingly concerned about the growth of a new, more militant heresy among his own people. According to Frederic J. Baumgartner, “It is difficult to escape the conclusion that Henry wanted most of all to turn his attention to the religious problems in France.” Both Philip II and Henry recognized the threat Protestantism posed to domestic stability in their respective monarchies.1

Fiscal collapse and religious dissent brought the two parties to the table, but another pressing event precluded an immediate peace. On 17 November 1558 Mary Tudor, Queen of England and Philip’s wife, died. Elizabeth, her sister, succeeded her. Mary’s death had far-reaching implications. Philip was no longer king of England; his loss of influence had ramifications for the religious and military balance in Western Europe. Observers, moreover, remained unsure about what policies Elizabeth would adopt concerning both foreign affairs and religious doctrine.2 Both the Castilian and French courts jockeyed for influence. Since Mary Stuart, Henry II’s daughter-in-law, stood as next in line to the throne, Philip found himself taking steps to protect a Protestant-leaning regime against a Catholic power.3

The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, signed by Castile and France in 1559, represented the new realities faced by Habsburg and Valois. It, in some respects, inaugurated an era of dynastic peace, during which time Western European politics became dominated by confessional conflicts. If Henry had lived longer, Cateau-Cambrésis might have proven as empty a peace as the previous half-century of Habsburg-Valois agreements. But Henry II’s death, the result of an injury from a jousting accident at the ceremonies celebrating Cateau-Cambrésis, helped guarantee that France would descend into religious warfare (see chapter 7).4

International-relations scholars often treat the history of Spain from the ascension of Philip II until the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) as a near-paradigmatic case of hegemonic overextension (figure 6.1). Paul Kennedy calls it “one of the greatest examples of imperial overstretch in history.”5 The Spanish Habsburgs did, indeed, find themselves fighting too many wars on too many fronts. At one point or another they engaged in some combination of campaigns against the Turks, French, Danes, Swedes, and the English (among others). They fought in Italy, in Germany, in the Low Countries, in France, and in the Atlantic. Consistent with expectations of hegemonic-cycle and power-transition theorists, the Habsburgs sustained these multifront engagements by depleting their resources and ruining the economy of Castile.

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