The Golden Age:

1
The Golden Age

• The Seventeenth Century

2
The Hapsburg monarchs

• Weak and ineffective kings
• Spain governed by royal favorites
• Philip III
• The political situation in foreign affairs was
  improved by treaties with England and the
  Netherlands
• Relations were stabilized with France and North
  Africa
• The expulsion of the moriscos (moorish converts)
  in 1609-14 disrupted the economy
• Inflation and budget deficits forced a debasement
  of the currency
• Cataluña threatens unity

3
The Hapsburgs

• Philip IV produced the nadir of Spanish fortunes
  and is the lowest point in the history of the
  nation
• Tried to revive Spanish hegemony in Europe
• Defeated in battles
• Conflict with the Netherlands ended badly
• The Thirty Years War
• The rise of Louis XIV
• Portugal broke away
• Cataluña tried to separate

4
The Hapsburg Kings

• Charles II, The Bewitched King
• A slow stabilization of finances
• France defeated Spain in three wars
• Died without an heir
• Named the grandson of Louis XIV his heir
• Led to the War of Spanish Succession

5
Spanish Literature

• Reached its apogee during the first 20 years of
  the seventeenth century
• Next interval, 1620-50, witnessed the sunset of
  the Golden Age
• A wave of pessimism, disillusion, and negation
  engulfed the intellectual currents in Spain
• The Counter Reformation, the Inquisition, and the
  Index demanded religious and philosophical
  conformity
• Union of churcha and state intensified

6
Spanish Literature

• The Baroque spirit fitted Spains official mood
• Literature is characterized by
• A severe moralizing tone
• Anguis about the ephemeral aspect of earthly
  pleasures
• Anxiety to distinguish between appearnce and
  reality
• Fear at the reliability of sense judgements
• Skepticism about the beneficent effects of
  instincts
• The finality of death

7
Answers to problems

• Catholic theology and Thomistic philosophy
• Dogma and orthodoxy wedded to reason gave order
  and meaning
• The Baroque, a disordered order expressed the
  tension between life and spirit

8
Philip III
9
Philip IV
10
Charles II
11
Louis XIV
12
The War of Spanish Succession
The War saw battles fronts in Spain, Germany,
Italy and Holland