Enlightenment in Spain Enlightenment in Spain The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment (in Spanish, "Ilustración") came to Spain in the eighteenth century with the new Bourbon dynasty, following the death of the last , Charles II, in 1700. "Like the Spanish Enlightenment, the Spanish Bourbon monarchs were imbued with Spain's Catholic identity." The period of reform and 'enlightened despotism' under the Bourbons focused on centralizing and modernizing the Spanish government, and improvement of infrastructure, beginning with the rule of King Charles III and the work of his minister, José Moñino, count of Floridablanca. In the political and economic sphere, the crown implemented
Jeanne de Bourbon, Duchess of Bourbon eldest son of Robert, Count of Clermont and Beatrix of Bourbon. Beatrix was the heiress of the Bourbon family and the matriarch of the new Bourbon line of the Capetian dynasty. Robert was the youngest son of Louis IX of France and Margaret of Provence. She married first John II, Duke of Bourbon in 1487. The groom was about sixty-one years old and the bride only twenty-two. John had survived two previous wives and his only son. He was in a need of an heir; however, they had only one son: John II died the same year as his second