 daughter
was to be made queen of England. The proposed descent upon England was
no secret to Elizabeth, who made ready to resist. With a view to
delaying Philip's preparations, Drake made an attack upon Cádiz in 1587,
on which occasion he burned all the shipping in the bay. This only
strengthened Philip's resolutions with regard to the undertaking, and
tended to make him impatient for its early execution. Plans were made
which proved to be in many cases ill considered. The first mistake
occurred when Philip did not entertain a proposition of the Scotch and
French Catholics that he should work in concert with them, thus
declining an opportunity to avail himself of ports and bases of supply
near the point of attack; political reasons were the foundation for his
attitude in this matter. Against advice he also decided to divide the
expedition into a naval and a military section, the troops to come from
the Low Countries after the arrival of the fleet there to transport
them. The worst error of all was that of Philip's insistence on
directing the organization of the fleet himself. All details had to be
passed upon by the king from his palace of the Escorial near Madrid,
which necessarily involved both delay and a faulty execution of orders.
Evil practices and incompetence were manifest on every hand; quantities
of the supplies purchased proved to be useless; and the officers and men
were badly chosen, many of the former being without naval experience. A
great mistake was made in the appointment of the Duke of Medina Sidonia
to lead the expedition; the principal recommendation of the duke was
that of his family prestige, for he was absolutely lacking in knowledge
of maritime affairs, and said as much to the king, but the latter
insisted that he should take command.

[Sidenote: Defeat of the Armada.]

At length the fleet was able to leave Lisbon, and later Coruña, in the
year 1588. Because of its great size it was termed the _Armada
Invencible_ (the Invincible Fleet), a name which has been taken over
into English as the Spanish, or the Invincible, Armada. In all there
were 131 ships, with over 25,000 sailors, soldiers, and officers. The
evil effect of Philip's management followed the Armada to sea. He had
given detailed instructions what to do, and the commander-in-chief
would not vary from them. Many officers thought it would be best to make
an attack on Plymouth, to secure that port as a base of operations, but
Philip had given orders that the fleet should first go to the Low
Countries to effect a junction with the troops held in readiness there.
The story of the battle with the English fleet is well known. The
contest was altogether one-sided, for the English ships were both
superior in speed and equipped with longer range artillery.
Nevertheless, storms contributed more than the enemy to the Spanish
defeat. The Armada was utterly dispersed, and many vessels were wrecked.
Only 65 ships and some 10,000 men were able to return to Spain.

[Sidenote: Domestic troubles and death of Philip.]

The decisive blow had been struck, and Spain was the loser. The English
war went on into the next reign, and there were several spectacular
military events, not all of them unfavorable to Spanish arms, but they
affected the general situation only in that they continued the strain on
the royal exchequer. In the final analysis Philip had failed in this as
in so many other enterprises. This fact was clear, even at the time,
although the eventualities of later years were to make the outcome
appear the more decisive. Philip's evil star did not confine its effects
to his international policies. His eldest son, Charles, proved to be of
feeble body and unbalanced mind. Getting into difficulties with his
father, he was placed in prison by the latter's orders, and was never
seen again, dying in 1568. Charges have been made that Philip caused his
death, but he was probably blameless, although he did plan to disinherit
him. Philip had no other son until 1571, when his eventual successor was
born, by his fourth wife. Certain other domestic troubles, not divorced
from scandal (although the evidence is in no case conclusive), may be
passed over, except to mention the crowning grief of all. It early
became clear that his son and heir, the later Philip III, was a weak
character. "God, who has given me so many kingdoms," Philip is reported
to have said, "has denied me a son capable of ruling them." In 1598
Philip died. His last days were passed in extreme physical suffering,
which he endured with admirable resignation. Philip, like the Emperor
Charles, his father, had been indeed a great king, but he was a victim,
as Charles had been, of a mistaken policy. Nevertheless, they had ruled
Spain in her century of greatness, when Spain was not only the leading
power in Europe, but was planting her institutions, for all time, in the
vast domains of the Americas.


CHAPTER XXIV

A CENTURY OF DECLINE, 1598-1700


[Sidenote: Spanish defeats of the sixteenth century.]

The unfortunate policies of Charles I and Philip II were continued
during the seventeenth century in the reigns of Philip III, Philip IV,
and Charles II, but Spain was no longer able to hold her front rank
position in European affairs, especially after the buffets of fortune
which fell to her lot in the reign of Philip IV. Not only that, but a
decline also set in which affected Spanish civilization in all its
phases. The impetus of Spain's greatness in the sixteenth century
carried her along to yet loftier heights in some manifestations of her
inner life, notably in art and literature, but even in these
characteristics the decline was rapid and almost complete by the end of
the reign of Charles II. Italy, France, and the Low Countries continued
to absorb Spanish effort, but now it was Spain's turn to acknowledge
defeat, while France, the great power of the century, took toll for the
losses she had suffered at the hands of Charles I and Philip II. The
unsuccessful Catalan revolt and the victorious war of the Portuguese for
independence assisted to drain Spain of her resources, financial and
otherwise, while the last-named event destroyed peninsula unity,
carrying with it such of the Portuguese colonies as had not already been
lost. Spain yielded the aggressive to her strongest opponent, and
endeavored herself to maintain the defence. Nevertheless, great
achievements were still the rule in the colonies, even if of a less
showy type than formerly. Spain was still the conqueror and civilizer.
On the other hand, the efforts of other nations to found colonies in
lands claimed by Spain began to be successful, and this movement
gathered force throughout the century, together with the direct
annexation of some lands which were already Spanish.

[Sidenote: Philip III and Spanish relations with England, the Low
Countries, and the Empire.]

Philip III (1598-1621) was the first of three sovereigns, each of whom
was weaker than his predecessor. The fifteenth-century practice of
government by favorites was restored. Philip III turned over the
political management of his kingdom to the Duke of Lerma, while he
himself indulged in wasteful extravagances, punctuated by an equal
excess in religious devotions. He had inherited wars with England and
the Protestant Netherlands, but the first of these was brought to an end
in 1604, shortly after the accession of James I of England. The war in
the Low Countries was characterized by the same features which had
marked its progress in the previous reign. Philip II had endeavored to
solve the problem by making an independent kingdom of that region, under
his daughter and her husband as the rulers, with a proviso for a
reversion to Spain in case of a failure of the line. This measure was
practically without effect, for Spanish troops and Spanish moneys
continued to be the basis for the wars against the Dutch, or Protestant,
element. Before the end of Philip III's reign the decision for a
reversion to Spanish authority had already been made and accepted. There
were two factors in the Dutch wars of the period worthy of mention. For
one thing the Dutch became more bold on the seas, and began a remarkable
career of maritime conquest which was to last well over half a century.
As affecting Spain this new activity manifested itself mainly in
piratical attacks on Spanish ships, or in descents upon Spanish coasts,
but a number of Philip's Portuguese colonies were picked up by the
Dutch. The Dutch wars also produced a man who was both a great soldier
(a not uncommon type in that day of Spanish military importance) and a
great statesman, who sensed the evil course which Spain was following in
her European relations and argued against it, all to no avail. This man
was Ambrosio Spínola. Spínola won victory upon victory from the Dutch,
but was often obliged to rely on his personal estate for the funds with
which to carry on the campaigns; so when the Dutch asked for a truce he
favored the idea, and on this occasion his views were allowed to
prevail. A twelve-year truce