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Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares

Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, 1st Duke of Sanlúcar, 3rd Count of Olivares, GE, known as the Count-Duke of Olivares (taken by joining both his countship and subsequent dukedom) (6 January 1587[1] – 22 July 1645), was a Spanish royal favourite (Spanish: valido) of Philip IV and minister. Appointed as Grandee on 10 April 1621, a day after the ending of the Twelve Years' Truce to January 1643, he over-exerted Spain in foreign affairs and unsuccessfully attempted domestic reform. His policy of committing Spain to recapture Holland led to a renewal of the Eighty Years' War while Spain was also embroiled in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). In addition, his attempts to centralise power and increase wartime taxation led to revolts in Catalonia and in Portugal, which brought about his downfall.

"Count-Duke of Olivares" redirects here. For other holders of this title, see House of Olivares.

The Most Excellent
The Count-Duke of Olivares
GE

Philip IV

Baltasar de Zúñiga

Luis de Haro

(1587-01-06)6 January 1587
Rome, Papal States

22 July 1645(1645-07-22) (aged 58)
Toro, Crown of Castile, Spain

​
​
(m. 1607)​

Style of government[edit]

The royal favourite, who also was Sumiller de Corps and Caballerizo mayor to the King, came to power with a desire to commit the monarchy to a 'crusade of reform',[22] with his early recommendations being extremely radical.[23] The heart of the problem, Olivares felt, was Spain's moral and spiritual decline.[24]


De Zúñiga and Olivares had both presented Philip IV with the concept of restoring the kingdoms to their condition under Philip II, undoing the alleged decline that had occurred under the King's father, Philip III,[25] and in particular his royal favourite, the Francisco Gómez de Sandoval, 1st Duke of Lerma.[26] Olivares was concerned that Spain was too attached to the idea of limpieza de sangre, 'purity of blood', and worried about Castilians' disinclination for manual work.[27] For Olivares, the concept of Spain was centred on the monarchy and Philip IV as a person; unlike his French contemporary Cardinal Richelieu, Olivares did not elaborate a concept of the 'state' as separate from the person of the king.[28]


Olivares was inclined to see domestic policy as a tool in support of foreign policy – a common view amongst contemporary arbitristas, such as Sancho de Moncada and Jeronimo Zeballos.[8] Like many other contemporaries, he had a keen interest in astrology, and its potential impact on the world around him.[29] Naturally, he incorporated that interest into political expression: he promoted Philip as "The Planet King" — the Sun, traditionally the fourth planet, was a fitting emblem for the fourth Philip of Spain — taking for his own symbol the sunflower.[30] Whilst displaying huge confidence in his own capabilities and judgment,[14] he also felt considerable 'doubt and uneasiness' over his position as chief minister to the king.[31]


Olivares was well known for his passion for work. Olivares would rise early, go to confession, wake Philip IV and discuss the day's events with him, before then working throughout the rest of the day, often until 11 o'clock at night.[32] Initially, Olivares would meet with the King three times a day, although this declined over time until he met with him only once a day.[33] Whilst living a private life of "Spartan austerity" himself,[16] Olivares was skillful in using the formal and elaborate protocol of the court as a way of controlling the ambitions of Philip's enemies and rivals.[34]


Determined to attempt to improve the bureaucratic Polysynodial System of Castilian government, during the 1620s Olivares began to create juntas, smaller governmental committees, to increase the speed of decision making. By the 1630s, these were increasingly packed with Olivares' own placemen, tasked to implement his policies.[35] He placed tight controls on the use of special royal favours to circumvent tight spending controls.[36] The result was a very particular combination of centralised power in the form of Olivares, and loose government executed by small committees.[37]


Over time, Olivares began to suffer under his tremendous workload, developing sleeping disorders and, later in life, clearly suffering from mental illness.[25] He became increasingly impatient with those who disagreed with him, flying into rages, and refusing to listen to advice proffered by his own advisers.[38] His behaviour may also have been exacerbated by the severe bloodletting and excessive purging he received from his doctors at key moments in his career.[39] Olivares wrote extensively, although there are differences of opinion amongst modern scholars on his work: some find them 'forceful, incisive and persuasive',[40] others consider them 'inflated and tortuous prose', wandering down 'interminable labyrinths'.[41]

History of Spain

Thirty Years' War

Portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares (disambiguation)

Aercke, Kristiaan P. The Gods of Play: Baroque Festival Performances as Rhetorical Discourse. Albany: State University of New York Press. (1994)

Anderson, M. S. War and Society in Europe of the Old Regime, 1618–1789. London: Fontana. (1988)

Armstrong, Walter, edited by Philip Gilbert Hamerton (1896). The Portfolio: Monographs on Artistic Subjects, Issues 28–30. London: Seeley and Co. Limited and New York: The Macmillan Co.

Brown, Jonathan, and John H. Elliott. A Palace for a King: The Buen Retiro and the Court of Philip IV (revised and expanded edition). New Haven: Yale University Press. (2004)  978-0-300-10185-0

ISBN

Brown, Jonathan, and Carmen Garrido. Velazquez: The Technique of Genius. New Haven: Yale University Press. (1998)  978-0-300-07293-8

ISBN

Corteguera, Luis R. For the Common Good: Popular Politics in Barcelona, 1580–1640. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. (2002)

Elliott, J. H. The Statecraft of Olivares. in Elliot and Koenisburger (eds) 1970.

Elliott, J. H. The Revolt of the Catalans: A Study in the Decline of Spain, 1598–1640. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (1984)

Elliott, J. H. The Count-Duke of Olivares. The Statesman in an Age of Decline. Yale University: New Haven. (1986)

Elliott, J. H. Richelieu and Olivares. Cambridge: Canto Press. (1991)

Elliott, J. H. and H. G. Koenisburger (ed). The Diversity of History: Essays in Honour of Sir Henry Butterfield. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. (1970)

Kamen, Henry. Spain, 1469–1714: A Society of Conflict. Harlow: Pearson Education. (2005)

Mackay, Ruth. The Limits of Royal Authority: Resistance and Authority in Seventeenth Century Castile. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (1999)

Munck, Thomas. Seventeenth Century Europe, 1598–1700. London: Macmillan. (1990)

Parker, Geoffrey. Europe in Crisis, 1598–1648. London: Fontana. (1984)

Parker, Geoffrey. The Dutch Revolt. London: Pelican Books. (1985)

Polisensky, J. V. The Thirty Years War. London: NEL. (1971)

. The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age. London: Fontana. (1991)

Schama, Simon

Stradling, R. A. 'Olivaries and the origins of the Franco-Spanish war, 1627–1635. in English Historical Review ci (1986).

de Vallory, Guillaime. Anecdotes du Ministere du Comte-Duc d'Olivares. Paris. (1722) (in French)

Wedgewood, C. V. The Thirty Years' War. London: Methuen. (1981)

Zagorin, Perez. Rebels and Rulers, 1500–1660. Volume II: Provincial rebellion: Revolutionary civil wars, 1560–1660. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (1992)

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the : Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Olivares, Gaspar de Guzman". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 84–85.

public domain

Further reading[edit]

See the Estudios del reinado de Felipe IV. of Don Antonio Canovas (Madrid, 1889); and Don F Silvela's introduction, much less favourable to Olivares, to his edition of the Cartas de Sor María de Ágreda y del rey Felipe IV. (Madrid, 1885–1886).[1]