Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares

Rise to power

Olivares was born in Rome in 1587, where his father, Enrique de Guzmán, 2nd Count of Olivares, from one of Spain's oldest noble families, was the Spanish ambassador. His mother died young, and his father brought him up under a strict parental regime. While in Rome, Olivares appointed Tomás Fernández de Medrano to serve in his service from 1582 to 1590. He returned to Spain in 1599, and became student rector at Salamanca University. By background, he was both a man of letters and well trained in arms. During the reign of King Philip III, he was appointed to a post in the household of the heir apparent, Philip, by his maternal uncle Don Baltasar de Zúñiga, a key foreign policy advisor to Phillip III, who himself had already established a significant influence over the young prince. Olivares in turn rapidly became the young prince's most trusted advisor.

When Philip IV ascended the throne in 1621, at the age of sixteen, he showed his confidence in Olivares by ordering that all papers requiring the royal signature should first be sent to the count-duke; despite this, Olivares, then aged 34, had no real experience of administration.

Olivares told his uncle de Zúñiga, who was to die the following year, that he was now the dominant force at court; he had become what is known in Spain as a valido, something more than a prime minister, the favourite and alter ego of the king. His compound title is explained by the fact that he inherited the title of Count of Olivares, but was created Duke of Sanlúcar la Mayor by King Philip IV of Spain. He begged the King to allow him to preserve his inherited title in combination with the new honour — according to a practice almost unique in Spanish history. Accordingly, he was commonly spoken of as the count-duke.

Olivares' personality and appearance have attracted much comment, especially by 17th-century writers, who were generally critical of them. He possessed a strikingly 'big, heavy body and florid face'. Contemporaries described an 'extravagant, out-size personality with a gift for endless self-dramatisation', others, more positively, have outlined a 'determined, perceptive and ambitious' personality. Olivares' enemies saw in him a desire to acquire excessive wealth and power. He disliked sports and light-hearted entertainment, but was a good horseman, albeit hampered by his weight in later life.

Olivares did not share the King's taste for personally acquiring art and literature, although he may have helped assemble the King's own collection, and it was he who brought to Philip's attention the young artist Diego Velázquez, in 1623. For himself he formed a vast collection of state papers, ancient and contemporary, which he endeavoured to protect from destruction by entailing them as an heirloom. He also formed a splendid aviary for the Buen Retiro Palace, which lent him comfort after the death of his daughter but which opened the door for his enemies to nickname the entire Retiro the Gallinero, or the hencoop.

Velázquez painted at least three portraits of his friend and original patron, producing the baroque equestrian portrait along with the standing portraits now at the Hermitage and São Paulo. It is possible that other portraits by Velázquez commissioned by the King were destroyed after Olivares' fall — in a copy of Prince Baltasar Carlos in the Riding School, his figure was painted over — though a few minor portraits made in the conde-duque's last years of power remain.

Style of government

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', with his early recommendations being extremely radical. The heart of the problem, Olivares felt, was Spain's moral and spiritual decline.

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, and in particular his royal favourite, the Francisco Gómez de Sandoval, 1st Duke of Lerma. 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. 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.

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. Like many other contemporaries, he had a keen interest in astrology, and its potential impact on the world around him. 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. Whilst displaying huge confidence in his own capabilities and judgment, he also felt considerable 'doubt and uneasiness' over his position as chief minister to the king.

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. 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. Whilst living a private life of "Spartan austerity" himself, 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.

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. He placed tight controls on the use of special royal favours to circumvent tight spending controls. The result was a very particular combination of centralised power in the form of Olivares, and loose government executed by small committees.

Foreign policies

For twenty-two years Olivares directed Spain's foreign policy. It was a period of constant war, and finally of disaster abroad and of rebellion at home. Olivares' foreign policy was based around his assessment that Philip IV was surrounded by jealous rivals across Europe, who wished to attack his position as a champion of the Catholic Church; in particular, Olivares saw the rebellious Dutch as a key enemy. Although Olivares made much of religion as a facet of Spain's foreign policy, in practice he often overruled that principle. It has also been argued that Olivares' dislike of flamboyant spending may have influenced his views of the Dutch Republic, known for its relatively open show of wealth.

Olivares' first key decision came in 1621. Under Philip III, Spain had successfully intervened in the Electoral Palatinate in combination with the forces of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, a fellow Habsburg, during 1618–20, surrounding the Dutch provinces that had rebelled against Spanish rule some forty years before.

An armistice had successfully held since April 1609, but in his role as foreign policy advisor, Olivares' uncle Baltasar de Zúñiga had brought Spain closer and closer to recommencing hostilities as a means of improving Spain's negotiating position with the Dutch. Olivares' new influence was central to the decision to finally abandon the armistice in favour of renewed military action using the Army of Flanders and economic warfare – ending the Twelve Years Truce and attacking Dutch fleets and applying trading embargoes. This policy would ultimately fail over the next thirty years; to some the Spanish recommencement of the war has appeared 'surprising', whilst it can also be explained as a misreading of internal Dutch politics. Whilst the strategy itself was a failure, Olivares' tactics – his attempt to combine military and economic warfare – have since been praised as a 'shrewd policy'.

For the remainder of the Eighty Years' War, Olivares would pursue a 'Netherlands first' strategy, focusing his resources and attention on delivering success in the Netherlands first, with the hope of dealing with the other challenges facing the Spanish across Europe once this key Spanish possession had been secured. For the first fifteen years of the war, this strategy proved largely successful. Spain made considerable early advances against the Dutch, finally retaking the key city of Breda in 1624, albeit at huge expense.

Domestic policies

Olivares approached the problem of domestic policy through the prism of foreign affairs. Spain in the early 17th century was a collection of possessions – the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Naples, Portugal, the autonomous provinces of Valencia, Catalonia and Andalusia as well as the Netherlands, Duchy of Milan etc. – all loosely joined through the institution of the Castile monarchy and the person of Philip IV.

Each part had different taxation, privileges and military arrangements; in practice, the level of taxation in many of the more peripheral provinces was less than in Castile, but the privileged position of the Castilian nobility at all senior levels of royal appointment was a contentious issue for the less favoured provinces. This loose system had successfully resisted reform and higher taxation before, resulting in Spain having had historically, up until the 1640s at least, less than the usual number of fiscal revolts for an early modern European state.

By the 1620s and '30s, however, the ability of the Spanish monarchy to extract resources from Castile was at breaking point, as illustrated by Olivares' early failure to reform the millones food tax in Castile, and with war continuing across Europe, new options were necessary.

Like many contemporaries, Olivares was 'haunted' by Spain's potential decline, and saw part of the solution at least in a reform of the Spanish state. Olivares saw Catalan and the other provinces as paying less to the crown than they should, and did not really understand why the inhabitants should object to a fairer distribution of taxes. He was confident in the intellectual argument for a better defended, better ordered Spain, and never seems to have shown serious doubt that his plans would succeed, or understood the growing hatred against his rule.

These plans took form first in Olivares' 'Union of Arms' concept, put forward in 1624. This would have involved the different elements of Philip's territories raising fixed quotas of soldiers in line with their size and population. Despite being portrayed by Olivares as a purely military plan, it reflected Olivares' desire for a more closely unified Spain – although not, it is generally argued, a completely unified kingdom.

Fall from power

Olivares' fall from power occurred for several reasons. The revolts in Catalonia and Portugal proved the immediate factor, placing the stability of Spain itself in doubt, but other factors played a part. Olivares increasingly suffered from mental illness in his later years, and was no longer as effective an administrator as he had once been. He had also increasingly alienated the other Castilian nobility. His use of juntas – committees – packed with his own men, irritated many. Olivares was also largely blamed by contemporaries for the new royal palace of Buen Retiro, the huge cost of which appeared to fly in the face of the wider austerity measures Olivares had championed in the 1630s. 1641 had seen a disastrous bout of inflation, causing economic chaos. More generally the Spanish people held his favourite responsible for the numerous misfortunes of the country in the 1640s.

Olivares did not let go of power readily. He attempted to use art and theatre in the 1630s to shore up his waning popularity amongst the elite but without success, although he was able to overcome the attempts of Gaspar Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán, 9th Duke of Medina Sidonia, whose family was a traditional enemy of the Counts of Olivares, to remove him from power in the Andalusian revolt in 1641. By the following year, his situation was weakening as the Catalan revolt dragged on.

Olivares' nephew and favoured successor, along with Olivares' daughter and young baby had all died in 1626, and in the absence of other children he chose to legitimate his bastard son, Don Enrique Felipez de Guzman in 1641. In doing so he had effectively disinherited another nephew and heir, causing huge family tensions within the upper echelons of Castilian society. The King himself noted that it might be necessary to sacrifice Olivares' life in order to divert unpopularity from the royal house. The end was near, but the King parted with him reluctantly in January 1643, and only under the pressure of a court intrigue headed by Queen Isabel.

He retired by the King's order first to Loeches, where he published an apology under the title of El Nicandro, which was perhaps written by an agent but was undeniably inspired by the fallen minister. El Nicandro was denounced to the Inquisition, and it is not impossible that Olivares might have ended in the prisons of the Holy Office, or on the scaffold, if he had not died beforehand of natural causes. His rivals felt that Loeches remained too close to the court, and he was moved onto his sister's palace at Toro.