Peace of the Pyrenees

For more information on Treaty of the Pyrenees, visit Britannica.com.

The struggle between France and Spain that burst out into full-scale war in 1635 was not ended by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Instead, the French lost much ground when Spain took advantage of the Fronde, the French civil wars of 1648–1653. Eventually allied with the prince of Condé (1621–1686), one of the leaders of the Fronde, the Spaniards retook earlier French gains, such as Dunkirk, and ended the French-backed rebellion in Catalonia. The end of the Fronde brought little improvement in French prospects, and defeats in 1655–1656 led France to offer terms, only for Philip IV (1605–1665) of Spain to reject them. The French demand that the peace include the marriage of Louis XIV (1638–1715) with Philip's daughter Marie-Thérèse (1638–1683), then first in line in the succession, was unacceptable.

The war ended only after the intervention of English forces on the side of France, under an alliance signed in 1657, tipped the balance in Flanders. English units helped Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne (1611–1675), marshal Turenne, defeat the Army of Flanders at the Battle of the Dunes (14 June 1658). This transformed the strategic situation. Having exploited the victory to capture Dunkirk, Gravelines, Menen, and Ieper (Ypres), La Tour d'Auvergne could threaten an advance on Brussels, the capital of the Spanish Netherlands.

This led to the Peace of the Pyrenees of 7 November 1659, signed at the Isle of Pheasants at the western end of the mountain chain. Important French gains in the war, Artois in the Low Countries and Roussillon at the eastern end of the Pyrenees, were ceded by Spain. However, the peace was more of a compromise than is usually appreciated, and this reflected the outcome of the war. The French had failed to drive the Spanish from the southern Netherlands or Italy as had been planned, and as a result the Spaniards retained their territories in Italy as well as most of the Spanish Netherlands. The Spanish Empire remained the largest in western Europe.

The marriage of Louis XIV and Marie-Thérèse as part of the settlement was now acceptable to Spain because Philip now had a son, a reminder of the role of dynastic fortune. As an indication, however, of the extent to which policy was debated and thus of the danger of treating states as unproblematic building blocks, the negotiations were opposed by the queen of Spain, who wanted Marie-Thérèse to marry Emperor Leopold I (1640–1705), and by courtiers concerned to secure better terms for Condé. Dunkirk, a major naval base on the North Sea, was ceded to England, but the recently restored Charles II (1630–1685) sold it to Louis XIV in 1662.

When Louis married Marie-Thérèse in 1660, she renounced the right of succession on the Spanish inheritance, both for herself and for her heirs. However, it was by no means clear how acceptable this was to Spanish custom and law. Indeed at the time of the marriage her renunciation was regarded as a matter of formality, entered into in order to allay international mistrust. It gave Louis and the Bourbon dynasty a claim to the Spanish inheritance, which was pushed when Philip IV died in 1665. Louis claimed Brabant, Antwerp, Limburg, and parts of Franche-Comté and Luxembourg from the inheritance, leading to the War of Devolution in 1667–1668. After gains then, including Lille and Tournai, he won more, including Franche-Comté and parts of the Spanish Netherlands, in the Dutch War of 1672–1678. More seriously, the death of Philip's son, Carlos II (1661–1700), led to the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) as the inheritance of the whole succession by Louis's second grandson, Philip V of Spain (1683–1746; ruled 1700–1746), was contested by Britain, Austria, and the Dutch.

The Peace of the Pyrenees is sometimes seen as setting the seal on the decline of Spain. This is misleading. It was no more than a stage in the long-running saga of relations. Spain proved a robust power possessing great resilience in the 1640s and 1650s. Subsequent Spanish difficulties owed more to contrasting domestic developments in the 1660s. The vigorous Louis XIV took personal charge of France on the death of Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602–1661) in 1661, while in Spain the physically and mentally impaired Carlos II (ruled 1665–1700) could not provide the necessary leadership.

Bibliography

Méndez de Haro, Luis. Letters from the Pyrenees: Don Luis Méndez de Haro's Correspondence to Philip IV of Spain, July to November 1659. Edited by Lynn Williams. Exeter, U.K., 2000. A crucial source.

—JEREMY BLACK

The geopolitical effects of the Treaty of Pyrenees (1659)

The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed to end the 1635 to 1659 war between France and Spain, a war that was initially a part of the wider Thirty Years' War. It was signed on Pheasant Island, a river island on the border between the two countries. The kings Louis XIV of France and Philip IV of Spain were represented by their prime ministers, Cardinal Mazarin and Don Luis de Haro, respectively.

Contents 1 Context 2 Content 3 Consequences 3.1 French annexations 4 See also 5 External links

Context

France entered the Thirty Years' War after the Spanish Habsburg victories in the Dutch Revolt in the 1620s and at the Battle of Nördlingen against Sweden in 1634. By 1640 France began to interfere in Spanish politics, aiding the revolt in Catalonia, while Spain in response aided the Fronde revolt in France in 1648. During the negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, France gained Alsace and Lorraine and cut off Spanish access to the Netherlands from Austria, leading to open warfare between the French and Spanish.

After over ten years of war, an Anglo-French alliance was victorious at the Battle of the Dunes in 1658 and peace was settled by means of this treaty in 1659.

Content

Allegory of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli

France gained Roussillon, Artois, parts of Luxembourg and Flanders, and a new border with Spain was fixed at the Pyrenees. However, the treaty only stipulated that all villages north of the Pyrenees should become part of France. For that reason there is an exclave of Spain in this part of France, the town of Llívia - considered a town and not a village - which remains Spanish control and is part of the comarca of Baixa Cerdanya, Spanish province of Girona. This border was not properly settled until the Treaty of Bayonne was signed in 1856.

In exchange for the Spanish territorial losses, the French king pledged to quit his support for Portugal and renounced to his claim to the county of Barcelona, which the French crown was claiming ever since the Reapers' War.

The treaty also arranged for a marriage between Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain, the daughter of Philip IV of Spain. Maria Theresa was forced to renounce her claim to the Spanish throne, in return for a monetary settlement as part of her dowry. This settlement was never paid, a factor that eventually led to the War of Devolution in 1668.

In addition, the British received Dunkirk.

Consequences

The Treaty of the Pyrenees is the last major diplomatic achievement by Cardinal Mazarin. Combined with the Peace of Westphalia, it allowed Louis XIV remarkable stability and diplomatic advantage by means of a weakened Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé and a weakened Spanish Crown, along the agreed dowry, which was an important element in the French king's strategy:

Map of Catalonia, showing the partition of its territory by means of the Treaty of the Pyrenees.

All in all, in 1660, when the Swedish occupation of Poland finished, the entire European continent was at peace, and the Bourbons prevailed for the first time over the Habsburgs.

French annexations

In the context of the territorial changes involved by the Treaty, France got some territorial gains, both in its northern and southern borders.

In the north, France gained the French Flanders.

In the south, the pays of Roussillon, Conflent, Vallespir, Capcir and French Cerdagne, known nowadays in Catalonia as "Northern Catalonia" was transferred to France. Every year on 7 November, some Catalanists remember this event and demonstrate in Perpignan.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Language policy in France
• List of treaties

External links

• Full Text of TreatyPDF (16.8 MiB), France National Archives Transcription (French)

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)