30YearsWar #66: A Tale of Two Crowns [1639-40]

When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

King Philip IV of Spain and King Charles of Britain had a surprising amount in common by the late 1630s. Both were presiding over a deteriorating situation domestically and abroad, and during the Battle of the Downs in October 1639, both came off worse than before.

For Charles, the problem was one of authority, which had suffered terribly following years of wrong headed religious and political policies. With Scotland in revolt, and only pacified with painful concessions by spring 1639, Charles needed a win, and nothing said defeat like the prospect of watching a Spanish-Dutch naval battle off the coast of Dover. Having presented himself as the Sovereign of the Seas, this was a sharp strike against Charles' honour, and things were soon to get worse.

Many miles away in Madrid, King Philip IV's greatest problem was the intractable Dutch, followed by the equally intractable Catalans. Even after Count Olivares had asked them really nicely, the Catalans had not agreed to aid and supply the defending Spanish garrisons, and matters came to a head thanks in no small measure to Olivares' heavy-handed responses. Olivares may have been trying to make a point about the King's authority - a move Charles would surely have sympathised with - but his approach caused the very disaster he had longed to avoid.

By autumn 1640, both Spain and Britain were wracked by conflict and division, as the Thirty Years' War's actor looked on, and asked whether it was really fair on historians to open yet more fronts to this multi-layered conflict. Fair or not, here we delve into these issues, so I hope you'll join me!

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