Franco-Spanish War (1635-1659)

Franco–Spanish War
La Bataille de Rocroi by François Joseph Heim.
Date 1635–1659 Location Northern, Eastern and Southern France, Northern Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, Italy, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea Result Treaty of the Pyrenees Territorial changes French Flanders, Roussillon and Perpignan annexed by France
Belligerents
France  Duchy of Savoy Duchy of Modena (1647–1649 and 1655–1659)  Duchy of Parma (1635–1637)  Commonwealth of England (from 1657) Principality of Catalonia (1640-1641)	Spain Duchy of Modena (1635–1646) Royalists of the British Isles (from 1657)
Commanders and leaders
Louis XIII Louis XIV Cardinal Richelieu Cardinal Mazarin Viscount of Turenne Henri II de Condé Louis II de Condé (from 1643 to 1652) Count of Gassion Cardinal La Valette Count of La Mothe Duke of Choiseul Count of Harcourt Duke of La Meilleraye Duke of Châtillon Duke of La Ferté Henri d'Escoubleau de Sourdis Urbain de Maillé-Brézé Armand de Maillé-Brézé Prince Thomas (from 1642) Sir William Lockhart Francesc de Tamarit (1639-1641)	Philip IV of Spain Count-Duke of Olivares Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand Francisco de Melo Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria John of Austria Marquis of Caracena Admiral of Castile Viceroy Pedro Fajardo Duke of Fernandina Duke of Maqueda Duke of Ciudad Real Marquis of Leganés Louis II de Condé (from 1652) Prince Thomas (from 1635 to 1642) Duke of York

The Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659) was a military conflict that was the result of French involvement in the Thirty Years' War. After the German allies of Sweden were forced to seek terms with the Holy Roman Empire, the first French minister, Cardinal Richelieu, declared war on Spain because French territory was surrounded by Habsburg territories. The conflict was a continuation of the aims of the War of the Mantuan Succession (1628–31) in which France invaded northern Italy to take possession of territory claimed by the Spanish Habsburgs. The Franco-Spanish War ended inconclusively in 1659 with the Treaty of the Pyrenees.

For years, the Kingdom of France, under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties, had been the rival of the House of Habsburg, whose two branches ruled the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, respectively. For much of the 16th and 17th centuries, France faced Habsburg territory on three sides; the Spanish Netherlands to the north, the Franche-Comté on its eastern border, and Spain to the south. The Habsburgs thus stood in the way of French territorial expansion, and France faced the possibility of invasion from multiple sides. France therefore sought to weaken Habsburg control over its possessions.

During the Thirty Years' War, in which various Protestant forces battled Imperial armies, France provided subsidies to the enemies of the Habsburgs. France generously financed the Swedish invasion of the Empire after 1630. After a period of extraordinary success, the Swedish-led Protestant forces were decisively defeated in 1634 by a combined Catholic Imperial-Spanish army in the Battle of Nördlingen, leading many of Sweden's allies to defect to the Imperial side. Although Sweden itself continued to fight, it was seriously weakened.

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