Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares
| Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares | |
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Full name
Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel Ribera y Velasco de Tovar
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| Noble family | House of Olivares |
| Father | Enrique de Guzmán y Ribera |
| Mother | María Pimentel de Fonseca |
| Born |
January 6, 1587 Rome, Papal States |
| Died | July 22, 1645 (aged 58) Toro, Spain |
Don Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel Ribera y Velasco de Tovar, Count of Olivares and Duke of San Lúcar la Mayor, Grandee of Spain (Spanish: Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, conde-duque de Olivares, also known as Conde de Olivares y duque de Sanlúcar la Mayor, Grande de España) (January 6, 1587 – July 22, 1645), was a Spanish royal favourite of Philip IV and minister. As prime minister from 1621 to 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 continent wide 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.
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. 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 "all" – 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 el conde-duque.
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