Gaspar de Guzman, Count-Duke of Olivares. Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, 1st Duke of Sanlúcar, 3d Count of Olivares, GE, KOA, known as the Count-Duke of Olivares, 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 Thirty Years' War.
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 Zúńiga, 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
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 Thirty Years' War.
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 Zúńiga, 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
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