Editing Foreign relations of Spain (section)

===Philip III, 1598–1621===
{{Main|Philip III of Spain#Foreign policy}}

[[File:The Somerset House Conference 19 August 1604.jpg|thumb|The [[Somerset House]] Conference between English and Spanish diplomats that brought an end to the [[Anglo–Spanish War (1585)|Anglo–Spanish War]] (1585–1604).]]

Philip III has a poor reputation in terms of both domestic and foreign policy. He inherited two major conflicts from his father. The first of these, the long-running [[Eighty Years' War|Dutch revolt]], represented a serious challenge to Spanish power from the Protestant [[Dutch Republic|United Provinces]] in a crucial part of the [[Spanish Empire]]. The second, the [[Anglo–Spanish War (1585)|Anglo–Spanish War]] was a newer, and less critical conflict with Protestant England, marked by a Spanish failure to successfully bring its huge military resources to bear on the smaller English military.<ref>Patrick Williams, ''The Great Favourite: the Duke of Lerma and the court and government of Philip III of Spain, 1598–1621'' (Manchester UP, 2006).</ref>

Philip's own foreign policy can be divided into three phases. For the first nine years of his reign, he pursued a highly aggressive set of policies, aiming to deliver a 'great victory'.<ref>Williams, p. 125</ref>  His instructions to his most important advisor [[Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, 1st Duke of Lerma|Duke Lerma]] to wage a war of "blood and iron" on his rebellious subjects in the Netherlands reflects this.<ref>Williams, p.10.</ref> After 1609, when it became evident that Spain was financially exhausted and Philip sought a truce with the Dutch, there followed a period of retrenchment; in the background, tensions continued to grow, however, and by 1618 the policies of Philip's 'proconsols' were increasingly at odds with de Lerma's policy from Madrid.<ref>Paul C. Allen, ''Philip III and the Pax Hispanica: The Failure of Grand Strategy'' (Yale UP: 2000)</ref>
[[File:Europe c. 1700.png|thumb|right|300px|Europe in 1701 at the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession]]