Philip IV (apr 1, 1621 – sep 17, 1665)
Description:
son of Philip III and Margaret of Austria.
Philip is remembered for his patronage of the arts, including such artists as Diego Velázquez, and his rule over Spain during the Thirty Years' War.
By the time of his death in 1665, the Spanish Empire had reached approximately 4.7 million square miles in area but in other respects was in decline, a process to which Philip contributed with his inability to achieve successful domestic and military reform.
In 1615, at the age of 10, Philip was married to 13-year-old Elisabeth of France, although the relationship does not appear to have been close; some have even suggested that Olivares, his key minister, later deliberately tried to keep the two apart to maintain his influence, encouraging Philip to take mistresses instead. Philip had seven children by Elisabeth, with only one being a son, Balthasar Charles, who died at the age of sixteen in 1646. Daughter Maria Theresa married Louis XIV. Philip remarried in 1646, following the deaths of both Elisabeth and his only legitimate heir. His choice of his second wife, Maria Anna, also known as Mariana, Philip's niece and the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, was guided by politics and Philip's desire to strengthen the relationship with Habsburg Austria. Maria Anna bore him five children, but only two survived to adulthood, a daughter Margaret Teresa, born in 1651, and the future Charles II of Spain in 1661 — but the latter was sickly and considered in frequent danger of dying, making the line of inheritance potentially uncertain. Margaret Teresa married Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.
Philip died in 1665. In his will, Philip left political power as regent on behalf of the 4-year-old Charles II to his wife Mariana, with instructions that she heed the advice of a small junta committee established for this purpose.
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