Foreign Policy: Philip III

 FOREIGN POLICY OF PHILIP III

• Against England: When Philip III came to the throne in 1599 the war against England continued and a fleet of 50 ships under the command of Martín Padilla was sent to attack the coasts of Protestant England, given the success of expeditions such as Cornwall in 1595, however the fleet was totally destroyed by a storm,  before reaching the Azores Islands. 
  
  
  
• Against the Low Countries: Philip II of Spain had bequeathed these territories to his daughter Isabella Clara Eugenia and her husband, Archduke Albert, on the condition that when they died without heirs, they would return to be part of the Spanish Crown.
• Against France: Although Philip III's reign with respect to Henry IV of France begins with a pre-signed peace with Spain, Henry is killed in 1610 while preparing a campaign against Spain in Italy. There was a time of instability in the French kingdom. In this way, the peace with France that Philip II of Spain had concluded in his last moments (Vervins, 1598) was consolidated in 1615 through two marriages of the French king, with a Spanish infanta, Anne of Austria, and the crown prince of Spain, the future Philip IV, with Isabella of Bourbon.
• Against Italy: The Duke of Osuna, viceroy of Naples, and the Marquis of Villafranca, governor in Milan, directed the policy of the Spanish monarchy in Italy, which met with resistance from the Duchy of Savoy and the Republic of Venice. To ensure the connection between Milan and the Netherlands, a new route was opened through the Valtellina in Switzerland and in 1618 the conspiracy of Venice took place, in which the authorities undertook a persecution against pro-Spanish agents.
• The Thirty Years War (1618 to 1648): In this war Spain supported Emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg against Frederick V, who had the support of France and England. This was happening in the midst of the confrontation between Catholics and Protestants in Bohemia and Germany. This conflict would be of great intensity. Some have dubbed this event the real World War  prior to the one that occurred in the twentieth century.