Treaty of the Pyrenees

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The Treaty of the Pyrenees
1635–1659 war;
Spain cedes Artois and Northern Catalonia;
Louis marries Maria Theresa of Spain
Signed7 November 1659 (1659-11-07)
LocationPheasant Island
Negotiators
Signatories
Parties

The Treaty of the Pyrenees

Franco-Spanish War that had begun in 1635.[2]

Negotiations were conducted and the treaty was signed on

Louis XIV of France and Philip IV of Spain, as well as their chief ministers, Cardinal Mazarin and Don Luis Méndez de Haro.[3]

Background

The geopolitical effects of the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659)

France entered the Thirty Years' War after the

Fronde revolt in France in 1648. During the negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, France gained the Sundgau and cut off Spanish access to the Netherlands from Austria
, leading to open warfare between the French and Spanish.

An Anglo-French alliance was victorious at the Battle of the Dunes on 14 June 1658, but the following year the war ground to a halt when the French campaign to take Milan was defeated. Peace was settled by means of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in November 1659.

Content

Medal celebrating the Treaty (1660)

France gained

Valcarlos.[5]

Spain was forced to recognize and confirm all of the French gains at the Peace of Westphalia.[4] In exchange for the Spanish territorial losses, the French king pledged to quit his support for Portugal and renounced his claim to the county of Barcelona, which the French crown had claimed ever since the Catalan Revolt (also known as Reapers' War).[4] The Portuguese revolt in 1640, led by the Duke of Braganza, was supported monetarily by Cardinal Richelieu of France. After the Catalan Revolt, France had controlled the Principality of Catalonia from January 1641, when a combined Catalan and French force defeated the Spanish army at Battle of Montjuïc, until it was defeated by a Spanish army at Barcelona in 1652.[6] Though the Spanish army reconquered most of Catalonia, the French retained Catalan territory north of the Pyrenees.

The treaty also arranged for a marriage between

Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain, the daughter of Philip IV of Spain.[4] Maria Theresa was forced to renounce her claim to the Spanish throne, in return for a monetary settlement as part of her dowry. This settlement was never paid, a factor that eventually led to the War of Devolution in 1667. At the Meeting on the Isle of Pheasants
in June 1660, the two monarchs and their ministers met, and the princess entered France.

In addition, the English received Dunkirk,[4] although they elected to sell it to France in 1662.

Consequences

Partition of the Principality of Catalonia between Spain and France

The Treaty of the Pyrenees was the last major diplomatic achievement by Cardinal Mazarin. Combined with the

Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé
and a weakened Spanish Crown, along with the agreed dowry, which was an important element in the French king's strategy.

All in all, by 1660, when the

Habsburgs.[7] In the Pyrenees, the treaty resulted in the establishment of border customs and restriction of the free cross-border flow of people and goods. The treaty also settled indefinitely the century and half long litigation over the Kingdom of Navarre, while the dispute over the Aldudes remained in place still throughout the 18th century.[5]

French annexations

In the context of the territorial changes involved in the Treaty, France gained some territory, on both its northern and southern borders.

  1. On the east: the northern part of the Principality of Catalonia, including Roussillon, Conflent, Vallespir, Capcir, and French Cerdagne, was transferred to France, i.e. what later came to be known as "Northern Catalonia".
  2. On the west: the parties agreed to put together a field group to compromise a borderline on disputed lands along the Basque Pyrenees, involving Sareta—
    Valcarlos
    .

See also

Part of a series on the
History of Catalonia
Arms of Catalonia
Principality of Catalonia, printed in Antwerp in 1608 by Jan Baptist Vrients
Tarraconensis
 27 BC – 476 AD
Medieval
Visigoths 5th century – c.720
Al-Andalus 713–1154
Catalan counties c.760 – 12th century
County of Barcelona 801–1162
Crown of Aragon 1162–1715
Principality of Catalonia c. 12th century – 1714
Compromise of Caspe 1412
War of the Remences 1462–1486
Catalan Civil War 1462–1472
Revolt of the Barretines 1687–1689 War of the Spanish Succession 1700–1715 War of the Catalans 1713–1714 Nueva Planta decrees
1716
Republican Generalitat / Statute of Autonomy 1932–1939 Events of 6 October 1934 Spanish Civil War / Revolution
1936–1939
Statute of Autonomy 2006–present Independence movement
2010–present
By topic
Timeline

References

  1. ^ (French: Traité des Pyrénées; Spanish: Tratado de los Pirineos; Catalan: Tractat dels Pirineus)
  2. ^ Cooper 1970, p. 428.
  3. ^ Sahlins 1989, p. 25.
  4. ^ a b c d e Maland 1966, p. 227.
  5. ^ a b M. Gregorio. Jimeno, R. 2012, pp. 72-73, 121-122.
  6. ^ Pendrill 2002, pp. 142–143.
  7. ^ Oakley 1993, pp. 84–85.

Sources

  • Cooper, JP, ed. (1970). The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 4, The Decline of Spain and the Thirty Years War, 1609-48/49 (1979 ed.). CUP.
    ISBN 978-0521076180
    .
  • Maland, David (1966). Europe in the Seventeenth Century (1991 ed.). Macmillan.
    ISBN 978-0333023419
    .
  • Monreal, Gregorio; Jimeno, Roldan (2012). Conquista e Incorporación de Navarra a Castilla. Pamplona-Iruña: Pamiela.
    ISBN 978-84-7681-736-0
    .
  • Pendrill, Colin (2002). Martin Collier, Erica Lewis (ed.). Spain 1474 - 1700. Heinemann.
    ISBN 978-0-435-32733-0
    .
  • Sahlins, Peter (1989). Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (1992 ed.). University of California Press.
    ISBN 978-0520065383
    .
  • Oakley, Stewart P (1993). War and Peace in the Baltic, 1560-1790 (2005 ed.). Routledge.
    ISBN 978-0415024723
    .

External links
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