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Philip IV and the Government of Spain, 1621-1665 by Robert A. StradlingReview by: Geoffrey ParkerThe Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Autumn, 1989), pp. 303-304Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/204853 .

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REVIEWS | 303

ideology between Venice and the mainland (some of the finest sections of this monograph), little attention is paid to culture, defined narrowly or more anthropologically. A short chapter on piety and morals finds that Vicenza, unlike other cities on the mainland, did not adopt St. Mark as its patron saint. And, at least in three places, Grubb alludes to archi- tecture, but only with passing suggestions and never with concrete examples. He suggests, for instance, that fifteenth-century Vicentine palaces paralleled the legal and social exclusivity of the quattrocento Vicentine elite. His claim, however, is backed only by a footnote to Goldthwaite's work, which says nothing about Vicenza and instead concentrates on fifteenth-century Florence.3

Although Firstborn of Venice represents little new in terms of a methodology for political history or in the context of recent work on the Venetian state, it is nonetheless a first-rate monograph on a town in the Venetian terraferma. It is well grounded in archival sources and within the historical literature both for Venice and for nothern Italy more generally.

Samuel Cohn Brandeis University

Philip IV and the Government of Spain, 1621-1665. By Robert A. Stradling (New York, Cambridge University Press, 1988) 381 pp. $59.50

In his time, Stradling has published a series of fearsome reviews in which, sometimes without a single kind word, his cleaver smashes mercilessly into authors and their books. Is it his turn now? Those who search for such things will doubtless notice a number of hostages to fortune. For example, the policies of France, the German princes, and other foreign powers are discussed largely on the basis of Spanish sources, and there are several errors among the (too numerous) citations in foreign languages. There is also a measure of repetition. This book is divided into three parts-"The king's apprenticeship, 1605-43"; "The politics of total war, 1630-60"; and "The king's maturity, I643-65"- and, as even these headings make clear, there is some overlap.

None of these criticisms detracts seriously from the important mer- its of this study however. Even on Olivares, recently the subject of a 750-page masterpiece by John H. Elliott, The Count-Duke of Olivares: The Statesman in an Age of Decline (New Haven, 1986), the scale of the treatment is so different that Stradling's perspective is automatically distinct. He goes far beyond the fall of the Count-Duke in 1643, for by then the king's reign was scarcely half over. The jacket of this biography correctly claims that it is "the most detailed treatment of the second half

REVIEWS | 303

ideology between Venice and the mainland (some of the finest sections of this monograph), little attention is paid to culture, defined narrowly or more anthropologically. A short chapter on piety and morals finds that Vicenza, unlike other cities on the mainland, did not adopt St. Mark as its patron saint. And, at least in three places, Grubb alludes to archi- tecture, but only with passing suggestions and never with concrete examples. He suggests, for instance, that fifteenth-century Vicentine palaces paralleled the legal and social exclusivity of the quattrocento Vicentine elite. His claim, however, is backed only by a footnote to Goldthwaite's work, which says nothing about Vicenza and instead concentrates on fifteenth-century Florence.3

Although Firstborn of Venice represents little new in terms of a methodology for political history or in the context of recent work on the Venetian state, it is nonetheless a first-rate monograph on a town in the Venetian terraferma. It is well grounded in archival sources and within the historical literature both for Venice and for nothern Italy more generally.

Samuel Cohn Brandeis University

Philip IV and the Government of Spain, 1621-1665. By Robert A. Stradling (New York, Cambridge University Press, 1988) 381 pp. $59.50

In his time, Stradling has published a series of fearsome reviews in which, sometimes without a single kind word, his cleaver smashes mercilessly into authors and their books. Is it his turn now? Those who search for such things will doubtless notice a number of hostages to fortune. For example, the policies of France, the German princes, and other foreign powers are discussed largely on the basis of Spanish sources, and there are several errors among the (too numerous) citations in foreign languages. There is also a measure of repetition. This book is divided into three parts-"The king's apprenticeship, 1605-43"; "The politics of total war, 1630-60"; and "The king's maturity, I643-65"- and, as even these headings make clear, there is some overlap.

None of these criticisms detracts seriously from the important mer- its of this study however. Even on Olivares, recently the subject of a 750-page masterpiece by John H. Elliott, The Count-Duke of Olivares: The Statesman in an Age of Decline (New Haven, 1986), the scale of the treatment is so different that Stradling's perspective is automatically distinct. He goes far beyond the fall of the Count-Duke in 1643, for by then the king's reign was scarcely half over. The jacket of this biography correctly claims that it is "the most detailed treatment of the second half

3 Richard Goldthwaite, The Building of Renaissance Florence (Baltimore, I980). 3 Richard Goldthwaite, The Building of Renaissance Florence (Baltimore, I980).

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304 GEOFFREY PARKER

of the reign available in any language." It is also the best. Stradling proves conclusively, and with overwhelming documentation from both the king himself and others, that, after the fall of Olivares, Philip IV governed in person. He had no more "favorites." Every standard ac- count of Habsburg Spain will have to be revised on that important point. For the first time, the "planet king" (as he was called by some contemporaries) emerges as a genuine personality. We can follow the formation of his opinions and tastes; we can see him wrestle with his decisions (both personal and private) and then agonize over his mistakes; we can see him at prayer, at play, and at his desk. Above all, we come to appreciate the central dilemma that faced the king, both in the Oli- vares years and after: the problem of balancing the conservation of the monarchy he had inherited from his ancestors, with the maintenance of Spain's reputation as a Catholic power. Time and again, "reputaci6n" was placed before "conservaci6n," leading inexorably to further political decline.

Stradling's approach proves once more the advantage of the bio- graphical technique, for it enables him to show convincingly, on the one hand, that Spain forfeited its status as a great power not so much because its resources were inadequate to maintain its position, as because Philip IV pursued ambitions that were wholly unrealistic; and, on the other, that he did so because he was convinced that God would surely save a monarch who strove so conscientiously to pursue God's work on earth. "There is no affair of state for which the smallest danger to Religion should be adventured," wrote the king in 1627. "We must put this first, against other maxims and rules of state if we wish to persuade Our Lord to vouchsafe us success" (88). Almost thirty years later, in 1656, the refrain had not changed: "Everywhere our enemies are pre- paring against us, and we have little left with which to resist them. But what is most at stake in this war is religion, and therefore I trust that God will provide the means for our defence" (276).

Perhaps He did, for it is implicit in Stradling's argument that the Spanish monarchy may have been down by the time of Philip IV's death, but it was not out. There had been losses to France at the Peace of the Pyrenees, and the war with Portugal had not been going well; however, the rebellions of Catalonia, Naples, and Sicily were quelled, and the situation in the Netherlands was more favorable than it had been for decades. The Spanish Empire endured more or less intact until the death of Philip's only surviving legitimate son in I700 led to its partition. That it did so was due mainly to the work of Philip IV in keeping the ship of state afloat throughout the crisis of the mid-century. It is the principal merit of Stradling's handsomely produced study that we can now see exactly how he did it.

Geoffrey Parker University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

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