Felipe III "the Pious" of Spain (14 April 1578-13 March 1621) was the King of the Spanish Empire from 1598 to 1621, succeeding Felipe II of Spain and preceding Felipe IV of Spain. Felipe relied on The Duke of Lerma as his main advisor, and under his reign he defeated the United Provinces in the Eighty Years War and entered the Thirty Years War.
Biography[]
Felipe de Habsburg was the son of Felipe II of Spain and Anna of Austria, and was born in Madrid in 1578. Upon his father's death in 1598, Felipe became the new Emperor of the Spanish Empire and he married his cousin Margaret of Austria a year later. Felipe's aunt Maria of Austria ensured that there would be a pro-Catholic and pro-Austrian voice in Felipe's life, and he expelled the Moriscos (converted Moors) from Spain in 1609.
However, his reign led to economic decline and failed reform, and his armies were defeated many time by the United Provinces stadtholder Maurice of Nassau, starting with the 1600 Battle of Nieuwpoort. However, the Genoese nobleman Ambrogio Spinola, commanding an army of mercenary Italian troops, fought in the name of Spain and repeatedly defeated the Dutchmen. King Felipe agreed to a truce with the rebels in 1609, and he saw peace that lasted until 1621.
King Felipe, as a member of the House of Habsburg, joined the Catholic League in the Thirty Years War, entering Spain into the conflict as an ally of the Holy Roman Empire. Spanish reinforcements from the Spanish Netherlands, the Viceroyalty of Naples, and the Viceroyalty of Sicily helped to turn the tide of the war in Europe early on, and he died before Spain's fortunes started to ebb.