Everything about Treaty Of London 1604 totally explained
The
Treaty of London, signed in
1604, concluded the 20-year
Anglo-Spanish War. The terms were largely favourable to
Spain, but also amounted to an acknowledgement by Spain that its hopes of bringing England under Spanish control were at an end. The negotiations took place at
Somerset House in
London and are sometimes known as the
Somerset House Conference.
After the death of
Queen Elizabeth in
1603, her successors began negotiating an end to the bitter and costly conflicts that had characterized the later years of her rule. Besides the early successes at
Cádiz and
Gravelines in the
1580s, the war with Spain hadn't gone well for
England. A huge
fleet action had been repulsed off the coast of
Portugal with heavy losses in
1589. Thousands of soldiers had been deployed against professional Spanish armies in
France and
Flanders with only marginal success. A Catholic guerrilla war in Ireland (
Nine Years' War), occasionally supported by Spain, drained England of men, money and morale. England's treasury, sapped by the necessities of war and by the decades of funding
Protestant rebels in France and the
Spanish Netherlands, was depleted. Crop failures and plagues had also damaged the kingdom.
Furthermore, privateering efforts in the
Spanish Main had been suppressed in recent years by improved Spanish defenses; both
John Hawkins and
Francis Drake died at sea after a disastrous attack on
Puerto Rico in
1595. English offensives at sea, including an attempt to capture the
Azores in
1597, met largely with failure:
Cádiz was again attacked in
1596, causing terrific damage to the city, but this time the Anglo-Dutch forces came away empty handed, unable to seize the treasure fleet at port. English attacks on
Atlantic shipping met with rapidly dwindling successes against the well protected trans-Atlantic convoys (
flotas), and suffered defeats against the greatly improved post-Armada
Spanish navy; the increased inflow of precious metals from America enabled Spain to sustain, its wide ranging military efforts.
But in Spain, too, decades of incessant warfare against the
Dutch rebels, the
French and the English, coupled with the task of
guarding the Mediterranean against the
Ottoman Empire, had taken its toll. By the
17th century, finances were exhausted by the need of maintaining Spain's famous but expensive
professional army, powerful navy, and the upgrading of port defences throughout the
Spanish Main, Europe, and around the world, leaving the Spanish economy in shambles. The situation was aggravated by a large scale
plague that had swept through
Castile.
Spain's wars were not justified in the substance of their results. Despite committing a significant fraction of Spain's military power against the
Dutch,
Phillip II was unable to completely subjugate the rebellious
Dutch provinces, thereby remaining caught in an expensive, endless, military quagmire (the
Eighty Years' War). For this reason
Philip III welcomed England's
James I's pledge of non-intervention in
Continental affairs, which had been the principal aim of the
Spanish Armada of 1588. However Philip II's other goals of placing a Catholic monarch on the English throne (unlikely after the execution of the best contender in
Mary I of Scotland) or at least of winning official tolerance for English Catholics, were not to be realised.
England and Spain remained at peace until their forces met in the
Cádiz Expedition (1625).
English delegation
- Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury (1563-1612), Secretary of State, James I's leading minister.
- Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devonshire (1563-1606), Soldier.
- Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset (1536-1608), Poet and Lord Treasurer.
- Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton (1540-1614), Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
- Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham (1536-1624), Lord High Admiral.
Spanish delegation
The Spanish delegates weren't all Spaniards, some of them coming from the King of Spain's other territories.
Charles de Ligne, Count of Arenberg,
Juan de Velasco Frias, Duke of Frias, Constable of Castile.
Jean Richardot, President of the Privy Council.
Alessandro Robida, Senator of Milan.
Louis Vereyken, Audencier of Brussels.
Juan de Tassis, Count of Villa Mediana.Further Information
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