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| Context | Spain and France end the1635–1659 war; Spain cedesCounty of Artois andNorthern Catalonia; Louis marriesMaria Theresa of Spain |
|---|---|
| Signed | 7 November 1659 (1659-11-07) |
| Location | Pheasant Island |
| Negotiators | |
| Signatories | |
| Parties | |
TheTreaty of the Pyrenees[1] was signed on 7 November 1659 and ended theFranco-Spanish War that had begun in 1635.[2]
Negotiations were conducted and the treaty was signed onPheasant Island, situated in the middle of theBidasoa River on the border between the two countries, which has remained a French-Spanishcondominium ever since. It was signed byLouis XIV of France andPhilip IV of Spain, as well as their chief ministers,Cardinal Mazarin and DonLuis Méndez de Haro.[3]
France entered theThirty Years' War after theSpanish Habsburg victories in theDutch Revolt in the 1620s and at theBattle of Nördlingen againstSweden in 1634. By 1640, France began to interfere in Spanish politics, aiding therevolt in Catalonia, while Spain responded by aiding theFronde revolt in France in 1648. During the negotiations for thePeace of Westphalia in 1648, France gained theSundgau and cut off Spanish access to theNetherlands fromAustria, and leading to an increase in hostilities between the French and Spanish.
An Anglo-French alliance was victorious at theBattle of the Dunes on 14 June 1658, but the following year the war ground to a halt when the French campaign to takeMilan was defeated. Peace was settled by means of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in November 1659.
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France gainedRoussillon (includingPerpignan) and the northern half ofCerdanya,Montmédy and other parts ofLuxembourg,Artois and other towns inFlanders, includingArras,Béthune,Gravelines andThionville, and a new border with Spain was fixed at the Pyrenees.[4] However, the treaty stipulated only that all "villages" north of the Pyrenees should become part of France. Because it was a town,Llívia, once the capital of Cerdanya, was thus unintentionally exempted from the treaty and became a Spanish exclave as part of thecomarca ofBaixa Cerdanya, in theSpanish province ofGirona. This border was not properly settled until theTreaty of Bayonne was signed in 1856, with its final acts accepted 12 years later. On the western Pyrenees a definite borderline was drawn and decisions made as to the politico-administrative affiliation of bordering areas in theBasque region—Baztan,Aldude,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 forPortugal and renounced his claim to thePrincipality of Catalonia, which the French crown had claimed ever since the Catalan Revolt, also known as theReapers' War.[4] ThePortuguese revolt in 1640, led by the Duke of Braganza, was supported monetarily byCardinal 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 atBattle of Montjuïc, until it was defeated by a Spanish armyat 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 betweenLouis XIV andMaria Theresa of Spain, the daughter ofPhilip 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 herdowry. This settlement was never paid, a factor that eventually led to theWar of Devolution in 1667. At theMeeting on the Isle of Pheasants in June 1660, the two monarchs and their ministers met, and the princess entered France.
In addition, theEnglish receivedDunkirk,[4] although they elected to sell it to France in 1662.
The Treaty of the Pyrenees was the last major diplomatic achievement by Cardinal Mazarin. Combined with thePeace of Westphalia, it allowed Louis XIV remarkable stability and diplomatic advantage by means of a weakenedLouis, Grand 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 theSwedish occupation of Poland was over, most of the European continent was at peace (though the third stage of thePortuguese Restoration War would soon begin), and the Bourbons had ended the dominance of theHabsburgs.[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 longlitigation over the Kingdom of Navarre, while the dispute over theAldudes remained in place still throughout the 18th century.[5]
In the context of the territorial changes involved in the treaty, France gained some territory, on both its northern and southern borders.
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