Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares

Who was Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares?

Don Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel Ribera y Velasco de Tovar, Count of Olivares and Duke of San Lúcar la Mayor, Grandee of Spain, was a Spanish royal favourite of Philip IV and minister. As prime minister from 1621 to 1643, he over-exerted Spain in foreign affairs and unsuccessfully attempted domestic reform. His policies of committing Spain to recapture Holland led to his major involvement in the Thirty Years' War and his attempts to centralise power and increase wartime taxation led to revolts in Catalonia and in Portugal, which brought about his fall.