Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659) in the context of "Maria Theresa of Spain"

The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from the effects of battle, famine, or disease, with parts of Germany reporting population declines of over 50%. Related conflicts include the Eighty Years' War, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Franco-Spanish War, the Torstenson War, the Dutch–Portuguese War, and the Portuguese Restoration War.

Its causes derived from religious conflict within the Holy Roman Empire, sparked by the 16th-century Reformation. The 1555 Peace of Augsburg attempted to resolve this by dividing the Empire into Catholic and Lutheran states, but was later destabilised by the expansion of Protestantism beyond these boundaries. Combined with disagreements over the limits of imperial authority, religion was thus an important factor in starting the war. However, its scope and extent was largely the consequence of external drivers such as the French–Habsburg rivalry and the Dutch Revolt.

The Restoration War (Portuguese: Guerra da Restauração) between Portugal and Spain began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668, bringing a formal end to the Iberian Union.The period from 1640 to 1668 was marked by periodic skirmishes between Portugal and Spain, as well as short episodes of more serious warfare, much of it occasioned by Spanish and Portuguese entanglements with non-Iberian powers. Spain was involved in the Thirty Years' War until 1648 and the Franco-Spanish War until 1659, while Portugal was involved in the Dutch–Portuguese War until 1663.

In the 17th century and afterwards, this period of sporadic conflict was simply known, in Portugal and elsewhere, as the Acclamation War. The war established the House of Braganza as Portugal's new ruling dynasty, replacing the House of Habsburg, which had been united with the Portuguese crown since the 1580 succession crisis.

The Fronde (French pronunciation: [fʁɔ̃d] ) was a series of civil wars in the Kingdom of France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The government of the young King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the noble regional court assemblies (parlements), as well as much of the French population, and managed to subdue them all. The dispute started when the government of France issued seven fiscal edicts, six of which were to increase taxation. The parlements resisted, questioned the constitutionality of the king's actions, and sought to check his powers.

The Fronde was divided into two campaigns, the Parlementary Fronde and the Fronde of the Princes. The timing of the outbreak of the Parlementary Fronde, directly after the Peace of Westphalia (1648) that ended the Thirty Years' War, was significant. The nuclei of the armed bands that terrorized parts of France under aristocratic leaders during that period had been hardened in a generation of war in Germany, where troops still tended to operate autonomously. Louis XIV, impressed as a young ruler with the experience of the Fronde, came to reorganize French fighting forces under a stricter hierarchy, whose leaders ultimately could be made or unmade by the king. Cardinal Mazarin blundered into the crisis but came out well ahead at the end. The Fronde represented the final attempt of the French nobility to confront the king, and ended in its humiliation. In the long run, the Fronde served to strengthen royal authority, but weakened the national economy. The Fronde facilitated the emergence of absolute monarchy.

The Reapers' War (Catalan: Guerra dels Segadors, Eastern Catalan: [ˈɡɛrə ðəls səɣəˈðos]; Spanish: Guerra de los Segadores, French: Guerre des faucheurs), also known as the Catalan Revolt or Catalan Revolution, was a conflict that affected the Principality of Catalonia between 1640 and 1659, in the context of the Franco-Spanish War of 1635–1659. Being the result of a revolutionary process carried out by Catalan peasantry and institutions, as well as French diplomatic movements, it saw the brief establishment of a Catalan Republic and the clash of Spanish and French armies on Catalan soil over more than a decade.

It had an enduring effect in the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), which ceded the County of Roussillon and the northern half of the County of Cerdanya to France (see French Cerdagne), splitting these northern Catalan territories off from the Principality of Catalonia, and thereby receding the borders of Spain to the Pyrenees.

Anne of Austria (French: Anne d'Autriche; Spanish: Ana de Austria; born Ana María Mauricia; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was Queen of France from 1615 to 1643 by marriage to King Louis XIII. She was also Queen of Navarre until the kingdom's annexation into the French crown in 1620. After her husband's death, Anne was regent to her son Louis XIV during his minority until 1651.

Anne was born in Valladolid to King Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria. She was betrothed to King Louis XIII of France in 1612 and they married three years later. The two had a difficult marital relationship, exacerbated by her miscarriages and the anti-Habsburg stance of Louis' first minister, Cardinal Richelieu. Despite a climate of distrust amidst the Franco-Spanish War and twenty-three years of childlessness in which she suffered five miscarriages, Anne gave birth to an heir, Louis, in 1638 and a second son, Philippe two years later.

Louis II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé (8 September 1621 – 11 December 1686), known as le Grand Condé (French for 'the Great Condé'), was a French military commander. A tactician and strategist, he is regarded as one of France's greatest generals, particularly celebrated for his triumphs in the Thirty Years' War and his campaigns during the Franco-Dutch War.

A member of a senior cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, Condé demonstrated exceptional military prowess from a young age and distinguished himself during the Thirty Years' War, in particular at the Battle of Rocroi against Spain in 1643. He became a powerful and influential figure in France, which made him a threat to Anne of Austria, regent for the young Louis XIV, and her prime minister Mazarin. During the Fronde revolt, Condé initially supported the crown but was later imprisoned on Mazarin's orders. After his release, he launched an open rebellion and fought the royal forces until his defeat by Turenne, after which he defected to Spain. He commanded Spanish forces during the final phase of the Franco-Spanish War.