Some years ago I passed many laborious months in archives and libraries at home and abroad, searching and transcribing contemporary papers for what I hoped to make a complete history of the long reign of Philip IV., during which the final seal of decline was stamped indelibly upon the proud Spanish empire handed down by the great Charles V. to his descendants. I had dreamed of writing a book which should not only be a social review of the period signalised by the triumph of French over Spanish influence in the civilisation of Europe, but also a political history of the wane and final disappearance of the prodigious national imposture that had enabled Spain, aided by the rivalries between other nations, to dominate the world for a century by moral force unsupported by any proportionate material power.
The Court of Philip IV
Author:
Format:
Duration:
- 289 pages
Language:
English
Categories:
- 8 books
Martin Hume
Martin Andrew Sharp Hume was an author, historian, and editor of the Spanish Calendar of State Papers. He also had been lecturer in Spanish history and literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge; examiner in Spanish and lecturer at the University of London; and examiner at the University of Birmingham. The Calendar volumes published by Hume were volume 1 (Elizabeth, 1558–1567), volume 2 (Elizabeth, 1568–1579), volume 3 (Elizabeth, 1580–1586), and volume 4 (Elizabeth, 1587–1603). Born Martin Andrew Sharp in London on December 8, 1847, he later assumed the name Martin Andrew Sharp Hume as a condition of receiving a legacy from a Spanish-English relative who was a Hume. He was educated in and a resident of Madrid; he was a member of the Royal Spanish Academy and the Royal Spanish Academy of History as well as a Knight Grand Cross of the Spanish Order of Isabel the Catholic. He received a master of arts degree at Cambridge. He died in London on July 1, 1910.
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