Description
Franco-Spanish War Pewter-Chess Set
Offered here is a marvelously hand-painted Franco-Spanish War Pewter Chess Set. The King stands 2.3″ tall and the pieces are painted to reflect the colors and insignias of their time. The French King is Louis XIII, French ruler from 1610 to 1643. The Spanish King is Philip IV, ruler of Spain from 1621 to 1665. The Chess pieces are in excellent condition. The chessboard shown is not included, but a suitable chessboard can be found here.
Some History, Courtesy of Wikipedia
The Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659) was fought between France and Spain with the participation of a changing list of allies throughout the war. The first phase, beginning in May 1635 and ending with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, is considered a related conflict of the Thirty Years’ War. The second phase continued until 1659, when France and Spain agreed to peace terms in the Treaty of the Pyrenees.
Major areas of conflict included northern Italy, the Spanish Netherlands and the German Rhineland. In addition, France supported revolts against Spanish rule in Portugal (1640–1668), Catalonia (1640–1653) and Naples (1647), and from 1647 to 1653, Spain backed French rebels in the civil war known as the Fronde. Both also backed opposing sides in the 1639 to 1642 Piedmontese Civil War.
France avoided direct participation in the Thirty Years’ War until May 1635, when it declared war on Spain and the Holy Roman Empire and entered the conflict as an ally of the Dutch Republic and of Sweden. After Westphalia in 1648, the war continued between Spain and France, with neither side able to achieve decisive victory. France made gains in Flanders and along the north-eastern end of the Pyrenees, but by 1658, both sides were financially exhausted, which led them to make peace in November 1659.
French territorial gains were minor but strengthened the kingdom’s borders; additionally, Louis XIV married Maria Theresa of Spain, the eldest daughter of Philip IV. Spain retained a vast global empire and remained a leading power in Europe, but the treaty marked the beginning of a gradual loss of its European predominance in favor of a rising France under Louis XIV.
