History books often treat the 17th century like a confusing mess of lace collars and muskets, but the Franco Spanish War 1635 was something else entirely. It was messy. It was hypocritical. Most of all, it was the moment the "modern" world started to peek through the curtains of the medieval one.
Imagine this. You have Cardinal Richelieu, a high-ranking prince of the Catholic Church, leading France into a brutal, decades-long grind against Spain—the most aggressively Catholic power on the planet. Why? Because power is a hell of a drug, and Richelieu was more interested in French borders than he was in the Pope's feelings.
The war didn't just pop out of nowhere. It was basically the "spin-off" series of the Thirty Years' War that ended up being more important than the original show. By 1635, the Spanish Habsburgs were essentially surrounding France. They had the Spanish Netherlands to the north, Spain to the south, and bits of Italy and Germany scattered around. France felt claustrophobic. Richelieu decided that the only way to breathe was to break the Spanish spine.
The Declaration that Changed Everything
War wasn't officially declared until May 1635. Before that, France was playing a "shadow war" game. They were funding everyone who hated the Habsburgs. They sent cash to the Dutch. They sent cash to the Swedes. But eventually, the Swedish army got hammered at the Battle of Nördlingen in 1634, and Richelieu realized he couldn't just write checks anymore. He had to send men.
When the Franco Spanish War 1635 kicked off, it wasn't a clean fight. There was no single "front line." Instead, you had dozens of little fires burning across the Pyrenees, the Low Countries, and Northern Italy.
The early years were a total disaster for France. Honestly, they were embarrassing. The French army was huge but disorganized. In 1636, Spanish forces actually got so close to Paris that people started packing their bags. The "Corbie Scare" sent the city into a genuine panic. But the Spanish didn't have the logistics to hold what they took. They retreated, and France survived. This is a recurring theme in this conflict: nobody could quite deliver the knockout blow for a long, long time.
Why Logistics Were the Real Enemy
We like to talk about "brave charges" and "heroic stands," but the Franco Spanish War 1635 was mostly about starving. If you look at the records from generals like the Great Condé or Turenne, they aren't just talking about tactics. They’re complaining about moldy bread.
The "Spanish Road"—the supply route from Italy to the Netherlands—was the most important thing on the map. France spent years trying to cut it. Spain spent years trying to keep it open.
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- Disease killed way more soldiers than the Spanish tercios or French cavalry did.
- Desertion rates were sky-high because, frankly, who wants to die of typhus in a muddy ditch in Flanders?
- Taxation in France went through the roof, leading to peasant revolts like the Nu-Pieds in Normandy.
The war became a test of who could go bankrupt the slowest. Spain had the silver from the Americas, but they were stretched too thin. France had a better tax base but was plagued by internal conspiracies. It was a race to the bottom.
The Battle of Rocroi: The End of an Era?
Every history buff knows 1643. That’s the year of the Battle of Rocroi. For over a century, the Spanish tercios—those massive squares of pikemen and musketeers—were considered invincible. They were the tanks of the 1600s.
At Rocroi, a young Duke of Enghien (later known as the Great Condé) basically deleted that myth. He used his cavalry to outmaneuver the rigid Spanish formations. It wasn't just a military win; it was a psychological gut punch. While Spain stayed dangerous for another decade, the aura of invincibility was gone. The Franco Spanish War 1635 shifted the momentum for good.
The Catalan and Portuguese Revolts
While the soldiers were fighting, the Spanish Empire was literally falling apart from the inside. In 1640, Catalonia revolted. Then Portugal decided they'd had enough and declared independence too.
Richelieu, being the pragmatist he was, supported both. He didn't care about Portuguese freedom; he just wanted Spain to have fewer soldiers to send to the French border. It worked. Spain was forced to fight on so many fronts—The Netherlands, the German states, Italy, Catalonia, Portugal, and the French border—that they simply ran out of breath.
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The Peace of the Pyrenees and the Aftermath
Even after the wider Thirty Years' War ended in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, France and Spain kept at it. They couldn't stop. They fought for another eleven years.
It finally ended in 1659 with the Treaty of the Pyrenees. France got Roussillon and parts of Artois. But the real prize was a marriage. King Louis XIV of France married Maria Theresa of Spain. This marriage would eventually lead to the War of the Spanish Succession decades later, but for now, it signaled that France was the new boss of Europe.
What We Get Wrong About 1635
People often think this was a religious war. It wasn't. It was about raison d'état—the interest of the state. Richelieu proved that a nation's survival and power mattered more than shared faith. This was the birth of modern geopolitics.
The Franco Spanish War 1635 also marked the decline of the heavy pike and the rise of more mobile, flintlock-heavy warfare. It forced states to build massive bureaucracies just to handle the taxation required for such a long conflict. If you like the idea of a centralized government (or hate it), you can thank this war for speeding up its development.
Actionable Insights for History Enthusiasts and Researchers
If you're looking to understand this period better, don't just read about the kings. Look at the logistics.
- Study the "Spanish Road": Map out how Spain moved troops from Naples to Brussels. It explains why certain tiny towns in the Alps and the Rhineland became blood-soaked battlefields.
- Compare Tax Records: Look at the "Tailley" tax in France versus the "Millones" in Spain. The war was won by accountants as much as by generals.
- Visit the Pyrenees: The border established in 1659 is largely the one that exists today. It's one of the oldest stable borders in the world.
- Read Richelieu's Political Testament: It's a cold-blooded look at how he justified fighting fellow Catholics for the sake of French "security."
The war wasn't a clean victory, but it shifted the center of gravity in Europe from Madrid to Paris. It set the stage for the "Sun King" and the French dominance that would last until the days of Napoleon. It was the long, bloody transition from the age of empires to the age of nations.