General Notes

Philip III (of Spain and Naples) (1578-1621), king of Spain, Naples, and
Sicily (1598-1621), and, as Philip II, king of Portugal (1598-1621), the son
of Philip II, king of Spain, born in Madrid. In contrast to his father, Philip
pursued a policy of peace in western Europe, concluding a treaty with England
in 1604 and with the Dutch republic in 1609. After 1618, however, he backed
Austria in the Thirty Years' War. He entrusted the government to his prime
minister, Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, duque de Lerma, and later to
Lerma's son, Cristobal, duque de Uceda. In 1609 he expelled from Spain the
last of the Moriscos (Christian converts from Islam).