Olivares

Olivares, Gasparo de Guzman, Count, Duke of, was born in 1587 at Rome. He was educated at Salamanca, and early taken into the service of the future king, Philip IV., who made him Prime Minister. For five-and-twenty years Olivares held almost absolute power, and used it in a vain attempt to restore the military and political prestige of Spain. Catalonia revolted, Portugal asserted her independence, and in 1643 Olivares was banished to Toro, where he died in 1645.