Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares

Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares (1587–1645), was born in Rome while his father served as Spain's ambassador there. From 1621 he was the chief minister and favourite of Philip IV, guiding Spain through the renewed Eighty Years' War and the Thirty Years' War.

He made the Netherlands his first priority, but his drive to centralize power and raise wartime taxes provoked the revolts of Catalonia and Portugal in 1640. He was dismissed in 1643 and died in retirement two years later.