Victory and Defeat in Spain

Extract

With the ignorance that is so common in matters concerning Spain, it is often stated and more generally thought that Spain was an obstacle to the Renaissance, if by Renaissance is understood the Reformation, then the statement is true. As it stands it is far from the truth. It is lamentable enough that the simplest facts about Spain should not form part of the average Englishman’s education, but such ignorance is unpardonable in a Catholic. This attitude towards Spain has a long and interesting history behind it, but it is time it were abandoned. Mere misguided supposition should give way to intelligent search and, what is even more important, to intelligent understanding.

No period of Spanish history is more instructive and enlightening than the Renaissance and post-Renaissance period from 1475 to 1700. It was the period that saw Spain rise from a group of medieval states to the premier position among the nations of the world and then sink down into a condition of almost complete political insignificance. The Renaissance in Spain explains both medieval and modern Spain. It is the logical development of the one as well as the necessary cause of the other.