"Our Lord has deigned to send me back my son, by bringing me another; for which I am as grateful as so signal a boon and mercy demands. Help me, Sor Maria, to prostrate myself at His feet and beseech Him to preserve this pledge, if it be for His service, otherwise I desire it not, but to bow my head to His will. The Queen and the child are well, and I am content."

Fresh attempts at reform

The child that was born to Philip's old age was greeted, as his many predecessors had been, by violent rejoicings in the capital, though the King took little or no part in them beyond the religious ceremonies; for he really was trying hard now to do without a minister, working early and late at the drudgery of administration, drafting new stern pragmatics to reform the corruption of his capital, which had become more scandalous than ever, and bringing to book many of those who had grown rich under Don Luis de Haro. Money was needed for the Portuguese war, and the coinage was again debased; clothes were ordered to be plainer than ever, no silk was to be worn by officials, and no one was to have more than two mules to his coach; the owners of carriages were to pay for the paving of the streets of Madrid, which had become simply quagmires, whilst, to the joy of the populace, the taxes on food entering Madrid were reduced by one half. The speculators who farmed these dues cried out that they were being defrauded, and they were recompensed by a cession to them of half the 10 per cent. property tax on Madrid.

Thus, with reforms in judicial procedure, the cancelling of grants and pensions which could not be justified, and desperate efforts to suppress the open vice that paraded the capital, Philip, for the third time in his life (in 1661-1662), tried to carry into effect the saintly precepts in which he believed. Much of this new zeal for reform was evidently owing to the insistence of Sor Maria, who was never tired of pointing her lesson. Soon after Haro's sudden death she wrote—

"Let your Majesty order your ministers strictly to punish the rich and powerful people who cheat the poor by usurping their property, make your inferior ministers do justice with equity and impartiality, let them punish foul vices and all sorts of sin, and let the superior government of your Court assume a better form. And, for God's sake, moderate some of the taxes the poor people pay, for I know that villages have been depopulated in consequence of them; and that the poor people only keep body and soul together on barley-bread and the herbs of the fields.... So many changes in the coinage, too, are most injurious."[[43]]

Philip did his best, but he was sick and weary, and soon slackened in his personal efforts. Nothing that he did, indeed, seemed to prosper, and in his constant letters to Sor Maria his despairing references to his own sins being the cause of all his troubles became increasingly poignant. With infinite trouble and scraping together of resources, he managed to raise another army and full campaign material, with which his son Don Juan was to reconquer Portugal for the crown.[[44]] At first in the spring of 1663 all went well with Don Juan, who invaded Portugal and captured the important city of Evora, but he was met near that place by the English and Portuguese and defeated on the 8th June. Attempting to retreat into Spain, he was overtaken, and again the Spanish army suffered a disastrous rout, with a loss of 8000 men, with baggage, standards, and arms. Don Juan himself fought bravely, pike in hand, but was borne away in the flight, and with difficulty escaped to Badajoz. He was then recalled to Madrid, and in long conferences with his father's ministers[[45]] arranged a new campaign for the following year, though it was evident now to everyone that the reconquest of her lost dominion was beyond the material and moral strength of Spain.

Ever since the Restoration in England, Charles II. had been making tentative efforts to bring about peace with Spain. Philip it was certain would not officially recognise the independence of Portugal; but perhaps a modus vivendi might be arranged, by means of a long truce or otherwise, so that direct trade between England and Spain might be restored, and the mutual injuries inflicted at sea be stopped. The advantage to Spain would, of course, be great, because the silver fleets were constantly preyed upon by English privateers; but the English shipmasters and merchants also had felt severely the deprivation of Spanish trade; and after the crushing defeat of Don Juan at Amegial, just referred to, in June 1663, it seemed a good opportunity for Charles II. to suggest directly to Philip the advisability of an agreement.

Fanshawe's embassy

The envoy chosen was that Dick Fanshawe who had been in Spain in the time of Bristol and Aston, and had lately negotiated the marriage with Catharine of Braganza. He, stout loyalist as he had been during all the Commonwealth, was Sir Richard Fanshawe, Baronet, now, and in high favour with Charles, who, it was thought, would have made him Secretary of State. He was instructed to set forth to Philip the benefit that would accrue to both States from a reopening of maritime trade, and to say how anxious the King of England was to be friendly with the Catholic King, whom he esteemed so highly, notwithstanding the refusal of Spain to deal with him during the Commonwealth and the expulsion of his agents from Madrid at that time, as well as the closing of the Spanish ports to Prince Rupert's fleet. The matter of Portugal was to be very tenderly handled. Fanshawe was instructed to say that the King of Spain "cannot imagine that we will ever persuade him to deprive himself of his reputed right to the kingdom of Portugal, but whether the determination of that difference may not be advantageously suspended till a more favourable conjuncture, and until the crown of Spain be less liable to accidents, will be his part to judge."[[46]]

Fanshawe arrived in Cadiz on the 24th February (O.S.) 1664, and nothing could exceed the honour shown to the English ambassador and his wife by the magnates of Andalucia. The keys of the city were tendered to him in a "great silver basin," and he was asked to give the password for the night, which, courtier like, he did in the form of "Viva el Rey Catolico." Very different was the welcome that had awaited poor Ascham in the same port fourteen years before; though Fanshawe, overcome by all this ceremonious posturing, hoped that it was "not instead of substance, for then it would be very tedious and irksome to me, indeed, but an earnest prognostick of it, which time will try when I come to treat."[[47]] Everywhere, as Fanshawe travelled towards the capital, he was treated with almost royal honours; bull-fights, cane-tourneys, and, of course, the usual comedies being offered by nobles on the way: and it was the 7th May before he reached Vallecas in the outskirts of Madrid, where he remained for a time, as Philip was staying at Aranjuez, and no house had been provided in the capital for Fanshawe's accommodation; the famous "house with the seven chimneys" being then occupied by the Venetian ambassador.