Excerpt from Memoirs of Spain During the Reigns of Philip IV. And Charles II, Vol. 1: From 1621 to 1700 Besides this deficiency of materials, I am suflicien tly aware of the disadvantages of a subject in which I shall have only to record an almost unvaried train of disaster - the imbecility of Kings - the corruption of courts - and the rule of worthless favourites, naturally terminating in the utter prostration and ruin of a once noble and splendid monarchy. But every period of history bears its profit; and that of Spain, in the 17th century, shews how mighty empires may be rendered poor and wretched, and teaches us that they may be brought to destruction by despotism and indolence, as surely (though perhaps not so quickly) as by excess of freedom and popular commotion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.