Editing Spanish match (section)

{{Short description|Proposed marriage between Prince Charles I and Infanta Maria Anna}}
{{about||the historical novel|The Spanish Match (novel)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{about-distinguish-text|the proposed marriage of the Duke of Cornwall to Maria Anna of Spain|the [[Act for the Marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain]]}}
[[File:Charles_I_by_Daniel_Mytens.jpg|thumb|[[Charles I of England|Charles I]] portrait by [[Daniel Mytens]], 1631]]
The '''Spanish match'''<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Prince and the Infanta: The Cultural Politics of the Spanish Match|last = Redworth|first = Glyn|publisher = Yale University Press|year = 2003|isbn = 0300101988}}</ref> was a proposed marriage between Prince [[Charles I of England|Charles]], the son of King [[James VI & I]] of [[Kingdom of Scotland]] and [[Kingdom of England|England]], and [[Infante|Infanta]] [[Maria Anna of Spain]], the daughter of [[Philip III of Spain]]. Negotiations took place over the period 1614 to 1623, and during this time became closely related to aspects of British foreign and religious policy, before breaking down completely.

The policy, unpopular with England's Protestant [[House of Commons of England|House of Commons]], where the recent [[Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)]] had not been forgotten, was initiated during the embassy to England of [[Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar]], who arrived in London in 1614 with the offer that [[Habsburg Spain|Spain]] would not interfere with James's troubled rule in [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]] if James would restrain the English "[[privateer]]s" in [[Spanish America]]n waters. Further, he proposed a marriage alliance, offering a dowry of £500,000 (later increased to £600,000), which seemed especially attractive to James after the failure of the [[Addled Parliament|Parliament of 1614]] to provide him with the financial subsidies he requested.

The climax of the ensuing decade of high-level negotiation to secure a marriage between the leading Protestant and Catholic royal families of Europe occurred in 1623 in Madrid, with the embassy of the Prince Charles and James's [[favourite]], [[George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham]]. The wedding never took place despite the signing of a marriage contract by King James; criticism instead led to the dissolution of Parliament.