Philip III of Spain and Naples

Philip III of Spain and Naples (1578-1621), king of Spain, Naples, and Sicily (1598-1621), and, as Philip II, king of Portugal (1598-1621), the son of Philip II, king of Spain, born in Madrid. In contrast to his father, Philip pursued a policy of peace in western Europe, concluding a treaty with England in 1604 and with the Dutch republic in 1609. After 1618, however, he backed Austria in the Thirty Years' War. He entrusted the government to his prime minister, Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, duque de Lerma, and later to Lerma's son, Cristobal, duque de Uceda. In 1609 he expelled from Spain the last of the Moriscos (Christian converts from Islam).