Philip had inherited a huge empire from his father, spanning the known world, but many of his most difficult challenges as king would stem from domestic problems in Spain itself. Spain in the early 17th century was a collection of possessions – the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal, the autonomous provinces of Valencia Catalonia and Andalusia, complete with the wider provinces of Naples, the Netherlands, Milan etc. – all loosely joined together through the institution of the Castile monarchy and the person of Philip IV. Each part had different taxation, privileges and military arrangements; in practice, the level of taxation in many of the more peripheral provinces was less than that in Castile, but the privileged position of the Castilian nobility at all senior levels of royal appointment was a contentious issue for the less favoured provinces. This loose system had successfully resisted reform and higher taxation before, ironically resulting in Spain's having had historically, up until the 1640s at least, fewer than the usual number of fiscal revolts for an early modern European state.
Philip had inherited a huge? empire from his father, spanning the known world, but many of his most difficult challenges as king would stem fr!om domestic problems in Spain itself. Spain in the early 17th century was a collection of possessions – the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal, the autonomous provinces of Valencia Catalonia and Andalusia, complete with the wider provinces of Naples, the Netherlands, Milan etc. – all loosely joined together through the institution of the Castile monarchy and the person of Philip IV. Each part had different taxation, privileges and military arrangements; in practice, the level of taxation in many of the more peripheral provinces was less than that in Castile, but the privileged position of the Castilian nobility at all senior levels of royal appointment was a contentious issue for the less favoured provinces. This loose system had successfully res!isted reform and higher taxation before, ironically resulting in Spain's having had historically, up until the 1640s at least, fewer than the usual number of ,fiscal revolts for an early modern European state.