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The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed in 1659 to end the war between France and Spain that had begun in 1635 during the Thirty Years' War. It was signed on Pheasant Island, a river island on the border between the two countries.

France entered the Thirty Years' War after the Spanish victories in the Dutch Revolt in the 1620s and at the Battle of Nördlingen against Sweden in 1634. By 1640 France began to interfere in Spanish politics, aiding the revolt in Catalonia, while Spain in response aided the Fronde revolt in France in 1648. During the negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, France gained Alsace and Lorraine and cut off Spanish access to the Netherlands from Austria, leading to open warfare between the French and Spanish.

After over 10 years of war, an Anglo-French alliance was victorious at the Battle of the Dunes in 1658 and a peace was settled in 1659. France gained Roussillon, Artois, part of Luxembourg, and part of Flanders, and the border with Spain was fixed at the Pyrenees. However, the treaty only stipulated that all villages north of the Pyrenees should become part of France. For that reason there is an enclave of Spain in this part of France, the town of Llívia - considered a town and not a village - which remains under Spanish control and is part of the comarca of Baixa Cerdanya, Spanish province of Girona.

The treaty also arranged for a marriage between Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain, the daughter of Philip IV of Spain. Maria Theresa was forced to renounce her claim to the Spanish throne, in return for a monetary settlement as part of her dowry. This settlement was never paid, a factor that led to the War of Devolution in 1668.

The defeat and inability to pay Maria Theresa's dowry confirmed Spain's continuing gradual decline as an important power, while bringing the Ancien Régime of France to its height as the now indisputably dominant power of Europe.

The pays of Roussillon, Conflent, Vallespir, Capcir and French Cerdagne, currently known by Catalan people as Northern Catalonia, have remained under French dominion. Every year on November 7, Catalanists remember this event and demonstrate in Perpignan. The treaty included several points about conserving Catalonian institutions, but Louis XIV did not respect this part. Catalonian institutions were abolished just a year after the treaty was signed, and a royal French decree on April 2, 1700 (applied on May 1), forbade Catalan language usage in any kind of official act. Since then, French continues to be the only official language.

Map of Catalonia, showing the partition of its territory by this treaty.

• Language policy in France
• List of treaties

• Full Text of TreatyPDF (16.8 MiB), France National Archives Transcription (French)