Spain recovered during the truce, ordering her finances and doing much to restore her prestige and stability in the run-up to the last war in which she would participate as the leading power. In the Spanish Netherlands, the rule of Philip II's daughter, Isabella Clara Eugenia, and her husband, Archduke Albert, restored stability. But Philip III and Lerma lacked the ability to make any meaningful change in the country's foreign policy. They clung to the idea of placing the Infanta Isabella on the English throne after Queen Elizabeth's death and sent a limited expeditionary force to Ireland to aid the Spanish-supplied rebels. The English defeated it, but the long war of attrition there had drained England of money, men, and morale: Elizabeth's successor, James I, wanted a fresh start to his reign. The war that had been going on between the two countries since 1585 finally ended. War with France threatened in 1610, but shortly after, Henry IV was assassinated, and the regency of the boy king Louis XIII was not stable. Up until 1630, Spain was at peace and continued its dominant position in Europe. Meanwhile, Lerma's enemies expelled him from office in 1617, and Baltasar de Zúñiga began calling for a more aggressive foreign policy.
