Philip II of Spain

"Philip II" redirects here. For other uses, see Philip II (disambiguation).

Philip II of Spain
King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, Duke of Milan, Sovereign of the Netherlands, Duke of Burgundy, and King of England and Ireland iure uxoris
Philip II portrayed by Sofonisba Anguissola, 1565 (Museo del Prado)
King of Spain, Sicily and Sardinia
Reign	January 16, 1556 – September 13, 1598
Predecessor	Charles I
Successor	Philip III
Duke of Milan
Reign	October 11, 1540 – September 13, 1598
Predecessor	Francesco II Sforza
Successor	Philip III
King of Naples
Reign	July 24, 1554 – September 13, 1598
Predecessor	Joanna III and Charles IV
Successor	Philip II
King of England and Ireland (iure uxoris, together with Mary I)
Reign	July 25, 1554 – November 17, 1558
Predecessor	Mary I
Successor	Elizabeth I
Sovereign of the Netherlands and Count of Burgundy
Reign	October 25, 1555 – May 6, 1598
Predecessor	Charles II
Successor	Isabella Clara Eugenia and Albert of Austria
King of Portugal
Reign	September 12, 1580 – September 13, 1598
Predecessor	Henry I
Successor	Philip II
Born	May 21, 1527 Valladolid, Spain
Died	September 13, 1598 (aged 71) San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain
Burial	Royal Crypt of the Monastery of El Escorial
Spouse	Maria Manuela of Portugal (1543–1545) Mary I of England (1554–1558) Elisabeth of Valois (1559–1568) Anna of Austria (1570–1580)
Issue	See Marriages and children
House	Austria
Father	Charles I of Spain
Mother	Isabella of Portugal
Religion	Catholic
Signature
Style: His Catholic Majesty Motto: Nec spe nec metu Non sufficit orbis Dominus mihi adjutor

Philip II of Spain, called "the Prudent" (Valladolid, May 21, 1527 – San Lorenzo de El Escorial, September 13, 1598), was King of Spain from January 15, 1556 until his death, of Naples and Sicily from 1554, and of Portugal and the Algarves —as Philip I— from 1580, achieving the long-desired dynastic union that lasted sixty years. He was also King of England and Ireland iure uxoris, through his marriage to Mary I, between 1554 and 1558.

Son and heir of Charles I of Spain and Isabella of Portugal, brother of Maria of Austria and Joanna of Austria, grandson on his father's side of Joanna I of Castile and Philip I of Castile, and on his mother's side of Manuel I of Portugal and Maria of Aragon; he died on September 13, 1598 at the age of seventy-one, at the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, to which he was carried from Madrid in a reclining chair built for that purpose.

His reign was characterized by global exploration and territorial expansion across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Under Philip II, the Spanish Monarchy became the foremost power in Europe and the Spanish Empire reached its apogee. It was the first empire of worldwide scope. For the first time in history, an empire encompassed territories on every inhabited continent, a fact that gave rise to the phrase "The empire on which the sun never sets".

Extent of the monarchy

Duke of Milan

Empress Isabella with Prince Philip (the future Philip II of Spain), a portrait a lo divino in the manner of the Virgin and Child. A copy of the original painted in 1529 by António de Holanda, in Toledo?

After the death, on November 1, 1535, of Francesco II, the last Sforza, the Duchy of Milan was left without a sovereign. The Kings of France, related to the Visconti family, claimed the duchy. This was one of the causes of the successive Italian Wars. Francis I saw in the death of the Duke of Milan a new opportunity to seize the territory, setting off a third war against Charles I of Spain, which ended with the Truce of Nice in 1538.

In 1540 the duchy was still without a sovereign, being in the charge of a governor. At first, Charles I himself considered naming himself duke, since Milan was a feudatory state of the Holy Roman Empire and the Emperor had the authority to grant the title. But this could be regarded as a casus belli in France and, moreover, would damage his image as a liberator rather than a conqueror. He therefore decided to grant the title to Prince Philip. On October 11, 1540, Philip was invested as Duke of Milan. The ceremony was secret and the prince-electors were not consulted, in order to avoid international problems.

In 1542 a new war broke out between France and Spain. Among the conditions of the Peace of Crépy, which ended the hostilities in 1544, was the marriage of Charles, Duke of Orléans and son of Francis I, either to the daughter of Charles I, Maria of Habsburg (with the Netherlands and the Franche-Comté as dowry), or to the daughter of the King of the Romans Ferdinand, Anna of Habsburg (with Milan as dowry). The choice was Milan, but in 1545 the death of the Duke of Orléans voided the agreements. Once again in secret, Prince Philip was invested as duke on July 5, 1546. In 1550 Philip's appointment was finally made public and, on February 10 of the same year, Ferrante Gonzaga, Governor of Milan, swore an oath of fealty to him in his own name and in that of the city.

King of Naples

At the end of 1553 the marriage was announced of Philip to his first cousin once removed, the Queen of England, Mary I. But it turned out that Philip was only a prince and a duke. There could be no marriage between the Queen and someone of lower rank. Charles I resolved the difficulty by renouncing the Kingdom of Naples in favor of his son, so that he would be a king. On July 24, 1554, Juan de Figueroa, special envoy of Charles I and regent of Naples, arrived in England with Philip's formal investiture as King of Naples and Duke of Milan. The betrothal was celebrated the following day.

King of England and Ireland

On July 25, 1554, Philip married Queen Mary I of England. At the end of the ceremony they were proclaimed:

Philip and Mary, by the grace of God, King and Queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Princes of Spain and Sicily, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Milan, Burgundy and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and the Tyrol, in the first and second year of their reign.

The marriage clauses were very rigid (comparable to those of the Catholic Monarchs) in order to guarantee the complete independence of the Kingdom of England. Philip had to respect the laws and the rights and privileges of the English people. Spain could not ask England for military or financial aid. Furthermore, it was expressly requested that an effort be made to maintain peace with France. If the marriage produced a son, he would become heir to England, the Netherlands and Burgundy. If Mary died while the heir was a minor, his education would be in the hands of the English. If Philip died, Mary would receive a pension of 60,000 pounds a year, but if Mary were the first to die, Philip was to leave England, renouncing all his rights to the throne.

Philip, Prince of Asturias, by Titian (1551).

Philip acted in accordance with the provisions of the marriage contract, meeting strong resistance from English courtiers and parliamentarians, which went so far as an aborted assassination attempt in March 1555 in Westminster. Nevertheless, he exercised a notable influence on the government of the kingdom, ordering the release of noblemen and knights imprisoned in the Tower of London for having taken part in earlier rebellions against Queen Mary, and playing a vital role in the reintegration of England into the Catholic Church. After his departure for the Netherlands, a Select Council of Englishmen sent letters to Philip asking for his opinion and recommendations on the various matters of government it was debating, going so far as to follow faithfully the directives the King subsequently sent them. For a significant part of his reign he was absent, especially from 1556, when his father abdicated in his favor the Crowns of Spain, Sicily and Sardinia.

On November 17, 1558, while he was in the Netherlands, Queen Mary I Tudor died without having had issue. Her sister ascended the throne as Elizabeth I of England, recognized as such by Philip, by then former King.

Sovereign of the Netherlands and Duke of Burgundy

In 1555 Charles I, by now old and weary, decided to renounce more territories in favor of his son Philip. On October 22 of that year, Charles abdicated in Brussels as Sovereign Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Three days later, in a grand and ostentatious ceremony before dozens of guests, he abdicated as sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands. The renunciation of the County of Burgundy took place on June 10, 1556.

Charles intended that Spain should defend from those territories the Holy Roman Empire, which was weaker than France. Unlike Castile, Aragon, Naples and Sicily, the Netherlands were not part of the inheritance of the Catholic Monarchs and saw the monarch as a foreign and distant king . The northern states soon became a great battlefield, aided by France and England, which exploited the constant state of rebellion in Flanders to weaken the Spanish Crown.

King of Spain, Sicily and the Indies

On January 16, 1556, Charles I, in his private chambers and without any ceremony, ceded to Philip the Crown of the Hispanic Kingdoms, Sicily and the Indies. Philip had already been carrying out functions of government since 1544, after Charles I wrote in 1543, on his return to Spain, the Instructions of Palamós, which prepared Philip for the regency of the peninsular kingdoms until 1550, when he was still only sixteen years old. Although during his youth he lived twelve years outside Spain in Switzerland, England, Flanders, Portugal, etc., once he became King of Spain he settled his residence in Madrid and enhanced the role of that city as capital of all his kingdoms.

King of Portugal

European and North African dominions of Philip II around 1580

On August 4, 1578, after the death without descendants of King Sebastian I of Portugal at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, in Morocco, the throne was inherited by his great-uncle, Cardinal Henry I of Portugal. During the latter's reign, Philip II, as the son of Isabella of Portugal, became a candidate for the Portuguese throne alongside António, the Prior of Crato, also a grandson of the Portuguese King Manuel I, Catherine of Portugal, and the Dukes of Savoy and Parma. Philip received the support of the nobility and the high clergy, and the Prior of Crato was supported by the great majority of the people.

On the death of Henry I, the Prior of Crato proclaimed himself King of Portugal on July 24, 1580. In response, Philip II sent an army under the command of Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, the Grand Duke of Alba, to fight the Prior of Crato and claim his rights to the throne. The Battle of Alcântara crowned a swift and successful military campaign that forced António to flee and take refuge in the Azores Islands, from which he was dislodged in 1583 after the Battle of Terceira Island.

Once Lisbon had been taken, Philip II was proclaimed King of Portugal on September 12, 1580, with the name of Philip I of Portugal, and was sworn in as such by the Cortes assembled at Tomar on April 15, 1581. He ruled Portugal from Madrid and appointed Fernando Álvarez de Toledo Constable of Portugal and 1st Viceroy of Portugal, the highest offices in that country after the person of the monarch himself. Philip II thus achieved the long-desired unification of the Iberian Peninsula under a single Spanish king.

Culture and art

Main article: Spanish Renaissance

Monastery of El Escorial, in the Herrerian style.

The government of Philip II coincided with the historical period known as the Renaissance. However, the ideological change was not as extreme as in other countries; there was no abrupt break with the medieval tradition, religious literature did not disappear, and it was during the Renaissance that ascetic and mystical authors emerged in Spain.

Religious literature was led by writers such as Saint Teresa of Jesus, Saint John of the Cross, Friar Luis de Granada, Friar Luis de Molina, Saint John of Ávila and Friar Juan de los Ángeles. Miguel de Cervantes began to write his first works. The lyric poetry of this period is divided into two schools: the Salamancan (Fray Luis de León) and the Sevillian (Fernando de Herrera). Epic poetry culminated with Alonso de Ercilla, who dedicated La Araucana to Philip II. In the theater, Lope de Rueda stood out, one of the first Spanish professional actors, considered a forerunner of the theater of Lope de Vega, who would gain even greater importance in the reign of Philip III, as would Miguel de Cervantes.

Among the most famous painters were El Greco, Titian, Antonio Moro and Bruegel the Elder. Alonso Sánchez Coello was the court painter of Philip II. It was the heyday of Spanish architects, among them Juan de Herrera, Juanelo Turriano, Francisco de Mora and Juan Bautista de Toledo, which resulted in the appearance of a new style characterized by the predominance of structural elements, the absence of decoration, straight lines and cubic volumes. This style was later named the Herrerian style. These renowned architects built religious and funerary buildings such as the Monastery of El Escorial and the Cathedral of Valladolid; civil or administrative ones such as the Casa de la Panadería in Madrid or the Mint of Segovia; and military ones such as the Citadel of Pamplona.

The most notable composers of sacred music during the reign of Philip II were Tomás Luis de Victoria and Francisco Guerrero. In 1576 one of the last vihuela books was also published: El Parnaso by Esteban Daza. Alonso Lobo composed his well-known work Versa est in luctum on the death of Philip II.

Indeed, this period, in which writers and playwrights of great stature excelled, and in which those who would stand out under the government of Philip III had just been born, is known as the Golden Age or the apogee of Spanish culture.

Science and technology

The Prudent King acted as patron of numerous scientific projects, giving preference to mathematical, geographical, cosmographical and naval engineering subjects. In 1552 he created the chair of Cosmography at the Casa de Contratación in Seville, where the book of Pedro de Medina was taught. In 1581 he convened the first modern debate on shipbuilding and naval engineering among Diego Flores de Valdés, Cristóbal de Barros, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa and Juan Martínez de Recalde, who exchanged views with the Juntas of Santander and Seville to define the designs, proportions, measurements and strengths of the new royal galleons. He even promoted the construction of several prototypes of steam-powered ships, ahead of their time, developed by Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont.

He created the first longitude prizes, a system of incentive awards; great eminences of the time such as Galileo Galilei competed in the first call, although the prize was left unawarded. He later created a Junta of cosmographers and astrologers charged with tackling the calculation of longitude, under the direction of the Chief Cosmographer Alonso de Santa Cruz. The fruit of that Junta was the Libro de las Longitúdines y manera que hasta ahora se ha tenido de navegar, the first systematic study of the problem of longitude. Philip II strictly forbade the work of Santa Cruz from being published and distributed, to prevent it from falling into the hands of rival European powers (although, logically, it was taught at the Casa de Contratación), and it only saw the light of day in 1921.

After the death of Santa Cruz, he was succeeded in command by Juan López de Velasco, who devised and carried out an Observation Plan based on calculation by lunar eclipses, which was to be carried out over years by several dozen royal cosmographers, mathematicians and other officials throughout all the dominions of Philip II, who recorded every circumstance surrounding the eclipse they observed, such as the time of onset, the duration, the intensity —total or partial— and the shadow on an instrument. In this way a relative approximation could be calculated for precise navigation, which served to locate geographically (latitude and longitude) all the territories and the position of each with respect to the others.

He founded the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, intended to bring together the most outstanding geographers, astronomers, architects, engineers, military specialists and other notable men with occupations related to the mathematical sciences. The Academy of Mathematics of Madrid, created in 1583, was the first of its kind in Europe, and occupied a building next to the Royal Palace. The architect Juan de Herrera was appointed to direct it. The prestigious Portuguese cosmographer Juan Bautista Labaña was also hired to hold the chair. The humanist Pedro Ambrosio de Ondériz was entrusted with translating scientific texts from Latin into Castilian. Later, Juan Arias de Loyola and the Milanese Giuliano Ferrofino were professors at the Academy.

He also established an Alchemy Cabinet, and created and endowed the Library of the Monastery of El Escorial, whose organization he entrusted to the humanist Benito Arias Montano. The latter arranged the books by language and into 74 subjects, 21 of which were scientific. Pompeo Leoni brought engineering codices of Leonardo da Vinci from Milan at the express request of the King, long before the scientific value of the famous painter was recognized.

In 1562 a chair of Mathematics was created in Salamanca where the Copernican system was taught, its teaching entrusted to Andrés García de Céspedes. His royal cosmographer Rodrigo Zamorano wrote Cronología y Repertorio de la razón de los tiempos (1585 and 1594), translated Los seis libros primeros de Euclides (1576) and produced a Carta de marear (1579) and a Compendio de la arte de navegar.

The monarch also ordered a pioneering topographical description of Spain and the drawing up of a geodesic map, traced by master Pedro Esquivel, and promoted and paid for the geographical works of Abraham Ortelius.

He commissioned Ambrosio de Morales to explore the ecclesiastical archives and the botanist Francisco Hernández to study the fauna and flora of Mexico.

Domestic policy

Royal standard of Philip II, Military Government of Barcelona

During his reign he faced many internal problems, among which the following stand out: his son Charles, his secretary Antonio Pérez and the war of the Alpujarras. He also put an end to the Protestant hotbeds in Spain, located mainly in Valladolid and Seville.

Prince Charles (1545 to 1568) and the dynastic problem

Prince Charles was born in 1545, the son of Philip's first wife, Maria of Portugal, whom he had married two years earlier and who died in childbirth. Characterized by his mental imbalance, very possibly of genetic origin, since he had four great-grandparents (instead of the natural eight) and six great-great-grandparents (instead of sixteen), Charles had a weak and sickly constitution. He was educated at the University of Alcalá together with the King's half-brother, Don John of Austria. He conspired with little concealment with the Flemish rebels against his father. After astonishing scandals related to this, such as the attempt to stab the Duke of Alba in public, he was arrested by his own father, put on trial and confined to his apartments. He was later moved to the Castle of Arévalo, where he died of starvation (he refused to eat) and in complete delirium in 1568. This terrible event marked the monarch's personality deeply and for the rest of his life.

Personal coat of arms of Philip as monarch of England, Spain and other states. On the left side the arms of the latter can be seen, and supporting the shield is the figure of the Eagle of Saint John, adopted from the heraldry of the Catholic Monarchs.

From his second marriage, to Mary I of England, there were no children, but from his third marriage, to Elisabeth of Valois, he had two daughters, so that when Elisabeth of Valois died in 1568, Philip II found himself forty-one years old, a widower and without male issue. This was one of the worst years for Philip II: to the personal tragedy were added the rebellion in the Netherlands and in the Alpujarras, the unstoppable advance of Protestant and Calvinist heresy in France and Central Europe, Barbary piracy and the resurgence of the Ottoman threat after the failure of the siege of Malta and the death of Suleiman the Magnificent.

In 1570, Philip II married for the fourth time, to Anna of Austria, daughter of his cousin the Emperor Maximilian II, with whom he had four sons, of whom only one, Philip (April 14, 1578 – March 31, 1621), the future Philip III, reached adulthood. The problem of the succession having finally been resolved, Anna of Austria died in 1580. Philip II did not marry again.

The rebellion in the Alpujarras (1568 to 1571)

Main article: Rebellion of the Alpujarras

In 1567 Pedro de Deza, President of the Royal Chancery of Granada, proclaimed the Pragmatic on the order of Philip II. The edict restricted the religious, linguistic and cultural freedoms of the Morisco population. This provoked a rebellion of the Moriscos of the Alpujarras, which John of Austria put down militarily.

The crisis of Aragon (1590 to 1591) and Antonio Pérez

Main articles: Alterations of Aragon and Antonio Pérez del Hierro

Antonio Pérez, an Aragonese, was secretary to the King until 1579. He was arrested for the murder of Juan de Escobedo, a trusted man of Don John of Austria, and for abusing the royal trust by conspiring against the King. The relationship between Aragon and the Crown had been somewhat strained since 1588 because of the lawsuit of the foreign viceroy and the problems in the strategic county of Ribagorza. When Antonio Pérez escaped to Zaragoza and took shelter under the protection of the Aragonese fueros, Philip II attempted to try Antonio Pérez through the tribunal of the Inquisition in order to circumvent Aragonese justice (the Justicia Mayor of Aragon was theoretically independent of royal power). This provoked a revolt in Zaragoza which Philip II put down by force, beheading Juan de Lanuza y Urrea and abolishing the fueros and privileges of Aragon so as to be able to bring him to justice.

Administrative reforms

The "Spanish Road" was used for the first time in 1567 by Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, 3rd Duke of Alba de Tormes, on his journey to the Netherlands, and the last army to travel along it did so in 1622.

The King's father, Charles I, had governed as an Emperor, and as such, Spain and chiefly Castile had been a source of military and financial resources for distant wars of a strategic nature, difficult to justify locally since they answered to his personal ambition (and, even more, to the ambitions of the House of Austria), and which had become extremely expensive with technological innovations in warfare. All of this was sustained with Castilian funds and with American riches, which at times went directly from America to Dutch, German and Genoese bankers without passing through Spain.

Philip II, like his predecessor, was an authoritarian King; he continued with the institutions inherited from Charles I, and with the same structure of his empire and autonomy of its components. But he governed as a national King: Spain, and especially Castile, was the center of the empire, with its administration located in Madrid. Philip II hardly visited his territories outside the peninsula and administered them through officials and viceroys, perhaps because he feared falling into his father's error, Charles I having been absent from Spain during the years of the Comunero revolts; perhaps because, unlike his father, who learned Spanish at a very advanced age, Philip II felt deeply Spanish.

He made Spain the first modern kingdom, carried out hydraulic reforms (Monnegre Dam) and a reform of the road network, with inns, with an administration (and a bureaucracy) unknown until then. Philip II's administrators usually had university studies, mainly from the universities of Alcalá and Salamanca; the nobility also held administrative posts, although in smaller numbers. Noteworthy examples of his meticulous administration are:

• In 1561, Philip II decided to move the seat of the court and made Madrid the first permanent capital of the Spanish Monarchy. Since then, except for a brief interval between 1601 and 1606, under the government of Philip III, during which the capital temporarily moved to Valladolid, Madrid has been the capital of Spain and seat of the Government of the Nation.
• The Grand and Most Fortunate Armada, or Invincible Armada, of which even the name of the lowliest cabin boy was known, whereas the English did not have certain knowledge even of all the ships that took part.

Various soldiers of the Tercios

• The tercios were the finest military units of their time. Created by his predecessor, Charles I of Spain, they were decisive for Philip II in the victories he won against the French, English and Dutch during his reign (see the corresponding sections). They were experts in tactics such as the siege (at Antwerp from 1584 to 1585).
• Besides having the best soldiers, he also had the best generals of his time, both on land and at sea. Outstanding among them were Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel —3rd Duke of Alba de Tormes—, Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, Álvaro de Bazán and John of Austria, among others.
• Military innovations in every respect. The appearance of arquebusiers and musketeers, who fought alongside the pikemen and the cavalry. Artillery was also available: from cannons of bronze or cast iron, demi-cannons and culverins to falconets. In tactical terms, the use of surprise night attacks (Encamisada) stands out. In the case of a siege, the Tercios carried out entrenchment works to surround the stronghold and bring the cannons and mines close to the walls. One of the squadrons was kept in reserve to repel any attempted counterattack by the besieged.
• At sea, the massive use of galleons stood out, since their combination of size, sail plan and capacity to carry weaponry and troops made them ideal for long ocean crossings, thus combining the transport capacity of cargo ships with the firepower required by the new techniques of naval warfare, making heavily armed transport ships available.
• Charles I created the Spanish Marine Infantry on February 27, 1537, making it the oldest in the world by permanently assigning the old companies of the Sea of Naples to the galley squadrons of the Mediterranean. However, it was Philip II who created the present-day concept of the landing force, a concept that still endures today.
• He devoted a large amount of money to creating the best espionage network of the time. The use of invisible ink and microscopic writing by Philip II's secret services is well known. Bernardino de Mendoza was a soldier, ambassador and head of the secret services in various regions of the Spanish Empire under Philip II, and during that time he was posted as Spanish ambassador in Paris. One of the most important actions attributed to this forerunner of today's secret services was the assassination of William of Orange at the hands of Balthasar Gérard.
• Creation of the Spanish Road, an overland route for transporting money and troops from the Spanish possessions in Italy to the Spanish Netherlands.
• Trade with the Indies was strictly controlled. By law, those Spanish possessions could trade with only one port in Spain (first Seville, then Cádiz). The English, Dutch and French tried to break the monopoly, but it lasted for more than two centuries. Thanks to the monopoly, Spain became the richest country in Europe. This wealth made it possible above all to finance the wars against the Protestants of central and northern Europe. It also caused enormous inflation in the 16th century, which practically destroyed the Spanish economy.
• Philip II communicated almost daily with his ambassadors, viceroys and officials spread throughout the empire by means of a system of messengers that took less than three days to reach any part of the peninsula, or about eight days to reach the Netherlands.
• In 1566 he carried out a monetary reform in order to increase the value of the gold escudo, and various kinds of rich billon were put into circulation.
• In 1567 Philip II commissioned Jerónimo Zurita y Castro to gather the state documents of Aragon and Italy and bring them together with those of Castile in the castle of Simancas, creating one of the largest national archives of its time.

The Empire of Philip II in 1598, distinguishing the sphere of each territorial Council in the polysynodial system of the Catholic Monarchy
■ Territories attached to the Council of Castile
■ Territories attached to the Council of Aragon
■ Territories attached to the Council of Portugal
■ Territories attached to the Council of Italy
■ Territories attached to the Council of the Indies
■ Territories attached to the Council of Flanders, including the territories disputed with the United Provinces.

Government through Councils, instituted by his father, remained the backbone of his way of directing the state. The most important was the Council of State, of which the King was President. The King communicated with his Councils mainly through the consulta, a document containing the Council's opinion on a matter requested by the King. There were also six regional Councils: those of Castile, Aragon, Portugal, the Indies, Italy and the Netherlands, which exercised legislative, judicial and executive functions.

Philip II also liked to have the opinion of a select group of advisors, formed by the Catalan Luis de Requesens, the Castilian Grand Duke of Alba, the Basque Juan de Idiáquez, the Burgundian Cardinal Antonio Perrenot de Granvela and the Portuguese Ruy Gómez de Silva and Cristóbal de Moura, spread across different offices or serving as members of the Council of State. Philip II and his secretary dealt directly with the most important matters; another group of secretaries handled everyday affairs. Under Philip II the figure of the King's secretary attained great importance; among his secretaries, Gonzalo Pérez, his son Antonio Pérez, Cardinal Granvela and Mateo Vázquez de Leca stand out. In 1586 he created the Junta Grande, formed by officials and controlled by secretaries. Other juntas dependent on it were those of Militia, Population, Cortes, Arbitrios and Presidents.

Finances

Handwriting and signature of Philip II in a letter of 1557. With age, problems with his eyesight and the advance of gout caused his handwriting, from the 1580s onward, to become increasingly large and illegible.

During his reign, the Royal Treasury declared bankruptcy three times (1557, 1575 and 1596), although in reality these were suspensions of payments, technically very well devised according to modern economics, but completely unknown at the time.

Philip II inherited a debt from his father of some twenty million ducats and left his successor one five times as large. In 1557, shortly after the King came to power, the Crown had to suspend payment of its debts, declaring the first bankruptcy. But the Crown's revenues doubled shortly after Philip II came to power, and by the end of his reign they were four times greater than when he began to reign, since the tax burden on Castile quadrupled and the wealth coming from America reached historic levels. As with his predecessor, the wealth of the Empire fell mainly on Castile and depended on high-interest advances from Dutch and Genoese bankers. On the other hand, revenues from America were also important, accounting for between 10% and 20% annually of the Crown's wealth. The largest consumers of revenue were the problems in the Netherlands and policy in the Mediterranean, together some six million ducats a year.

The Netherlands, coin with the bust of Philip II in 1566.

Philip II by Antonio Moro (1557)

The state of the finances depended entirely on the Castilian economic situation. The Netherlands were the main recipients of Castilian wool and, owing to the by then open conflict in the Netherlands, the wool route was interrupted, which produced a recession in the Castilian economy in 1575. As a consequence, in that same year a second suspension of payments occurred with the declaration of the second bankruptcy. In 1577 an agreement was reached with Genoese bankers to continue advancing money to the Crown, but at a very high price for Castile, which worsened its recession. This is known as "the General Remedy" of 1577, which consisted of a consolidation of the debt over the long term, which could extend to seventy or eighty years. Juros (bonds) were thus handed to the creditors as the Crown's commitment to repay the money at an interest of 7%. That money would be repaid as liquidity became available again, guaranteed by American metals. In parallel, between 1576 and 1588, Philip used the financial intermediation of Simón Ruiz, who provided him with payments, collections and loans through bills of exchange.

Before Philip II various taxes already existed: the alcabala, a customs tax; the cruzada, an ecclesiastical tax; the subsidio, a tax on incomes and lands; and the tercias reales, taxes on the military orders. Besides raising these during his reign, Philip II introduced others, among them the excusado in 1567, taxes on parishes. From the Church Philip II managed to collect up to 20% of the Crown's wealth, which drew criticism from some churchmen.

In 1590 the Cortes approved the millones, consisting of eight million ducats a year for the following six years, which were devoted to the construction of a new Armada and to the bleeding military policy. This ended up ruining the Castilian cities and crushing the already weak attempts at industrialization that remained. In 1597 a new suspension of payments took place with the declaration of the third bankruptcy, resorting to a new "General Remedy". This caused a gigantic and disproportionate indebtedness of the Crown, but allowed foreign policy to continue.

After the already damaged economic situation in Castile that he received from Charles I, Philip II left Spain on the brink of crisis. Life for the Spaniards of the time was hard; the population endured brutal inflation; for example, the price of grain rose 50% in the last four years of the century; the tax burden, on both producers and consumers, was excessive. Because of inflation and the tax burden, there were ever fewer businesses; merchants and entrepreneurs abandoned their businesses as soon as they could acquire a title of nobility, with its low tax burden. In the last Cortes, the deputies protested vehemently against another demand by the King for more money, urging a withdrawal of the armies from Flanders, the pursuit of peace with France and England, and the concentration of his formidable military and maritime power on the defense of Spain and its empire. In 1598, Philip II signed peace with France; with Flanders he did not reach an agreement, and England did not make things easy with its constant piracy and hostility toward Spain. The situation would worsen under Philip III because of the reduction in revenues from America, and even more voices would begin to be heard saying that Castile could not go on bearing the burden of so many wars and that the other members should also contribute to the common good.

The fiscal pressure in Aragon, without being as brutal as that in Castile, was not much lower. But in this case, most of what was collected did not go to the Spanish Crown but rather, thanks to the protection of the fueros, became part of the wealth of the oligarchy and nobility of those kingdoms. Mediterranean trade for Aragon, especially Catalonia, remained badly damaged by Turkish dominance and the competition of the Genoese and Venetians.

Revenues from other parts of the empire —the Netherlands, Naples, Milan, Sicily— were spent on their own needs. The annexation of Portugal was economically a great effort for Castile, since it took on the cost of the maritime defense of Portugal's extensive empire without Portugal contributing anything to the whole.

Most historians agree in emphasizing that the poverty into which the country sank at the end of his reign is directly related to the burden of the Empire and its role as defender of Christendom. During the reign of Philip II there was scarcely a respite in the military effort. He had to combine two fronts for most of his reign: the Mediterranean against Turkish power and the Netherlands against the rebels. At the end of his reign he had three simultaneous fronts: the Netherlands, England and France. The only power capable of bearing this burden in the 16th century was Spain, but with debatable benefits and at a very high price for its inhabitants.

Foreign policy

Characterized by its wars against France, the Netherlands, the Turkish Empire and England.

Wars with France

Main article: Italian Wars

Siege of Gravelines, where the Battle of Gravelines took place, a victory of Philip II over the French troops that forced the French King to sign the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis and abandon his invasion of Italy.

Philip II continued the wars with France, owing to French support for the Flemish rebels, winning a great victory at the Battle of Saint-Quentin, fought on August 10, 1557, feast of Saint Lawrence, in memory of which he had the Monastery of El Escorial built, a building with a ground plan in the shape of a gridiron symbolizing the saint's martyrdom (1563–1584). In this monumental and austere palace, the largest of its time —already called then the eighth wonder of the world—, specifically in the Royal Crypt, almost all the Spanish kings and their closest family members have been buried ever since. This victory over the French was followed by a later decisive triumph at the Battle of Gravelines, in 1558.

As a consequence of these overwhelming Spanish successes, the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis of 1559 was signed, a treaty in which France recognized Spanish supremacy, Spanish interests in Italy were favored, and the marriage was agreed with Elisabeth of Valois, Queen of Spain. But in Flanders the problems continued from 1568 onward because of the support of the French Huguenots for the Flemish rebels.

At the end of the Italian Wars in 1559, the House of Austria had succeeded in establishing itself as the foremost world power, to the detriment of France. The states of Italy, which during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance had accumulated power disproportionate to their small size, saw their political and military weight reduced to that of secondary powers, some of them disappearing.

In 1582, Álvaro de Bazán defeated a squadron of French corsairs at the Battle of Terceira Island, in which for the first time in history land infantry forces were used to occupy beaches, ships and terrain, which is considered "the birth of the marine infantry". In 1590, taking advantage of the death of the Cardinal of Bourbon, King of France for the Catholic League, Philip II intervened in the French Wars of Religion against Henry IV. In the Estates General of 1593 convened by the Duke of Mayenne, as lieutenant general rival to Henry IV, they refused to recognize Isabella Clara Eugenia, daughter of Philip II, as Queen of France, which Henry IV took advantage of to convert to Catholicism. Philip II's position and hopes faded until the Peace of Vervins (1598), which restored the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis.

Conflicts with the Netherlands

Main article: Eighty Years' War

Diagram of the bridge of Alexander Farnese over the Scheldt, built during the siege of Antwerp in 1585. This siege, which kept all of Europe in suspense awaiting the victor, represented a lavish expenditure of resources and ingenuity by both sides during the thirteen months needed to force the surrender of what was probably the richest and most populous city in Europe, and whose capture represented the determination of the Spanish Crown to recover the lost territories and to uphold the Church. After this capitulation, other important strongholds in the hands of the United Provinces surrendered one after another.

Philip II had received as an inheritance from his father, Charles I, the Netherlands together with the Franche-Comté, so that Spain, at that time the most powerful nation in the world, would defend the Empire against France. For this reason, it was at once a strategic point and a point of weakness for Philip II. Strategic, because in the mid-16th century Antwerp was the most important port of Northern Europe, serving as a base of operations for the Spanish Navy, and a center where goods from all over Europe were traded and Castilian wool was sold. Wool from merino sheep, processed in the Netherlands, which, sold at reasonable prices, would arrive in Spain manufactured, with the corresponding added value, but lower than if it had been manufactured in the Peninsula, since labor was cheaper there. Spain was a source of inflation for the Netherlands owing to the gold arriving from America, which favored high wages.

A weakness, because for the Netherlands it meant not only a change of king but also a change of "owner": they went from being part of an empire to being part of the most powerful kingdom of the age. Unlike Castile, Aragon and Naples, the Netherlands were not part of the inheritance of the Catholic Monarchs, and they saw Spain as a foreign country. That is how the citizens of the Netherlands themselves felt, for, unlike Charles I, they saw a foreign King (born in Valladolid, with his Court in Madrid, he never lived in those territories and delegated their government). To this must be added the religious clash that was brewing within Flanders, and which would be stirred up by Philip II's position in religious matters; the wars of religion were returning to the heart of Europe after the Schmalkaldic War.

Governed by his sister Margaret of Parma from 1559, he confronted the rebel nobles who demanded greater autonomy and the Protestants who demanded respect for their religion, beginning the Eighty Years' War. However, Philip II was of another opinion. The King wanted to apply the Tridentine decrees, as he had demanded of Catherine de' Medici in France against the Huguenot French nobility. When the decision to apply the Tridentine decrees became known in the Netherlands, the civil authorities themselves proved reluctant to apply the penalties imposed by the inquisitors and, as a result of great discontent, an atmosphere of revolution began. The lesser nobility gathered in Brussels on April 5, 1566, at the palace of the Governor, being scorned as "beggars", an epithet that the following nobles would adopt in their demands, dressing as such. The members of the Compromise of Breda sent to Madrid Floris of Montmorency, Baron of Montigny, and then the Marquis of Berghes, who would never return.

After tension and conflicts increased in Antwerp, the Governor asked William of Orange to restore order, which he accepted reluctantly but pacified the city. The Prince of Orange, the Count of Egmont and the Count of Horn again asked Margaret of Parma for more freedom. She informed her brother, but Philip II did not change his mind and warned the Pope of his intentions:

[...] you may assure His Holiness that before suffering the least thing to the detriment of religion or of the service of God, I would lose all my States and a hundred lives if I had them, for I neither intend nor wish to be lord of heretics [...]

Before this news arrived, on August 14 a group of unruly Calvinists stormed the main church of Saint-Omer. A general rebellion followed in Ypres, Courtrai, Valenciennes, Tournai and Antwerp. Philip II received Montigny and promised him to convene the Council of State of Spain. On October 29, 1566, the King convened his closest advisors: Éboli, Alba, Feria, Cardinal Espinosa, Don Juan Manrique and the Count of Chinchón, together with the Secretaries of State Antonio Pérez and Gabriel Zayas. The agreement was to proceed urgently and, despite differences over the method, the Monarch opted for force. It was thus agreed to send the 3rd Duke of Alba to put down the rebellions. This led to a confrontation between Prince Don Carlos and the Duke of Alba, since the heir saw himself sidelined from these affairs. On August 28 the Duke of Alba arrived in Brussels. The Duke of Alba —at the head of the army— swiftly carried out a very harsh repression, executing the rebel nobles, which led to the resignation of Margaret of Parma as Governor of the Netherlands, a resignation immediately accepted by her brother the King. Moreover, on September 9, Egmont and Horn were seized, and they were beheaded on June 5, 1568.

Philip II sought solutions with the appointments of Luis de Requesens, John of Austria (who died in 1578) and Alexander Farnese, who achieved the submission of the Catholic provinces of the south in the Union of Arras. In response, the Protestants formed the Union of Utrecht. On July 26, 1581, the provinces of Brabant, Guelders, Zutphen, Holland, Zeeland, Friesland, Mechelen and Utrecht annulled in the Estates General their bond with the King of Spain, through the Act of Abjuration, and chose Francis of Anjou as their sovereign. But Philip II did not renounce those territories, and the Governor of the Netherlands, Alexander Farnese, launched the counteroffensive and brought a large part of the territory back into obedience to the King of Spain, especially after the siege of Antwerp, but part of them were lost again after the campaign of Maurice of Nassau. Before the death of the King of Spain, the territory of the Netherlands, in theory the seventeen provinces, passed jointly to his daughter Isabella Clara Eugenia and his son-in-law the Archduke Albert of Austria by the Act of Cession of May 6, 1598.

Problems with England

Main article: Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)

Philip II fought against the English Crown for religious reasons, because of the support it offered to the Flemish rebels, and because of the problems posed by the English corsairs who stole American cargo from the Spanish galleons in the Caribbean area from 1560 onward. Thus the main theaters of combat would be the Atlantic and the Caribbean.

The battle between the Grand and Most Fortunate Armada and the English fleet.

Several literary works and especially films have portrayed the distress caused by continual English and French piracy against his ships in the Atlantic and the consequent decrease in revenues from the gold of the Indies. However, more thorough research indicates that this piracy actually consisted of several dozen ships and several hundred pirates, the former being of small tonnage, so that they could not confront the Spanish galleons, having to content themselves with small vessels or those that strayed from the fleet.

Secondly, there is the fact that, during the 16th century, no pirate or corsair managed to sink a single galleon; moreover, of some 600 fleets dispatched by Spain (two a year for about three centuries), only two fell into enemy hands, and both to navies, not to pirates or corsairs.

The execution of the Catholic Queen of Scotland, Mary Stuart, decided him to send the so-called Grand and Most Fortunate Armada (in the Black Legend, the Invincible Armada) in 1588, which failed. The failure allowed greater freedom for English and Dutch trade, a greater number of attacks on Spanish ports —such as that of Cádiz, which was set on fire by an English fleet in 1596— and, likewise, the English colonization of North America. From these events until the end of the war, Spain and England won victories in equal measure in the naval engagements fought between the two kingdoms, both at sea and on land. Thus the war remained a stalemate of resource losses for both countries until the end. While the English plundered Spanish possessions and never achieved their objective of capturing a fleet of the Indies, the Spanish Navy prepared without much success to invade England, repelled some English attacks, and Spanish corsairs captured tons of goods from English ships. English attacks (and those of pirates or corsairs in their pay) usually ended in failure with by no means negligible losses, notably the failure of the English Armada or Counter-Armada. The situation balanced out until Philip III signed the Treaty of London in 1604 with James I, successor of Elizabeth I. In some of the expeditions under his command, landings were made in the south of England or in Ireland (Battle of Cornwall: Carlos de Amésquita landed in 1595 in the south of England).

Philip II urgently reinforced his squadron, ordered twelve new galleons, and by 1591 the reconstituted backbone of his navy already had nineteen of these ships, among which we find three new ones, two captured from the English, and four veteran survivors from Portugal [...] Alonso de Bazán, brother of the late Álvaro de Bazán, proceeded against Thomas Howard with a fleet of 55 sail, managing to trap the English between Punta Delgada and Punta Negra [...] The English fled, but the galleon Revenge [...] was boarded and captured. [...] In 1595 (the English) prepared the definitive capture and establishment of a base in Panama [...] with a fleet of 28 ships. But things did not go well for the pirates [...] Under Drake's command, they marched on Panama, and it was there that Sir Francis's life came to an end [...] After various vicissitudes, only eight ships of the expedition managed to return home. After the English counteroffensive, Carlos de Amezquita landed on the coasts of Cornwall [...] He sowed Panic in Pezance and other nearby towns and withdrew. [...]

— Víctor San Juan. La batalla naval de las Dunas. 2007. (pp. 66 and 67)

In addition, a sophisticated system of escort and intelligence thwarted most corsair attacks on the Fleet of the Indies from the 1590s onward: the buccaneering expeditions of Francis Drake, Martin Frobisher and John Hawkins at the beginning of that decade were defeated.

Wars with the Ottoman Empire

Battle of Lepanto (1571).

The Ottoman Empire, which had already been an adversary of Charles I of Spain, once again confronted the Spanish Empire. In 1560, the Turkish fleet —a first-rate power— had defeated the Christians at the Battle of Los Gelves. The siege of Malta in 1565, however, was a failure and is moreover considered one of the most important sieges in military history and, from the defenders' point of view, the most successful.

The Battle of Lepanto was an important naval victory of the Holy League over the Ottoman Turks. Work by Paolo Veronese.

In 1570, after some years of calm, the Turks began an expansion by attacking several Venetian ports in the eastern Mediterranean and conquered Cyprus from Venice with 300 ships, laying siege to Nicosia. Venice asked the Christian powers for help, but only Pope Pius V answered. He managed to convince the King of Spain to help as well, and a fleet was formed to confront the Turks. This fleet assembled in the port of Suda, on the Island of Candia, in Crete. This coalition, known as the Holy League, faced the Turkish fleet in the Gulf of Lepanto on October 7, 1571, fighting the Battle of Lepanto ("the most exalted occasion that the centuries have seen",) which ended in a great victory for the Catholic allies. The Marquis of Lozoya describes it thus:

For two hours there was ardent fighting on both sides, and twice the Spaniards were driven back from the deck of the Turkish royal galley; but in a third assault they annihilated the janissaries defending it and, the admiral having been wounded by an arquebus shot, a Christian oarsman cut off his head. When a Christian flag was hoisted on the Turkish galley, the Christian ships intensified their attack against the Turkish flagships that would not surrender; but at last the central Turkish fleet was annihilated.

After this battle, the Turks rebuilt their fleet so that, once again allied with the Barbary pirates, it remained the most powerful in the Mediterranean. For almost two years the Ottoman fleet avoided battle, and it was not until after the capture of Tunis and La Goleta by Don John of Austria in 1573 that Selim II, successor of Suleiman the Magnificent, sent a force of 250 warships and a contingent of some 100,000 men to reconquer both strongholds, a task in which nearly 30,000 men perished, though with a satisfactory result. It was the last great battle in the Mediterranean.

However, what battles and engagements had not resolved was resolved by diplomacy and international negotiations, to the benefit of both empires. Philip II watched the war in Flanders worsen, and Selim II had to face the war with Persia. Both were waging military campaigns on other frontiers, and neither felt strong enough to continue the conflict. Convinced of the different situations both empires were experiencing, they decided to sign a series of truces that ended up definitively removing war from the Mediterranean for a good number of years.

Expansion across the Atlantic and the Pacific

Spanish Empire of Philip II, III and IV, including the territories mapped and claimed, maritime claims (mare clausum) and other aspects.

Philip II continued expansion in the American lands, and the Philippine islands were even added to the Crown, conquered by Miguel López de Legazpi (1565–1569), although it was Ruy López de Villalobos who named them thus in his honor. The Spanish colonization of the islands, coveted also by the English, Dutch and Portuguese, was not secured until 1565, when Miguel López de Legazpi, sent by the Viceroy of New Spain, built the first Spanish settlement in Cebu. The city of Manila, capital of the archipelago, was founded by Legazpi himself in 1571. Once the circuit of ocean currents and favorable winds for navigation between America and the Philippines had been discovered, the regular route of fleets between Manila and Acapulco, Mexico, known as the Manila galleon, was established. Florida was colonized in 1565 by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés when he founded San Agustín and swiftly defeated an illegal attempt by the French Captain Jean Ribault and 150 men to establish a supply post in Spanish territory. San Agustín quickly became a strategic defensive base for Spanish ships laden with gold and silver returning from the dominions of the Indies.

In the South Pacific, off the coast of present-day Chile, Juan Fernández discovered a series of islands between 1563 and 1574. He gave his own name to that archipelago, which ended up being known as the Juan Fernández archipelago. The first Europeans to reach the islands that are today New Zealand did so on the probable voyage of Juan Jufré and the mariner Juan Fernández to Oceania, on which occasion they would have discovered New Zealand for Spain, at the end of 1576; this account was based on a document presented to Philip II and on archaeological remains (Spanish-style helmets) found in caves at the upper end of the North Island.

The conquest of China for the Spanish Empire was even contemplated during his reign. This is shown by a letter from the Governor and the Archbishop of the Philippines, in which both told him that if he sent them 5,000 men and 30 ships they could do with China what Hernán Cortés had done in Mexico. However, Philip II never answered that letter.

The dominions in Africa were enlarged. Mazagan was incorporated into the Empire because it was a Portuguese colony, as were Casablanca, Tangier, Ceuta and Perejil Island. The Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera was reconquered from the Arabs, in an operation led by García Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio, Marquis of Villafranca del Bierzo and Viceroy of Catalonia. In addition, owing to the annexation of Portugal, the colonies that this territory possessed in Asia were also added: Macau, Nagasaki and Malacca.

Family

Marriages and children

Philip II and his second wife Mary I Tudor, King and Queen of England.

• He married first his first cousin, the Infanta Maria Manuela of Portugal (1527–1545), on November 15, 1543. They had a single son:
  • Charles of Austria (1545–1568), Prince of Asturias.
• He married secondly his father Charles's first cousin, Queen Mary I of England (1516–1558), in Winchester on July 25, 1554. They had no children.
• His third marriage, to Elisabeth of Valois (1546–1568), took place on June 22, 1559. They had five daughters:
  • A girl (August 1564), miscarriage.
  • Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566–1633), married to her first cousin, the Archduke Albert of Austria.
  • Catherine Michelle (1567–1597), married to Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy.
  • Joanna (October 3, 1568), died a few hours after birth.
• He married fourthly his niece the Archduchess Anna of Austria (1549–1580), on November 14, 1570. Anna was the daughter of Maximilian II of Habsburg (Philip's cousin) and of Maria of Austria and Portugal (Philip's sister). The couple had four sons and one daughter:
  • Ferdinand (December 4, 1571 – October 18, 1578), Prince of Asturias.
  • Charles Laurence (August 12, 1573 – June 30, 1575).
  • Diego Félix (August 15, 1575 – November 21, 1582), Prince of Asturias.
  • Philip (April 14, 1578 – March 31, 1621), Prince of Asturias, future King of Spain as Philip III.
  • Maria (February 14, 1580 – August 5, 1583).

Lovers

• Isabel Osorio, lady-in-waiting to Philip II's sister.

Portrait

Statue of Philip II (1750) by Felipe de Castro, in the Sabatini Gardens, in Madrid.

In 1554, according to the Scottish observer John Elder, Philip II was of medium height, rather on the small side, and he continues:

... his face is well favored, with a broad forehead and gray eyes, a straight nose and a manly countenance. From the forehead to the point of the chin his face grows smaller; his gait is worthy of a prince, and his bearing so upright and straight that he loses not an inch of his height; with yellow head and beard. And so, to conclude, he is so well proportioned in body, arm and leg, and likewise all his other limbs, that nature cannot fashion a more perfect model.

From the annus horribilis of 1568, the Renaissance monarch accentuated his severity, and with time he came to resemble the stereotype of the Black Legend, as grave in his bearing as in his speech. He was of a taciturn, prudent, calm, steadfast and considerate character, and very religious, though without falling into the fanaticism of which his enemies accused him. In 1577 he was described thus:

... of middling stature, but very well proportioned; his blond hair is beginning to whiten; his face is handsome and pleasant; his humor is melancholic (...) He attends to affairs without rest and takes extreme pains over them because he wants to know everything and see everything. He rises very early and works or writes until midday. He then eats, always at the same hour and almost always the same quality and the same number of dishes. He drinks from a crystal glass of middling size and empties it two and a half times. (...) He sometimes suffers from weakness of the stomach, but little or not at all from gout. Half an hour after the meal he dispatches all the documents to which he must put his signature. This done, three or four times a week he goes by carriage to the countryside to hunt deer or rabbit with the crossbow.

His psychological character was reserved, and he concealed his shyness and insecurity beneath a seriousness that earned him an image of coldness and insensitivity. He did not have many friends, and none enjoyed his complete confidence, but he was not the dark and embittered figure that has been handed down in history through the Black Legend.

He was a man considered intelligent, highly cultured and educated, fond of books, painting and collecting works of art, clocks, weapons, curiosities and rarities, and very especially of architecture. He was a great enthusiast of hunting and fishing.

Death

Philip II had delicate health for most of his life. He suffered numerous illnesses, and during the last ten years of his life gout kept him bedridden. He lost the use of his right hand, unable to sign documents. He received communion for the last time on September 8, since the physicians forbade it from then on, for fear that he would choke when swallowing the host. At five o'clock in the morning of Sunday, September 13, 1598, he died at the Monastery of El Escorial, where he was buried, at the age of seventy-one. His agony had lasted fifty-three days, during which he suffered several illnesses: gout, osteoarthritis, tertian fevers, abscesses and dropsy, among others.

Ancestors

Ancestors of Philip II of Spain

• 1. Philip II of Spain
  • 2. Charles I of Spain
    • 4. Philip I of Castile
      • 8. Maximilian I of Habsburg
        • 16. Frederick III of Habsburg
        • 17. Eleanor of Aviz
      • 9. Mary of Burgundy
        • 18. Charles the Bold
        • 19. Isabella of Bourbon
    • 5. Joanna I of Castile
      • 10. Ferdinand II of Aragon
        • 20. John II of Aragon
        • 21. Juana Enríquez
      • 11. Isabella I of Castile
        • 22. John II of Castile
        • 23. Isabella of Portugal
  • 3. Isabella of Portugal
    • 6. Manuel I of Portugal
      • 12. Ferdinand of Portugal
        • 24. Edward I of Portugal
        • 25. Eleanor of Aragon
      • 13. Beatriz of Aveiro
        • 26. John of Portugal
        • 27. Isabel of Barcelos
    • 7. Maria of Aragon
      • 14. Ferdinand II of Aragon (=10)
        • 28. John II of Aragon (=20)
        • 29. Juana Enríquez (=21)
      • 15. Isabella I of Castile (=11)
        • 30. John II of Castile (=22)
        • 31. Isabella of Portugal (=23)

Titles

Preceded by: Charles of Austria	Prince of Asturias 1528-1556	Succeeded by: Charles of Austria
Preceded by: Mary I	King of England and Ireland (Jointly with Mary I) 1554-1558	Succeeded by: Elizabeth I
Preceded by: Direct imperial rule (previous duke: Francesco II Sforza)	Duke of Milan 1540-1598	Succeeded by: Philip III of Spain
Preceded by: Charles I of Spain	King of Naples 1554-1598
	King of Spain, Sicily and Sardinia 1556-1598
Preceded by: Henry I	King of Portugal 1580-1598
Preceded by: Charles II of Burgundy	Sovereign of the Netherlands 1555-1598	Succeeded by: Isabella Clara Eugenia and Albert of Austria
	Count of Burgundy 1556-1598
	Count of Charolais 1558-1598

Film

Year	Film	Director	Actor
2017	Reinas (TV series)	José Luis Moreno and Manuel Carballo	Adrián Castiñeiras
2017	El Ministerio del Tiempo (TV series)		Carlos Hipólito
2016	Carlos, rey emperador (TV series)	Oriol Ferrer, Salvador García Ruiz and Jorge Torregrossa	Pablo Arbués Marcel Borràs
2010	La princesa de Éboli	Belén Macías	Eduard Fernández
2008	La conjura de El Escorial	Antonio del Real	Juanjo Puigcorbé
2007	Elizabeth: The Golden Age	Shekhar Kapur	Jordi Mollà
2005	Cineastas contra magnates	Carlos Benpar	Antonio Regueiro
1998	Elizabeth	Shekhar Kapur	George Yiasoumi
1991	Don Juan en los infiernos	Gonzalo Suárez	Iñaki Aierra
1966	El Greco	Luciano Salce	Fernando Rey
1962	Il dominatore dei sette mari	Rudolph Maté and Primo Zeglio	Umberto Raho
1955	La Princesa de Éboli	Terence Young	Paul Scofield
1954	El alcalde de Zalamea	José Gutiérrez Maesso	Fernando Rey
1946	Monsieur Beaucaire	George Marshall	Howard Freeman
1940	The Sea Hawk	Michael Curtiz	Montagu Love
1937	Fire Over England	William K. Howard	Raymond Massey
1934	Willem van Oranje	Jan Teunissen	Cruys Voorbergh
1923	In the Palace of the King	Emmett J. Flynn	Sam De Grasse

See also

• Spanish Empire
• Timeline of the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula
• Topographical Relations of Philip II
• Monastery of El Escorial
• Father of the nation
• The sun never sets on my dominions
• List of portraits of Philip II

Bibliography

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• PEREYRA, Carlos, La conquista de las rutas océanicas, Mexico, Editora Nacional, 1959.
• Pérez, Joseph. La España de Felipe II Editorial Crítica 2000 ISBN 84-8432-143-6
• PIZANO Y SAUCEDO, Carlos, Jalisco en la conquista de las Filipinas, Guadalajara, Mexico, Unidad Editorial, 1985.
• REGLÁ, J. La época de los tres primeros Austrias. La época de los dos últimos Austrias. Historia social y económica de España y América (edited by Vicens Vives) vol. III, Barcelona, 1961.
• TRECOR DAVIES, R. El gran siglo de España, Madrid, 1973.
• TORRE VILLAR, Ernesto de la, Instrucciones y memorias de los virreyes novohispanos, Mexico, 1991.
• UBIETO, REGLÁ, JOVER and SECO. Introducción a la Historia de España, Barcelona, 1961.
• VERLINDEN, CH. L´Empire espagnol, Brussels, 1973.
• VICENS VIVES, J. Historia económica de España, Barcelona, 1960
• ZAVALA, Silvio, Los intereses particulares de la conquista de la Nueva España, Mexico, 1964.

External links

• Diccionario Biográfico. Real Academia de la Historia Felipe II

• Biography of Philip II offered by the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
• Blog on the life of Philip II the Prudent offered by the University of Alicante
• Blog on the reign of Philip II, from the University of Alicante