During his reign, Spain participated in victories against the Ottomans inOran,Malta andLepanto. In 1584, during theEighty Years' War, Philip signed theTreaty of Joinville, funding the FrenchCatholic League over the following decade against the FrenchHuguenots. In 1588, he sent anarmada to invade Protestant England, with the strategic aim of overthrowing his former sister-in-lawElizabeth I and re-establishing Catholicism there, but his fleet was repulsed in a skirmish and wrecked by storms as it circled the British Isles to return to Spain. Philip's naval power recovered after the failed invasion of the similarly sizedEnglish Armada into Spain. An ambitious plan to extend his conquests toChina and across Asia was also considered. As a consequence of these conflicts, Philip led a highlydebt-leveraged regime, seeingstate defaults in 1557, 1560, 1569, 1575, and 1596.
Historical reception of Philip II became heavily influenced by enemypropaganda, which he refused to answer or defend against, even prohibiting biographical accounts of his life. His negative foreign reputation eventually developed into theSpanish Black Legend, while reappraisals of his figure would later entangle in turn with theWhite Legend. As a result, historianHelmut Koenigsberger would write about Philip, "there has, perhaps, been no personality in modern history, not evenNapoleon orStalin, who has been both as enigmatic and controversial as Philip II of Spain... Neither his own contemporaries nor later historians have been able to agree on his character, his aims or even the degree of success he achieved."[1]
A member of theHouse of Habsburg, Philip was the son ofEmperor Charles V, who was also king ofCastile andAragon, andIsabella of Portugal. He was born in the Castilian capital ofValladolid on 21 May 1527 atPalacio de Pimentel,[2] which was owned by Don Bernardino Pimentel (the first Marqués de Távara). The culture and courtly life of Castile were an important influence in his early life. He was entrusted to the royal governessLeonor de Mascareñas, and tutored byJuan Martínez Siliceo, the futurearchbishop of Toledo. Philip displayed reasonable aptitude in arts and letters alike. Later he would study with more illustrious tutors, including the humanist Juan Cristóbal Calvete de Estrella. Though Philip had good command overLatin, Spanish, and Portuguese, he never managed to equal his father as apolyglot. While Philip was also anarchduke of Austria, he was seen as a foreigner in theHoly Roman Empire. The feeling was mutual. Philip felt himself to be culturally Spanish; he had been born in Castile and raised in the Castilian court, his native language was Spanish, and he preferred to live in the Spanish kingdoms. This ultimately impeded his succession to the imperial throne.[3][page needed]
In April 1528, when Philip was eleven months old, he received the oath of allegiance as heir to the crown from theCortes of Castile. From that time until the death of his mother Isabella in 1539, he was raised in the royal court of Castile under the care of his mother and one of herPortuguese ladies, Doña Leonor de Mascarenhas, to whom he was devotedly attached. Philip was also close to his two sisters,María andJuana, and to his two pages, the Portuguese noblemanRui Gomes da Silva andLuis de Requesens y Zúñiga, the son of his governor. These men would serve Philip throughout their lives, as wouldAntonio Pérez, hissecretary from 1541.
His political training had begun a year previously under his father, who had found his son studious, grave, and prudent beyond his years, and having decided to train and initiate him in the government of the Spanish kingdoms. The king-emperor's interactions with his son during his stay in Castile convinced him of Philip's precocity in statesmanship, so he determined to leave in his hands theregency of the Spanish kingdoms in 1543. Philip, who had previously been made theDuke of Milan in 1540, began governing the most extensive empire in the world at the young age of sixteen.
Charles left Philip with experienced advisors—notably the secretaryFrancisco de los Cobos and the general, the Duke of Alba. Philip was also left with extensive written instructions that emphasised "piety, patience, modesty, and distrust". These principles of Charles were gradually assimilated by his son, who would grow up to become grave, self-possessed and cautious. Personally, Philip spoke softly and had an icy self-mastery; in the words of one of his ministers, "he had a smile that was cut by a sword".[4][page needed]
On 1 October 1548, Philip departed Valladolid on his voyage, appointing his sisterMaria and her husbandMaximilian as regents in his absence. He began a formal journey throughAragon andCatalonia, visiting religious sites such asZaragoza and Montserrat, and receiving homage inBarcelona andGirona.[5]
In November 1548, Philip travelled withDiego López de Medrano, his first or chiefequerry, toRosas andGenoa aboard thegalley belonging to Antonio de Toledo, the senior equerry.[6][7] Rosas was his point of departure for Italy.[8] At the Bay of Rosas, he was met byAndrea Doria with a fleet of fifty-eight galleys.[5] Florentine obsequies depict his journey in large canvases depicting formative episodes from Philip's youth, including Philip's departure for Brussels from Rosas on the galley, and Philip's reception by the Doge of Genoa in 1548.[9] The admiral, moved by the occasion, knelt before Philip and quotedSimeon: "Now, Lord, let Thy servant depart in peace, for his eyes have seen Thy salvation."[5]
Philip landed atSavona and proceeded to Genoa, where he stayed at the Doria palace and received papal emissaryOctavio Farnese, who presented him with a ceremonial sword and cap of state fromPope Paul III.[5] The gesture, despite political tensions, reflected hopes that Philip would serve as a future protector of the Church. Celebrated inMilan,Mantua, and other cities, he continued through theTyrol andGermany before reaching Brussels to meet Emperor Charles V on 1 April 1549.[5]
After living in theNetherlands in the early years of his reign,[10] Philip II decided to return to Castile. Although sometimes described as an absolute monarch, Philip faced many constitutional constraints on his authority, influenced by the growing strength of the bureaucracy. TheSpanish Empire was not a single monarchy with one legal system but apersonal union of separate realms, each jealously guarding its own rights against those of theHouse of Habsburg. In practice, Philip often found his authority overruled by local assemblies and his word less effective than that of local lords.[11]
Philip carriedseveral titles asheir to the Spanish kingdoms and empire, includingPrince of Asturias. The newest constituent kingdom in the empire wasUpper Navarre, a realm invaded byFerdinand II of Aragon mainly with Castilian troops (1512), and annexed to Castile with an ambiguous status (1513).War across Navarre continued until the 1528 (Treaties of Madrid and Cambrai). Charles V proposed to end hostilities with KingHenry II of Navarre—the legitimate monarch of Navarre—by marrying his son Philip to the heiress of Navarre,Jeanne III of Navarre. The marriage would provide a dynastic solution to instability in Navarre, making him king of all Navarre (Upper andLower) and a prince of the independentBéarn, as well as lord of part of southwestern France. However, the French nobility underFrancis I opposed the arrangement and successfully ended the prospects of marriage between the heirs of Habsburg and Albret in 1541.
In his will, Charles stated his doubts over Navarre and recommended that his son give the kingdom back. Both King Charles and his son Philip II failed to abide by the elective (contractual) nature of the Crown of Navarre and took the kingdom for granted. This sparked mounting tension not only with King Henry II and Queen Jeanne III of Navarre but also with the Parliament of the Spanish Navarre (Cortes,The Three States) and theDiputación for breach of therealm specific laws (fueros)—violation of thepactum subjection is as ratified by Ferdinand. Tensions in Navarre came to a head in 1592 after several years of disagreements over the agenda of the intended parliamentary session.
InNovember 1592, the Parliament (Cortes) of Aragón revolted against another breach of the realm-specific laws, so the Attorney General (Justicia) of the kingdom, Juan de Lanuza, was executed on Philip II's orders, with hissecretaryAntonio Pérez taking exile in France. In Navarre, the major strongholds of the kingdom were garrisoned by troops alien to the kingdom (Castilians) in a conspicuous violation of the local laws, and the Parliament had long been refusing to pledge loyalty to Philip II's son and heir apparent without a proper ceremony. On 20 November 1592 a ghostly Parliament session was called, pushed by Philip II, who had arrived inPamplona at the head of an unspecified military force, and with one only point on his agenda—attendance to the session was kept blank on the minutes: unlawful appointments of trusted Castilian officials and imposition of his son as the future king of Navarre at theSanta Maria Cathedral. A ceremony was held before the bishop of Pamplona (22 November), but its customary procedure and terms were altered. Protests erupted in Pamplona, but they were quelled.
Philip II also grappled with the problem of the largeMorisco population in the Spanish kingdoms, who had been forcibly converted to Christianity by his predecessors. In 1569, theMorisco Revolt broke out in the southernKingdom of Granada in defiance of attempts to suppress Moorish customs. Philip ordered the expulsion of the Moriscos from Granada and their dispersal to other provinces.
Despite its immense dominions, the Spanish kingdoms had a sparse population that yielded a limited income to the crown (in contrast toFrance, for example, which was much more heavily populated). Philip faced major difficulties in raising taxes, and the collection was largely farmed out to local lords. He was able to finance his military campaigns only by taxing and exploiting the local resources of his empire. The flow of income from theNew World proved vital to his militant foreign policy, but his exchequer several times faced bankruptcy.
Spanish culture flourished during Philip's reign, beginning the "Spanish Golden Age", creating a lasting legacy in literature, music, and the visual arts. One of the notable artists from Philip II's court wasSofonisba Anguissola, who gained fame for her talent and unusual role as a woman artist.
Portrait of Philip II on 1/5 Philipsdaalder, struck 1566, Guelders, Low Countries
Charles V had left his son Philip with a debt of about 36 millionducats and an annual deficit of 1 million ducats. This debt caused Philip II to default on loans in 1557, 1560, 1575, and 1596 (including debt to Poland, known asNeapolitan sums).[12][page needed] Lenders had no power over the King and could not force him to repay his loans. These defaults were just the beginning of Spain's economic troubles as its kings would default six more times in the next 65 years.[13] Aside from reducing state revenues for overseas expeditions, the domestic policies of Philip II further burdened the Spanish kingdoms and would, in the following century, contribute to its decline, as maintained by some historians.[14]
The Spanish kingdoms were subject to different assemblies: theCortes inCastile, the assembly inNavarre, and one each for the four kingdoms ofAragon, which preserved traditional rights and laws from the time when they were separate kingdoms. This made the Spanish kingdoms and its possessions difficult to rule, unlike France, which while divided into regional states, had a singleEstates General. The lack of a viable supreme assembly led to power defaulting into Philip II's hands, especially as manager and final arbiter of the constant conflict between different authorities. To deal with the difficulties arising from this situation, authority was administered by local agents appointed by the crown and viceroys carrying out crown instructions. Philip II felt it necessary to be involved in the detail, and he presided over specialised councils for state affairs, finance, war, and theInquisition.
Philip II played groups against each other, leading to a system of checks and balances that managed affairs inefficiently, even to the extent of damaging state business, as in thePerez affair. Following a fire inValladolid in 1561, he resisted calls to move his Court toLisbon, an act that could have curbed centralisation and bureaucracy domestically as well as relaxed rule in the Empire as a whole. Instead, with the traditional Royal andPrimacy seat ofToledo now essentially obsolete, he moved his Court to the Castilian stronghold ofMadrid. Except for a brief period underPhilip III of Spain, Madrid has remained the capital of Spain. It was around this time that Philip II converted theRoyal Alcázar of Madrid into a royal palace; the works, which lasted from 1561 until 1598, were done by tradesmen who came from the Netherlands, Italy, and France.
King Philip II ruled at a critical turning point in European history towardmodernity whereas his father Charles V had been forced to an itinerant rule as a medieval king. He mainly directed state affairs, even when not at Court. Indeed, when his health began failing, he worked from his quarters at the Palace-Monastery-Pantheon ofEl Escorial that he had built in 1584, a palace built as a monument to Spain's role as a center of the Christian world. But Philip did not enjoy the supremacy that KingLouis XIV of France would in the next century, nor was such a rule necessarily possible at his time. The inefficiencies of the Spanish state and the restrictively regulated industry under his rule were common to many contemporary countries.
Philip's foreign policies were determined by a combination of Catholic fervour and dynastic objectives. He considered himself the chief defender of Catholic Europe, both against theOttoman Empire and against the forces of theProtestant Reformation. He never relented from his fight againstheresy, defending the Catholic faith and limiting freedom of worship within his territories.[15] These territories included his patrimony in the Netherlands, where Protestantism had taken deep root. Following theRevolt of the Netherlands in 1568, Philip waged a campaign against Dutch heresy and secession. It also dragged in the English and the French at times and expanded into the German Rhineland with theCologne War. This series of conflicts lasted for the rest of his life. Philip's constant involvement and focus in European wars took a significant toll on the treasury and caused economic difficulties for the Crown and even bankruptcies.
Personal guidon of Philip II
In 1588, the English defeated Philip'sSpanish Armada, thwarting his planned invasion of the country to reinstate Catholicism. Butwar with England continued for the next sixteen years, in a complex series of struggles that included France, Ireland and the main battle zone, theLow Countries. It would not end until all the leading protagonists, including himself, had died. Earlier, however, after several setbacks in his reign and especially that of his father, Philip did achieve a decisive victory against the Turks atLepanto in 1571, with the allied fleet of theHoly League, which he had put under the command of his illegitimate brother,John of Austria. He also successfully secured his succession to the throne ofPortugal.
The administration of overseas conquests was reformed. Extensive questionnaires were distributed to every major town and region in New Spain calledrelaciones geográficas. These surveys helped the Spanish monarchy to govern Philip's overseas possessions more effectively.
Charles V abdicated thethrone of Naples to Philip on 25 July 1554, and the young king was invested with the kingdom (officially a Papal fief) on 2 October byPope Julius III. The date of Charles' abdication of thethrone of Sicily is uncertain, but Philip was invested with this kingdom on 18 November 1554 by Julius.[16] In 1556, Philip decided to invade thePapal States and temporarily held territory there, perhaps in response toPope Paul IV's anti-Spanish outlook. According to Philip II, he was doing it for the benefit of theChurch.
In a letter to the Princess Dowager of Portugal, Regent of the Spanish kingdoms, dated 22 September 1556,Francisco de Vargas wrote:
I have reported to your Highness what has been happening here, and how far the Pope is going in his fury and vain imaginings. His Majesty could not do otherwise than have a care for his reputation and dominions. I am sure your Highness will have had more recent news from the Duke of Alva, who has taken the field with an excellent army and has penetrated so far into the Pope's territory that his cavalry is raiding up to ten miles from Rome, where there is such panic that the population would have run away had not the gates been closed. The Pope has fallen ill with rage, and was struggling with a fever on the 16th of this month. The two Carafa brothers, the Cardinal and Count Montorio, do not agree, and they and Piero Strozzi are not on as good terms as they were in the past. They would like to discuss peace. The best thing would be for the Pope to die, for he is the poison at the root of all this trouble and more which may occur. His Majesty's intention is only to wrest the knife from this madman's hand and make him return to a sense of his dignity, acting like the protector of theApostolic See, in whose name, and that of theCollege of Cardinals, his Majesty has publicly proclaimed that he has seized all he is occupying. The Pope is now sending again to the potentates of Italy for help. I hope he will gain as little thereby as he has done in the past, and that the French will calm down. May God give us peace in the end, as their Majesties desire and deserve![17]
In response to the invasion,Pope Paul IV called for a French military intervention. After minor fights in Lazio and near Rome,Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, Viceroy of Naples met CardinalCarlo Carafa and signed the Treaty ofCave as a compromise: French and Spanish forces left thePapal States and the Pope declared a neutral position between France and the Spanish kingdoms.[18]
Philip led the Spanish kingdoms into the final phase of theItalian Wars. A Spanish advance into France from the Low Countries led to their important victory at theBattle of St. Quentin (1557). The French were defeated again at theBattle of Gravelines (1558). The resultingTreaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559 securedPiedmont to theDuchy of Savoy, andCorsica to theRepublic of Genoa. Both Genoa and Savoy were allies of Spain and, although Savoy subsequently declared its neutrality between France and Spain, Genoa remained a crucial financial ally for Philip during his entire reign. The treaty also confirmed Philip's control overMilan, Naples, Sicily, andSardinia. Therefore, all of southern Italy was under Spanish rule as part of theCrown of Aragon. In the north, Milan was a duchy of theHoly Roman Empire held by Philip. Attached to the Kingdom of Naples, theState of Presidi in Tuscany gave Philip the possibility to monitor maritime traffic to southern Italy, whilst the grant of the Duchy of Siena to the newGrand Duchy of Tuscany, ensured it would remain a Spanish ally. TheCouncil of Italy was set up by Philip in order to co-ordinate his rule over the states of Milan, Naples and Sicily. Ultimately, the treaty ended the 60-yearFranco-Habsburg wars for supremacy in Italy. It marked also the beginning of a period of peace between the Pope and Philip, as their European interests converged, although political differences remained and diplomatic contrasts eventually re-emerged.
By the end of the wars in 1559,Habsburg Spain had been established as the premier power of Europe, to the detriment of France. In France,Henry II was fatally wounded in a joust held during the celebrations of the peace. His death led to the accession of his 15-year-old sonFrancis II, who in turn soon died. The French monarchy was thrown into turmoil, which increased further with the outbreak of theFrench Wars of Religion that would last for several decades. The states of Italy were reduced to second-rate powers, with Spain dominating the peninsula.Mary Tudor's death in 1558 enabled Philip to seal the treaty by marrying Henry II's daughter,Elisabeth of Valois, later giving him a claim to the throne of France on behalf of his daughter by Elisabeth,Isabella Clara Eugenia.
The French Wars of Religion (1562–1598) were primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as theHouse of Bourbon andHouse of Guise, and both sides received assistance from foreign sources. Philip claimed descent fromConstantine I andCharlemagne, justifying his intervention in French Wars of Religion and his continuing efforts to deposeHenry IV of France.[19][page needed]
Philip signed theTreaty of Vaucelles with Henry II of France in 1556. Based on the terms of the treaty, the territory ofFranche-Comté inBurgundy was to be relinquished to Philip. However, the treaty was broken shortly afterwards. France and the Spanish kingdoms waged war in northern France and Italy over the following years. Spanish victories at St. Quentin and Gravelines led to the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, in which France recognised Spanish sovereignty over Franche-Comté.
During theWar of the Portuguese Succession, the pretenderAntónio fled to France following his defeats and, as Philip's armies had not yet occupied theAzores, he sailed there with a large Anglo-French fleet underFilippo Strozzi, aFlorentine exile in the service of France. The navalBattle of Terceira took place on 26 July 1582, in the sea near the Azores, offSão Miguel Island, as part of the War of the Portuguese Succession and theAnglo-Spanish War (1585–1604). The Spanish navy defeated the combined Anglo-French fleet that had sailed to preserve control of the Azores under António. The French naval contingent was the largest French force sent overseas before the age ofLouis XIV.[20]
The Spanish victory at Terceira was followed by theBattle of the Azores between the Portuguese loyal to the claimant António, supported by French and English troops, and the Spanish-Portuguese forces loyal to Philip commanded by the admiral DonÁlvaro de Bazán. Victory in Azores completed the incorporation ofPortugal into the Spanish Empire.[21]
Philip financed theCatholic League during the French Wars of Religion. He directly intervened in the final phases of the wars (1589–1598), orderingAlexander Farnese, Duke of Parma into France in an effort to unseatHenry IV, and perhaps dreaming of placing his favourite daughter,Isabella Clara Eugenia, on the French throne.Elisabeth of Valois, Philip's third wife and Isabella's mother, had already ceded any claim to the French Crown with her marriage to Philip and in France theSalic law remained in effect. However, theParlement of Paris, in power of the Catholic party, gave verdict that Isabella Clara Eugenia was "the legitimate sovereign" of France. Philip's interventions in the fighting—sending the Duke of Parma to end Henry IV'ssiege of Paris in 1590 and thesiege of Rouen in 1592—contributed in saving the French Catholic Leagues's cause against a Protestant monarchy.
In 1593, Henry agreed to convert to Catholicism; weary of war, most French Catholics switched to his side against the hardline core of the Catholic League, who were portrayed by Henry's propagandists as puppets of a foreign monarch, Philip. By the end of 1594 certain League members were still working against Henry across the country, but all relied on the support of the Spanish Crown. In January 1595, therefore, Henry officially declared war on the Spanish Crown, to show Catholics that Philip was using religion as a cover for an attack on the French state, and Protestants that he had not become a puppet of the Spanish Crown through his conversion, while hoping to reconquer large parts of northern France from the Franco-Spanish Catholic forces.[22]
French victory at theBattle of Fontaine-Française in Burgundy, 5 June 1595, marked an end to the Catholic League in France. The French also made some progress during an invasion of theSpanish Netherlands. They capturedHam and massacred the small Spanish garrison, provoking anger among the Spanish ranks.[citation needed] The Spanish launched a concerted offensive that year, takingDoullens,Cambrai, andLe Catelet; at Doullens, they massacred 4,000 of its citizens.[23] On 24 April 1596, the Spanish alsoconquered Calais. Following the Spanish capture ofAmiens in March 1597, the French Crown laid siege to it until it managed toreconquer Amiens from the overstretched Spanish forces in September 1597. Henry then negotiated a peace with the Spanish Crown. The war was only drawn to an official close, however, with thePeace of Vervins in May 1598.
The 1598 Treaty of Vervins was largely a restatement of the 1559 Peace of Câteau-Cambrésis and Spanish forces and subsidies were withdrawn; meanwhile, Henry issued theEdict of Nantes, which offered a high degree of religious toleration for French Protestants. The military interventions in France thus failed to oust Henry from the throne or suppress Protestantism in France, and yet they had played a decisive part in helping the French Catholic cause gain the conversion of Henry, ensuring that Catholicism would remain France's official and majority faith—matters of paramount importance for the devoutly Catholic Spanish king.
In the early part of his reign Philip was concerned with the rising power of theOttoman Empire underSuleiman the Magnificent. Fear of Islamic domination in the Mediterranean caused him to pursue an aggressive foreign policy.
In 1558, Turkish admiralPiyale Pasha captured theBalearic Islands, especially inflicting great damage onMenorca and enslaving many, while raiding the coasts of the Spanish mainland. Philip appealed to the Pope and other powers in Europe to bring an end to the rising Ottoman threat. Since his father's losses against the Ottomans and againstHayreddin Barbarossa in 1541, the major European sea powers in the Mediterranean, namely the Spanish Crown andVenice, became hesitant in confronting the Ottomans. The myth of "Turkish invincibility" was becoming a popular story, causing fear and panic among the people.
In 1560, Philip II organised aHoly League between the Spanish kingdoms and the Republic of Venice, theRepublic of Genoa, thePapal States, theDuchy of Savoy and theKnights of Malta. The joint fleet was assembled atMessina and consisted of 200 ships (60 galleys and 140 other vessels) carrying a total of 30,000 soldiers under the command ofGiovanni Andrea Doria, nephew of the famous Genoese admiralAndrea Doria.
On 12 March 1560, the Holy League captured the island ofDjerba, which had a strategic location and could control the sea routes betweenAlgiers andTripoli. As a response, Suleiman sent an Ottoman fleet of 120 ships under the command of Piyale Pasha, which arrived at Djerba on 9 May 1560. The battle lasted until 14 May 1560, and the forces of Piyale Pasha andTurgut Reis (who joined Piyale Pasha on the third day of the battle) won an overwhelming victory at theBattle of Djerba. The Holy League lost 60 ships (30 galleys) and 20,000 men, and Giovanni Andrea Doria was barely able to escape with a small vessel. The Ottomans retook the Fortress of Djerba, whose Spanish commander, D.Álvaro de Sande, attempted to escape with a ship but was followed and eventually captured by Turgut Reis.
In 1563, capitalizing on the political climate, theRegency of Algiers launched thesieges of Oran and Mers El Kébir in a large scale attempt to dislodge the major Spanish positions in Northern Africa, but the attempt met failure. Philip's navy thenconquered Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera the following year. The Ottomans sent alarge expedition to Malta, which laid siege to several forts on the island and took some of them, but the Spanish sent a relief force under D.García de Toledo and a rescued Álvaro de Sande, which finally drove the Ottoman army out of the island.
The grave threat posed by the increasing Ottoman domination of the Mediterranean was finally reversed in one of history's most decisive battles, with the destruction of nearly the entire Ottoman fleet at theBattle of Lepanto in 1571, by theHoly League under the command of Philip's half brother, DonJohn of Austria, and DonÁlvaro de Bazán. A fleet sent by Philip, again commanded by Don John,reconquered Tunis from the Ottomans in 1573. The Turks soon rebuilt their fleet, and in 1574Uluç Ali Reis managed torecapture Tunis with a force of 250 galleys and a siege that lasted 40 days. Thousands of Spanish and Italian soldiers became prisoners. Nevertheless, Lepanto marked a permanent reversal in the balance of naval power in the Mediterranean and the end of the threat of Ottoman control. In 1585 a peace treaty was signed with the Ottomans.[citation needed]
During Philip's reign Spain considered thePacific Ocean amare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers— as the only known entrance from the Atlantic, theStrait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships.[24]
In 1584, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa founded two colonies in the strait:Nombre de Jesús, andCiudad del Rey Don Felipe. The latter was established north of the strait with 300 settlers.[26][page needed][27][page needed] The new colonies suffered from high death rates, likely as a consequence of executions, brawls, violent encounters with indigenous peoples and diseases which were rife.[28] A contributing cause for failure of the settlement may have been poor morale, an issue that plagued the venture almost from the beginning.[28] This can in part be explained by a series of difficulties the expedition had to go through between the departure from Spain and the arrival to the strait.[28] Philip II's inaction despite repeated pleas by Sarmiento to aid the ailing colony has been attributed to the strain on Spain's resources that resulted from wars with England and Dutch rebels.[29]
In 1587, English corsairs renamed Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe, Puerto del Hambre, or "Port Famine". Most of the settlers had died from cold or starvation.[30] When SirThomas Cavendish landed at the site of Rey Don Felipe in 1587, he found only ruins of the settlement.[31][page needed] The Spanish failure at colonizing the Strait of Magellan causedChiloé Archipelago to assume the role of protecting western Patagonia from foreign intrusions.[32]Valdivia and Chiloé acted as sentries, being hubs where the Spanish collected intelligence from all over Patagonia.[33]
Philip's rule in theSeventeen Provinces known collectively as theNetherlands faced many difficulties, leading toopen warfare in 1568. He appointed his half-sisterMargaret of Parma as Governor of the Netherlands, when he left the low countries for the Spanish kingdoms in 1559, but forced her to adjust policy to the advice ofCardinal Granvelle, who was greatly disliked in the Netherlands, after he insisted on direct control over events in the Netherlands despite being over two weeks' ride away in Madrid. There was discontent in the Netherlands about Philip's taxation demands and the incessantpersecution of Protestants. In 1566, Protestant preachers sparked anti-clerical riots known as theIconoclast Fury; in response to growing Protestant influence, the army of theDuke of Alba went on the offensive. In 1568, Alba hadLamoral, Count of Egmont andPhilip de Montmorency, Count of Horn executed inBrussels'central square, further alienating the local aristocracy. There were massacres of civilians inMechelen,[34]Naarden,[35]Zutphen[34] andHaarlem. In 1571, Alba erected atAntwerp a bronze statue of himself trampling the rebellious Dutch under his horse's hooves, cast from the melted-down cannon looted by the Spanish troops after theBattle of Jemmingen in 1568; it was modelled on medieval images of the Spanish patronSaint James "the Moorslayer" riding down Muslims and caused such outrage that Philip had it removed and destroyed.[36]
In 1572, a prominent exiled member of the Dutch aristocracy,William the Silent,Prince of Orange, invaded the Netherlands with a Protestant army, but he only succeeded in holding two provinces,Holland andZeeland. Because of the Spanish repulse in theSiege of Alkmaar (1573) led by his equally brutal sonFadrique,[36] Alba resigned his command, replaced byLuis de Requesens y Zúñiga. Alba boasted that he had burned or executed 18,600 persons in the Netherlands,[37] in addition to the far greater number he massacred during the war, many of them women and children; 8,000 persons were burned or hanged in one year, and the total number of Alba'sFlemish victims can not have fallen short of 50,000.[38] Under Requesens, theArmy of Flanders reached a peak strength of 86,000 in 1574 and retained its battlefield superiority, destroyingLouis of Nassau's German mercenary army at theBattle of Mookerheyde on 14 April 1574, killing both him and his brotherHenry of Nassau-Dillenburg.
TheStates General of the northern provinces, united in the 1579Union of Utrecht, passed anAct of Abjuration in 1581 declaring that they no longer recognised Philip as their king. Thesouthern Netherlands (what is now Belgium and Luxembourg) remained under Spanish rule. In 1584,William the Silent was assassinated byBalthasar Gérard, after Philip had offered a reward of 25,000 crowns to anyone who killed him, calling him a "pest on the whole of Christianity and the enemy of the human race". The Dutch forces continued to fight on under Orange's sonMaurice of Nassau, who received modest help from the Queen of England in 1585. The Dutch gained an advantage over the Spanish because of their growing economic strength, in contrast to Philip's burgeoning economic troubles. The war came to anend in 1648, when theDutch Republic was recognised by the Spanish Crown as independent. The eight decades of war came at a massive human cost, with an estimated 600,000 to 700,000 victims, of which 350,000 to 400,000 were civilians killed by disease and what would later be consideredwar crimes.[42]
In 1578 young KingSebastian of Portugal died at theBattle of Alcácer Quibir without descendants, triggering asuccession crisis. His granduncle, the elderlyCardinal Henry, succeeded him as king, but Henry had no descendants either, having taken holy orders. When Henry died two years after Sebastian's disappearance, three grandchildren ofManuel I claimed the throne:Infanta Catarina, Duchess of Braganza;António, Prior of Crato; and Philip II of Spain. António was acclaimedKing of Portugal in many cities and towns throughout the country, but members of the Council of Governors of Portugal who had supported Philip escaped to the Spanish kingdoms and declared him to be the legal successor of Henry.
In 1580, Philip II marched into Portugal and defeated Prior António's troops in theBattle of Alcântara. The Portuguese suffered 4,000 killed, wounded, or captured, while the Spanish sustained only 500 casualties.[43] The troops commanded byFernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba[44] imposed subjection to Philip before entering Lisbon, where he seized an immense treasure.[45][page needed] Philip II of Spain assumed the Portuguese throne and was crownedPhilip I of Portugal on 17 July 1580[46] (recognized as king by thePortuguese Cortes ofTomar) and a near sixty-yearpersonal union under the rule of thePhilippine Dynasty began. This gave Philip control of the extensivePortuguese Empire. When Philip left for Madrid in 1583, he made his nephewAlbert of Austria his viceroy in Lisbon. In Madrid he established aCouncil of Portugal to advise him on Portuguese affairs, giving prominent positions to Portuguese nobles in the Spanish courts, and allowing Portugal to maintain autonomous law, currency, and government. This followed on the well-established pattern ofrule by councils.
Spanish Empire of Philip II, III and IV including all charted and claimed territories, maritime claims (mare clausum) and other features
Titian'sportrait of Philip as prince (1551), aged about 24, dressed in a lavishly decorated set of armourIrishgroat with Philip's and Mary's initials and portraits
Philip's father arranged his marriage to 37-year-old QueenMary I of England, Charles' maternal first cousin. His father ceded the crown of Naples, as well as his claim to theKingdom of Jerusalem, to him. Theirmarriage atWinchester Cathedral on 25 July 1554[note 3] took place just two days after their first meeting. Philip's view of the affair was entirely political. Lord ChancellorStephen Gardiner and theHouse of Commons petitioned Mary to consider marrying an Englishman, preferringEdward Courtenay.
Under the terms of theAct for the Marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain, Philip was to enjoy Mary I's titles and honours for as long as their marriage should last. All official documents, includingActs of Parliament, were to be dated with both their names, andParliament was to be called under the joint authority of the couple. Coins were also to show the heads of both Mary and Philip. The marriage treaty also provided that England would not be obliged to provide military support to Philip's father in any war. The Privy Council instructed that Philip and Mary should be joint signatories of royal documents, and this was enacted by an Act of Parliament, which gave him the title of king and stated that he "shall aid her Highness ... in the happy administration of her Grace's realms and dominions".[47] In other words, Philip was to co-reign with his wife.[48][page needed][49][page needed] As the new King of England could not read English, it was ordered that a note of all matters of state should be made in Latin or Spanish.[48][50][page needed][51][page needed]
Philip and Mary I of England, 1558
Acts making it high treason to deny Philip's royal authority were passed by theParliament of Ireland[52][page needed] and England.[53] Philip and Mary appeared on coins together, with a single crown suspended between them as a symbol of joint reign. The Great Seal shows Philip and Mary seated on thrones, holding the crown together.[48] Thecoat of arms of England was impaled with Philip's to denote their joint reign.[54][page needed][55] During their joint reign, they waged war against France, which resulted in theloss of Calais, England's last remaining possession in France.
Philip's wife had succeeded to theKingdom of Ireland, but the title ofKing of Ireland had been created in 1542 by Mary's father,Henry VIII, after he was excommunicated, and so it was not recognised by Catholic monarchs. In 1555,Pope Paul IV rectified this by issuing apapal bull recognising Philip and Mary as rightful King and Queen of Ireland.[56]King's County andPhilipstown in Ireland were named after Philip as King of Ireland in 1556. The couple's joint royal style after Philip ascended the Spanish throne in 1556 was:Philip and Mary, by the Grace of God, King and Queen of England, Spain, France, Jerusalem, both the Sicilies and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Burgundy, Milan and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tirol.
However, the couple had no children. Mary died in 1558 before the union could revitalise the RomanCatholic Church in England.[citation needed] With her death, Philip lost his rights to the English throne (including the ancientEnglish claims to the French throne) and ceased to be king of England, Ireland and (as claimed by them) France.
Philip's European and North African dominions in 1581
Upon Mary's death, the throne went toElizabeth I. Philip had no wish to sever his tie with England, and had sent a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth. However, she delayed in answering, and in that time learned Philip was also considering aValois alliance. Elizabeth I was the Protestant daughter ofHenry VIII andAnne Boleyn. This union was deemed illegitimate by English Catholics, who disputed the validity of both the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon and of his subsequent marriage to Boleyn, and hence claimed thatMary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic great-granddaughter ofHenry VII, was the rightful monarch.
For many years Philip maintained peace with England, and even defended Elizabeth from the Pope's threat of excommunication. This was a measure taken to preserve a European balance of power. Ultimately, Elizabeth allied England with the Protestant rebels in the Netherlands. Further, English ships began a policy ofprivateering against Spain's merchant shipping and started threatening the Spanish treasure ships coming from the New World. In one instance, English ships attacked a Spanish port. The last straw for Philip was theTreaty of Nonsuch signed by Elizabeth in 1585—promising troops and supplies to the anti-Spanish rebels in the Netherlands. Although it can be argued this English action was the result of Philip'sTreaty of Joinville with theCatholic League of France, Philip considered it an act of war by England.
The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587 ended Philip's hopes of placing a Catholic on the English throne. He turned instead to more direct plans to invade England and return the country to Catholicism. In 1588, he sent a fleet, theSpanish Armada, to rendezvous with theArmy of Flanders and convey it across the English Channel. However, the operation had little chance of success from the beginning, because of lengthy delays, lack of communication between Philip II and his two commanders and the lack of a deep bay for the fleet. At the point of attack, a storm struck theEnglish Channel, already known for its harsh currents and choppy waters, which devastated large numbers of the Spanish fleet. There was a tightly fought battle against the EnglishRoyal Navy[57] and the Spanish were forced into a retreat, and the overwhelming majority of the Armada was destroyed by the harsh weather. Although the English Royal Navy did not destroy the Armada at the Battle of Gravelines, they prevented it from linking up with the army it was supposed to convey across the channel. Thus, while the English Royal Navy only won a slight tactical victory over the Spanish, it had delivered a major strategic victory—preventing the invasion of England. Through a week of fighting the Spanish had expended 100,000 cannonballs, but no English ship was seriously damaged.[58] However, over 7,000 English sailors died from disease during the time the Armada was in English waters.
The defeat of the Spanish Armada gave great heart to the Protestant cause across Europe. The storm that smashed the Armada was seen by many of Philip's enemies as a sign of the will of God. While the invasion had been averted, England was unable to take advantage of this success. An attempt to use her newfound advantage at sea with acounter-armada the following year failed disastrously with 40 ships sunk and 15,000 men lost.[59] Likewise, English buccaneering and attempts to seize territories in the Caribbean were defeated by Spain's rebuilt navy and their improved intelligence networks (althoughCádiz was sacked by an Anglo-Dutch force after a failed attempt to seize the treasure fleet). The Habsburgs also struck back with theDunkirkers, who took an increasing toll on Dutch and English shipping.
Eventually, the Spanish attempted two further Armadas, in October 1596 and October 1597. The1596 Armada was destroyed in a storm off northern Spain; it had lost as many as 72 of its 126 ships and suffered 3,000 deaths. The1597 Armada was frustrated by adverse weather as it approached the English coast undetected. ThisAnglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) would be fought to a grinding end, but not until both Philip II (d. 1598) and Elizabeth I (d. 1603) were dead. Some of the fighting was done on land in Ireland, France, and the Netherlands, with the English sending expeditionary forces to France and the Netherlands to fight Spain, and Spain attempting to assist Irish rebellions in Ireland.
Philip II died on 13 September 1598 atEl Escorial, aged 71, after a prolonged illness, likelycancer.[60][61] He was surrounded by priests, family, and trusted officials. His personal chamber was divided into a main room, bedroom, study, and oratory, following the layout of his father's monastery.[62] The most notable feature was the monarch's bed, still preserved, which was positioned so he could observe theliturgy at the church's mainaltar from his bedside.[62] Despite severe pain in his final months, he continued to review state papers and correspondence.[62] Thefuneral oration honouring the virtues of Philip II is attributed toTomás Fernández de Medrano, Lord of Valdeosera, author of theRepública Mista (1602), and a trusted adviser and crown official under both Philip II and Philip III.[63]
Philip II governed one of the largest and most diverse empires in history, encompassing theIberian Peninsula,Spanish America, parts ofAfrica, theLow Countries, parts ofItaly, and territories as far away asAsia, including thePhilippines, which was named in his honour.[62] He was succeeded by his 20-year-old son,Philip III, who inherited a vast but financially strained empire.[61]
Under Philip II, Spain reached the peak of its power. However, in spite of the great and increasing quantities of gold and silver flowing into his coffers from the American mines, the riches of the Portuguese spice trade, and the enthusiastic support of the Habsburg dominions for theCounter-Reformation, he would never succeed in suppressing Protestantism or defeating the Dutch rebellion. Early in his reign, the Dutch might have laid down their weapons if he had desisted in trying to suppress Protestantism,[citation needed] but his devotion to Catholicism would not permit him to do so. He was a devout Catholic and exhibited the typical 16th century antipathy for religious heterodoxy; he said, "Before suffering the slightest damage to religion in the service of God, I would lose all of my estates and a hundred lives, if I had them, because I do not intend nor do I desire to be the ruler of heretics."[64]
As he strove to enforce Catholic orthodoxy through an intensification of theInquisition, students were barred from studying elsewhere, and books printed by Spaniards outside the kingdom were banned. In addition to the banning of books, Philip II authorized the burning of at least 70,000 volumes.[65][page needed] Even a highly respected churchman like ArchbishopBartolome Carranza of Toledo was jailed by the Inquisition for 17 years, for publishing ideas that seemed sympathetic in some degree with Protestantism. Such strict enforcement of orthodox belief was successful, and Spain avoided the religiously inspired strife tearing apart other European dominions.
Although he was deeply dedicated to rooting out heretical titles, he collected forbidden books for his own royal library at the El Escorial. His library contained 40,000 volumes (1,800 of which were Arabic titles) and several thousand manuscripts.[65][page needed] The banned books were protected in a room on an upper floor of the library. He was passionate about rare books he personally collected from far and wide and researched and recorded information about previous owners.[65][page needed]
TheSchool of Salamanca flourished under his reign.Martín de Azpilcueta, highly honoured at Rome by several popes and looked on as an oracle of learning, published hisManuale sive Enchiridion Confessariorum et Poenitentium (Rome, 1568), long a classical text in the schools and in ecclesiastical practice.Francisco Suárez, generally regarded as the greatest scholastic afterThomas Aquinas and regarded during his lifetime as being the greatest living philosopher and theologian, was writing and lecturing, not only in Spain but also in Rome (1580–1585), wherePope Gregory XIII attended the first lecture that he gave.Luis de Molina published hisDe liberi arbitrii cum gratiae donis, divina praescientia, praedestinatione et reprobatione concordia (1588), wherein he put forth the doctrine attempting to reconcile theomniscience of God with humanfree will that came to be known asMolinism, thereby contributing to what was one of the most important intellectual debates of the time; Molinism became thede factoJesuit doctrine on these matters, and is still advocated today byWilliam Lane Craig andAlvin Plantinga, among others.
Philip had a passion for architecture and building, seeking to improve Spain's constructions after those of Italy and the Netherlands. At the same time, he personally favored fields and forests, indulging often in hunting and fishing, and was an obsessive builder of gardens. In 1582 he issued orders to conservate the Spanish forests, worrying that they might get depleted. According to historianHenry Kamen, "his love of nature turned him into one of the firstecologist rulers in European history".[66]
Because Philip II was the most powerful European monarch in an era of war and religious conflict,[67][page needed] evaluating both his reign and the man himself has become a controversial historical subject.[68][page needed] Even before his death in 1598, his supporters had started presenting him as an archetypical gentleman, full of piety and Christian virtues, whereas his enemies depicted him as a fanatical and despotic monster, responsible for inhuman cruelties and barbarism.[69][page needed] This dichotomy, further developed into the so-calledSpanish Black Legend andWhite Legend, was helped by King Philip himself. Philip prohibited any biographical account of his life to be published while he was alive, and he ordered that all his private correspondence be burned shortly before he died.[70][page needed]
Moreover, Philip did nothing to defend himself after being betrayed by his ambitioussecretaryAntonio Pérez, who published incredible calumnies against his former master; this allowed Pérez's tales to spread all around Europe unchallenged.[71][page needed] That way, the popular image of the King that survives to today was created on the eve of his death, at a time when many European princes and religious leaders were turned against Spain as a pillar of theCounter-Reformation. This means that many histories depict Philip from deeply prejudiced points of view, usually negative.[72]
Some historians classify this anti-Spanish analysis as part of theBlack Legend. In a more recent example of popular culture, Philip II's portrayal inFire Over England (1937) is not entirely unsympathetic; he is shown as a very hardworking, intelligent, religious, somewhat paranoid ruler whose prime concern is his country, but who had no understanding of the English, despite his former co-monarchy there.
Even in countries that remained Catholic, primarily France and the Italian states, fear and envy of Spanish success and domination created a wide receptiveness for the worst possible descriptions of Philip II. Although some efforts have been made to separate legend from reality,[73][page needed] that task has proved extremely difficult, since many prejudices are rooted in the cultural heritage of European countries. Spanish-speaking historians tend to assess his political and military achievements, sometimes deliberately avoiding issues such as the King's inflexible Catholicism.[74][page needed] English-speaking historians tend to show Philip II as a fanatical, despotical, criminal, imperialist ruler,[75][page needed] minimising his military victories (Battle of Lepanto,Battle of Saint Quentin,Fall of Antwerp,English Armada, etc...) to mere anecdotes, and magnifying his defeats (Battle of Djerba,Ottoman conquest of Tunis,Dutch Revolt,Armada[76][page needed], etc...) even though at the time those defeats did not result in great political or military changes in the balance of power in Europe.
He ended French Valois ambitions in Italy and brought about the Habsburg ascendency in Europe. He secured the Portuguese kingdom and empire. He succeeded in increasing the importation of silver in the face of English, Dutch, and French privateers, overcoming multiple financial crises and consolidating Spain's overseas empire. Although clashes would be ongoing, he ended the major threat posed to Europe by theOttoman Navy.
HistorianGeoffrey Parker offers a management-psychological explanation, as summarized byTonio Andrade and William Reger:
One might have expected that Philip—being a dedicated, persistent, and hard-working man, and being the head of Western Europe's wealthiest and largest empire—would have succeeded in his aims. He didn't. His endeavors were doomed by his own character, or at least that's how Parker sees it. Drawing on studies in management science and organizational psychology, Parker argues that a successful manager of a large organization must keep attention on the big picture, must have a good strategy for dealing with copious information, must know how to delegate, and must be flexible. Philip failed on all counts. He was a micromanager who got bogged down in details, refusing to delegate and trying to read every dispatch that came to his desk. He obsessed and dithered, so that by the time his decisions were made and his orders reached the men meant to carry them out, the situation on the ground had changed. Philip was also inflexible, unwilling to abandon ineffective policies. Most pernicious of all was Philip's tendency toward messianic thinking, a belief that he was doing God's work and that heaven would support him with miracles.[77]
Cannon with arms of Philip II as King of Spain andjure uxoris King of England and FrancePortrait of Philip II as King of Portugal bySánchez Coello,c. 1580
King of Castile asPhilip II: 16 January 1556 – 13 September 1598
King of Castile, of León, of Granada, of Toledo, of Galicia, of Seville, of Cordoba, of Murcia, of Jaen, of the Algarves, of Algeciras, of Gibraltar, of the Canary Islands, of the Indias, the Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea;[note 4] Lord of Molina
King of Portugal asPhilip I: 12 September 1580 – 13 September 1598
King of Portugal and the Algarves of either side of the sea in Africa, Lord of Guinea and of Conquest, Navigation, and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India, etc.
Philip continued his father's style of "Majesty" (Latin:Maiestas; Spanish:Majestad) in preference to that of "Highness" (Celsitudo;Alteza). In diplomatic texts, he continued the use of the title "Most Catholic" (Rex Catholicissimus;Rey Católico) first bestowed byPope Alexander VI onFerdinand and Isabella in 1496.
His coinage typically bore theobverse inscription "PHS·D:G·HISP·Z·REX" (Latin: "Philip, by the grace of God King of Spain et cetera"), followed by the local title of the mint ("DVX·BRA" for Duke of Brabant, "C·HOL" for Count of Holland, "D·TRS·ISSV" for Lord of Overissel, etc.). Thereverse would then bear a motto such as "PACE·ET·IVSTITIA" ("For Peace and Justice") or "DOMINVS·MIHI·ADIVTOR" ("The Lord is my helper").[81] A medal struck in 1583 bore the inscriptions "PHILIPP II HISP ET NOVI ORBIS REX" ("Philip II, King of Spain and the New World") and "NON SUFFICIT ORBIS" ("The world is not enough").[82][page needed]
Coat of arms with supporters (a lion and a griffin) and crest (with symbols of the Crowns ofAragon andCastile and León and of theKingdom of Portugal in the top) 1580–1598
Philip was married four times and had children with three of his wives. He also had two long-term relationships withIsabel Osorio andEufrasia de Guzmán.
Philip's first wife was his double first cousin,Maria Manuela, Princess of Portugal. She was a daughter of Philip's maternal uncle,John III of Portugal, and paternal aunt,Catherine of Austria. They were married atSalamanca on 12 November 1543. The marriage produced one son in 1545, after which Maria died four days later due to haemorrhage:
Carlos, Prince of Asturias (8 July 1545 – 24 July 1568), died unmarried at the age of 23 and without issue.
Philip's second wife was his first cousin once removed, QueenMary I of England. The marriage, which took place on 25 July 1554 atWinchester Cathedral, was political. By this marriage, Philip becamejure uxorisKing of England andIreland, although the couple was apart more than together as they ruled their respective countries. The marriage produced no children, although there was afalse pregnancy, and Mary died in 1558, ending Philip's reign in England and Ireland.
Philip's third wife wasElisabeth of Valois, the eldest daughter ofHenry II of France andCatherine de' Medici. The original ceremony was conducted by proxy (theDuke of Alba standing in for Philip) atNotre Dame prior to Elisabeth's departure from France. The actual ceremony was conducted inGuadalajara upon her arrival in Spain. During their marriage (1559–1568) they conceived five daughters, though only two of the girls survived. Elisabeth died a few hours after the loss of her last child. Their children were:
Philip's fourth and final wife was his niece,Anna of Austria. Pope Pius V initially refused to grant Philip the dispensation needed to marry Anna, citing biblical prohibitions and the danger of birth defects. The pope reluctantly gave his permission when Philip threatened to abandon theHoly League in their fight against the Ottoman Turks.[83][84] By contemporary accounts, this was a convivial and satisfactory marriage (1570–1580) for both Philip and Anna. This marriage produced four sons and one daughter. Anna died of heart failure 8 months after giving birth to Maria in 1580.[citation needed]
^Helmut Koenigsberger: The Statecraft of Philip II. In:Politicians and Virtuosi. Essays in Early Modern History. Hambledon, London 1986, (History series, Bd. 49 / Studies presented to the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions, Bd. 69), ISBN 0-907628-65-6, S. 77–96, p. 77“
^Gat, Azar (2006).War in Human Civilization (4th ed.). Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford University Press. p. 488.ISBN978-0-19-923663-3.
^Elliott, J. H. (2002).Imperial Spain 1469–1716 (Repr. ed.). London [u.a.]: Penguin Books. pp. 285–291.ISBN0-14-100703-6.
^As Philip wrote in 1566 toLuis de Requesens: "You can assure his Holiness that rather than suffer the least injury to religion and the service of God, I would lose all my states and a hundred lives if I had them, for I do not intend to rule over heretics."Pettegree 2002, p. 214.
^Relación y derrotero del viaje y descubrimiento del Estrecho de la Madre de Dios – antes llamado de Magallanes (in Spanish). Archived fromthe original on 22 September 2008.Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, según Amancio Landín, uno de sus más reputados biógrafos, nació en Pontevedra, hacia 1532. Julio Guillén—el marino-académico—, por su parte, dice que es posible fuera Colegial Mayor en la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, ciudad que fue—asegura—cuna del gran marino español. Este, no ha dejado aclarada la duda sobre su origen geográfico, pues afirmó ser natural de ambos lugares.
^Sharp Hume, Martín Andrew.The Spanish People: Their Origin, Growth and Influence. p. 372.
^Henry Kamen,Philip of Spain (Yale University Press, 1997), 160.
^James Tracy,The Founding of the Dutch Republic: War, Finance, and Politics in Holland, 1572–1588 (Oxford University Press, 2008), 141.
^Black, Jeremy (1996).The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: Renaissance to Revolution, 1492–1792. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 58.ISBN978-0521470339.
^Tucker, Spencer C. (2014).500 Great Military Leaders. Vol. 1 & 2. p. 19.
^Parker, Geoffrey,The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567–1659: The Logistics of Spanish Victory and Defeat in the Low Countries' Wars, London: Cambridge University Press, 1972ISBN0-521-08462-8, p. 35.
^Kamen, Henry,The Duke of Alba, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004.
^Hatton, Barry,Queen of the Sea: A History of Lisbon, London: C. Hurst & Co., 2018, p. 89.
^Richard Marks, Ann Payne, British Museum, British Library;British heraldry from its origins to c. 1800; British Museum Publications Ltd., 1978
^The Numismatist, American Numismatic Association, 1971
^Francois Velde (25 July 2003)."Text of 1555 Bull". Heraldica.org. Retrieved22 August 2012.
^Grant, R. G. (2017).1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History. p. 296.
^Tucker, Spencer (2011).Battles that Changed History: An Encyclopedia of World Conflict. ABC-CLIO. p. 183.
^Fernández Duro, Cesáreo (1972).Armada Española desde la Unión de los Reinos de Castilla y Aragón. Museo Naval de Madrid, Instituto de Historia y Cultura Naval, Volume III, Chapter III. Madrid. p. 51
^Koenigsberger, Helmut Georg (2012),Philip II, Encyclopædia Britannica Online, retrieved31 January 2012
^Fernández Álvarez, Manuel.Felipe II y su tiempo. Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 6th ed.ISBN84-239-9736-7 In the introduction to this work, Felipe is mentioned as the most powerful European monarch by resources and army, depicting Europe at the time as a world full of unsolved issues and religious conflicts
^Fernández Álvarez, Manuel.Felipe II y su tiempo (6th ed.). Espasa Calpe, Madrid.ISBN84-239-9736-7. Yet again, the several points of view towards his reign are mentioned in the Introduction.
^Kamen, Henry.Felipe de España, Madrid, Siglo XXI, 1997. Cultural depictions of the King are mentioned, although Kamen tends to place himself with those favouring the King.
^Fernández Álvarez, Manuel.Felipe II y su tiempo. Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 6th ed.ISBN84-239-9736-7. He discusses the lack of correspondence of the king because he ordered it burned, thus avoiding any chance of getting further into Philip's private life.
^Vid. Marañón, Gregorio.Antonio Pérez: el hombre, el drama, la época. Madrid, Espasa Calpe, 1951, 2 vols. Judiciously argued review on the harm Perez did to the king, analyzing the king's responsibility on the assassination of Escobedo.
^Hume, Martin.Philip II of Spain, London, 1897. Martin tried to resurrect the prejudiced views concerning the king, as did Carl Bratli in hisFilip of Spanien (Koebenhaven, 1909). By contrast, Ludwig Pfandl, inFelipe II. Bosquejo de una vida y un tiempo, Munich, 1938, assessed Philip's personality negatively.
^InFelipe II (Madrid, 1943), W. T. Walsh depicts Felipe's reign as prosperous and successful. Fernández Álvarez, inEspaña y los españoles en la Edad Moderna (Salamanca, 1979), points out how White Legend supporters flourished during the 1940s and 1950s, and how they omitted the darkest issues of Philip's reign.
^Those kinds of adjectives can be read in M. Van Durme's 1953El Cardenal Granvela.
^Cabrera de Córdoba,Felipe II rey de España, ed. RAH, 1877, criticizes how Felipe's victories are minimised by English historians, and points out the small consequences of defeats such as the Armada.
^Tonio Andrade and William Reger, eds., "Geoffrey Parker and Early Modern History" inThe Limits of Empire: European Imperial Formations in Early Modern World History: Essays in Honor of Geoffrey Parker (Routledge, 2016), p. xxiii.
^Not usually included in lists of monarchs, although legally recognized as co-monarch, as his reign ended de facto with Mary's death.
^Cremades, Checa.Felipe II. Op. cit. in "The Place of Tudor England".Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th Series, Vol. 12. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003.ISBN0521815614.
^ab"Maria (D.). Rainha de Portugal".Portugal - Dicionário Histórico, Corográfico, Heráldico, Biográfico, Bibliográfico, Numismático e Artístico (in Portuguese). Vol. IV. pp. 823–824.
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López, Anna Santamaría."'Great Faith is Necessary to Drink from this Chalice': Philip II in the Court of Mary Tudor, 1554–58." inEarly Modern Dynastic Marriages and Cultural Transfer ed. by Joan-Lluis Palos and Magdalena S. Sanchez (2017) pp: 115–138.
Lynch, John (1981).Empire and Absolutism: 1516–1598. Spain Under the Habsburgs. Vol. I. Oxford: Blackwell.OCLC928663276.
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Parker, Geoffrey (2014).Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II. New Haven: Yale University Press.ISBN9780300216950.
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Parker, Geoffrey.Philip II (1995), short scholarly biography
Parker, Geoffrey (2001).The World is Not Enough: The Imperial Vision of Philip II of Spain. Waco: Baylor University Press.ISBN9780918954770.
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Pierson, Peter (1975).Philip II of Spain. London: Thames & Hudson.OCLC253737198.
Prescott, William Hickling (1855–1902).A History of the Reign of Philip II. London, Boston, Philadelphia.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Redworth, Glyn."Philip (1527–1598)",Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition, May 2011. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
Rodriguez-Salgado, M. J. (1991).The Court of Philip II of Spain. Princes, Patronage, and the Nobility: The Court at the Beginning of the Modern Age, cc. 1450–1650. Edited by Ronald G. Asch and Adolf M. Birke. Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-920502-7.
Samson, Alexander (2020).Mary and Philip: The Marriage of Tudor England and Habsburg Spain. Manchester: Manchester University Press.ISBN9781526160249.
Samson, Alexander (2010). Alice Hunt, Anna Whitelock (ed.).Power Sharing: The Co-monarchy of Philip and Mary". Tudor Queenship: The Reigns of Mary and Elizabeth'. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 159–172.ISBN9781349380930.
Thomas, Hugh (2014).World Without End: The Global Empire of Philip II. London: Penguin.ISBN9780141034478.
Wilbur, Marguerite Eyer (1956).The Unquenchable Flame: The Life of Philip II. P. Owen.OCLC7343383.
Williams, Patrick (2001).Philip II. Houndmills: Palgrave.ISBN9780333630426.
Braudel, Fernand (1995).The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Vol. I. Berkley: University of California Press.ISBN9780520203082.
Braudel, Fernand (1995).The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Vol. II. Berkley: University of California Press.ISBN9780520203303.
Clouse, Michele L. (2013).Medicine, Government and Public Health in Philip II's Spain: Shared Interests, Competing Authorities. Ashgate.
Scully, Robert E. (2003). "'In the Confident Hope of a Miracle': The Spanish Armada and Religious Mentalities in the Late Sixteenth Century".Catholic Historical Review.89 (4):643–670.doi:10.1353/cat.2003.0232.JSTOR25026461.
Wilkinson-Zerner, Catherine (1993).Juan de Herrera: Architect to Philip II of Spain. New Haven: Yale University Press.ISBN9780300049916.
Conklin, James (1998). "The Theory of Sovereign Debt and Spain under Philip II".Journal of Political Economy.106 (3):483–513.doi:10.1086/250019.JSTOR250019.
Drelichman, Mauricio; Voth, Hans-Joachim (2016).Lending to the Borrower from Hell: Debt, Taxes, and Default in the Age of Philip II. Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN9780691151496.
Goodman, David (1983). "Philip II's Patronage of Science and Engineering".British Journal for the History of Science.16 (1):49–66.doi:10.1017/S000708740001952X.
Matthews, P. G. (2000). "Portraits of Philip II of Spain as King of England".Burlington Magazine.142 (1162):13–19.JSTOR888764.
Miller, Stephanie R. (2012). "A Tale of Two Portraits: Titian's Seated Portraits of Philip II".Visual Resources.28 (1):103–116.doi:10.1080/01973762.2012.653485.
The generations indicate descent fromCarlos I, under whom the crowns of Castile and Aragon were united, forming the Kingdom of Spain. Previously, the title Infante had been largely used in the different realms.
Generations are numbered by male-line descent from the first archdukes. Later generations are included although Austrian titles of nobility were abolished in 1919.
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