page_title: The empire on which the Sun never sets
section_title: Spanish Empire
hierarchical_section_title: The empire on which the Sun never sets / Spanish Empire
context_page_description: The phrase "the empire on which the Sun never sets" has been used to describe certain global empires that were so extensive that it seemed that at least one part of their territory was always in daylight. This grandiose statement is typically a hyperbolic boast of an empire's reach, but it has also been interpreted in a literal sense.
  It was originally used for the universal monarchy of the European and American dominions under Emperor Charles V. The term was then used for the Spanish Empire of Philip II of Spain and successors, in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. In more recent times, it was used for the British Empire, mainly in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a period in which the British Empire reached a territorial size larger than that of any other empire in history. In the 20th century, the phrase has sometimes been adapted to refer to the global reach of American power.
context_section_description: Charles's son, Philip II of Spain, made Spain (his homeland) the metropole of the territories that he inherited. In particular, he placed the Council of Castille, the Council of Aragon, the Council of Italy, the Council of Flanders and the Council of the Indies in Madrid. He added the Philippines (named after him) to his colonial territories.  When King Henry of Portugal died, Philip II pressed his claim to the Portuguese throne and was recognised as Philip I of Portugal in 1581. The Portuguese Empire, now ruled by Philip, itself included territories in the Americas, in the North and the Sub-Saharan Africa, in all the Asian Subcontinents, and islands in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.
  In 1585, Giovanni Battista Guarini wrote Il pastor fido to mark the marriage of Catherine Michelle, daughter of Philip II, to Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy. Guarini's dedication read, "Altera figlia / Di qel Monarca, a cui / Nö anco, quando annotta, il Sol tramonta." ("The proud daughter / of that monarch to whom / when it grows dark [elsewhere] the sun never sets.").
  In the early 17th century, the phrase was familiar to John Smith, and to Francis Bacon, who writes: "both the East and the West Indies being met in the crown of Spain, it is come to pass, that, as one saith in a brave kind of expression, the sun never sets in the Spanish dominions, but ever shines upon one part or other of them : which, to say truly, is a beam of glory [...]". Thomas Urquhart wrote of "that great Don Philippe, Tetrarch of the world, upon whose subjects the sun never sets."
  In the German dramatist Friedrich Schiller's 1787 play, Don Carlos, Don Carlos's father, Philip II, says, "German: Ich heiße / der reichste Mann in der getauften Welt; / Die Sonne geht in meinem Staat nicht unter." ("I am called / The richest monarch in the Christian world; / The sun in my dominion never sets.").
  Joseph Fouché recalled Napoleon saying before the Peninsular War, "Reflect that the sun never sets in the immense inheritance of Charles V, and that I shall have the empire of both worlds." This was cited in Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon.
  It has been claimed that Louis XIV of France's emblem of the "Sun King" and associated motto, "Nec pluribus impar" were based on the solar emblem and motto of Philip II.
caption: The areas of the world that at one time were territories of the Spanish Monarchy or Empire.