Philip II of Spain

Philip II (; 21 May 1527—13 September 1598) was King of Spain (1556–98), King of Portugal (1580–98, as Philip I, ), King of Naples and Sicily (both from 1554), and jure uxoris King of England and Ireland (during his marriage to Queen Mary I from 1554 to 1558).Geoffrey Parker. The Grand Strategy of Philip II, (2000) He was also Duke of Milan, and from 1555, lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands.
The son of Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Spanish kingdoms Charles V and Isabella of Portugal, Philip was called ('Philip the Prudent') in the Spanish kingdoms; his empire included territories on every continent then known to Europeans, including his namesake the Philippines. During his reign, the Spanish kingdoms reached the height of their influence and power. This is sometimes called the Spanish Golden Age.
Philip led a highly debt-leveraged regime, seeing state bankruptcies in 1557, 1560, 1569, 1575, and 1596. This policy was partly the cause of the declaration of independence that created the Dutch Republic in 1581. On 31 December 1584 Philip signed the Treaty of Joinville, with Henry I, Duke of Guise signing on behalf of the Catholic League; consequently Philip supplied a considerable annual grant to the League over the following decade to maintain the civil war in France, with the hope of destroying the French Calvinists. A devout Catholic, Philip saw himself as the defender of Catholic Europe against the Ottoman Empire and the Protestant Reformation. He sent an armada to invade Protestant England in 1588, with the strategic aim of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England and re-establishing Catholicism there, but it was defeated in a skirmish at Gravelines (northern France) and then destroyed by storms as it circled the British Isles to return to Spain. The following year Philip's naval power was able to recover after the failed invasion of the English Armada into Spain.Rowse, A. L. (1969). Tudor Cornwall: portrait of a society. C. Scribner, p.400"One decisive action might have forced Philip II to the negotiating table and avoided fourteen years of continuing warfare. Instead the King was able to use the brief respite to rebuild his naval forces and by the end of 1589 Spain once again had an Atlantic fleet strong enough to escort the American treasure ships home." The Mariner's Mirror, Volumes 76–77. Society for Nautical Research, 1990
Under Philip, about 9,000 men a year on average were recruited from Spain; in crisis years the total could rise to 20,000. Between 1567 and 1574, nearly 43,000 men left Spain to fight in Italy and the Low Countries (modern-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands).
Philip was described by the Venetian ambassador Paolo Fagolo in 1563 as "slight of stature and round-faced, with pale blue eyes, somewhat prominent lip, and pink skin, but his overall appearance is very attractive." The Ambassador went on to say "He dresses very tastefully, and everything that he does is courteous and gracious." Besides Mary I, Philip was married three other times and widowed four times.
==Notes==
==References==
==Further reading==
* Braudel, Fernand. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (2 vol; 1976) vol 1 free to borrow
* Grierson, Edward. The Fatal Inheritance: Philip II and the Spanish Netherlands (1969).
* Israel, Jonathan. "King Philip II of Spain as a symbol of ‘Tyranny’." Co-herencia 15.28 (2018): 137–154. online
* Kamen, Henry. Philip of Spain (Yale UP, 1999), a major scholarly biography. Online free to bow
* Kelsey, Harry' Philip of Spain, King of England: the forgotten sovereign (London, I.B. Tauris, 2011).
* Koenigsberger, H.G. The Habsburgs and Europe, 1516–1660 (1971). Online free to borrow
* Lynch, John. Spain under the Habsburgs, vol. 1 (1964)
* Merriman, R. B. The Rise of the Spanish Empire in the Old World and in the New (4 vols, 1918) vol 4 has in-depth coverage of Philip II in 836pp from a leading scholar.
* .
* Patterson, Benton Rain. With the Heart of a King: Elizabeth I of England, Philip II of Spain & the Fight for a Nation's Soul & Crown (2007)
* Parker, Geoffrey. Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II (2014), a major scholarly biography.
* Parker, Geoffrey. The Grand Strategy of Philip II (Yale UP, 1998).
* Parker, Geoffrey. Philip II (1995), short scholarly biography
* Petrie, Charles. Philip II of Spain (1963), short scholarly biography
* Redworth, Glyn. "Philip (1527–1598)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition, May 2011 Retrieved 25 Aug 2011
==External links==
* The Grand Strategy of Philip II"
* Letters of Philip II, King of Spain 1592–1597
* Philip II of Spain (King of England)
* Philip II Letter, 1578 Dec. 2. From the Collections at the Library of Congress
* King Philip II Grant of Arms, 1566 Nov. 25. From the Collections at the Library of Congress
* Letters of Philip II, King of Spain, 1592–1597 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University
* Paul IV letter to Philip II, MSS 8489 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University
* Lewis E 58 Carta executoria, in favor of Luís and Andrés Ordóñez at OPenn
Category:1520s births
Category:1590s deaths
Category:16th-century English monarchs
Category:Kings of Spain
Category:English royal consorts
Category:English pretenders to the French throne
Category:British monarchs buried abroad
Category:Knights of the Garter
Category:Mary I of England
Category:Spanish royalty