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Philip II of Spain
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Philip II (; ; May 21 1527 - September 13 1598) was King of Spain from 1556 until 1598, King of Naples from 1554 until 1598, king consort of England, as husband of Mary I, from 1554 to 1558, lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories, such as Duke or Count; and King of Portugal and the Algarves as Philip I from 1581. He ruled the largest global empire the world had ever seen which included territories in every continent then known to Europeans.
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Philip II (; ; May 21 1527 - September 13 1598) was King of Spain from 1556 until 1598, King of Naples from 1554 until 1598, king consort of England, as husband of Mary I, from 1554 to 1558, lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories, such as Duke or Count; and King of Portugal and the Algarves as Philip I from 1581. He ruled the largest global empire the world had ever seen which included territories in every continent then known to Europeans. Philip's dominions further included the Kingdom of Sicily, the Duchy of Milan, and Franche Comté, a strategically important territory on the eastern borders of the kingdom of France.
During his reign, Spain was the foremost Western European power. Under his rule, Spain reached the height of its influence and power.
Biography
Philip was born in Valladolid, the eldest son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and his consort Isabella of Portugal.
Domestic policy
After basing himself out of the Netherlands in the early years of his reign, Philip II returned to the peninsula in 1559 and never left it again. Unlike his father, Charles V, Philip was thoroughly Spanish, a native speaker who chose to rule from Spain rather than to travel constantly around his states. Although sometimes described as an absolute monarch, Philip faced many constitutional constraints on his authority.
Spain was not a single monarchy with one legal system but a federation of separate realms, each jealously guarding its own rights against those of the Crown of Castile. In practice, Philip often found his authority overruled by local assemblies, and his word less effective than that of local lords. The Kingdom of Aragon, where Philip was obliged to put down a rebellion in 1591–92, was particularly unruly.
He also grappled with the problem of the large Morisco population in Spain, forcibly converted to Christianity by his predecessors. In 1568, the Morisco Revolt broke out in the southern province of Granada in defiance of attempts to suppress Moorish customs; and Philip ordered the expulsion of the Moriscos from Granada and their dispersal to other provinces.
Despite its immense dominions, Spain was a poor country with a sparse population that yielded a limited income to the crown. Philip faced major difficulties in raising taxes, the collection of which 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 the New World proved vital to his militant foreign policy, but nonetheless his exchequer several times faced bankruptcy.
Nonetheless, Philip's reign saw a flourishing of cultural excellence in Spain, part of what is called the Golden Age, creating a lasting legacy in literature, music, and the visual arts.
Economy
Charles V had left Philip with a debt of about 36 million ducats and an annual deficit of 1 million ducats. Aside from reducing state revenues for overseas expeditions, the domestic policies of Philip II further burdened Spain, and would, in the following century, contribute to its decline.
Spain was subject to separate assemblies: the Cortes in Castile along with the assembly in [Navarre] and three for each of the three regions of Aragon, each of which guarded their traditional rights and laws inherited when they were separate kingdoms. This made Spain and its possessions difficult to rule. However, while France was divided by regional states, it had a single Estates-General. The lack of a viable supreme assembly would lead to power being concentrated in Philip's hands, but this was made necessary by the constant conflict between different authorities that required his direct intervention as the final arbiter. 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 felt it necessary to be involved in the detail and presided over specialized councils for state affairs, finance, war, and the Inquisition. He played royal bureaucrats against each other, leading to a system of checks and balances that managed state affairs in an inefficient manner, sometimes damaging state business, such as the Perez affair. Calls to move the capital to Lisbon from the Castilian stronghold of Madrid — the new capital Philip established following the move from Valladolid — could have led to a degree of decentralization, but Philip opposed such efforts. Due to the inefficiencies of the Spanish state, industry was overburdened by government regulations, though this was common to many contemporary countries. The dispersal of the Moriscos from Granada - motivated by the fear they might support a Muslim invasion - had serious negative economic effects, particularly in that region.
Philip's regime neglected arable farming in favor of sheep ranching, thus forcing Spain to import large amounts of grain and other foods by the mid-1560s. Overseeing a divided conservative class structure, the Church and the upper classes were exempt from normal taxation (although the wealthy usually paid tithes to the Church, and the Church and clergy were often taxed, usually following a series of agreements with the Pope) while the tax burden fell disproportionately on the classes engaged in trade, commerce, and industry.
Inflation throughout Europe in the sixteenth century was a broad and complex phenomenon, with the flood of bullion from the Americas arguably being the main cause of it in Spain, along with population growth, and government spending. Under Philip's reign, Spain saw a fivefold increase in prices. Due to inflation and a high tax burden for Spanish manufacturers and merchants, Spanish industry was harmed and much of Spain’s wealth was spent on imported manufactured goods by an opulent, status-oriented aristocracy and wars. Increasingly the country became dependent on the revenues flowing in from the mercantile empire in the Americas, leading to Spain's first bankruptcy (moratorium) in 1557 due to rising military costs. Dependence on sales taxes from Castile and the Netherlands, Spain's tax base, was too narrow to support Philip's plans. Philip became increasingly dependent on loans from foreign bankers, particularly in Genoa and Augsburg. By the end of his reign, interest payments on these loans alone accounted for 40% of state revenue.
Foreign policy
Philip's foreign policies were determined by a combination of Catholic fervour and dynastic self-interest. He considered himself by default the chief defender of Catholic Europe, both against the Ottoman Turks and against the forces of the Protestant Reformation. He never relented from his war against what he regarded as heresy, preferring to fight on every front at whatever cost rather than countenance freedom of worship within his territories. These territories included his patrimony in the Netherlands, where Protestantism had taken deep root. Following the Revolt of the Netherlands in 1568, Philip waged a brutal and indecisive war for control of the Netherlands. It dragged in the English and the French and lasted for the rest of his life.
In 1588 the English defeated Philip's Spanish Armada, thwarting his planned invasion of the country. After several setbacks, however, Philip did achieve a decisive victory against the Turks at the Lepanto in 1571, where the fleet of the Holy League was commanded by his illegitimate brother John of Austria. He also successfully secured his succession to the throne of Portugal in 1580.
Ottoman-Habsburg Conflict
In the early part of his reign Philip was concerned with the rising power of the Ottoman Empire under Suleiman the Magnificent. Fear of Islamic domination in the Mediterranean caused him to pursue an aggressive foreign policy.
In 1558 Turkish admiral Piyale Pasha captured the Balearic Islands, especially inflicting great damage on Minorca 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 against Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha in 1541, the major European sea powers in the Mediterranean, namely Spain and Venice, 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 organized a Holy League between Spain and the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Genoa, the Papal States, the Duchy of Savoy and the Knights of Malta. The joint fleet was assembled at Messina and consisted of 200 ships (60 galleys and 140 other vessels) carrying a total of 30,000 soldiers under the command of Giovanni Andrea Doria, nephew of the famous Genoese admiral [Andrea Doria] who had lost three major battles against the Turks in 1538, 1541 and 1552.
On March 12, 1560, the Holy League captured the island of Djerba which had a strategic location and could control the sea routes between Algiers and Tripoli. As a response, Suleiman the Magnificent sent an Ottoman fleet of 120 ships under the command of Piyale Pasha, which arrived at Djerba on May 9, 1560. The battle lasted until May 14, 1560, and the forces of Piyale Pasha and Turgut Reis (who joined Piyale Pasha on the third day of the battle) had an overwhelming victory at the Battle of Djerba. The Holy League lost 60 ships (30 galleys) and 20,000 men, and Giovanni Andrea Doria could barely escape with a small vessel. The Ottomans retook the Fortress of Djerba, whose Spanish commander, D. Alvaro de Sande, attempted to escape with a ship but was followed and eventually captured by Turgut Reis. In 1565 the Ottomans sent a large expedition to Malta, which laid siege to several forts on the island, taking some of them. The Spanish sent a small relief force, which drove the Ottoman army, exhausted from a long siege, away from the island.
The grave threat posed by the increasing Ottoman domination of the Mediterranean was reversed in one of history's most decisive battles, with the destruction of nearly the entire Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, by the Holy League under the command of Philip's half brother, Don Juan of Austria. A fleet sent by Philip, again commanded by Don John, reconquered Tunis from the Ottomans in 1573. However, the Turks soon rebuilt their fleet and in 1574 Uluç Ali Reis managed to recapture Tunis with a force of 250 galleys and a siege which lasted 40 days. However Lepanto marked a permanent reversal in the balance of naval power in the Mediterranean and the end of the threat of complete Ottoman control of that sea.
In 1585 a peace treaty was signed with the Ottomans.
Revolt in the Netherlands
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Philip's rule in the seventeen separate provinces known collectively as the Netherlands faced many difficulties, which led to open warfare in 1572. Philip insisted on direct control over events in the Netherlands despite being over a fortnight ride away in Madrid. There was discontent in the Netherlands about Philip's taxation demands. In 1566, Protestant preachers sparked anti-clerical riots known as the Iconoclast Fury; in response to growing heresy, the Duke of Alba's army went offensive, further alienating the local aristocracy. In 1572 a prominent member of Dutch aristocracy, William the Silent invaded the Netherlands, but only succeeded in holding two provinces, Holland and Zeeland. The States-General of the Dutch provinces, united in the 1579 Union of Utrecht, passed an Act of Abjuration, meaning that they no longer recognized Philip as their king. The southern Netherlands (what is now Belgium and Luxembourg) remained under Spanish rule. The rebel leader, Prince of Orange (William the Silent) was assassinated in 1584 by Balthasar 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 son Maurice of Nassau, who received help from Queen Elizabeth I in 1585. The Dutch gained an advantage over the Spanish due to their growing economic strength, in contrast to Philip's burgeoning economic troubles.
King of Portugal
In 1580 the direct line of the Portuguese royal family ended when Sebastian of Portugal died following a disastrous campaign in Morocco. Philip became King of Portugal in 1581, when he was crowned as Philip I of Portugal and was recognized as such by the Cortes of Tomar. Philip spoke Portuguese mostly until his mother died. He kept the throne as a personal union for sixty years.
Philip famously remarked upon his acquisition of the Portuguese throne, "I inherited, I bought, I conquered", a variation on Julius Caesar's "Veni, Vidi, Vici". Thus, Philip added to his possessions a vast overseas empire in Africa, Brazil, and the East Indies, seeing a flood of new revenues coming to the Spanish Habsburg crown; and the success of colonizing all around his empire improved his financial position, enabling him to show greater aggression towards his enemies.
War with England
Spanish hegemony and the Counter-Reformation received a clear boost in 1554 when Philip married Mary I of England, a Catholic, the older daughter of Henry VIII, and his father's first cousin. This gave him the titles of King of England and Ireland; King's County and Philipstown were named for him. However, they had no children; Queen Mary I, or "Bloody Mary" as she came to be known in English Protestant lore, died in 1558 before the union could revitalize the Catholic Church in England.
The throne went to Elizabeth I, the Protestant daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. One of the reasons he went to war with England is that Elizabeth rejected his marriage proposal. This union was deemed illegitimate by English Catholics who did not recognize Henry's divorce and who claimed that Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic great granddaughter of Henry VII, was the legitimate heir to the throne.
The execution of Mary in 1587 ended Philip's hopes of placing a Catholic on the English throne. He turned instead to more direct plans to return England to Catholicism—by invasion. His opportunity came when England provided support for the Dutch rebels. In 1588, he sent a fleet, the Spanish Armada, to rendezvous with the Duke of Parma's army and convey it across the English Channel. However, the operation had little chance of success from the beginning, due to lengthy delays, lack of communication between Philip II and his two commanders and the lack of a deep bay for the fleet. There was a tightly fought battle against the English navy; it was by no means a slaughter, but the Spanish were forced into retreat.
Eventually, three more Armadas were assembled; two were sent to England, in 1596 and 1597, but both also failed; the third (1599) was diverted to the Azores and Canary Islands to fend off raids. This Anglo-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.
The defeat of the Spanish Armada gave great heart to the Protestant cause across Europe. The storm that smashed the retreating armada was seen by many of Philip's enemies as a sign of the will of God. Many Spaniards blamed the admiral of the armada for its failure, but Philip, despite his complaint that he had sent his ships to fight the English, not the elements, was not among them. A little over a year later, in a chat with a monk working in his garden, Philip remarked that:
The Spanish navy was rebuilt, and intelligence networks were improved. A measure of the character of Philip can be gathered by the fact that he personally saw to it that the wounded men of the Armada were treated and received pensions, and that the families of those who died were compensated for their loss, which was highly unusual for the time.
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 a counter armada the following year failed disastrously. Likewise, English buccaneering and attempts to seize territories in the Caribbean were defeated by Spain's rebuilt navy and her improved intelligence networks (although Cadiz was destroyed by an Anglo-Dutch force after a failed attempt to seize the treasure fleet.)
Even though Philip was bankrupt by 1596 (for the fourth time, after France had declared war on Spain), in the last decade of his life, more silver and gold were shipped safely to Spain than ever before. This allowed Spain to continue its military efforts, but led to an increased dependency on the precious metals.
War with France
From 1590 to 1598, Philip was also at war against Henry IV of France, joining with the Papacy and the Duke of Guise in the Catholic League during the French Wars of Religion. Philip's interventions in the fighting - sending Alessandro Farnese, to end Henry IV's siege of Paris in 1590 – and the siege of Rouen in 1592 - saving the French Catholic Leagues's cause against a Protestant French 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. In June 1595 the redoubtable French king defeated the Spanish-supported Catholic League in Fontaine-Française in Burgundy and reconquered Amiens from the overstretched Spanish forces in September 1597. 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 the Edict of Nantes, which offered a high degree of religious toleration for French Protestants. The military interventions in France thus ended in an ironic fashion for Philip: they had 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.
Philip II died in the El Escorial in September 1598.
Legacy
Under Philip II, Spain reached the peak of its power. Having nearly reconquered the rebellious Netherlands, Philip's unyielding attitude led to their loss, this time permanently, as his wars expanded in scope and complexity. So, 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 the Counter-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, but his devotion to Catholicism and the principle of cuius regio, eius religio, as laid down by his father, would not permit him to do so. He was a devout Catholic and exhibited the typical 16th century disdain for religious heterodoxy.
One of the long-term consequences of his striving to enforce Catholic orthodoxy through an intensification of the Inquisition was the gradual smothering of Spain's intellectual life. Students were barred from studying elsewhere and books printed by Spaniards outside the kingdom were banned. Even a highly respected churchman like Archbishop Carranza, was jailed by the Inquisition for seventeen years for publishing ideas that seemed sympathetic in some degree to Protestant reformism. Such strict enforcement of orthodox belief was successful and Spain avoided the religiously inspired strife tearing apart other European dominions, but this came at a heavy price in the long run, as her great academic institutions were reduced to third rate status under Philip's successors.
However, Philip II's reign can hardly be characterized as a failure. He consolidated Spain's overseas empire, succeeded in massively increasing the importation of silver in the face of English, Dutch and French privateers, and ended the major threat posed to Europe by the Ottoman navy (though peripheral clashes would be ongoing). He succeeded in uniting Portugal and Spain through personal union. He dealt successfully with a crisis that could have led to the secession of Aragon. His efforts also contributed substantially to the success of the Catholic Counter-Reformation in checking the religious tide of Protestantism in Northern Europe.
Family
Philip had a rather big family, he was married four times and had children with each of his wives, apart from his second wife.
Philip's first wife was his double cousin, Maria Manuela, Princess of Portugal; she was daughter of John III of Portugal and Catherine of Habsburg. The marriage produced one son, who Maria died giving birth to.
- Carlos, Prince of Asturias, (July 8, 1545 – July 24, 1568), died unmarried and no issue
Philip's second wife was his second cousin Mary I of England. By this marriage, Philip became consort of England, but the marriage produced no children and Mary died in 1558.
Philip's third wife was Elisabeth of Valois, she was the eldest daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici. There marriage produced five children, Elisabeth died giving birth to the youngest.
Philip's final wife was Anne of Austria, who was also his neice. This marriage produced four sons and a daughter. The marriage ended when Anne died of an illness. Their children were
- Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias: 4 December 1571 – 18 October 1578, died young
- Carlos Lorenzo: 12 August 1573 – 30 June 1575, died young
- Diego, Prince of Asturias: 15 August 1575 – 21 November 1582, died young
- Philip: 3 April 1578 – 31 March 1621 (future king, Philip III of Spain)
- Maria: 14 February 1580 – 5 August 1583, died young
Historical assessment
Anglo-American societies have generally held a very low opinion of Philip II. The traditional approach is perhaps epitomized by James Johonnot's Ten Great Events in History, in which he describes Philip II as a "vain, bigoted, and ambitious" monarch who "had no scruples in regard to means... placed freedom of thought under a ban, and put an end to the intellectual progress of the country". Spanish apologists sometimes classify this analysis as part of the Black Legend.
The defence of the Catholic Church and the defeat and destruction of the Protestantism was one of his most important goals. He did not fully accomplish this; England broke with Rome after the death of Mary, the Holy Roman Empire remained partly Protestant and the revolt in Holland continued. Nevertheless, he prevented Protestantism from gaining a grip in Spain and Portugal and the colonies in the New World, and successfully re-established Catholicism in the reconquered southern half of the Low Countries.
Philip was a complex man. He was given to suspicion of members of his court, and was something of a meddlesome micro-manager; but he was not the cruel tyrant painted by his opponents and subsequent anglophile histories. He took great care in administering his dominions, and was known to intervene personally on behalf of the humblest of his subjects.
Philip II died in 1598. His was a painful death which involved a severe attack of gout, fever and dropsy. He died in El Escorial, near Madrid, and was succeeded by his son Philip III. The Philippines, a former Spanish colony, are named in his honor.
See also
Bibliography
External links
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Ancestry
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