In contact with
The son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Philip II from 1554 was the king of Naples and Sicily, and from 1556, after the refusal of his father from the throne, he became the king of Spain, the Netherlands and the owner of all overseas possessions of Spain. In 1580, he also annexed Portugal and became its king, Philip I.
Childhood and upbringing
Philip II's father Charles V was Holy Roman Emperor and heir to the Habsburg lands, and from 1516 also King Carlos I of Spain. He spent his entire life traveling tirelessly through Europe and North Africa. Philip II - the first and only legitimate heir of the Spanish King Carlos I, the German Emperor Charles V - spent his childhood and youth in two cities, Toledo and Valladolid.
Philip from childhood was distinguished by deep religiosity. He also loved music and attached great importance to introducing his children to it.
In 1535, for the seven-year-old Philip, his own court was created, consisting of about 50 children of Spanish noble families. From this court began for Philip a broad program of education and upbringing. The emperor personally chose teachers and educators, who, among other things, were guided by the treatise “Education of Christian Princes” written by Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1516.
Under the guidance of mentors, Philip developed a lifelong love of reading. By the time of his death, his personal library consisted of 14,000 volumes.
Introduction to the board and participation in it
Charles V tried to personally instruct his son in matters of the way of life of the regent, as well as administration. His father pointed out to him a great political responsibility and the necessity of relying on God. He urged Philip to justice and proportionality in all decisions, encouraged him to defend the old faith, under no circumstances to allow heretics into his kingdom and, if necessary, to persecute them with the help of the Inquisition. Charles explained to him the political situation in his state and in Europe, especially insisting that Philip in public affairs should not become dependent on individual advisers and retain sovereignty in royal decisions.
When Charles finally succeeded in defeating the Protestants in the empire in 1547, he rose to the height of his power. At this time, Charles decided to prepare Philip for the imperial throne, ordering him to come to Germany and the Netherlands. From July 1550 to May 1551, while attending the Augsburg Reichstag, he met his uncle, King Ferdinand I, his son and heir Maximilian, as well as the most important princes of the empire. Finally, Philip managed to return to Spain only in 1559, having passed an excellent school of European politics during these 11 years.
The impressions taken from the Netherlands subsequently influenced the architecture of the buildings and parks he erected in Spain, in the planning of which he took an active part. He also fell in love with Dutch painting; soon his collection included 40 paintings by Hieronymus Bosch alone.
In 1551, Philip returned to Spain for three years and tried to act from there on his own to support his father against the uprising of the German princes, but in vain. King Ferdinand I and his son Maximilian managed to defend their interests there against the now Spanish Habsburg line, and Charles V, together with Philip, lost power in the empire. Charles eventually ceded the Austrian fiefdom and the emperorship in Germany to his brother, but secured the Italian and Dutch possessions for his son Philip. The latter he hoped to strategically protect by Philip's marriage in 1554 to the much older Queen Mary (Tudor) of England. To this end, Philip was given the kingdom of Naples, and he moved to London.
A year later, Charles, whose health was failing, gave him the Netherlands and finally, in January 1556, the Kingdom of Spain. In September 1558 Charles V died. Philip's wife, Mary Tudor, died two months later. This allowed him to return to Spain in 1559. Thirty-two-year-old Philip became a mature husband and, like no other European ruler of his time, was prepared to take responsibility for the fate of world power.
Self-awareness, goals and performance
Philip seriously considered himself responsible to God for the salvation of the souls of his subjects. Philip saw himself as the king of the Spanish state, the head of the House of Habsburg, as well as the ruler of the Netherlands and the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Its highest goal was to preserve and increase the possessions of the House of Habsburg, protect them from the Turks, contain the Reformation and fight the reformists through reform. catholic church in Europe.
In 1561, Philip chose Madrid as his residence, near which, on his orders, in the period from 1563 to 1586, the Escorial was erected - a symbolic center of his rule, combining a royal residence, a monastery and a dynastic tomb. With the transfer of the court and the central authorities to Madrid, Philip accomplished for Spain what had already been completed in France and England. From that moment began to turn into the Spanish capital.
Philip's style of government was authoritarian and bureaucratic. Philip's main assistants in Spain were mostly legal scholars, often of a clergy, educated at the leading universities and colleges of Castile, primarily in Salamanca and Alcala de Henares.
The most important central authorities were the Councils, which developed in Castile from the time of the Catholic Monarchs from the Royal Council from the end of the 15th century and were perfected by Charles V. These were the authorities that helped the king find solutions and served to exchange opinions.
The principle of Philip's work when dealing with advisory bodies, secretaries and other responsible officials who worked for him is "divide and rule." The king was suspicious of his officials and was interested in maintaining tension between them.
The king was the supremely sovereign decision-making center. If anyone from his entourage neglected his administrative and official duties, used his position for personal enrichment, interfered with the implementation of the higher political, dynastic or religious goals of the king, then Philip did not hesitate to deprive him of his position and remove him from the court, sometimes indicatively.
Philip II of Spain and Spanish Society
Philip II managed to significantly remove the highest Spanish nobility from the centers of power, the highest authorities and the Cortes. By the end of the reign of Philip II, this group of the highest aristocracy, reduced by Charles V to 25 families, grew thanks to royal privileges. The bulk of the noble class - about 10 percent of the total population (this is an order of magnitude more than in other European countries) - consisted of the middle nobility and small hidalgos. The latter, in terms of their property status, often did not differ in any way from the peasants, which was caricatured by Miguel Cervantes in Don Quixote of La Mancha.
During the 16th century, the population in the Spanish state excluding Portugal increased, with large regional fluctuations, by about 40 percent, from 5.2 million to about 8.1 million. By the beginning of the century, the growing cities that were turning into political, economic and cultural centers of the country were home to 5 percent, and by the end of the century about 20 percent of the population. Madrid and Seville developed into prosperous metropolises; the first - thanks to the presence of the court and the central authorities in it, and the second - thanks to the monopoly of trade with America.
Philip reformed the Spanish structure of the bishoprics, dividing Castile into 5 archbishoprics and 30 bishoprics, and Aragon respectively into 3 archbishoprics and 15 bishoprics. In Spain, unaffected by the Reformation, which had volunteered to spread Christianity in the New World, and to strengthen the Catholic Reform and the Counter-Reformation in Europe, the clergy, supported by King Philip, radiated powerful impulses to create a world Catholic Church.
The majority of Spanish theologians positively perceived the Council of Trent in 1564, which became a harbinger of church renewal. As a consequence, Philip implemented his decisions in his kingdom, relying on the Spanish clergy, which united in its ranks approximately 90,000 representatives of white and black clergy. Motivating his imperial policy by serving God and the church, the king also managed to use the financial resources of the Spanish church, demanding ever larger donations from it. The principle of "state churchness" left no doubt about the supremacy of secular power and the state over the church in Spain, which Philip defended, even opposing the interests of the pope.
Photo gallery
Years of life: 21.05.1527–13.09.1598
Helpful information
Philip II (Spanish: Felipe II), Habsburg dynasty
Predecessor: Charles V of Habsburg, King of Aragon and Castile
Successor: Philip III
Domestic politics
In the internal history of Spain, the reign of Philip was the time of the most complete despotism.
Obviously seeking complete state assimilation of the Iberian Peninsula, Philip II executed representatives of several noble Aragonese families when unrest broke out in Aragon. At the same time, the dignity of justisii (chief judge of the Aragonese liberties) was eliminated, and the old Aragonese privileges in liberties were put to an end. Philip left no shadow of influence behind the old Castilian institutions. Cortes sometimes convened, but the king usually did not pay the slightest attention to all their statements.
Inquisition under Philip. Eviction of the Moors
The reign of Philip II was a golden age for the Inquisition, which intensively persecuted heretics: first the Moors, Jews, then, in addition, Protestants. The king forbade the Spaniards to enter foreign educational establishments, established a vigilant supervision of theological literature, furtively penetrating into Spain, tried to completely cut off the "heretical plague" access to their possessions.
In an effort to put an end to the simulation of the Catholic faith by the Moors, who actually remained faithful to Mohammedanism, Philip II provoked a desperate armed struggle that ended in a two-year uprising of the Moors. After a barbaric pacification, accompanied by ferocious mass executions, Philip ordered the expulsion of all Moriscos from the country. Very many of them were sold into slavery; others are resettled in the northern provinces of Spain. "Victory" over the Moors in court circles was considered one of the brilliant deeds of the first half of Philip's reign.
Foreign policy
Accession of Portugal
Another triumph of this more "happy" period of his reign was the annexation of Portugal. In 1578, the Portuguese king Sebastian died during a North African expedition. Philip, based on the right of succession by kinship and on the rich gifts that he bestowed on the Portuguese aristocracy, decided to seize the Portuguese throne. Among the Portuguese, a very, however, weak, national party arose, which tried to provide armed resistance to Philip; but the Spanish army almost without a fight occupied the whole country (in 1580), and a few months later the Portuguese Cortes proclaimed Philip the Portuguese king.
Fighting Muslims, Holy League, Lepanto
The 1560s were occupied with a vicious land and sea war against the Barbary. Philip saw in this struggle not only a matter of state importance, but also an issue in which all Christianity is interested. Even more so, he looked at his war with the Turks. In 1571, at the initiative of Pope Pius V, the "Holy League" was formed from Venice, Spain, Genoa, Savoy and some other small Italian states. Spain led the coalition; Philip appointed his half-brother Don Juan as chief admiral, who won a complete victory over the Turks at Lepanto.
Dutch revolution
The pacification and expulsion of the Moriscos, the brutal persecution of Muslims, Jews, and Protestants contributed to the impoverishment of the country noticed from the first decades of Philip's reign. But political power belonged to Spain until the height of the uprising in the Netherlands. This uprising was largely the work of Philip, who rigorously introduced and strengthened the Inquisition in this country. In 1581, the states-general in The Hague declared Philip deprived of the Dutch possessions; at the same time, a new, even more dangerous enemy, England, advanced against him.
against England. "Invincible armada"
In 1588, Philip sent a huge fleet (130 large warships) to the shores of England under the command of Medina Sidonia - the "Invincible Armada", which died from a storm and successful attacks by the defensive English squadron. Philip received the news of this misfortune with unusual outward calmness, but in fact, as it was clear to those close to him, it greatly depressed him. He did not conclude peace with Elizabeth I, Queen of England, and until the end of his life, Spain was subjected to severe attacks by the English fleet.
Relations with France
The unsuccessful war of Spain with England untied the hands of both the rebellious and sedentary Netherlands, and Henry III of Valois (and then Henry IV of Bourbon); both the Netherlands and France felt more free: the first from stubborn military combat with the Spanish landings, the second from diplomatic intrigues and intrigues on the part of Philip, who had long been in relations with Guise. All his plans to profit somehow with the help of the French Catholic Party at the expense of France and even put his daughter on the French throne ended in complete failure.
He took care of a good education and upbringing for the heir to the throne. In addition to Spanish, Philip spoke French, Italian and Latin. However, he had a great inclination to exact sciences especially towards mathematics. Under the guidance of mentors, the boy developed a passion for reading (by the time of his death, his personal library consisted of 14,000 volumes). In childhood and adolescence, Philip developed a deep love for nature, and in the future, trips to nature, fishing and hunting became for him the most desirable and best relaxation after heavy workloads. And Philip was also very musical and, when he became a father, he attached great importance to introducing his children to music.
Philip was brought up in accordance with the traditions of the Spanish court, behaved with cold grandeur and arrogant restraint. With early age there was caution and secrecy in him. He spoke slowly, carefully considering his words, and never lost control of himself. Philip was indifferent to noisy amusements and knightly tournaments, did not like luxury and was moderate in food. His face always maintained a calm, majestic expression, which made a very strong impression on those around him. Only in the presence of the closest people, Philip allowed himself to show ordinary human feelings: love for his wife and children, admiration for the beauties of nature and works of art.
Philip's main attraction was the desire for power. This was evident even from the history of his marriages. Philip's first wife was the Portuguese Infanta Maria. She died on the fourth day after giving birth to the unfortunate Don Carlos. Through this marriage, Philip considered himself heir to the Portuguese throne. Philip's second wife was the Queen of England. She was much older than her husband, besides, not very beautiful. But the emperor needed English money, and Philip, as an obedient son, submitted to him. If she had any feelings for her husband and even wanted to give birth to a child from him, then he did not even show his wife external signs of attention. The third time, Philip married the young beauty Elizabeth of Valois in order to secure a peace treaty with, but the young wife died after 9 years, leaving two daughters, one of whom, Isabella, became the ruler of the Southern Netherlands. Philip tried to make her the French queen after the extinction of the Valois dynasty. For the fourth time, Philip married his niece Anna of Austria, who was promised as a wife to Don Carlos, and was mercilessly criticized for incest.
Philip's relationship with his eldest son, Don Carlos, deserves a separate story. Carlos was an unbalanced man, prone to senseless cruelty. He fell in love with his stepmother Elizabeth, who also had some sympathy for him, and then was about to flee to the Netherlands to start a rebellion against his father. Realizing what threatens Spain if Don Carlos becomes king, and fearing for his own life, Philip ordered his son to be placed under house arrest in Arevalo Castle, the very one where the mad queen spent many years. There, Carlos finally lost his mind, and he died at dawn on June 24, 1568.
Unlike his father, who traveled a lot, Philip spent all his time in his office. He liked to think that from the comfort of his room he ruled half the globe. He strove for unlimited power to such an extent that he did not want to share government duties with anyone and was his own first minister. Philip was incredibly diligent. He personally read a lot of business papers, making notes in the margins. However, this quality also had a downside. Spread over trifles, the king often did not find time to solve really important and urgent matters. Nevertheless, he was indeed a great king, and under him Spain reached its greatest greatness.
By inheritance from his father, Philip received hostile relations with France and the Holy See. The new pope first of all excommunicated Philip from the church. Philip moved the army of the Duke of Alba to Rome, and in September 1557 was forced to capitulate. Meanwhile, the Anglo-Spanish army of the Duke of Savoy invaded Northern France. Having defeated the French army of the Montmorency constable, she almost reached Paris, but due to lack of money, Philip was forced to stop the war. On April 2, 1559, peace was signed at Cato Cambresi, ending the Italian Wars.
They were replaced by new wars with the rebellious Netherlands. The rebellions were caused by Philip's persecution of the Protestants. In 1556, the Flemish nobles presented the ruler of the Netherlands, Margaret, with a request to soften the edict against heretics. When Philip refused to fulfill it, uprisings broke out in Antwerp and other cities. The king instructed the Duke of Alba to suppress them, who took up the matter with extreme cruelty. This only led to increased discontent. In 1573, Philip deposed Alba, but it was too late. In 1575, Holland and Zeeland announced their separation from Spain. The Flemish provinces entered into a defensive alliance with them. After a bitter war, by 1585 the Spaniards managed to retake the southern Catholic provinces, but Holland retained its independence.
Philip's most important business in the Iberian Peninsula was the acquisition of Portugal. He was the closest heir to a childless king. The Cortes did not want to recognize him as sovereign for a long time, but in 1580 the Duke of Alba captured Lisbon, and the next year Philip came to the conquered country to accept the expression of humility from his new subjects. He provided Portuguese representation in the management of a single state, allowed Portugal to maintain its own laws and monetary unit; at one time, the idea of moving the capital of a single state to Lisbon was even discussed.
Philip's wars against and were not so successful. In 1588, Philip sent against a huge fleet - the "Invincible Armada" of 130 ships with 19 thousand soldiers. However, due to storms, the squadron reached the shores of Britain badly battered and became easy prey for the English fleet. Only the pitiful remnants of the Armada returned to the Netherlands and Portugal. Having lost almost all of its fleet, Spain became vulnerable to pirates. In 1596, the British sacked Cadiz.
In the war with Philip also failed. After his death, he nominated his daughter Isabella as a pretender to the French throne. The Spanish army invaded, captured Rouen, Paris and a number of cities in Brittany. But under the threat of a foreign invasion, even Catholics and Huguenots united. In 1594 he retook Paris, and in 1598 a peace was signed that did not bring any benefits to Spain.
This war was the last for Philip. Half of Europe was under his rule. Thanks to American gold, he became the richest of all Christian monarchs. But wealth did not linger in his hands. The maintenance of the army, the network of secret agents in other countries, the payment of extortionate interest on old debts - all this required huge amounts of money. With outward grandeur, by the end of Philip's reign in Spain, trade, industry, and the navy fell into decline. High taxes and customs duties did not contribute to the development of either agriculture, or cattle breeding, or trade. During the reign of Philip, the population of Spain decreased by two million people. In addition to those who died in the wars, who emigrated to America and fled from the persecution of the Inquisition, a significant part of this decline were those who died from hunger and epidemics.
Shortly after making peace with France, Philip fell ill with gout. His body was covered with terrible ulcers. After ordering a coffin to be placed next to the bed and giving orders for his own funeral, Philip died on September 13, 1598.
King of Naples, Lord of the Netherlands, King of Spain, King of Portugal
Philip II of Spain, Felipe II de España
About the era of Philip II
Philip II of Spain, like his father, Emperor Charles V, belongs to the largest rulers in history. He was born in 1527 in Valladolid. From 1543 as regent, and from 1556 as king, for 55 years he was responsible for the fate of Spain and at the same time a huge part of Europe and the whole world, and therefore the personality and politics of Philip can only be understood in view of this common responsibility.In almost three-quarters of a century of his life, Europe and the whole world have changed significantly; events have taken place that have important implications for the future. In most of Germany and northern Europe, despite the vigorous opposition of Charles V, the Reformation won. However, the Catholic Reform and the Counter-Reformation quickly renewed the Catholic Church in the Old Faith countries. Economy, finance and international commodity cooperation developed. On the antagonism between Spain, Italy, the Holy Roman Empire and the Netherlands of the Habsburgs, on the one hand, and France, surrounded by them, on the other, the European system of power of New History has developed. The Ottoman Empire, which pursued an active expansionist policy in South-Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, became extremely dangerous for Europe.
In 1529, the Turks approached Vienna for the first time. The Mediterranean, and above all its western part, where the center of European history moved in the 15th-16th centuries, is now left unprotected from the Ottoman threat. In America, Asia and Africa, Europeans explored new areas. Trading posts were created and expanded and new systems of management and administration were introduced. Through Christian missionary work, new lands were attached to the great powers and European civilization, mainly to Spain and Portugal. The discovery of new geographical spaces, as well as a discussion with Nicolaus Copernicus about the heliocentric system of the Universe he discovered, together with a new, humanistic attitude towards individual education and science, changed the idea of man and the world.
In all this, Philip II of Spain took part and tried to actively influence the development of events by support or confrontation. Otherwise, it could not be. By inheritance from his father, in addition to the Netherlands, he was the ruler of the Iberian Peninsula and most of Italy. He was regent of the vastest territories in America, Asia and Africa; in addition, in 1580 he accepted the crown of Portugal with its vast overseas possessions. An entire country, the Philippines, was named after him. The political will of Philip II extended to the limits of the entire known world at that time. And yet he ruled from Castile, the heart of Spain, which became under him the leading world power.
Childhood and upbringing
Philip was born and raised in Castile. The father, who had roots in the Netherlands and Burgundy, was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and heir to the Habsburg lands, and from 1516 also the king of Spain and ruled, traveling tirelessly throughout Europe and North Africa all his life. Nevertheless, for political reasons, Philip grew up in Spain. The uprising of the comuneros, which Charles had to suppress at the beginning of his reign, clearly showed the king that in his state, Spanish interests required special attention. Therefore, with views on good neighborly relations and a possible inheritance, in 1526 he took Isabella of Portugal as his wife and left the heir to the throne, born the following year, to be brought up in Spain. So Philip, the first and only legitimate heir of the Spanish King Charles I, the German Emperor Charles V, spent his childhood and youth essentially in two cities, Toledo and Valladolid, in the heart of Castile.Until the age of seven, Philip grew up in the family circle with his mother and sister Maria. Father came to Spain only for a short time: in 1527-1529, 1534, 1537-1539 and 1541-1543, the rest of the state affairs required his presence in Italy, Germany and, above all, in the Netherlands. When his mother died, Philip was not even twelve. In the serene environment of his childhood, he developed a deep love for nature, and subsequently, throughout his life, trips to nature, fishing and hunting became for him a welcome and best relaxation after heavy workloads. Philip from childhood was distinguished by deep religiosity. He also loved music and attached great importance to introducing his children to it. Letters from Philip, now in his fifties, from Lisbon, where he had to spend two years without his young children, show him as a loving father: he worries about the health of the kids, is interested in his son’s first tooth, and worries about getting a picture book for coloring. Perhaps this was due to the warmth that he received in abundance in his childhood.
In 1535, for the seven-year-old Philip, his own court was created, consisting of about 50 children of Spanish noble families. From this court began for Philip a broad program of education and upbringing. The emperor personally chose teachers and educators, who, among other things, were guided by the treatise “Education of Christian Princes” written by Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1516. Philippe's main teachers were Juan Martinez Sileseo and Cristobal Calvet de Estrella, both renowned scientists. Juan de Zuniga, a trusted adviser to the emperor, was assigned as tutor to the prince. If the latter led the prince's court with severity, then Sileseo was rather a gentle teacher. Under the guidance of mentors, Philip developed a lifelong love of reading. By the time of his death, his personal library consisted of 14,000 volumes. Among the books that Philip read, along with numerous classical authors, were Erasmus, Dürer, Copernicus, Pico della Mirandola and many others, there was even the Koran. But in this versatile and thorough education modern foreign languages, which, given the size of the power, subsequently became a significant disadvantage. Philipp did not speak German at all, he could still read Italian and French somehow, but, most importantly, he did not speak French at all. Once, this even led to embarrassment: in 1555, Philip received the Netherlands from his father and, after the first words, was forced to interrupt his French-language speech, which Cardinal Granvelle had to finish reading.
Introduction to the board and participation in it
Philip was prepared for the practical affairs of management by the fact that since 1539 he has been increasingly present at meetings of the highest deliberative bodies of Spain, and then, in 1543, his father appoints him regent of the Spanish kingdom, setting off on an armed campaign to suppress the uprising of the Protestant princes of the Empire. Nevertheless, the emperor tried personally, through letters and special instructions from 1539, 1543 and 1548, to instruct his son in matters of the life of the regent, as well as administration. Charles pointed out to him the great political responsibility and the necessity of relying on God. He called on Philip to justice and proportionality in all decisions, encouraged him to defend the old faith, under no circumstances to allow heretics into his kingdom and, if necessary, to persecute them with the help of the Inquisition. Charles explained to him the political situation in his state and in Europe, especially insisting that Philip should not become dependent on individual advisers in state affairs and retain sovereignty in royal decisions.The years of Philip's first regency (1543-1548) became his first and most important practice in Spanish politics. Supported by the experienced elite of the Soviets, as well as constantly coordinating all issues with his father, Philip performed a double function. On the one hand, he acted as the responsible regent of the Spanish kingdom. Therefore, observing Spanish interests, Philip in 1543 married the daughter of the Portuguese king, Mary, who, however, died two years after the birth of her son Carlos. On the other hand, Philip had to keep a close eye on his father's activities in Germany in order to be able to mobilize the resources of Spain, especially money, for the costly imperial policy. When Charles finally succeeded in defeating the Protestants in the Empire in 1547, he rose to the height of his power. This, as well as the fact that the son of his brother Ferdinand, who was expected to become emperor, sympathized with Protestantism, prompted the emperor to decide to prepare Philip for the imperial throne. The son was ordered to come to Germany and the Netherlands. Only in 1559 Philip was destined to finally return to Spain, so that the years 1548-1559 became for him an excellent school of European politics.
So, in the autumn of 1548, with more than two thousand retinue, Philip left Spain and went to Italy, where he made stops in Genoa, Milan, Mantua and Trient; then, having crossed the Alps, he visited Munich, Speyer and Heidelberg, then through Luxembourg reached Brussels, where he met his father. The journey was accompanied by endless festivities and feasts, in which Philip, who had reached the age of twenty-one, took an active part. Then, for almost a year, from July 1550 to May 1551, while attending the Augsburg Reichstag, he met his uncle, King Ferdinand I, his son and heir Maximilian, as well as the most important princes of the Empire. In the previous year, Philip traveled to the Netherlands to get acquainted with the country, which he had learned to appreciate. The impressions taken from the Netherlands subsequently influenced the architecture of the buildings and parks he erected in Spain, in the planning of which he took an active part. He also fell in love with Dutch painting; soon his collection included 40 paintings by Hieronymus Bosch alone. During these years, Philip fell in love with the Netherlands, which, however, was destined to become the most "sore spot" of his reign.
In 1551, Philip returned to Spain for three years and tried to act from there on his own to support his father against the uprising of the German princes, however, in vain. Charles V and Philip accordingly lost power in the Empire. King Ferdinand I and his son Maximilian managed to defend their interests there against the now Spanish line of the Habsburgs. Charles eventually ceded the Austrian fiefdom and the emperorship in Germany to his brother, but secured the Italian and Dutch possessions for his son Philip. The latter he hoped to strategically protect by Philip's marriage in 1554 to the much older Queen Mary (Tudor) of England. To this end, Philip was given the kingdom of Naples, and he moved to London.
A year later, Charles, whose health was failing, gave him the Netherlands and finally, in January 1556, the Kingdom of Spain. For two more years, the father instructed his son in letters, until in September 1558, Charles V died in an orphanage of his own choice in a monastery in San Jeronimo de Yuste, near Harais de la Vera in Extremadura. Philip's wife, Mary Tudor, died two months later. This allowed him to return to Spain in 1559. Thirty-two-year-old Philip, thanks to adversity in his personal life and fifteen years of political experience in Spain and Europe, became a mature husband and, like no other European ruler of his time, was prepared to take responsibility for the fate of world power.
Self-awareness, goals and performance
Throughout his life, King Philip remained faithful to the spiritual values and political goals of his father. Like the latter, he highly valued ethics, possessed a sense of duty and great religiosity. It is important to understand Philip as a ruler that he quite seriously considered himself responsible to God for the salvation of the souls of his subjects. Philip saw himself as the king of the Spanish state, the head of the House of Habsburg, as well as the ruler of the Netherlands and the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Its highest goal was to preserve and increase the possessions of the house of Habsburg, protect them from the Turks, contain the Reformation and fight the reformists by reforming the Catholic Church in Europe.With fundamentally the same goals as his father, Philip changed and modernized the tools and methods of implementing his policies. In contrast to Charles V, he ruled his entire realm from essentially one permanent residence; during his reign, he spent only two years in Portugal, after in 1580 he succeeded in assuming the Portuguese throne. Unlike his father, he also did not participate in military campaigns, leaving this to his generals. In 1561, Philip chose Madrid as his residence, near which, on his orders, in the period from 1563 to 1586, the Escorial was erected - the symbolic center of his rule, combining the royal residence, the monastery and the dynastic tomb. With the transfer of the court and the central authorities to Madrid, Philip accomplished for Spain what had already been completed in France and England. From that moment on, Madrid began to turn into the Spanish capital.
Philip's style of government was authoritarian and bureaucratic. Following his father's advice, he was careful not to become dependent on individual advisers. Only a few representatives of the highest Spanish aristocracy, for example, the Duke of Alba, were attracted by Philip to the central government to resolve foreign policy and military issues. On the grandees, he assigned the duties of viceroys and ambassadors to European courts, removing them, however, from the centers of power. Philip's main assistants in Spain were mostly legal scholars, often of ecclesiastical rank, educated at the leading universities and colleges of Castile, primarily in Salamanca and Alcalá de Henares. In the elections to the Soviets, and especially in the appointment of responsible officials, the king made the decision after careful consultation and always in person.
The most important central authorities were the Councils, which developed in Castile from the time of the Catholic Monarchs from the Royal Council from the end of the 15th century and were improved by Charles V. Some of the Councils had very capacious functions, such as: The State Council is the most important body for deciding the foreign policy affairs of the entire state; Financial Council responsible for financial matters; the Council of War, which finally took shape only under Philip. First of all, the Council of the Inquisition, created back in 1483, had supra-regional competence, which thereby became the most important central body of Philip's monarchy.
Other advisory bodies had predominantly regional competence, such as the Councils of Castile, Aragon and overseas territories. In 1555, the Council of Italy separated from the Council of Aragon into an independent body. Philip created the Council of Portugal (1582) and the Council of the Netherlands (1588) when a new range of tasks appeared and, accordingly, extremely urgent problems arose. Collectively organized advisory bodies had administrative, legislative and judicial functions. These were the authorities that helped the king find solutions and served to exchange views.
Philip himself very rarely took part in the meetings of the Soviets. As a rule, advisory bodies presented their solutions in writing in the form of recommendations. The responsible secretary, also a member of the Council, served as an intermediary. Since the eighties, such secretaries have been united into a junta, which has become the most important governing body under Philip. Separate juntas, which included representatives of various branches of government, were created already in the sixties for the organizational solution of complex issues.
The principle of Philip's work when dealing with advisory bodies, secretaries and other responsible officials who worked for him is "divide and rule." The councils met separately from each other, even secretaries and a narrow circle of employees were often not fully informed, although the first secretary, who at the same time was a link with the State Council, could be in a more advantageous position due to his functions.
The king was suspicious of his officials and was interested in maintaining tension between them. Every day, Philip looked through piles of documents; his marginal notes still serve as convincing proof of this. He demanded that he be constantly kept informed of all events in all parts of the state. From some of his letters it is clear that he sat up with papers until late at night, leaving his desk only when he felt extremely tired and exhausted.
The decision-making process during Philip's reign was, of course, long and difficult; in doing so, it must be borne in mind that the flow of news from widely scattered parts of the Empire had to travel a long way. In the end, all information channels closed on Philip. He wanted to make all important decisions personally and only after careful processing of all the information received. The king was the supremely sovereign decision-making center.
If anyone from his entourage neglected his administrative and official duties, used his position for personal enrichment, interfered with the implementation of the higher political, dynastic or religious goals of the king, then Philip did not hesitate to deprive him of his position and remove him from the court, sometimes indicatively. For example, he fired his secretaries Francisco de Erazo and Antonio Perez and placed them in custody. The Duke of Alba lost the confidence of the king and his position at court from time to time due to his policies in the Netherlands and arbitrariness. Moreover, his then only heir, Don Carlos, who was seriously mentally ill and suspected of collaborating with the Dutch rebels in 1568, Philip eventually expelled. Shortly thereafter, Don Carlos died, which saved Philip and Spain from an imminent deep domestic and foreign political crisis.
The public outcry that these events received deserves attention. Contemporaries in Spain had no doubt that the decisive actions of Philip II were caused by state necessity and the protection of dynastic interests. At the same time, they provided material for the political propaganda launched by their opponents, which, in the form of the so-called "legenda negra" (Gloomy Legend), spread throughout Europe. Its echoes served as the basis for such famous works of German literature as "Don Carlos" by Friedrich Schiller, "The Youth and Maturity of King Henry IV" by Heinrich Mann, "Tonio Kruger" by Thomas Mann.
Philip and Spanish Society
In the process of the formation of a bureaucratic and centralized modern system of state administration in Philip's state, estate assemblies (states), cortes, which, as a rule, united representatives of the nobility, cities and clergy, were still important, traditional and regionally oriented administrative structures of the Spanish kingdom. They continued to exist only because they disposed of the financial resources that the king needed. During his reign, Philip convened twelve times the Castilian cortes to extort money.On the territory of the kingdom of Aragon, their own Cortes, who gathered in Monzon, represented Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia. Considering in principle the legal status of the states, Philip, however, like his father in his time, tried to restrain their influence. In 1538, Charles V recognized the exemption of the nobility from direct taxes, after which their representatives were no longer invited to the Castilian Cortes. The same thing happened with the representation of the clergy. Therefore, when Philip ascended the Castilian throne, the local Cortes opposed him only as part of 36 representatives from 18 cities, namely: Burgos, Soria, Segovia, Avila, Valladolid, Leon, Salamanca, Zamora, Toro, Toledo, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Madrid, Seville, Cordoba, Jaen, Murcia and Granada. In 1567, Philip managed to ensure that the representatives of the cities were no longer bound, so to speak, by mandatory mandates, but at meetings they could make decisions independently, at their discretion. Even if the power of the Cortes did not decrease at all, the influence of the king on them increased. The path to absolutism in Spain was prepared.
Philip II managed to significantly remove the highest Spanish nobility from the centers of power, the highest authorities and the Cortes. Of course, the king respected the broad judicial and socio-political competence of the sometimes almost unlimited power of the nobility, as well as churches and cities. Yet everyday life The overwhelming majority of the almost 8 million (1590) population of Spain was largely determined by local and regional factors and often remained in the landowner's and physical dependence on local masters, especially the grandees. However, by the end of the reign of Philip II, this group of the highest aristocrat, reduced by Charles V to 25 families, grew thanks to royal privileges. So, for example, Philip elevated childhood friends, the princes of Eboli, who later became efficient advisers, to the rank of grandees, and thereby expanded the royal clientele in the highest Castilian nobility. The bulk of the noble class - about 10 percent of the total population (this is an order of magnitude more than in other European countries) - consisted of the middle nobility and small hidalgos. The latter, in their property status, often did not differ in any way from the peasants, which was caricatured by Miguel Cervantes in Don Quixote.
During the 16th century, the population in the Spanish state excluding Portugal increased, with large regional fluctuations, by about 40 percent, from 5.2 million to about 8.1 million. The overwhelming majority were peasants, artisans and fishermen. By the beginning of the century, the growing cities that were turning into political, economic and cultural centers of the country were home to 5 percent, and by the end of the century about 20 percent of the population. Madrid and Seville developed into prosperous metropolises; the first - thanks to the presence of the court and the central authorities in it, and the second - thanks to the monopoly of trade with America. Undoubtedly, during the time of Philip II, the cities were the most dynamic elements of social development in the Spanish kingdom.
The monarch closely followed the development of the clergy and the church in Spain, urging or forcing them to reform. The king had the right to nominate candidates for the bishopric and thus could exert significant influence on the church, often in conflict with the pope on this basis. Philip reformed the Spanish structure of the bishoprics, dividing Castile into 5 archbishoprics and 30 bishoprics, and Aragon respectively into 3 archbishoprics and 15 bishoprics. In Spain, unaffected by the Reformation, which had volunteered to spread Christianity in the New World, and to strengthen the Catholic Reform and the Counter-Reformation in Europe, the clergy, supported by King Philip, radiated powerful impulses to create a world Catholic Church.
The majority of Spanish theologians positively perceived the Council of Trient in 1564, which became a harbinger of church renewal. As a consequence, Philip implemented his decisions in his kingdom, relying on the Spanish clergy, which united in its ranks approximately 90,000 representatives of white and black clergy. Motivating his imperial policy by serving God and the church, the king also managed to use the financial resources of the Spanish church, demanding ever larger donations from it. The principle of "state churchness" left no doubt about the supremacy of secular power and the state over the church in Spain, which Philip defended, even opposing the interests of the pope.
Foreign policy and politics in the Netherlands
Philip's policy was largely determined by religious beliefs, which were in constant interaction and intersected with state and power-political, as well as dynastic interests. These three mutually intertwining sets of motives, in fact, determined both the domestic and foreign policy of the king. Philip's empire could achieve impressive superiority if it was necessary to concentrate the resources of its wide expanses against one enemy, but the power of Spain was clearly not enough if several enemies directed their forces against Philip at the same time, such as England, France, the rebellious Netherlands, Protestants in Germany and the Turks . Therefore, his foreign policy was characterized by the desire to separate potential opponents and conflict zones as far as possible. In part, Philip II succeeded in this: in 1557 he won an important military victory over France, concluded the Treaty of Cato-Cambresia in 1559, and for a long time got rid of a serious rival, who, in the following decades, was also in a fever of internal crises. Thus, Philip's Spain was able to rise to the position of hegemon in Europe, which it lost only during the Thirty Years' War. The peace of 1559 was sealed by Philip's third marriage - with Isabella of Valois of France.An important direction of Philip's foreign policy was relations with the Austrian Habsburgs, in which, despite some disagreements, primarily in Italian and German politics, elements of cooperation still prevailed. Philip's fourth marriage in 1570 to the daughter of Emperor Maximilian II, Anna of Austria, served this purpose, and above all, he had to ensure that when he inherited the possessions in Spain and the Empire, they would remain in the hands of the Habsburgs, since Philip still had no heirs. Therefore, from 1564 to 1571, the king raised at his court two sons of Maximilian II - Ernst and the future Emperor Rudolph II. However, during ten years of marriage, Anna gave birth to five children; first, four girls were born one after another, and only then the long-awaited heir for Philip.
Interaction with Austrian relatives facilitated, first of all, the fight against the Turks, however, creating the danger of a war on two fronts: in South-Eastern Europe and on the Mediterranean Sea. An outstanding historical event was the victory of Philip in alliance with the pope and Venice over the Turks in the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571, which, however, did not eliminate the Ottoman threat. With the support of Emperor Rudolf II, Philip achieved an important success in the Empire when his troops intervened in the dispute over the Archbishopric of Cologne and thereby finally secured the Catholic Wittelsbachs on this important flank of the Netherlands in 1583.
Philip's greatest foreign policy success was his accession to the Portuguese throne in 1580. Close, conflict-free relations with Portugal underlay the imperial policy of Charles V and Philip II. This was served by both marriages with Portuguese princesses. After the death in 1578 of King Sebastian of Portugal, family ties provided the legal basis for Spanish claims to the throne in that country, soon satisfied by Philip by force of arms. Now he became king of the entire Iberian Peninsula, but, more importantly, of the vast Portuguese possessions, primarily in Africa, but also in Asia and South America. The fifty-three-year-old Philip thus rose to the pinnacle of his power.
Philip's foreign policy successes began to fade from the mid-sixties as a result of a riot in the Netherlands, his father's homeland. The rebellion was the most painful personal experience, and the confrontation was the greatest political failure, caused, however, by his own mistakes. Confessional heterogeneous and rich, the Netherlands was of great importance for the economic unity of the entire state of Philip and was extremely important for hegemony in Northern and Central Europe. However, due to their significant distance, they were at the same time very vulnerable strategically, especially after Spain's political and religious opponent, France, the Protestant German princes, and finally England, who came out in support of the rebellious Netherlands, became the enemies of Spain from the eighties.
The reformist policy of Philip, imbued with modern ideas of centralization of the state, as well as the heavy spirit of Catholicism, and concerning the administrative system and the institution of the bishopric, limited local freedoms and, above all, noble privileges, which caused unrest in the sixties, provoked at first by the nobility. In the early seventies, when the Spanish governor, the Duke of Alba, tried to carry out Philip's goals with provocatively excessive severity and introduced a 10 percent tax on commercial transactions, the alcabala, to finance the costs of military operations in the Netherlands at the country's own expense, the country was again stirred by a wave of discontent. In 1576, after the rebellious Spanish troops, who had not received a salary due to the acute financial crisis in Spain, expressed their dissatisfaction, in particular with the sack of Antwerp, the uprising received a new impetus, and now the support of the Dutch Catholics. Despite the huge financial and military costs, the draconian measures of the Duke of Alba and the military successes sent in the eighties by the governor Alessandro Farnese, Philip was unable to contain the uprising in the Netherlands for a long time. Eventually, in 1581, with the help of France and England, the northern provinces gained their independence. It seemed that there would be no end to the military conflict.
Philip's failure in the Netherlands is closely intertwined with the failure of his English policy, not least with the war against France in 1590. After the death of his English wife, Mary (Tudor), Philip tried in vain to arrange his marriage with her half-sister, the new Queen of England, Elizabeth. After 1559, under Elizabeth, England finally became Protestant. In 1570, Pope Pius V excommunicated the Queen of England. Philip and the Spanish Soviets therefore felt compelled to bring England back to the old faith. After the defeat in the sixties of the Catholic rebellion supported by him in England and open clashes between Spain and England in subsequent years, across the ocean and in the Netherlands, Philip decided to invade the island. A Spanish fleet was sent, the Armada, which, however, was defeated off the British coast in 1588.
Despite the defeat and the huge costs associated with such enterprises, two years later, Philip undertakes a military intervention against France. First of all, he feared that after the extinction of the royal house of Valois, the Huguenot kingdom of Henry IV of Navarre would establish itself there, and put forward claims to the French throne on behalf of his daughter from his marriage to Isabella of Valois. Almost until the very end of his life, Philip waged war in France, which, of course, concluded powerful alliances with England and the rebellious Netherlands. The Peace of Vervains of 1598 only restored the status quo of 1559; there was no need to talk about the implementation of claims to the throne.
Domestic politics
Philip's foreign policy and wars repeatedly drained the financial resources of his countries. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that in the countries inherited from Charles V, Philip II created an extremely expensive military infrastructure, designed to strategically unite the separate parts of the empire for a long time. Four times - in 1557, 1560, 1575 and 1596 - Philip II was forced to declare the insolvency of the state. The depletion of finances seems all the more dramatic with the unprecedented growth of income during the reign of Philip, which, however, never caught up with expenses. The Spanish economy, based mainly on Agriculture and production, as well as the trade in wool and textiles, although experiencing a significant increase as a result of population growth in the middle of the 16th century, nevertheless fell into a protracted crisis in the 80s. The Spanish economy was unable to bear imperial politics alone. Therefore, the resources of the Italian and Dutch possessions, and above all the precious metals imported from America, acquired importance. Without this paramount financial source, from which Philip was able to significantly increase the income, the political successes of the king until the eighties are simply unthinkable.In total, the precious metals he imported gave him about 65 million ducats, and at the end of his reign he received twelve times more per year than at the beginning. The sale of positions, mainly at the local level, was also a source of additional irregular income, as was trade titles of nobility. The regular annual income increased from about 3 million ducats in 1559 to over 10 million ducats in 1598. The tax burden on the average Castilian taxpayer has increased by about 430 percent during this time. The huge sums of money absorbed by Philip's policies were repeatedly spent outside of Spain or found their way into the pockets of foreign merchants and bankers. At the end of the day, attempts to achieve a medium- and long-term increase in public sources of income, both economically and socially beneficial for Spain, repeatedly stood at the center of the king’s daily state concerns and often directly influenced Philip’s current domestic and foreign policy decisions.
As in foreign policy, the sphere of domestic political problems was closely intertwined with religious, ecclesiastical and cult interests. From the beginning of his reign, Philip developed an active activity against all who fell under suspicion, whether they were Lutherans or reformists. His father also instructed him how, throughout mid-century Europe, to weaken the efforts to reconcile the supporters of the old faith with the reformists and, accordingly, to impose their own religion on the subjects of the new generation of rulers in their territories. The Spanish Inquisition, with 15 tribunals, was the most important means of preserving Catholicism, the exclusivity of which in Spain was never seriously disputed. The role of this institution in the fate of Philip II's Spain is often overestimated, and the comparison with the apparatus of total repression that arose in the 20th century is completely unjustified here. But, undoubtedly, the activities of the Inquisition had a lasting impact on the intellectual climate in the country.
When Philip returned to Spain in 1559, immediately afterward, small groups of Lutherans were exposed in Valladolid and Seville, who were brought before the tribunal of the Inquisition and sentenced to death. Philip himself took part in their execution in Valladolid. In the future, the Inquisition was not stopped at times by either the episcopal dignity of the accused, or the professorship at the famous university. The most important literary works Luis de Lyon arose just during his five years of imprisonment in the sixties; the professor, unlike many, was fortunate enough to return to the department in Salamanca. Soon Philip will forbid visiting foreign universities, as well as traveling abroad in general. Those who, following Charles V or through various international economic contacts, came to Spain will begin to be looked at with growing distrust. Censorship will become tougher, especially with respect to imported books. And while foreign policy Philippa developed an unprecedented international activity out of an inflated fear that external contacts would undermine the foundations of Catholicism and internal stability, the country closed in on itself more than under Charles V. Yet cultural trends made their way from the Netherlands and especially from Italy. Together with the intellectual stimulus provided by the exploration of the New World and the great power status of Spain, they had a lasting impact on Spanish cultural and spiritual life under Philip II. The University of Salamanca has received worldwide recognition. The "golden age" ("Siglo de Ogo") of Spanish literature and painting began, and not least thanks to the orders of the Madrid court, the grandees and the church. In the canvases of El Greco, a native of Crete, who came to Spain through Venice and Rome and settled in Toledo in 1577, many features of the spiritual environment of Spain during the time of Philip II were reflected.
Philip's vigorous speech against the reformists is difficult to understand outside the context of the international struggle against the Protestants in the Empire, England and France. Philip was wary of forging links between foreign policy adversaries and related groups at home. This applies in particular to both of the most extensive internal conflicts that Philip had to overcome: the Morisco revolt in Granada in 1568-1571 and the rebellion of the Aragonese in 1590-1592. The roots of these conflicts were quite different, but Philip's reaction was based on fears that the Moriscos might also cooperate with the advancing Turks, and the Aragonese with the Protestants in France and the Netherlands. Moriscos were Arabs who settled in Spain in the number of approximately 300,000 after the completion of the Reconquista and the conquest of Granada in 1492 and who with great difficulty succumbed to conversion to Christianity.
As the Turks moved further into the Mediterranean and North Africa in the fifties and sixties and their raids on the Andalusian coast became more frequent, Philip's fear grew that, with the assistance of the Moriscos, the Ottoman threat might spread to Spain. The result was even more severe repressive measures, which finally in 1568 caused an open uprising of the Moriscos. lasted two years Civil War until the soldiers of Philip, under the command of his half-brother don Juan of Austria, put an end to it. Philip now allowed only 50,000 Moriscos to remain; they were distributed in Old and New Castile, as well as in Estremadura. Of course, the tension in relations with this national minority (Moriscos) could not be eliminated, although the political threat was eliminated. The Turks, who had taken advantage of the crisis in Spain to seize Tunisia (1570), were defeated at Lepanto the following year.
As in the Dutch crisis, so in the Aragonese policy of Philip, one can sometimes discern an inadequate assessment of the traditional class-based regional forces. The Aragonese crisis took place in the last decade of Philip's reign, and it can only be understood in the context of the special rights and freedoms of the Aragonese crown, which the Aragonese nobility carefully protected and which Philip, however, swore to observe in 1563. But when in 1588, contrary to tradition, he appointed a Castilian Viceroy of Aragon, the Aragonese saw this as a violation of their rights. Shortly thereafter, Philip II went against the Aragonese liberties again when his former secretary Antonio Pérez, arrested on charges of embezzlement, fled to Zaragoza to face the Supreme Court of Aragon, as his father was Aragonese.
By making public secret government documents in the hope of protecting the Aragonese jurisdiction, the fugitive thus provoked the Castilian central government. In Madrid, they were afraid that Aragon could become another hotbed of unrest, like the Netherlands. Philip ordered the Inquisition to indict Perez and remove him from Aragonese jurisdiction. This was the signal for riots, during which the Viceroy of Aragon was mortally wounded. As a result, Philip's troops entered Zaragoza. The instigators of the rebellion, among whom was a member of the Aragonese Supreme Court, were executed. But Antonio Perez managed to hide in France, where he became a trump card against Philippe propaganda. Now the king tried to extinguish the conflict as much as possible; the Valencians and Catalans, who were under the rule of the Aragonese crown, already remained calm. Therefore, in 1592, Philip traveled around Aragon, although, like the Morisco issue, the Aragonese problem, in fact, remained unresolved. The tension between the bureaucratic, Castilian-spirited central state and traditional regional state rights, primarily in Aragon, has long been a major problem in Spanish history.
End of Philip
In the last decade of Philip's life, political problems seemed to take over. His opponents in Europe: England, France, the Netherlands and the Protestant German princes, entered into alliances with each other. Imperial policy had exhausted its most important base, Castile. Since 1596, a wave of epidemics and famine has claimed the lives of a large number of people. The following year, the Spanish population dropped by 10 percent. In Castile, already since the sixties, but mainly since the early nineties, opposition to Philip's foreign policy and the expensive military presence in the Netherlands has become much stronger. However, Philip continued to defend his wars against the French, the Dutch and the English, citing the need to defend the faith. Nevertheless, in his last year (1598), after a peace treaty with France (Vervensky) and the transfer of the Netherlands to his daughter Isabelle, who in 1599 married Archduke Albrecht of Austria, a turning point occurred. The parts of the Netherlands that remained behind Spain reoriented towards Austria. It became obvious that the Spanish forces were no longer enough to carry out large-scale operations.Of course, Philip's capacity eventually declined not only because of the changing political environment, economic and financial crises, but also due to the deterioration of health, progressing with age. A trip to Aragon in 1592 cost him his last strength. Increasingly, the State Junta, a commission of representatives of the most important Soviets, becomes the governing body. Since 1595, the royal functions in an ever-increasing volume began to be performed by the son of Philip, the future Philip III.
In June 1598, Philip left Madrid for Escorial. It was already a decrepit, seriously ill old man who felt the approach of death. The details of the funeral are discussed for the last time, and a coffin is placed next to the bed. With a cross in his hand, which his father and mother held in their last hours, Philip dies in El Escorial on September 13, 1598.
The life of Philip II of Spain cannot be summarized in a nutshell - he carried the burden of responsibility for too long and the problems that required his intervention were too diverse. For more than forty years, Philip was the ruler of the greatest state in history. Political, religious and economic reforms were unparalleledly complex, the range of issues to be resolved was too large, and the ever more complicated bureaucratic machine of the state flooded the monarch's desktop with a stream of documents. Philip consciously challenged a range of complex dynastic, political and religious issues. Therefore, its political successes and failures, achievements and mistakes should be assessed in this context and differentiated. One thing is certain: for more than half a century, Philip II had a strong influence on the history of Spain, Europe and most of the world, and in this he had no equal among sovereigns.
Philip II, was born on May 21, 1527 in Valladolid. From 07/25/1554 the king of Naples, from 10/25/1555 the lord of the Netherlands and Franche-Comte, from 01/16/1556 the king of Castile, Leon, Granada, Navarre, Aragon, Valencia, Sardinia, Mallorca and Sicily, from 1.02. 1580 King of Portugal. He died on September 13, 1598, and was buried in the royal pantheon at El Escorial.
Father: Charles I (1500-1558), King of Spain (1516-1556), Holy Roman Emperor (1530-1556).
Mother: Isabella of Portugal (1503-1539). Brothers and sisters (except for those who died in infancy): Maria (1528-1603), wife of Emperor Maximilian II since 1548; Juana (1537-1573), since 1552 wife of Prince John of Portugal. Half-siblings (illegitimate children of the emperor): Margherita of Parma (1522-1586), since 1536 in her first marriage married to Alessandro de Medici, Grand Duke of Florence, since 1538 in her second marriage married to Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma, in 1559-1567 viceroy of the Netherlands; Juan of Austria (1547-1578).
11/15/1543 marriage to Mary of Portugal (1527-1545); 07/25/1554 second marriage with Mary of England (Mary Tudor), Queen of England (1516-1558); 06/22/1559 third marriage with Isabella (Valois) of France (1545-1568); 11/12/1570 fourth marriage with Anna of Austria (1549-1580).
Children (except those who died in infancy): from the first marriage: son Carlos (1545-1568); from the third marriage: daughter Isabelle (1566-1633), in 1599 married Archduke Albrecht of Austria; daughter Catalina (1567-1597), in 1585 married Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy; from fourth marriage: son Philip III (1578-1621), king of Spain (1598-1621).
Charles V was brought up in the Spanish spirit. He was fluent only in the Castilian dialect and later, after becoming king, he never left Spain during all the years of his reign. In general, the Infante received a good education and, even before accession to the throne, managed to gain considerable life and political experience. Charles V early married his heir to Princess Mary of Portugal (1527-1545), who was Philip's cousin. But Mary died very young during childbirth. Nine years later, in 1554, Philip married a second time. His new wife was the English Queen Mary I Tudor (1516-1558). The conclusion of this marriage opened up the prospect of a dynastic union between Spain and England. With the assistance of her husband, Mary Tudor pursued a policy of terror in England against the supporters of the Reformation. When Mary Tudor died in 1558, the English Parliament refused to recognize Philip's claim to the crown of England. In 1556, Charles V decided to retire from public affairs and hand over his vast estates to his heirs. As a result of the division of the Habsburg possessions, Philip inherited Spain with its possessions in Italy (the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Sardinia, Milan), in Africa and overseas, as well as the Netherlands, Franche-Comte and Charolais (Burgundy).
A fanatical champion of Catholicism, Philip II considered the main task of his reign to be the fight against the enemies of the Roman Catholic Church, the eradication of Protestantism and heresies. At the same time, the deep religiosity of the Spanish king did not rule out conflicts with the popes for political reasons. When Philip ascended the throne, Spain was engaged in a tense struggle with France in the Italian Wars. In 1557, the Spaniards won a decisive victory at Saint-Quentin. The Italian wars ended in 1559 with a favorable Cato-Cambresia peace for Spain, which was sealed by the marriage of the newly widowed Philip II and the French princess Isabella of Valois (Elizabeth of France, 1545-1568). In honor of the victorious end of the wars in Madrid, the palace-monastery Escorial was built - the favorite residence of the king. Later, after the suppression of the Valois dynasty, marriage to Isabella served Philip as the basis for claims to the French throne.
During the reign of Philip II, royal absolutism was strengthened, Spain gained a permanent capital - Madrid. The king systematically limited the medieval liberties of certain regions, cities and institutions (the abolition of the liberties of Aragon in 1591, the restriction of the prerogatives of the church), sought to unify his possessions, strengthened and enlarged the bureaucratic apparatus of government, which, according to the nature of his character, was the best match. The excessive caution of the monarch, the desire to personally control all the springs of power, distrust of subordinates - all this turned into an insufficient efficiency of the administrative apparatus, a fatal delay in making important decisions. At the request of the king, all reports came to him in writing, he sorted out papers in a small office, where only a few people had access.
Philip II zealously supported the Inquisition, heretics in his lands were burned, severely persecuted by the Moriscos, who were evicted in 1568-1570 to the barren lands in the interior of Spain. To avoid the influence of the Reformation, Spaniards were forbidden to study abroad. The active foreign policy and religious intolerance of Philip II had a negative impact on the Spanish economy, leading to an unjustified increase in taxes, the destruction of the financial system, the ruin of peasants and artisans, and, ultimately, to a deep economic decline of the whole country. Waging endless wars required huge Money. Philip II increased taxes (including the alcabala), to pay off the state deficit, he repeatedly confiscated gold, silver, cargo arriving from America, and made huge loans. But expenses invariably turned out to be more than income. Philip II in 1557, 1575, 1598 declared state bankruptcy, which brought even more disorder into the economic life of the country.
In the Netherlands, economic oppression, the infringement of the national dignity of the local population and the persecution of Protestants caused a revolution. Attempts to suppress the resistance of the Netherlands cost Spain enormous material costs and human losses, but did not bring complete success. Freed from the feudal-absolutist oppression, the Republic of the United Provinces became one of Spain's main rivals in the colonies.
A significant place in the foreign policy of Philip II was occupied by the struggle with the Ottoman Empire - the most powerful Muslim state of the 16th century. The onslaught of the Turks in the Mediterranean contributed to the formation of the Holy League, consisting of Spain, Venice and the papacy. The combined fleet of the league in 1571 defeated the Turks at Lepanto, which stopped the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean. In the colonies, the reign of Philip II became a time of transition from discoveries and conquests to the organization of the administration of the conquered territories. In 1580, after the suppression of the Portuguese royal dynasty, the king of Spain put forward his candidacy for the throne and was successful. A personal union united Portugal and Spain for 60 years. It was an undoubted foreign policy success of Philip II - the dangerous rival of Spain in the colonies was eliminated. In the future, Portugal no longer played a leading role in the discoveries and conquests of overseas territories.
In the second half of the 16th century, England became the most dangerous rival of Spain on the seas. English pirates terrorized overseas colonies, captured and sank Spanish galleons with American gold. Queen Elizabeth did not follow the precepts of the Roman Catholic Church, supported the Protestant movement on the continent, and provided real assistance to the rebellious Netherlands. After the execution of Mary Stuart, Philip II decided to end England with one blow. In 1588, he equipped a huge fleet, called the Invincible Armada. Her death was a heavy blow for Spain, from which she was never able to recover. Hegemony on the seas began to pass to England and Holland, and Spain ceased to be considered the most powerful state in Europe.
For many years, Philip II supported the Catholics in the Huguenot wars in France. After the death of Henry III of Valois, he tried to place his daughter Isabella on the French throne and brought a Spanish garrison into Paris in 1591. However, the Estates General of 1593 rejected the candidacy of Isabella Habsburg, and in June 1595 the Spaniards were defeated by Henry of Navarre at the Battle of Fontaine-Française. Spanish troops were expelled from France. Shortly before his death, in May 1598, Philip II was forced to recognize Henry IV of Bourbon as the French king and sign a peace agreement with him in Vervain.
Philip's personality was assessed differently by his contemporaries. In the eyes of the Protestants, he was a bloody monster, all possible vices were attributed to him, his repulsive appearance was emphasized. Indeed, suspicion reigned at the Spanish court, the atmosphere of palace life was poisoned by intrigues. At the same time, Philip was a connoisseur and patron of the arts, Spanish literature in his time was experiencing its golden age, the king himself collected books and works of art from all over Europe.
The secrets of the Madrid court hide the causes of the death of the only son of Philip II and Maria of Portugal - Don Carlos.
PHILIP II Habsburg (Felipe II) (May 21, 1527, Valladolid - September 13, 1598, Escorial), King of Spain from the Habsburg dynasty in 1556-1598, King of Portugal in 1580-1598 (as Philip I). Son of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal. One of the most prominent political figures in Europe in the 16th century, the recognized head of the counter-reformation. During his reign, Spain reached the pinnacle of power, however, serious difficulties and military and political defeats marked the beginning of its economic, and later military-political decline.
Legacy of Charles V
Philip II received a good education and during the life of his father managed to gain considerable political experience. As a result of the division of the possessions of Charles V, he inherited Spain with its possessions in Italy (the Kingdom of Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, Milan) and overseas, and also - contrary to the traditional orientation of these territories to the empire, and not to Spain - the Netherlands, Franche-Comte and Charolais (Burgundy, now France). However, first of all, he was a Spanish king, spoke fluently only in the Castilian dialect, and during all the years of his reign he never left Spain. His long reign was accompanied by constant efforts to preserve and, if possible, increase his father's legacy.
Foreign policy
The main directions of the foreign policy of Philip II were inherited from and largely determined by the zealous Catholicism of the king (which did not exclude conflicts with the popes for political reasons), the position of Spain as the head of the European counter-reformation and its claims to hegemony in Europe.
In the early years of the reign of Philip II, the most important task remained to complete the struggle with France in the Italian Wars. In 1557, the Spaniards won a decisive victory at Saint-Quentin (in honor of this event, the palace-monastery of Escorial, the favorite residence of the king, was erected in Spain). The war ended in a favorable peace for Spain, and Philip got married. After the suppression of the Valois dynasty, Spain intervened in French affairs, seeking to prevent the accession of the former Huguenot, but did not achieve its goal.
The offensive of the Turks in the Mediterranean caused the formation of the Holy League, consisting of Spain, Venice and the papacy. The combined fleet of the League in 1571 inflicted an important defeat on the Turks at Lepanto, which made it possible to stop their onslaught.
In the Netherlands, economic oppression, the infringement of their national dignity and the persecution of Protestants caused the Dutch Revolution of 1566-1609. Attempts to suppress it cost Spain colossal material costs and human losses, but did not give the desired result.
After the suppression of the Portuguese royal dynasty, Philip II put forward his candidacy for the throne and was successful. From 1580, a personal union united Portugal with Spain for 60 years.
England becomes the most dangerous rival of Spain in Europe and America. After the execution of Mary Stuart, Philip II sent a huge fleet to England in 1588, which went down in history under the name "Invincible Armada". Her death was a heavy blow to Spain; the initiative on the seas passed to England, and later to Holland.
In Spanish America, the reign of Philip II was marked by a transition from discoveries and conquests to the organization of the administration of already conquered territories.
Domestic politics
During the reign of Philip II, Spanish absolutism was noticeably strengthened. Spain has found a permanent capital - Madrid. The king systematically limited the medieval liberties of individual regions, cities and institutions (the abolition of the liberties of Aragon in 1591, the restriction of the prerogatives of the church), sought to unify his possessions, strengthened the bureaucratic apparatus of government, which, in terms of his character, was the best fit. The excessive caution of the monarch, the desire to personally control all the springs of power, distrust of subordinates - all this turned into an insufficient efficiency of the administrative apparatus, a fatal delay in making important decisions. At the request of the king, all reports came to him in writing, he sorted out papers in a small office, where only a few people had access.
In an effort to preserve Catholicism in his possessions at all costs, the king patronized the Inquisition and the Jesuits, persecuted the Moriscos (their uprising in 1568-1571 was brutally suppressed). To avoid the influence of the Reformation, the Spaniards were even forbidden to study abroad.
The active foreign policy and religious intolerance of Philip II had a negative impact on the Spanish economy, leading to an unjustified increase in taxes, the destruction of the financial system, the ruin of peasants and artisans, and ultimately to a deep economic decline of the whole country.
Personal life
Philip II was married 4 times. The first wife, brought to him by his cousin, Mary of Portugal, died after childbirth in 1545. In 1554, Philip married Mary Tudor, but after her death he left England, where Parliament did not recognize his right to rule the country. Mary had no children from him. His son from his marriage to Mary of Portugal, Don Carlos, died in 1568 under unclear circumstances. From the next marriage with Isabella of Valois, two daughters remained, one of whom, Isabella, became the ruler of the Southern Netherlands, Philip tried to make her the French queen after the extinction of the Valois dynasty. The Spanish crown was inherited by Philip's only surviving son from his marriage to Anna of Austria, the future Philip III.
The personality of Philip is assessed by Catholic and Protestant authors quite differently. The latter describe him as a bloody monster, attribute all sorts of vices to him, and emphasize his repulsive appearance. Suspicion reigned at the Spanish court, everything was poisoned by intrigues. At the same time, Philip was a subtle connoisseur and patron of the arts, Spanish literature in his time was experiencing its golden age, Philip himself collected rare books and paintings from all over Europe.
