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PHILIP II

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 385 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PHILIP II . (1527—1598) See also:king of See also:Spain, was See also:born at See also:Valladolid on the 21st of May 1527. He was the son of the See also:emperor See also:Charles V., and of his wife See also:Isabella of See also:Portugal, who were first See also:cousins. Philip received his See also:education in Spain. His See also:tutor, Dr Juan Martinez Pedernales, who latinized his name to Siliceo, and who was also his See also:confessor, does not appear to have done his See also:duty very thoroughly. The See also:prince, though he had a See also:good command of Latin, never equalled his See also:father as a linguist. See also:Don Juan de Zuniga, who was appointed to See also:teach him the use of arms, was more conscientious; but he had a very poor See also:pupil. From his earliest years Philip showed himself more addicted to the See also:desk than the See also:saddle and to the See also:pen than to the See also:sword. The emperor, who spent his See also:life moving from one See also:part of his wide dominions to another and in the camps of his armies, watched his See also:heir's education from afar. The trend of his letters was to impress on the boy a profound sense of the high destinies to which he was born, the See also:necessity for keeping his nobles apart from all See also:share in the conduct of the See also:internal See also:government of his See also:kingdom, and the See also:wisdom of distrusting counsellors, who would be sure to wish to See also:influence him for their own ends. Philip See also:grew up See also:grave, self-possessed and distrustful. He was beloved by his See also:Spanish subjects, but utterly without the See also:power of attracting men of other races.

Though accused of extreme licentiousness in his relations with See also:

women, and though he lived for years in See also:adultery with Dona Maria de See also:Osorio, Philip was probably less immoral than most See also:kings of his See also:time, including his father, and was rigidly abstemious in eating and drinking. His power of See also:work was unbounded, and he had an See also:absolute love of See also:reading, annotating and drafting despatches. If he had not become See also:sovereign of the See also:Low Countries, as heir of See also:Mary of See also:Burgundy through his father, Philip would in all See also:probability have devoted himself to warfare with the See also:Turks in the Mediterranean, and to the See also:conquest of See also:northern See also:Africa. Unhappily for Spain, Charles, after some hesitation, decided to transmit the Nether-lands to his son, and not to allow them to go with the See also:empire. Philip was summoned in 1548 to See also:Flanders, where he went unwillingly, and was See also:ill regarded. In 1551 he was back in Spain, and intrusted with its government. In 1543 he had been married to his See also:cousin Mary of Portugal, who See also:bore him a son, the unhappy Don See also:Carlos, and who died in 1545. In 1554, when Charles was meditating his See also:abdication, and wished to secure the position of his son, he summoned Philip to Flanders again, and arranged the See also:marriage with Mary, See also:queen of See also:England, who was the daughter of his See also:mother's See also:sister, in See also:order to See also:form a See also:union of Spain, the See also:Netherlands and England, before which See also:France would be power-less. The marriage proved barren. The abdication of his father on the 16th of See also:January 1556 constituted Philip sovereign of Spain with its See also:American possessions, of the Aragonese See also:inheritance in See also:Italy, See also:Naples and See also:Sicily, of the Burgundian inheritance—the killed him with manly See also:patience, and he died piously at the Netherlands and Franche See also:Comte, and of the duchy of See also:Milan, which his father separated from the empire for his benefit. It ;,See also:gas a See also:legacy of immense responsibilities and perils, for France was See also:bound in See also:common prudence to endeavour to ruin a power which encircled her on every See also:side See also:save the See also:sea and threatened her See also:independence. France was for a time beaten at the battles of St Quentin and See also:Gravelines, and forced to make the See also:Peace of Cateau Cambresis (See also:April 2, 1559).

But the See also:

death of Mary of England on the 17th of See also:November 1558 had deprived Philip of See also:English support. The See also:establishment of See also:Elizabeth on the English See also:throne put on the flank of his scattered dominions another power, forced no less than France by unavoidable See also:political necessities to be his enemy. The See also:early difficulties of Elizabeth's reign secured him a deceitful peace on that side for a time. His marriage with Elizabeth of See also:Valois on the 22nd of See also:June 1559, and the approach of the See also:wars of See also:religion, gave him a temporary See also:security from France. But the religious agitation was affecting his own Flemish possessions, and when Philip went back to Spain, in See also:August 1559, he was committed to a life-See also:long struggle in which he could not prove victorious except by the conquest of France and England. If Philip II. had deserved his name of the Prudent he would have made haste, so soon as his father, who continued to intervene in the government from his See also:retreat at Yuste in See also:Estremadura, was dead, to relieve himself of the ruinous inheritance of the Low Countries. It was perhaps impossible for him to renounce his rights, and his education, co-operating with his natural disposition, made it morally impossible for him to believe that he could be in the wrong. Like the See also:rest of his See also:generation, he was convinced that unity of religion was indispensable to the See also:maintenance of the authority of the See also:State and of good order. See also:Family See also:pride, also, was carried by him to its highest possible See also:pitch. Thus See also:external and internal influences alike drove him into conflict with the Netherlands, France and England; with the first because political and religious discontent combined to bring about revolt, which he See also:felt bound in duty to crush; with the second and third because they helped the Flemings and the Hollanders. The conflict assumed the See also:character of a struggle between Protestantism and See also:Roman Catholicism, in which Philip appeared as the See also:champion of the See also:Church. It was a part he rejoiced to See also:play.

He became, and could not but become, a persecutor in and out of Spain; and his persecutions not only hardened the obstinacy of the Dutch, and helped to exasperate the English, but they provoked a revolt of the Moriscoes, which impoverished his kingdom. No experience of the failure of his policy could shake his belief in its essential excellence. That whatever he did was done for the service of See also:

God, that success or failure depended on the inscrutable will of the Almighty and not on himself, were his guiding convictions, which he transmitted to his successors. The " service of God and his See also:majesty " was the See also:formula which expressed the belief of the sovereign and his subjects. Philip must therefore be held primarily responsible for the insane policy which brought Spain to ruin. He had a high ideal of his duty as a king to his own See also:people, and had no natural preference for violent courses. The strong See also:measures he took against disorderly elements in See also:Aragon in 1591 were provoked by extreme misconduct on the part of a See also:faction. When he enforced his claim to the See also:crown of Portugal (1579–1581) he preferred to placate his new subjects by paying See also:attention to their feelings and their privileges. He even made dangerous political concessions to secure the support of the gentry. It is true that he was ready to make use of assassination for political purposes; but he had been taught by his lawyers that he was " the prince," the embodied state, and as such had a right to See also:act for the public good, legibus solutus. This was but in accordance with the See also:temper of the times. See also:Coligny, See also:Lord See also:Burghley and See also:William the Silent also entered into See also:murder plots.

In his private life he was orderly and affectionate to his family and servants. He was slow to withdraw the confidence he had once given. In the painful See also:

episode of the imprisonment and death of his firstborn son, Don Carlos, Philip behaved honourably. He bore the acute agony of the disease which See also:Escorial on the 13th of See also:September 1598. As an See also:administrator Philip had all the vices of his type, that of the laborious, self-righteous See also:man, who thinks he can supervise everything, is capable of endless toil, and jealous of his authority, and who therefore will let none of his servants act without his instructions. He set the example of. the unending discussions in See also:committee and boundless See also:minute See also:writing which finally choked the Spanish See also:administration. The Histoire de Philippe II. of M. H. Forneron (See also:Paris, 1881), contains many references to authorities and is exhaustive, but the author has some violent prejudices. Philip II., by See also:Martin See also:Hume (See also:London, 1897), is more just in its treatment of Philip's persona: character, and gives a useful bibliography. The See also:main See also:sources for the political See also:history are the Documentos Ineditos See also:Para la historic de Espana (See also:Madrid, 1842, &c.), vols. i., iii., vi., vii., xv., xxi., See also:xxiv., xl., xeviii., ci., cx., cxi. and others; L. P.

See also:

Gachard, Actes See also:des etats generaux des Pays Bas, 1576–1585 (See also:Brussels, 1861–1866) ; and the Calendars of State Papers, See also:Foreign See also:Series, Elizabeth (London, 1863–1901). See also Martin Hume, Two English Queens and Philip (1908).

End of Article: PHILIP II

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