Philip II (1527–1598)

An engraving of Philip II of Spain, from 1555. A leading force in the Counter-Reformation, his marriage to his second wife Mary I (Bloody Mary) in the previous year was extremely unpopular in England. After Mary's death in 1558, Philip launched the Spanish Armada to invade England, the failure of which contributed to the decline of the Spanish Empire.

King of Spain from 1556. He was born at Valladolid, the son of the Habsburg emperor Charles V, and in 1554 married Queen Mary I of England. In 1559, after Mary's death, he pursued his ambitions on England by offering to marry her half-sister Elizabeth I, who had succeeded to the English throne. On his father's abdication in 1556 he inherited Spain, the Netherlands, and the Spanish possessions in Italy and the Americas, and in 1580 he took control of Portugal. His intolerance and lack of understanding of the Netherlanders drove them into revolt. He tried to conquer England in 1588, sending the unsuccessful Spanish Armada, and in 1589 he claimed the throne of France for his daughter Isabella.

Philip II's inheritance Philip II's father, Charles V, became king of Spain in 1516 following the death of his father King Ferdinand. He had already received the Netherlands from his father in 1506, and on Ferdinand's death he took control of all the possessions of the Spanish crown, including those in Italy and the Americas. In 1519, on the death of his grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian, Charles inherited the Habsburg family lands in Austria and was elected Holy Roman Emperor as Charles V. The Duchy of Milan in Italy was also gained by the Spanish crown in 1535.

The widespread territory controlled by the Spanish monarchy during Charles's reign meant that Spain's history became that of Europe. In Spain itself royal power was strongly established. Charles continued, however, to respect the rights of his various Spanish possessions such as the Netherlands and Portugal. Although these regions had to serve the needs of Spain, they were able to keep a large measure of local control and rights, including a freedom of religion that allowed Protestantism to flourish in the Netherlands.

Worn out by the internal troubles of the empire, in 1555 Charles abdicated the Netherlands, and in 1556 Spain, to his son Philip. The position of Holy Roman Emperor passed to Charles's brother Ferdinand I, who also kept the Austrian Habsburg lands, but the rest of Charles's possessions were passed to his son, who reigned as Philip II of Spain.

Philip II's reign Philip was a lover of literature and art, a kind father to his daughters, and he worked diligently to try to rule his massive empire. However, although strong-minded, he lacked political flair and imagination. He had been educated by Roman Catholic priests, and his religious zeal was a major influence on his whole life and reign. Philip regarded himself as the Catholic champion of Europe, and put his country's powers at the service of the Catholic cause against Protestantism, even though he ruined Spain in the process. In Spain, he burned the Protestants, and expelled the Muslim Moriscos (Moors forced to convert to Christianity). The Protestant countries of Europe regarded Philip as an inhuman monster. When his son Don Carlos plotted against him, Philip put him into prison, where he died soon after in 1568.

Philip ruled over the empire of Spain at its mightiest. His power extended over Spain, the Spanish Netherlands (modern Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg), the greater part of Italy, Portugal (annexed in 1580), the whole of South America, a large part of North America, and possessions in the East Indies and in Africa. As the (largely absent) husband of Mary I of England, he also influenced her anti-Protestant policies. Philip's reign was spent trying to protect his huge empire, and he possessed the finest fighting machine in Europe, both military and naval. In 1571, at the sea Battle of Lepanto, the Spanish fleet defeated a Turkish offensive in the Mediterranean helping to contain the westward expansion of the Ottoman Empire.

Spain's position as the greatest power in Europe was unquestioned, partly because France was divided by the Wars of Religion (1562–98). However, as Spanish territory surrounded France, Philip faced continued hostility from the French. In addition, Philip's authoritarian policies in the Netherlands, and the cruelties of the Duke of Alva in repressing the Calvinists, led to the outbreak of the Dutch Revolt in 1568.

The Dutch revolt The struggle for freedom and civic and religious independence in the Netherlands increased during Philip II's reign. The revolt was partly for religious reasons: some of the people of the Low Countries were Protestant or Calvinist, and objected to the Catholic policies of Philip II, including the imposition of the Spanish Inquisition. Philip's attempts to ban Protestantism in the Netherlands created disastrous opposition to his rule. The Dutch had been given toleration and the right to freedom of worship under Charles V, and the Protestant churches had grown strong and influential in the Netherlands. There were also strong objections in the Netherlands to Philip's policy of centralizing government control in Madrid and away from the Netherlands, and to the tax demands of the Spanish crown. The presence in the Netherlands of a Spanish-controlled permanent army also caused fear and objection to Philip's rule.

After an outbreak of image-breaking in churches by Dutch Calvinists in 1567, Philip sent a Spanish army under the Duke of Alva to restore control and respect for his rule. Alva's brutally repressive actions sparked off the revolt. In 1568 William the Silent, Prince of Orange, switched from neutrality to leading the revolt. With the Dutch capture of Brielle in 1572 Spain received its first serious defeat in the uprising. In 1579 the Union of Utrecht was formed, in which the seven northern provinces banded together as the United Provinces to resist Spain, and in 1581 they declared their freedom.

However, the south of the Netherlands (now Belgium and Luxembourg) was reconquered by Spain. After William the Silent's murder by a Spanish agent in 1584, the Dutch continued fighting, receiving military help and support from England. In a series of brilliant campaigns, the Spanish were forced out of the northern Netherlands. The Dutch also won many sea battles against the Spanish. Philip II died in 1598 but his successor Philip III of Spain was unable to turn Spain's fortunes. In 1609 he agreed to a 12 years' truce with the Dutch. Philip II's actions in the Netherlands resulted in Spain's eventual loss of an extremely wealthy possession. The war, renewed in 1621 as part of the wider European conflict of the Thirty Years' War, was continued until 1648 when, in the Peace of Westphalia, Spain recognized the independence of the United Provinces (also known as the Dutch Republic).

The Spanish Armada (1588) England, a Protestant country, was Spain's worst enemy. Philip wanted England to return to the Catholic religion. He also wanted to assert Spain's power over England, a nation that was becoming increasingly strong and causing conflict in the Americas. He had been married to Mary I, Elizabeth I's half-sister, and attempted to form a marriage alliance with Elizabeth when she came to the throne, but the strongly Protestant Elizabeth refused his advances. She executed monks and priests sent from Spain to minister to Catholics in England and encouraged her subjects to attack Spanish colonial interests. In 1568, when three Spanish treasure ships took shelter in Southampton, Elizabeth confiscated them. English privateers such as Walter Raleigh and Francis Drake attacked Spanish treasure ships returning from the New World, traded illegally with Spanish colonies there, and even set up a colony in North America (Virginia) in 1587. Elizabeth I of England promised help to Don Antonio, Philip's rival for the throne of Portugal in 1580, and sent troops and money to the Dutch rebels 1586–87. In 1587 Drake raided the Spanish port of Cadiz, and Elizabeth executed Mary Queen of Scots, who had made Philip heir to her claims to the thrones of England and Scotland. Mary's execution led to the Spanish Armada, the attempted invasion of England.

The Armada, which sailed from Lisbon in Portugal in 1588, consisted of 130 ships, but only half this number eventually returned to Spain after suffering heavy defeat, followed by storm and shipwreck on the journey home. It was attacked by an English fleet of 197 small ships as it proceeded up the Channel, and forced from its anchorage in Calais by fire ships. In the battle that commenced off Gravelines, the English navy was victorious. The remaining Spanish ships escaped around the north of Scotland and west of Ireland, but many sank in storms on the way.

Philip II's legacy By the time Philip died in 1598, the greatest days of Spanish power had passed into history. The enormous empire that he had inherited from his father in 1556 was reduced in size, and the two new great powers of Europe were France and England. The century that followed Philip's death was a time of decline. Plague, population decrease, economic recession, and constant wars (and the methods used to finance them, which caused serious inflation), all greatly reduced Spain's wealth and power. Spain's efforts to prevent other countries trading with its American colonies were increasingly ineffective. England, France, and the Dutch Republic ignored Spanish threats, and their navies were too strong for the Spanish to defeat.

Spain took an active role in the Thirty Years' War for religious and strategic reasons, but gained little from its participation. European wars and the expense of maintaining the empire placed an increasing burden on Spain, and in 1640 both Portugal and Catalonia revolted against the financial demands of the Spanish crown. Spanish rule was restored in Catalonia (1652), but under the Peace of Westphalia (1648) Spain was forced to recognize the independence of both Portugal and the United Provinces.

The power of France had been steadily increasing during the whole of this period, and the entry of France into the Thirty Years' War in 1635 had been entirely for political rather than religious reasons. By the end of the 17th century France, under Louis XIV, had become the dominant power in Europe.

Philip II (1165–1223)

King of France from 1180. As part of his efforts to establish a strong monarchy and evict the English from their French possessions, he waged war in turn against the English kings Henry II, Richard (I) the Lionheart (with whom he also went on the Third Crusade), and John (1167–1216).

Philip played a part in organizing the Fourth Crusade, and setting up the Albigensian Crusades. He built many castles, a significant number with the new-style round towers.

Against Richard he suffered setbacks at Fréteval in 1194 and at Vernon, but against John he captured Château Gaillard in 1203–04 and destroyed the Angevin Empire. He defeated John's allies led by Emperor Otto IV at Bouvines in 1214.