Philip II: Reign, Conflicts, and Legacy of the Spanish King
Philip II (1556-1598)
Philip II (1556-1598), son of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal, was born in Valladolid in 1527. He married four times. First with Manuela of Portugal, who died giving birth to Prince Charles. After he married Mary Tudor, daughter of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII. In 1560 he married Isabel de Valois French with whom he had to Isabel Clara Eugenia. Finally he would marry Anne of Austria, betrothed of Prince Charles, with whom he had to Philip III.
Domains of the Hispanic Monarchy
The kingdom included: the Crown of Spain, the Netherlands, Franche-Comté, the Milanese, the kingdom of Naples, and America. In 1580, after the death of the King of Portugal, Sebastian, Philip II was recognized as King of Portugal in the Cortes of Tomar.
Philip II established the capital of the kingdom in Madrid and died in 1598 in the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial that he had built.
Internal Problems
- War of the Alpujarras: Developed between 1568 and 1571. The Moors, led by Fernando de Valor, rose in 1567 to protest the pragmatic forbidding the use of Arabic. Philip II, after defeating them with the help of Juan de Austria and the Duke of Arcos, ordered their expulsion from the kingdom of Granada.
- Prince Charles: He conspired with the Flemish rebels against his father. He was arrested, prosecuted, and locked in his quarters in the palace. He died in unclear circumstances in 1568, which tarnished the image of King Philip II.
- Antonio Perez: Secretary of Philip II. Processed for Escobedo’s murder and for conspiring against the king, he fled to Aragon in 1590 and was hosted under the protection of the Chief Justice of Aragon. He then fled to France and England. Philip II took Zaragoza and restricted Aragon’s charters in Tarazona (1592).
Struggles in Europe and the Mediterranean
Philip II defended the Catholic faith on all fronts. In the Netherlands, he faced rebel nobles who wanted more autonomy and Protestants who demanded freedom of worship. In 1566, Spanish troops commanded by the Duke of Alba staged a major crackdown. Philip II sought solutions with the appointment of Luis de Requesens, John of Austria, and Alexander Farnese, who secured the subjection of the Catholic provinces of the south with the Union of Arras, while Protestants formed the Union of Utrecht. In 1598, he ceded the Netherlands to his daughter, Isabel Clara Eugenia, in a final attempt to appease the independence efforts of the Netherlands.
On another front, against France (1556-1559), they were defeated at the Battle of San Quentin and then signed the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559, in which France recognized Hispanic supremacy and agreed that Philip II married Isabella of Valois.
He fought against the Turkish empire in the Mediterranean. He formed an alliance with Spain, Venice, and the Papacy. The grand alliance, led by John of Austria, won the battle of Lepanto against the Turks in 1571.
He fought against England on grounds of religion, supported by the Flemish rebels and attacks by English privateers (Hawkins and Drake) in the Caribbean. After the execution of the Catholic Mary Stuart, he decided to send the Armada in an attempt to invade England, but the expedition failed in 1588.