Philip II (redirected from Philip II of Spain)

Philip II, king of Spain, Naples, and Sicily

Philip II, 1527–98, king of Spain (1556–98), king of Naples and Sicily (1554–98), and, as Philip I, king of Portugal (1580–98).

Philip's Reign

Philip ascended the Spanish throne on the abdication of his father, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who had previously made over to him Naples and Sicily, the Low Countries, Franche-Comté, and the duchy of Milan. His first wife, Maria of Portugal, died giving birth to the unfortunate Don Carlos (1545–68), and in 1554 Philip married Queen Mary I

Early Life

While Mary was a child, various husbands were proposed for her—the eldest son of Francis I of France
.....  of England. Continuing his father's war with France, he drew England into the conflict in 1557. In the same year Spain won the major victory of St.-Quentin, but in 1558 England lost Calais to France. After Mary's death (1558), Philip offered his hand to her sister, Elizabeth I of England, but he was refused. In 1559 the war with France was brought to an end by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, which was sealed by Philip's marriage to Elizabeth of Valois.

Although Philip was a devout Roman Catholic who sought to repress heresy whenever feasible, he subordinated religious questions to his political aims. His relations with the papacy were generally bad, because most of the popes feared Spanish power in Italy. Religious persecution and the Spanish Inquisition were used to eliminate resistance to Philip's policy of centralizing power under an absolute monarchy. The repression of the Moriscos, especially after the revolt from 1568 to 1571, assured Spanish religious unity; its main purpose, however, was to prevent the Moriscos from helping the Ottomans to invade Spain. Philip's half-brother, John of Austria (1545–78), defeated the Ottomans at the battle of Lepanto (1571), and Tunis was captured and held briefly (1573–74).

The second half of Philip's reign was dominated by the revolt of the Netherlands (see also Netherlands, Austrian and Spanish). Philip appointed (1567) the duque de Alba to replace his half-sister, Margaret of Parma, as governor, but when Alba's harsh methods failed to quell the revolt, Philip supported the more conciliatory tactics of Alba's successors—Luis de Zúñiga y Requesens, John of Austria, and Alessandro Farnese, duke of Parma—who managed to reconquer the S Netherlands (approximately present-day Belgium). English support of the Dutch rebels and their persistent attacks on Spanish shipping led Philip to plan the invasion of England in 1588. However, the "Invincible Armada" (see Armada, Spanish) was ignominiously defeated. The Dutch also received support from the French Protestants, and Philip intervened (1590) in the French Wars of Religion to aid the Catholic League against the Protestant Henry of Navarre (Henry IV). He claimed the French throne for his daughter Isabella but was finally forced (1598) to recognize Henry.

The only major military success of Philip's later reign was the conquest of Portugal, to which he had a claim as the son of Isabella of Portugal, daughter of Manuel I. When King Henry of Portugal died (1580) without issue, Alba overran the country, and Philip was recognized as king by the Portuguese Cortes.

The main stage of Spanish colonial expansion was completed before Philip's accession; during his reign, however, the Spanish established colonies and garrisons in the present S United States and conquered the Philippine Islands (named for the king). The debilitating effects of depopulation, of colonial overexpansion, and of the influx of gold began to make themselves strongly felt in Philip's Spain. American gold and the proceeds of an increasingly burdensome taxation were not enough to finance Philip's foreign wars and interventions and had to be supplemented with loans. The king repudiated his debts four times during his reign. He was succeeded by Philip III, his son by his fourth wife, Anne of Austria.

Character

Philip was not the bloodthirsty tyrant portrayed by his enemies and by later writers. The embodiment of the hard-working civil servant and bureaucrat, he sought to direct the destinies of a world empire from the seclusion of his cabinet, devoting infinite time and pains to the minutest administrative details. He did not trust even his ablest and most loyal servants, and partly as a result his court was riddled with faction. Philip's administration was generally just, but his bureaucratic absolutism, with its disregard for local conditions and privileges, inevitably caused discontent. This was true not only of the Netherlands but also of Aragón, which rose in revolt (1591) over the affair of Antonio Pérez. Isolated from reality, Philip lived and died in his strange court at the Escorial.

Bibliography

See study by W. H. Prescott (3 vol., 1855–58); R. B. Merriman, The Rise of the Spanish Empire in the Old World and the New, Vol. IV (1934); F. Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (1949, tr. 1972); J. H. Elliot, Imperial Spain, 1469–1716 (1963); J. Lynch, Spain under the Hapsburgs (1969); G. Parker, Philip II (1978) and The Grand Strategy of Philip II (1998); H. Kamen, Philip of Spain (1997).

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Philip II, king of France

Philip II or Philip Augustus, 1165–1223, king of France (1180–1223), son of Louis VII. During his reign the royal domains were more than doubled, and the royal power was consolidated at the expense of the feudal lords. Philip defeated a coalition of Flanders, Burgundy, and Champagne (1181–86), securing Amiens, Artois, and part of Vermandois from the count of Flanders. He then attacked (1187) the English territories in France. Allied (Nov., 1188) with Richard, the rebellious son of King Henry II of England, Philip compelled Henry to cede several territories to him. After Henry's death (1189), Philip and Richard, now king of England (see Richard I), left (1190) on the Third Crusade (see Crusades). They soon quarreled, and after the capture of Acre (see Akko) Philip returned (1191) to France. Richard also left the crusade but was captured on his way home by Leopold V of Austria. During Richard's captivity (1192–94), Philip conspired against him with Richard's brother John. After his release Richard made war (1194–99) on Philip, compelling him to surrender most of his annexations. When John acceded to the English throne on Richard's death (1199), Philip espoused the cause of Arthur I of Brittany and invaded John's French domains, forcing him to surrender (1204) Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. Philip later conquered Poitou. In 1214, at Bouvines, the French defeated the allied forces of John, Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV, and the count of Flanders; it was a victory that established France as a leading European power. When the English barons revolted against John (1215), they invited Philip's son Louis (later Louis VIII of France) to invade England and take the English throne; the venture failed. During Philip's reign the pope proclaimed the Crusade against the Albigenses. Although Philip did not participate directly in the crusade, he allowed his vassals to do so. Their victories prepared the ground for the annexation of S France by King Louis IX. In internal affairs Philip's most important reform was the creation of a class of salaried administrative officers, the baillis [bailiffs], to supervise local administration of the domain. Philip also systematized the collection of customs, tolls, fines, and fees due to the crown. He supported the towns of France against the royal barons, thereby increasing their power and prosperity. In Paris, he continued the construction of Notre-Dame de Paris, built the first Louvre, paved the main streets, and walled the city.

Bibliography

See biography by W. H. Hutton (1896, repr. 1970); J. W. Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus (1986).

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Philip II, king of Macedon

Philip II, 382–336 B.C., king of Macedon (359–336 B.C.), son of Amyntas II. While a hostage in Thebes (367–364), he gained much knowledge of Greece and its people. He was appointed regent for Amyntas, young son of his brother Perdiccas III, but seized the throne for himself, ruthlessly suppressing foreign and Macedonian opposition. Reorganizing his army and training it in the effective Theban phalanx formation, he entered upon an ambitious career of expansion by conquest and diplomacy. In the first two years he moved eastward, taking over Amphipolis (357) and the gold mines of Thrace (356), in the same region where he had founded Philippi. In 351, Demosthenes, fearing Philip's encroachments, delivered in Athens the first of the denunciatory Philippics. By 348 Philip had annexed the Chalcidice (now Khalkidhikí), including Olynthus, and was involved in a war over Delphi between Phocis and its neighbors. In the settlement (346) Philip became a member of the Delphic council, with a recognized position in Greece. But Demosthenes continued to agitate, and when Philip moved to absorb the European side of the straits and the Dardanelles (340), Athens and Thebes went to war with him. Philip crushed them at Chaeronea (338). Now master of Greece, he established a federal system of Greek states. He was preparing an attack on Persia when he was killed. His wife, Olympias, was accused (probably falsely) of the murder. Philip's consolidation of his kingdom and his reduction of Greece to relative peace made possible the campaigns of his son, Alexander the Great. Philip was the true founder of Alexander's army and trained some of his best generals, e.g., Antigonus Cyclops, Antipater, Nearchus, Parmenion, and Perdiccas.

Bibliography

See D. G. Hogarth, Philip and Alexander of Macedon (1897, repr. 1984); S. Perlman, ed., Philip and Athens (1973).

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Philip II

 or Philip of Macedon

(born 382—died 336 BC, Asia Minor) Eighteenth king of Macedonia (359–336), father of Alexander the Great. Appointed regent for his nephew, he seized the throne. He initially promoted peace with his neighbours, using the time gained thereby to build his forces and introducing innovations in arms, tactics, and training and stabilizing his western frontier. His movements on the eastern frontier provoked the Greeks into forming a coalition against him. He intervened in the Sacred War to free Delphi from the Phocians, becoming the ally of Thebes and the Thessalian League, whose president he became. Demosthenes turned Athens against him with his Philippics (346–342), and Thebes also came to view Philip as a threat. He defeated both at the Battle of Chaeronea, becoming leader of all Greece. He formed the Greek states into the League of Corinth to attack Persia but was undone by family politics. After he took a second wife, his first wife, Olympias, left him, taking Alexander. Philip was assassinated by a Macedonian nobleman, possibly in collusion with Olympias and Alexander.

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Philip II

 French Philippe known as Philip the Bold

(born Jan. 17, 1342, Pontoise, France—died April 27, 1404, Halle, Brabant) Duke of Burgundy (1363–1404). He was granted the duchy of Burgundy by his father, John II, and by marriage and purchase he acquired additional lands in northern and central France, Flanders, and the Netherlands. He shared the government with his brothers during the minority of his nephew Charles VI, ensuring friendly relations with England and Germany. When Charles went insane (1392), Philip became virtual ruler of France. He formed an alliance with England (1396) and withdrew his support of the Avignon papacy (1398).

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Philip II

 French Philippe known as Philip Augustus

(born Aug. 21, 1165, Paris—died July 14, 1223, Mantes) French king (1179–1223). The first of the great Capetian kings, he gradually reconquered the French territories held by the kings of England. He joined with Richard I on the Third Crusade, but the two kings soon quarreled. Philip returned to France (1191) and attacked English possessions; imprisoned in Austria on his journey home, Richard was freed in 1194 and promptly went to war with the French. When Richard was killed (1199), his brother John signed a treaty with Philip (1200), but within two years France and England were again at war. Philip conquered Normandy (1204) and subdued Maine, Touraine, Anjou, and most of Poitou (1204–05). John later organized a coalition against France, but he was defeated by Philip at the Battle of Bouvines (1214). Philip also expanded his territory into Flanders and Languedoc.

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Philip II

 Spanish Felipe

Philip II, detail of an oil painting by Titian; in the Corsini Gallery, Rome.

(credit: Alinari/Art Resource, New York)

(born , May 21, 1527, Valladolid, Spain—died Sept. 13, 1598, El Escorial) King of Spain (1556–98) and of Portugal (as Philip I, 1580–98). The son of Emperor Charles V, Philip received from his father the duchy of Milan (1540), the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily (1554), the Netherlands (1555), and Spain and its overseas empire (1556). He ruled from the Netherlands from 1555 and waged a successful war against France in 1557. From 1559 he ruled from Spain, where he built the palace of El Escorial and encouraged Spain's literary golden age. He was a champion of the Counter-Reformation but failed to put down rebellions in the Netherlands (from 1568) and to conquer England, suffering the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588). He gained a victory in the Mediterranean with the defeat of the Ottoman offensive at the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and unified the Iberian Peninsula as king of Portugal from 1580. During his reign the Spanish empire attained its greatest power, extent, and influence.

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Philip II

1. 382--336 bc, king of Macedonia (359--336); the father of Alexander the Great

2. known as Philip Augustus. 1165--1223, Capetian king of France (1180--1223); set out on the Third Crusade with Richard I of England (1190)

3. 1527--98, king of Spain (1556--98) and, as Philip I, king of Portugal (1580--98); the husband of Mary I of England (1554--58). He championed the Counter-Reformation, sending the Armada against England (1588)