17C - Case Study: Who is Philip II? (Lesson)
Case Study: Who is Philip II?
"The Golden Age of Spain" was in the 16th century and Spain's power reached its height under Philip II.
Philip II became king of Spain in January 1556. He considered himself to be a traditional Spanish man – he had a love of music and art. He had a wonderful collection of masterpieces at the Escorial – his palace outside of Madrid. Philip II was a cultivated man who read widely and was good at history and politics but poor at languages. He was passionate about collecting rare books and works of art. He was a deeply religious man and the Escorial was the home for a Hieronymite monastery and church. Even though the Escorial is considered Philip's palace, his rooms were spartan and contained few pieces of furniture. It would have surprised visitors expecting to see the palace of Europe's richest man.
Philip II married four times to:
- Maria Manuela of Portugal
- Mary Tudor of England
- Elizabeth of Valois (in France)
- Anne of Austria
Philip's great failing was himself – he mistrusted his own judgment and relied on the advice of others. However, he frequently distrusted the advice of his advisors as well so any decisions that had to be made took a great deal of time to finalize. Why did Philip distrust his own instincts and the advice of others? Many believe that he had a chronic lack of self-confidence.
The Spanish Empire was huge and many day-to-day issues had to be dealt with.
The one great advantage of taking time to make a decision was that long term policies could be cultivated to achieve long term results. Philip II wanted to "Castilise" Spain and all the most important government positions went to Castilians. Philip had his advisors but he ruled as an absolute ruler and he was a firm believer in the divine right of kings – that God had appointed him as king and that as God could not make a mistake neither could Philip.
Excerpt above from Philip II, The Man by TheHistoryLearningSite. The full text article can be found by clicking here Links to an external site..
Under his reign:
- The Escorial was built to demonstrate his authority
- His power was reinforced through numerous court rituals
- The Inquisition was instituted in order to eliminate opposition to the state religion
However, not everything remained "golden":
- Spanish economy declined in the 1600's
- Colonial trade fell substantially
- Middle class Muslims and Jews were expelled, hurting the economy further and stymieing future intellectual growth
- English and Dutch became major competitors in the market
- Treasury is bankrupted
- Inflation nearly destroys domestic industry
- Spanish Armada was defeated, signaling the end of Spanish domination of the seas
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