PHILIP II, King of SPAIN. - Born in Valladolid on 21 May 1527 to Charles V and Isabella of Portugal.
His tutors, in addition to his mother, were Don Juan de Zúñiga and Don Juan Martínez Silíceo; from his father he received a political and diplomatic education, in which he first demonstrated his abilities when, in 1543, he governed in the emperor’s absence. In 1554 he went to England to marry Queen Mary the Catholic; however, this marriage did not achieve the lasting political effect that the emperor had expected.
Philip II was deeply committed to the Catholic cause and to the defense of Spanish interests. For example, in 1567 he requested Jesuit missionaries for Peru, including St. Francis Borgia, and provided them with generous support; similarly, in 1571 he did the same for the Jesuits sent to Mexico. To Francisco Toledo, viceroy of Peru in 1568, Philip II entrusted the task of "doctrina y conversión de los naturales" with great effectiveness; however, he rejected Pope Gregory XIII’s proposal to establish an apostolic nuncio for Spain’s American possessions, wishing to maintain exclusive control over those regions. He showed similar interest in missions in the East, supporting the bishopric established by Sixtus V in Japan in 1588 and promoting Dominican missions in France and the Philippines.
Convinced that Rome was not zealously advancing the cause of reform nor sufficiently appreciating his political directives, Philip II occasionally opposed measures taken by the Holy See. When the Holy See refused to yield its rights, tensions arose—most notably during the controversy surrounding Bartolomé Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo, who was prosecuted by the Spanish Inquisition with the king’s support; when Rome took the case upon itself, Philip II was even threatened with excommunication. Another serious dispute between Spain and the Holy See arose from the stance of the governor of Milan, the Duke of Albuquerque, in matters of jurisdiction vis-à-vis St. Charles Borromeo. However, the most serious conflict stemmed from the promulgation of the bull *In coena Domini* (1568), which provoked fierce disputes in the Kingdom of Naples due to the refusal of the Council of Castile to grant the *evacuatur*. These jurisdictional disputes nearly jeopardized the expedition then being prepared against the Turks. Fortunately, the anti-Ottoman cause prevailed, and the undertaking culminated in the Battle of Lepanto (7 October 1571).
Yet alongside this victory, the reign of Philip II also saw defeats. The rebellion of the Netherlands against Spanish fiscal and religious policies continued to trouble the king, even after Alexander Farnese had reconquered the southern provinces; the seven northern provinces, united in the Union of Utrecht (1576), continued their struggle under the leadership of the House of Orange until their independence was recognized.
While this exhausting conflict persisted, Philip II sought to intervene in the religious wars plaguing France, aiming to secure Catholic victory and thus influence beyond the Pyrenees. Similarly, he clashed with England. The dispute reached its most dramatic phase when the question of Mary, Queen of Scots, drew him into the conflict. The Spanish fleet destined to invade and subdue England—the famous *Invincible Armada*, composed of 130 ships—was destroyed first by storms and then by the enemy (27 June 1588), and instead it was Cadiz that suffered the shame and damage of an English raid. Meanwhile, as the long religious crisis in France was resolved by Henry of Bourbon, Philip was forced to recognize the new order and accept the Peace of Vervins (2 May 1598). The king’s constitution, though weakened by the strain, held out for a few more months. He died at El Escorial on 9 October 1598 (Clement VIII, in his address of 9 October 1598, recalled his services to Catholicism).
The turbulent life of this long reign was entirely shaped by the grave demands imposed by the vastness of his dominions. Immense in extent, his empire was weakened by the dispersion of its parts; while Spanish dominance at sea was challenged by the rising power of England, and in the Mediterranean by the Turks. To this was added the economic and social crisis in Spain, which would worsen under his successors. There was also the unrest in Aragon, which resented the king’s Castilian policies. Yet alongside these early signs of decline, the reign was marked by the splendor of the court and by intellectual and artistic brilliance, and it stood, on a political-religious level, as one of the most solid pillars of the Catholic counteroffensive against the Protestant world. — See pl. LXXXVI.