King Philip II of Spain

“ The abdication of his father on the 16th of January 1556 constituted Philip sovereign of Spain with its American possessions, of the Aragonese inheritance in Italy, Naples and Sicily, of the Burgundian inheritance—the Netherlands and Franche Comte, and of the duchy of Milan, which his father separated from the empire for his benefit. It was a legacy of immense responsibilities and perils, for France was bound in common prudence to endeavour to ruin a power which encircled her on every side save the sea and threatened her independence. ”

“ With these evil passions rankling in their bosoms, the Spaniards were gradually prepared for the consummation of their long train of persecutions by that last act, reserved for the reign of the imbecile Philip the Third,—the expulsion of the Moriscoes from the Peninsula,—an act which deprived Spain of the most industrious and ingenious portion of her population, and which must be regarded as one of the principal causes of the subsequent decline of the monarchy. ”

“ He showed courage on the field of battle, both in Italy and Spain, during the War of the Spanish Succession, and was flattered by his courtiers with the title of El Animoso, or the spirited. But he had no taste for military adventure. If he had a strong passion, it was to provide for his succession to the throne of France, if his nephew, Louis XV., should die, and he indulged in many intrigues against the house of Orleans, whose right to the succession was supposed to be secured by Philip's solemn renunciation of all claim to the French throne, when he became king of Spain. ”

“ Philip arrived at Madrid on the 18th of February. On the 21st of April he made a triumphal entry, with a magnificence calculated to flatter a chivalrous and high-spirited nation, and to display all the splendour of a crown esteemed by its subjects the most powerful in the whole Christian world. The eyes of Spain and of Europe were turned to the young king, who was to form the commencement of a new dynasty, and whose accession was a new era in the political history of modern times. ”

“ He postponed his decision until his arrival at Seville. Accompanied by the legate, on the first of May, he made his solemn entry into the great commercial capital of the South. It was his first visit there, and he was received with tumultuous joy by the loyal inhabitants. Loyalty to their monarchs has ever been a predominant trait of the Spaniards; and to none of their princes did they ever show it in larger measure than to Philip the Second. No one of them, certainly, was more thoroughly Spanish in his own nature, or more deeply attached to Spain. ”

“ Philip must therefore be held primarily responsible for the insane policy which brought Spain to ruin. He had a high ideal of his duty as a king to his own people, and had no natural preference for violent courses. ”

“ Philip's cavalry was further strengthened by a fine corps of Burgundian lances, and by a great number of nobles and cavaliers from Spain, who had come to gather laurels in the fields of France, under the eye of their young sovereign. The flower of his infantry, too, was drawn from Spain; men who, independently of the indifference to danger, and wonderful endurance, which made the Spanish soldier inferior to none of the time, were animated by that loyalty to the cause which foreign mercenaries could not feel. ”

“ Philip had not been many days in Valladolid when his presence was celebrated by one of those exhibitions, which, unhappily for Spain, maybe called national. This was an auto da fé, not, however, as formerly, of Jews and Moors, but of Spanish Protestants. The Reformation had been silently, but not slowly, advancing in the Peninsula; and intelligence of this, as we have already seen, was one cause of Philip's abrupt departure from the Netherlands. The brief but disastrous attempt at a religious revolution in Spain is an event of too much importance to be passed over in silence by the historian. ”

“ The people of Southampton seem to have been delighted with the personal appearance of the Spanish prince; contemporary documents describe him as possessing a “bright complexion,” which he certainly had not in ordinary life, and we may therefore conclude that he rouged for the occasion—a by no means unusual practice, even with men, in those days. Titian and Coelho have depicted Philip, and it would be hard to find a more unpleasing countenance than that of this Prince of Naples, soon (1556) to be King Philip II of Spain and emperor of half the known world ”

“ The capacity which he displayed, as well as his high rank, soon made him an object of attention; and as Philip grew in years, the duke of Alva was placed near his person, formed one of his council, and took part in the regency of Castile. He accompanied Philip on his journeys from Spain, and, as we have seen, made one of his retinue both in Flanders and in England. The duke was of too haughty and imperious a temper to condescend to those arts which are thought to open the most ready avenues to the favor of the sovereign. He met with rivals of a finer policy and more accommodating disposition. ”

“ The issue of the marriage, if a son, was to succeed to the English crown and to the Spanish possessions in Burgundy and the Low Countries. But in case of the death of Don Carlos, Philip's son, the issue of the present marriage was to receive, in addition to the former inheritance, Spain and her dependencies. The queen was never to leave her own kingdom without her express desire. Her children were not to be taken out of it without the consent of the nobles. In case of Mary's death, Philip was not to claim the right of taking part in the government of the country. ”

“ Though no other man should hold out in the Alpujarras, I would rather live and die a Mussulman than possess all the favours which King Philip can heap on me. At no time, and in no manner, will I ever consent to place myself in his power. ”

“ There seems to have been a mysterious fascination possessed by Philip, that he could thus draw within his reach the very men whom every motive of self-preservation should have kept at an immeasurable distance.
The arrival of the marquis did not expedite the business of the mission. Unfortunately, about that period news came to Madrid of the outbreak of the iconoclasts, exciting not merely in Spain, but throughout Christendom, feelings of horror and indignation. There was no longer a question as to a more temperate policy. The only thought now was of vengeance. ”

“ But Philip had not yet learned that he was dealing with men who had little of that spirit of subserviency to which he was accustomed in his Castilian vassals. The peremptory tone of his letter fired the blood of the Flemish lords, who at once waited on the regent, and announced their purpose not to reënter the council. The affair was not likely to end here; and Margaret saw with alarm the commotion that would be raised when the letter of the king should be laid before the whole body of the nobles. ”

“ In like manner, it was the revenues of the Netherlands which defrayed great part of Philip's expenses in the war that followed his accession. "Here," exclaims the Venetian envoy, Soriano, "were the true treasures of the king of Spain; here were his mines, his Indies, which furnished Charles with the means of carrying on his wars for so many years with the French, the Germans, the Italians, which provided for the defence of his own states, and maintained his dignity and reputation." ”

“ Some of these, and among the number Espinosa, president of the council of Castile, entertained great doubts as to the policy of binding Spain by a formal treaty with the Venetian republic. But, with all his distrust of that power, Philip took a broader view of the matter than his ministers. Independently of his willingness to present himself before the world as the great champion of the Faith, he felt that such an alliance offered the best opportunity for crippling the maritime power of Turkey, and thus providing for the safety of his own colonial possessions in the Mediterranean. ”

“ Coming to the throne at the age of sixteen, he did the wisest thing he could by allowing himself to be guided by the most capable man he could find. His favourite, Olivares, was a far more honest man than the duke of Lerma, and was more fit for the place of prime minister than any Spaniard of the time. But Philip IV. had not the strength of mind to free himself from the influence of Olivares when he had grown to manhood. The amusements which the favourite had encouraged became the business of the king's life. ”

“ In every walk were to be seen the symptoms of premature decrepitude, as the nation clung to the antiquated systems which the march of civilization in other countries had long since effaced. Hence those frantic experiments, so often repeated, in the financial administration of the kingdom, which made Spain the byword of the nations, and which ended in the ruin of trade, the prostration of credit, and finally the bankruptcy of the state.—But we willingly turn from this sad picture of the destinies of the country to a more cheerful scene in the history of Philip. ”

“ So soon as Philip should be settled in Spain, it had been arranged that his young bride, Elizabeth of France, should cross the Pyrenees. Early in January, 1560, Elizabeth,—or Isabella, to use the corresponding name by which she was known to the Spaniards,—under the protection of the Cardinal de Bourbon and some of the French nobility, reached the borders of Navarre, where she was met by the duke of Infantado, who was to take charge of the princess, and escort her to Castile.
Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, fourth duke of Infantado, was the head of the most illustrious house in Castile. ”

“ These gentle professions weighed little with those who, like the prince of Orange, had surer means of arriving at the king's intent than what were afforded by the royal correspondence. Montigny, the Flemish envoy, was still in Madrid, held there, sorely against his will, in a sort of honorable captivity by Philip. In a letter to his brother, Count Hoorne, he wrote: "Nothing can be in worse odor than our affairs at the court of Castile. The great lords, in particular, are considered as the source of all the mischief. ”

“ I left your royal mother sick at heart, Bereft of every joy save only this, To know her daughter happy on the throne Of our imperial Spain. QUEEN. Could she be aught But happy in the dear remembrances Of relatives so kind—in the sweet thoughts Of the old time when—Sir, you've visited Full many a court in these your various travels, And seen strange lands and customs manifold; And now, they say, you mean to keep at home A greater prince in your retired domain Than is King Philip on his throne—a freer. You're a philosopher; but much I doubt If our Madrid will please you. ”

“ Extensive grounds were also laid out around the palace, and a park was formed, which in time came to be covered with a growth of noble trees, and well stocked with game. The alcazar, thus improved, became a fitting residence for the sovereign of Spain. Indeed, if we may trust the magnificent vaunt of a contemporary, it was "allowed by foreigners to be the rarest thing of the kind possessed by any monarch in Christendom." [481] It continued to be the abode of the Spanish princes until, in 1734, in the reign of Philip the Fifth, the building was destroyed by a fire, which lasted nearly a week. ”

“ On the second of March, 1568, the Emperor Maximilian, in the name of the electors, addressed a letter to Philip, in behalf of his oppressed subjects in the Netherlands. He reminded the king that he had already more than once, and in most affectionate terms, interceded with him for a milder and more merciful policy towards his Flemish subjects. He entreated his royal kinsman to reflect whether it were not better to insure the tranquillity of the state by winning the hearts of his people, than by excessive rigor to drive them to extremity. ”

“ Leyva was put in irons, and lodged in the fortress of Madrid; while his rival was sent to the tower of Simancas. "It is thought they will pay for this outrage with their lives," writes the Tuscan minister, Nobili. "The king," he adds, "has even a mind to cashier his guard for allowing them to escape." Philip, however, confined the punishment of the nobles to banishment from court; and the old courtier, Mendoza, profited by his exile to give to the world those remarkable compositions, both in history and romance, that form an epoch in the national literature. ”

“ This uncompromising spirit of Spain in religious matters its king wished to extend to the rest of his dominions. Philip had none of his father s personal activity. Though his mind was always engaged in the business of the state, he did not care for the excitement of personal conflict. He was no warrior, and never took the field. He felt himself best qualified to direct his policy from afar. ”

“ The revolt of the Netherlands against Spanish rule, of which the Prince of Orange was the principal figure, originated in religious{112} conflicts between the Netherlanders—most of whom were Calvinists or Lutherans—and the bigoted King of Spain, Philip the Second, who was more Catholic than the Pope himself. It was one of the fixed ideas of Philip the Second, a perfect monomania, that in the immense empire over which he ruled, none but faithful believers in the Catholic faith should be tolerated, and that all heretics or dissidents should be exterminated with fire and sword. ”