Felipe II

Philip II of Spain was the most powerful man of his age, for 40 years he ruled a quarter of the world’s population in an empire which ranged through Europe and the Americas, and across the Pacific to the Philippines (named after him). He is best known in association with the Spanish Armada and its defeat, but he came closer then to taking England by force than Napoleon or Hitler ever managed. Indeed, England had been a small part of his Catholic world empire while Philip was married to bloody Queen Mary.

Probably his greatest achievement was the Hispanisation and Catholicizing of Mexico, and Central and South America, but Philip’s refusal to trust anyone and his obsessions with religion, magic, the arts (Titian worked for him; Cervantes, Breughel and El Greco all came under his influence) are as important in appraising the man as his political achievements. Geoffrey Parker, the foremost authority on Philip II and his age, has used the primary source of Philip’s personal papers to create the most accurate and intimate portrait yet to emerge.

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