Felipe II.

Title

Felipe II.

Description

Lithograph showing "Philip II on Horseback" after the original painting, ca. 1628 by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). A portrait of Philip II of Spain (1527-1598) on horseback.

ca. 1850

Artist

Anonymus

Historical Description

Philip II - Spanish Felipe II - ( 1527 - 1598) was a Spanish monarch from the Habsburg dynasty. As the only surviving legitimate son of Charles V, Philip ruled the Kingdom of Castile and León, the Kingdom of Aragon, the Kingdom of Valencia, the Kingdom of Navarre, the Principality of Catalonia, the Spanish Netherlands, the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Kingdom of Sicily, the Duchy of Milan, the Spanish colonial empire and, from 1580, as Philip I, also the Kingdom of Portugal and its colonies in personal union. Philip II was a devout Catholic and vehemently advocated the Counter-Reformation. He saw himself called upon to enforce Catholicism in the countries he ruled and to forcefully push back the increasingly strong Protestantism (Spanish Inquisition). This led to ongoing military conflicts with the Netherlands (Eighty Years' War 1568-1648) and England (Anglo-Spanish War 1585-1604), against which he sent the Armada in 1588 to no avail. Due to the enormous gold and silver supplies from the American possessions, the Spanish world empire under Philip reached the peak of its global supremacy, which also led to a high flowering of art and culture (Siglo de Oro). Due to numerous military conflicts, however, Spain was already in decline toward the end of his reign, and it had to be rebuilt three times.