PHILIP II. OF SPAIN.
1527-1598 A.D.
“Princes who would their people should do well,
Must at themselves begin, as at the head;
For men, by their example, pattern out
Their imitations and regard of laws:
A virtuous court a world to virtue draws.”—Ben Jonson.
CHARLES V. of Spain, the father of Philip II., was the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella. Through his father he inherited the Netherlands and part of Burgundy, and at the age of nineteen became emperor of Germany. He had received the throne of Spain when sixteen years of age. When his son Philip had attained sufficient age to assume the throne, Charles V. abdicated in his favor, and retired to a convent, where he died in 1558 in the fifty-ninth year of his age. Philip II., his son, was born at Valladolid in 1527. His mother, Isabella, was the daughter of Emanuel, king of Portugal. Philip was but twelve years old at the time of his mother’s death. In 1543 Philip married Mary, daughter of the king of Portugal. Both bride and bridegroom were eighteen years of age. Mary died in a short time, leaving an infant son named Don Carlos. Catharine of Aragon, the youngest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, married King Henry VIII. of England. Their daughter Mary became the second wife of King Philip II. of Spain. She was eleven years older than Philip, and was unattractive in person and a bigot in religion. Her cruelty in persecuting those whom she regarded as heretics has given her in history the name of “Bloody Mary.”