Download Biography of Philip II of Spain

Biography of Philip II of Spain
PHILIP II, King of Spain, the only son of the German Emperor, Charles V, and Isabella
of Portugal, was born at Valadolid, May 21st, 1527. While still very young, he was
intrusted, under the direction of a Council, with the government of Spain, and in 1543 he
espoused Mary of Portugal, who died three years after. In 1548 he went to join his father
at Brussels. While there he was presented to his future subjects, and was at the same time
fully initiated into his father's policy, the two chief items of which were the maintenance
and extension of absolute rule throughout his dominions, and the support and propagation
of the Catholic religion. In 1554 he married Mary Tudor, Queen of England, and, to gain
the support of that country to his political projects, and at the same time restore it to the
Roman Catholic pale, he labored to ingratiate himself with his wife's subjects, taking the
greatest care to avoid exciting the national jealousy of foreign influence. But his plans
were discovered and frustrated, and this disappointment prompted him to leave England
and return to Brussels (September 1555).
In the following month he became, by the abdication of his father, the most powerful
potentate of Europe, having under his sway, Spain, the two Sicilies, the Milanese, the
Low Countries, Franche Comte, Mexico and Peru; his European territories being more
fertile, and their inhabitants more wealthy and prosperous than any others on the
continent, while his army was the best disciplined, and headed by the greatest generals of
the age. Philip was eager to begin the crusade in favor of Catholicism, but he was obliged
to postpone it, owing to a league which had been formed between France, the Pope, and
the Sultan, to deprive him of his Italian dominions. He soon got over his religious
scruples at engaging in warfare with the Pope, and intrusted the defense of the Sicilies to
Alva, who speedily drove out the Pope and French, and conquered the Papal territories,
while Philip himself vigorously prosecuted the war against France in the north, and
defeated the French at St. Quentin (August 10th, 1557), and Gravelines (July 13th, 1558).
These reverses forced the French to agree to terms of peace at Chateau-Cambresis (April
2nd, 1559). Philip's wife was now dead, and after an unsuccessful attempt to obtain the
hand of her successor, Queen Elizabeth, he espoused Isabella of France, and returned to
Spain, where from this time he always resided. He now set about establishing absolute
government in those of his states that were in possession of something like free
institutions, and with this view, sought to introduce the Inquisition into the Low
Countries and Italy. But the introduction of this instrument of tyranny was successfully
resisted in Naples and by the Milanese; in Sicily its powers were so shackled as to render
it quite a harmless institution; but these failures only stimulated him the more to establish
it in all its pride and power in the Low Countries. For a number of years it continued in
vigorous action in that country; but the natural result of such a course of conduct was a
formidable rebellion of all classes, Catholic and Protestant, which was partially
successful - the northern portion (the seven united provinces) establishing its
independence in 1579. In 1580 the direct male line of Portugal having become extinct,
Philip laid claim to the throne, and after the Duke of Alva had occupied the kingdom with
an army, the Spanish monarch's title was recognized by the Portuguese estates. His
enmity to England on account of the anti-Spanish policy of Queen Elizabeth, incited him
to attempt the conquest of that country, but his most formidable attempt failed signally.
After the accession of Catharine de Medicis to power, France and Spain drew closer the
bonds of amity which had previously subsisted between the two countries; but the refusal
of Catharine to adopt Philip's plan for the wholesale slaughter of heretics, produced a
coolness in their relations. However, when Henry, King of Navarre, a Huguenot, became
heir-presumptive to the throne, Philip allied himself with the Guises and other chiefs of
the Catholic party who were in rebellion, and his obstinate persistence in these intrigues
after the cause of the Guises was shown to be hopeless, prompted Henry to declare war
against him. The Spaniards had the worst of it, and Philip was glad to conclude the treaty
of Veroins (May 2nd, 1598). He died in the Escurial at Madrid, September 13th of the
same year.
Biography of Henry IV of France
HENRY IV, King of France and Navarre, surnamed "The Great," and "The Good," was
born in Bearn in 1553. Henry was the third son of Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d'
Albret, daughter and heiress of Henry, King of Navarre and Bearn. His father's death
placed him under the sole control Of his mother and grandfather, at whose court he was
trained to the practice of knightly and athletic exercises, and inured to the active habits
and rude fare of the Bernals mountaineers. His mother, who was a zealous Calvinist, was
careful to select learned men holding her own tenets for his instruction; and having
discovered that a plot was brooding to remove him to Spain by force, to train him in the
Catholic faith, she conducted him in 1569 to La Rochelle, and presented him to the
assembled Huguenot army, with whom he participated in the battle of Jarnac. Henry was
now chosen chief of the Protestant party, although on account of his youth the principal
command was vested in Coligny. Notwithstanding the defeats which the Huguenots had
experienced in this campaign, the peace of St. Germain, which followed, was apparently
most advantageous to their cause, and was speedily followed by a contract of marriage
betwegn Henry and Margaret of Valois, the sister, of Charles IX. After much opposition
on the part of both Catholics and Protestants, the marriage was celebrated with great
pomp in 1572, two months after the sudden death of Queen Jeanne, which was probably
due to poison, and within less than a week of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. It had
been originally intended that Henry should share the fate of his friends and coreligionists; but his life was spared on condition of his professing himself a Catholic.
Three years he remained at the French court, virtually a prisoner; but at length, in 1576,
Henry contrived to elude the vigilance of the queen-mother, and escaped to the camp of
the Huguenots in Alencon, where having revoked his compulsory conversion, he resumed
command of the army, and by his address gained several signal advantages, which
constrained the King to consent to a peace highly favorable to the cause of the reformers.
The death of the Duke of Anjuo (late Alencon), gave Henry the rank as first prince of the
blood royal, of presumptive heir to the crown, while the murder of Henry III in 1589,
made him, in right of the Salic law, and as the nearest lineal male descendant of the royal
house of France, rightful King of France. As a Protestant, lying under the ban of papal
excommunication, he was obnoxious to the greater part of the nation; and finding that the
Dukes of Lorraine and Savoy and Philip II of Spain, were preparing, each on his own
account, to dispute his claims, he retired to the south until he could collect more troops
and obtain reinforcements from England and Germany. His nearly hopeless cause
however gradually gained strength through the weakness and internal dissensions of the
Linguists, who proclaimed the aged Cardinal Bourbon, King, with the Duke of Mayenne
as lieutenant-general of the Kingdom, and thus still further complicated the interests of
their party. In 1590, Henry won a splendid victory over Mayenne at Ivry. In 1593, the
assembly of the states-general, by rejecting the pretensions of Philip II, and insisting on
the integrity of the Salic law; smoothed Henry's way to the succession, although it is
probable that he would never have been generally acknowledged had he not, by the
advise of his friend and minister, DeRosny, afterwards Duke de Sully, formally professed
himself a member of the Church of Rome.
In the year 1598, peace was concluded between Spain and France by the treaty of
Vervins, which restored to the latter many important places in Picardy, and was otherwise
favorable to the French King; but important as was this event, it was preceded by a still
more memorable act, for on the 15th of April, Henry had signed an edict at Nantes, by
which he secured to Protestants perfect liberty of conscience, and the administration of
impartial justice. Henry was now at liberty to direct his attention to the internal
improvement of the Kingdom, which had been thoroughly disorganized by the long
continuance of civil war. By making canals and roads; and thus opening all parts of his
Kingdom to commerce and traffic, he established new sources of wealth and prosperity
for all classes of his subjects. The mainspring of these improvements however, was the
reorganization of the finances under Sully, who, in the course of ten years, reduced the
national debt from 330 millions to 50 millions of livrea although arrears of taxes to the
amount of 20 millions were remitted during that period. On the 14th of May, the day after
the coronation of his second wife, Mary de' Medicis, and when about to set out to
commence war in Germany, Henry was assassinated by a fanatic named Ravaillac.
Nineteen times before attempts had been made on his life, most of which had been traced
to the agency of the papal and imperial courts, and hence the people in their grief and
consternation, laid Ravaillac's crime to the charge of the same influences. The grief of the
Parisians was well nigh delirious, and in their fury they wreaked horrible vengence on the
murderer, who, however, had been a mere tool in the hands of the Jesuits, Henry's
implacable foes, notwithstanding the many concessions which he had made to that order.
Time has strengthened the high estimate which the lower classes had formed of their
favorite King, for although his faults were numerous, they were eclipsed by his great
qualities.
Biography: Catherine de’ Medici
Catherine de' Medici was married to the French King Henry II (1519– 1559) and was
mother and regent (one who governs a kingdom in the absence of the real ruler) of three
other kings—Francis II (1544–1560), Charles IX (1550–1574), and Henry III (1551–
1589). She had great influence over her sons and is thought by some to have authorized
the famous Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day in 1572.
Early life
Catherine was born in 1519 to a powerful Italian prince from the Medici family. Her
mother died a few days after giving birth, and her father died a week later. Her father's
relatives, among them popes Leo X (1475–1521) and Clement VII (1478–1534), took
over her care. At the time of her birth, the Reformation was beginning with Martin
Luther's (1483–1546) criticism of the Roman Catholic Church. It soon spread throughout
Europe. Protestants, as they came to be called, sought a truer form of their faith than that
offered by the political and often corrupt (engaging in unlawful activity) Catholic
Church. French Protestants were known as Huguenots, and the rapid growth of their
numbers soon made them a powerful force in French affairs.
In 1533 Pope Clement arranged the marriage of fourteen-year-old Catherine to fourteenyear-old Henry, the duke of Orleans and younger son of King Francis I (1494–1547) of
France. Catherine eventually gave birth to ten children, beginning in 1543. The death of
her husband's older brother in 1536 made Henry and Catherine next in line for the throne.
Catherine's husband, now Henry II, had been cared for at age eleven by Diane de Poitiers,
who was twenty years his senior. Despite this age difference, they became lovers, and
throughout most of Henry's reign as king of France, which began in 1547,
.
Diane had more influence over him than Catherine did. Diane was even given
responsibility for raising Catherine's children.
Teenage kings
The Catholic leaders of France and Spain made peace in 1559 partly because they needed
money but also so they could unite against Protestantism. The treaty was sealed by the
marriage of Philip II (1527–1598) of Spain to Elisabeth, the teenage daughter of
Catherine and King Henry. At the joust (a fight on horseback) held during the wedding
celebrations, however, King Henry was injured by a lance that pierced his eye and
entered his brain. Henry's death a few days later brought his and Catherine's oldest son,
sixteen-year-old Francis II, to the throne.
Sensing an opportunity, Huguenot leaders quickly organized a plot to take over the court
of Francis II. Their plan failed, and the royal army arrested the leaders, executing fiftyseven of them. This did not end the conflicts in France; from this time forward, the
Huguenot Navarre family and the Catholic Guise family began a long struggle. The death
of Francis II the following year made Catherine regent for her second son Charles, who
became King Charles IX at the age of ten. Through much of the 1560s, the two religious
groups were at war while Catherine and Charles tried to avoid siding completely with
either camp. Catherine tried to keep the country running smoothly in the face of this
constant tension. The feud between the Navarre and Guise families became worse when
the Huguenot leader Admiral Gaspard de Coligny (1519–1572) ordered the assassination
of the duke of Guise in 1563.
The Peace of St. Germain
The signing of the Peace of St. Germain in 1570 brought a temporary end to a decade of
war. Among the treaty's provisions were the decisions that Catherine's daughter
Marguerite would marry Henry of Navarre (1553–1610), the Huguenot leader, that the
Huguenots would be given several territories throughout France, and that Coligny would
return to his position in the royal court. Catherine hoped he might act to calm his fellow
Huguenots while she played the same role among Catholics. But Coligny quickly moved
to become a friend and adviser of King Charles IX, leading many to believe he was
planning another takeover.
Catherine decided to dispose of Gaspard de Coligny once and for all. She accepted an
offer from the Guise party to have him assassinated, hoping that it would lead to revived
power for her own party. The assassin shot Coligny but failed to kill him. After talking to
Catherine and his younger brother Henry, Charles finally accepted their claim that
Coligny was using him, that Coligny planned to overthrow the whole Catholic court, and
he and the other Huguenot leaders should now be finished off. According to his brother
Henry's diary, Charles at last shouted, "Kill the Admiral if you wish; but you must also
kill all the Huguenots, so that not one is left alive to reproach (oppose) me. Kill them all!"
Massacre and more conflict
At two in the morning on August 24, Saint Bartholomew's Day, 1572, Catholic troops
moved to kill the injured Coligny and other Huguenot leaders. Eventually all sense of
order broke down; looting and fighting broke out across Paris, and over two thousand
men, women, and children wound up dead. Catherine was reported to have ordered the
attacks, but this has never been completely proved. Another civil war began, but by a
strange turn of events, leadership of the Huguenot party now fell to Catherine's youngest
son Francis, duke of Alençon. Placing himself at the head of the Protestant forces and
dreaming of a crown, he declared that his older brother Henry, who had just been elected
to the throne of Poland, was no longer available to rule France.
The departure of Catherine's third son, Henry, to take over the throne of Poland prompted
another Huguenot uprising. With her usual energy, Catherine organized forces to stop it,
and with her usual decisiveness, she witnessed the executions of its leaders. She also
witnessed the death of her son King Charles, aged twenty-four. She recalled her favorite,
Henry, to take over as king. Henry III was crowned in 1575 and married, but he had no
children who might eventually assume the throne. He also had disagreements with the
Guise family, which complicated things. Catherine urged Henry to settle his differences
with the Guise family for the sake of national and Catholic security.
Catherine remained politically active until the end of her life, touring France on Henry's
behalf and trying to maintain the loyalty of its many war-torn territories. She also built up
a huge collection of books and paintings, and she built or enlarged some of Paris's finest
buildings. In 1589 she became ill while dancing at the marriage of one of her
granddaughters. She died on January 5, living just long enough to hear that Henry's
bodyguards had murdered Guise, which she saw as a rejection by her son of all that she
had worked for. Later that year, Henry III was assassinated. In another twist, it was the
Huguenot prince Henry of Navarre who took over the throne; he was unable to sit upon it
until he adopted the Catholic faith in 1593 with the famous remark, "Paris is worth a
Mass."
Biography: Cardinal Richelieu
Cardinal Richelieu devoted himself to securing French leadership in Europe and
increasing King Louis XIII's (1601–1643) power within France.
Early life
Armand-Jean du Plessis de Richelieu was born on September 9, 1585, in Paris, fourth of
the five children of François du Plessis, the lord of Richelieu, and Suzanne de La Porte.
His father was the head of King Henry III's (1551–1589) central administration and also
served Henry IV (1553–1610) before dying in 1590 of a fever. His mother was forced to
move the family to the home of her mother-in-law. Armand, who throughout his life
suffered from different illnesses, returned to Paris to study at the College de Navarre,
from which he went on to a military academy. The family planned for his brother
Alphonse to become bishop of Luçon, France, but Alphonse decided to become a monk.
Because it would help the family, Armand volunteered to take his brother's place, and in
1603 he began studying religion. He went to Rome in 1607 and was named a bishop by
the pope. He returned to Paris and obtained his degree in theology (religious studies).
Career as bishop
In 1608 Richelieu arrived in Luçon and began his duties as bishop. In 1614 he was
elected as a representative of religion in the Estates General (the legislature). At the
suggestion of Maria de' Medici (1573–1642), who was the head of a council that was
ruling on behalf of her young son Louis XIII, Richelieu was chosen to speak at the last
session of the Estates. He then went back to Luçon, but a year later returned to Paris and
was appointed secretary of state for foreign affairs and war. He held the post for only five
months before Louis XIII seized power in April 1617 and dismissed his mother's staff
members. In 1618 Richelieu was ordered into exile in the city of Avignon, France.
Some of Louis XIII's advisers believed that Richelieu would be a calming influence on
the king's mother, so the king recalled him in March 1619 and ordered him to resume
serving her. Richelieu helped settle several disputes between the king and his mother.
The queen mother wanted the king to help Richelieu become a cardinal; she hoped to
control royal policy through the influence Richelieu would have as a member of the
king's council. The resistance of the king and his ministers gradually crumbled; in
September 1622 the pope appointed Richelieu a cardinal, and in April 1624 the king
called Richelieu to his council.
Position as minister
Richelieu remained the king's principal minister until his death, and he was made a duke
in 1631. He gradually built up in the council a group of men, his "creatures," who were
loyal to him as well as to the king. These men kept him informed of possible threats
against the king, giving him time to foil any takeover attempts. He also relied on his
family, which he extended by carefully arranging marriages of his nieces and cousins into
great families. He made it clear that he was loyal to the king.
Many Catholics, including the queen mother, regarded Huguenots (French Protestants,
who opposed many decisions made by the pope and placed less emphasis on ceremonies
than Catholics did) as the enemy and insisted that they be dealt with. Richelieu agreed
with them up to a point, taking over the Huguenot city of La Rochelle, France, and
cooperating on a program of reforms. But he allowed the Huguenots to continue
practicing their religion as long as they stayed loyal to the king, and his advice to Louis
XIII on other matters caused the queen mother to finally break with Richelieu in 1630.
The king then removed her people from his court.
Foreign policy
Richelieu wanted France to become the leading power in Europe. He knew that the
country would eventually have to go to war with Spain, which at the time was a part of
the Hapsburg empire (an empire that was made up of parts of the present-day countries of
Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, and others). While he reorganized the
French army and established a navy, Richelieu encouraged German resistance to the
Hapsburg emperor in Vienna, figuring this would buy the French some time while the
Hapsburg king in Spain focused his attention on controlling Germany. He also gave
money to the Dutch Republic and the Swedish warrior king Gustavus Adolphus
(Gustavus II; 1594–1632) to help them in their fight against the Hapsburgs. Eventually
France was drawn into war, which was still going on when Richelieu died on December
4, 1642, having served his country to the best of his ability.
Biography: James I of England
James, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots and Henry Darnley, was born in Edinburgh
Castle in 1566. The marriage was not a happy one and when Darnley was mysteriously
killed while recovering from smallpox at Glasgow in January 1567, when the house in
which he was in was blown up by gunpowder.
Suspicion fell on Mary and her close friend, the Earl of Bothwell. When Mary married
Bothwell two months later, the Protestant lords rebelled against their queen. After her
army was defeated at Langside in 1567, Mary fled to England.
James was proclaimed king and during his infancy and power was held by a series of
regents. The most important of these was James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton. Douglas
was executed in 1581 and the following year James was kidnapped by William Ruthven.
However, he escaped ten months later. He then came under the influence of the Earl of
Arran until he was removed from power in 1585 and was replaced by John Maitland.
Over the next few years James managed to strengthen the power of the crown over
Parliament and the Church of Scotland. He also successfully developed good relations
with the government in England.
Elizabeth ordered Mary, Queen of Scots execution in 1587. James accepted the decision
and two years later married Anne of Denmark. On the death of Elizabeth in 1603, James,
became king of England. He moved to London and although he promised he would make
regular visits to Scotland he did not return for thirteen years.
The Catholics in England were upset that there was going to be another Protestant
monarch. They also became very angry when James passed a law that imposed heavy
fines on people who did not attend Protestant church services.
In 1605 a small group of Catholics, led by a man called Robert Catesby, devised a
scheme to kill James and as many Members of Parliament as possible. Catesby planned
to James's young daughter, Elizabeth, queen. In time, Catesby hoped to arrange
Elizabeth's marriage to a Catholic nobleman.
Catesby's plan involved blowing up the Houses of Parliament on 5th November. This
date was chosen because James was due to open Parliament on that day. At first the
group tried to tunnel under Parliament. This plan changed when a member of the group
was able to hire a cellar under the House of Lords. The plotters then filled the cellar with
barrels of gunpowder.
One of the people involved in the Gunpowder Plot was Sir Thomas Tresham. He was
worried that the explosion would kill his friend and brother-in-law, Lord Monteagle.
Tresham therefore sent Lord Monteagle a letter warning him not to attend the House of
Lords on 5th November. Lord Monteagle became suspicious and passed the letter to
Robert Cecil, the king's chief minister. Cecil quickly organized a thorough search of the
Houses of Parliament. While searching the cellars below the House of Lords they found
the gunpowder and Guy Fawkes, one of the men involved in the plot.
Within a few weeks the other conspirators were either killed resisting arrest or executed
after being found guilty of treason. This is the traditional story of the Gunpowder Plot.
However, in recent years some historians have begun to question this version of events.
Some have argued that the plot was really devised by Robert Cecil. This version claims
that Cecil blackmailed Catesby into organising the plot. It is argued hat Cecil's aim was
to make people in England hate Catholics. For example, people were so angry after they
found out about the plot, that they agreed to Cecil's plans to pass a series of laws
persecuting Catholics.
James VI of Scotland and James I of England, died in 1625, and was replaced by his son
Charles I.