The son of Charles I of Spain and V of Germany, Philip II was the Spanish king that made the nation reach its climax, but also started its downfall.
A king who experienced kingship before sitting on the throne, being in charge of administration whenever his father was busy with the conflicts on the Netherlands and Germany. After becoming the king, Philip received the territories of Castile, Aragon, Naples, Sicily, and Milan, while his brother received the Holy Germanic Empire. Counting with territories in America, Africa, and Asia, Philip’s empire became so large that he could safely say the sun never set in it. His marriage with Maria Tudor also made him consort king of England and Ireland, but the queen passed away soon, depriving him of control over those territories. His later victory in the battle of Alcántara allowed him to be king of Portugal as well, being the first king to rule the entire Iberian Peninsula.
During his reign, Philip II made Madrid the new capital of Spain, Toledo having been the capital until then. The military forces, consisting on
The Greatest and Most Fortunate Army
La Grande y Felicísima Armada
on the sea and the tercios on the earth, were the greatest of the epoch. However, the defeat of the navy by a storm (distorted in history as a victory of Francis Drake), and the bad managing of the expenses caused the downfall of the empire, with Philip having to declare bankrupt three times.
Philip’s love for religion and the Old Testament made him want to build the monastery of El Escorial, a complex said to have been built over a gate to hell, as a copy of the Temple of Jerusalem. This building has been since then the place of burial of the Spanish sovereigns. However, despite being a sacred edifice, Philip’s last days were full of darkness and agony. His gout worsened, swelling his lower body. He filled his chamber with sacred relics and decorated the palace with the representations of hell painted by El Bosco. He suffered a paroxysm an hour and a half before his death, making people believe he had passed away, but suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed his father’s crucifix. The day of his demise was a 13
th, a number associated with death, change and transformation. His coffin consisted on a leaden box to prevent the stench of his rotting body from leaking to the outside, and a wooden container made from pieces of a beached ship called
Five Blisters
Cinco Llagas
. Despite his fame for having been very religious, he showed inexplicable feats of paganism.
After he passed away, Philip II had his image greatly distorted by his enemies, mainly by England. Renaming the Spanish navy to
The Invincible Army
La Armada Invencible
and attributing its defeat to Francis Drake and British soldiers is nothing compared to the inversion of the king’s image. The king was depicted as an extremely fanatic, despotic, criminal, imperialistic, and genocide person, whose victories were reduced to mere anecdotes and whose defeats were excessively magnified.
Due to this vilification and the apparent demonic influence he suffered during the years before his demise, Philip II has become a dark shell of his original self, an Alter Servant. The prudent king that did his best to manage the largest empire to ever exist has become a tyrannic overlord that relentlessly smites his opponents with the dark powers he has received.
Originally Posted by Kabalisto Koga
