Politicians

Philip II of Spain

Habsburg King of Spain (1527-1598). Inheriting his father Charles V's Spanish empire in 1556 and adding Portugal in 1580, Philip ruled the first "empire on which the sun never set." His reign combined the victory at Lepanto, El Escorial, and global empire with the Armada defeat, the Dutch Revolt, and four state bankruptcies. He remains one of early modern Europe's most enigmatic and most contested absolute monarchs.

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