Who Was Philip II of Spain?

Purple History
Lessons from History
8 min readJan 18, 2024

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The first bureaucrat King

Statue of Philip II
A statue of Philip II. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

The son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, King Philip II of Spain could be described in many regards as almost the exact opposite of his father.

While his father is often regarded as the last Medieval Emperor, certainly the last that was crowned by the Pope, Philip II is often regarded as the first modern ruler of the old continent.

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