Customer Reviews

Philip of Spain

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I suppose it is true of many a biography, and in individual experience, that we rarely recognize greatness in people we know well. Kamen does an excellent job painting an unconventional portrait of Philip. In the process, however, the "Black Legend" is reduced to a somewhat flighty renaissance princeling.

For whatever reason, I never received the anglophile's disdain for Philip. Perhaps it was Warren Carroll's portrait of Philip in his Christendom series, or Hillaire Belloc's view, both of which tended to paint Philip as the tragically ineffectual hero of Catholic Europe, standing in the breach against both the heretic and the Turk, and only partially saving Europe while dooming his own Empire.

As ought to have been expected, Kamen's well researched and presented portrait shows a complex individual, capable of progressivism (ala opposition to blood purity laws and early support for Tridentine reforms), while simultaneously enjoying the public manifestations of the Inquisition. The casual nature of Philip's early marriages contrasts starkly against his reaction to the death of his fourth wife. "Philip the Bureaucrat" would seem to be an apt title for a King paralyzed by paperwork, and unable to govern his vast realms due to slow communication, shifty underlings, and a byzantine political system that only Umberto Eco could love.

It is hard, in the end, to get a bead on Philip. It is indeed tragic for Spain that the many great chances for the establishment of their empire were lost in the various cataclysms of Dutch piracy, stormy seas, and overzealous generals - thus contributing to the later usurpation of Portugese westernization of the orient, English dominance of North America, and setting the stage for Cardianl Richelieu and far bloodier events in Europe.

Of course, Kamen avoids projecting out consequences, only hinting at the damage done to Spain by the misfortunes of Philip's reign. For a biography of "the world's most powerful man," the focus is so narrow as to be somewhat myopic. But it is at this price that we obtain the detail which saves Philip from both the Black Legend and latter-day sanctification - neither of which he deserves.

About time the Prudent King received treatment worth his contemporaneous status! Not much has been written on Phillip II that would pass the most superficial test of historical accuracy. This book, a survey of his reign, is balanced and well written. Kamen describes neither a demon (the characterization of Phillip which most English readers would find familiar) nor a saint (the preferred version among Spanish monarchists), but the first modern bureaucrat. Kamen scholarship has some precursors in the English historical world, ie Elton, Parker, but his contribution to popular history in the form of biography is unique at this point. The 30 Years War, the casus belli for Modern Europe, is inconceivable without Phillip II's presence. This book paints with an informed brush the Spanish dynastic cause. I recommend this book highly.

Kamen offers a very complete and detailed description of the great grandson of the Catholic Kings and the difficulty of managing the most extensive empire the world has ever known. The facts are taken from great sources and presented in an honest fashion. Kamen strays from legends and myths and even challenges some of them as he did in "The Spanish Inquisition". The dedication of Felipe II to his realm is explained realisticly. Finally, the chronology is followed with discipline and is commendable. I would recommend this book to anyone desiring information on this Hapsburg leader.

This is a well written and interesting biography of Philip II, the "Prudent King" who was the monarch of the Spanish Empire at its late 16th century apogee. Based on a considerable amount of original research and Kamen's expertise as an authority on early modern Spain, this book is a useful study of early modern kingship, the politics of early modern Europe, and how early modern states actually functioned. Kamen is concerned in particular with rebutting traditional impressions of Philip, due mainly to Protestant propaganda, as a fanatical religious bigot and aggressive tyrant.

Kamen shows Philip to be an intelligent and hardworking monarch struggling with extremely difficult problems, and also a relatively cosmopolitan individual. While unquestionably pious and committed to the Catholic cause, he was interested in humanistic scholarship, sponsored important Spanish humanists, was a patron of the arts who enjoyed Northern European and Italian art, and in his younger days, something of a libertine. This book also shows very well some of the grim realities of life in pre-industrial Europe. Philip's family life was dogged by the early (to us) death of numerous close relatives and his own serious and largely untreatable illnesses. From his late teen years on, he was a conscientious ruler who handled a huge amount of bureaucratic work. Kamen's accounts of Philip's life as monarch of the huge Spanish Empire is particularly interesting. As Kamen remarks, the Empire was more a confederation of states with highly disparate governing structures than anything resembling a modern state. Kamen shows very well how difficult it was to run the Empire and how Philip's constant attention was required to keep the Empire from falling apart. Kamen makes a good argument that Philip was not attempting to expand the Empire but working primarily to maintain its fragile integrity. Other very interesting aspects of the book are the narratives of the highly dynastic politics of Europe and the complex internal politics of the Spanish court.

While Kamen's portrait of Philip goes a long way towards rescuing Philip from his status as the bogeyman of Protestant legend, there are a couple of areas where Kamen's revisionism probably goes a bit too far. Kamen argues that Philip's disastrous policies in the Netherlands were motivated primarily by an insistence on political integrity of the realm rather than religious intolerance. Kamen points to Philip's apparent acceptance of the Lutheranism of some German states and the religious settlement in England as examples of how Philip placed a higher value on monarchial authority than religious conformity. I'm not convinced that this distinction is useful. Kamen's own account appears to show that Philip, like most, perhaps all, monarchs of his time, regarded the Church as part of their state. Philip controlled all the important ecclesiastical appointments in Castile, clearly felt that the Inquisition was crucial in Castile, and supported the Tridentine Counter-Reformation reforms.

Similarly, Kamen defends Philip from charges that he was a "tyrant" pursuing aggrandizement of his power. Kamen emphasizes the limitations of Philip's power and his predilection for working through traditional institutions. Kamen's account, however, shows that in the later decades of his reign, Philip increasingly abandoned the traditional conciliar institutions in favor of ad hoc committees dependent on his personal authority. The great and crippling revolt in the Netherlands was precipitated in part by his insistence on overruling traditional forms of governance and attacking the power of great nobles like William of Orange. Philip may have preferred the traditonal but events appear to have forced him to adopt policies that aimed at increasing his personal power.

Kamen touches on all aspects of Philips life with great intuity. He exposes a man that was emotionally scarred more than once in his life, a man that worked incessently for the good of his country and of his religion. As well as being a pious and hard working man he was also a lover of fun, a side rarely seen in a personage of such stature. This book is a wonderful read and cannot fail to leave the reader wondering about Philip II of Spain, a monarch that until now has been over shadowed by his father Emperor Charles. On top of this Kamwen examines many of the aspects that affected the political events of the age.

For anyone who has visited Philip's magnificent El Escorial palace outside Madrid and wondered at the power of this monarch when looking at his sober and modest bedroom (furnished only with a small chapel), this book is a must. Philip was the greatest Spanish King ever (his father, Charles, was not truly Spanish), possibly upstaged only by Juan Carlos, the current modern ruler. He was the first ever European monarch to be able to claim that the sun never set on his dominions, which stretched from Europe to America to the Phillipines.

Kamen explores his life and unintentionally offers information from which Spaniards, and their descendants in America, can explain much of their/our present culture. He possessed the mightiest army in Europe, but living inland, he did not develop a navy capable of bettering the British; this had implications for the future American nations that we still see today. He received enormous wealth from his American colonies, but it was all dillapidated in the senseless war and occupation of Holland and Belgium. He intended to modernize Spain by importing goods from the rest of Europe, but not ideas; this aided the development of North Europe and Italy but not of his country. And above all, he followed a policy of strict religious intolerance that insured that his realms remained Catholic --as was his wish---, but prevented his country and the future Spanish-speaking nations of America from developing truly democratic traditions. Spain, in particular, has seemed to oscillate like a pendulum ever since between intolerance and liberalism. When you read this book, you will trace this particular trait back to Philip as the greatest inheritor of Spain's eight centuries of nation-building through war.

Kamen presents this biography with no anti- or pro-Spanish taint, as far as I could notice. If anything, his position as a fellow with a Catalan institution is an asset that allows him to view the King of Castille from Spain's important periphery. His book provides for balanced reading and a wealth of information and general culture. I recommend it to anyone interested in understanding the history of all of Spain and Spanish America, and not just Philip.

In too many ways, this more "modern" and "accurate" biography of the sixteenth century Spanish monarch proved *personally* disappointing, or at least anticlimactic. Contrary to the author's claim, it focuses primarily on the politics and environment of the period, rather than on its subject. This is not undesirable in itself - yet in doing so, it shattered the perceptions I'd formed of Philip II, perceptions that had passed beyond the realm of rational understanding into something subjective and quite emotionally volatile. Somehow, through overactive imagination and through older, less dispassionate texts, I had come to view him as the romanticized, psychologically repressed, tragic anti-hero from Schiller's Don Carlos, a repository of my deepest obsessions and insecurities, a target of self-righteous admiration and of equally self-righteous pity. This particular analysis, with its emphasis on facts and objectivity, has made me all too aware that, despite my mental gymnastics, Philip II is still ultimately an unknown and unknowable man who died some four centuries before my birth, entirely without connection to me personally, lost in the obscurity of history. Well researched but... kind of depressing.

All that work, and out comes an apologia. No word, really, how the Habsburgs got to take over Spain. About the incredible inbreeding, including Philip's marriage to his niece, Anna of Ausrria, that needed papal dispensation. No indication that Don Carlos was a true schizophrenic, an inheritance from the daughter of Fedinand and Isabella and passed on in the Habsburg family for a few more centuries. The inquisition was a necessity, and the destruction of the armada an act of God? No matter how hard the author tries, Philip still comes across as a hesitant, pencilpushing pedant who was none too bright. Mr. Kamen should have studied Ludwig Pfandl's 1938 book; it descibes Philip correctly and encompassing from all sides. Illustrations: After talking time and time again about Philip's portrait by Titian - why does he not include it? As a historical study, this book is not adequate.

This book did the job for which I bought it i.e to cover the complete life of Philip & thus provide more knowledge & understanding of the Spanish Ride to its Abyss in the 16th Century. I have passed it to my Russian daughter-in-law accordingly. She,a keen Roman Catholic,while generally highly knowledgeable said she knew little about Spain & felt the impact of the Inquisition has been exaggerated. I disagree & this book substantiated my point. Philip accepted the Inquisition to govern Spain. Other counties both Protestant & Catholic perpetrated ghastly deeds against dissidents but with them it was Politics utilising Religion,not Religion managing the State.

As a once-historian of Latin American Colonial History I had hoped for an insightful adition to my library, but instead I found a badly written book, without any imagination or effort to make the material interesting: just a chronological list of events!