Philip II

(noun)

A king of the Greek kingdom of Macedon from 359 BCE until his assassination in 336 BCE. He was the father of Alexander the Great.

Related Terms

Examples of Philip II in the following topics:

  • The Rise of the Macedon

    • Philip II’s conquests during the Third Sacred War cemented his power, as well as the influence of Macedon, throughout the Hellenic world.
    • Macedon’s rise is largely attributable to the policies during Philip II’s rule.
    • Instead, Philip focused on subjugating the Balkan hill-country in the west and north, and attacking Greek coastal cities, many of which Philip maintained friendly relations with, until he had conquered their surrounding territories.
    • For many Macedonian rulers, the Achaemenid Empire in Persia was a major sociopolitical influence, and Philip II was no exception.
    • In 337 BCE, Philip created and led the League of Corinth.

  • Philip II and the Spanish Armada

    • The son of Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, and his wife, Infanta Isabella of Portugal, Philip II of Spain was born in 1527.
    • Philip's third wife was Elisabeth of Valois, the eldest daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici.
    • English-speaking historians tend to show Philip II as a fanatical, despotic, criminal, imperialist monster, minimizing his military victories.
    • Portrait of King Philip II of Spain, in Gold-Embroidered Costume with Order of the Golden Fleece by Titian (around 1554)
    • Describe Philip II's convictions and how he attempted to carry them out

  • Elizabeth I and English Patriotism

    • In 1554, Queen Mary of England married Philip, who only two years later began to rule Spain as Philip II.
    • When his wife fell ill in 1558, Philip consulted with Elizabeth.
    • After the occupation and loss of Le Havre, Elizabeth avoided military expeditions on the continent until 1585, when she sent an English army to aid the Protestant Dutch rebels against Philip II.
    • In December 1584, an alliance between Philip II and the French Catholic League undermined the ability of Henry III of France to counter Spanish domination of the Netherlands.
    • After Mary's death, Philip II of Spain had no wish to sever his ties with England and sent a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth but was denied.

  • Alexander the Great

    • Following the decline of the Greek city-states, the Greek kingdom of Macedon rose to power under Philip II.
    • Alexander III, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was born to Philip II in Pella in 356 BCE, and succeeded his father to the throne at the age of 20.
    • When he succeeded his father to the throne in 336 BCE, after Philip was assassinated, Alexander inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army.
    • The Macedonian phalanx, armed with the sarissa, a spear up to 20 feet long, had been developed and perfected by Alexander's father, Philip II.

  • The Spanish Habsburgs

    • This was to create enormous difficulties for his son Philip II of Spain.
    • Philip II became king on Charles I's abdication in 1556.
    • Philip II died in 1598, and was succeeded by his son Philip III.
    • Philip III's government resorted to a tactic that had been resolutely resisted by Philip II, paying for the budget deficits by the mass minting of increasingly worthless vellones (the currency), causing inflation.
    • Charles II (1665–1700), the last of the Habsburgs in Spain, was three years old when his father Philip IV died in 1665.

  • The Legacy of Alexander the Great

    • Instead, they supported Alexander's half-brother, Philip Arrhidaeus, as Alexander’s successor.
    • In the process, both Alexander IV and Philip III were murdered.
    • From that time, Ptolemy ruled Egypt nominally in the name of joint kings Philip III and Alexander IV.
    • They allied with Rome again under Eumenes II (r. 197-158 BCE) against Perseus of Macedon, during the Third Macedonian War.
    • The Kingdom of Macedon at the death of Philip II (336 BCE)

  • Fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire

    • In 1516, Ferdinand II of Aragon, grandfather of the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, died.
    • The latter would end up going to a more junior branch of the Habsburgs in the person of Charles's brother Ferdinand, while the senior branch continued to rule in Spain and in the Burgundian inheritance in the person of Charles's son, Philip II of Spain.
    • After his son Philip married Queen Mary of England, it appeared that France would be completely surrounded by Habsburg domains, but this hope proved unfounded when the marriage produced no children.
    • He abdicated and divided his territories between Philip and Ferdinand of Austria.
    • Maximilian was succeeded in 1576 by Rudolf II, a man who preferred classical Greek philosophy to Christianity and lived an isolated existence in Bohemia.

  • The Question of Spanish Succession

    • In the late 1690s, the declining health of childless King Charles II of Spain deepened the ongoing dispute over his succession.
    • The French claim derived from Louis XIV's mother Anne of Austria (the older sister of Philip IV of Spain) and his wife Maria Theresa (Philip IV's eldest daughter).
    • On his deathbed in 1700, Charles II unexpectedly offered the entire empire to the Dauphin's second son Philip, Duke of Anjou, provided it remained undivided.
    • Louis eventually decided to accept Charles II's will and Philip, Duke of Anjou, became Philip V, King of Spain.
    • The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht recognized Louis XIV's grandson Philip, Duke of Anjou, as King of Spain (as Philip V), thus confirming the succession stipulated in the will of the Charles II.

  • The Peace of Utrecht

    • The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) was a European conflict triggered by the death of the last Habsburg King of Spain, Charles II, in 1700.
    • Attempts to solve the problem by partitioning the empire between the eligible candidates from the royal Houses of France (Bourbon), Austria (Habsburg), and Bavaria (Wittelsbach) ultimately failed, and on his deathbed Charles II fixed the entire Spanish inheritance on Philip, Duke of Anjou, the grandson of King Louis XIV of France.
    • Above all, though, Louis XIV had secured for the House of Bourbon the throne of Spain, with his grandson, Philip V, recognized as the rightful king by all signatories.
    • Weakened Spain eventually grew in strength under Philip V and the country would return to the forefront of European politics. 
    • The treaties, signed in the Dutch city of Utrecht, were concluded between the representatives of Louis XIV of France and of his grandson Philip V of Spain on one hand, and representatives of Anne of Great Britain, Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, John V of Portugal and the United Provinces of the Netherlands on the other.

  • William of Orange and the Grand Alliance

    • The King of Spain, Charles II, had no prospect of having children and among his closest relatives were Louis XIV and Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.
    • Unexpectedly, Charles II willed all Spanish territories to Philip, a grandson of Louis XIV.
    • The news that Louis XIV had accepted Charles II's will and that the Second Partition Treaty was dead was a personal blow to William III.
    • Around the same time as the Alliance was formed, the Catholic James II of England (VII of Scotland) – exiled in Saint-Germain since the Glorious Revolution – died and Louis XIV recognized James II's Catholic son, James, as King James III of England.
    • The Austrians received most of Spain's former European realms, but the Duke of Anjou retained peninsular Spain and Spanish America, where, after renouncing his claim to the French succession, he reigned as King Philip V.