Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/425

 PHILIP I. (SPAIN) the Long headed an unsuccessful expedition against the Ghibelline party in Lombardy. On the death of Charles the Fair in 1328 without a male heir, though his widow was pregnant, Philip was intrusted with the regency. When the queen was delivered of a daughter, who by the Salic law was excluded from the throne, the right to the succession became a matter of dis- pute ; but at last it was settled on Philip, who was crowned at Kheims, May 29, 1328. The same year he undertook an expedition against the Flemings, whom he defeated with consid- erable loss, and took the city of Oassel. The next few years were occupied in the civil ad- ministration of France, regulating the currency, settling disputed boundaries, and especially in determining the claims of Robert, count of Beaumont, to Artois. The assistance which Philip rendered in 1337 to David Bruce, king of Scotland, irritated Edward III. of England, who claimed to be the heir of the French throne ; and a war broke out in 1339, Edward having formed an alliance with the Flemish burghers under Jacob van Artevelde. This war, which lasted through the reign of Philip, proved most disastrous to the French. In 1342 Philip issued an ordinance making salt a gov- ernment monopoly. In August, 1346, he was defeated at Crecy by Edward III., who took Calais the next year. In 1348 the ravages of the plague prevented a general renewal of the war. Philip was somewhat compensated for his losses both from war and disease by the ad- dition to the French dominions of the province of Dauphin^. In 1350 he espoused the prin- cess Blanche of Navarre, but soon after died. He was succeeded by his son John the Good. PHILIP I., called the Handsome, archduke of Austria and king of Castile, born in Bruges, July 22, 1478, died in Burgos, Sept. 25, 1506. He was the son of the archduke of Austria, afterward the emperor Maximilian I. of Ger- many. By the death of his mother, Mary of Burgundy, in 1482, he became duke of Bur- gundy and sovereign of the Low Countries. In 1496 he married Joanna, called the Mad, sec- ond daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Three heirs to the throne of Aragon and Castile, whose claims took precedence of Joanna's, having died, she and Philip were pro- claimed heirs, and in 1501 left Flanders for Spain. In 1502 their claims were acknowledg- ed by the cortes of the two Spanish kingdoms. Philip soon after returned to Flanders, leaving his wife in Spain. She followed him the next year, and on the death of Isabella in 1504 Philip in right of his wife assumed the title of king of Castile. Toward the close of 1505 they embarked for Spain, but were driven by storms on the coast of England, where they were detained for three months by Henry VII., and were forced to sign treaties advantageous to that monarch. Ferdinand had been appointed regent of Castile by the will of Isabella, and endeavored to retain his power. The greater part of the nobility of Castile declared in favor PHILIP II. (SPAIN) 411 of Philip and Joanna, and Ferdinand was com- pelled to retire to his kingdom of Aragon. Phil- ip now abandoned himself to dissipation, and soon died of a fever brought on by his excesses. He was the father of Charles I. of Spain and V. of Germany, of the emperor Ferdinand I., and of four daughters who became queens. PHILIP II., king of Spain, born in Vallado- lid, May 21, 1527, died in the palace of the Es- curial, Sept. 13, 1598. His father was Charles V., emperor of Germany and king of Spain, and his mother the empress Isabella, daughter of Emanuel the Great of Portugal. He was carefully educated, and showed some taste for science and the fine arts, especially for mathe- matics and architecture. At the age of 16 he was married to his cousin the infanta Maria, daughter of John III. of Portugal, who died within two years, a few days after giving birth to Don Carlos. Philip was married a second time, July 25, 1554, at Winchester, to Mary, queen of England. To make the husband equal to the wife in rank, Charles resigned to his son the kingdom of Naples and the duchy of Milan. The marriage was not happy, for Mary was very homely, and Philip, though she doated on him, treated her with coldness and was notorious for his infidelities. After a residence of. some- what more than a year in England, he was summoned to Flanders by his father, and in September, 1555, reached Brussels, where on Oct. 25 was fulfilled the famous act of abdi- cation by which Charles transferred to Philip the sovereignty of the Netherlands. On Jan. 16, 1556, the emperor ceded to his son all his remaining hereditary dominions, and shortly afterward resigned the elective crown of the German empire in favor of his brother Ferdi- nand. Philip thus became sovereign of the most powerful and extensive empire in the world, including, besides the Netherlands, a great part of Italy, the whole of Spain, and the vast Spanish possessions in America, Afri- ca, and the East Indies. He is described at this time as a small, meagre man, much below the middle height, with thin legs, a narrow chest, and the shrinking timid air of a habitual invalid. He had the face of a Fleming with the manners of a Spaniard. He looked con- stantly on the ground when he conversed, was chary of speech, and embarrassed and even suffering in manner. He was considered by his contemporaries to be deficient in mental capacity ; but he had an inclination for busi- ness amounting almost to a passion, and was an indefatigable writer of despatches, spending nearly all his time in his cabinet with his min- isters and secretaries. His main object in life was to support and advance the Roman Catho- lic religion. His ambition for the aggrandize- ment of his empire was generally subordinate to his concern for the church ; and he was ac- customed to say, "Better not reign at all thai) reign over heretics." But although his piety and his position at the head of the Romai? Catholic princes of Europe made him the natu