Military Stratgey of Philip II

Kyle Folbrecht

European Military History

9 April 2013

THE DEVELOPMENT AND EXECUTION OF PHILIP II’S MILITARY STRATEGY: THE NETHERLANDS AND THE ARMADA

A review of

Henry Kamen. Philip of Spain. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997. Pp. xi, 446.

Geoffrey Parker. The Grand Strategy of Philip II. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Pp. xv, 384

Philip II’s tenure upon the Spanish throne was a tumultuous yet extraordinary time for the kingdom. Many wars and conflicts arose, and true peace during his reign (1554-1598) was only achieved for a six-month period in 1577 (Parker, 2). The truth, however, is that Philip II was the first monarch to rule an empire that the sun never set upon: these included territorial holdings in Africa, the Americas, the East Indies, and Europe (The Netherlands, Naples, Sicily, and eventually Portugal in 1580). As remarkable a feat that this was for Philip II, he was unsuccessful in two of his most principal endeavors (which are interrelated with one another): preserving the power of the Spanish crown in the Netherlands, and launching a successful invasion of England, Spain’s primary foe during this period. He attempted to do this by way of the Armada, which was at the time one of the strongest and formidable navies in the entire world. How could Philip II, the monarch of an empire with such vast wealth and resources and one of the world’s most prominent armies and navies, have fallen short in his quest to conquer England and maintain Spanish rule in the Netherlands, and be subject to criticism by historians to this day? Two works will be reviewed to present the authors’ viewpoints specifically as to how and why these failures had occurred.

Henry Kamen, a British historian with the Royal Historical Society Fellow honor, published many books and articles about Spain from the Inquisition up until the eighteenth century. In the preface of Philip II, Kamen states that “biographies by his defenders have been appallingly bad, but the scholarship of his enemies has by contrast usually been excellent (Kamen, xi). Given the plethora of existing works about Philip II, a reader might inquire as to what makes Kamen’s work different. Kamen addresses these points later on in the Preface, where he touches upon his utilization of “entirely new manuscript sources” that have never been studied before, quotes them, and analyzes their contents to paint a more complete picture of Philip II as a decent man and his policies as beneficial to Spain, which can be seen throughout his reign (Kamen, xii).

Philip II disseminates valuable information about the king’s formative years, specifically where he