Philip II, King of Spain
(1527-1598), Husband of Mary ISitter associated with 27 portraits
The son of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Philip married Mary I against the wishes of Parliament and people in 1554. A deeply religious man, he subsequently made an offer of marriage to Elizabeth after Mary's death, with the proviso that she must convert to Roman Catholicism. He was reluctant to go to war against England thirty years later, and claimed that his motivation was the re-conversion of the country to Catholicism. However, issues of reputation and defence were of equal, if not greater, importance.
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