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Y208: Philip II 1556–1598

  • 8 subtopics
  • 18 things to know
  • Unit group 2
  • Non-British period study, one unit of twenty-four

What Y208: Philip II 1556–1598 covers

Philip II 1556–1598 is unit Y208 of OCR History A, one of the twenty-four options in unit group 2, the non-British period study; a student sits one of them. Its four key topics are political authority, religion, foreign policy and the Netherlands. 263 recall questions across 8 subtopics.

Where it is assessed

Unit group 2

Non-British period study, one unit of twenty-four.

Check the OCR specification ↗

The 8 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Describe the condition of Spain at Philip's accession.

Key term

Explain how the conciliar system worked under Philip.

Who and when

How did faction operate at Philip's court?

Evaluation

What were the roles of Gonzalo and Antonio Pérez?

Key term

What happened to the Baron of Montigny?

Process

What religious inheritance did Philip receive from his father?

Key term

Name the three great church grants that helped fund his policies.

Evaluation

Why did Philip quarrel with the papacy despite his devotion to the Church?

Numbers

Why was the Mediterranean Philip's first priority until the later 1570s?

Key term

Explain the significance of the siege of Malta in 1565.

Evaluation

Explain the plan of the Armada of 1588 and why it failed.

Evaluation

Why did the nobles turn against Cardinal Granvelle?

Who and when

What was the Spanish Fury, and what did it produce?

Key term

Describe the position in the Netherlands in 1598.

Numbers

What financial and economic grievances lay behind the revolt?

Key term

How were conversos treated under Philip?

Who and when

Why did Philip make truces with the Ottomans from the later 1570s?

Key term

What were the religious origins of the revolt?

Take Y208: Philip II 1556–1598 further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • Spanish Fury vs Pacification of Ghent

    Spanish Fury: the sack of Antwerp by unpaid troops in 1576. Pacification of Ghent: the agreement of 1576 by which the provinces combined to demand the removal of foreign troops.

  • Union of Arras vs Union of Utrecht

    Union of Arras: the league of the southern provinces that made terms with the king in 1579. Union of Utrecht: the league of the northern provinces that bound themselves to continue the war.

  • Antonio Pérez vs Duke of Alba

    Antonio Pérez: the secretary whose flight to Aragon in 1590 provoked a constitutional crisis. Duke of Alba: the commander sent to the Netherlands in 1567 whose Council of Troubles executed thousands.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Outline what Philip inherited from his father in 1556.

    Model answer

    He received Spain and the Indies, the Netherlands, Franche-Comté and the Italian lands, together with an unfinished war against France, obligations to defend Catholicism, and debts so large that payments to the bankers had to be suspended in 1557.

  2. 2

    Describe the condition of Spain at Philip's accession.

    Model answer

    Castile was populous and prosperous with a growing colonial trade, but heavily taxed and inflated in price, while the monarchy was a bundle of kingdoms with separate laws, so the crown's real power varied sharply between Castile and the rest.

  3. 3

    How far is it accurate to call Philip's rule absolutism?

    Model answer

    He acknowledged no earthly superior and made every important decision himself, but he was bound by the fueros of Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia and later Portugal, depended on the Castilian Cortes for taxes, and was limited by distance and by his own officials, so his authority was greater in theory than in practice.

  4. 4

    Explain how the conciliar system worked under Philip.

    Model answer

    Separate councils dealt with each territory and with matters such as finance, war, the Indies and the Inquisition; each debated business and sent the king a written recommendation, on which he wrote his decision in the margin, so the councils advised while he alone decided.

  5. 5

    Why did Philip increasingly govern through juntas in the later part of the reign?

    Model answer

    The councils were slow and the business too great for one man, so he referred urgent matters to small committees of trusted ministers who could work quickly and secretly, an arrangement that concentrated power in a handful of hands.

  6. 6

    Why was Madrid made the seat of government in 1561?

    Model answer

    A fixed and central capital allowed the councils, secretaries and archives to work in one place around a king who no longer travelled, replacing the itinerant court of his father and pulling government towards Castile.

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Y208: Philip II 1556–1598 revision questions

What does Y208: Philip II 1556–1598 cover in OCR A-Level History A?
8 subtopics: political authority: legacy of charles i and condition of spain, political authority: faction, justice, revolts and finance, religion: philip ii’s inheritance and relations with the papacy, religion: attitude towards the tridentine decrees, moral and spiritual impact of the inquisition, foreign policy: foreign situation in 1555, holy league and the battle of lepanto, foreign policy: relations with england, france, portugal and philip’s reputation abroad, the netherlands: origins of the revolt and its course to 1576 and the netherlands: religion, reasons for spain’s failure to crush the revolt and situation in 1598. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Y208: Philip II 1556–1598 organised?
By the OCR H505 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

Every question in Y208: Philip II 1556–1598, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

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