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Y208: Philip II 1556–1598

Foreign policy: relations with England, France, Portugal and Philip’s reputation abroad

  • 2 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on relations with England, France, Portugal, annexation, the consistency of Spain’s aims, methods and the nature of policies, Philip’s reputation abroad.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Evaluation

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

Who and when

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

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

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

    Model answer

    Ottoman attention turned east to Persia while Philip needed his galleys, troops and money for the Netherlands, Portugal and eventually the Atlantic, so a quiet Mediterranean suited both powers.

  2. 2

    How did relations with England change during the reign?

    Model answer

    Philip began as Mary's husband and Elizabeth's protector against France, but English piracy in the Indies, the seizure of his pay ships in 1568, English support for the Dutch rebels and the execution of Mary Stuart in 1587 turned a strained friendship into open war.

  3. 3

    Why did Philip finally decide to attack England?

    Model answer

    The Treaty of Nonsuch of 1585 sent English troops to fight his army in the Netherlands, Drake was raiding his ports and treasure routes, and after Mary Stuart's execution he could claim to be acting for the Church and press his own dynastic claim.

  4. 4

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

    Model answer

    The fleet was to sail up the Channel and escort Parma's army across from Flanders; it failed because the two forces could not communicate or combine, Parma had no deep-water port, fireships broke the Spanish formation off Calais, the English had faster and better-gunned ships, and the return round Scotland and Ireland wrecked much of the fleet. Philip rebuilt his navy and sent further armadas in the 1590s, but these too were scattered by storms.

  5. 5

    What was Philip's policy towards France after 1584?

    Model answer

    With the Protestant Henry of Navarre now heir, Philip allied with the Catholic League at Joinville in 1584, subsidised it heavily, and from 1590 sent Parma's army from the Netherlands into France to prevent a Huguenot king.

  6. 6

    Why did Philip's French policy fail?

    Model answer

    His attempt to claim the throne for his daughter offended French opinion and broke their law of succession, Henry IV's conversion in 1593 dissolved the Catholic League's case, and the campaigns of the 1590s exhausted Spain for nothing; the Peace of Vervins in 1598 simply restored the frontiers of 1559.

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