There were many people in the Renaissance time period that helped change the world, whether it was art, music or inventions. Philip II was one of those people. The Renaissance was in the 16th century when there was a revolution of culture. Many people participated, and those people were called patrons of the arts. New advances where made in all areas of art. These included perspective, 3D, and oil painting. Architecture was also huge back then, and a great example is the Sistine Chapel. Philip II was a Renaissance man because he loved nature, books and art, he excelled in all areas of study, and he was also a great ruler.
Philip II was born on May 21st, 1521, in Valladoid, Spain. He was the son of Charles V, who he would later take over the throne from. Charles was of Hapsburg descent. While growing up, Philip was an adventurous child. He started hunting at the age of ten, and he even learned to play the guitar. (Henry Kamen, 4) At the age of fourteen, Philip was pronounced the Prince of Spain. Charles arranged Philip's first two marriages. Philip's first son that he had was named Don Carlos. Don Carlos had some sort of problem; he was mentally unstable, and therefore Philip could not let him rule after him. Philip then married two more times, all of his wives dying early. His wives were all heiresses of different countries. These different countries were Portugal, England, France, and Austria. His last wife that he had gave Philip his second son, who was named Philip III. He would later take over his father's throne. He had 5 sons, which only two of them had survived birth. He had three daughters, and only one survived. The only girl that survived came before Philip III and after Don Carlos.
The problem was, back in his time period, women were not thought fit to be rulers. So he had loved all his children except for Don Carlos, just because of his disability. Philip would eventually die in 1598, passing on his rule to his only other son, Philip III.
Not everybody likes going to school, whether they are a teacher or student. While he was still young, Philip did not mind going to school. He took many different courses while growing up. These courses included mathematics, history, geography, sciences, literature, Latin and Greek. (Henry Kamen, 5) Philip proved to like school more than he did at horse riding or sword fighting. Although he still liked hunting, sword fighting, and horse riding, Philip was more enthusiastic about sitting at his desk with a pen over a saddle and a sword.
Philip was a great renaissance ruler. He ruled since his father abdicated in 1556 to when he died in 1598. One of the greatest highlights of his rule was when the Spanish Armada lost to England, which was ruled by Elizabeth I at the time, and the Turks in 1588. The armada consisted of 130 ships with 30,000 men manning those ships. (Fun fact: That's 230 people manning each ship!) The main reason for this was because he got rejected by Elizabeth I and because he also wanted to spread his reign. His reign had already stretched from Spain to Belgium, the Netherlands, northern Italy, and Central and South America. (David Howarth, 21) His reign actually marks the peak in Spanish power. In 1580, he took over Portugal, to add to his land. This was the first empire to stretch from Europe to the Americas.
He spent much of his time defending these lands. Instead of talking to his subjects, he wrote many letters, and that is how he did most of his ruling, except for when he was called out of Spain for some foreign duty. (David Howarth, 40) Out of all the people he fought, the Ottoman Empire proved to be the hardest, and also the largest threat.
Philip had bad papacy relationships. For some reason, the popes in Rome feared Spanish power. As he tried to centralize his power, he made religious persecutions to eliminate the resistance. Part of this resistance was Elizabeth I. She was Protestant, and persecuted many Catholics. So the problem here was that Philip was in the Catholic Church. This was also another reason why Elizabeth rejected him. Since this happened, Philip believed himself to be the defender of the Catholic Church.
During his rule, he was always portrayed as a blood-thirsty tyrant. (Henry Kamen, 113) In truth, Philip was never blood-thirsty, and he was never a tyrant. He was actually quite kind inside his palace, and he was hardly moved by pity outside. He only went to war when he needed to. Philip was definitely a great ruler, and one of the best of the Renaissance time period.
Philip not only was just a ruler, but he was a patron of the arts. Patrons were people who would pay to get their portrait painted or who helped to put up public buildings such as a library. He was a patron because he had several portraits of himself painted. Even while growing up, he would spend a good amount of time outside either climbing a tree or walking through the palace gardens. (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed.) The Renaissance was all about humanism and nature, instead of religious things like the after life. And so, by being a patron of the arts, Philip II was showing qualities of the Renaissance that many others did in the 16th century.
Philip was a Renaissance man because he did well in school, liked to be outside in nature, and he was one of the best rulers of the Renaissance period. Renaissance, meaning rebirth, was the period of cultural revolution in the 1500s. New advances were made in all advances of art. Even architecture, there was the Sistine Chapel built by Michelangelo. Philip II was a perfect example of a Renaissance man because he has the qualities of one.
