Philip of Spain

Rating:
Summary: Prudence at a distance
Review: About time the Prudent King received treatment worth his contemporaneous status! Not much has been written on Phillip II that would pass the most superficial test of historical accuracy. This book, a survey of his reign, is balanced and well written. Kamen describes neither a demon (the characterization of Phillip which most English readers would find familiar) nor a saint (the preferred version among Spanish monarchists), but the first modern bureaucrat. Kamen scholarship has some precursors in the English historical world, ie Elton, Parker, but his contribution to popular history in the form of biography is unique at this point. The 30 Years War, the casus belli for Modern Europe, is inconceivable without Phillip II's presence. This book paints with an informed brush the Spanish dynastic cause. I recommend this book highly.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing but Deflating
Review: I suppose it is true of many a biography, and in individual experience, that we rarely recognize greatness in people we know well. Kamen does an excellent job painting an unconventional portrait of Philip. In the process, however, the "Black Legend" is reduced to a somewhat flighty renaissance princeling.

For whatever reason, I never received the anglophile's disdain for Philip. Perhaps it was Warren Carroll's portrait of Philip in his Christendom series, or Hillaire Belloc's view, both of which tended to paint Philip as the tragically ineffectual hero of Catholic Europe, standing in the breach against both the heretic and the Turk, and only partially saving Europe while dooming his own Empire.

As ought to have been expected, Kamen's well researched and presented portrait shows a complex individual, capable of progressivism (ala opposition to blood purity laws and early support for Tridentine reforms), while simultaneously enjoying the public manifestations of the Inquisition. The casual nature of Philip's early marriages contrasts starkly against his reaction to the death of his fourth wife. "Philip the Bureaucrat" would seem to be an apt title for a King paralyzed by paperwork, and unable to govern his vast realms due to slow communication, shifty underlings, and a byzantine political system that only Umberto Eco could love.

It is hard, in the end, to get a bead on Philip. It is indeed tragic for Spain that the many great chances for the establishment of their empire were lost in the various cataclysms of Dutch piracy, stormy seas, and overzealous generals - thus contributing to the later usurpation of Portugese westernization of the orient, English dominance of North America, and setting the stage for Cardianl Richelieu and far bloodier events in Europe.

Of course, Kamen avoids projecting out consequences, only hinting at the damage done to Spain by the misfortunes of Philip's reign. For a biography of "the world's most powerful man," the focus is so narrow as to be somewhat myopic. But it is at this price that we obtain the detail which saves Philip from both the Black Legend and latter-day sanctification - neither of which he deserves.

Rating:
Summary: A Book That Will Make An Excellent Film - By Me!
Review: That's right! I am, at this moment, making a powerful epic screenplay about the greatest king in the 1500s. It is called PHILIP, KING OF SPAIN - and it will star me as the great king Philip II. I will show him as the man, the king, the warrior, the father, the husband, and the ruler of his court!

So forget about those other little biopics like THE LAST EMPEROR, AMADEUS, ELIZABETH, and others! PHILIP, KING OF SPAIN will be an Academy Award-winning, Best Picture epic film made by yours truly - Kristoffer Infante! It will be a companion to my other Oscar-winning Best Picture, PRISONER OF WAR - written, directed, produced, and starring me - and TRIANGLE, another Oscar-winning Best Picture!

I will be faithful to the man and the myth, and destroy all that negativity that has dogged Philip in the last 400 years! Philip will be loved and appreciated again!

Count on it!