How far was Philip II successful in achieving his aims in his Foreign Policy?

Philip’s main aims in his Foreign Policy were to unify the Iberian Peninsula, prevent the spreading of Protestantism and defend the Catholic church in his empire, defend routes, both sea and land, to the Netherlands, and not to give up any of his land. It is questionable that Philip’s Foreign Policy was a failure; however he did have some successes during his reign.

One of Philip’s major victories in France was the battle of St. Quentin in 1559; this was a huge success although Philip did not take advantage of this by continuing to defeat other parts of France like he should have done. Philip could have made a big step towards conquering France, instead the Treaty of Câteau – Cambrésis was signed later on that year, which showed the French just how dominant Spain was in Italy at the time. The Treaty was signed at a time when Philip was suffering from serious financial difficulties in the early years of his reign. Philip tried hard to maintain a peaceful relationship with France; he managed this when he married Elizabeth of Valois, giving him a tie with the French royals. This tie was cut when Elizabeth died in 1568. Philip wanted peace with France as the war between them previously had cost Philip a lot of money, and Philip couldn’t afford any unnecessary wars; though felt that war was needed to achieve this in the long term. When Henry III was assassinated in 1589, Philip tried preventing Henry of Navarre, a protestant, from becoming king, so he secretly signed the Treaty of Jounville with the Catholic League against the French Protestants. This enabled good relations with the French. Soon after the treaty was signed Spanish armies entered France from the Netherlands to support the Catholic League. Philip’s army achieved many victories, though Philip’s involvement with France in this case was a failure. The pope allowed Henry of Navarre to become Catholic, and he was crowned Henry IV of France. Philip’s biggest religious failure in France was the Edict of Nantes which allowed religious toleration of French Protestantism in France. This was a big failure in his Foreign Policy, as one of his main aims was to stop the spread of Protestantism.

Overall, France was a failure as Philip failed in his aims to prevent the spreading of Protestantism, and by signing the Edict of Nantes and allowing a Protestant king on the thrown he ensured that France was a failure in his Foreign Policy.

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Philip spent a lot of his money on his involvement with the Netherlands. This contributed greatly to his financial difficulties. Philip had a big army in the Netherlands to protect it from any invasions. When the ‘Beggars’ revolt was fully underway by August 1566, Philip’s governess general of the Netherlands, Margaret of Parma, had made an agreement with the rebels called the Accord. The fact that Philip had appointed the Duchess of Parma as governess general, a non-native to the Netherlands, caused friction for Philip. The Dutch believed that their power had been taken away when Spanish nobles were then chosen as advisers for Margaret’s council. These were both seen as failures in Philip’s Foreign Policy. When Philip left his troops in the Netherlands, the Dutch had to pay for their upkeep and believed that the Spanish were trying to enforce even more power; this was again seen as a failure. However, it could also have been seen as a success as they were keeping control and were suppressing the rebels. In 1566 iconoclasm was spreading; which showed that the Dutch didn’t want Philip’s religious Policy, which was then seen as another of Philip’s failures. In all, the Netherlands was a big failure in Philip’s Foreign Policy as towards the end of his reign he lost possession of the Northern states of the Netherlands and never regained it. This meant that he didn’t achieve his aim of not giving up any land.

A big success of Philip’s, however, was Portugal. One of his main aims was to unify the Iberian Peninsula, and he managed this is 1578 when his nephew, the King of Portugal, died fighting in the Battle of Alcazarquivir. Philip knew that if he was able to acquire Portugal he could finally unite the Iberian Peninsula, a movement started by Isabella and Ferdinand. This was the first time the Iberian Peninsula had been united since the Roman’s occupied it. Portugal was one of the few times that Philip acted straight away. In gaining Portugal, Philip also gained all of her empire, which included Brazil, West Africa, the Spice Islands and the Azores. Philip managed to acquire easy access to the sea, which gave him the opportunity to reach France, the Netherlands and England by sea. Philip was the most powerful man in the world. The unification of the Iberian Peninsula also brought failures. Portugal’s Atlantic coastline was vulnerable to attack and was a target for people in search of the East and West Indies trade ships. However, Philip tried hard to make himself acceptable to the people of Portugal. He was prepared to wear the Portuguese dress and cut his beard in the Portuguese fashion. He thought about moving to Lisbon, and he even tried to learn the language, which was a big deal for Philip as he struggled with foreign languages. By attempting these gestures Philip was accepted as king by the people of Portugal. It is arguable that Portugal was one of Philip’s most successful achievements because he had achieved one of his main aims and instead of giving up any of his land, he acquired much more land.

One of Philip’s less successful feats was England. He had a very varied relationship with the monarchs of England throughout his reign. In 1554 Philip married Mary I of England, and became King of England. When Mary died in 1558, Elizabeth succeeded to the throne. Relations started going wrong with them when Francis Drake seized large amounts of Spanish treasure and Elizabeth failed to stop him. Elizabeth continued to take Spanish ships going to the Netherlands in 1568 and provided help for the rebels in the Netherlands. By 1585 war was a certainty between Spain and England. When Elizabeth signed the Treaty of Nonesuch with the Dutch rebels in 1585 Philip saw it as an invasion of his land. Philip spent the next year building up his Armada which was to be sent to invade England in 1588. The Armada was scattered by English fire ships, and had cut their anchors off the coast of Gravelines and was at the mercy of wind and weather. Over half of the ships were destroyed and over 15,000 men died in the first Armada. Historian, Geoffrey Parker, said that the main weakness of the Armada was Philip’s “armchair strategy”, he didn’t travel anywhere in his empire, he made his decisions from Madrid without knowing what situations were like for himself. Philip did not give up though, and built more ships which were sent to England in 1597. Once again the Armada was destroyed by gales. One of Philip’s main aims was to defend routes, both sea and land, to the Netherlands. This wasn’t achieved as Elizabeth stopped his route by sea with her ships, causing Philip’s ships to travel round Britain, where many ships were destroyed in storms. This in turn caused many troubles in the Netherlands as his army wasn’t getting paid. This suggests England was one of Philip’s biggest failures as he spent millions of ducats on voyages that failed numerous times. Philip sent the Armada to England to help strengthen the Catholic faith as he believed it wouldn’t survive a Protestant attack, as the Armada didn’t achieve its aim, England was still susceptible to Protestant attacks and so the Armada was a complete failure.

One of his biggest successes was The Mediterranean. One of Philip’s main problems with the Mediterranean was that the Turks controlled the eastern side of it. This was a threat to the central and western Mediterranean which was controlled by Philip. In 1560, Philip organised an expedition to Tripoli to protect the central Mediterranean. This was a failure in general as only a small island, Djerba, was captured, though was soon lost again. Philip learnt from this, and revised his strategy and built new fleets. Philip acted decisively in 1563, when he had chance to test his new ships against the Barbary pirates who were attempting to capture Oran. Oran was saved, another victory for Philip. Many more successes followed, including the victory over the Turks who were trying to take over Malta, a very important defensive position in the centre of the Mediterranean. In the same year, Muslim allies, Algiers, took control of Tunis. A Holy League was set up shortly after, and consisted of Venice, Genoa, the Pope and other Italian States. Philip’s main priority was not the Holy League, but to regain Tunis and then conquer Algiers, though not joining would have lost him support from the Italian States. The Holy League fleet eventually set sail and met their opponents at Lepanto. Spanish and Turkish forces fought an evenly match fight, but victory came to Philip when the Turkish admiral was killed. Soon afterwards the Turks made it clear that they were willing to negotiate with Philip when Sultan Selm II died. Most of the land Philip lost in his battles with the Turks was regained, though Tunis was soon lost again. Philip and the Turks made peace in the Mediterranean, and many truces were made, which were regularly updated throughout the remainder of Philip’s reign. I see Philip’s dealings with the Turks and Mediterranean as one of his biggest successes as he had made peace with the Turks and so did not have to worry about any further battles with them, which would save him a lot of money. The Holy League was also a huge success for Philip, as without it Philip would not have regained Tunis for that short time. Part of his success, however, could also be due to the timely death of the Sultan, as if he hadn’t of died the war with the Turks could have continued for much longer.

Philip had many successes in his time as monarch of Spain, for example, the acquisition of Portugal which unified the Iberian Peninsula. This was one of Philip’s main aims. When Philip gained Portugal, he was one step closer to achieving another of his aims; defending routes, both sea and land, to the Netherlands. One of Philip’s other main successes was his dealings with the Turks and the Mediterranean. Although he lost some of his land during his feuds with the Turks, he also managed to gain a lot of land. By the end of his reign his empire had grown considerably due to the unification of the Iberian Peninsula, which gave him access to the sea, enabling him to obtain New Spain, Spanish Main and Peru. Also he gained all of Portugal’s land, making him the most powerful man in the world.

Although Philip had many successes, he had even more failures. The Edict of Nantes being one of his biggest failures. Philip’s main aim was to prevent the spreading of Protestantism in his empire, in the signing of the Edict of Nantes; he failed to achieve this, as it agreed to the religious toleration of French Protestants. Another of Philip’s big failures was the loss of the Northern States of the Netherlands; his aim at the start of his reign was not to give up any of his land. Philip had various aims for his Foreign Policy, though only two of them where partly achieved; the unification of the Iberian Peninsula, and to defend routes, both sea and land, to the Netherlands. In failing to achieve a majority of his aims and with all the failures that Philip endured evidence suggests that Philip was not very successful in achieving his aims in his Foreign Policy.

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