Philip II’s Government

Positives and Negatives

There are ten main areas that need to be considered when looking at Philip II’s
government:

– ‘Paper King’
– Conciliar system
– Ambassadors and couriers
– Atmosphere created by Philip II
– Faction
– Large Empire
– Relationship with provinces
– Perez affair
– Use of Juntas
– Absolute monarch

‘Paper King’

✔ Philip received plenty of advice before making a decision.

✔ His approach to government has been described as ‘cautious’, rather than
slow.
 Philip was unable to distinguish between the important and the trivial. He
insisted that all government business should cross his desk, no matter how
unimportant. As a result, Spanish government slowed to the pace at which
Philip could process this large amount of information. He was also so
overwhelmed with work that important matters were neglected, and
urgent papers were lost in the chaos. Philip failed to see the ‘big picture’,
as a monarch is supposed to do, instead micromanaging his government
down to the tiniest details.
○ E.g. He requested that governors produce full reports on the
regions, down to details such as whether or not the trees grew well
and the names of the founders of each chapel.
 He refused to allow any individual to have access to all the relevant
information on an issue, meaning that only he knew exactly what was
going on. This sometimes led to contradictory orders, and prevented Philip
from delegating any of the workload to his advisors. He also denied
military commanders the freedom to respond to changing events,
resulting in unnecessary military weaknesses.
 Decisions were slow – Philip was indecisive and consulted numerous
advisors before making a final decision.
Conciliar System

The conciliar system was a system of government used by Philip’s father,

Charles. The system was made up of a number of councils which were each
responsible for a certain area of government. Philip felt that it was his duty to
maintain his father’s government system.

✔ The system was experienced after being used by Charles and it generally
worked well.
✔ The conciliar system should have allowed for more delegation.
 Divisions in the system allowed for factional disputes to frequently spill
over into government.

Ambassadors and Couriers

✔ The Spanish had the finest ambassadorial network and courier system in
Europe.
 However, although this brought more information to Philip, it has been
argued that this was used for little benefit.
 Philip sometimes knew more than his ambassadors. This led to inefficiency
as he was doing their jobs for them.

Atmosphere created by Philip II

 Philip’s frequent mind-changing led to an atmosphere of double-dealing

and insincerity.
 Financial difficulties forced Philip to auction off Crown land, undermining
his own authority.
 Philip’s managerial weaknesses lost him the respect of his subjects and
advisors.

Faction

Throughout his reign, Philip cultivated and encouraged faction within his
government. This had a number of advantages and disadvantages.

✔ Allowed Philip to diffuse the potential for factions to control policy.

✔ Rivalry meant that the best of each faction were at court, channelling their
talent into service to the Crown.
✔ Philip kept factions in balance, and ensured that they maintained their
loyalty to him.
✔ Differences in opinion could help, rather than hinder.
 Weakened trust within government.
 Factions spent too much energy on their rivalries – business of
government suffered.
 Cultivated Philip’s suspicion of everyone.
  He received different and competing advice from everyone.

Large Empire

✔ Poor communications were damaging to government, but this was the

fault of the size of the Empire, not Philip.
✔ Philip did put a permanent capital in Madrid.
 Strong sense of personal responsibility for his people – the quantity of
work generated by such a large empire was unmanageable.

Relationship with Provinces

 Philip was often thought of as being biased towards Castile. He spoke their
dialect, and appointed Castilian ministers. This caused resentment from
the others regions of the Spanish Empire.

Perez Affair

 Alliances led to confusion.

 One example of where Philip’s cultivation of faction had caused problems.

Use of Juntas

✔ Evidence of Philip’s realisation that the workload was too great for one
man?
 Despite Juntas, Philip continued to try and control government single-
handedly.

Absolute Monarch

✔ Philip had a natural sense of justice.

✔ Rarely interfered in the courts.
✔ Philip was aware that ruling the provinces was only possible if their rights
and privileges were respected.
✔ Had his actions legitimised by a panel of judges – he did not see himself as
above the law.
 Ruthless treatment of his enemies.
 Believed strongly in the ‘Divine Right of Kings’ – deriving power and
authority from God.
 Acted from self-interest.
 Dissimulation strategy – secrecy and concealment. However, () most
contemporary monarchs used this strategy, not just Philip.