Philip II of Spain, King of England

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

Philip II of Spain - the most powerful monarch of the early modern period - was married to Queen Mary Tudor from 1554 until her death in 1558. But Philip was not merely Mary's King Consort. Rather he was King of England, co-ruler with Mary. But Philip's character and central role in the English monarchy was forever blackened by anti-Catholic versions of Tudor history.

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, first released in October 2021, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Gonzalo Velasco Berenguer, whose ground-breaking research shows that the reign of Mary and Philip was much more than an anomalous glitch on England's journey towards Protestantism.

Mary I: What if She'd Lived? >

Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. Edited and produced by Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb.
0:02.6	If you'd like not just the Tudors ad-free to get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:10.5	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries,
0:16.0	including my own recent two-part series, A World Torn Apart, The Dissolution of the Monastries, and enjoy a new release every week.
0:25.2	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:32.0	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome to not just the Tudors from History Hit, the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs, from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to Samarise.
0:46.8	Relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft. Not in other words just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.
1:06.3	If you have a ruler of rulers at home, I'd like you to take it out and look at it now.
1:11.9	Now, if it's the same as the one I've got here, it will say for the 16th century, Henry the 7th, Henry the 8th, Edward the 6th, then it might mention Jane Grey, mine does not.
1:23.1	Mary the 1st, Elizabeth the 1st, and what it almost certainly won't say, is Philip.
1:28.8	But Philip of Spain, husband to marry the first, was King of England from 1554 to 1558.
1:36.1	In this episode first released in October 2021, my guest argues that we should not see Philip's kingship as in any way nominal or ceremonial,
1:46.0	nor should we see him as a kind of king consort, but that we need to rehabilitate him as a committed joint monarch with Mary.
1:54.0	In short, he calls for a total reconceptualization of our idea of Tudor history.
2:00.0	Dr. Gonzalo Velazco Berengar is lecturer in global medieval and early modern history at the University of Bristol.
2:07.4	He's the author of Habsburg, England, politics and religion in the reign of Philip I, 1554 to 1558, published by Brill.
2:15.4	I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb, and this is not just the Tudors
2:19.1	from History Hit.
2:28.2	Gonzalo, it's an absolute pleasure to see you and to chat with you. Can you introduce us to
2:33.7	Philip I of Spain and tell us about
2:36.5	his life until the year that he married Mary the First? Yes, Philip of Spain is the son of Charles
2:43.3	the 5th, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, and of Isabel of Portugal, and he was born in 1527 in Bayadolid.
	...

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