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Carregando... Philip of Spainde Henry Kamen
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Registre-se no LibraryThing tpara descobrir se gostará deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. CO-4 Though he ruled over Spain at the peak of its "Golden Age" of power and influence, Philip II has long suffered from a negative historical image. Henry Kamen's book seeks to address this by providing a rounded portrait of a conscientious and diligent monarch, one who was surprisingly modern in many respects. Kamen succeeds in describing both the grandeur of Philip's reign and the many challenges he faced as a monarch, from perennially impoverished treasury to the unrest and rebellion in the Netherlands. Yet the biography suffers from a lack of analysis: space used to detail innumerable processions and court intrigues would have been better spent explaining the operations of Philip's government or the factors underlying the problems he faced. This limits Kamen's achievement with this book, which demonstrates the need for a better understanding of this important ruler without fully meeting the demand for it. Kamen attempts a revisionist make-over of King Philip II, often regarded as one of the great villains of early modern European history. (c.f. "Don Carlos," the play by Schiller and the opera by Verdi). With great attention to the primary sources of the 16th century, Kamen depicts Philip as a well-educated Renaissance Prince who was a warm and loving family man who cultivated learning and even enjoyed dancing. He was no more intolerant than the normal ruler of his time, and not particularly avid in serving the Papacy and aggressive Roman Catholicism. "Philip has often been presented as the Knight-errant of militant Catholicism in these years, but his priority was always peace. He never ceased to express his concern for religion, yet in practice his policy decisions were more realistic. No imperialist fever reigned at the King's court." All those "bad things" associated with Spain in the late 16th century - the Inquisition, the Armada, the repression of the Netherlands and the disastrous war that ensued, the collapse of the Spanish economy - apparently those were not all Philip's fault. "Philip was never at any time in adequate control of events, or of his kingdoms, or even of his own destiny. It follows that he cannot be held responsible for more than a small part of what eventually transpired during his reign. To many spectators, he was the most powerful monarch in the world. In the privacy of his office, he knew very well that this was an illusion. . . For all his power, he had been unable to stop his realms being sucked into a whirl of war, debt, and decay." That the reader is likely to finish the book less than completely convinced of Kamen's argument does not detract from the author's skill in presenting it. His scholarship is exemplary and his effort in scraping off the layers of myth about Philip's record is completely commendable. This biography is very readable and very informative. sem resenhas | adicionar uma resenha
Philip II of Spain-ruler of the most extensive empire the world had ever known-has been viewed in a harsh and negative light since his death in 1598. Identified with repression, bigotry, and fanaticism by his enemies, he has been judged more by the political events of his reign than by his person. This book, published four hundred years after Philip's death, is the first full-scale biography of the king. Placing him within the social, cultural, religious, and regional context of his times, it presents a startling new picture of his character and reign.Drawing on Philip's unpublished correspondence and on many other archival sources, Henry Kamen reveals much about Philip the youth, the man, the husband, the father, the frequently troubled Christian, and the king. Kamen finds that Philip was a cosmopolitan prince whose extensive experience of northern Europe broadened his cultural imagination and tastes, whose staunchly conservative ideas were far from being illiberal and fanatical, whose religious attitudes led him to accept a practical coexistence with Protestants and Jews, and whose support for Las Casas and other defenders of the Indians in America helped determine government policy. Shedding completely new light on most aspects of Philip's private life and, in consequence, on his public actions, the book is the definitive portrayal of Philip II. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — Carregando... GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)946.043History and Geography Europe Spain and Iberian Peninsula Spain Charles I and Philip II 1516-98Classificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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