Philip I known as Philip the Handsome or the Fair, was the first member of the
house of Habsburg to be King of Castile. The son of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian
I, at the age of three Philip inherited the greater part of the Duchy of
Burgundy and the Burgundian Netherlands from his mother, Mary, and at 27 briefly
succeeded to the Crown of Castile as the husband of Queen Joanna, who was also
heiress-presumptive to the Crown of Aragon. He was the first Habsburg
monarch in Spain. He never inherited his father's territories, nor became Holy
Roman Emperor, because he predeceased his father, but his son Emperor Charles
V eventually united the Habsburg, Burgundian, Castilian, and Aragonese
inheritances. The future King Henry VIII of England
met Philip the Handsome on a visit Philip made to Henry's father's court in
London, and regarded him as providing a model of leadership towards which he
aspired. The two would become brothers-in-law since Philip married
Joanna of Castile, and Henry married Joanna's youngest sister, Catherine of
Aragon. Biography
= Early life = Philip was born in Bruges to Mary of
Burgundy and Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor during the reign of his
grandfather Frederick III in the County of Flanders and was named after his
great-grandfather, Philip the Good, grandfather of his mother Mary. In 1482,
upon the death of his mother, he succeeded to her Burgundian possessions
under the guardianship of his father. A period of turmoil ensued which witnessed
sporadic hostilities between, principally, the large towns of Flanders
and the supporters of Maximilian. During this interregnum, Philip became
caught up in events and was even briefly sequestered in Bruges as part of the
larger Flemish campaign to support their claims of greater autonomy, which they
had wrested from Mary of Burgundy in an agreement known as the Great Privilege
of 1477. By the early 1490s, the turmoil of the interregnum gave way to an uneasy
stand-off, with neither French support for the cities of the Franc, nor
Imperial support from Philip's grandfather, Emperor Frederick III
proving decisive. Both sides came to terms in the Treaty of Senlis in 1493,
when Emperor Frederick died and Philip's father Maximilian became the new
emperor. This smoothed over the internal power struggle as the two sides agreed
to make the 15-year-old Philip prince in the following year.
= The Burgundian inheritance and the Spanish alliance =
In 1494, Maximilian relinquished his regency under the terms of the Treaty of
Senlis and Philip, aged 16, took over the rule of the Burgundian lands
himself, although in practice authority was derived from a council of Burgundian
notables. On 20 October 1496, he married Infanta Joanna, daughter of King
Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, in Lier, Belgium.
The marriage was one of a set of family alliances between the Habsburgs and the
Trastámara, designed to strengthen against growing French power, which had
increased significantly thanks to the policies of Louis XI and the successful
assertion of regal power after war with the League of the Public Weal. The
matter became more urgent after Charles VIII's invasion of Italy.
Philip's sister Margaret married John, Prince of Asturias, only son of
Ferdinand and Isabel and successor to the unified crowns of Castile and
Aragon, and known as the Catholic Monarchs. The double alliance was never
intended to let the Spanish kingdoms fall under Habsburg control. At the time
of her marriage to Philip, Joanna was third in line to the throne, with John
and his sister Isabella married and hopeful of progeny.
= The Castilian inheritance = In 1500, shortly after the birth in
Flanders of Joanna and Philip's second child, the succession to the Castilian
and Aragonese crowns was thrown into turmoil. The heir apparent, John, had
died in 1497 very shortly after his marriage to Margaret of Austria. The
crown thereby seemed destined to devolve upon his and Joanna's elder sister
Isabella, wife of Manuel I of Portugal. She died in 1498, while giving birth to
a son named Miguel da Paz, to whom succession to the united crowns of
Castile, Aragon and Portugal now fell; however, the infant was sickly and died
during the summer of 1500. The succession to the Castilian and
Aragonese crowns now fell to Joanna. Because Ferdinand could produce another
heir, the Cortes of Aragon refused to recognize Joanna as heir presumptive to
the Kingdom of Aragon. In the Kingdom of Castile, however, the succession was
clear. Moreover, there was no Salic tradition which the Castilian Cortes
could use to thwart the succession passing to Joanna. At this point, the
issue of Joanna's supposed mental incompetence moved from courtly
annoyance to the center of the political stage, since it was clear that Philip
and his Burgundian entourage would be the real power-holders in Castile.
In 1502, Philip, Joanna and a large part of the Burgundian court travelled to
Spain to receive fealty from the Cortes of Castile as heirs, a journey
chronicled in intense detail by Antoon I van Lalaing, the future Stadtholder of
Holland and Zeeland. Philip and the majority of the court returned to the
Low Countries in the following year, leaving a pregnant Joanna behind in
Madrid, where she gave birth to Ferdinand, later Holy Roman Emperor.
Philip's life with Joanna was rendered extremely unhappy by his infidelity and
political insecurity, during which he consistently attempted to usurp her
legal birthrights of power. This led in great part to the rumors of her insanity
due to reports of depressive or neurotic acts committed while she was being
imprisoned or coerced by her husband, rumors that benefited Philip
politically. Most historians now agree she was merely clinically depressed at
the time, not insane as commonly believed. Before her mother's death, in
1504, husband and wife were already living apart.
= Struggle for power in Spain = In 1504, Philip's mother-in-law, Queen
Isabella of Castile, died, leaving the Crown of Castile to Joanna. Isabella I's
widower and former co-monarch, King Ferdinand II, endeavored to lay hands on
the regency of Castile, but the nobles, who disliked and feared him, forced him
to withdraw. Philip was summoned to Spain, where he was recognized as king.
However, en route to Spain in January 1506, Philip and Joanna were caught in a
tempest and shipwrecked off the Dorset coast, forcing them on shore near
Melcombe Regis. The couple stayed as guests of Henry VII of England but were
in fact hostages for the duration of their stay. To get released Philip was
forced to sign a treaty with Henry VII–the so-called Malus
Intercursus–which included a mutual defense pact, the extradition of rebels,
including the Earl of Suffolk who as an exile was a guest of Philip in the Low
Countries, and a trade agreement which allowed English merchants to import
cloth duty-free into the Low Countries. After handing over Suffolk, Philip and
Joanna were allowed to leave England after a stay of six weeks.
He landed, with his wife, at La Coruña on 28 April 1506, accompanied by a body
of German mercenaries. Father- and son-in-law mediated under Cardinal
Cisneros at Remesal, near Puebla de Sanabria, and at Renedo, the only result
of which was an indecent family quarrel, in which Ferdinand professed to defend
the interests of his daughter, who he said was imprisoned by her husband. On
27 June 1506, the Treaty of Villafáfila was signed between Ferdinand and Philip,
with Philip being proclaimed King of Castile by the Cortes of Valladolid.
However, Philip died suddenly at Burgos, apparently of typhoid fever, on 25
September 1506, although a poisoning was widely spoken of at the time, and is
what his wife believed to be the cause of Philip's death. His wife supposedly
refused to allow his body to be buried or to part from it for a while. Philip I
is entombed at the Royal Chapel of Granada, alongside his wife, and her
parents Isabella I and Ferdinand II. Family
Philip and Joanna of Castile had six children:
Eleanor, queen consort of Portugal and France
Charles, king of Spain, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
Isabella, queen consort of Denmark, Norway and Sweden
Ferdinand I, king of Bohemia and Hungary, emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire Mary, queen consort of Hungary and
Bohemia Catherine, queen consort of Portugal
Ancestry Titles
27 March 1482 – 25 September 1506: Titular Duke of Burgundy as Philip IV
27 March 1482 – 25 September 1506: Duke of Brabant as Philip III
27 March 1482 – 25 September 1506: Duke of Limburg as Philip III
27 March 1482 – 25 September 1506: Duke of Lothier as Philip III
27 March 1482 – 25 September 1506: Duke of Luxemburg as Philip II
27 March 1482 – 25 September 1506: Margrave of Namur as Philip V
27 March 1482 – 25 September 1506: Count Palatine of Burgundy as Philip VI
27 March 1482 – 25 September 1506: Count of Artois as Philip VI
27 March 1482 – 25 September 1506: Count of Charolais as Philip III
27 March 1482 – 25 September 1506: Count of Flanders as Philip IV
27 March 1482 – 25 September 1506: Count of Hainaut as Philip II
27 March 1482 – 25 September 1506: Count of Holland as Philip II
27 March 1482 – 25 September 1506: Count of Zeeland as Philip II
27 March 1482 – 1492: Duke of Guelders as Philip I
27 March 1482 – 1492: Count of Zutphen as Philip I
26 November 1504 – 25 September 1506: jure uxoris King of Castile as Philip I
Notes Sources