"Spanish America was to a large extent the creation of one man - Philip II of Spain, "The Most Potent Monarch of Christendom." Philip ruled a quarter of the world's population, including the Philippines (named after him), everything from Florida to the southern tip of Chile, and much of Europe. Philip is also noted for a great failure - his ill-fated attempt to invade England with his Armada.".

"Obsessively devoted to his faith, Philip could never trust anyone, and would not compromise with Protestants or Muslims. He watched with righteous delight the agonies of heretics burning at the stake. He had a tremendous capacity for detailed administrative work, sometimes dealing with as many as four hundred documents a day. Yet he was almost equally devoted to pleasure and the Arts.

Philip was a connoisseur who relished Titian and Bosch, but was strangely blind to the genius on his doorstep: El Greco." "In this biography, Geoffrey Parker drew upon a vast, previously untapped collection of the king's private correspondence, in which he expressed his emotions, personal thoughts, and social philosophy. This new edition has a Bibliographical Essay, evaluating the many new works on Philip published on and around the 400th anniversary of his death."--BOOK JACKET.