Elizabeth and Philip FRQ Elizabeth I and Philip II were the monarchs of England and Spain, respectively, during

the 16th century. They were both very powerful and intelligent rulers and were able to lead their countries from economically poor and politically corrupt to the two most dominant countries in Europe. Their ruling methods were very different, and would affect Spain and England in different ways in the long-term with Elizabeth leaving a prosperous, growing economy to her successor and Philip leaving an economy that was failing to his successor. Overall, Elizabeth I of England was more Machiavellian than Philip II of Spain. Philip II was a very meticulous person; he had to have everything done correctly and in a certain way. So, he took control of the administration of his kingdom and watched over them carefully, making sure that every little thing was just how he wanted it. In doing so, he had a lot more control over what happened in Spain, which was very Machiavellian. He wanted Spain to be full of devout Catholics, and he saw it as his duty as a Catholic to defend and spread the Catholic faith and to destroy Protestantism. Philip used the Inquisition in Spain during the witch hunts to persecute witches and heretics, which were just people that behaved differently because they were likely Protestant. So he did not tolerate religious differences at all and persecuted Protestants. Philip led Spain through a period of economic prosperity, but because of Spains dependency on its colonies in the New World for the majority of its money, there was not a lot of money being made in the actual country. Philip did not support economic innovation, so Spain was falling behind on farming and production. Spain also had control over the Netherlands, which generated a lot of income. So when the gold and silver mines dried up, Philips poor planning-ahead skills caused a time of rapid economic decline. Philip II knew that Spain was

becoming rich, so he spent lavish sums of money to build buildings such as El Escorial. Nobles would come and live in El Escorial, and would not really even communicate with their farms, leaving them in total disrepair. So, when the mines dried, Philip could not rely on the farms to make money. Philips main focus and use for all of his money was to build up his military, which mainly consisted of the navy because of a need to protect his treasure ships and to dominate in naval warfare. The result was the Spanish Armada; the biggest and most powerful navy of the time period. This huge armada later fell to the smaller English navy merely because the English were smarter in their strategy, rather than trying to just use size and numbers to win. Money from the gold and silver mines was going towards the Spanish military and not towards the betterment of Spains economy, so Philip would be forced to take out loans and would not be able to pay them back. Philip II was a good ruler, but most of his decisions were made for the short-term and not the long-term. This caused an eventual rapid decrease in Spains power. Elizabeth I was, unlike Philip, a very strong female ruler. Because of the fact that she was a woman, she could appeal to her subjects and court in a different way from any male ruler. She used the feminine, motherly side of politics to gain the support of her followers. In her inspirational speech preceding the attack of the Spanish Armada, she declared that she was a weak, feeble woman, but she would still do everything she could to defend her country. This speech inspired patriotism in the defenders, and they won that battle, despite being outnumbered and outgunned. She knew how to use the fact that she was a woman to her advantage when giving speeches, which was Machiavellian in how it allowed her to manipulate people. Elizabeth used her manipulative skills to assemble a small court of very loyal, ambitious advisors and a very small privy council, which every advisor wanted to be a member of. So, with all of her advisors trying to gain her favor, they were very loyal and Elizabeth got all of the information

she needed from them. This was very Machiavellian because he believes that you need intelligent, loyal advisors to help run your country, which Elizabeth definitely did not waste any time in doing. Elizabeth I was very tolerant religiously; she even tried to change the Church of England so that it would be better for Protestants than it was. Instead of being the supreme ruler of the Church of England, Elizabeth changed her title to governor, which made it sound more like she did not have absolute power over it (which she still did) and would just oversee the church. She only persecuted some Catholics because of their support of the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, the only challenger to the throne because of her relation to Henry VIII, and this was only because she did not want to lose the throne. Elizabeth, like Philip, led her country through a time of growing economic prosperity, with the eventual start of the Industrial Revolution in England. The cottage industry was continually growing until the boom of the Industrial Revolution, when economic growth increased rapidly in many areas of technology like farming and manufacturing due to technological advances in tools and equipment. Unlike Philip, Elizabeth left her successor with something to build on instead of a has-been powerhouse like Spain was by the end of Philips reign. Elizabeths focus was not on military, but on bettering the economy. Their navy was not very big like Spains because the previous rulers of England had never really spent much money on the navy, so it was not very large when Elizabeth came to power, and it did not grow like Philips did because she was not putting all of her resources into it like Philip did. It is said that whenever Elizabeth spoke, she was very decisive and what she said was final. This was also very Machiavellian because he believed that a ruler had to be decisive.

Elizabeth and Philip were both very Machiavellian rulers in the ways they ruled their countries, but they were very different regarding economy. They were both very manipulative of their countries and supporters. Philip, however, thought that military was more important than economy and that was Spains eventual downfall, along with Philip depending too much on the New World for the majority of his nations income. Elizabeth believed more in building up her nations economy instead of its military. Elizabeth believed in religious tolerance, but Philip was Catholic and wanted to spread his religion and so persecuted Protestants in Spain via the Inquisition and the witch hunts. The main difference between the two was economy, which was why England was still a dominant European power after Elizabeth and Spain spiraled downwards into one of the weakest and economically unstable countries in Europe.