Philip II was born six years before Elizabeth I in 1527 and died five years before her in 1598. Between them 'el rey prudente' (the prudent king) and the virgin queen dominated the second half of the sixteenth century. Quite unusually for reigning monarchs of that period, they actually met. This occurred in May 1555 while Philip was king consort of England and when Elizabeth was brought to Hampton Court after her imprisonment at Woodstock. Neither has left any personal recollections of the meeting, but from the wariness with which they treated each other thereafter no great rapport seems to have been established.
But Philip did harbour a grievance. He claimed the credit for bringing Elizabeth back to court and arranging a reconciliation with her half-sister (according to one account he observed the meeting between them from hiding). It was at this point that his doubts about Mary's ability to conceive were confirmed by her hysterical pregnancy, and in the absence of an heir of their bodies he gave his support to Elizabeth's ultimately uncontested accession in 1558. This assistance she refused to acknowledge. Backing Elizabeth was not a comfortable decision, for he harboured few illusions about her religious allegiances and he appreciated that he was probably abandoning English Catholics to their fate. A sense of responsibility inspired his offer of marriage to her in 1559 - a gesture strongly opposed in Spain - and lasted for the rest of his life.
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