ABSTRACT
The wedding of Philip of Spain and Mary I of England was, like all royal weddings in the early modern era, a largely political affair. Pedro de Castro, the archbishop of Granada, found the coins. By that time England had become Philip II's principal enemy, and the king was used as the "bogeyman to frighten English children in their cradles". Castro had practically forgotten the days when the Spanish king also was king consort of England thanks to his marriage with Mary Tudor. More than four centuries later, the friendship that this dynastic connection meant for Anglo-Spanish relations continues to be overshadowed by the aggression, decades later, of the Spanish king toward Elizabeth I of England. While Spanish historians have studied Philip's attitude toward England almost entirely from the perspective of these confrontations, the reign of the young man who would be Philip I of England from 1554 to 1558 is practically unknown in the British historical memory.
