ABSTRACT
King of Spain (1556–1598) and Portugal (1580–1598) and ruler of a global empire, Philip II was the most powerful sovereign in Europe during the second half of the sixteenth century. 1 Often depicted as a pious Catholic with a reserved personality, the monarch reveals his emotional side in the letters he wrote to his daughter Catalina, who married the Duke of Savoy, a key ally of Spain, in 1585. Catalina travelled to Savoy and Philip II would never see her again before her premature death in childbirth in 1597. His letters to Catalina reveal the tensions that existed in the relationship between father and daughter as well as the deep paternal love that Philip II felt for his daughter. The letters Philip wrote to Catalina before and after she gave birth to her first child in 1586, a son named after his Spanish grandfather, reveal not just the king’s religious piety but also a mixture of emotions. These include the sadness of a father who keenly missed his daughter, the anxiety that surrounded the birth of a child and high possibility of maternal and infant death, the joy of becoming a grandfather and relief that Catalina had survived childbirth. To understand the significance of these letters it is important to remember that King Philip’s private life had been marked by repeated personal tragedies, including the repeated loss of beloved spouses and children.
