The Making of Spain. Nation

Your Playlist:

Description

Spain enters its Golden Age. King Philip II is a colossus on the European Stage, and for a time is King of England as well as Spain with his brief marriage to Queen Mary. With the power of Spain enhanced by the spoils of the American Empire, Philip founds Madrid and launches a great Armada against England. We visit El Escorial, Philip's mighty palace outside Madrid, and learn how his successors, with their reliance on favorites and mistresses, cannot live up to his reign. The last Hapsburg king Charles II is a victim of inbreeding, and dies childless. Spain is ruled by the Bourbons, becomes part of the Napoleonic Empire and eventually succumbs to a devastating Civil War and dictatorship under Franco before emerging as a modern, twentieth century nation and a model of democratic monarchy.