Philip II of Spain

Son of Emperor Charles V, Philip inherited the Spanish Empire in 1556 and added Portugal in 1580 after a succession crisis, fusing them into the Iberian Union. Under his rule Spain completed the conquest of the Inca Empire and the Philippines - the islands named for him - and finished El Escorial in 1584. Deeply devout, he saw himself as Catholicism's defender and poured resources into wars on multiple fronts: victories at Oran, Malta, Lepanto against the Ottomans, funding for the Catholic League against French Huguenots, and in 1588 the great Armada sent to topple Elizabeth and restore English Catholicism, which was scattered by skirmish and storm. The costs pushed Spain into state default five times across his reign. He refused all biographical accounts and never answered the enemy propaganda that hardened into the Black Legend, leaving him what one historian called perhaps the most enigmatic personality in modern history - a king about whom contemporaries and scholars still cannot agree on character, aim, or success.