Philip II of Spain through the lens of Claudius (Claudius series, Part 21)

What if we consider Claudius, uncle of Hamlet, through the lens of Philip II of Spain, or vice versa? 

Philip was married to Mary I, older half-sister of Elizabeth I, and as such, he also enjoyed the title of King of England. 

As Elizabeth’s brother-in-law, she was Philip’s “sometime-sister,” a phrase Claudius uses to describe Gertrude, widow of his brother King Hamlet [1]. 

Philip had offered a marriage proposal to Elizabeth (1559) two months after the death of Mary I (hasty remarriage), in spite of being the widower of Elizabeth’s half-sister (which would have required special dispensation from Rome, as did the marriage of Henry VIII to his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, mother of Mary I); this would have been considered a biblically incestuous marriage. 

[Edit: Elizabeth *did not accept*. ] 

There were coins of England during the monarchy of Mary I that featured images of Mary and Philip, some of which are still in existence, although Elizabeth had a major program to remove and re-mint all such coins (see image). 

Many scholars have noted that Hamlet seems to have been modeled after a very popular play, The Spanish Tragedy (1582-1592), by Thomas Kyd, which portrayed Spanish corruption and can be read as pro-English, anti-Spanish propaganda. England under Elizabeth, understandably, wanted to reject Spain and Philip, along with things that were associated with her sister Mary’s reign, as well as with her father’s first marriage, considered incestuous in the eyes of English Protestants. 

So while few consider it today, in Shakespeare’s time, many aspects of the character of Claudius could have triggered for audiences memories of Philip II, who proposed to his sometime-sister, and who then like Cain to his brother Abel or Romulus to his brother Remus, later became to his figurative sibling Elizabeth a murderous threat. 

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INDEX on “Claudius” in Hamlet instead of “Feng” (Nov 19, 2024)
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/11/index-why-claudius-not-feng-whats-in.html
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NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu

[1] Hamlet, (1.2.8): “Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen…” 

IMAGES, L-R: 

Post Medieval coin, Sixpence of Phillip and Mary. Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license, via The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum, via https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Post_Medieval_coin,_Sixpence_of_Phillip_and_Mary_(FindID_662681).jpg 

Portrait of Philip II of Spain. 1573, by Sofonisba Anguissola (1532–1625). 
Museo del Prado. Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Philip_II_of_Spain_by_Sofonisba_Anguissola_-_002b.jpg 



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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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