King of Spain in the context of "Philip II of Spain"

Charles V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (as Charles I) from 1516 to 1556, King of Sicily and Naples from 1516 to 1554, and also Lord of the Netherlands and titular Duke of Burgundy (as Charles II) from 1506 to 1555. He was heir to and then head of the rising House of Habsburg. His dominions in Europe included the Holy Roman Empire, extending from Germany to northern Italy with rule over the Austrian hereditary lands and Burgundian Low Countries, and Spain with its possessions of the southern Italian kingdoms of Sicily, Naples, and Sardinia. In the Americas, he oversaw the continuation of Spanish colonization and a short-lived German colonization. The personal union of the European and American territories he ruled was the first collection of realms labelled "the empire on which the sun never sets".

Charles was born in Flanders to Habsburg Archduke Philip the Handsome, son of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Mary of Burgundy, and Joanna of Castile, younger child of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. Heir of his grandparents, Charles inherited his family dominions at a young age. After his father's death in 1506, he inherited the Habsburg Netherlands in the Low Countries. In 1516 he became King of Spain as co-monarch of Castile and Aragon with his mother. Spain's possessions included the Castilian colonies of the West Indies and the Spanish Main, as well as Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. At the death of his grandfather Maximilian in 1519, he inherited the Austrian hereditary lands and was elected as Holy Roman Emperor. He adopted the Imperial name of Charles V as his main title, and styled himself as a new Charlemagne.

Philip V (Spanish: Felipe V; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was king of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724 and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign (45 years, 9 months and 8 days) is the longest in the history of the Spanish monarchy, surpassing Philip IV. Although his ascent to the throne precipitated the War of the Spanish Succession, Philip V instigated many important reforms in Spain, most especially the centralization of power of the monarchy and the suppression of regional privileges, via the Nueva Planta decrees, and restructuring of the administration of the Spanish Empire on the Iberian Peninsula and its overseas regions.

Philip was born into the French House of Bourbon during the reign of his grandfather King Louis XIV. He was the second son of Louis, Grand Dauphin, and was third in line to the French throne after his father and his elder brother, Louis, Duke of Burgundy. Philip was not expected to become a monarch, but his great-uncle King Charles II of Spain was childless. Philip's father had a strong claim to the Spanish throne, but since Philip's father and elder brother were expected to inherit the French throne, Charles named Philip as his heir in his will. Philip succeeded in 1700 as the first Spanish monarch of the House of Bourbon.

Charles II (6 November 1661 – 1 November 1700) was King of Spain from 1665 to 1700. The last monarch from the House of Habsburg that had ruled Spain since 1516, his death without children resulted in the 1701 to 1714 War of the Spanish Succession.

For reasons still debated, Charles experienced lengthy periods of ill health throughout his life. This made the question of who would succeed him central to European diplomacy for much of his reign, with one historian writing that "from the day of his birth, they were waiting for his death".

Habsburg Netherlands were the parts of the Low Countries that were ruled by sovereigns from the House of Habsburg. Their rule began in 1482 and ended for the Northern Netherlands in 1581 and for the Southern Netherlands in 1797. Habsburg rule began with the accession of Philip the Handsome in 1482, when he succeeded his mother Mary of Burgundy of the House of Valois-Burgundy, who was the ruler of the Low Countries. Philip's son and heir Charles, future King of Spain (1516), and the Holy Roman Emperor (1519), was born in the Habsburg Netherlands and made Brussels one of his capitals.

During the Habsburg era, from 1482 to 1797, parts of the Netherlands under their rule went through various political changes and administrative reorganizations. Becoming known as the Seventeen Provinces in 1549, they were held by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556, thus becoming known as the Spanish Netherlands from that time on. In 1581, in the midst of the Dutch Revolt, the Seven United Provinces seceded from the rest of this territory to form the Dutch Republic. The remaining Spanish Southern Netherlands became the Austrian Netherlands in 1714, after Austrian acquisition under the Treaty of Rastatt. De facto Habsburg rule ended with the annexation by the revolutionary French First Republic in 1795. Austria, however, did not relinquish its claim over the country until 1797 in the Treaty of Campo Formio.

The Empire of Charles V, also known as the Habsburg Empire, included the Habsburg hereditary lands in central Europe, the kingdoms of Spain, the colonial Spanish Empire, the kingdom of Naples, the Habsburg Netherlands and other territories and principalities across Europe. It is sometimes considered to include, in addition, the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary which were held by Charles's brother Ferdinand during his reign. Charles was also Holy Roman Emperor and, as such, was suzerain of the states of the Holy Roman Empire.

The empire was the first to be labelled as "the empire on which the sun never sets", a term used to describe several global empires throughout history. The lands of the empire had in common only the monarch, Charles V, while their boundaries, institutions, and laws remained distinct. Charles's nomenclature as Holy Roman Emperor was Charles V (also Karl V and Carolus V), though earlier in his life he was known by the names of Charles of Ghent (after his birthplace in Flanders), Charles II as Duke of Burgundy, and Charles I as King of Spain (Carlos I) and Archduke of Austria (Karl I). The imperial name prevailed due to the politico-religious primacy held by the Holy Roman Empire among European monarchies since the Middle Ages, which Charles V intended to preserve as part of his (ultimately failed) project to unite Christendom under his leadership.

Ferdinand II, also known as Ferdinand I, Ferdinand III, and Ferdinand V (10 March 1452 – 23 January 1516), called Ferdinand the Catholic, was King of Aragon from 1479 until his death in 1516. As the husband and co-ruler of Queen Isabella I of Castile, he was also King of Castile from 1475 to 1504 (as Ferdinand V). He reigned jointly with Isabella over a dynastically unified Spain; together they are known as the Catholic Monarchs. Ferdinand is considered the de facto first king of Spain, and was described as such during his reign, even though, legally, Castile and Aragon remained two separate kingdoms until they were formally united by the Nueva Planta decrees issued between 1707 and 1716.

The Crown of Aragon that Ferdinand inherited in 1479 included the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia, Mallorca, Sardinia, and Sicily, as well as the Principality of Catalonia. His marriage to Isabella is regarded as the "cornerstone in the foundation of the Spanish monarchy". They played a major role in the European colonization of the Americas, sponsoring the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. That year the couple defeated Granada, the last Muslim state in Western Europe, thus completing the centuries-long Reconquista.

The Spanish East Indies were the colonies of the Spanish Empire in Asia and Oceania from 1565 to 1901, governed through the captaincy general in Manila for the Spanish Crown, initially reporting to Mexico City, then later directly reporting to Madrid after the Spanish American Wars of Independence.

The king of Spain traditionally styled himself "King of the East and West Indies" (Spanish: Rey de las Indias Orientales y Occidentales).