The ominous clouds meandered in the sky, lightning electrocuting the air while Philip grimaced on his bed– or soon to be deathbed. The perfect weather for a deep, dark murder in pursuit of revenge and power, carried out by four conspirators.
But shhh! Only you know this information so far!
At the head of this, we have Antonio Perez, the brains. Initially a trusted Spanish statesman, he soon became Philip II’s enemy after forcing the king to participate in an assisination. Grudgingly, Perez was arrested in 1579, and remained there for years, eventually fleeing to Aragon, then France, and then England for protection. Thereon, he allied with the Protestants, who were against the Spanish crown. He shared valuable state secrets with them in order to gain support and receive asylum, reaching newfound power with his British ally. This made him a traitor in Philip’s eyes. Wouldn’t the perfect solution be to seek ultimate revenge and kill King Philip? However, an idea like this requires a master plan– there’s no way Perez could do this alone. Fueled by vengeance, he recruited some people that helped bring this plan to a cruel success.
However… Money doesn’t grow on trees, right? Fresh out of jail, Perez wasn’t as wealthy as he used to be when he was working, so he clearly needed some assistance. With his recently formed alliance with England, equipped with Queen Elizabeth I at the crown, she was looking like his best bet. Elizabeth was a prominent monarch of the time. With England’s successful agrarian economy, trading, taxation, colonies, and privateering, there were no doubts that she would be able to provide enough money for this. Elizabeth’s fleet had already defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, which fueled England’s power over Spain.
Funds, check. Yet one more question remains… Who's actually going to physically kill Philip? Well, Perez is already organizing this all, but if he got caught in the action, the repercussions would not be great. Thankfully, there’s plenty of other Spanish hate-club members… which includes all of the Dutch-Jewish merchants. These people were Sephardic Jews, meaning they originated from Spain and Portugal, but were expelled during the inquisition. They found solace in the Netherlands, which was a center of religious tolerance. What better revenge would there be other than to attack the monarch of the country that viewed their religion as heretical? None other! And with the plethora of Dutch-Jewish merchants, catching and identifying the one who kills Philip would be a lot harder than catching the easily identifiable Antonio Perez. Hopefully people wouldn’t figure out who this merchant was.
Perfect– recruits brainstormed! But hold on, how is Perez going to get all of these people to work together, and how was the operation going to be carried out? Well, when there’s a will, there’s a way. He planned on having his English recruits send out a small boat out to the Netherlands, to pick up the Dutch-Jewish merchant. In the event that the Spanish caught them in the harbor, the entire English army would be on Perez’s side and could appear on ships and start a battle. But according to the plan, the merchant would sneak into El Escorial, Philip’s palace, and quickly slash his throat with a sharp knife in the dead of night, then scurry off. Since Philip was already ill, retaliating back would be more difficult due to his weakness. After the merchant would kill the king, he would quietly scamper off back to the boat and be brought back to the Netherlands, and then the Englishmen accompanying him would sail home as well. To make it happen, he sent a series of letters asking for help on his mission. First, he sent a letter to the Netherlands, and pleaded to recruit a Dutch-Jewish merchant to murder King Philip II. Motivated by their efforts to become the Dutch Republic and seek independence from Spain, the Dutch confirmed with Perez. Following that, he sent a letter addressed to Queen Elizabeth I, and asked if she would fund the mission and be responsible for the transportation, and be a backup force in case they got caught. Driven by their boosted reputation after the Spanish Armada’s failure, the Queen gladly accepted.
After the confirmations, the journey had begun. Elizabeth sent off a small boat with an advisor and a sailor to carry through with the mission. After a week- long voyage, the men arrived at the Dutch ports, and picked up a Dutch-Jewish merchant, equipped with a sharp knife. From there, they also took another week to sail into Spain’s harbor. The small boat was no cause for concern, as the English had cleverly stolen some of the Spanish boats during the Spanish Armada and used that for the mission. This meant that they weren’t sailing in with a suspicious looking English boat. Plus, being dressed in black outfits with masks, all while being cloaked by the darkness of the night, they had quite the advantage.
The merchant took a deep breath, and dismounted from the boat.
“You got this, we all believe in you. For freedom, for justice, for revenge. End him!” whispered the English advisor with ambition.
The merchant shook his hand in gratitude, gave a fierce nod, and headed onto his mission. The guards always take a brief break once the clock strikes 1 a.m, but it’s only about ten minutes long. They usually congregate in a circle on the other side of the palace to chat and sit. Given Perez’s former status, he obviously knew this, so he passed the info to the merchant via letter before they had set sail. He had warned the merchant to be very swift, because if he wasn’t, the mission could be a complete fiasco. In order to bypass the lock of the palace door, he was instructed to use his knife to open the keyhole– Perez claimed it worked.
Equipped with his knife, he used it to loosen the lock of the palace. True to Perez’s word, it did work, and the merchant got in. Once he was in the corridor, the whole thing was a bit of a gamble, because it was hard to guess when the servants would or wouldn’t be there. However, it was 1 a.m, so most of them were asleep. He utilized the castle map that he had been supplied with, dodged into the hallways that Perez said were barely used and hid there for short moments to check when the coast was clear. Eventually, he located Philip’s chamber, and silently walked there. To his luck, the door was slipped open, because servants had been in and out of the room, supplying the king with medicine. The first thing he did was quickly place the keys to manacles on the wooden floor of the bedchamber.
The merchant tip-toe-ran to his bed, knife quivering in his right hand. The king’s solemn expression reflected on the knife’s metal surface, illuminated by the glowing moonlight. His eyes were shut, in a restful slumber. Not wasting another second, the merchant briskly slashed the knife across Philip’s throat. He made a gurgling yelp sound, eventually erupting into maniacal screams. The merchant dashed out and into the hallway full at speed. He hid in a nearby closet as the servants and royal paramedics came racing to the king’s assistance. Once he could rest assured that all of the people were inside of the chamber and out of the hallway, he headed back to the front door, praying that the guards were still on break. He wiped the blood from the knife onto his black cloak and picked the door lock open. Under the doormat, he slyly slid a sheet of paper with ‘It’s working, my friends…’ scrawled across it. He then rushed to the boat.
“I, did, it” the merchant whisper-exclaimed, panting between each word.
The Englishmen gave him a hard pat on the back, and congratulated him. They wasted no time, and set sail back to the Netherlands to drop the merchant off.
Back at the palace, it was pure chaos. The servants and butlers didn’t even know what to do. Some were crying, some pacing, and others just had to leave the room.
It was an unfathomable sight. Scarlet gore permeated the king’s bed sheets, dripping off of the bed and soaking into the wooden floorboards. A gruesome open wound was left on Philip’s neck. The nurse had a stethoscope on his heart and announced “He’s dead. I repeat– King Philip II is dead.”
News quickly spread around the following morning about King Philip’s death. His bedroom was eventually cleaned, his body dressed and placed in a casket, with funeral ceremony preparations already underway. But the Spanish royals were not happy– two defeats in a row was not a good look.
Detectives were recruited to get to the bottom of this. The room was examined, and the first thing that caught their attention were the manacle keys erratically placed in his bedroom. Could this be a clue? The detectives took a look at it.
“It must be a sign of protest against slavery, against our colonies in the Americas for silver.” Said one of the detectives.
“Considering Bartolomé de Las Casas’ apologetic history, he is not a fan of our colonization of the Native Americans–he adamantly fights for their rights. I bet you he broke into the palace and killed Philip for revenge, hoping this would somehow grant the Indians some rights,” another one added on.
“On the subject of people who don’t like us in the Americas… think about it. Potatoes! It could've been a group of laborers working under the encomienda system in Peru rebelling, and perhaps they somehow got an assassin to kill Philip for them. You know, in order to possibly change the work conditions they’re forced to live under. ”
“But think about it, is that realistic? We’re still going to use the Peruvians for potatoes no matter what– we need those for trading, and they do too. And at the end of the day for De Las Casas, he’s a Spanish dude. Would he actually kill King Philip? He disagrees with the coerced labor system and lack of rights that Philip imposes, but I’m not getting a sense that he would solve what he views as a human rights issue, with murder… ”
“You’re right… I guess this just distracted us– a red herring of sorts.”
The door to Philip’s bed chamber burst open as a servant cried out
“Sirs! Look what I have found sticking out from under the front door mat, it’s a note!”
The lady handed the note to the detectives, and they read it.
“ ‘It’s working, my friends…’. Well that’s kind of suspicious. Someone knows exactly what they’re doing here. It has to be someone with more power. I don’t think laborers are at the bottom of this. It has to be one of our big enemies. Think Protestants. Oh, I hate to even say that word. Pure heretics. ” He said with a scornful eye roll.
The detectives decided to head to the royal library, which had a highly expansive array of all sorts of objects, would be a great way to discover who was at fault for the king’s death. There, they would have access to maps, books, currency collections, and artifacts from all around the world. Surely they’d find something that would spark more realistic ideas for suspects.
Descending the grand staircase, the pair of detectives opened the door to the library. They settled in a set of big red velvet armchairs decorated with golden accents, separated by a coffee table.
“You were saying something about Protestants, right?”
“Yeah. Watch it be England though, after our lame Armada loss, it makes complete sense for them to want to assert more dominance and just kill Philip. I think it was them.”
“Honestly, you’re completely right. I mean, Elizabeth is a strong ruler, quite unfortunate for us. She delivered that speech to the troops at Tilbury, inspiring all of them and ta-da! With a strategic navy, her country defeated us. It’s all starting to come together.
One of the detectives turned his head to the right and squinted.
“And look over there! Those silver coins, with Elizabeth’s head on them. She’s so rich, she clearly has enough money to fund this.”
“It’s very possible she allied with someone though. She is famous for her temper, but I feel like she wouldn’t do this alone. There’s still lots of other groups of people that have hatred towards Philip and Spain.”
“Alright, let’s divide and conquer. You tackle the maps section, while I look at world books and other texts.”
Around fifteen minutes later, they both returned to their debriefing spot, one detective with Ortelius’ Typus Orbis Terrarum map in his hand, and the other with Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises and a Holy Bible in Dutch. His eyes quickly shifted to a copy of Columbus’ Journal on a neighboring shelf.
“Well, I know who definitely wasn’t it. Christopher Columbus. See his journal over there?” he said, pointing. “King Ferdinand II and Isabella I of Spain literally sponsored his trip. Imagine if he rebelled on Spain for whatever reason. Hah, that would be funny. But I really doubt it– he views the native americans through the lens of exploitation, just like us. Why would he be the one?”
“For sure. We can get him off the list! Shifting gears, I think the Orelius map is a good place for starters. It’s a nice, comprehensive world map– just what we need.”
The detectives traced potential routes from England to Spain, but then one of the detectives blurted out
“I got it! Ortelius is from the Netherlands. That’s a part of the Spanish Empire, and they want to be free, to become the Dutch Republic. And so many of the Sephardic Jews that had to flee because of the Spanish Inquisition live there. It makes sense that they would want to kill Philip. It’s all adding up!”
“Wonderful point! I was about to bring up the Dutch myself actually, I have the Holy Bible in Dutch right here. That country has always had a good mix of Catholics and Protestants, they’re pretty religiously tolerant over there. Like you, I was also thinking that with all of the Dutch Protestants being harshly treated by Spaniards and also with all of the Jews that reside there, they could definitely be a prime suspect.”
“For sure. And it likely wasn’t some big guy either , I bet you it was some random merchant or someone that thought they could easily get away with it.”
“I didn’t even think of that! Great catch. But look, here I’ve also got Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. Call me crazy, but what if it was someone who was Catholic? What if it was even a Spanish person… I mean, we know that it probably wasn’t De Las Casas, but there’s definitely actual enemies that Philip had that are Spanish.”
“You. Are. So. Smart. Who else could it be?! Antonio Perez, that menace! The traitor was arrested, and still managed to ally with the British, and I bet you he got Queen Elizbeth to fund the mission. Full circle moment now! Since he was the one who had personal ties with Philip, no one would know how to kill Philip better than a former statesman.”
“Exactly! I think we’ve almost got it! Touching back on that last suspect though– the Dutch. How do you think they came into play? You said it might’ve been a merchant, correct?”
“Yes. Ooh, all the puzzle pieces are fitting together perfectly. Could you hand me the map please?
“Sure”
“Ok, here’s my theory on how they all conspired. Perez, with his new British ally Elizabeth, asked her to fund the mission. Since Britain just defeated us, I don’t think they had plans on attacking us again right now. So, Perez must have recruited a Dutch merchant, likely a Jewish one since there’s so many of them, to murder Philip. I’m guessing to get here they just took week long trips sailing on a boat to pick up the merchant and then head on over here to Spain. And since Perez knows this castle very well, I bet you he told that merchant some secret way to get in here and gave him a map of some sorts.”
“I have nothing else to add, I think you absolutely nailed it. Case closed.”
And that's how King Philip II was murdered.
Antonio Perez, Queen Elizabeth I of England, and Dutch-Jewish merchant– GUILTY!
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