In Spain, Philip II (son of Charles V–big guy of the world in his time) was king. Philip II overdid everything. He couldn't distinguish between the trivial and something important or delegate authority to anyone else. He liked to be indoors and working on reports. Spain liked Philip. He married Mary Tudor of England. After she died, he married someone else who gave him a kid and died. He wanted to marry Elizabeth of England, but she wasn't terribly interested. He hunted heretics early in his reign. Spain owned the Netherlands where Calvinism was growing. Philip sent the Spanish Inquisition there. That caused war with the Protestants (whom Elizabeth of England helped). Philip never finished the war in Northern Netherlands thought he did manage to roast most of the heretics in the south. The Netherlands later split into Belgium (Catholic) and Holland (Protestants).
Pirates from England were messing up Spain. Drake was one of the biggie pirate leaders. They hunted in packs of 5-6 to pick off 1 big merchant ship. Spain was getting tired of losing their ships, so they surrounded their ships with a navy and convoyed them home. That worked well unless there was a storm at sea. Drake sailed ships around the south of South America and camped in Peru. He spoke Spanish and stopped in ports with a Spanish flag flying to pick up information on gold shipments from South America to Spain. Spain discovered him and sent the navy around the south of South America to catch him. To avoid the Spanish navy, Drake went to California and around the world to get home. He finally made it to England. Philip II was so mad he demanded drake be hanged–instead Elizabeth knighted Drake! (Tee Hee!!)
By 1588, Philip was getting tired of England. He built lots of ships (Spanish Armada) for an invasion. Drake sailed into the harbor at Cadiz where the ships were sitting and burned the anchored ships! Philip just built more ships. He had a great plan!! He was going to sail the ships to Calais (a Belgian port town) and pick up more troops who had been fighting Protestants. As the Armada went around by England, the English navy pulled in right behind them. England was using light cannon which don't really destroy much but have great range. Spain had heavy cannon with no range. Spain reached Calais but had to anchor in deep water. The troops weren't ready to board. During the night, England got upwind of the Spanish and sent fire ships (old ships they set on fire) down. The Spanish panicked and ordered the anchor cables of their ships cut before the sails were up so they could get out of the way of the fire ships. But with no sails they had no steering power. The next morning the Spanish were all over the channel. The English used pirate tactics and picked off the big Spanish ships. Disease broke out and they were running out of supplies. The English didn't have it as bad cuz they could just zip home and stock up. The wind was blowing north so the Spanish couldn't get home. They decided to go around Scotland and down to Spain. The Northern Seas around Scotland are bad news and lots of ships got broken up on the coast. Some finally managed to limp home. Spain never got a navy power together again. Even worse, the gold and silver ran out from the colonies! Spain was done for and never became a major power again.
France ought to have been a great country. Francis I was the first big king of France. He was one of the Renaissance kings. He pulled a cultural coup and got da Vinci to retire in France and then glommed onto the paintings when da Vinci died. Francis died and left the kingdom to Henry II. Henry II persecuted Huguenots (French Protestants). Henry got killed in a tournament by a big splinter in his head from a passing lance. Henry left 3 young sons who were ruled by their mom (Catherine de Medici). Civil war broke out in France between the Catholics and the Huguenots. There was a bloody massacre on St. Bartholomew's Day. The Huguenots were in Paris for a big weeding to make a truce when the Catholics decided to murder all of them. France was cutting itself up.
Henry IV was a Huguenot who gave up his religion and became Catholic to become king. He stopped the civil war and began building up the country. In 1610, Henry IV was assassinated by a monk. He left a young king Louis XIII. Cardinal Richelieu was in charge and kept France together. Cardinal Richelieu is the bad guy in the 3 Musketeers but actually he did a good job. Richelieu and Louis XIII died. Louis XIV was 5 years old when he became king. He was ruled by another cardinal. Louis XIV grew up and actually took his power as king in 1661.
Germany was depressing. It never got out of the Middle Ages really. Their trade with Italy was destroyed when Italy went down. The Lutherans and Catholics were making civil war (30 Years War – actually, it was a series of 4 wars in 30 years time). The foreigners kept helping the war drag on. There was a big Battle of Lutzen between the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus (Lutheran) and Count Wallenstein (Catholic). The Swedes won the battle but Gustavus was killed. The war was finally over by a big peace treaty where it was decided that the Lutherans and Catholics would tolerate each other, but neither would tolerate Huguenots. (Things can only go so far, you know!!). At the end of the 30 years war, there were 300 different kingdoms in Germany