Is there any mention of Philip in The Mirror and the Light? He'd be a little kid then but I recall in the historical record there's mention of Cromwell suggesting a Philip/Elizabeth marriage to an ambassador and the ambassador shooting it down
Hmm. There was some talk (I think!) in the novel that it would be better to offer Elizabeth as a bride to the Hapsburgs (or other foreign princes?), not Mary but I don’t remember if Mantel employed that suggestion of Cromwell. If she did it must be really passing because I don’t really remember it and usually I pay a lot of attention to everything that ties Philip and Elizabeth, lol. But The Mirror and the Light was very hard to get through for me (it has its moments but overall I find it unnecessarily long, dense and purposeless, to me Bring Up the Bodies is much better). I recall some mentions of Spain made in a negative way but I don’t remember Philip being mentioned explicitly.
