Philip III of Macedon

Philip III Arrhidaeus (Ancient Greek: Φίλιππος Γ΄ ὁ Ἀρριδαῖος; c. 359 BC – 25 December, 317 BC) reigned as king of Macedonia from after 11 June 323 BC until his death. He was a son of King Philip II of Macedonia by Philinna of Larissa, and thus an elder half-brother of Alexander the Great. Named Arrhidaeus at birth, he assumed the name Philip when he ascended to the throne.

As Arrhidaeus grew older it became apparent that he had mild learning difficulties. Plutarch was of the view that he became disabled by means of an attempt on his life by Philip II's wife, Queen Olympias, who wanted to eliminate a possible rival to her son, Alexander, through the employment of pharmaka (drugs/spells); however, most modern authorities doubt the truth of this claim.

Alexander was fond of Arrhidaeus and took him on his campaigns, both to protect his life and to prevent his use as a pawn in any prospective challenge for the throne. After Alexander's death in Babylon in 323 BC, the Macedonian army in Asia proclaimed Arrhidaeus as king; however, he served merely as a figurehead and as the pawn of a series of powerful generals.

Philip III

Philip III may refer to:

See also

Philip III of France

Philip III (30 April 1245 – 5 October 1285), called the Bold (French: le Hardi), was a Capetian King of France who reigned from 1270 to 1285.

Philip proved indecisive, soft in nature, and timid. The strong personalities of his parents apparently crushed him, and policies of his father dominated him. People called him "the Bold" on the basis of his abilities in combat and on horseback and not on the basis of his political or personal character. He was pious but not cultivated. He followed the suggestions of others, first of Pierre de La Broce and then of his uncle King Charles I of Naples, Sicily, and Albania.

His father, Louis IX, died in Tunis during the Eighth Crusade. Philip, who was accompanying him, came back to France to claim his throne and was anointed at Reims in 1271.

Philip made numerous territorial acquisitions during his reign, the most notable being the County of Toulouse which was annexed to the Crown lands of France in 1271. Following the Sicilian Vespers, a rebellion trigered by Peter III of Aragon against Philip's uncle Charles I of Naples, Philip led an unsuccessful Aragonese Crusade in support of his uncle. Philip was forced to retreat and died from dysentry in Perpignan in 1285. He was succeeded by his son Philip the Fair.

Philip III of Spain

Philip III of Spain (Spanish: Felipe III «el piadoso»; 14 April 1578 – 31 March 1621) was King of Spain (as Philip III in Castile and Philip II in Aragon) and Portugal (Portuguese: Filipe II).

A member of the House of Habsburg, Philip III was born in Madrid to King Philip II of Spain and his fourth wife and niece Anna, the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II and Maria of Spain. Philip III later married his cousin Margaret of Austria, sister of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor. Although also known in Spain as Philip the Pious, Philip's political reputation abroad has been largely negative – an 'undistinguished and insignificant man,' a 'miserable monarch,' whose 'only virtue appeared to reside in a total absence of vice,' to quote historians C. V. Wedgwood, R. Stradling and J. H. Elliott. In particular, Philip's reliance on his corrupt chief minister, the Duke of Lerma, drew much criticism at the time and afterwards. For many, the decline of Spain can be dated to the economic difficulties that set in during the early years of his reign. Nonetheless, as the ruler of the Spanish Empire at its height and as the king who achieved a temporary peace with the Dutch (1609–21) and brought Spain into the Thirty Years' War (1618–48) through an (initially) extremely successful campaign, Philip's reign remains a critical period in Spanish history.