Following and andbuilding on five centuries of scholarship, is the epic conclusion of an unprecedented three-volume history of the Spanish Empire from one of the most productive and wide-ranging historians of modern times ().

The legacy of imperial Spain was shaped by many hands. But the dramatic human story of the extraordinary projection of Spanish might in the second half of the sixteenth century has never been fully tolduntil now. In Hugh Thomas chronicles the lives, loves, conflicts, and conquests of the complex men and women who carved up the Americas for the glory of Spain.

Chief among them is the towering figure of King Philip II, the cultivated Spanish monarch whom a contemporary once called the arbiter of the world. Cheerful and pious, he inherited vast authority from his father, Emperor Charles V, but nevertheless felt himself unworthy to wield it. His forty-two-year reign changed the face of the globe forever. Alongside Philip we find the entitled descendants of New Spains original explorersmen who, like their king, came into possession of land they never conquered and wielded supremacy they never sought. Here too are the Roman Catholic religious leaders of the Americas, whose internecine struggles created possibilities that the emerging Jesuit order was well-positioned to fill.

With the sublime stories of arms and armadas, kings and conquistadors come tales of the ridiculous: the opulent parties of New Spains wealthy hedonists and the unexpected movement to encourage Philip II to conquer China. Finally, Hugh Thomas unearths the first indictments of imperial Spains labor rights abuses in the Americasand the early attempts by its more enlightened rulers and planters to address them.

Written in the brisk, flowing narrative style that has come to define Hugh Thomass work, the final volume of this acclaimed trilogy stands alone as a history of an empire making the transition from conquest to inheritancea history that Thomas reveals through the fascinating lives of the people who made it.

Praise for

Readers will not find a more reliable guide to the maturing Spanish Empire. . . . reminds us that the far-flung Spanish Empire was the work of many minds and hands, and by the end their myriad stories carry a cumulative charge.

A sweeping, encyclopedic history of the arrogance, ambition, and ideology that fueled the quest for empire.

Literary power is a vital part of a great historians armoury. As in his earlier books, Thomas demonstrates here that he has this in abundance.

A vivid climax to Hugh Thomass three-volume history of imperial Spain.

Thomas clearly excels in the Spanish history of religion, politics, and culture, [and] successfully shows that Spains global ambition knew no bounds.