Under which king did the Inquisition prosecute Protestant communities in Valladolid and Seville from 1558 to 1562? The answer is Philip II.
These trials were among the Spanish Inquisition’s most serious campaigns against Protestantism. Protestant communities had formed in Valladolid and Seville, drawing on Lutheran ideas and clandestine religious networks. Between 1558 and 1562, inquisitors investigated roughly 120 people connected with the two groups.
The proceedings produced several large autos-da-fé, public ceremonies in which sentences were announced. Some were attended by members of the royal family, and about 100 people were executed during the wider repression. The campaign effectively destroyed organized Protestantism in Spain.
A common mix-up is with Charles I, Philip II’s father. Charles I ruled during the early Reformation, but the Valladolid and Seville prosecutions took place at the beginning of Philip II’s reign. Ferdinand VII and Philip III belonged to much later periods.