| Philip II | |
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| Painting of Phillip II (1498) by Lucas Cranach the Elder | |
| Holy Roman Emperor | |
| Reign | 1498-1501 |
| Coronation | 9 May 1501 in Frankfurt |
| Predecessor | Henry IX |
| Successor | Frederick IV |
| Count Palatine of the Rhine | |
| Reign | 1474-1501 |
| Coronation | 14 July 1474 in Heidelberg |
| Predecessor | Frederick I |
| Successor | Louis V |
| Born | 5 June 1448 Heidelberg, County Palatine of the Rhine, Kingdom of Germany |
| House | House of Wittlesbach |
| Father | Louis IV |
| Mother | Margaret of Baden |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Philip II (5 June 1448 - 1501) was Holy Roman Emperor after 1498, as well as hereditary Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1474. Known as "the Upright", and "the Culinary King", Philip was elected as a fairly neutral candidate following the abdication of Henry IX. After the Henrician Civil War and numerous conflicts that had devastated the Holy Roman Empire, the electors hoped Philip would concentrate more on his famous passion for cooking than on wars and religious conflict, and that his accession would herald a time of peace for the Empire.
Around 1498 the so called “Black Liquorice Incident” occurred that would be a great stain on the legacy of the Palatinate. Now two years into his attempts to perfect the state confectionery, historians believe that Philip became confident enough to send out a product for testing. Likely having forgotten to get his cousin Frederick a wedding gift, Philip decided to send a batch of his experiment to him, sending a bundle of the liquorice to Frederick in Falkenstein, and batches to people at the court of the Count of Hohenlohe, the Count of Henneberg, and the Count of Berg. But to Philip’s horror, he discovered that the toddler son of one of his retainers, Sir Walter Meyer, had accidentally knocked over a vial of arsenic into one of the batches (from an unrelated experiment). All four batches had been sent out, meaning out of those four rulers would be accidentally die of poison. Nevertheless, later that same year Philip was unexpectedly nominated for the position of Emperor, as a successor to Emperor Henry IX.
Historians often note the great shift in the fortunes of Philip between his year of despair and his year of acclimation as Emperor. The causes of Philip’s election are often debated, from his neutrality in the previous conflicts, his gravitas in the Imperial Diet, and perhaps above all else, his impressive cooking skills. It is recorded that prior to the election his experimental liquorice was gifted to all the electors, with the memoirs of the Archbishop of Cologne even talking extensively about the food, showing the influence the strange oddity had. At the helm of the Empire, Philip began to work on his culinary vision - a new law was proposed almost immediately in January 1499 regarding food and festivities - and he began work on the creation of an imperial academy of the culinary arts.
After a few years in office, Philip had left his mark on the empire and the culinary world forever. He completed his recipe book, which functioned as a sort of memoir, and left the truth of his secret ingredient to his eldest son Louis. On one fateful day in March, the Emperor decided to make his most daring experiment yet: a layer cake that was a life-sized sculpture of Charlemagne. This proved a daunting task, that kept the Emperor up day and night. The later investigation would posit that it was during this state of impaired judgement from lack of sleep, and perhaps also from consumption of cooking wine, that the Emperor accidentally left the ovens on for too long. When responders arrived to help the Emperor a fire was already blazing that consumed part of the Emperor’s laboratory in downtown Frankfurt. Although Imperial Guard Jan Jakob attempted to rescue him from the flames, the smoke proved too much for the older Emperor, and he passed away by morning. He was succeeded as emperor by Frederick IV.
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