 These unhappy events, though, came towards the end of Suárez's life, the last two decades of which were spent in the more peaceful surroundings of Coimbra, then an intellectual hub of the revitalization of scholastic philosophy. Philip II of Spain (Philip I of Portugal), who imposed his rule on the whole of the Iberian peninsula in 1580, sought to appoint a distinguished theologian to the most eminent university of this new part of the realm. After initially accepting Suárez's personally tendered apologies, given on grounds of ill-health, Philip reconsidered and then insisted in a second letter that Suárez take up a post in Coimbra. Clearly, Suárez could not decline. Travels apart, Suárez would remain in Coimbra until shortly before his death on 25 September 1617, aged almost seventy, after convalescing for two weeks in Lisbon from what may have been dysentery.