PHILIP, KING (c. 1639-1676), chief sachem of the Wam panoag Indians in America, and the son of Massasoit (d. 1662). To Massasoit's two sons, Wamsutta and Metacomet, the English gave the names respectively of Alexander and Philip. Alexander succeeded his father as sachem, and in the same year, while in Marshfield, whither he had gone to explain certain alleged un friendly acts toward the English, was taken ill; he died on his way home. Philip, who succeeded Alexander, suspected the Eng lish of poisoning his brother. The English had grown stronger and more numerous, and had begun to meddle in the internal af fairs of the Indians. In 1671 the Plymouth authorities demanded that the Wampanoags should surrender their arms ; Philip con sented, but his followers failed to comply, and measures were taken to enforce the promise. Philip thereupon went before the general court, agreed to pay an annual tribute, and not to sell lands or engage in war with other Indians without the consent of the Plymouth government. In 1674, when three Wampanoags were executed at Plymouth for the alleged murder of Sassamon, an Indian convert who had played the part of informer to the English, Philip could no longer hold his followers in check. There were outbreaks in the middle of June 1675, and on June 24, the mas sacre of whites began.
The colony of Connecticut took quick measures of defence, guarded its frontier, maintained its alliance with the Mohegans, and suffered little injury. Massachusetts and Plymouth were slow er in acting and suffered great loss. Rhode Island raised no troops, and suffered severely. Early in the autumn Philip went nearly as
far west as Albany in an unsuccessful attempt to get aid from the French and the Mohawks and supplies from the Dutch traders. At Deerfield on Sept. 18, about 6o English were killed and the settlement was abandoned. In the spring of 1676 it became evi dent that the Indian power was waning. The warriors had been unable to plant their crops; they were weaker numerically and more poorly armed than the English, and the latter had also made an alliance with the friendly Naticks and the Niantics. On Aug. 1, 1676 Philip's wife and nine-year old son were captured, and on Aug. II, an Indian traitor guided the English to the sachem's hid ing place in a swamp at the foot of Mount Hope (in what is now the township of Bristol, R.I.) where early the next morning he was surprised, and while trying to escape was killed by an Indian. The head of Philip was sent to Plymouth and set on a pole in a public place, where it remained for a quarter of a century. The struggle was now over in southern New England, but it continued along the north-eastern frontier till the spring of 1678.
See George M. Bodges, Soldiers in King Philip's War (Leominster, Mass., 1896) ; John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, vol. iii. (Boston, 1864) ; and especially George W. Ellis and John E. Morris, King Philip's War (1906). See also Entertaining Passages Relating to King Philip's War (Boston, 1716; new ed. with notes by H. M. Dexter, Boston, 1865), the account by Col. Benjamin Church (1639-1718).