[Vocabulary] Never return any significant period of time

[Deniz Olunmalı]

"In August 1555, little more than a year after his wedding, Philip left England for Brussels. His father, weary of the political struggles of nearly four decades of rule, was preparing to abdicate and divide the increasingly unwieldy Habsburg dominions between Philip as King of Spain and the Netherlands, and his younger brother Ferdinand who would become Holy Roman Emperor. Philip was pleased to escape his troublesome new kingdom, to which he would never return for any significant period of time, but Mary was bereft." (Jerry Brotton, This Orient Isle- Elizabethan England and the Islamic World)

As far as I know, Philip never returned to England, so what does the emphasized phrase mean?

 

[emsr2d2]

Without reading huge tracts of information about Philip, I don't know if you're right that he never returned to England. If you're right, the piece is wrong. If you're wrong, the piece is fine and means that, although he came back to England (possibly on more than one occasion), when he did so, he didn't stay very long.

 

[Deniz Olunmalı]

I'm sorry, I was wrong, you're right, Philip returned to England afterwards.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I'm sorry, I was wrong, you're right, Philip returned to England afterwards.

You might want to learn about comma splices: https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-comma-splice-1689897