UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES BROWSING ROOM GIFT OF SEELET W. MUDD and GEORGE I. COCHRAN MEYER ELSASSER DR. JOHN R. HAYNES WILLIAM L. HONNOLD JAMES R. MARTIN MRS. JOSEPH F. SARTORI to the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SOUTHERN BRANCH JOHN FISKE THE WORKS OF W. H. PRESCOTT VOL. IX. v-u >!: The Complete Works of William Hickling Prescott Edited with the Author's Latest Corrections, by John Foster Kirk In Twelve Volumes, Vol. IX. History of the Reign of Philip the Second In Three Volumes, Vol. I. LONDON GIBBINGS & COMPANY, LIMITED MDCCCXCVII Collag* Library DP THE reign of Philip the Second has occupied the pen of the historian more frequently if we except that of Charles the Fifth than any other portion of the Spanish annals. It has become familiar to the English reader through the pages of Watson, who has de- servedly found favour with the public for the per- spicuity of his style, a virtue, however, not uncommon in his day, for the sobriety of his judgments, and for the skill he has shown in ar- ranging his complicated story, so as to maintain the reader's interest unbroken to the end. But the public, in Watson's day, were not very fastidious in regard to the sources of information on which a nar- rative was founded. Nor was it easy to obtain access to those unpublished documents which con- stitute the best sources of information. Neither can it be denied that Watson himself was not so solicitous as he should have been to profit by opportunities which a little pains might have put within his reach, presenting, in this respect, a contrast to his more celebrated predecessor, Robertson ; that he contented himself too easily with such cheap and commonplace materials as lay directly in his path ; and that, con- sequently, the foundations of his history are much too slight for the superstructure. For these reasons, the reign of Philip the Second must still be regarded as open ground for English and American writers. VOL. i. b 174114 ri PREFACE. And at no time could the history of this reign have been undertaken with the same advantages as at present, when the more enlightened policy of the European governments has opened their national archives to the inspection of the scholar; when he is allowed access, in particular, to the Archives of Simancas, which have held the secrets of the Spanish monarchy hermetically sealed for ages. The history of Philip the Second is the history of Europe during the latter half of the sixteenth cen- tury. It covers the period when the doctrines of the Reformation were agitating the minds of men in so fearful a manner as to shake the very foundations of the Romish hierarchy in the fierce contest which divided Christendom. Philip, both from his per- sonal character, and from his position as sovereign of the most potent monarchy in Europe, was placed at the head of the party which strove to uphold the fortunes of the ancient Church ; and thus his policy led him perpetually to interfere in the internal affairs of the other European states, making it necessary to look for the materials for his history quite as much without the Peninsula as within it. In this respect the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella presents a strong contrast to that of Philip the Second ; and it was the consideration of this, when I had completed my history of the former, and pro- posed at some future day to enter upon that of the latter, that led me to set about a collection of authentic materials from the public archives in the great European capitals. It was a work of difficulty ; and, although I had made some progress in it, I did not feel assured of success until I hud the good fortune to obtain the co-operation of my friend Don Pascual de Gayangos, Professor of Arabic in the PREFACE. vii University of Madrid. This eminent scholar was admirably qualified for the task which he so kindly undertook ; since, with a remarkable facility such as long practice only can give in deciphering the mysterious handwriting of the sixteenth century, he combined such a thorough acquaintance with the history of his country as enabled him to detect, amidst the ocean of manuscripts which he inspected, such portions as were essential to my purpose. With unwearied assiduity he devoted himself to the examination of many of the principal collections, both in England and on the Continent. Among these may be mentioned the British Museum and the State-Paper Office, in London ; the Library of the Dukes of Burgundy, in Brussels ; that of the University of Leyden ; the Royal Library, at the Hague ; the Royal Library of Paris, and the Archives of the Kingdom, in the Hotel Soubise ; the Library of the Academy of History, the National Library at Madrid, and, more important than either, the ancient Archives of Simancas, within whose hallowed precincts Senor Gayangos was one of the first scholars per- mitted to enter. Besides these public repositories, there are several private collections, to the owners of which I am largely indebted for the liberal manner in which they have opened them for my benefit. I may mention in particular the late Lady Holland, who kindly per- mitted copies to be made by Senor Gayangos from the manuscripts preserved in Holland House ; Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart., who freely extended the same courtesy in respect to the present work which he had shown to me on a former occasion ; and Patrick Fraser Tytler, Esq., the late excellent historian of Scotland, who generously placed at my disposal sundry b 2 viii PKEFACR. documents copied by him in the public offices -with his own hand for the illustration of the reign of Mary Tudor. In Spain the collection made by Senor Gayangos was enriched by materials drawn from the family archives of the marquis of Santa Cruz, whose illus- trious ancestor first had charge of the Spanish armada; from the archives of Medina Sidonia, containing papers of the duke who succeeded to the command of that ill-starred expedition ; and from the archives of the house of Alva, a name associated with the most memorable acts of the government of Philip. The manuscripts thus drawn from various quarters were fortified by such printed works as, having made their appearance in the time of Philip the Second, could throw any light on his government. Where such works were not to be purchased, Senor Gay- angos caused copies to be made of them, or of those portions which were important to my purpose. The result of his kind, untiring labours has been to put me in possession of such a collection of authentic materials for the illustration of the reign of Philip as no one before had probably attempted to make. Nor until now had the time come for making the attempt 'with success. There still remained, however, some places to be examined where I might expect to find documents that would be of use to me. Indeed, it is in the nature of such a collection, covering so wide an extent of ground, that it can never be complete. The his- torian may be satisfied if he has such authentic materials at his command as, while they solve much that has hitherto been enigmatical in the accounts of the time, will enable him to present in their true light the character of Philip and the policy of his govern- PREFACE. l\ ment. I must acknowledge my obligations to more than one person who has given me important aid in prosecuting my further researches. One of the first of them is my friend Mr. Edward Everett, who in his long and brilliant career as a statesman has lost nothing of that love of letters which formed his first claim to distinction. The year before his appointment to the English mission he passed on the Continent, where, with the kind- ness that belongs to his nature, he spent much time in examining for me the great libraries, first in Paris, and afterwards more effectually in Florence. From the Archivio Mediceo, in which he was permitted by the grand duke to conduct his researches, he obtained copies of sundry valuable documents, and among them the letters of the Tuscan ministers, which have helped to guide me in some of the most intricate parts of my narrative. A still larger amount of materials he derived from the private library of Count Guic- ciardini, the descendant of the illustrious historian of that name. I am happy to express my lively sense of the courtesy shown by this nobleman ; also my gratitude for kind offices rendered me by Prince- Corsini ; and no less by the Marquis Gino Capponi, whose name will be always held in honour for the enlightened patronage which he has extended to learning while suffering, himself, under the severest privation that can befall the scholar. There was still an important deficiency in my col- lection, that of the Relazioni Venete, as the reports are called which were made by ambassadors of Venice on their return from their foreign missions. The value of these reports, for the information they give of the countries visited by the envoys, is well known to historians. The deficiency was amply supplied by X PREFACE. the unwearied kindness of my friend Mr. Fay, who now so ably fills the post of minister from the United States to Switzerland. When connected with the American legation at Berlin, he in the most obliging manner assisted me in making arrangements for obtaining the documents I desired, which, with other papers of importance, were copied for me from the manuscripts in the Royal Library of Berlin and the Ducal Library of Gotha. I have also, in con- nexion with this, to express my obligations to the distinguished librarian of the former institution, Mr. Pertz, for the good-will which he showed in promoting my views. Through Mr. Fay I also obtained the authority of Prince Metternich to inspect the Archives of the Empire in Vienna, which I inferred, from the in- timate relations subsisting between the courts of Madrid and Vienna in that day, must contain much valuable matter relevant to my subject. The result did not correspond to my expectations. I am happy, however, to have the opportunity of publicly offering my acknowledgments to that eminent scholar Dr. Ferdinand Wolf for the obliging manner in which he conducted the investigation for me, as well in the archives above mentioned as, with better results, in the Imperial Library, with which he is officially connected. In concluding the list of those to whose good offices I have been indebted, I must not omit the names of M. de Salvandy, minister of public instruc- tion in France at the time I was engaged in making c o fj my collection ; Mr. Hush, then the minister of the United States at the French court ; Mr. Rives, of Virginia, his successor in that office ; and last, not least, my friend Count de Circourt, a scholar whose DEFACE, xi noble contributions to the periodical literature of his country, on the greatest variety of topics, havo given him a prominent place among the writers of our time. I am happy, also, to tender my acknowledgments for the favours I have received from Mr. Van de Weyer, minister from Belgium to the court of St. James ; from Mr. B. Homer Dixon, consul for the Netherlands at Boston ; and from my friend and kinsman Mr. Thomas Hickling, consul for the United States at St. Michael's, who kindly furnished me with sundry manuscripts exhibiting the condition of the Azores at the period Avhen those islands passed, with Portugal, under the sceptre of Philip the Second. Having thus acquainted the reader with the sources whence I have derived my materials, I must now say a few words in regard to the conduct of my narrative. An obvious difficulty in the path of the historian of this period arises from the nature of the subject, embracing, as it does, such a variety of independent, not to say incongruous topics, that it is no easy matter to preserve anything like unity of interest in the story. Thus the Revolution of the Netherlands, although, strictly speaking, only an episode to the main body of the narrative, from its importance well deserves to be treated in a separate and independent narrative by itself. Running along through the whole extent of Philip's reign, it is con- tinually distracting the attention of the historian, creating an embarrassment something like that which arises from what is termed a double plot in the drama. The best way of obviating this is to keep in view the dominant principle which controlled all the movements of the complicated machinery, so to speak, and impressed on them a unity of action. xii PREFACE. This principle is to be found in the policy of Philip, the great aim of which was to uphold the supremacy of the Church, and, as a consequence, that of the crown. " Peace and public order," he writes on one occasion, " are to be maintained in my dominions only by maintaining the authority of the Holy See." It was this policy, almost as sure and steady in its operation as the laws of Nature herself, that may be said to have directed the march of events through the whole of his long reign ; and it is only by keeping this constantly in view that the student will be enabled to obtain a clue to guide him through the intricate passages in the history of Philip, and the best means of solving what would otherwise remain enigmatical in his conduct. In the composition of the work I have for the most part conformed to the plan which I had before adopted. Far from confining myself to a record of political events, I have endeavoured to present a picture of the intellectual culture and the manners of the people. I have not even refused such aid as could be obtained from the display of pageants and court ceremonies, which, although exhibiting little more than the costume of the time, may serve to bring the outward form of a picturesque age more vividly before the eye of the reader. In the arrangement of the narrative I have not confined myself altogether to the chronological order of events, but have thrown them into masses, according to the subjects to which they relate, so as to produce as far as possible a distinct impression on the reader. And in this way I have postponed more than one matter of importance to a later portion of the work, which a strict regard to time would assign more properly to an earlier division of the subject Finally, I have been careful PREFACE. xiii to fortify tlie text with citations from the original authorities on which it depends, especially where, these are rare and difficult of access. In the part relating to the Netherlands I have pursued a course somewhat different from what I have done in other parts of the work. The scholars of that country, in a truly patriotic spirit, have devoted themselves of late years to exploring their own archives, as well as those of Simancas, for the purpose of illustrating their national annals. The results they have given to the world in a series of publications, which are still in progress. The his- torian has reason to be deeply grateful to those- pioneers whose labours have put him in possession of materials which afford the most substantial basis for his narrative. For what basis can compare with that afforded by the written correspondence of the parties themselves ? It is on this sure ground that I have mainly relied in this part of my story ; and I have adopted the practice of incorporating extracts from the letters in the body of the text, which, if it may sometimes give an air of prolixity to the narrative, will have the advantage of bringing the reader into a sort of personal acquaintance with the actors, as he listens to the words spoken by themselves. In the earlier part of this Preface I have made the acknowledgments due for assistance I have received in the collection of my materials ; and I must not now conclude without recording my obligations, of another kind, to two of my personal friends, Mr. Charles Folsom, the learned librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, who has repeated the good offices he had before rendered me in revising my manuscript for the press ; and Mr. John Foster Kirk, whose familiarity with the history and languages of Modern PREFACE. Europe has greatly aided me in the prosecution of my researches, while his sagacious criticism has done me no less service in the preparation of these volumes. Notwithstanding the advantages I have enjoyed for the composition of this work, and especially those derived from the possession of new and original materials, I am fully sensible that I am far from having done justice to a subject so vast in its extent and so complicated in its relations. It is not neces- sary to urge in my defence any physical embarrass- ments under which I labour ; since that will hardly be an excuse for not doing well what it was not necessary to do at all. But I may be permitted to say that what I have done has been the result of careful preparation ; that I have endeavoured to write in a spirit of candour and good faith ; und that, whatever may be the deficiencies of my work, it can hardly fail considering the advantages I have enjoyed over my predecessors to present the reader with such new and authentic statements of facts as may afford him a better point of view than that which he has hitherto possessed for surveying the history of Philip the Second. BOSTON, July, 1855. CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE. BOOK I. CHAPTER I. ABDICATION OF CHARLES THE FIFTH, p. 3. TAG I'. Rise of the Spanish Empire . . 3 Internal Tranquillity of Spain . . 4 Charles V. not a Spaniard ... 6 State of Europa at his Accesti n . G His Warlike Career 7 Reverses of his Later Years ... 8 His 111 Health and Molancholy. . i? He determines to Abdicate . . . 9" Convenes the Estates of the Nether- lands , ... U> His Appearance in the Assembly . 12 Speech to the .Deputies ... .11 P1GB Address to Philip 16 Emotions of the Audience ... 16 Speeches of Philip and Granvelle . 17 Charles resigns the Crown of Spain 18 Retains the Title of Emperor . . 18 Leaves the Netherlands .... 19 Arrives at Laredo .19 His Journey to Valladolid . . .21 He takes Leave of his Family . . 22 His Stay at Jarandilla .... 22 Description of Yusto 23 CHAPTER II. EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP, p. 25. Birth of Philip II 25 Recognition as Heir to the Crown 26 His Tutors 27 Death of his Mother 30 His early Familiarity with Affairs 32 First Lesson in War ..... 32 He is made Regent 33 His Father's Counsel 1o him . . 33 Bride selected for Philip .... 35 The Infanta sets out lor C:\btile . 36 Arrives at Salamanca ..... 37 Boyal Marriage ....... 38 Death of the Princess . . '. . .39 Philip summoned to Flanders . . 40 Remodels his Household .... 41 Arrives at Genoa 43 Receives Embassies 43 Entertainment at Milan . ... 44 Honours paid him on the Route . 46 Reception at Brussels 47 Charles his Instructor in Politics . 49 Tour through the Provinces ... 50 Loyal Demonstration/I .... 51 Tourney in Brussels ..... 51 zvi CONTENTa Philip's Skill with the Lance . . 54 His Dislike to Active Exercises . 55 Unpopularity in Flanders ... 56 Scheme for securing to him the Im- perial Crown 57 Ferdinand refuses to waive his Claims 57 Philip disliked by the Germans . 53 MM The Project unpopular in Spain . 59 Private Core pact 60 Philip leaves the Netherlands . . 61 Resumes the Government of Spain 62 State of Spain 63 Strength of the National Spirit . 64 Philip the Type of the Spanish Character . 65 CHAPTER III. ENGLISH ALLIANCE, p. 66. Religious Revolution in England . 66 Indifference of the People ... 67 Micheli's Description of England . 68 His Portrait of Mary 70 Her Bigotry 72 Proofs of her Sincerity .... 72 Her Treatment of Elizabeth . . 73 Persecution of the Protestants . . 75 Charles V.'s Relations with Mary 76 Scheme for uniting her to Philip . 77 Crafty Mode of Proceeding ... 78 Coquetry of Mary ...... 79 Offer of Philip's Hand .... 80 Efforts to prevent the Match . . 82 Mary's Vow 84 Remonstrance of the Commons . . 84 Egmont's Embassy 85 Mary's Prudery 85 The Marriage-Treaty 87 Popular Discontent 88 Insurrection 8$ The Queen's Intrepidity .... 88 The Rebels defeated 90 CHAPTER 17. ENGLISH ALLIANCE, p. 92. Ratification of the Treaty ... 92 Mary's Message to Philip ... 93 His Disinclination to the Match . 93 He sends an Embassy to Mary . 94 Joanna made Regent of Spain . 95 Her Character 96 Philip sails for England ... 97 Lands at Southampton .... 98 His Reception 99 His Affability 100 Progress to Winchester . . . 101 Interviews with Mary. . . .102 The Marriage -Ceremony per- formed . . 104 Banquet and Ball 106 Public Entry into London . . .108 Residence at Hampton Court . .109 Philip's Discretion 110 Punctiliousness in Religious Ob- servances Ill Sincerity of his Religious Belief . 112 Arrival of the Legate . . . .112 Character of Pole 113 Meeting of Parliament . . . .114 England reconciled to the Church 115 Persecution 116 Denounced by the King's Con- fessor 116 Philip's Influence with Mary . . 117 Her Pregnancy announced . .118 Mortifying Result 119 Philip's Discontent 119 Unpopularity of the Spaniards . 120 Philip leaves England . . . .121 Arrives at Brussels . , , . . 122 CONTENTS. tvu CHAPTER V. WAR WITH THE POPE, p. 123. Extent of Philip's Possessions . 123 His Powerful Position . . . .124 Absolute Authority 124 Relations with the Pope . . .125 Early History of Paul IV. . .126 His Enmity to the Emperor . . 128 Denunciations of the Spaniards. 129 Character of the Pope .... 130 His Nephews 131 Relations with France. . . .132 Character of Henry II. ... 133 The Constable Montmorenoy. . 134 Francis, Duke of Guise . . .135 Caraffa succeeds in his Mission . 136 Terms of the Treaty .... 136 Spaniards maltreated by Paul . 138 Alva Viceroy of Naples . . .138 His Early Career 138 His Military Talents . . . .139 Council of Theologians . . .141 Sanctions Retaliatory Measures . 142 Alva issues a Manifesto . . . 142 Musters an Army 143 Enters the Papal Territory . . 144 Rapid Successes 145 Paul's Fiery Temper .... 146 The Papal Forces 146 Ostia besieged 148 Unsuccessful Assault . . . .150 The Place Surrenders . . . .150 Negotiations and Truce . . .151 CHAPTER VI. WAR WITH THE POPE, p. 152. The French Army 152 The Italian Powers 153 Duke of Ferrara breaks with Guise 154 Paul renews the War . . . .154 Campli taken by the French . . 155 Italy iu the Sixteenth Century . 155 Guise lays Siege to Civitella . . 157 Discontents in the French Army 159 Alva's Preparations 159 He takes the Field 161 Raises the Siege of Civitella . .162 Retreat of the French . . . .163 Alva's Slow Pursuit 163 Successes of Colonna . . . .165 Succeeds his Father 346 Obtains the Confidence of Philip 349 Philip completes his Arrangements 350 Leaves the Netherlands . . . 352 CHAPTEE ILL PROTESTANTISM IS SPAIN, p. 353. The Royal Fleet wrecked ... 353 Philip's Narrow Escape . . . 353 He resumes the Government . . 354 Spain affected by the Reformation 354 Circulation of Protestant Books . 355 Powers of the Inquisition en- larged 358 The Reformers detected . . . 359 -8l. date mentioned in the text, con- 3 A copy of the origftKideed Of firmed moreover by tho Simancas abdication was preservM" among ' MS. above cited, the author of the papers of Cardinal GranvellB, which enters into the detailsofthe ut Besan9on, and is incorporated ceremony with the minuteness of Jo. the valuable collection of docu- an eye-witness. 12 ABDICATION OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOK i. his age. His form was slightly bent but it was by disease more than by time and on his countenance might be traced the marks of anxiety and rough ex- posure. Yet it still wore that majesty of expression so conspicuous in his portraits by the inimitable pencil of Titian. His hair, once of a light colour, approach- ing to yellow, had begun to turn before he was forty, and, as well as his beard, was now grey. His forehead was broad and expansive ; his nose aqui- line. His blue eyes and fair complexion intimated his Teutonic descent. The only feature in his counte- nance decidedly bad was his lower jaw, protruding with its thick, heavy lip, so characteristic of the physiognomies of the Austrian dynasty.* In stature he was about the middle height. His limbs were strongly knit, and once well formed, though now the extremities were sadly distorted by disease. The emperor leaned for support on a staff with one hand, while with the other he rested on the arm of William of Orange, who, then young, was des- tined at a later day to become the most formidable enemy of his house. The grave demeanour of Charles was rendered still more impressive by his dress ; for he was in mourning for his mother ; and the sable hue of his attire was relieved only by a single orna- ment, the superb collar of the Golden Fleece, which liung from his neck. l/ Behind the emperor came Philip, the heir of his vast dominions. He was of a middle height, of much the same proportions as his father, whom he resem- bled also in his lineaments, except that those of the "Erat Carolus statura me- barbaque ad flavum inclinanto ; -diocri, sed brachiis et cruribus facie liberali, nisi quod mention, crassis compactisque, et roboris prominens et parum cohaerentia singularis, ceteris membris pro- labra nonnib.il earn deturpabant." portione magnoque commensu re- Sepulvedae Opera, vol. ii. p. 527. spondentibus, colore albas, crine CHAP, i.] CEREMONY OF ABDICATION. 13 son wore a more sombre and perhaps a sinister expres- sion while there was a- reserve in his manner, in, spite of his efforts to the contrary, as if he would shroud his thoughts from observation. The magni- ficence of his dress corresponded with his royal station, and formed a contrast to that of his father, who was quitting the pomp and grandeur of the world, on which the son was about to enter. Next to Philip came Mary, the emperor's sister, formerly Queen of Hungary. She had filled the post of Kegent of the Low Countries for nearly twenty years, and now welcomed the hour when she was to resign the burden of sovereignty to her nephew, and withdraw, like her imperial brother, into private life. Another sister of Charles, Eleanor, widow of the French king, Francis the First, also took part in these ceremonies, previous to her depar- ture for Spain, whither she was to accompany the emperor. After these members of the imperial family came the nobility of the Netherlands, the knights of the Golden Fleece, the royal counsellors, and the great officers of the household, all splendidly attired in their robes of state and proudly displaying tho insignia of their orders. When the emperor had mounted his throne, with Philip on his right hand, the Regent Mary on his left, and the rest of his retinue disposed along the seats prepared for them on the platform, the president of the council of Flanders addressed the assembly. He briefly explained the object for which they had been summoned, and the motives which had induced their master to abdicate the throne ; and he concluded by requiring them, in their sove- reign's name, to transfer their allegiance from himself to Philip, his son and rightful heir. 14 ABDICATION OF CHARLES THE FIFTH, [coos i. After a pause, Charles rose to address a few parting words to his subjects. He stood with apparent diffi- culty, and rested his right hand on the shoulder of the prince of Orange, intimating by this preference on so distinguished an occasion the high favour in which he held the young nobleman. In the other hand he held a paper, containing some hints for his discourse, and occasionally cast his eyes on it, to re- fresh his memory. He spoke in the French language. He was unwilling, he said, to part from his people without a few words from his own lips. It was now forty years since he had been intrusted with the sceptre of the Netherlands. He was soon after called to take charge of a still more extensive empire, both in Spain and in Germany, involving a heavy respon- sibility for one so young. He had, however, en- deavoured earnestly to do his duty to the best of his abilities. He had been ever mindful of the interests of the dear land of his birth, but, above all, of the great interests of Christianity. His first object had been to maintain these inviolate against the infidel. In this he had been thwarted, partly by the jealousy of neighbouring powers, and partly by the factions of tjie heretical princes of Germany. In the performance of his great work, he had never consulted his ease. His expeditions, in war and in peace, to France, England, Germany, Italy, Spam, and Flanders, had amounted to no less than forty. Four times he had crossed the Spanish seas, and eight times the Mediterranean. He had shrunk from no toil, while he had the strength to endure it. But a cruel malady had deprived him of that strength. Conscious of his inability to discharge the duties of his station, he had long since come to the resolution to relinquish it. From this he had been diverted CHAP. i.J CEREMONY OF ABDICATION. 15 only by the situation of his unfortunate parent and by the inexperience of his son. These objections no longer existed ; and he should not stand excused, in the eye of Heaven or of the world, if he should insist on still holding the reins of government when he was incapable of managing them, when every year his incapacity must become more obvious. J He begged them to believe that this and no other motive induced him to resign the sceptre which he had so long swayed. They had been to him dutiful and loving subjects ; and such, he doubted not, they would prove to his successor. Above all things, he besought them to maintain the purity of the faith. If any one, in these licentious times, had admitted doubts into his bosom, let such doubts be extirpated at once. " I know well," he concluded, " that, in my long administration, I have fallen into many errors and committed some wrongs. But it was from ig- norance ; and, if there be any here whom I have wronged, they will believe that it was not intended, and grant me their forgiveness." 6 While the emperor was speaking, a breathless silence pervaded the whole audience. Charles had ever been dear to the people of the Netherlands, the land of his birth. They took a national pride in .his achievements, and felt that his glory reflected a peculiar lustre on themselves. As they now gazed for the last time on that revered form, and listened 6 The speech is given, with sv.f- ceremony in a communication to ficient conformity, by two of the his government (The Order of the persons who heard it, a Flemish Cession of the Low Countries to writer, whose MS., preserved in the King's Majesty, MS.)- The the Archives du Eoyanmc, has historian Sandoval also gives a lately been published by (Jachard, full report of the speech, on tho in the Analectes Bel-iqiies (p. authority of one who heard it. 87), and Sir John Mason, the Historia de la Vida y Hechos del British Minister at the court of Empcrador Carlos V. (Ambercs, Charles, who describes tho whole 1(581), torn. ii. p. &P9. 16 ABDICATION OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOK i to the parting admonitions from his lips, they were deeply affected, and not a dry eye was to he seen in the assembly. After a short interval, Charles, turning to Philip, who, in an attitude of deep respect, stood awaiting his commands, thus addressed him : "If the vast possessions which are now bestowed on you had come by inheritance, there would be abundant cause for gratitude. How much more, when they come as a free gift, in the lifetime of your father ! But, how- ever large the debt, I shall consider it all repaid, if you only discharge your duty to your subjects. So rule over them that men shall commend and not censure me for the part I am now acting. Go on as you have begun. Fear God ; live justly ; respect the laws ; above all, cherish the interests of religion ; and may the Almighty bless you with a son to whom, when old and stricken with disease, you may be able to resign your kingdom with the same good will with which I now resign mine to you." As he ceased, Philip, much affected, would have thrown himself at his father s feet, assuring him of his intention to do all in his power to merit such goodness; but Charles, raising his son, tenderly embraced him, while the tears flowed fast down his cheeks. Every one, even the most stoical, was touched by this affecting scene ; " and nothing," says one who was present, " was to be heard throughout the hall but sobs and ill-suppressed moans." Charles, exhausted by his efforts, and deadly pale, sank back upon his seat; while, with feeble accents, he ex- claimed, as he gazed on his people, " God bless you I God bless you !" 7 7 Sandoval, Hist, de Carlos V., del Catolico Kfc Filippo IT. torn. ii. pp. 597-599. Leti, Vita (Coligni, 1679), torn. i. pp. 2 10- CHAP, i.) CEREMONY OP ABDICATION. 17 After these emotions had somewhat subsided, Philip arose, and, delivering himself in French, briefly told the deputies of the regret which he felt at not being able to address them in their native language, and to assure them of the favour and high regard in which he held them. This would be done for him oy the bishop of Arras. This was Antony Perennot, better known as Car- dinal Granvelle, son of the famous minister of Charles the Fifth, and destined himself to a still higher cele- brity as the minister of Philip the Second. In clear and fluent language he gave the deputies the promise of their new sovereign to respect the laws and liberties of the nation ; invoking them, on his behalf, to aid him with their counsels, and, like loyal vassals, to maintain the authority of the law in his dominions. After a suitable response from the deputies, filled with sentiments of regret for the loss of their late monarch and with those of loyalty to their new one, the Regent Mary formally abdicated her authority, and the session closed. So ended a ceremony which, con- sidering the importance of its consequences, the character of the actors, and the solemnity of the pro- ceedings, is one of the most remarkable in history. That the crown of the monarch is lined with thorns, is a trite maxim ; and it requires no philosophy to 242. Vera y Figueroa, Epitome other, that during the time of a de la Yida y Hechos del invicto good piece of his oration poured Emperador Carlos Quinto (Ma- not out abundantly tears, some drid, 1649), pp. 119, 120. Sir more, some less. And yet he John Mason thus describes the prayed them to bear with his affecting scene : " And here he imperfection, proceeding of sickly broke into a weeping, whereunto, age, and of the mentioning of so besides the dolefulness of the tender a matter as the departing matter, I think he was much pro- from such a sort of dear and most voked by seeing the whole com- loving subjects." The Order of pany to do the like before, being, the Cession of the Low Countries in mine opinion, not one man in to the King's Majesty, MS. the whole assembly, stranger or VOL. L C 18 ABDICATION OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOK i. teach us that happiness does not depend on station. Yet, numerous as are the instances of those who have waded to a throne through seas of blood, there are but few who, when they have once tasted the sweets of sovereignty, have been content to resign them ; still fewer who, when they have done so, have had the philosophy to conform to their change of con- dition and not to repent it. Charles, as the event proved, was one of these few. On the sixteenth day of January, 1556, in the presence of such of the Spanish nobility as were at the court, he executed the deeds by which he ceded the sovereignty of Castile and Aragon, with their dependencies, to Philip. 3 The last act that remained for him to perform was to resign the crown of Germany in favour of his brother Ferdinand. But this he consented to defer for some tune longer, at the request of Ferdinand himself, who wished to prepare the minds of the electoral college for this unexpected transfer of the imperial sceptre. But, while Charles consented to retain for the present the title of Emperor, the real power and the burden of sovereignty would remain with Ferdinand. 9 At the time of abdicating the throne of the Nether- lands, Charles was still at war with France. He 9 The date of this renunciation Philip the pretensions which, as is also a subject of disagreement King of the llomans, he had to the among contemporary historians, empire. This negotiation failed, although it would seem to be as might have been expected, settled by the date of the in- Ferdinand was not weary of the strument itself, which is pub- world ; and Charles could offer no lished by Sandoval in his Hist, de bribe large enough to buy off an Carlos V., torn. ii. pp. 603-606. empire. See the account given 9 Lanz, Correspondenz des by Marillac.ap.Rauiner, Sixteenth Kaisers Karl V., B. iii. s. 708. and Seventeenth Centuries (Lon- Five years before this period don, 1835, Eng. trans.), vol. i. p. Charles had endeavoured to per- 28 et seq. suade Ferdinand to relinquish to CHAP, i.] HIS KETURX TO SPAIN. 19 had endeavoured to negotiate a permanent peace with that country ; and, although he failed in this, he had the satisfaction, on the fifth of Fehruary, 1556, to arrange a truce for five years, which left both powers in the possession of their respective conquests. In the existing state of these conquests, the truce was by no means favourable to Spain. But Charles would have made even larger concessions, rather than leave the legacy of a war to his less experienced successor. Having thus completed all his arrangements, by which the most powerful prince of Europe descended to the rank of a private gentleman, Charles had no longer reason to defer his departure, and he pro- ceeded to the place of embarkation. He was accom- panied by a train of Flemish courtiers, and by the foreign ambassadors, to the latter of whom he warmly commended the interests of his son. A fleet of fifty- six sail was riding at anchor in the port of Flushing, ready to transport him and his retinue to Spain. From the imperial household, consisting of seven hundred and sixty-two persons, he selected a hundred and fifty as his escort ; and accompanied by his sisters, after taking an affectionate farewell of Philip, whose affairs detained him in Flanders, on the seven- teenth of September he sailed from the harbour of Flushing. The passage was a boisterous one ; and Charles, who suffered greatly from his old enemy the gout, landed, in a feeble state, at Laredo, in Biscay, on the twenty-eighth of the month. Scarcely had he left the vessel when a storm fell with fury on the fleet and did some mischief to the shipping in the harbour. The pious Spaniard saw in this the finger of Providence, which had allowed no harm to the c 2 20 ABDICATION OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOK i. squadron till its royal freight had been brought safely to the shore. 10 On landing, Charles complained, and with some reason, of the scanty preparations that had been made for him. Philip had written several times to his sister, the regent, ordering her to have every- thing ready for the emperor on his arrival. 11 Joanna had accordingly issued her orders to that effect. But promptness and punctuality are not virtues of the Spaniard. Some apology may be found for their deficiency in the present instance ; as Charles himself had so often postponed his departure from the Low Countries that, when he did come, the people were, in a manner, taken by surprise. That the neglect was not intentional is evident from their subsequent conduct. 12 Charles, whose weakness compelled him to be borne in a litter, was greeted everywhere on the road like a sovereign returning to his dominions. At Burgos, which he entered amidst the ringing of bells and a general illumination of the town, he passed three days, experiencing the hospitalities of the great constable, and receiving the homage of the 10 " Favor sin duda del Cielo," Mignet's interesting account of says Sandoval, who gives quite a Charles the Fifth, miraculous air to the event by 12 Among other disappoint- adding that the emperor's vessel ments was that of not receiving encountered the brunt of the four thousand ducats which storm and foundered in port. Joanna had ordered to be placed (Hist, de Carlos V., torn. li. p. at the emperor's disposition on his 607). But this and some other landing, This appears from a particulars told by the historian letter of the emperor's secretary, of Charles's landing, unconfirmed Gaztelu, to Vazquez de Molina, as they are by a single eye-wit- October 6th, 1556 : " El empe- ness, may be reckoned among the rador tovo por cierto que llegado myths of the voyage. aqui, hallaria los cuatro mil 11 The last of Philip's letters, ducados que el rey le dijo habia dated September 8th, is given mandado proveer, y visto que no entire in the MS. of Don Tomas se ha hecho, me ha mandado lo Gonzales (Ketiro, Estancia y escribiese luego a Vuestra Merced, Mnerte del Emperador Carlos para que se haya, porque son Quinto en el Monastcrio de mucho meiiester." AIS. Yustc), which forms 'the basis of CHAP, i.] HIS JOURNE? TO YUSTE. 21 northern lords, as well as of the people, who thronged the route by which he was to pass. At Torquemada, among those who came to pay their respects to their former master was Gasca, the good president of Peru. He had been sent to America to suppress the insur- rection of Gonzalo Pizarro and restore tranquillity to the country. In the execution of this difficult mission he succeeded so well that the emperor, on his return, had raised him to the see of Plasencia ; and the excellent man now lived in his diocese, where, in the peaceful discharge of his episcopal functions, he probably enjoyed far greater content- ment than he could have derived from the dazzling but difficult post of an American viceroy. From Torquemada, Charles slowly proceeded to Valladolid, where his daughter, the Regent Joanna, was then holding her court. Preparations were made for receiving him in a manner suited to his former rank. But Charles positively declined these honours, reserving them for his two sisters, the queens of France and Hungary, who accordingly made their entrance into the capital in great state, on the day following that on which their royal brother had entered it with the simplicity of a private citizen. He remained here some days, in order to recover from the fatigue of his journey ; and, although he took no part in the festivities of the court, he gave audience to his ancient ministers, and to such of the Castilian grandees as were eager to render him their obeisance. At the court he had also the opportunity of seeing his grandson Carlos, the heir of the monarchy, and his quick eye, it is said, in this short time saw enough in the prince's deportment to fill him with ominous forebodings. Charles prolonged his stay fourteen days in Valla- 2 2 ABDICATION OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. [COOK i. dolid, during which time his health was much benefited by the purity and the dryness of the atmosphere. On his departure, his royal sisters would have borne him company, and even have fixed their permanent residence near his own. But to this he would not consent ; and, taking a tender farewell of every member of his family, as one who was never to behold them again, he resumed his journey. He took with him a number of followers, mostly menials, to wait on his person. The place he had chosen for his retreat was the monastery of Yuste, in the province of Estremadura, not many miles from Plasencia. On his way thither he halted near three months at Jarandilla, the resi- dence of the count of Oropesa, waiting there for the completion of some repairs that were going on in the monastery, as well as for the remittance of a con- siderable sum of money, which he was daily expecting. This he required chiefly to discharge the arrears due to some of his old retainers ; and the failure of the remittance has brought some obloquy on Philip, who could so soon show himself unmindful of his obligations to his father. But the blame should rather be charged on Philip's ministers than on Philip, absent as he was at that time from the country, and incapable of taking personal cognizance of the matter. Punctuality in his pecuniary engage- ments was a virtue to which neither Charles nor Philip the masters of the Indies could at any time lay claim. But the imputation of parsimony, or even indifference, on the part of the latter, in his rela- tions with his father, is fully disproved by the subse- quent history of that monarch at the convent of Yuste." n Sandoval makes no allusion report of Strada (De Bello Belgico to the affair, which rests on the (Antverpiae, 1640), torn. i. p. 12) CHAP, i.] YUSTE. 23 This place had attracted his eye many years be- fore, when on a visit to that part of the country, and he had marked it for his future residence. The con- vent was tenanted by monks of the strictest order of Saint Jerome. But, however strict in their monastic rule, the good fathers showed much taste in the selec- tion of their ground as well as in the embellishment of it. It lay in a wild, romantic country, embosomed among hills that stretch along the northern confines of Estremadura. The building, which was of great antiquity, had been surrounded by its inmates with cultivated gardens, and with groves of orange, lemon, and myrtle, whose fragrance was tempered by the re- freshing coolness of the waters that gushed forth in abundance from the rocky sides of the hills. It was a delicious retreat, and, by its calm seclusion and the character of its scenery, was well suited to withdraw the mind from the turmoil of the world and dispose it to serious meditation. Here the monarch, after a life of restless ambition, proposed to spend the brief remainder of his days and dedicate it to the salvation of his soul. He could not, however, as the event proved, close his heart against all sympathy with and of Cabrera, the latter, as funds. His exchequer was so low, one of the royal household and indeed, that on one occasion he the historiographer of Castile, by was obliged to borrow a hundred far the best authority. In the reals for his ordinary expenses narration he does not spare his from his major-domo : " Los ulti- maater : " En Jarandilla ameno mos dos mil ducados que trujo lugardel CondedeOropcsa,espero el criado de Hernando Ochoa se treinta diastreintamil escudos con hanacabo, porquecuandollegaron, que pagar y dispedir sus criados se debian ya la mitad, de manera, quellegaron con tarda provision y que no tenemos tin real para eC inano ; terrible tentacion para no gasto ordinario, que para socorrer dar todo su aver antes de la hoy he dado yo cien reales, ni se muerta." Filipe Scgundo Roy de sabe de donde haberlo." Carta Espana (Madrid, lb'19), lib. ii. de Luis Quixada a Juan Vazquez, cap. 11. The letters from Jaran- an. Gachard, Retraite et Mort de dilla at this time show the em- Charles-Quint (Bruxellea, 1554), barrassments under which the torn. i. p. 76. mpcror laboured from want of 24 ABDICATION OP CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOK i. mankind, nor refuse to take some part in the great questions which then agitated the world. Charles, was not master of that ignoble philosophy which enabled Diocletian to turn with contentment from the cares of an empire to those of a cabbage-garden. In this retirement we must now leave the royal recluse, while we follow the opening career of the prince whose reign is the subject of the present history. OTAP. n.] 25 CHAPTER IL EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. Birth of Philip the Second. His Education. Intrusted with the Regency. Marries Mary of Portugal. Visit to Flanders. Public Festivities. Ambitious Schemes. Returns to Spain. 1527-1551. PHILIP THE SECOND was born at Valladolid, on the twenty -first of May, 1527. His mother was the Empress Isabella, daughter of Emanuel the Great of Portugal. By his father he was descended from the ducal houses of Burgundy and Austria. By both father and mother he claimed a descent from Ferdi- nand and Isabella the Catholic of Spain. As by blood he was half a Spaniard, so by temperament and cha- racter he proved to be wholly so. The ceremony of his baptism was performed with all due solemnity, by Tavera, archbishop of Toledo, on the twenty-fifth of June, when the royal infant re- ceived the name of Philip, after his paternal grand- father, Philip the Handsome, whose brief reign for which he was indebted to his union with Joanna, queen-proprietor of Castile has hardly secured him a place in the line of Castilian sovereigns. The birth of a son the heir of so magnificent an empire was hailed with delight both by Charles and by the whole nation, who prepared to celebrate it in a style worthy of the event, when tidings reached them of the capture of Pope Clement the Seventh and the sack of Rome by the Spanish troops under 26 EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. [BOOK r. the constable de Bourbon. The news of this event, and the cruelties inflicted by the conquerors, filled all Europe with consternation. Even the Protestants, who had no superfluous sympathy to spare for the sufferings of the pope, were shocked by the perpetra- tion of atrocities compared with which the conduct of Attila and Alaric might almost be deemed merciful. Whatever responsibility may attach to Charles on the score of the expedition, it would be injustice to him to suppose that he did not share in the general indignation at the manner in which it was conducted. At all events, he could hardly venture to outrage tlie feelings of Christendom so far as to take the present moment for one of public rejoicing. Orders were instantly issued to abandon the intended festivities, greatly to the discontent of the people, whose sym- pathy for the pope did not by any means incline them to put this restraint on the expression of their loyalty ; and they drew from the disappointment an uncomfortable augury that the reign of the young prince boded no good to the Catholic religion. 1 It was not long, however, before the people of Castile had an opportunity for the full display of their enthusiasm, on the occasion of Philip's recogni- tion as rightful heir to the crown. The ceremony was conducted with great pomp and splendour in the cortes at Madrid, on the nineteenth of April, 1528, when he was but eleven months old. The prince 1 Cabrera, Filipe Secjundo, lib. stradc, cauando da qrcesta proibi- i. cap. 1. Vanderhatmnen, Don tione di solennita pronostici di Felipe el Prudente (Madrid, 1625), cattivi augurii ; gli vni diceuano, p. 1. Breve Compendio de la che questo Prcncipe dououa esser Vida privada del Eey D. Felipe causa di grand i affiittione alia Segundo atribuido a Pedro Mateo Chiesa; gbaltri; Che cominciando Ooronista mayor del Reyno de a nascere colle tenebre, non poteua Francia, MS. Leti, Vita di portar che ombra alia Spagna." Filippo II., torn. i. p. 69 et seq. Leti, Vita di Filippo II., torn. L *' Andauano sussuraudo per le p. 73. CHAP, ii.] HIS EDUCATION. 27 was borne in the arms of his mother, who, with the emperor, was present on the occasion ; while the nobles, the clergy, and the commons took the oath of allegiance to the royal infant, as successor to the crown of Castile. The act of homage was no sooner published than the nation, as if by way of compensa- tion for the past, abandoned itself to a general jubilee. Illuminations and bonfires were lighted up in all the towns and villages ; while everywhere were to be seen dancing, bull-fights, tilts of reeds, and the other national games of that chivalrous and romantic land. Soon after this, Charles was called by his affairs to other parts of his far- extended empire, and he left his infant son to the care of a Portuguese lady, Dona Leonor Mascarenas, or rather to that of the Empress Isabella, in whose prudence and maternal watchful- ness he could safely confide. On the emperor's return to Spain, when his son was hardly seven years old, he formed for him a separate establishment, and selected two persons for the responsible office of superintending his education.* One of these personages was Juan Martinez Siliceo, at that time professor in the College of Salamanca. He was a man of piety and learning, of an accommo- dating temper, too accommodating, it appears from some of Charles's letters, for the good of his pupil, though not, as it would seem, for his own good, since he found such favour with the prince that, from an 2 Leti, Vita di Filippo II., torn. Portogallo fu allevato con quella i. p. 74. Noticia do los Ayos y riputatione et con qncl rispetto Macstros de Felipe Segxindo y che parea convenirsi ad un fig- Carlos su Hijo, MS. " Et passo liuolo del maggior Impcratorc che i primi anni et la maggior parte fosse mai tVa Christiaui." Kcla- delF eta siia in quel rcgno, ondc tiouc di Spagna del Cavaliere per usuuza del pncse, et per la Michelc Soriano, Ambasciatore al volonta dolla madre che era di Re Filipo, MS. 28 EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. [BOOK i. humble ecclesiastic, he was subsequently preferred to the highest dignities of the Church. Under him, Philip was instructed in the ancient classics, and made such progress in Latin that he could write it, and did write it frequently in after- life, with ease and correctness. He studied, also, Italian and French. He seems to have had little knowledge of the former, but French he could speak indifferently well, though he was rarely inclined to venture beyond his own tongue. He showed a more decided taste for science, especially the mathematics. He made a careful study of the principles of archi- tecture ; and the fruits of this study are to be seen in some of the noblest monuments erected in that flourishing period of the arts. In sculpture and painting he also made some proficiency, and became in later life no contemptible critic, at least for a sovereign. The other functionary charged with Philip's educa- tion was Don Juan de Zuniga, comendador mayor of Castile. He taught his pupil to fence, to ride, to take his part at the tilts and tourneys, and, in short, to excel in the chivalrous exercises familiar to cava- liers of his time. He encouraged Philip to invigorate his constitution by the hardy pleasures of the chase, to which, however, he was but little addicted as he advanced in years. But, besides these personal accomplishments, no one was better qualified than Zuniga to instruct his pupil in the duties belonging to his royal station. He was a man of ancient family, and had passed much of his life in courts. But he had none of the duplicity or of the suppleness which often marks the character of the courtier. He possessed too high a sentiment of honour to allow him to trifle with truth. CHAP, n.] HIS EDUCATION. 29 He spoke his mind plainly, too plainly sometimes for the taste of his pupil. Charles, who understood the character of Zuniga, wrote to his son to honour and to cherish him. " If he deals plainly with you," he said, " it is for the love he bears you. If he were to flatter you, and be only solicitous of ministering to your wishes, he would be like all the rest of the world, and you would have no one near to tell you the truth ; and a worse thing cannot happen to any man, old or young ; but most of all to the young, from their want of experience to discern truth from error." The wise emperor, who knew how rarely it is that truth is permitted to find its way to royal ears, sat a just value on the man who had the courage to speak it. 3 Under the influence of these teachers, and still more of the circumstances in which he was placed, the most potent teachers of all, Philip grew in years, and slowly unfolded the peculiar qualities of his dis- position. He seemed cautious and reserved in his demeanour, and slow of speech ; yet what he said had a character of thought beyond his age. At no time did he discover that buoyancy of spirit or was he betrayed into those sallies of temper which belong to a bold and adventurous and often to a generous nature. His deportment was marked by a serious- ness that to some might seem to savour of melan- choly. He was self-possessed, so that even as a boy he was rarely off his guard. 4 The emperor, whose affairs called him away from Spain much the greater part of his time, had not the 8 Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. ter, of which I have a manuscript i. cap. 1. Leti, Vita di Filippo copy, has been published in the II., torn. i. p. 97. Noticia de los Seminario erudito (Madrid, 1788), Ayos, MS. Eelatione di Michele torn. xiv. p. 156 et seq. Soriano, MS. Eelatione di Fede- 4 Cabrera, Filipe Seguudo, lib. rico Badoaro, MS. Charles's let- i. cap 1. 30 EARLY DAYS OF PIIILIP. [BOOK i. power of personally superintending the education of his son. Unfortunately for the latter, his excellent mother died when he was but twelve years old. Charles, who loved his wife as much as a man is capable of loving whose soul is filled with schemes of boundless ambition, was at Madrid when he received tidings of her illness. He posted in all haste to Toledo, where the queen then was, but arrived there only in time to embrace her cold remains before they were consigned to the sepulchre. The desolate monarch abandoned himself to an agony of grief, and was with difficulty withdrawn from the apartment by his attendants, to indulge his solitary regrets in the neighbouring monastery of La Sisla. Isabella well deserved to be mourned by her husband. She was a woman, from all accounts, possessed of many high and generous qualities. Such was her fortitude that at the time of her confinement she was never heard to utter a groan. She seemed to think any demonstration of suffering a weakness, and had the chamber darkened that her attendants might not see the distress painted on her countenance. 6 With this constancy of spirit she united many feminine virtues. The palace, under her rule, became a school of industry. Instead of wasting her leisure hours in frivolous pleasures, she might be seen busily occupied with her maidens, in the elegant labours of the loom ; and, like her ancestor the good Queen Isabella the Catholic, she sent more than one piece of tapestry, worked by her own hands, to adorn the altars of Jerusalem. These excellent qualities were enhanced by manners so attractive that her effigy was struck on a medal, Florez, Meinorias de las Reynas Catholicas (Madrid, 1770), torn, ii. p. 869. CHAP, it.] HIS EDUCATION. 21 with a device of the three Graces on the reverse side, bearing the motto, Has habet et superat.* Isabella was but thirty-six years old at the time oi her death. Charles was not forty. He never married again. Yet the bereavement seems to have had little power to soften his nature, or incline him to charity for the misconduct or compassion for the misfortunes of others. It was but a few months after the death of his wife that, on occasion of the insurrection of Ghent, he sought a passage through the territory of his ancient enemy of France, descended on the offending city, and took such vengeance on its wretched inhabitants as made all Europe ring with his cruelty. 7 Philip was too young at this time to take part in the administration of the kingdom during his father's absence. But he was surrounded by able statesmen, who familiarised him with ideas of government, by admitting him to see the workings of the machinery which he was one day to direct. Charles was desirous that the attention of his son, even in boy- hood, should be turned to those affairs which were to form the great business of his future life. It seems even thus early at this period of mental depression the emperor cherished the plan of an- ticipating the natural consequence of his decease, by resigning his dominions into the hands of Philip so soon as he should be qualified to rule them. No event occurred to disturb the tranquillity ot Spain during the emperor's absence from that country, to which he returned in the winter of 1541. It was after his disastrous expedition against Algiers the most disastrous of any that he had yet undertaken. * Ibid., torn. ii. p. 877. come viudo," sa} r s Samloval, Hist. ' "Tomo la posta vcstido en Into de Carlos Qniuto, torn. ii. p. 285. 32 EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. [BOOK i. He there saw his navy sunk or scattered by the tempest, and was fortunate in finding a shelter, with its shattered remnants, in the port of Carthagena. Soon after landing, he received a letter from Philip, condoling with him on his losses, and striving to cheer him with the reflection that they had been caused by the elements, not by his enemies. With this tone of philosophy were mingled expressions of sympathy; and Charles may have been gratified with the epistle if he could believe it the composi- tion of his son. 8 Philip soon after this made a journey to the south ; and in the society of one who was now the chief object of his affections the emperor may have found the best consolation in his misfortunes. The French had availed themselves of the troubled state of Charles's affairs to make a descent upon E-ous- sillon ; and the dauphin now lay in some strength before the gates of Perpignan. The emperor con- sidered this a favourable moment for Philip to take his first lesson in war. The prince accordingly posted to Valladolid. A considerable force was quickly mustered ; and Philip, taking the command, and supported by some of the most experienced of his father's generals, descended rapidly towards the coast. But the dauphin did not care to wait for his approach ; and, breaking up his camp, he retreated, without striking a blow, in all haste, across the mountains. Philip entered the town hi triumph, and soon after returned, with the unstained laurels of victory, to receive his father's congratulations. The promptness of his movements on this occasion gained him credit with the Spaniards ; and the for- tunate result seemed to furnish a favourable augury for the future. The letter is given by Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. i. cap. 2. CHAP, n.] INTRUSTED WITH THE REGENCY. 33 On his return, the prince was called to preside over the cortes at Monzon, a central town, where the deputies of Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia continued to assemble separately long after those provinces had been united to Castile. Philip, with all the forms prescribed by the constitution, received the homage of the representatives assembled, as successor to the crown of Aragon. The war with France, which, after a temporary suspension, had broken out with greater violence than ever, did not permit the emperor long to pro- tract his stay in the Peninsula. Indeed, it seemed to his Spanish subjects that he rarely visited them except when his exchequer required to be replenished for carrying on his restless enterprises, and that he stayed no longer than was necessary to effect this object. On leaving the country, he entrusted the regency to Philip, under the general direction of a council consisting of the duke of Alva, cardinal Tavera, and the Comendador Cobos. Some time after this, while still lingering in Catalonia, previous to his embarkation, Charles addressed a letter to his son, advising him as to his political course, and freely criticising the characters of the great lords associated with him in the government. The letter, which is altogether a remarkable document, contains also some wholesome admonitions on Philip's private conduct. " The duke of Alva," the emperor em- phatically wrote, " is the ablest statesman and the best soldier I have in my dominions. Consult him, above all, in military affairs ; but do not depend on him entirely in these or in any other matters. Depend on no one but yourself. The grandees will be too happy to secure your favour, and through you to govern the land. But if you are thus governed it VOL. T. D 34 EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. [BOOK i will be your ruin. The mere suspicion of it will do you infinite prejudice. Make use of all ; but lean exclusively on none. In your perplexities, ever trust in your Maker. Have no care but for Him." The emperor then passes some strictures on the Comen- dador Cobos, as too much inclined to pleasure, at the same time admonishing Philip of the conse- quences of a libertine career, fatal alike, he tells him, to both soul and body. There seems to have been some ground for this admonition, as the young prince had shown a disposition to gallantry, which did not desert him in later life. " Yet, on the whole," says the monarch, " I will admit I have much reason to be satisfied with your behaviour. But I would have you perfect ; and, to speak frankly, whatever other persons may tell you, you have some things to mend yet. Your confessor," he continues, "is now your old preceptor, the bishop of Carthagena," to which see the worthy professor had been recently raised. " He is a good man, as all the world knows ; but I hope he will take better care of your conscience than he did of your studies, and that he will not show quite so accommodating a temper in regard to the former as he did with the latter." 9 On the cover of this curious epistle the emperor endorsed a direction to his son to show it to no living person, but, if he found himself ill at any time, to destroy the letter or seal it up under cover to him. It would, indeed, have edified those courtiers who fancied they stood highest in the royal favour, to see how to their very depths their characters were sounded, and how clearly their ' Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. 299 et seq. Breve Compendio, i. cap. 2. Leti, Vita di Filippo MS. Charles's letter, in the II., torn. i. p. 132. Sandoval, Seminario erudito, torn. xiv. p. Hist, de Carlos Quinto, torn. ii. p. 156. CHAP. H.] MARRIES MARY OF PORTUGAL. 35 schemes of ambition were revealed to the eye of their master. It was this admirable perception of cha- racter which enabled Charles so generally to select the right agent for the execution of his plans, and thus to insure their success. The letter from Palamos is one among many similar proofs of the care with which, even from a distance, Charles watched over his son's course, and endeavoured to form his character. The experienced navigator would furnish a chart to the youthful pilot by which, without other aid, he might securely steer through seas strange and unknown to him. Yet there was little danger in the navigation, at this period ; for Spain lay in a profound tranquillity, unruffled by a breath from the rude tempest that in other parts of Europe was unsettling princes on their thrones. A change was now to take place in Philip's domestic relations. His magnificent expectations made him, in the opinion of the world, the best match in Europe. His father had long contemplated the event of his son's marrying. He had first medi- tated an alliance for him with Margaret, daughter of Francis the First, by which means the feud with his ancient rival might be permanently healed. But Philip's inclination was turned to an alliance with Portugal. This latter was finally adopted by Charles ; and in December, 1542, Philip was be- trothed to the Infanta Mary, daughter of John the Third and of Catharine, the emperor's sister. She was, consequently, cousin-german to Philip. At the same time, Joanna, Charles's youngest daughter, was affianced to the eldest son of John the Third, and heir to his crown. The intermarriages of the royal houses of Castile and Portugal were so frequent that D 2 36 EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. [BOOK i. the several members stood in multiplied and most perplexing degrees of affinity with one another. Joanna was eight years younger than her brother. Charles had one other child, Mary, born the year after Philip. She was destined to a more splendid fortune than her sister, as bride of the future emperor of Germany. Since Philip and the Portuguese princess were now both more than sixteen years old, being nearly of the same age, it was resolved that their marriage should no longer be deferred. The place appointed for the ceremony was the ancient city of Salamanca In October, 1543, the Portuguese infanta quitted her father's palace in Lisbon and set out for Castile. She was attended by a numerous train of nobles, with the archbishop of Lisbon at their head. A splendid embassy was sent to meet her on the borders and conduct her to Salamanca. At its head was the duke of Medina Sidonia, chief of the Guzmans, the wealthiest and most powerful lord in Andalusia. He had fitted up his palace at Badajoz in the most costly and sumptuous style, for the accommodation of the princess. The hangings were of cloth of gold ; the couches, the sideboards, and some of the other fur- niture, of burnished silver. The duke himself rode in a superb litter, and the mules which carried it were shod with gold. The members of his household and his retainers swelled to the number of three thousand, well mounted, wearing the liveries and cognisance of their master. Among them was the duke's private band, including several natives of the Indies, then not a familiar sight in Spain, dis- playing on their breasts broad silver escutcheons, on which were emblazoned the arms of the Guzmans. The chronicler is diffuse in his account of the CHAP. n. MARRIES MARY OF PORTUGAL. 37 infanta's reception, from which a few particulars may be selected for such as take an interest in the Spanish costume and manners of the sixteenth century. The infanta was five months younger than Philip. She was of the middle size, with a good figure, though somewhat inclined to embonpoint, and was distin- guished by a graceful carriage and a pleasing expres- sion of countenance. Her dress was of cloth of silver, embroidered with flowers of gold. She wore a capa, or Castilian mantle, of violet-coloured velvet, figured with gold, and a hat of the same materials, sur- mounted by a white and azure plume. The housings of the mule were of rich brocade, and Mary rode on a silver saddle. As she approached Salamanca, she was met by the- rector and professors of the university, in their aca- demic gowns. Next followed the j udges and regidores of the city, in their robes of office, of crimson velvet, with hose and shoes of spotless white. After these came the military, horse and foot, in their several companies, making a brilliant show with their gay uniforms; and, after going through their various evolutions, they formed into an escort for the- princess. In this way, amidst the sound of music, and the shouts of the multitude, the glittering^ pageant entered the gates of the capital. The infanta was there received under a superb canopy, supported by the magistrates of the city. The late ambassador to Portugal, Don Luis Sar- miento, who had negotiated the marriage-treaty, held the bridle of her mule ; and in this state she arrived at the palace of the duke of Alva, destined for her reception in Salamanca Here she was received with all honour by the duchess, in the presence of a bril 1741.14 38 EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. [BOOK. i. liant company of cavaliers and noble ladies. Each of the ladies was graciously permitted by the infanta to kiss her hand ; but the duchess, the chronicler is careful to inform us, she distinguished by the honour of an embrace. All the while, Philip had been in the presence of the infanta, unknown to herself. Impatient to see his destined bride, the young prince had sallied out with a few attendants, to the distance of five or six miles from the city, all in the disguise of huntsmen. He wore a slouched velvet hat on his head, and his face was effectually concealed under a gauze mask, so that he could mingle in the crowd by the side of the infanta and make his own scrutiny, unmarked by any one. In this way he accompanied the pro- cession during the five hours which it lasted, until the darkness had set in ; "if darkness could be spoken of," says the chronicler, "where the blaze of ten thousand torches shed a light stronger than day." The following evening, November the twelfth, was appointed for the marriage. The duke and duchess of Alva stood as sponsors, and the nuptial ceremony was performed by Tavera, archbishop of Toledo. The festivities were prolonged through another week. The saloons were filled with the beauty of Castile. The proudest aristocracy in Europe vied with each other in the display of magnificence at the banquet and the tourney ; and sounds of merriment succeeded to the tranquillity which had so long reigned in the cloistered shades of Salamanca. On the nineteenth of the month the new-married pair transferred their residence to Valladolid, a city at once fortunate and fatal to the princess. Well might the chronicler call it " fatal ;" for in less than CHAP, ii.] DEATH OF TAVKKA. 39 two years, July 8th, 1545, she there gave birth to a son, the celebrated Don Carlos, whose mysterious fate has furnished so fruitful a theme for speculation. Mary survived the birth of her child but a few days. Had her life been spared, a mother's care might perhaps have given a different direction to his character, and, through this, to his fortunes. The remains of the infanta, first deposited in the cathe- dral of Granada, were afterwards removed to the Escorial, that magnificent mausoleum prepared by her husband for the royalty of Spain. 10 In the following year died Tavera, archbishop of Toledo. He was an excellent man, and greatly valued by the emperor; who may be thought to have passed a sufficient encomium on his worth when he declared that " by his death Philip had suffered a greater loss than by that of Mary ; for he could get another wife, but not another Tavera." His place was filled by Siliceo, Philip's early pre- ceptor, who, after having been raised to the archi- episcopal see of Toledo, received a cardinal's hat from Home. The accommodating spirit of the good eccle- siastic had doubtless some influence in his rapid advancement from the condition of a poor teacher of Salamanca to the highest post, as the see of Toledo, with its immense revenues and authority, might be considered, next to the papacy, in the Christian Church. For some years no event of importance occurred to disturb the repose of the Peninsula. But the emperor was engaged in a stormy career abroad, in 10 Flprez, Keynas Catholicas, particulars relating to the wedding torn. ii. pp. 883-889. Cabrera, I am chiefly indebted to Florez, Filipe Segundo, lib. i. cap. 2. who is as minute in his account Leti, Yita di Filippo II., torn. i. of court pageants as any master p. 142. Breve Compendio, MS. of ceremonies, Kelazioue anonimo, MS. For the 40 EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. [BOOK i. which his arms were at length crowned with success by the decisive battle of Muhlberg. This victory, which secured him the person of his greatest enemy, placed him in a position for dictating terms to the Protestant princes of Germany. He had subsequently withdrawn to Brussels, where he received an embassy from Philip congratulating him on the success of his arms. Charles was desirous to- see his son, from whom he had now been separated nearly six years. He wished, moreover, to introduce him to the Netherlands, and make him personally acquainted with the people- over whom he was one day to rule. He sent instructions, accordingly, to Philip to repair to Flanders so soon as the person appointed to relieve him in the government should arrive in Castile. The individual selected by the emperor for this office was Maximilian, the son of his brother Ferdi- nand. Maximilian was a young man of good parts, correct judgment, and popular manners, well quali- fied, notwithstanding his youth, for the post assigned to him. He was betrothed, as already mentioned, to- the emperor's eldest daughter, his cousin Mary ; and the regency was to be delivered into his hands on the marriage of the parties. Philip received his father's commands while pre- siding at the cortes of Monzon. He found the Aragonese legislature by no means so tractable as the Castilian. The deputies from the mountains of Aragon and from the sea-coast of Catalonia were o alike sturdy in their refusal to furnish further supplies, for those ambitious enterprises which, whatever glory they might bring to their sovereign, were of little benefit to them. The independent people of these- provinces urged their own claims with a pertinacity CHAP, n.] CHANGES IN HIS HOUSEHOLD. 41 and criticised the conduct of their rulers with a bluntness that was little grateful to the ear of majesty. The convocation of the Aragonese cortes was, in ths view of the king of Spain, what the con- vocation of a general council was in that of the pope, a measure not to be resorted to but from absolute necessity. On the arrival of Maximilian in Castile, his marriage with the Infanta Mary was immediately celebrated. The ceremony took place, with all the customary pomp, in the courtly city of Valladolid. Among the festivities that followed may be noticed the performance of a comedy of Ariosto, a proof that the beautiful Italian literature, which had exercised a visible influence on the compositions of the great Castilian poets of the time, had now com- mended itself in some degree to the popular taste. Before leaving the country, Philip, by his father's orders, made a change in his domestic establishment, which he formed on the Burgundian model. This was more ceremonious, and far more costly, than the primitive usage of Castile. A multitude of new offices was created, and the most important were filled by grandees of the highest class. The duke of Alva was made mayor-domo mayor; Antonio de Toledo, his kinsman, master of the horse ; Figueroa, count of Feria, captain of the body-guard. Among the chamberlains was Ruy Gomez de Silva, prince of Eboli, one of the most important members of the cabinet under Philip. Even the menial offices con- nected with the person and table of the prince were held by men of rank. A guard was lodged in the palace. Philip dined in public in great state, attended by his kings-at-arms and by a host of minstrels and musicians. One is reminded of the 42 EAKLY DAYS OP PHILIP. [BOOK i. pompous etiquette of the court of Louis the Four- teenth. All this, however, was distasteful to the Spaniards, who did not comprehend why the prince should relinquish the simple usages of his own land for the fashions of Burgundy. Neither was it to the taste of Philip himself; but it suited that of his father, who was desirous that his son should flatter the Flemings by the assumption of a state to which they had been accustomed in their Burgundian princes. 11 Philip, having now completed his arrangements and surrendered the regency into the hands of his brother-in-law, had no reason longer to postpone his journey. He was accompanied by the duke of Alva, Enriquez, high-admiral of Castile, Buy Gomez, prince of Eboli, and a long train of persons of the highest rank. There was, besides, a multitude of younger cavaliers of family. The proudest nobles of the land contended for the honour of having their sons take part in the expedition. The number was still further augmented by a body of artists and men of science. The emperor was desirous that Philip should make an appearance that would dazzle the imaginations of the people among whom he passed. With this brilliant company Philip began his journey in the autumn of 1548. He took the road to Saragossa, made an excursion to inspect the fortifi- cations of Perpignan, offered up his prayers at the shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat, passed a day or two at Barcelona,, enjoying the fete prepared for him in the pleasant citron-gardens of the cardinal of Trent, and thence proceeded to the port of Rosas, where a Genoese fleet, over which proudly waved 11 Cabrera, Filipe Se. the field against all comers, and jewels of price were to be awarded as the prize of the victors. The four challengers were Count Mansfeldt, Count Hoorne, Count Aremberg, and the Sieur de Hubermont ; among the judges was the duke of Alva ; and in the list of the successful antagonists we find the names of Prince Philip of Spain, Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, and Count Egmont. These are names famous in history. It is curious to observe how the men who were soon to be at deadly feud with one another were thus sportively met to celebrate the pastimes of chivalry. The day was an auspicious one, and the lists were crowded with the burghers of Brussels and the people of the surrounding country. The galleries which encompassed the area were graced with the rank and beauty of the capital. A canopy, embroi- dered with the imperial arms in crimson and gold, indicated the place occupied by Charles the Fifth and his sisters, the regent of the Netherlands and the dowager queen of France. For several hours the field was gallantly main- tained by the four challengers against every knight who was ambitious to prove his prowess in the presence of so illustrious an assembly. At length the trumpets sounded, and announced the entrance of four cavaliers, whose brilliant train of followers inti- mated them to be persons of high degree. The four knights were Prince Philip, the duke of Savoy, Count Egmont, and Juan Manriquez de Lara, major-domo of the emperor. They were clothed in complete mail, over which they wore surcoats of violet-coloured velvet, while the caparisons of their horses were of cloth of gold. Philip ran the first course. His antagonist was CHAP. n.J PUBLIC FESTIVITIES. 53 the Count Mansfeldt, a Flemish captain of great renown. At the appointed signal, the two knights spurred against each other, and met in the centre of the lists, with a shock that shivered their lances to the very grasp. Both knights reeled in their saddles, but neither lost his seat. The arena resounded with the plaudits of the spectators, not the less hearty that one of the combatants was the heir apparent. The other cavaliers then tilted, with various suc- cess. A general tournament followed, in which every knight eager to break a lance on this fair occasion took part ; and many a feat of arms was performed, doubtless long remembered by the citizens of Brus- sels. At the end of the seventh hour, a flourish of trumpets announced the conclusion of the contest ; and the assembly broke up in admirable order, the knights retiring to exchange their heavy panoplies for the lighter vestments of the ball-room. A ban- quet was prepared by the municipality, in a style of magnificence worthy of their royal guests. The emperor and his sisters honoured it with their presence, and witnessed the distribution of the prizes. Among these, a brilliant ruby, the prize awarded for the lanqa de las damas, the "ladies' lance," in the language of chivalry, was assigned by the loyal judges to Prince Philip of Spain. Dancing succeeded to the banquet ; and the high- bred courtesy of the prince was as much commended in the ball-room as his prowess had been in the lists. Maskers mingled with the dancers, in Oriental cos- tume, some in the Turkish, others in the Albanian fashion. The merry revels were not prolonged beyond the hour of midnight, when the company broke up, loudly commending, as they withdrew, the 54 EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. [BOOK i. good cLeer afforded them by the hospitable burghers of Brussels. 13 Philip won the prize on another occasion, when he tilted against a valiant knight named Quiiiones. He was not so fortunate in an encounter with the son of his old preceptor, Zuniga, in which he was struck with such force on the head that, after being carried some distance by his horse, he fell senseless from the saddle. The alarm was great, but the accident passed away without serious consequences. 19 There were those who denied him skill in the management of his lance. MarHlac, the French ambassador at the imperial court, speaking of a tourney given by Philip in honour of the princess of Lorraine, at Augsburg, says he never saw worse lance-playing in his life. At another time, he remarks that the Spanish prince could not even hit his antagonist. 20 It must have been a very palpable hit to be noticed by a Frenchman. The French regarded the Spaniards of that day in much the same manner as they regarded the English at an earlier period, or as they have continued to regard them at a later. The long rivalry of the French and Spanish monarchs had infused into the breasts of their subjects such feelings of mutual aversion that the opinions of either nation in reference to the other, 18 " Assi f ucron a palacio siendo pulvere spirittim intercludente ya casi la media noche, quando se jacuit, donee a suis sublevatus vuieron apeado muy contcntos de cst." Sepulvcdas Opera, vol.ii. p. la fiesta y Vanquete, que la villa 381. les hiziera." Estrella, Viage del M Raumer, Sixteenth aud Seven- Principe Phelipc, p. 73. tecnth Centuries, vol. i. p. 21. 19 " Ictum accepit in capito Von Haunter's abstract of the galeaqne tarn vencmenteni, ut MSS. in the Royal Library at. vecors ac dormienti siniilis parum- Paris contains some very curious per invcctus ephippio delabcretur, particulars for the illustration of et in caput armis superiorem cor- the reigus both of Charles the poris partcm graving deprimenti- Fifth and of Philip, bus caderet. Itaquc scmianimis CHAP, u.] PUBLIC FESTIVITIES. 55 in the sixteenth century, must be received with the greatest distrust. But whatever may have been Philip's success in these chivalrous displays, it is quite certain they were not to his taste. He took part in them only to conform to his father's wishes and to the humour of the age. Though in his youth he sometimes hunted, he was neither fond of field- sports nor of the athletic exercises of chivalry. His constitution was far from robust. He sought to invigorate it less by exercise than by diet. He confined himself almost wholly to meat, as the most nutritious food ; abstain- ing even from fish, as well as from fruit. 21 Besides his indisposition to active exercises, he had no relish for the gaudy spectacles so fashionable in that romantic age. The part he had played in the pageants, during his long tour, had not been of his own seeking. Though ceremonious, and exacting deference from all who approached him, he was not fond of the pomp and parade of a court life. He preferred to pass his hours in the privacy of his own apartment, where he took pleasure in the conversa- tion of a few whom he honoured with his regard. It was with difficulty that the emperor could induce him to leave his retirement and present himself in the audience-chamber or accompany him on visits of ceremony. 22 These reserved and quiet tastes of Philip by no means recommended him to the Flemings, accustomed 21 "E. S. M. di complessione essercitio habbia mostrato un poco molto delicata, et per questo vive piu di prontezza et di vivacita, sempre con regola, usando per pero si vede che ha sforzato la sua 1'ordinario cibidigrannodrimento, natura, la quale inclina piu alia lasciando i pesci, frutti et simili quiete che all' essercitio, piu al cose che generano cattivi humori; riposo che al travaglio." Rela- tlorme molto, fa poco essercitio, et tione di Michele Soriano, MS. i suoi trattenimenti domestici ~ " Rarissime volte va fuora in sono tutti quieti ; et benche nell' Campagna, ha piacere di starsi in 56 EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. [BOOK L, as they were to the pomp and profuse magnificence of the Burgundian court. Their free and social tempers were chilled by his austere demeanour. They contrasted it with the affable deportment of his father, who could so well conform to the customs of the different nations under his sceptre, and who seemed perfectly to comprehend their characters, the astute policy of the Italian, the homebred simplicity of the German, and the Castilian propriety and point of honour. 23 With the latter only of these had Philip anything in common. He was in every thing a Spaniard. He talked of nothing, seemed to think of nothing, but Spain. 24 The Netherlands were to him a foreign land, with which he had little sympathy. His counsellors and companions were wholly Spanish. The people of Flanders felt that under his sway little favour was to be shown to them ; and they looked forward to the time when all the offices of trust in their own country would be given to Castilians, in the same manner as those of Castile, in the early days of Charles the Fifth, had been given to Flemings. 25 Yet the emperor seemed so little aware of his son's Camera, co suoi favoriti, a ra- Spagnuoli ; vedendo hora in suo gionare di cose private ; et se tall' figliulo altrimente sentono non hora I'lmperatore lo manda in picciolo dispiacere di questo cam- visita,* si scusa per godere la bio." Ibid., MS. solita quiete." Belatione di Ma- 24 " Philippus ipse Hispaniaa rino Cavalli, MS. desideriomagnoperesestuabat.nec " " Pare che la natnra 1'habbia aliud quam Hispaniam loqueba- fatto atto con la familiarita e do- tur." Sepulvedea Opera, vol. ii. mesticliezza a gratificare a Fiam- p. 401. menglii et Borgognoni, con Tin- s * " Si fa giudicio, che qnando gegno et pmdentia a gl' Italiani, egli succedera al governo delli con la riputatione et severita alii stati suoi debba servirsi in tutto et per tutto delli ministri Spag- * [In the copy edited by Alberi nuoli, alia qual natione e inclinato the reading is " manda a chia- piu di queilo che si convenga a mare," which expresses more prencipe che voglia dominare a clearly what is probably the real diversi." Belatione di Marino meaning. ED.] Cavalli, MS. CHAP. 11.] AMBITIOUS SCHEMES. 57 unpopularity that he was at this very time making arrangements for securing to him the imperial crown. He had summoned a meeting of the electors and great lords of the empire, to be held at Augsburg, in August, 1550. There he proposed to secure Philip's election as King of the Romans, so soon as he had obtained his brother Ferdinand's surrender of that dignity. But Charles did not show, in all this, his usual knowledge of human nature. The lust of power on his son's account ineffectual for happiness as he had found the possession of it in his own case seems to have entirely blinded him. He repaired with Philip to Augsburg, where they were met by Ferdinand and the members of the German diet. But it was in vain that Charles solicited his brother to waive his claim to the imperial succession in favour of his nephew. Neither solicita- tions nor arguments, backed by the entreaties, even, the tears, it is said, of their common sister, the Regent Mary, could move Ferdinand to forego the splendid inheritance. Charles was not more success- ful when he changed his ground and urged his brother to acquiesce in Philip's election as his successor in the dignity of King of the Romans, or, at least, in his being associated in that dignity a thing unprece- dented with his cousin Maximilian, Ferdinand's son, who, it was understood, was destined by the electors to succeed his father. This young prince, who meanwhile had been sum- moned to Augsburg, was as little disposed as Ferdi- nand had been to accede to the proposals of his too grasping father-in-law; though he courteously alleged, as the ground of his refusal, that he had no right to interfere with the decision of the electors. He might safely rest his cause on their decision. They had no 58 EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. [BOOK i. desire to perpetuate the imperial sceptre in the line of Castilian monarchs. They had suffered enough from the despotic temper of Charles the Fifth ; and this temper they had no reason to think would be mitigated in the person of Philip. They desired a German to rule over them, one who would under- stand the German character and enter heartily into the feelings of the people. Maximilian's directness of purpose and kindly nature had won largely on the affections of his countrymen, and proved him, in their judgment, worthy of the throne. 26 Philip, on the other hand, was even more distaste- ful to the Germans than he was to the Flemings. It was in vain that at their banquets he drank twice or thrice as much as he was accustomed to do, until the cardinal of Trent assured him that he was fast gain- ing in the good graces of the people. 27 The natural haughtiness of his temper showed itself on too many occasions to be mistaken. When Charles returned to his palace, escorted, as he usually was, by a train of nobles and princes of the empire, he would courteously take them by the hand, and raise his hat, as he parted from them. But Philip, it was observed, on like occasions walked directly into the palace, without so much as turning round or condescending in any way to notice the courtiers who had accom- panied him. This was taking higher ground even than his father had done. In fact, it was said of him that he considered himself greater than his father, inasmuch as the son of an emperor was greater than 26 Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. i. i. cap. 3. Leti Vita di Filippo p. 28 et seq. II., torn. i. pp. 195-198. Sepul- 27 Marillac, ap. Raumer, Six- vetlje Opera, vol. ii. pp. 399-401. teenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Marillac, ap. Raumer, Sixteenth vol. i. p. 30. CHAP, ii.] AMBITIOUS SCHEMES. 59 the son of a king !" 8 a foolish vaunt, not the less in- dicative of his character that it was made for him, probably, by the Germans. In short, Philip's man- ners, which, in the language of a contemporary, had been little pleasing to the Italians and positively dis- pleasing to the Flemings, were altogether odious to the Germans. 19 Nor was the idea of Philip's election at all more acceptable to the Spaniards themselves. That nation had been long enough regarded as an appendage to the empire. Their pride had been wounded by the light in which they were held by Charles, who seemed to look on Spain as a royal domain, valuable chiefly for the means it afforded him for playing his part on the great theatre of Europe. The haughty Castilian of the sixteenth century, conscious of his superior pre- tensions, could ill brook this abasement. He sighed for a prince born and bred in Spain, who would be content to pass his life in Spain, and would have no ambition unconnected with her prosperity and glory. The Spaniards were even more tenacious on this head than the Germans. Their remote situation made them more exclusive, more strictly national, and less tolerant of foreign influence. They required a Spaniard to rule over them. Such was Philip ; and they anticipated the hour when Spain should be divorced from the empire and, under the sway of a patriotic prince, rise to her just pre-eminence among the nations. 18 Banke, Ottoman and Spanish Italia et per Germania in Fiandra, Empires in the Sixteenth and lascio impressions da per tutto Seventeenth Centuries (Eng. che fosse d'animo severe et intrat- trans., London, 1843), p. 31. tabilc ; ct pcro f'u poco grato a ; ' J " Da cosi fatta cducatione no Italiani.ingratissimo a Fiamcnghi scgni qnando S. M. nsci la prima ct a Tedcschi odioso." Relatione volta da Spagna, et passo per di Michclc Soriano, MS. 60 EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. [BOOK i. Yet Charles, far from yielding, continued to press the point with such pertinacity that it seemed likely to lead to an open rupture between the different branches of his family. For a time Ferdinand kept his apartment, and had no intercourse with Charles or his sister. 30 Yet in the end the genius or the obstinacy of Charles so far prevailed over his brother that he acquiesced in a private compact, by which, while he was to retain possession of the imperial crown, it was agreed that Philip should succeed him as King of the Romans, and that Maximilian should succeed Philip. 31 Ferdinand hazarded little by con- cessions which could never be sanctioned by the electoral college. The reverses which befell the em- peror's arms in the course of the following year destroyed whatever influence he might have pos- sessed in that body ; and he seems never to have revived his schemes for aggrandizing his son by securing to him the succession to the empire. Philip had now accomplished the great object of his visit. He had presented himself to the people of the Netherlands, and had received their homage as heir to the realm. His tour had been in some respects a profitable one. It was scarcely possible that a young man whose days had hitherto been passed within the narrow limits of his own country, for ever under the same local influences, should not 30 Marillac, ap. Raitmer, Six- " ce que convenoit pour establir teenth and Seventeenth Centuries, noz maisons." Lanz, Correspon- vol. i. p. 32. Sec also the charac- clcnz dcs Kaisers Karl V. (Leip- tcristic letter of Charles to his zig, 1846), B. iii. s. 18. sister, the regent of the Nether- 31 A copy of the instrument lands (December 16th, 1550), full containing this agreement, dated of angry expressions against For- March 9th, 1551, is preserved in dinand for his ingratitude aud the archives of Belgium. Sec treachery. The scheme, according Mignct, Charles-Quint, p. 42, to Charles's view of it, was culcn- note. Jalcd for the benefit of both parties, CHAP. n.J RETURNS TO SPAIN. 61 have his ideas greatly enlarged by going abroad and mingling with different nations. It was especially important to Philip to make himself familiar, as none but a resident can be, with the character and insti- tutions of those nations over whom he was one day to preside. Yet his visit to the Netherlands had not been attended with the happiest results. He evidently did not make a favourable impression on the people. The more they saw of him the less they appeared to like him. Such impressions are usually reciprocal ; and Philip seems to have parted from the country with little regret. Thus, in the first interview between the future sovereign and his subjects the symptoms might already be discerned of that alienation which was after- wards to widen into a permanent and irreparable breach. Philip, anxious to reach Castile, pushed forward his journey, without halting to receive the civilities that were everywhere tendered to him on his route, He made one exception, at Trent, where the eccle- siastical council was holding the memorable session that occupies so large a share in Church annals. On his approach to the city, the cardinal legate, attended by the mitred prelates and other dignitaries of the council, came out in a body to receive him. During his stay there he was entertained with masks, dancing, theatrical exhibitions, and jousts, contrived to represent scenes in Ariosto. 32 These diversions of the reverend fathers formed a whimsical contrast, perhaps a welcome relief, to their solemn occupation of digesting a creed for the Christian world. 55 Leti, Yita di Filippo II., torn. escript par le Controlenr de Sa i. p. 199. Memorial et Eecueil Majestd, MS. des Voyages du Roi des Espagnea, 62 EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. [BOOK i. From Trent Philip pursued his way, with all ex- pedition, to Genoa, where he embarked, under the flag of the veteran Doria, who had brought him from Spain. He landed at Barcelona on the twelfth day of July, 1551, and proceeded at once to Valla- dolid, where he resumed the government of the kingdom. He was fortified by a letter from his father, dated at Augsburg, which contained ample instructions as to the policy he was to pursue, and freely discussed both the foreign and domestic rela- tions of the country. The letter, which is very long, shows that the capacious mind of Charles, however little time he could personally give to the affairs of the monarchy, fully comprehended its internal con- dition and the extent of its resources. 3 * The following years were years of humiliation to Charles; years marked by the flight from Innsbruck, and the disastrous siege of Metz, when, beaten by the Protestants, foiled by the French, the reverses of the emperor pressed heavily on his proud heart, and did more, probably, than all the homilies of his ghostly teachers to disgust him with the world and its vanities. Yet these reverses made little impression on Spain. The sounds of war died away before they reached the foot of the Pyrenees. Spain, it is true, sent forth her sons, from time to time, to serve under the banners of Charles ; and it was in that school that was perfected the admirable system of discipline and tactics which, begun by the Great Captain, made the Spanish infantry the most redoubtable in Europe. 33 The letter, of which I have a Sandoval, in his Hist, de Carlos manuscript copy, taken from one V., where it occupies twelve in the rich collection of Sir Thomas pages folio. Tom. ii. p. 475 et Phillips, is published at length by seq. CHAP, n.] CONDITION OF SPAIN. 63 But the great body of the people felt little interest in the success of these distant enterprises, where success brought them no good. Not that the mind of Spain was inactive, or oppressed with the lethargy which stole over it in a later age. There was, on the contrary, great intellectual activity. She was excluded by an arbitrary government from pushing her speculations in the regions of theological or political science. But this, to a considerable extent, was the case with most of the neighbouring nations ; and she indemnified herself for this exclusion by a more diligent cultivation of elegant literature. The constellation of genius had already begun to show itself above the horizon, which was to shed a glory over the meridian and the close of Philip's reign. The courtly poets in the reign of his father had confessed the influence of Italian models, derived through the recent territorial acquisitions in Italy. But the national taste was again asserting its supre- macy ; and the fashionable tone of composition was becoming more and more accommodated to the old Castilian standard. It would be impossible that any departure from a national standard should be long tolerated in Spain, where the language, the manners, the dress, the usages of the country were much the same as they had been for generations, as they continued to be for generations, long after Cervantes held up the mirror of fiction to reflect the traits of the national existence more vividly than is permitted to the page of the chronicler. In the rude romances of the four- teenth and the fifteenth century the Castilian of the sixteenth might see his way of life depicted with tolerable accuracy. The amorous cavalier still 64 EARLY DAYS OF PHILIP. [BOOK i. thrummed his guitar by moonlight under the bal- cony of his mistress, or wore her favours at the Moorish tilt of reeds. The common people still sung their lively seguidillas, or crowded to the fiestas de toros, the cruel bull-fights, or to the more cruel autos de fe. This last spectacle, of comparatively recent origin, in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, was the legitimate consequence of the long wars with the Moslems, which made the Spaniards into- lerant of religious infidelity. Atrocious as it seems in a more humane and enlightened age, it was regarded by the ancient Spaniard as a sacrifice grateful to Heaven, at which he was to rekindle the dormant embers of his own religious sensi- bilities. The cessation of the long Moorish wars, by the fall of Granada, made the most important change in the condition of the Spaniards. They, however, found a vent for their chivalrous fanaticism in a crusade against the heathen of the New World. Those who returned from their wanderings brought back to Spain little of foreign usages and manners ; for the Spaniard was the only civilised man whom they found in the wilds of America. Thus passed the domestic life of the Spaniard, in the same unvaried circle of habits, opinions, and prejudices, to the exclusion, and probably contempt, of everything foreign. Not that these habits did not differ in the different provinces, where their distinctive peculiarities were handed down, with traditional precision, from father to son. But beneath these there was one common basis of the national character. Never was there a people, probably, with the exception of the Jews, distinguished by so intense a nationality. It was among such a people, CHAP, n.] CONDITION OF SPAIN. 65 and under such influences, that Philip was born and educated. His temperament and his constitution of mind peculiarly fitted him for the reception of these influences ; and the Spaniards, as he grew in years, beheld with pride and satisfaction, in their future sovereign, the most perfect type of the national character. VOL. i. CO [BOOK i. CHAPTER III. ENGLISH ALLIANCE. Condition of England. Character of Mary Tudor. Philip's Proposals of Marriage. Marriage- Articles. Insurrection in England. 1553, 1554. IN the summer of 1553, three years after Philip's return to Spain, occurred an event which was to exercise a considerable influence on his fortunes. This was the death of Edward the Sixth of England, after a brief but important reign. He was suc- ceeded by his sister Mary, that unfortunate princess, whose sobriquet of " Bloody" gives her a melancholy distinction among the sovereigns of the house of Tudor. The reign of her father, Henry the Eighth, had opened the way to the great revolution in religion, the effects of which were destined to be permanent. Yet Henry himself showed his strength rather in unsettling ancient institutions than in establishing new ones. By the abolition of the monasteries he broke up that spiritual militia which was a most efficacious instrument for maintaining the authority of Rome ; and he completed the work of inde- pendence by seating himself boldly in the chair of St. Peter and assuming the authority of head of the Church. Thus, while the supremac}- of the pope was rejected, the Roman Catholic religion was main tained in its essential principles unimpaired. In CHAP, ra.] CONDITION OF ENGLAND. 67 other words, the nation remained Catholics, but not Papists. The impulse thus given under Henry was followed up to more important consequences under his son, Edward the Sixth. The opinions of the German Beformers, considerably modified, especially in regard to the exterior forms and discipline of worship, met with a cordial welcome from the ministers of the young monarch. Protestantism became the religion of the land ; and the Church of England received to a great extent the peculiar organisation which it has preserved to the present day. But Edward's reign was too brief to allow the new opinions to take deep root in the hearts of the people. The greater part of the aristocracy soon showed that, whatever religious zeal they had affected, they were not prepared to make any sacrifice of their temporal interests. On the accession of a Catholic queen to the throne, a reaction soon became visible. Some embarrassment to a return to the former faith was found in the restitution which it might naturally involve of the confiscated property of the monastic orders. But the politic concessions of Rome dispensed with this severe trial of the sincerity of its new proselytes ; and England, after repudiating her heresies, was received into the fold of the Roman Catholic Church, and placed once more under the jurisdiction of its pontiff. After the specimens given of the ready ductility with which the English of that day accommodated their religious creeds to the creed of their sovereign, we shall hardly wonder at the caustic criticism of the Venetian ambassador resident at the court of London in Queen Mary's tune. " The example and authority of the sovereign," he says, " are everything with F 2 68 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. the people of this country, in matters of faith. As he believes, they believe ; Judaism or Mahometanism it is all one to them. They conform themselves easily to his will, at least so far as the outward show is concerned ; and most easily of all where it concurs ,.ith their own pleasure and profit." 1 The ambassador, Giovanni Micheli, was one of that order of merchant-princes employed by Venice in her foreign missions, men whose acquaintance with affairs enabled them to comprehend the resources of the country to which they were sent, as well as the intrigues of its court. Their observations were digested into elaborate reports, which on their return to Venice were publicly read before the doge and the senate. The documents thus prepared form some of the most valuable and authentic materials for the history of Europe in the sixteenth century. Micheli's report is diffuse on the condition of England under the reign of Queen Mary; and some of his remarks will have interest for the reader of the present day, as affording a standard of comparison with the past. 2 1 "Quanto alia religione, sia di vivere, o vero qualche utile." certa V'ra Sen" che ogni cosa Relatione del Clarissimo M. Gio- pubinlororessempioet 1'autorita vanni Micheli, ritornato Ambas- del Principe, che in tanto gl' In- ciatore alia Eegina d' Inghilterra glesi stimano la religioiie, et si 1' anno 1557, MS. mBOvono per essa, in quanto a Soriano notices the courteous sodisfanno all' obligo de' sudditi bearing and address of his coun- verso il Principe, vivendo com' ei try -man Micheli, as rendering him vive, credendo cioche ei crede, et -universally popular at the courts finalmente facendp tutto quel che where he resided : " II Michiel e comanda conservirsene, piu per gratissimo a tutti fino al minore, mostra esteriore, per non incorrere per la domestichezza che havea in sua disgratia, che por zelo in- con i grandi, et per la dolcezza et teriore; perch eil medesimofaciano cortesia che usava con gl' altri, et della Maumettana o della Giudea, per il giudicio che mostrava con pur che '1 He mostrasse di credere, tutti." Relatione di Michele et volesse cosi ; et s' accommoda- Soriano, MS. Copies of Micheli's riano a tulte, ma a quella piu interesting Relation are to be facilmente dalla qimle spcrasscro found in different public libraries o ver' maggior liccntia et libcrta of Europe ; among others, in the CHAP, in.] CONDITION OF ENGLAND. 69 London he eulogises as one of the noblest capitals in Europe, containing, with its suburbs, about a hundred and eighty thousand souls. 3 The great lords, as in France and Germany, passed most of their time on their estates in the country. The kingdom was strong enough, if united, to defy- any invasion from abroad. Yet its navy was small, having dwindled, from neglect and an ill-judged economy, to not more than forty vessels of war. But the mercantile marine could furnish two thousand more, which at a short notice could be well equipped and got ready for sea. The army was particularly strong in artillery, and provided with all the munitions of war. The weapon chiefly in repute was the bow, to which the English people were trained from early youth. In their cavalry they were most defective. Horses were abundant, but wanted bottom. They were for the most part light, weak, and grass -fed. 4 The nation was, above all, to be envied for the light- ness of the public burdens. There were no taxes on wine, beer, salt, cloth, nor, indeed, on any of the articles that in other countries furnished the greatest sources of revenue. 5 The whole revenue did not collection of the Cottonian MSS., aere da tutti i tempi ne i pascoli and of the Lansdowne MSS., in a la campagna, non possono far' the British Museum ; and in the gran' pruove, ne sono tenuti in Barberini Library, at Borne. The stima." Relatione di Gio. Micheli, copy in my possession is from the MS. ducal library at Gotha. Sir 6 " Non solo non sono in essere, Henry Ellis, in the Second Series ma non pur si considerano gra- of his " Original Letters," has vezze di sorte alcuna, non di sale, given an abstract of the Cot- non di vino o de bira, non di tonian MS. macina, non di carne, non di far 8 This agrees with the Lans- pane, et cose simili necessarie al downe MS. The Cottonian, as vivere, che in tutti gli altri luoghi given by Sir Henry Ellis, puts d' Italia specialmente, et in Fian- the population at 1 50,000. dra, sono di tanto maggior utile, 4 " Essendo cavalli deboli, et di quauto e piu grande il numero poca lena, nutriti solo d' erba, vi- dei suddih che le consumano." vendo como la pecore, et tutti gli Ibid., MS. altri animali, per la temperie dell' 70 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [LOOK i. usually exceed two hundred thousand pounds. Par- liaments were rarely summoned, except to save the king trouble or to afford a cloak to his designs. No one ventured to resist the royal will : servile the members came there, and servile they remained. 8 An Englishman of the nineteenth century may smile at the contrast presented by some of these remarks to the condition of the nation at the present day ; though in the item of taxation the contrast may be rather fitted to provoke a sigh. The portrait of Queen Mary is given by the Venetian minister with a colouring somewhat different from that in which she is commonly depicted by English historians. She was about thirty-six years of age at the time of her accession. In stature she was of rather less than the middle size, not large, as was the case with both her father and mother, and exceedingly well made. "The portraits of her," says Micheli, " show that in her youth she must have been not only good-looking, but even handsome ;" though her countenance, when he saw her, exhibited traces of early trouble and disease. 7 But whatever she had lost in personal attractions was fully made up by those of the mind. She was quick of apprehension, and, like her younger sister, Elizabeth, was mistress of several lan^ua^es, three of * <.J O * which, the French, Spanish, and Latin, she could 6 " Si come servi et sudditi son per quel che mostrano le fattezze quelli che v' intervengono, cosi et li lineament! clie si veggono da servi et sudditi son 1' attione che i ritratti, quando era piu. giovane, si trattano in essi." Ibid., MS. non pur' tenuta honesta, ma piu 7 " E donna di statura piccola, che mediocremcnte bella ; al pre- piu presta che mediocre ; e di per- sente se li scoprouo qualche crespe, gona magra et delicata, dissimilc causate piu da gli affanni che in tutto al padre, che fit grande dall' eta, che la mostrano at- et grosso ; et alia madrc, che se tcmpata di qualche anni di piu." uon era grande era pero mas- Kclutione di Gio. Micheli, MS. siccia ; ct ben ibrmata di faccia, CHAP, m.] CHARACTER OF MARY. 71 speak, the last with fluency. 8 But in these accom- plishments she was surpassed by her sister, who knew the Greek well, and could speak Italian with ease and elegance. Mary, however, both spoke and wrote her own language in a plain, straightforward manner, that forms a contrast to the ambiguous phrase and cold conceits in which Elizabeth usually conveyed, or rather concealed, her sentiments. Mary had the misfortune to labour under a chronic infirmity which confined her for weeks, and indeed months, of every year to her chamber, and which, with her domestic troubles, gave her an air of melan- choly that in later years settled into a repulsive austerity. The tones of her voice were masculine, says the Venetian, and her eyes inspired a feeling not merely of reverence, but of fear, wherever she turned them. Her spirit, he adds, was lofty and magnanimous, never discomposed by danger, showing in all things a blood truly royal. 9 Her piety, he continues, and her patience under affliction, cannot be too greatly admired. Sustained as she was by a lively faith and conscious innocence, he compares her to a light which the fierce winds have no power to extinguish, but which still shines 8 " Quanto se li potesse levare resoluta, che per nessuna adver- delle bellezze del corpo, tanto con sita, ne per nessun pericolo nel verita, et senza adulatione, se li qual si sia ritrovata, non ha mai pub aggiunger' di quelle del pur mostrato, non che commesso animo, perche oltra la felicita et atto alcuno di vilta ne di pusil- accortezza del ingegno, atto in lanimita ;; La sempre tenuta una capir tutto quel cue possa ciascun grandezza et dignita mirabile, altro, dico fuor del sesso suo, quel cosi ben conoscendo quel che si che in una donna parera mara- convenga al decoro del Re, come il viglioso, 6 instrutta di cinque piu consummate consigliero che lingue, le quali non solo intende, ellahabbia; in tanto che dal pro- ma quattro ne parla spedita- cedere, et dalle maniere che ha raente; questi sono oltro la sua tenuto, et tiene tuttavia, non si inaterna et naturale inglese, la puo negare, che non mostri d' franzese, la spagnola, et I' itali- esser nata di sangue veramente ana." , Ibid., MS. real." Relatione di Gio. Micheli, 9 " E in tutto coragiosa, et cosi MS. 72 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK r. on with increasing lustre. 1 * She waited her time, and was plainly reserved by Providence for a great destiny. We are reading the language of the loyal Catholic, grateful for the services which Mary had rendered to the faith. Yet it would be uncharitable not to believe that Mary was devout, and most earnest in her devotion. The daughter of Katharine of Aragon, the grand- daughter of Isabella of Castile, could hardly have been otherwise. The women of that royal line were uniformly conspicuous for their piety, though this was too often tinctured with bigotry. In Mary, bigotry degenerated into fanaticism, and fanaticism into the spirit of persecution. The worst evils are probably those that have flowed from fanaticism. Yet the amount of the mischief does not necessarily furnish us with the measure of guilt in the author of it. The introduction of the Inquisition into Spain must be mainly charged on Isabella. Yet the student of her reign will not refuse to this great queen the praise of tenderness of conscience and a sincere desire to do the right. Unhappily, the faith in which she, as well as her royal granddaughter, was nurtured, taught her to place her conscience in the keeping of ministers less scrupulous than herself; and on those ministers may fairly rest much of the re- sponsibility of measures on which they only were deemed competent to determine. Mary's sincerity in her religious professions was placed beyond a doubt by the readiness with which 10 " Delia qual humilita, pieta, debol Itune combattuto da gran et religion sua, non occorre ra- venti per estinguerlo deltutto, ma gionare, ne renderne teBtimonio, sempre tenuto vivo, et difeso della perche son da tutti non solo conos- sua innocentia et viva fede, ciute, ma sommamente predicate accioche havesse a risplender nel con le prove. . . . Fosse come un modo che hora fa." Ibid., MS. CHAP, ra.] CHARACTER OF MARY. 73 she submitted to the sacrifice of her personal interests whenever the interests of religion seemed to demand it. She burned her translation of a portion of Erasmus, prepared with great labour, at the sugges- tion of her confessor. An author will readily esti- mate the value of such a sacrifice. One more impor- tant, and intelligible to all, was the resolute manner in which she persisted in restoring the Church pro- perty which had been confiscated to the use of the crown. " The crown is too much impoverished to admit of it," remonstrated her ministers. " I would rather lose ten crowns," replied the high-minded queen, "than place my soul in peril." 11 Yet it cannot be denied that Mary had inherited in full measure some of the sterner qualities of her father, and that she was wanting in that sympathy for human suffering which is so graceful in a woman. After a rebellion, the reprisals were terrible. London was converted into a charnel-house ; and the squares and principal streets were garnished with the un- sightly trophies of the heads and limbs of numerous victims who had fallen by the hand of the execu- tioner. 12 This was in accordance with the spirit of the age. But the execution of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey the young, the beautiful, and the good leaves a blot on the fame of Mary which finds no parallel but in the treatment of the ill-fated queen of Scots by Elizabeth. Mary's treatment of Elizabeth has formed another subject of reproach, though the grounds of it are not sufficiently made out ; and, at all events, many cir- cumstances may be alleged in extenuation of her 11 Burnet, History of the Ee- ls Strype, Memorials (London, formation (Oxford, 1816), vol. ii. 1721), vol. iii. p. 93. part ii. p. 557. 74 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. conduct. She had seen her mother, the noble- minded Katharine, exposed to the most cruel in- dignities, and compelled to surrender her bed and her throne to an artful rival, the mother of Elizabeth. She had heard herself declared illegitimate, and her right to the succession set aside in favour of her younger sister. Even after her intrepid conduct had secured to her the crown, she was still haunted by the same gloomy apparition. Elizabeth's pretensions were constantly brought before the public ; and Mary might well be alarmed by the disclosure of conspiracy after conspiracy, the object of which, it was rumoured, was to seat her sister on the throne. As she ad- vanced in years, Mary had the further mortification of seeing her rival gain on those affections of the people which had grown cool to her. Was it won- derful that she should regard her sister, under these circumstances, with feelings of distrust and aversion? That she did so regard her is asserted by the Vene- tian minister ; and it is plain that during the first years of Mary's reign Elizabeth's life hung upon a thread. Yet Mary had strength of principle sufncient to resist the importunities of Charles the Fifth and his ambassador to take the life of Elizabeth, as a thing indispensable to her own safety and that of Philip. Although her sister was shown to be privy, though not openly accessory, to the rebellion under Wyatt, Mary would not constrain the law from its course to do her violence. This was something, under the existing circumstances, in an age so un- scrupulous. After this storm had passed over, Mary, whatever restraint she imposed on her real feelings, treated Elizabeth, for the most part, with a show of kindness, though her name still continued to be mingled, whether with or without cause, with more CHAP, in.] CHARACTER OF MARY. 75 than one treasonable plot. 18 Mary's last act perhaps the only one in which she openly resisted the will of her husband was to refuse to compel her sister to accept the hand of Philibert of Savoy. Yet this act would have relieved her of the presence of her rival ; iind by it Elizabeth would have forfeited her inde- pendent possession of the crown, perhaps the pos- session of it altogether. It may be doubted whether Elizabeth, under similar circumstances, would have shown the like tenderness to the interests of her successor. But, however we may be disposed to extenuate the conduct of Mary, and in spiritual matters, more especially, to transfer the responsibility of her acts from herself to her advisers, it is not possible to dwell on this reign of religious persecution without feelings of profound sadness. Not that the number of victims compares with what is recorded of many similar periods of persecution. The whole amount, falling probably short of three hundred who perished at the stake, was less than the number who fell by the hand of the executioner, or by violence, during the same length of time under Henry the Eighth. It was not much greater than might be sometimes found at a single Spanish auto defc. But Spain was the land in which this might be regarded as the national spectacle, as much so as the fiesta de toros, or any other of the popular exhibitions of the country. In England, a few examples had not sufficed to steel the hearts of men against these horrors. The heroic company of martyrs, condemned to the most agonising 13 " Non si scopri mai conginra in pnblico con ogni sorte d' hn- iilcuna, nclla quale, o giusta o in- nmnita, ct d' honore, nc mai gli giustumente. ella non sia nomi- parla, se non di cose piacevole." nata. . . . Ma la Rcgina sforza ilelationc di Geo. Micheli, MS. quando sono insicmc di ricevcrla 70 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. of deaths for asserting the rights of conscience, was a sight strange and shocking to Englishmen. The feelings of that day have been perpetuated to the present. The reign of religious persecution stands out by itself, as something distinct from the natural course of events ; and the fires of Smithfield shed a melancholy radiance over this page of the national history, from which the eye of humanity turns away in pity and disgust. But it is time to take up the narrative of events which connected for a brief space the political interests of Spain with those of England. Charles the Fifth had always taken a lively in- terest in the fortunes of his royal kinswoman. When a young man, he had paid a visit to England, and while there he had been induced by his aunt, Queen Katharine, to contract a marriage with the Princess Mary then only six years old to be solemnised on her arriving at the suitable age. But the term was too remote for the constancy of Charles, or, as it is said, for the patience of his subjects, who earnestly wished to see their sovereign wedded to a princess who might present him with an heir to the monarchy. The English match was, accordingly, broken off, and the young emperor gave his hand to Isabella of Portugal 14 Mary, who, since her betrothal, had been taught to consider herself as the future bride of the emperor, was at the time but eleven years old. She was old enough, however, to feel something like jealousy, it 14 Hall, Chronicle (London, mitted this portion of his history 1 809), pp. 692, 711. Sepulvedaa to the revision of Cardinal Pole, Opera, vol. ii. pp. 46-48. Sepul- as we learn from one of his epistles veda's account of the reign of to that prelate. Opera, torn. iii. Mary becomes of the more au- p. 309. thority from the tact that he sub- CHAP, in.] PHILIP'S PROPOSALS OF MARRIAGE. 77 is said, and to show some pique at this desertion by her imperial lover. Yet this circumstance did not prevent the most friendly relations from subsisting between the parties in after years ; and Charles continued to watch over the interests of his kins- woman, and interposed with good effect in her behalf on more than one occasion, both during the reign of Henry the Eighth and of his son, Edward the Sixth. On the death of the latter monarch he declared himself ready to assist Mary in maintaining her right to the succession ; 15 and when this was finally established the wary emperor took the necessary measures for turning it to his own account." He formed a scheme for uniting Philip with Mary, and thus securing to his son the possession of the English crown, in the same manner as that of Scot- land had been secured by marriage to the son of his rival, Henry the Second of France. It was doubtless a great error to attempt to bring under one rule 15 Yet the emperor seems to provide herself with a husband, have written in a somewhat dif- and if his advice could be of any ferent style to his ambassador at use in the affair, she was entirely the English court : " Desfaillant welcome to it : " Et aussy lui la force pour donner assistance a direz-vous qu'il sera besoin que nostre-dicte cousine comme aussy pour etre soustenue audit roy- vous scavez qu'elle deffault pour aulme, emparee et deffendue, rempeschement que 1'on nous mesmes en choses que ne sont de donne du coustel de France, nous la profession de dames, il sera ne ve*ons aulcun apparent moyen tres-requis que tost elle prenne pour assheurer la personne de party de mariaige avec qui il luy uostre-dicte cousine." L'Empereur semblera estre plus convenable, a ses Ambassadeurs en Angle- tenant regard a ce que dessus ; terre, 11 juillet, 1553, Papiers et que s'il lui plait nous faire part d'etat de Granvelle, torn. iv. p. avant que s'y determiner, nous ne 25. fauldrons de avec la sinceritd de 16 Charles, in a letter to his am- 1'affection que lui portons, luy V/assador in London, dated July faire entendre liberalement, sur ce 22nd, 1553, after much good coun- qu'elle voudra mettre en avant, sel which he was to give Queen nostre advis, et de 1'ayder et Mary, in the emperor's name, re- favoriser en ce qu'elle se deter- specting the Government of her minera." L'Empereur a ses Am- kingdom, directs him to hint to bassadeurs en Angleterre, 22 juil- her that the time had come when let, 1553, Papiers d' Jitat de Gran. it would be well for the queen to velle, torn. iv. 78 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. nations so dissimilar in every particular, and having interests so incompatible as the Spaniards and the English. Historians have regarded it as passing strange that a prince who had had such large expe- rience of the difficulties attending the government of kingdoms remote from each other should seek so to multiply these difficulties on the head of his inex- perienced son. But the love of acquisition is a universal principle ; nor is it often found that the appetite for more is abated by the consideration that the party is already possessed of more than he can manage. It was a common opinion that Mary intended to bestow her hand on her young and handsome kins- man, Courtenay, earl of Devonshire, whom she had withdrawn from the prison in which he had lan- guished for many years, and afterwards treated with distinguished favour. Charles, aware of this, in- structed Renard, his minister at the court of London, a crafty, intriguing politician, 17 to sound the queen's inclinations on the subject, but so as not to alarm her. He was to dwell particularly on the advan- tages Mary would derive from a connexion with some powerful foreign prince, and to offer his master's counsel in this or any other matter in which she might desire it. The minister was to approach the subject of the earl of Devonshire with the greatest caution ; remembering that if the queen had a fancy for her cousin, and was like other women, she would not be turned from it by anything that he might say, nor would she readily forgive any reflection upon it. 1 * 17 Granvelle, who owed no good geema to have thought altogether will to the minister for the part significant of his character, which he afterwards took in the M " Quant a Cortenay, voua trcnbles of Flanders, frequently pourriez bien dire, pour eviter an puna on Kenard's name, which he propoz mencionno en. voz lettres, CHAP, m.] PHILIP'S PROPOSALS OF MARRIAGE. 79 Charles seems to have been as well read in the characters of women as of men, and, as a natural consequence, it may be added, had formed a high estimate of the capacity of the sex. In proof of which, he not only repeatedly committed the govern- ment of his states to women, but intrusted them with some of his most delicate political negotiations. Mary, if she had ever entertained the views im- puted to her in respect to Courtenay, must have soon been convinced that his frivolous disposition would ill suit the seriousness of hers. However this may be, she was greatly pleased when Renard hinted at her marriage " laughing," says the envoy, " not once, but several times, and giving me a significant look, which showed that the idea was very agreeable to her, plainly intimating at the same time that she had no desire to marry an Englishman." 19 In a sub- sequent conversation, when Kenard ventured to suggest that the prince of Spain was a suitable match, Mary broke in upon him, saying that " she had never felt the smart of what people call love, nor had ever so much as thought of being married , until Providence had raised her to the throne, and , that, if she now consented to it, it would be in oppo- sition to her own feelings, from a regard to the que Ton en parlo, pour veoir ce tion." L'Jive'que d' Arras a Ee- qu'elle dira ; mais gardez-vous de nard, 14 aout 1553, Papiers , luy tout desiaire et mesmes d'etat de Granvelle, torn. iv. p. qu'ellen'ayedescou vert plus avant 77. , son intention ; car si elle y avoit 19 " Quant je luy fiz 1'ouverture j fantasie, elle ne layroit (si elle est de mariaige, elle so print a rire, du naturel des aultres femmes) de non une foys ains plusieurs foys, passer oultre, et si se ressentiroit me regardant d'un ceil signifiant a jamais de ce que vous luy en 1'ouverture luy estre fort aggre- pourrifis avoir dit. Bien luy able, me donnant assez a cognois- pourries-vous toucher des com- tre qu'elle ne taichoit ou desiroit mpditez plus grandes que pour- mariaige d'Angleterre." Renard roit recepvoir de mariaige estran- a 1'Eveqne d' Arras, 15 aout, 1553, gier, sans trop toucher a la per- Papiers d'E tat de Granvelle, torn, sonne ou elle pourroit avoir atl'ec- iv. p. 78. 80 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. public good ;" but she begged the envoy to assure the emperor of her wish to obey and to please him in everything, as she would her own father ; intimating, however, that she could not broach the subject of her marriage to her council : the question could only be opened by a communication from him. 20 Charles, who readily saw through Mary's coquetry, no longer hesitated to prefer the suit of Philip, After commending the queen's course in regard to Courtenay, he presented to her the advantages that must arise from such a foreign alliance as would strengthen her on the throne. He declared in a tone of gallantry rather amusing, that if it were not for his age and increasing infirmities he should not hesitate to propose himself as her suitor. 21 The next best thing was to offer her the person dearest to his heart, his son, the prince of Asturias. He concluded by deprecating the idea that any recommendation of his should interfere in the least degree with the exercise of her better judgment. 22 20 " Et, sans attendre la fin de erne, si nous estions en eaige et ces propoz, ella jura que jamais dispositiontellequ'il conviendroit, elle n'avoit senti esguillon de ce et que jugissions que de ce pent que Ton appelle amor, ny entre redonder le bien de ses affaires, n pensement de volupte, et qu'elle nous ne vouldrions choysir aultre n'avoit jamais pense a mariaige party en ce monde plus tost que de sinon depuys que a pleu a Dieu nous alier nous-mesmes avec elle, la promovoir a la couroune, et que et seroit bien celle que nous pour- celluy qu'elle fera sera contre sa rpit donner austant de satisfac- propre affection, pour le respect tion." L'Empereur a Benard, 20 de la chose publicque ; qu'elle se septembre, 1553, Papiers d'htat tient toute assuree sa majeste de Granvelle, torn. iv. p. 112. aura consideration a ce qu'elle ffl Ibid., pp. 108-116. Simon m'a diet et qu'elle desire 1'obeir Benard, the imperial ambassador et complaire en tout et par tout at this time at the English court, comme sou propre pere; qu'elle was a native of Franche-Comte, n'oseroit entrer en propoz de mari- and held the office of maitre aux aige avec ceulx de son conseil, que requetes in the household of the fault, le cas advenant, que vienne emperor. Benard, though a man de la meute dc sa majeste." Be- of a factious turn, was what nard a I'J^ve'quc d' Arras, 8 sep- Granvelle's correspondent, Moril- tembre, 1553, Ibid., p. 98. Ion, calls " un Ion politique," and sl "Vous la pourrez asseurer in many respects well suited to the CHAP, in.] PHILIP'S PROPOSALS OF MARRIAGE. 81 Renard was further to intimate to the queen the importance of secrecy in regard to this negotiation. If she were disinclined to the proposed match, it would be obviously of no advantage to give it publicity. If, on the other hand, as the emperor had little doubt, she looked on it favourably, but desired to advise with her council before deciding, Renard was to dissuade her from the latter step and advise her to confide in him. 13 The wary emperor had a twofold motive for these instructions. There was a negotiation on foot at this very time for a marriage of Philip to the infanta of Portugal, and Charles wished to be entirely assured of Mary's acquiescence before giving such publicity to the affair as might defeat the Portuguese match, which would still remain for Philip should he not succeed with mission on which he was employed. His correspondence is of infinite value, as showing the Spanish moves in this complicated game, which ended in the marriage of Mary with the heir of the Castilian monarchy. It is preserved in the archives of Brussels. Copies of these MSS., amounting to five volumes folio, were to be found in the collection of Cardinal Gran- velle at Besancon. A part of them was lent to Griffet for the compilation of his " Nouveaux claircissemens sur 1'Histoire de Marie Reine d'Angleterre." Un- fortunately, Griflet omitted to re- store the MSS. ; and an hiatus is thus occasioned in the series of the Renard correspondence em- braced in the Granvelle Papers now in process of publication by the French government. It were to be wished that this hiatus had been supplied from the originals, in the archives of Brussels. Mr. Tytler has done good service by giving to the world a selection from the latter part of Renard's correspondence, which had been transcribed by order of the Record Commission from the MSS. in Brussels. 23 " Car si, quant a soy, il luy semble estre chose que ne luy convint ou ne fut faisable, il ne seroit a propoz, comme elle 1'en- tend tres-bien, d'en faire de"clara- cion a qui que ce soit ; mais, en cas aussi qu'elle jugea le party luy estre convenable et qu'elle y print inclinacion, si, a son advis, la dif- ficulte tumba sur les moyens, et que en iceulx elle ne se pent re*- soldre sans la participation d'aul- cuns de son conseil, vous la pour- riez en ce cas requdrir qu'elle voulsit prendre de vous confiance pour vous de*clairer a qui elle en vouldroittenir propoz, et ce qu'elle en vouldroit communicquer et par quelz moyens." L'Empereur a Renard, ,20 septembre, 1553, Pa- piers d'Etat de Granvelle, torn. iv. p. 114. VOL L G 82 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK*. the English queen. 24 In case Mary proved favourable to his son's suit, Charles, who knew the abhorrence in which foreigners were held by the English beyond all other nations/ 3 wished to gain time before com- municating with Mary's council With some delay, he had no doubt that he had the means of winning over a sufficient number of that body to support Philip's pretensions. 21 These communications could not be carried on so secretly but that some rumour of them reached the ears of Mary's ministers, and of Noailles, the French ambassador at the court of London/ 7 This person was a busy and unscrupulous politician, who saw with alarm the prospect of Spain strengthening her- self by this alliance with England, and determined, accordingly, in obedience to instructions from home, to use every effort to defeat it. The queen's minis- ters, with the chancellor, Gardiner, bishop of Win- 14 The Spanish match seems to piers d'Etat de Granvelle, torn. iv. have been as distasteful to the p. 113. Portuguese as it was to the Eng- : ' In order to cany on the lish, and probably for much the negotiation with greater secrecy, same reasons. See the letter Renard's colleagues at the Eng- of Granvelle, of August 14th, lish court, who were found to in- 1553, Ibid., p. 77. termed die somewhat unnecessarily 88 " Les cstrangiers, qu'ilz ab- with the business, were recalled ; horrissent plus que nulle anltre and the whole affair was intrusted nacion." L'Empereur a Renard, exclusively to that envoy, and to 20 septembre, 1553, Ibid., p. Granvelle, the bishop of Arras, 113. who communicated to him the ** " Et si la difficulte se treuvoit views of the emperor from Brns- aux conseillers pour leur inte"retz sels : " Et s'est resolu tant plus particulier, comme plus ilz sont 1'empereur rappeler voz collegues, interessez, il pourroit estre que afin que aulcung d'iceulx ne vous Ton auroit meilleur moyen de les y traversa on bien empescha, s'y gaigner, assheurant ceulx par le estans montrez peu affectionnez, moyen desquelz la chose se pour- et pour non si men entendre le roit conduyre, des principaulx cours de ceste ne"gociation, et pour offices et charges dudict royaulme, aussi q\ie vous garderez mieulx le voyre et leur offraut appart secret qu'est tant requis et ne se Hommes notables de deniers ou pourroit faire, passant ceste nego- accroissance de rentes, privileges ciation par plusieurs mains." et prerogatives." L'Empereur a L'Eveque d' Arras a Renard, 13 Renard, 'JO septembre, 1553, Pa- septembre, 15515, Ibid., p. 103. CHAP, m.] PHILIP'S PROPOSALS OF MARRIAGE. 83 Chester, at their head, felt a similar repugnance to the Spanish match. The name of the Spaniards had become terrible from the remorseless manner in which their wars had been conducted during the present reign, especially in the New World. The ambition and the widely-extended dominions of Charles the Fifth made him the most formidable sovereign in Europe. The English looked with apprehension on so close an alliance with a prince who had shown too little regard for the liberties of his own land to make it probable that he or his son would respect those of another. Above all, they dreaded the fanaticism of the Spaniards ; and the gloomy spectre of the Inquisition moving in their train made even the good Catholic shudder at the thought of the miseries that might ensue from this ill-omened union. It was not difficult for Noailles and the chancellor to communicate their own distrust to the members of the parliament, then in session. A petition to the queen was voted in the lower house, in which the commons preferred an humble request that she would marry for the good of the realm, but besought her, at the same time, not to go abroad for her husband, but to select him among her own subjects. a Mary's ministers did not understand her character so well as Charles the Fifth did when he cautioned his agent not openly to thwart her. Opposition only fixed her more strongly in her original purpose. In a private interview with Eenard, she told him that she was apprised of Gardiner's intrigues, and that 18 " Pour la reqnerir et supplier qui leuv puisse commander aultre d'eslire ung seigneur de son pays que de sa nation." Ambassadea pour estre son mary, et ne vou- de Noailles (Leyde, 1763), torn. ii. loir prendre personnaige en p. 234. muriaige, ny leur donner princo G 2 84 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [HOOK i. Noailles, too, was doing the impossible to prevent her union with Philip. " But I will be a match for them," she added. Soon after, taking the ambas- sador, at midnight, into her oratory, she knelt before the host, and, having repeated the hymn Veni Creator, solemnly pledged herself to take no other man for her husband than the prince of Spain.' 9 This proceeding took place on the thirtieth of October. On the seventeenth of the month follow- ing, the commons waited on the queen at her palace of Whitehall, to which she was confined by indispo- sition, and presented their address. Mary, instead of replying by her chancellor, as was usual, answered them in person. She told them that from God she held her crown, and that to him alone should she turn for counsel in a matter so important ; M she had not yet made up her mind to marry ; but, since they considered it so necessary for the weal of the king- dom, she would take it into consideration. It was a matter in which no one was so much interested as herself. But they might be assured that in her choice she would have regard to the happiness of her people full as much as to her own. The commons, who had rarely the courage to withstand the frown of their Tudor princes, professed themselves con- tented with this assurance ; and from this moment opposition ceased from that quarter. 59 " Le soir du 30 octobre, la par le travail qu'elle avoit eu pour reine fit venir en sa chambre, ou prendre cette resolution." MS. e'toit expose le saint sacrement, m the Belgian archives, cited by 1'ambassadeur de 1'empereur, et, Mignet, Charles-Quint, p. 78, apres avoir dit le Veni creator, lui note. dit qu'elle lui donnoit en face x " Qu'elle tenoit de dieu la dudit sacrement sa promesse couronne de son royaulme, et que d'epouser le prince d'Espagne, en luy seul esperoit se conseiller laquelle elle ne changeroit jamais; de chose si importante." Am- qu'elle avoit feint d'etre malade bassades de Noailles, torn. ii. p. les deux jours precedents, mais 269. que sa maladie avoit e'te' cause"e CHAP, in.] PHILIP'S PROPOSALS OF MARRIAGE. 85 Maiy's arguments were reinforced by more concilia- tory but not less efficacious persuasives, in the form of gold crowns, gold chains, and other compliments of the like nature, which were distributed pretty liberally by the Spanish ambassador among the members of her council. 31 In the following December a solemn embassy left Brussels, to wait on Mary and tender her the hand of Philip. It was headed by Lamoral, Count Eg- mont, the Flemish noble so distinguished in later years by his military achievements, and still more by his misfortunes. He was attended by a number of Flemish lords and a splendid body of retainers. He landed in Kent, where the rumour went abroad that it was Philip himself ; and so general was the detes- tation of the Spanish match among the people that it might have gone hard with the envoy had the mis- take not been discovered. Egmont sailed up the Thames, and went ashore at Tower Wharf on the second of January, 1554. He was received with all honour by Lord William Howard and several of the great English nobles, and escorted in much state to Westminster, where his table was supplied at the charge of the city. Gardiner entertained the em- bassy at a sumptuous banquet ; and the next day Egmont and his retinue proceeded to Hampton Court, " where they had great cheer," says an old chronicler, " and hunted the deer, and were so greedy of their destruction that they gave them not fair play for their lives ; for," as he peevishly complains, "they killed rag and tag, with hands and swords. " M 31 " Le dit Lieutenant a fait nard, ap. Tytler, Edward YI. and foadre quatre mil escuz pour Mary, vol. li. p. 325. chaines, et les autres mil se re- 3i Strype, Memorials, vol. iii. partiront en argent, comme Ton pp. 58, 59. Holinshed, Chroni- trouvera mieulx convenir." Re- cles (London, 1808), vol. iv. pp. 10, 34, 41. 86 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. On tlie twelfth the Flemish count vras presented to the queen, and tendered her proposals of marriage in behalf of Prince Philip. Mary, who probably thought she had made advances enough, now assumed a more reserved air. " It was not for a maiden queen," she said, "thus publicly to enter on so delicate a subject as her own marriage. This would be better done by her ministers, to whom she would refer him. But this she would have him understand," she added, as she cast her eyes on the ring on her finger, " her realm was her first husband, and none other should induce her to violate the oath which she had pledged at her coronation." Notwithstanding this prudery of Mary, she had already manifested such a prepossession for her intended lord as to attract the notice of her courtiers, one of whom refers it to the influence of a portrait of Philip, of which she had become " greatly enamoured." 33 That such a picture was sent to her appears from a letter of Philip's aunt, the regent of the Netherlands, in which she tells the English queen that she has sent her a portrait of the prince, from the pencil of Titian, which she was to return so soon as she was in possession of the living original. It had been taken some three years before, she said, and was esteemed a good likeness, though it would be necessary, as in the case of other portraits by this master, to look at it from a distance in order to see the resemblance. 34 33 Strype (Memorials, vol. iii. p. dudict Titian que de pres ne sere- 196), who quotes a passage from congnoissent." Marie, Heine de a MS. of Sir Thomas Smith, the Hongrie a 1'Ambassadeur He- application of which, though the narcl, novcmbre 19, 1553, Pa- queen's name is omitted, cannot piers d'li tat de Granvelle, torn. iv. be mistaken. p. 150. It may be from a copy of 34 " Si est-ce qu'elle verra asscz this portrait that the engraving par icelle sa ressemblance, la was made which is prefixed to this voyant a son jour et dp loing, work. com me sont toutes poinctures OIAF. HI.] MARRIAGE- ARTICLES. 87 The marriage-treaty was drawn up with great circumspection, under the chancellor's direction. It will be necessary to notice only the most important provisions. It was stipulated that Philip should respect the laws of England, and leave every man in the full enjoyment of his rights and immunities. The power of conferring titles, honours, emoluments, and offices of every description was to be reserved to the queen. Foreigners were to be excluded from office. The issue of the marriage, if a son, was to succeed to the English crown and to the Spanish possessions in Burgundy and the Low Countries. But in case of the death of Don Carlos, Pliilip's son, the issue of the present marriage was to receive, in addition to the former inheritance, Spain and her dependencies. The queen was never to leave her own kingdom without her express desire. Her children were not to be taken out of it without the consent of the nobles. In case of Mary's death, Philip was not to claim the right of taking part in the government of the country. Further, it was provided that Philip should not entangle the nation in his wars with France, but should strive to maintain the same amicable relations that now subsisted between the two countries. 34 Such were the cautious stipulations of this treaty, which had more the aspect of a treaty for defence against an enemy than a marriage-contract. The instrument was worded with a care that reflected credit on the sagacity of its framers. All was done that parchment could do to secure the independence of the crown, as well as the liberties of the people. " But if the bond be violated," asked one of the par- liamentary speakers on the occasion, " who is there to sue the bond ?" Every reflecting Englishman 35 See the treaty in Rymer, Foedcra, vol. xv. p. G77. 88 KNGL1SII ALLIANCE. must have felt the inefficacy of any guarantee that could be extorted from Philip, who, once united to Mary, would find little difficulty in persuading a fond and obedient wife to sanction his own policy, prejudicial though it might be to the true interests of the kingdom. No sooner was the marriage-treaty made public than the popular discontent, before partially dis- closed, showed itself openly throughout the country. Placards were put up, lampoons were written, reviling the queen's ministers and ridiculing the Spaniards ; ominous voices were heard from old, dilapidated buildings, boding the ruin of the monarchy. Even the children became infected with the passions of their fathers. Games were played in which the English were represented contending with the Spaniards ; and in one of these an unlucky urchin, who played the part of Philip, narrowly escaped with his life from the hands of his exasperated comrades. 38 But something more serious than child's play showed itself, in three several insurrections which broke out in different quarters of the kingdom. The most formidable of them was the one led by Sir Thomas Wyatt, son of the celebrated poet of that name. It soon gathered head, and the number of the insurgents was greatly augmented by the accession of a considerable body of the royal forces, who deserted their colours and joined the very men against whom they had been sent. Thus strength- ened, Wyatt marched on London. All there were filled with consternation all but their intrepid queen, who showed as much self-possession and u " Par la," adds Noailles, who les enfans le logent au gibet." tells the story, " vous pouvez veoir Ambassades de Noailles, torn, iii comme le prince d'Espagne sera p. 130. le bien vena en ce pays, puisque CHAP. HI.] INSURRECTION IN ENGLAND. 89 indifference to danger as if it were only an ordinary riot. Proceeding at once into the city, she met the people at GuildhaD, and made them a spirited address, which has been preserved in the pages of Holinshed. It concludes in the following bold strain, containing an allusion to the cause of the difficulties : " And certainly, if I did either know or think that this marriage should either turn to the danger or loss of any of you, my loving subjects, or to the detriment or impairing of any part or parcel of the royal estate of this realm of England, I would never consent thereunto, neither would I ever marry while I lived. And on the word of a queen, I promise and assure you that, if it shall not probably appear before the nobility and commons, in the high court of parliament, that this marriage shall be for the singular benefit and commodity of all the whole realm, that then I will abstain not only from this marriage, but also from any other whereof peril may ensue to this most noble realm. Wherefore now as good and faithful subjects pluck up your hearts, and like true men stand fast with your lawful prince against these rebels, both our enemies and yours, and fear them not ; for I assure you that I fear them nothing at all I" 37 The courageous spirit of their queen communicated itself to her audience, and in a few hours twenty thousand citizens enrolled themselves under the royal banner. Meanwhile, the rebel force continued its march, and reports soon came that Wyatt was on the opposite bank of the Thames ; then, that he had 37 Holinshed, vol. iv. p. 16. as given, at more or less length, The accounts of this insurrection in every history of the period, are familiar to the English reader, 90 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. crossed the river. Soon his presence was announced by the flight of a good number of the royalists, among whom was Courtenay, who rode off before the enemy at a speed that did little credit to his valour. All was now confusion again. The lords and ladies in attendance gathered round the queen at Whitehall, as if to seek support from her more masculine nature. Her ministers went down on their knees to implore her to take refuge in the Tower, as the only place of safety. Mary smiled with contempt at the pusillanimous proposal, and resolved to remain where she was and abide the issue. It was not long in coming. Wyatt penetrated as far as Ludgate, with desperate courage, but was not well seconded by his followers. The few who proved faithful were surrounded and overwhelmed by numbers. Wyatt was made prisoner, and the whole rebel rout discomfited and dispersed. By this triumph over her enemies, Mary was seated more strongly than ever on the throne. Henceforward the Spanish match did not meet with opposition from the people, any more than from the parliament. Still, the emperor, after this serious demonstra- tion of hostility to his son, felt a natural disquietude in regard to his personal safety, which made him desirous of obtaining some positive guarantee before trusting him among the turbulent islanders. He wrote to his ambassador to require such security from the government. But no better could be given than the royal promise that everything should be done to insure the prince's safety. Renard was much perplexed. He felt the responsibility of his own position. He declined to pledge himself for the quiet deportment of the English ; but he thought CHAP, m.] INSURRECTION IN ENGLAND. 91 matters had already gone too far to leave it in the power of Spain to recede. He wrote, moreover, both to Charles and to Philip, recommending that the prince should not bring over with him a larger retinue of Spaniards than was necessary, and that the wives of his nobles for he seems to have regarded the sex as the source of evil should not accompany them. 88 Above all, he urged Philip and his followers to lay aside the Castilian hauteur, and to substitute the conciliatory manners which might disarm the jealousy of the English. 39 88 " L'on a escript d'Espaigne les Espaignolez qui suyvront que plusieurs sieurs deliberoient vostre Alteze comportent les amener leura femmes avec eulx facons de faire des Angloys, et pardeca. Si ainsi est, vostre Ma- soient modestes, confians que ]este pourra preveoir tmg grand vostre Alteze les aicarassera par desordre en ceste court." Eenard, son humanite costumiere." Ro- ap. Tytler, Edward VI. and Mary, nard, ap. Tytler, Edward VL and vol. ii. p. 351. Mary, vol. li. p. 335. " " Seullement sera requia que [BOOK L CHAPTER IY. ENGLISH ALLIANCE. Mary's Betrothal. Joanna Regent of Castile. Philip embarks for England. His splendid Reception. Marriage of Philip and Mary. Royal Entertainments. Philip's Influence. The Catholic Church restored. Philip's Departure. 1554, 1555. IN the month of March, 1554, Count Egmont arrived in England, on a second embassy, for the purpose of exchanging the ratifications of the marriage-treaty. He came in the same state as before, and was received by the queen in the presence of her council. The ceremony was conducted with great solemnity. Mary kneeling down, called God to witness that in contracting this marriage she had been influenced by no motive of a carnal or worldly nature, but by the desire of securing the welfare and tranquillity of the kingdom. To her kingdom her faith had first been plighted ; and she hoped that Heaven would give her strength to maintain inviolate the oath she had taken at her coronation. This she said with so much grace that the by- standers, says Renard, who was one of them, were all moved to tears. The ratifications were then exchanged, and the oaths taken, in presence of the host, by the representatives of Spain and England ; when Mary, again kneeling, called on those present to unite with her in prayer to the Almighty that he would enable her faithfully to keep the articles of CHAP, iv.] MARY'S BETROTHAL. 93 the treaty and would make her marriage a happy one. Count Egmont then presented to the queen a diamond ring which the emperor had sent her. Mary, putting it on her finger, showed it to the company ; " and assuredly," exclaims the Spanish minister, " the jewel was a precious one, and well worthy of admiration." Egmont, before departing for Spain, inquired of Mary whether she would intrust him with any message to Prince Philip. The queen replied that "he might tender to the prince her most affectionate regards, and assure him that she should be always ready to vie with him in such offices of kindness as became a loving and obedient wife." When asked if she would write to him, she answered, "Not till he had begun the corre- spondence." 1 This lets us into the knowledge of a little fact, very significant. Up to this time Philip had neither written nor so much as sent a single token of regard to his mistress. All this had been left to his father. Charles had arranged the marriage, had wooed the bride, had won over her principal advisers, in short, had done all the courtship. Indeed, the inclinations of Philip, it is said, had taken another direction, and he would have preferred the hand of his royal kinswoman, Mary of Portugal 2 However this may be, it is not probable that he felt any great satisfac- tion in the prospect of being united to a woman who was eleven years older than himself, and whose 1 The particulars of this inter- the author, by the publication of view are taken from one of original documents, and his own Renard's despatches to the em- sagacious commentary, has done peror, dated March 8th, 1554, ap. much for the illustration of this Tytler, England under the Reigns portion of English history, of Edward VI. and Mary (vol. ii. 3 Florez, Reynaa Catholicas, pp. 32(5-329), a work in which torn. ii. p. 890. 94 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. personal charms, whatever they might once have been, had long since faded, under the effects of disease and a constitutional melancholy. But he loved power ; and whatever scruples he might have entertained on his own account were silenced before the wishes of his father. 3 " Like another Isaac," exclaims Sandoval, in admiration of his conduct, " he sacrificed himself on the altar of filial duty." 4 The same implicit deference which Philip showed his father in this delicate matter he afterwards, under similar circumstances, received from his own son. After the marriage -articles had been ratified, Philip sent a present of a magnificent jewel to the English queen, by a Spanish noble of high rank, the Marquis de las Navas. 5 The marquis, who crossed from Biscay with a squadron of four ships, landed at Ply- mouth, and, as he journeyed towards London, was met by the young Lord Herbert, son of the earl of Pembroke, who conducted him, with an escort of four hundred mounted gentlemen, to his family seat in Wiltshire. " And as they rode together to Wilton," 3 Philip would have preferred diente hijo, no he tener mas vo- that Charles should carry out his luntad que la suya ; cuanto mas original design, by taking Mary siendo este negocio de importancia for his own wife. But he ac- y calidad que es. Y asi me ha quiesced, without a murmur, in parecido remitirlo a Vuestra Ma- the choice his father made for gestad para que en todo haya lo him. Mignet quotes a passage que le pareciera, y faere servido." from a letter of Philip to the Mignet, Charles-Quint, p. 76. emperor on this subject, which 4 " Higo en esto lo que un Isaac shows him to have been a pattern dexandose sacrificar por hazer la of filial obedience. The letter is voluntad de su padre, y por el copied by Gonzales in his unpub- bien de la Iglesia." Sandoval, lished work, Retire y Estancia de Hist, de Carlos V., torn. ii. p. Carlos Quinto : " Y que pues 5i>7. piensan proponer su matrimonio 8 A single diamond in the orna- con Vuestra Magestad, hallandose ment which Philip sent his queen en disposicion para ello, esto seria was valued at eighty thousand lo mas acertado. Pero en caso crowns:" Una joya que don Filipe que Vuestra Magestad esta en lo le enbiaba, en que avia un dia- que me escribe y le pareciere tra- mante de valor de ochenta mil tar de lo que a mi toca, ya Vuestra escudos." Cabrera, Filipe Se- Magestad sabe que, como tan obe- gundo, lib. i. cap. 4. CHAP, rr.] JOANNA REGENT OF CASTILE. 95 says Lord Edmund Dudley, one of the party, " there were certain courses at the hare, which was so pleasant that the marquis much delighted in finding the course so readily appointed. As for the marquis's great cheer, as well that night at supper as otherwise at his breakfast the next day, surely it was so abun- dant, that it was not a little marvel to consider that so great a preparation could be made in so small a warning. . . . Surely it was not a little comfort to my heart to see all things so honour- ably used for the honour and service of the queen's majesty."' Meanwhile, Philip was making his arrangements for leaving Spain and providing a government for the country during his absence. It was decided by the emperor to intrust the regency to his daughter, the Princess Joanna. She was eight years younger than Philip. About eighteen months before, she had gone to Portugal as the bride of the heir of that kingdom. But the fair promise afforded by this union was blasted by the untimely death of her consort^ which took place on the second of January, 1554. Three weeks afterwards, the unhappy widow gave birth to a son, the famous Don Sebastian, whose Quixotic adventures have given him a wider celebrity than is enjoyed by many a wiser sovereign. After the cruel calamity which had befallen her, it was not without an effort that Joanna resigned herself to her father's Letter of Lord Edmund Dud- that earl of Pembroke who mar- ley to the Lords of the Council, ried, for his second wife, the cele- MS. This document, with other brated sister of Sir Philip Sidney, MSS. relating to this period, was to whom he dedicated the "Area- kindly furnished to me by the dia," less celebrated, perhaps, late lamented Mr. Tytler, who from this dedication than from copied them from the originals in the epitaph on her monument, by the State Paper Office. The Ben Jonson, in Salisbury Cathe- young Lord Herbert mentioned dral. m the text became afterwards 96 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK u wishes and consented to enter on the duties of public life. In July she quitted Lisbon, the scene of early joys, and of hopes for ever blighted, and, amidst the regrets of the whole court, returned, under a princely escort, to Castile. She was received on the borders by the king, her brother, who conducted her to Val- ladolid. Here she was installed, with due solemnity, in her office of regent. A council of state was asso- ciated with her in the government. It consisted of persons of the highest consideration, with the arch- bishop of Seville at their head. By this body Joanna was to be advised, and indeed to be guided in all matters of moment. Philip, on his departure, left his sister an ample letter of instructions as to the policy to be pursued by the administration, especially in affairs of religion. 7 Joanna seems to have been a woman of discretion and virtue, qualities which belonged to the females of her line. She was liberal in her benefactions to convents and colleges ; and their cloistered inmates showed their gratitude by the most lavish testimony to her deserts. She had one rather singular practice. She was in the habit of dropping her veil when giving audience to foreign ambassadors. To prevent all doubts as to her personal identity, she began the audience by raising her veil, saying, " Am I not the princess ?" She then again covered her face, and the conference was continued without her further ex- posing her features. " It was not necessary," says her biographer in an accommodating spirit, " to have the face uncovered in order to hear." 8 Perhaps 7 Cabrera, Filipe Segttndo, lib. baj adores sequejaban.pretextando i. cap. 4. Florez, Reynas Catho- que no sabian si hablaban con la licas, torn. ii. p. 873. Memorial Princesa ; levantaba el manto al des Voyages du Boi, MS. empezar la Audiencia, pregun- 8 " Y prevenida de que los Em- tando > Soy la Princesa ? y en CHAP, iv.] PHILIP EMBARKS FOR ENGLAND. 97 Joanna considered this reserve as suited to the season of her mourning, intending it as a mark of respect to the memory of her deceased lord. In any other view, we might suspect that there entered into her constitution a vein of the same madness which darkened so large a part of the life of her grand- mother and namesake, Joanna of Castile. Before leaving Valladolid, Philip formed a separate establishment for his son, Don Carlos, and placed his education under the care of a preceptor, Luis de Vives, a scholar not to be confounded with his name- sake, the learned tutor of Mary of England. Having completed his arrangements, Philip set out for the place of his embarkation in the north. At Compo- stella he passed some days, offering up his devotions to the tutelar saint of Spain, whose shrine throughout the Middle Ages had been the most popular resort of pilgrims from the Western parts of Christendom. While at Compostella, Philip subscribed the marriage-treaty, which had been brought over from England by the earl of Bedford. He then proceeded to Corunna, where a fleet of more than a hundred sail was riding at anchor, in readiness to receive him. It was commanded by the admiral of Castile, and had on board, besides its complement of seamen, four thousand of the best troops of Spain. On the eleventh of July, Philip embarked, with his nu- merous retinue, in which, together with the Flemish Counts Egmont and Hoorne, were to be seen the dukes of Alva and Medina Celi, the Prince of Eboli, in short, the flower of the Castilian nobility. They came attended by their wives and vassals, oyendo responder qne si, volvia a para ver no necessitaba tener la echarse el velo, como que ya cara descubierta." Florez, Reynas cessaba el inconveniente de igno- Catholicas, torn. ii. p. 873. rar con quien hablaban, y que VOL. I. H 98 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. minstrels and mummers, and a host of idle followers, to add to the splendour of the pageant and do honour to their royal master. Yet the Spanish ambassador at London had expressly recommended to Philip that his courtiers should leave their ladies at home, and should come in as simple guise as possible, so as not to arouse the jealousy of the English. 9 After a pleasant run of a few days, the Spanish squadron came in sight of the combined fleets of England and Flanders, under the command of the Lord Admiral Howard, who was cruising in the channel in order to meet the prince and convoy him to the English shore. The admiral seems to have been a blunt sort of man, who spoke his mind with more candour than courtesy. He greatly offended the Flemings by comparing their ships to mussel- shells. 10 He is even said to have fired a gun as he approached Philip's squadron, in order to compel it to lower its topsails in acknowledgment of the supre- macy of the English in the " narrow seas." But this is probably the patriotic vaunt of an English writer, since it is scarcely possible that the haughty Spaniard of that day would have made such a concession, and still less so that the British commander would have been so discourteous as to exact it on this occasion. On the nineteenth of July the fleets came to anchor in the port of Southampton. A number of barges were soon seen pushing off from the shore ; one of which, protected by a rich awning and superbly lined with cloth of gold, was manned by sailors whose dress of white and green intimated the royal livery. 9 Letter of Bedford and Fitz- 10 " II appelle les navires do la waters to the Council, ap. Tytler, flotte de vostre Majeste coquilles Edward VI. and Mary, vol. ii. p. de monies, et plusieurs semblables 410. Cabrera, Filipe Segnndo, particularitez." Letter of Renarti, lib. i. cap. 4, 5. SepulvedsB Opera, ap. Tytler, Edward VL and Mary, vol. ii. pp. 496, 497. vol. ii. p. 414. CHAP, iv.] PHILIP'S SPLENDID RECEPTION. 99 It was the queen's barge, intended for Philip ; while the other boats, all gaily ornamented, received his nobles and their retinues. The Spanish prince was welcomed, on landing, by a goodly company of English lords, assembled to pay him their obeisance. The earl of Arundel presented him, in the queen's name, with the splendid insignia of the order of the Garter. 11 Philip's dress, as usual, was of plain black velvet, with a berret cap, orna- mented, after the fashion of the time, with gold chains. By Mary's orders, a spirited Andalusian jennet had been provided for him, which the prince instantly mounted. He was a good rider, and pleased the people by his courteous bearing and the graceful manner in which he managed his horse. The royal procession then moved forward to the ancient church of the Holy Rood, where mass was said, and thanks were offered up for their prosperous voyage. Philip, after this, repaired to the quarters assigned to him during his stay in the town. They were sumptuously fitted up, and the walls of the principal apartment hung with arras, commemorating the doings of that royal polemic, Henry the Eighth. Among other inscriptions in honour of him might be seen one proclaiming him " Head of the Church" and " Defender of the Faith," words which, as they were probably in Latin, could not have been lost on the Spaniards. 12 11 " L'ordre de la Jaretiere, que 1J Salazar de Mendoza, Monar- la Royne et lea Chevaliers ont quia de Espafia (Madrid, 1770), concludz luy donner ; et en a fait torn. ii. p. 118. Ambassades de faire une la Royne, qu'est estimee Noailles, torn. iii. pp. 283-236. sept ou huict mil escuz, et joincte- Sepulvedso Opera, voL ii. p. 408. ment fait faire plusieurs riches Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. i. habillemens pour son Altese." cap. 5. Leti, Vita di Filippo II., Letter of Renard, ap. Tytler, torn. i. p. 231. Holiushed, vol. iv. Edward VI. and Mary, vol. ii. p. p. 57. Memorial des Voyages du 416. Eoi, MS. n 2 100 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK* The news of Philip's landing was received in London with every demonstration of joy. Guns were fired, bells were rung, processions were made to the churches, bonfires were lighted in all the principal streets, tables were spread in the squares, laden with good cheer, and wine and ale flowed freely as water for all comers. 13 In short, the city gave itself up to a general jubilee, as if it were celebrating some victorious monarch returned to his dominions, and not the man whose name had lately been the object of such general execration. Mary gave in- stant orders that the nobles of her court should hold themselves in readiness to accompany her to Win- chester, where she was to receive the prince ; and on the twenty-first of July she made her entry, in great state, into that capital, and established her residence at the episcopal palace. During the few days that Philip stayed at South- ampton he rode constantly abroad, and showed himself frequently to the people. The information he had received, before his voyage, of the state of public feeling, had suggested to him some natural apprehensions for his safety. He seems to have re- solved from the first, therefore, to adopt such a condescending and indeed affable demeanour as would disarm the jealousy of the English, and, if possible, conciliate their good-will. In this he appears to have been very successful, although some of the more haughty of the aristocracy did take exception at his neglecting to raise his cap to them. That he should have imposed the degree of restraint which he seems to have done on the indulgence of his natural disposition is good proof of the strength of his apprehensions. 14 13 Strype, Memorials, vol. iii. H The change in Philip's roan- pp. 127, 128. ners seems to have attracted CHAP, iv.] PHILIP'S SPLENDID RECEPTION. 101 Tlie favour which Philip showed the English gave umbrage to his own nobles. They were still more disgusted by the rigid interpretation of one of the marriage-articles, by which some hundreds of their attendants were prohibited, as foreigners, from landing, or, after landing, were compelled to re- embark and return to Spain. 15 Whenever Philip went abroad he was accompanied by Englishmen. He was served by Englishmen at his meals. He breakfasted and dined in public, a thing but little to his taste. He drank healths, after the manner of the English, and encouraged his Spanish followers to imitate his example, as he quaffed the strong ale of the country." On the twenty-third of the month the earl of Pembroke arrived, with a brilliant company of two hundred mounted gentlemen, to escort the prince to Winchester. He was attended, moreover, by a body of English archers, whose tunics of yellow cloth striped with bars of red velvet displayed the gaudy- -coloured livery of the house of Aragon. The day was unpropitious. The rain fell heavily, in such torrents as might have cooled the enthusiasm of a more ardent lover than Philip. But he was too gallant a cavalier to be daunted by the elements. general attention. We find Wot- chascun se retirast en son navire et ton, the ambassador at the French que sur la peyne d'estre pendu, nul court, speaking, in one of his ne descendist a terre." Ambas- letters, of the report of it as sades de Noailles, torn. iii. p. 27. having reached his ears in Paris. 16 Leti, Vita di Filippo II., torn. Wotton to Sir W. Petre, August i. pp. 231, 232. " Lora il appella 10th, 1554, MS. les seigneurs Espaignols qui es- 14 According to Noailles, Philip toient pres de luy et leur diet qu'il forbade the Spaniards to leave falloit desormais oublier toutes their ships, on pain of being lescoustumesd'Espaigne.etvifvre hanged when they set foot on de tous poincts a 1'Angloise, a shore. This was enforcing the quoy il voulloit bien commancer provisions of the marriage-treaty et leur monstrer le chemin, puis rigueur: "Apres que ledict ee fist apporter de la biere de prince fust decendu, il fict crier et laquelle il beut." Ambassades de eommanda aux Espaignols que Noailles, torn. iii. p. 287. 102 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i The distance, not great in itself, was to be tra- velled on horseback, the usual mode of conveyance at a time when roads were scarcely practicable for carriages. Philip and his retinue had not proceeded far when they were encountered by a cavalier, riding at full speed, and bringing with him a ring which Mary had sent her lover, with the request that he would not expose himself to the weather, but postpone his de- parture to the following day. The prince, not understanding the messenger, who spoke in English, and suspecting that it was intended by Mary to warn him of some danger in his path, instantly drew up by the roadside, and took counsel with Alva and Egmont as to what was to be done. One of the courtiers, who perceived his embarrassment, rode up and acquainted the prince with the real purport of the message. Relieved of his alarm, Philip no longer hesitated, but, with his red felt cloak wrapped closely about him and a broad beaver slouched over his eyes, manfully pushed forward, in spite of the tempest. As he advanced, his retinue received continual accessions from the neighbouring gentry and yeo- manry, until it amounted to some thousands befoie he reached Winchester. It was late in the after- noon when the cavalcade, soiled with travel, and thoroughly drenched with rain, arrived before the gates of the city. The mayor and aldermen, dressed in their robes of scarlet, came to welcome the prince, and, presenting the keys of the city, conducted him to his quarters. That evening Philip had his first interview with Mary. It was private, and he was taken to her residence by the chancellor, Gardiner, bishop of Win- CHAP, iv.] MARRIAGE OF PHILIP AND .MARY. 103 cliester. The royal pair passed an hour or more together ; and, as Mary spoke the Castilian fluently, the interview must have been spared much of the embarrassment that would otherwise have at- tended it. 17 On the following day the parties met in public. Philip was attended by the principal persons of his suite, of both sexes ; and as the procession, making a goodly show, passed througli the streets on foot, the minstrelsy played before them till they reached the royal residence. The reception-room was the great hall of the palace. Mary, stepping forward to receive her betrothed, saluted him with a loving kiss before all the company. She then conducted him to a sort of throne, where she took her seat by his side, under a stately canopy. They remained there for an hour or more, conversing together, while their cour- tiers had leisure to become acquainted with one another, and to find ample food, doubtless, for future criticism, in the peculiarities of national costume and manners. Notwithstanding the Spanish blood in Mary's veins, the higher circles of Spain and England had personally almost as little intercourse with one another at that period as England and Japan have at the present. The ensuing day, the festival of St. James, the patron saint of Spain, was the one appointed for the marriage. Philip exchanged his usual simple dress for the bridal vestments provided for him by his mistress. They were of spotless white, as the 17 According to Sepulveda, progressam salutans Britannico Philip gave a most liberal con- more suaviavit ; habitoque lon- stiuction to the English custom piore et jucundissimo colloquio, of salutation, kissing not only his Philippus matronas etiam et betrothed, but all the ladies in Regias virgines sigillatim salutat waiting, matrons and maidens, osculaturque." S epul vet 3 8B Opera, without distinction : " Intra acJea vol. ii. p. 499. 104 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. reporter is careful to inform us, satin and cloth of gold, thickly powdered with pearls and precious stones. Round his neck he wore the superb collar of the Golden Fleece, the famous Burgundian order ; while the brilliant riband below his knee served as the badge of the no less illustrious order of the Garter. He went on foot to the cathedral, attended by all his nobles, vying with one another in the ostentatious splendour of their retinues. Half an hour elapsed before Philip was joined by the queen at the entrance of the Cathedral. Mary was surrounded by the lords and ladies of her court. Her dress, of white satin and cloth of gold, like his own, was studded and fringed with diamonds of inestimable price, some of them, doubtless, the gift of Philip, which he had sent to her by the hands of the prince of Eboli, soon after his landing. Her bright- red slippers and her mantle of black velvet formed a contrast to the rest of her apparel, and, for a bridal costume, would hardly suit the taste of the present day. The royal party then moved up the nave of the cathedral, and were received in the choir by the bishop of Winchester, supported by the great prelates of the English Church. The greatest of all, Cranmer, the primate of all England, who should have per- formed the ceremony, was absent, in disgrace and a prisoner. Philip and Mary took their seats under a royal canopy, with an altar between them. The queen was surrounded by the ladies of her court, whose beauty, says an Italian writer, acquired additional lustre by contrast with the shadowy complexions of the south. 18 The aisles and spacious galleries 18 " Poco dopo comparve ancora rilucendo da tutte le parti pre- la Begina pomposamente vestita, tiosiasime gemme, accompagnata CHAP, iv.] MARRIAGE OF PHILIP AND MART. 105 were crowded with spectators of every degree, drawn together from the most distant quarters to witness the ceremony. The silence was broken by Figueroa, one of the imperial council, who read aloud an instrument of the emperor, Charles the Fifth. It stated that this mar- riage had been of his own seeking ; and he was de- sirous that his beloved son should enter into it in a manner suitable to his own expectations and the dignity of his illustrious consort. He therefore re- signed to him his entire right and sovereignty over the kingdom of Naples and the duchy of Milan. The rank of the parties would thus be equal, and Mary, instead of giving her hand to a subject, would wed a sovereign like herself. Some embarrassment occurred as to the person who should give the queen away, a part of the ceremony not provided for. After a brief conference, it was removed by the marquis of Winchester and the earls of Pembroke and Derby, who took it on themselves to give her away in the name of the whole realm ; at which the multitude raised a shout that made the old walls of the cathedral ring again. The marriage- service was then concluded by the bishop of Win- chester. Philip and Mary resumed their seats, and mass was performed, when the bridegroom, rising, gave his consort the " kiss of peace, "according to the custom of the tune. The whole ceremony occupied nearly four hours. At the close of it, Philip, taking Mary by the hand, led her from the church. The royal couple were followed by the long tram of pre- lates and nobles, and were preceded by the earls of da tante e cosi belle Principesse, Olivastro, tra tanti soli, come he pareva ivi ridotta quasi tutta ombre." Leti, Vita di Filippo II., la bellezza del mondo, onde gli torn. i. p. 232. Spagnoli servivano con il loro 106 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [EOOK i Pembroke and Derby, each bearing aloft a naked sword, the symbol of sovereignty. The effect of the spectacle was heightened by the various costumes of the two nations, the richly-tinted and picturesque dresses of the Spaniards, and the solid magnificence of the English and Flemings, mingling together in gay confusion. The glittering procession moved slowly on, to the blithe sounds of festal music, while the air was rent with the loyal acclamations of the populace, delighted, as usual, with the splendour of the pageant. In the great hall of the episcopal palace a sump- tuous banquet was prepared for the whole company. At one end of the apartment was a dais, on which, under a superb canopy, a table was set for the king and queen ; and a third seat was added for Bishop Gardiner, the only one of the great lords who was admitted to the distinction of dining with royalty. Below the dais, the tables were set on either side through the whole length of the hall, for the English and Spanish nobles, all arranged a perilous point of etiquette with due regard to their relative rank. The royal table was covered with dishes of gold. A spacious beaufet, rising to the height of eight stages, or shelves, and filled with a profusion of gold and silver vessels, somewhat ostentatiously displayed the magnificence of the prelate, or of his sovereign. Yet this ostentation was rather Spanish than English, and was one of the forms in which the Castilian grandee loved to display his opulence. 19 At the bottom of the hall was an orchestra, occu- 19 The sideboard of the duke of out the inventory of the gold and Albuquerque, who died about the silver vessels. See Dunlop's He- middle of the seventeenth century, moirs of Spain during the Reigns was mounted by forty silver of Philip IV. and Charles II. ladders ! And, when he died, six (Edinburgh, 1834), vol. i. p. 3Si. weeks were occupied in making CHAP, iv.] ROYAL ENTERTAINMENTS. 107 pied by a band of excellent performers, who enlivened the repast by their music. But the most interesting part of the show was that of the Winchester boys, some of whom were permitted to enter the presence and recite in Latin their epithalamiums in honour of the royal nuptials, for which they received a handsome guerdon from the queen. After the banquet came the ball, at which, if we are to take an old English authority, " the Spaniards were greatly out of countenance when they saw the English so far excel them." 20 This seems somewhat strange, considering that dancing is, and always has been, the national pastime of Spain. Dancing is to the Spaniard what music is to the Italian, the very condition of his social existence. 21 It did not con- tinue late on the present occasion, and at the tem- perate hour of nine the bridal festivities closed for the evening/ 2 20 Strype, Memorials, vol. iii. p. 500. Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, 130. lib. i. cap. 5. Memorial de 21 Some interesting particulars Voyages, MS. Miss Strickland, respecting the ancient national Lives of the Queens of Eng]a.nd, dances of the Peninsula are given vol. v. pp. 389-396. To the last by Ticknor, in his History of writer I am especially indebted Spanish Literature (New York, for several particulars in the 1849), vol. ii. pp. 445-^448 ; a account of processions and pa- writer who, under the title of a geants which occupies the preced- History of Literature, has thrown ing pages. Her information is a flood of light on the social and chiefly derived from two works, political institutions of the na- neither of which is in my posses- tion, whose character he has evi- sion, the Book of Precedents of dently studied under all its as- Ralph Brook, York herald, and pects. the narrative of an Italian, Bao- 32 " Relation of what passed at ardo, an eye-witness of the scenes the Celebration of the Marriage he describes. Miss Strickland's of our Prince with the Most interesting volumes are particu- Serene Queen of England," from larly valuable to the historian for the original at Louvain,ap.Tytler, the copious extracts they contain Edward VI. and Mary, vol. ii. p. from curious unpublished docu- 430. Salazar de Mendoza, Mo- ments, which had escaped the narquiade Espana, torn. ii. p. 117. notice of writers too exclusively Sandoval, Historia de CarlosV., occupied with political events to torn. ii. pp. 560-563. Leti, Vita srive much heed to details of a di Filippo II., torn. i. pp. 231-233. domestic and personal nature. SepulvedsB Opera, vol. ii. p. 1 08 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. Philip and Mary passed a few days in this merry way of life at Winchester, whence they removed, with their court, to Windsor. Here a chapter of the order of the Garter was held, for the purpose of in- stalling Bang Philip. The herald, on this occasion, ventured to take down the arms of England and substitute those of Spain, in honour of the new sovereign, an act of deference which roused the indignation of the English lords, who straightway -compelled the functionary to restore the national escutcheon to its proper placed On the twenty-eighth of August, Philip and Mary made their public entry into London. They rode in on horseback, passing through the borough of South- vvark, across London Bridge. Every preparation was made by the loyal citizens to give them a suitable reception. The columns of the buildings were fes- tooned with flowers, triumphal arches spanned the streets, the walls were hung with pictures or em- blazoned with legends in commemoration of the Illustrious pair, and a genealogy was traced for Philip, setting forth his descent from John of Gaunt, making him out, in short, as much of an English- man as possible. Among the paintings was one in which Henry the Eighth was seen holding in his hand a Bible. This -device gave great scandal to the chancellor, Gardiner, who called the painter sundry hard names, rating Mm roundly for putting into King Harry's hand the sacred volume, which should rather have been given to his daughter, Queen Mary, for her zeal to restore the primitive worship of the Church. The unlucky artist lost no time in repairing his error by brushing out the offending volume, and did it so effectually a Holinshed, vol. iv. p. 62. CHAP, iv.] ROYAL ENTERTAINMENTS. 100 that he brushed out the royal fingers with it, leaving the old monarch's mutilated stump held up, like some poor mendicant's, to excite the compassion of the spectators. 24 But the sight which more than all these pageants gave joy to the hearts of the Londoners was an im- mense quantity of bullion, which Philip caused to be paraded through the city on its way to the Tower, where it was deposited in the royal treasury. The quantity was said to be so great that on one occasion the chests containing it filled twenty carts. On another, two waggons were so heavily laden with the precious metal as to require to be drawn by nearly a hundred horses. 25 The good people, who had looked to the coming of the Spaniards as that of a swarm of locusts which was to consume their substance, were greatly pleased to see their exhausted coffers so well replenished from the American mines. From London the royal pair proceeded to the shady solitudes of Hampton Court, and Philip, weary of the mummeries in which he had been compelled to take part, availed himself of the indisposition of his wife to indulge in that retirement and repose which were more congenial to his taste. This way of life in his pleasant retreat, however, does not appear to have been so well suited to the tastes of his English sub- jects. At least, an old chronicler peevishly complains that " the hall-door within the court was continually shut, so that no man might enter unless his errand i4 Holinshed, vol. iv. p. 63. lords of the Indies. A hundred 55 The Spaniards must have horses might well have drawn as been quite as much astonished as many tons of gold and silver, the English at the sight of such an amount, considering the value an amount of gold and silver in of money in that day, that taxes the coffers of their king, a sight our faith somewhat heavily, and that rarely rejoiced the eyes of not thel ess that only two waggons either Charles or Philip, though were employed to carry it. 110 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. were first known ; which seemed strange to English- men that had not been used thereto." 26 Yet Philip, although his apprehensions for his safety had doubtless subsided, was wise enough to affect the same conciliatory manners as on his first landing, and not altogether in vain. "He dis- covered," says the Venetian ambassador, in his report to the senate, "none of that sosiego the haughty indifference of the Spaniards which distinguished him when he first left home for Italy and Flanders. 27 He was, indeed, as accessible as any one could desire, and gave patient audience to all who asked it. He was solicitous," continues Micheli, " to instruct him- self in affairs, and showed a taste for application to business," which, it may be added, grew stronger with years. "He spoke little, but his remarks, though brief, were pertinent. In short," he con- cludes, "he is a prince of an excellent genius, a lively apprehension, and a judgment ripe beyond his age." Philip's love of business, however, was not such as to lead him to take part prematurely in the manage- ment of affairs. He discreetly left this to the queen and her ministers, to whose judgment he affected to pay the greatest deference. He particularly avoided 16 Holinshed, ubi supra. muto in modo che passando 1' altra 57 Relations di Gio. Micheli, volta di Spagna per andar in MS. Michele Soriano, who re- Inghilterra, ha mostrato sempre presented Venice at Madrid, in tma dolcezza et humanita cosi 1559, bears similar testimony, in grande che non e superato da still stronger language, to Philip's Prencipe alcunp in questa parte, altered deportment while in Eng- et benche send in tutte le attioni land: "Essendo avvertito prima sue riputatione et gravita regie dal Cardinale di Trento, poi dalla alle quali e per natura inclinato Eegina Maria, et con piu efficaccia et per costume, non e pero manco dal padre, che quella riputatione grato, anzi fanno parere la cortesia et severita non si conveniva a lui, maggiore che S.M. usa con tutti." che dovea dominar nationi varie Eelatione di Michele Soriano, et popoli di costumi diversi, si MS. CHAP, iv.] PHILIP'S INFLUENCE. Ill all appearance of an attempt to interfere with the administration of justice, unless it were to obtain some act of grace. Such interference only served to gain him the more credit with the people. 23 That he gained largely on their good-will may be inferred from the casual remarks of more than one contemporary writer. They bear emphatic testimony to the affability of his manners, so little to have been expected from the popular repcits of his character. " Among other things," writes Wotton, the English minister at the French court, " one I have been right glad to hear of is, that the king's highness useth himself so gently and lovingly to all men. For, to tell you truth, I have heard some say, that, when he came out of Spain into Italy, it was by some men wished that he had showed a somewhat more benign countenance to the people than it was said he then did." 29 Another contemporary, in a private letter, written soon after the king's entrance into London, after describing his person as " so well proportioned that Nature cannot work a more perfect pattern," concludes with commending him for his " pregnant wit and most gentle nature." 30 Philip, from the hour of his landing, had been con- stant in all his religious observances. " He was as punctual," says Micheli, " in his attendance at mass, and his observance of all the forms of devotion, as any monk, more so, as some people thought, than 23 " Lasciando 1' essecutione amato da ciascuno, ma anco desi- delle cose di giustitia allaKegina, derate." RelationediGio. Micheli, et a i Ministri quacd' occorre di MS. condannare alcuno, o nella robba. :9 Letter of Nicholas Wotton to p nella vita, per poter poi nsarli Sir William Petre, MS. impetrandp, come fa, le gratie, et 30 See the Eemarks of John le mercedi tutte: le quai cose Elder, ap. Ty tier, Edward VI. and fanno, che quanto alia persona Mary, vol. ii. p. 258. eua, nou solo sia ben voluto, et 112 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [HOOK r became his age and station. The ecclesiastics," he adds, "with whom Philip had constant intercourse, talk loudly of his piety." 31 Yet there was no hypocrisy in this. However willing Philip may have been that his concern for the interest of religion might be seen of men, it is no less true that, as far as he understood these interests, his concern was perfectly sincere. The actual state of England may have even operated as an induce- ment with him to overcome his scruples as to the connexion with Mary. " Better not reign at all," he often remarked, " than reign over heretics." But what triumph more glorious than that of converting these heretics and bringing them back again to the bosom of the Church ? He was most anxious to prepare the minds of his new subjects for an honour- able reception of the papal legate, Cardinal Pole, who was armed with full authority to receive the submission of England to the Holy See. He em- ployed his personal influence with the great nobles, and enforced it occasionally by liberal drafts on those Peruvian ingots which he had sent to the Tower. At least, it is asserted that he gave away yearly pensions, to the large amount of between iifty and sixty thousand gold crowns, to sundry of the queen's ministers. It was done on the general plea of recom- pensing their loyalty to their mistress. 3i Early in November, tidings arrived of the landing of Pole. He had been detained some weeks in Ger- 31 " Nella religione, .... per frati Theologi snoi predicatori qtiel che dall' esterior si vede, non huomini certo di stinia, et anco si potria giudicar meglio, et piu altri che ogni di trattano con lui, assiduo.etattentissimoalleMesse, che nelle cose della conscientia a i Vesperi, et alle Prediche, come non desicterano nd piu pia, ne un religiose, molto piu che a lo miglior intentione." Relations di etato, et eta sna, a molte pare che Gio. Micheli, MS. si convenga. II medisimo con- * Ibid, feriscono dell' intrinseco oltra certi CHAP, iv.] PHILIP'S INFLUENCE. 113 many by the emperor, who felt some distrust not ill-founded, as it seems of the cardinal's disposition in regard to the Spanish match. Now that this difficulty was obviated, he was allowed to resume his journey. He came up the Thames in a magnificent barge, with a large silver cross, the emblem of his legatine authority, displayed on the prow. The legate, on landing, was received by the king, the queen, and the whole court, with a reverential deference which augured well for the success of his mission. He was the man, of all others, best qualified to execute it. To a natural kindness of temper he united an urbanity and a refinement of manners derived from familiar intercourse with the most polished society of Europe. His royal descent entitled him to mix on terms of equality with persons of the highest rank, and made him feel as much at ease in the court as in the cloister. His long exile had opened to him an acquaintance with man as he is found in various climes, while, as a native-born Englishman, he perfectly understood the prejudices and peculiar temper of his own country- men. " Cardinal Pole," says the Venetian minister, " is a man of unblemished nobility, and so strict in his integrity that he grants nothing to the impor- tunity of friends. He is so much beloved, both by prince and people, that he may well be styled the king where all is done by his authority." 33 An ** Eelatione di Gio. Micheli, world seekcth and adoreth. la MS. Mason, the English minis- whom it is to be thought that God ter at the imperial court, who had hath chosen a special place of had much intercourse with Pole, habitation. Such is his convcrsa- speaks of him in terms of unquali- tion adorned with infinite godly fied admiration : " Such a one as, qualities, above the ordinary sort for his wisdom, joined with learn- of men. And whosoever within ing, virtue, and godliness, all the the realm likcth him worst, I VOL. I. I J14 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. English cardinal was not of too frequent occurrence in the Sacred College. That one should have been found at the present juncture, with personal qualities, moreover, so well suited to the delicate mission to England, was a coincidence so remarkable that Philip and Mary might well be excused for discerning in it the finger of Providence. On the seventeenth of the month, parliament, owing to the queen's indisposition, met at White- hall, and Pole made that celebrated speech in which he recapitulated some of the leading events of his own life, and the persecutions he had endured for conscience' sake. He reviewed the changes in religion which had taken place in England, and implored his audience to abjure their spiritual errors, and to seek a reconciliation with the Catholic Church. He assured them of his plenary power to grant absolution for the past, and what was no less important to authorise the present proprietors to retain possession of the abbey lands which had been confiscated under King Henry. This last concession, which had been extorted with difficulty from the pope, reconciling, as it did, temporal with spiritual interests, seems to have dispelled whatever scruples yet lingered in the breasts of the legislature. There were few, probably, in that goodly company whose zeal would have aspired to the crown of martyrdom. The ensuing day, parliament, in obedience to the royal summons, again assembled at Whitehall. Philip took his seat on the left of Mary, under the Same canopy, while Cardinal Pole sat at a greater would he might have with him small time he ccmld not soften." the talk of one half-hour. It Letter of Sir John Mason to the were a light stony heart that in a Queen, MS. CHAP, iv.] THE CATHOLIC CHURCH RESTORED. 115 distance on her right. 34 The chancellor, Gardiner, then presented a petition in the name of the lords and commons, praying for reconciliation with the papal see. Absolution was solemnly pronounced by the legate, and the whole assembly received his benediction on their bended knees. England, purified from her heresy, was once more restored to the communion of the Roman Catholic Church. Philip instantly despatched couriers with the glad tidings to Rome, Brussels, and other capitals of Christendom. Everywhere the event was celebrated with public rejoicings, as if it had been some great victory over the Saracens. As Philip's zeal for the faith was well known, and as the great change had taken place soon after his arrival in England, much of the credit of it was ascribed to him. 35 Thus, before ascending the throne of Spain he had vindicated his claim to the title of Catholic, so much prized by the Spanish monarchs. He had won a triumph greater than that which his father had been able to win, after years of war, over the Protestants of Germany; greater than any which had been won by the arms of Cortes or Pizarro in the New World. Their contest had been with the barbarian ; the field of Philip's labours was one of the most potent and civilised countries of Europe. 34 If we are to credit Cabrera, Castilian historian the occasion Philip not only took his seat in might seem worthy of a miracle, parliament, but on one occasion, dignus vindice nodus. the better to conciliate the good K " Obraron de suerte Don will of the legislature to the legate, Felipe con prudencia, agrado, delivered a speech, which the his- honras, y mercedes, y su familia torian gives in extenso. If he ever con la cortesia natural de Espafia, made the speech, it could have qne se reduxo Inglaterra toda a been understood only by a miracle, la obediencia de la Iglesia Catolica For Philip could not speak Eng- Romana, y se abjuraron los errores lish, and of his audience not one y heregias que corrian en aquel in a hundred, probably, could Reyno," says Vanderhammen, understand Spanish. But to the Felipe el Prudente, p. 4. I 2 1 1 6 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK r. The work of conversion was speedily followed by that of persecution. To what extent Philip's influence was exerted in this is not manifest. Indeed, from anything that appears, it would not be easy to decide whether his influence was employed to pro- mote or to prevent it. One fact is certain, that, immediately after the first martyrs suffered at Smith- field, Alfonso de Castro, a Spanish friar, preached a sermon in which he bitterly inveighed against these proceedings. He denounced them as repugnant to the true spirit of Christianity, which was that of charity and forgiveness, and which enjoined its ministers not to take vengeance on the sinner, but to enlighten him as to his errors and bring him to repentance. 38 This bold appeal had its effect, even in that season of excitement. For a few weeks the arm of persecution seemed to be palsied. But it was only for a few weeks. Toleration was not the virtue of the sixteenth century. The charitable doctrines of the good friar fell on hearts withered by fanaticism ; and the spirit of intolerance soon rekindled the fires of Smithfield into a fiercer glow than before. Yet men wondered at the source whence these strange doctrines had proceeded. The friar was Philip's confessor. It was argued that he would not have dared to speak thus boldly had it not been by the command of Philip, or at least by his consent. That De Castro should have thus acted at the sug- gestion of his master is contradicted by the whole tenor of Philip's life. Hardly four years elapsed before he countenanced by his presence an auto de ft in Valladolid, where fourteen persons perished at the stake ; and the burning of heretics in England could * Strype, Memorials, vol. iii. p. 209. CHAP, iv.] PHILIP'S INFLUENCE. 117 have done no greater violence to his feelings than the burning of heretics in Spain. If the friar did indeed act in obedience to Philip, we may well suspect that the latter was influenced less by motives of humanity than of policy, and that the disgust manifested by the people at the spectacle of these executions may have led him to employ this expe- dient to relieve himself of any share in the odium which attached to them. 87 What was the real amount of Philip's influence in this or other matters, it is not possible to deter- mine. It is clear that he was careful not to arouse the jealousy of the English by any parade of it. 38 One obvious channel of it lay in the queen, who seems to have doted on him with a fondness that one would hardly have thought a temper cold and repulsive, like that of Philip, capable of exciting. But he was young and good-looking. His manners had always been found to please the sex, even where he had not been so solicitous to please as he was in England. He was Mary's first and only love ; for the emperor was too old to have touched aught but 87 Philip, in a letter to the Re- y se lo permiten." Carta del gent Joanna, dated Brussels, 1557, Emperador a la Princesa, Mayo eeems to claim for himself the 25, 1558, MS. merit of having extirpated heresy 38 Micheli, whose testimony is in England by the destruction of of the more value as he was known the heretics : " Aviendo apartado to have joined Noailles in his deste Reyno las sectas, i reduzidole opposition to the Spanish match, a la obediencia de la Iglesia, i tells us that Philip was scrupulous aviendo ido sempre en acrecenta- in his observance of every article miento con el castigo de los Ereges of the marriage-treaty : " Che non tan sin contradiciones como se havendo alterato cosa alcuna dello haze en Inglaterra." (Cabrera, stile, et forma del governo, non Filipe Segundo, lib. ii. cap. 6.) essendo uscito un pelp della capito- The emperor, in a letter from latione del matrinionio, ha in tutto Yuste, endorses this claim of his tolta via quella paura che da son to the full extent : " Pues en principio fu grandissima, che egli Ynglaterra se han hecho y hacen non volcsse con imperio, et con la tantasy tancriulasjusticias hasta potentia, disporre ct comandare obispos, por la orden quo alii ha delle cose a modo suo." Relations dado, como si t'ucra su Rey natural, di Gio. Micheli, MS. 118 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [BOOK i. her vanity, and Courtenay was too frivolous to have excited any other than a temporary feeling. This devotion to Philip, according to some accounts, was ill requited by his gallantries. The Venetian ambas- sador says of him that " he well deserved the tenderness of his wife, for he was the most loving and the best of husbands." But it seems probable that the Italian, in his estimate of the best of husbands, adopted the liberal standard of his own country. 39 About the middle of November, parliament was advised that the queen was in a state of pregnancy. The intelligence was received with the joy usually manifested by loyal subjects on like occasions. The emperor seems to have been particularly pleased with this prospect of an heir, who, by the terms of the marriage-treaty, would make a division of that great empire which it had been the object of its master's life to build up and consolidate under one sceptre. The commons, soon after, passed an act empowering Philip, in case it should go otherwise than well with the queen at the time of her confinement, to assume the regency and take charge of the education of her child during its minority. The regency was to be limited by the provisions of the marriage-treaty; but the act may be deemed evidence that Philip had gained on the confidence of his new subjects. The symptoms continued to be favourable ; and, as * "D'amornascel'esser inamo- stato ne migliore nd piuamorevol rata come e et giustamente del marito. . . . Se appresso al mar- marito per quel che s' ha potato tello s' aggiungesse la gelosia, conoscer nel tempo che e stata della qual fin hora non si sa che seco dalla natura et modi suoi, patisca, perche se non ha il Be certo da innamorar ognuno, non per casto, almanco dice ella so che che chi havesse havuto la buona e libero dell' amor d' altra donna ; compagnia et il buon trattamento se fosse dico gelosa, sarebbe vera- ch' ell' ha havuto. Tale in verita mente misera." Relatione di Gio. che nessun' altro potrebbe essergli Micheli, MS. CHAP, iv.] PHILIP'S INFLUENCE. 119 the time approached for Mary's confinement, messen- gers were held in readiness to bear the tidings to the different courts. The loyal wishes of the people ran so far ahead of reality that a rumour went abroad of the actual birth of a prince. Bells were rung, bon- fires lighted ; Te Deum was sung in some of the churches ; and one of the preachers " took upon him to describe the proportions of the child, how fair, how beautiful and great a prince it was, as the like had not been seen !" " But for all this great labor," says the caustic chronicler, " for their yoong maister long looked for coming so surely into the world, in the end appeared neither yoong maister nor yoong maistress, that any man to this day can hear of." 40 The queen's disorder proved to be a dropsy. But, notwithstanding the mortifying results of so many prognostics and preparations, and the ridicule which attached to it, Mary still cherished the illusion of one day giving an heir to the crown. Her husband did not share in this illusion ; and, as he became con- vinced that she had no longer prospect of issue, he found less inducement to protract his residence in a country which, on many accounts, was most distaste- ful to him. Whatever show of deference might be paid to him, his haughty spirit could not be pleased by the subordinate part which he was compelled to play, in public, to the queen. The parliament had Jiever so far acceded to Mary's wishes as to consent to his coronation as king of England. Whatever weight he may have had in the cabinet, it had not been such as to enable him to make the politics of England subservient to his own interests, or, what was the same thing, to those of his father. Parlia- ment would not consent to swerve so far from the 40 Holinshed, vol. iv. pp. 70, 82. 120 ENGLISH ALLIANCE. [HOOK j. express provisions of the marriage-treaty as to become a party in the emperor's contest with France. 41 Nor could the restraint constantly imposed on Philip by his desire to accommodate himself to the tastes and habits of the English be otherwise than irksome to him. K he tad beet) more successful in this than might have been expected, yet it was not possible to overcome the prejudices, the settled anti- pathy, with which the Spaniards were regarded by the great mass of the people, as was evident from the satirical shafts which from time to time were launched by pamphleteers and ballad-makers both against the king and his followers. These latter were even more impatient than their master of their stay in a country where they met with so many subjects of annoyance. If a Spaniard bought anything, complains one of the nation, he was sure to be charged an exorbitant price for it. 4 * If he had a quarrel with an Englishman, says another writer, he was to be tried by English law, and was very certain to come off the worst. 1 " Whether right or wrong, the Spaniards could hardly 41 Soriano notices the little au- apparenza che in effetto." Rela- thority that Philip seemed to tione di Michele Soriano, MS. possess in England, and the dis- \ Quarto e Filippo Secondo, MS. some experience, and bis accouii Andrea, Guerra do Campaiia do of these transactions is derived Roma (Madrid, 1589), p. 14. partly from personal observation. Summoute, Historia di Napoli, and partly, as he tells us, from torn. iv. p. 270. The most cir- the most accredited witnesses, cumstantiul printed account of The Spanish version was made at this war is to be found in the the suggestion of one of Philip's work of Alessandro Andrea, a ministers, pretty good evidence? Neapolitan. It was first published that the writer, in his narrative, in Italian, at Venice, and subsc- had demeaned himself like a loya! quently translated by the author subject, into Castilian, and printed at 144 WAR WITH THE POPE. [BOOK i. September, 1556, Alva, attended by a gallant band of cavaliers, left the capital, and on the fourth arrived at the place appointed. The following day he crossed the borders at the head of his troops, and marched on Pontecorvo. He met with no resistance from the inhabitants, who at once threw open their gates to him. Several other places fol- lowed the example of Pontecorvo ; and Alva, taking possession of them, caused a scutcheon displaying the arms of the Sacred College to be hung up in the principal church of each town, with a placard announcing that he held it only for the college, until the election of a new pontiff. By this act he proclaimed to the Christian world that the object of the war, as far as Spain was concerned, was not conquest, but defence. Some historians find in it a deeper policy, that of exciting feelings of distrust between the pope and the cardinals. 16 Anagni, a place of some strength, refused the duke's summons to surrender. He was detained three days before his guns had opened a practicable breach in the walls. He then ordered an assault. The town was stormed and delivered up to sack, by which phrase is to be understood the perpe- tration of all those outrages which the ruthless code of war allowed, in that age, on the persons and property of the defenceless inhabitants, without regard to sex or age. 17 One or two other places which made resistance 14 Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, di discordia, e di sisma, fra li Car- torn, x. p. 25. Carta del Duque dinali ed il Papa, tentando d' de Alba a la Gobernadora, 8 de alienarli da lui, e mostrargli verso Setiembre, 1556, MS. " In tal di loro riverenza e rispetto." modo, uon solo veniva a mitigar Nores, Guerra fra Paolo Quarto e V asprezze, che portava seco 1' Filippo Secondo, MS. occnpar le Terre dello stato eccle- 1? Nores, Guerra fia Paolo eiastico, ma veniva a sparger semi Quarto e Filippo Secondo, MS. CHAP, v.] VICTORIOUS CAMPAIGN. 145 shared the fate of Anagni; and the duke of Alva, having garrisoned his new conquests with such forces as he could spare, led his victorious legions against Tivoli, a town strongly situated on elevated ground, commanding the eastern approaches to the capital. The place surrendered without attempting a defence ; and Alva, willing to give his men some repose, made Tivoli his head-quarters, while his army spread over the suburbs and adjacent country, which afforded good forage for his cavalry. The rapid succession of these events, the fall of town after town, and, above all, the dismal fate of Anagni, filled the people of Rome with terror. The women began to hurry out of the city ; many of the men would have followed but for the interference of Cardinal Caraffa. The panic was as great as if the enemy had been already at the gates of the capital. Amidst this general consternation, Paul seemed to be almost the only person who retained his self- possession. Navagero, the Venetian minister, was present when he received tidings of the storming of Anagni, and bears witness to the composure with which he went through the official business of the morning, as if nothing had happened. 18 This was in public; but the shock was sufficiently strong to strike out some sparkles of his fiery temper, as those found who met him that day in private. To the Venetian agent who had come to Rome to mediate a peace, and who pressed him to enter into some terms of accommodation with the Spaniards, he haughtily replied that Alva must first recross the frontier, and then, if he had aught to solicit, prefer his petition 18 " Stava intrepido, parlando sospezione di guerra, non che gl' delle cose appartenenti a quel' inimici fussero vicini alle porte." nffizio, come se non vi fusse alcuna Relazione di Bernardo Navagero. VOL. I. L 146 AYAH AVITII THE TOPE. [EOOK i. like a dutiful son of the Church. This course was not one veiy likely to be adopted by the victorious general. " In an interview with two French gentlemen, who, as he had reason to suppose, were interesting them- selves in the affair of a peace, he exclaimed, " Who- ever would bring nie into a peace with heretics is a servant of the Devil. Heaven will take vengeance on him. I will pray that God's curse may fall on him. If I find that you intermeddle in any such matter. I will cut your heads off your shoulders. Do not think this an empty threat. I have an eye in my back on you," quoting an Italian proverb " and if I find you playing me false, or attempting to entangle me a second time in an accursed truce, I swear to you by the eternal God, I will make your heads fly from your shoulders, come what may come of it 1" " In this way," concludes the narrator, one of the parties, " his holiness continued for nearly an hour, walking up and down the apartment, and talking all the while of his own grievances, and of cutting off our heads, until he had talked himseli quite out of breath." 20 But the valour of the pope did not expend itself in words. He instantly set about putting the capital in the best state of defence. He taxed the people to raise funds for his troops, drew in the garrisons from the neighbouring places, formed a body-guard of six or seven hundred horse, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing his Roman levies, amounting to six thousand infantry, well equipped for the war. M " Pontifex earn conditipnem postularet." Sepulveda, De Be- ad se relatam aspernatus in eo bus gestis Philippi II., lib. i. cap. persistebat, ut Albanus copias 17. domum rednceret, deindc quod M Sismondi, Histoire des Fran- vellet, a so sapplicibus precibns ^ais, torn, xviii. p. 17. CHAP, v.] VICTORIOUS CAMPAIGN. 147 They made a brave show, with their handsome uniforms and their banners richly emblazoned with the pontifical arms. As they passed in review before his holiness, who stood at one of the windows of his palace, he gave them his benediction. But the edge of the Roman sword, according to an old proverb, was apt to be blunt ; and these holiday troops were soon found to be no match for the hardy veterans of Spain. Among the soldiers at the pope's disposal was a body of German mercenaries, who followed war as a trade, and let themselves out to the highest bidder. They were Lutherans, with little knowledge of the Roman Catholic religion, and less respect for it. They stared at its rites as mummeries, and made a jest of its most solemn ceremonies, directly under the eyes of the pope. But Paul, who at other times would have punished offences like these with the gibbet and the stake, could not quarrel with his defenders, and was obliged to digest his mortifica- tion as he best might. It was remarked that the times were sadly out of joint, when the head of the Church had heretics for his allies and Catholics for his enemies. 21 Meanwhile the duke of Alva was lying at TivolL If he had taken advantage of the panic caused by his successes, he might, it was thought, without much difficulty, have made himself master of the capital. But this did not suit his policy, which was rather to bring the pope to terms than to ruin him. He was desirous to reduce the city by cutting off its supplies. The possession of Tivoli, as already noticed, 21 " Qncl Pontefice, che per cias- fuoco, le tollerava in quosti, come cuna di queste cose che fosse cas- in suoi defensori." Kelazione di cata in un processo, avrebbe con- Bernardo Navagero. dannato oguuno ulla raorte ed al 148 WAR WITH TIIE POPE. [BOOK n enabled him to command the eastern approaches to- Rome, and he now proposed to make himself master of Ostia, and thus destroy the communications with the coast. Accordingly, drawing together his forces, he quitted Tivoli, and directed his march across the Campagna, south of the Roman capital On his way he made himself master of some places belonging to the holy see, and in the early part of November arrived before Ostia, and took up a position on the banks of the Tiber, where it spread into two branches, the northern one of which was called the Fiumicino, or little river. The town, or rather village, consisted of only a few straggling houses, very different from the proud Ostia whose capacious harbour was once filled with the commerce of the world. It was protected by a citadel of some strength, garrisoned by a small but picked body of troops, so indifferently provided with military stores that it was clear the government had not anticipated an attack in this quarter. The duke ordered a number of boats to be sent round from Nettuno, a place on the coast, of which he had got possession. By means of these he formed a bridge, over which he passed a small detachment of his army, together with his battering train of artillery. The hamlet was easily taken, but, as the citadel refused to surrender, Alva laid regular siege to it. He constructed two batteries, on which he planted his heavy guns, commanding opposite quarters of the fortress. He then opened a lively cannonade on the outworks, which was returned with great spirit by the garrison. Meanwhile he detached a considerable body of horse, under Colonna, who swept the country to the very walls of Rome. A squadron of cavalry, whose CHAP, v.] VICTORIOUS CAMPAIGN". 149 gallant bearing had filled the heart of the old pope with exultation, sallied out against the marauders. An encounter took place not far from the city. The Romans bore themselves up bravely to the shock ; but, after splintering their lances, they wheeled about, and, without striking another blow, aban- doned the field to the enemy, who followed them up to the gates of the capital. They were so roughly handled in their flight that the valiant troopers oould not be induced again to leave their walls, although Cardinal Caraffa who had a narrow escape from the enemy sallied out with a handful of his followers, to give them confidence. 22 During this time Alva was vigorously pressing the siege of Ostia ; but, though more than a week had elapsed, the besieged showed no disposition to sur- render. At length the Spanish commander, on the seventeenth of November, finding his ammunition nearly expended, and his army short of provisions, determined on a general assault. Early on the fol- lowing morning, after hearing mass as usual, the duke mounted his horse, and, riding among the ranks to animate the spirits of his soldiers, gave orders for the attack. A corps of Italians was first detached, to scale the works ; but they were repulsed with considerable loss. It was found impossible for their officers to rally them and bring them back to the assault. A picked body of Spanish infantry was then despatched on this dangerous service. With incredible difficulty they succeeded in scaling the ramparts, under a storm of combustibles and other missiles hurled down by the garrison, and effected an entrance into the place. But here they were met with a courage as dauntless as their own. The K Nores, Guerra fra Paolo Quarto e Filippo iSecoudo, MS. 150 WAR WITH THE POPE. [room. struggle was long and desperate. There had been, no such fighting in the course of the campaign. At length, the duke, made aware of the severe loss sustained by his men, and of the impracticability of the attempt, as darkness was setting in, gave the signal for retreat. The assailants had doubtless the worst of it in the conflict ; but the besieged, worn out with fatigue, with their ammunition nearly exhausted, and almost without food, did not feel themselves in condition to sustain another assault on the following day. On the nineteenth of November,, therefore, the morning after the conflict, the brave garrison capitulated, and were treated with honour as prisoners of war. 53 The fate of the campaign seemed now to be decided. The pope, with his principal towns in the hands of the enemy, his communications cut off both with the country and the coast, may well have felt his inability to contend thus single-handed against the power of Spain. At all events, his subjects felt it, and they were not deterred by his arrogant bearing from clamouring loudly against the continuance of this ruinous war. But Paul would not hear of a peace.. However crippled by his late reverses, he felt con- fident of repairing them all on the arrival of the French, who, as he now learned with joy, were in full march across the territory of Milan. He was not so disinclined to a truce, which might give time for their coming. Cardinal Caraffa, accordingly, had a conference- 23 The details of the siege of delCatholicoDonFilippoSecondo,. Ostia are given with more or less con le Guerre de supi Tempi (Vi- minuteness by Nores, Guerra fra cenza, lt>05), torn. ii. fol. 146, 147,. Puolo Quarto e Filippo Secondo, Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. ii- MS., Andrea, Guerra de Roma, cap. 15, p. 72, et scq., Canipana, Vita CHAP, v.] VICTORIOUS CAMPAIGN. 151 with the duke of Alva, and entered into negotiations with him for a suspension of arms. The proposal was not unwelcome to the duke, who, weakened by losses of every kind, was by no means in condition at the end of an active campaign to contend with a fresh army under the command of so practised a leader as the duke of Guise. He did not care to expose himself a second time to an encounter with the French general, under disadvantages nearly as great as those which had foiled him at Metz. With these amiable dispositions, a truce was soon arranged between the parties, to continue forty days. The terms were honourable to Alva, since they left him in possession of all his conquests. Having completed these arrangements, the Spanish com- mander broke up his camp on the southern bank of the Tiber, recrossed the frontier, and in a few days made his triumphant entry, at the head of his bat- talions, into the city of Naples. 24 So ended the first campaign of the war with Rome. It had given a severe lesson, that might have shaken the confidence and humbled the pride of a pontiff less arrogant than Paul the Fourth. But it served only to deepen his hatred of the Spaniards, and to stimu- late his desire for vengeance. 24 Nores, Guei'ra f ra Paolo dado el duqne oidos a suspension Quarto e Filippo Secondo, MS. de armas, y mucho mas de haver Andrea, Guerra de lioma, p. 86, prorrogado el plazo, por parecelle et seq. The Emperor Charles the que sera instrumento para que la Fifth, when on his way to Yuste, gente del Rey que baxava a Pia- took a very different view from monte se juntasse con la del Papa, Alva's of the truce, rating the 6 questa dilacion sera necessitar duke roundly for not having al duque, y estorvalle el effecto followed up the capture of Ostia que pudiera hazer, si prosiguiera by a decisive blow, instead of suvitoriadespuesdehaberganado allowing the French time to enter a Ostia, y entre dientes dixo otras Italy and combine with the pope. cosas que no pude comprehen- " El einperadur oyo todo lo que der." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu v. m d . dize del duque y de Italia, a Juan Vazquez, Emjro 10, 1557, y ha tornado may mal el haver MS. 152 [BOOK i. CHAPTER VI. WAR WITH THE POPE. Guise enters Italy. Operations in the Abruzzi. Siege of Civitella. Alva drives out the French. Rome menaced by the Spaniards. Paul consents to Peace. His subsequent Career. 1557. WHILE the events recorded in the preceding pages were passing in Italy, the French army, under the duke of Guise, had arrived on the borders of Pied- mont. That commander, on leaving Paris, found himself at the head of a force consisting of twelve thousand infantry, of which five thousand were Swiss, and the rest French, including a considerable number of Gascons. His cavalry amounted to two thousand, and he was provided with twelve pieces of artillery. In addition to this, Guise was attended by a gallant body of French gentlemen, young for the most part, and eager to win laurels under the renowned defender of Metz. The French army met with no opposition in its passage through Piedmont. The king of Spain had ordered the government of Milan to strengthen the garrisons of the fortresses, but to oppose no resistance to the French, unless the latter began hostilities. 1 Some of the duke's counsellors would have persuaded him to do so. His father-in-law, the duke of Ferrara, in particular, who had brought him a reinforcement of six thousand troops, strongly pressed the French 1 Sepulveda, De Rebus gestis Philippi II., p. 13. CHAP, vi.] GUISE ENTERS ITALY. 153 general to make sure of the Milanese before penetrat- ing to the south ; otherwise he would leave a dan- gerous enemy in his rear. The Italians urged, moreover, the importance of such a step in giving confidence to the Angevine faction in Naples, and in drawing over to France those states which hesitated as to their policy or which had but lately consented to an alliance with Spain. France at this time exercised but- little influence in the counsels of the Italian powers. Genoa, after an ineffectual attempt at revolution, was devoted to Spain. The co-operation of Cosmo de' Medici, then lord of Tuscany, had been secured by the cession of Sienna. The duke of Parma, who had coquetted for some time with the French monarch, was won over to Spain by the restoration of Placentia, of which he had been despoiled by Charles the Fifth. His young son, Alexander Farnese, was sent as a hostage, to be educated under Philip's eye, at the court of Madrid, the fruits of which training were to be gathered in the war of the Netherlands, where he proved himself the most consummate captain of his time. Venice, from her lonely watch-tower on the Adriatic, re- garded at a distance the political changes of Italy, prepared to profit by any chances in her own favour. Her conservative policy, however, prompted her to maintain things as far as possible in their present position. She was most desirous that the existing equilibrium should not be disturbed by the intro- duction of any new power on the theatre of Italy ; and she had readily acquiesced in the invitation of the duke of Alva to mediate an accommodation be- tween the contending parties. This pacific temper found little encouragement from the belligerent pontiff who had brought the war upon Italy. 154 WAR WITH THE POPE. IBOOK i. The advice of the duke of Ferrara, however judi- cious in itself, was not relished by his son-in-law, the duke of Guise, who was anxious to press forward to Naples as the proper scene of his conquests. The pope, too, called on him, in the most peremptory terms, to hasten his march, as Naples was the object of the expedition. The French commander had the address to obtain instructions to the same effect from, his own court, by which he affected to be decided. His Italian father-in-law was so much disgusted by this determination that he instantly quitted the camp and drew off his six thousand soldiers, declaring that he needed all he could muster to protect his own states against the troops of Milan. 2 Thus shorn of his Italian reinforcement, the duke of Guise resumed his march, and, entering the States of the Church, followed down the shores of the Adriatic, passing through Ravenna and Rimini ; then, striking into the interior, he halted at Gesi, where he found good accommodations for his men and abundant forage for the horses. Leaving his army in their pleasant quarters, he soon after repaired to Rome, in order to arrange with the pope the plan of the campaign. He was graciously received by Paul, who treated him with distinguished honour as the loyal champion of the Church. Emboldened by the presence of the French army in his dominions, the pope no longer hesitated to proclaim the renewal of the war against Spain. The Roman levies, scattered over the Campagna,. assaulted the places but feebly garrisoned by the Spaniards. Most of them, including Tivoli and Ostia, were retaken ; arid the haughty bosom of the 3 Nores, Gucrra fra Paolo Quarto e Filippo Secondo, MS. An- drea, Guerra do Roma, p. 165. CHAP, vj.] OPERATIONS !>? THE ABIIUZZI. 155 pontiff swelled with exultation as lie anticipated the speedy extinction of the Spanish rule in Italy. After some days consumed in the Vatican, Guise rejoined his army at Gesi. He was fortified by abundant assurances of aid from his holiness, and he was soon joined by one of Paul's nephews, the duke of Montebello, with a slender reinforcement. It was determined to cross the Neapolitan frontier at once, and to begin operations by the siege of Campli. This was a considerable place, situated in the midst of a fruitful territory. The native population had been greatly increased by the influx of people from the surrounding country, who had taken refuge in Campli as a place of security. But they did little for its defence. It did not long resist the impe- tuosity of the French, who carried the town by storm. The men all who made resistance were put to the sword. The women were abandoned to- the licentious soldiery. The houses, first pillaged, were then fired ; and the once flourishing place was- soon converted into a heap of smouldering ruins. The booty was great, for the people of the neigh- bourhood had brought -their effects thither for safety, and a large amount of gold and silver was found in the dwellings. The cellars, too, were filled with delicate wines ; and the victors abandoned themselves to feasting and wassail, while the wretched citizens wandered like spectres amidst the ruins of their ancient habitations. 3 The fate of Italy, in the sixteenth century, was hard indeed. She had advanced far beyond the age in most of the arts which belong to a civilised com- * Norcs.Guoi-ra fra Paolo Qnsir- De Thou, JUstoire universolle, to e Filippo Socondo, MS. An- tom. iii. ]>. 8G. Cabrera., Filipe- drca, Guerra do Roma, p. 220, Scguudo, lib. iii. cap. '.'. 156 WAR AY ITU THE POPE. [BOOK i. munity. Her cities, even lier smaller towns, through- out the country, displayed the evidences of architec- tural taste. They were filled with stately temples and elegant mansions ; the squares were ornamented with fountains of elaborate workmanship ; the rivers were spanned by arches of solid masonry. The private as well as public edifices were furnished with costly works of art, of which the value was less in the material than in the execution. A generation had scarcely passed since Michael Angelo and Raphael had produced their miracles of sculpture and of painting ; and now Correggio, Paul Veronese, and Titian were filling their country with those immortal productions which have been the delight and the despair of succeeding ages. Letters kept pace with art. The magical strains of Ariosto had scarcely died away when a greater bard had arisen in Tasso, to take up the tale of Christian chivalry. This extraordinary combination of elegant art and literary culture was the more remarkable from the contrast presented by the condition of the rest of Europe, then first rising into the light of a higher civilisation, But, with all this intellectual progress, Italy was sadly deficient in some qualities found among the hardier sons of the north, and which seem indis- pensable to a national existence. She could boast of her artists, her poets, her politicians ; but of few real patriots, few who rested their own hopes on the in- dependence of their country. The freedom of the old Italian republics had passed away. There was scarcely one that had not surrendered its liberties to a master. The principle of union for defence against foreign aggression was as little understood as the principle of political liberty at home. The states were jealous of one another. The cities were jealous CHAP, vi.] SIEGE OF CIVITELLA. 157 of one another, and were often torn by factions within themselves. Thus their individual strength was alike ineffectual whether for self-government or self-defence. The gift of beauty which Italy pos- sessed in so extraordinary a degree only made her a more tempting prize to the spoiler, whom she had not the strength or the courage to resist. The Turkish corsair fell upon her coasts, plundered her maritime towns, and swept off their inhabitants into slavery. The European, scarcely less barbarous, crossed the Alps, and, striking into the interior, fell upon the towns and hamlets that lay sheltered among the hills and in the quiet valleys, and converted them into heaps of ruins. Ill fares it with the land which, in an age of violence, has given itself up to the study of the graceful and the beautiful, to the neglect of those hardy virtues which can alone secure a nation's independence. From the smoking ruins of Campli, Guise led his troops against Civitella, a town but a few miles dis- tant. It was built round a conical hill, the top of which was crowned by a fortress well lined with artillery. It was an important place for the com- mand of the frontier, and the duke of Alva had thrown into it a garrison of twelve hundred men, under the direction of an experienced officer, the marquis of Santa Fiore. The French general con- sidered that the capture of this post, so soon following the sack of Campli, would spread terror among the Neapolitans, and encourage those of the Angevine faction to declare openly in his favour. As the place refused to surrender, he prepared to besiege it in form, throwing up entrenchments, and only waiting for his heavy guns to begin active hos- tilities. He impatiently expected their arrival for 153 WAR WITH THE POPE. [BOOK L some days, when he caused four batteries to be erected, to operate simultaneously against four quarters of the town. After a brisk cannonade, which was returned by the besieged with equal spirit, and with still greater loss to the enemy, from his exposed position, the duke, who had opened a breach in the works, prepared for a general assault. It was conducted with the usual impetuosity of the French, but was repulsed with courage by the Italians. More than once the assailants were brought up to the breach, and as often driven back with slaughter. The duke, convinced that he had been too precipitate, was obliged to sound a retreat, and again renewed the cannonade from his batteries, keeping it up night and day, though, from the vertical direction of the fire, with comparatively little effect. The French camp offered a surer mark to the guns of Civitella. The women of the place displayed an intrepidity equal to that of the men. Armed with buckler and cuirass, they might be seen by the side of their hus- bands and brothers, in the most exposed situations on the ramparts ; and, as one was shot down, another stepped forward to take the place of her fallen com- rade/ The fate of Campli had taught them to expect no mercy from the victor, and they preferred death to dishonour. As day after day passed on in the same monotonous manner, Guise's troops became weary of their inactive life. The mercurial spirits of the French soldier, which overleaped every obstacle in his path, were often found to evaporate in the tedium of protracted operations, where there was neither incident nor excitement. Such a state of things was better 4 Andrea, Guerra de Koma, p. 226. CHAP, vi.] SIEGE OF CIVITELLA. 159 suited to the patient and persevering Spaniard. The men began openly to murmur against the pope, whom they regarded as the cause of their troubles. They were led by priests, they said, " who knew much more of praying than of fighting." 4 Guise himself had causes of disgust with the pontiff which he did not care to conceal. For all the splendid promises of his holiness, he had received few supplies either of men, ammunition, or money ; and of the Angevine lords not one had ventured to declare in his favour or to take service under his banner. He urged all this with much warmth on the pope's nephew, the duke of Montebello. The Italian recriminated as warmly, till the dialogue was abruptly ended, it is said, by the duke of Guise throwing a napkin, or, according to some accounts, a dish, at the head of his ally.* However this may be, Montebello left the camp in disgust and returned to Rome. But the defender of the Church was too important a person to quarrel with, and Paul deemed it prudent, for the present at least, to stifle his re- sentment. Meanwhile heavy rains set in, causing great an- noyance to the French troops in their quarters, spoiling their provisions, and doing great damage to their powder. The same rain did good service to the besieged, by filling their cisterns. "God," exclaimed the profane Guise, " must have turned Spaniard." 7 While these events were taking place in the north of Naples, the duke of Alva, in the south, was making active preparations for the defence of the kingdom. 8 Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, * " Encendido de colera, vino a torn. x. p. 40. dezir, Que Dios se auia baelto * Sismondi, Histoire des Fran- Espafiol." Andrea, Guerra de $ais, torn, xviii. p. 39. Eoma, p. 228. 1GO WAR WITH THE POPE. [BOOK i- He had seen with satisfaction the time consumed by his antagonist, first at Gesi, and afterwards at the siege of Civitella ; and he had fully profited by the delay. On reaching the city of Naples, he had sum- moned a parliament of the great barons, had clearly exposed the necessities of the state, and demanded an extraordinary loan of two millions of ducats. The loyal nobles readily responded to the call ; but, as not more than one-third of the whole amount could be instantly raised, an order was obtained from the council, requiring the governors of the several pro- vinces to invite the great ecclesiastics in their districts to advance the remaining two-thirds of the loan. In case they did not consent with a good grace, they were to be forced to comply by the seizure of their revenues. 8 By another decree of the council, the gold and silver plate belonging to the monasteries and churches throughout the kingdom, after being valued, was to be taken for the use of the government. A quantity of it, belonging to a city in the Abruzzi, was in fact put up to be sent to Naples ; but it caused such a tumult among the people that it was found expedient to suspend proceedings in the matter for the present. The viceroy still further enlarged his resources by the sequestration of the revenues belonging to such ecclesiastics as resided in Rome. By these various expedients the duke of Alva found himself in posses- sion of sufficient funds for carrying on the war as he desired. He mustered a force of twenty-two, or, as some accounts state, twenty-five thousand men. Of these three thousand only were Spanish veterans, five thousand were Germans, and the remainder Italians, ' Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, torn. x. p. 35. . vi.] SIEGE OF CIVITELLA. 161 chiefly from the Abruzzi, for the most part raw recruits, on whom little reliance was to be placed. He had besides seven hundred men-at-arms and fifteen hundred light horse. His army therefore, though, as far as the Italians were concerned, inferior in dis- cipline to that of his antagonist, was greatly superior in numbers. 9 In a council of war that was called, some were of opinion that the viceroy should act on the defensive, and await the approach of the enemy in the neigh- bourhood of the capital. But Alva looked on this as a timid course, arguing distrust in himself, and likely to infuse distrust into his followers. He determined to march at once against the enemy and prevent his gaining a permanent foothold in the kingdom. Pescara, on the Adriatic, was appointed as the place of rendezvous for the army, and Alva quitted the city of Naples for that place on the eleventh of April, 1557. Here he concentrated his whole strength, and received his artillery and military stores, which were brought to him by water. Having reviewed his troops, he began his march to the north. On reaching Rio Umano, he detached a strong body of troops to get possession of Giulia Nuova, a town of some importance lately seized by the enemy. Alva supposed, and it seems correctly, that the French commander had secured this as a good place of retreat in case of his failure before Civitella, since its position was such as would enable him readily to keep up his communications with the sea. The French garrison sallied out against the Spaniards, but were driven back with loss ; and, as 9 Nores,Guerrafra Paolo Quar- drea, Guerra de Roma, p. 237. to e Filippo Secundo, MS.- -An- Ossorio, Albce Vita, torn. ii. p. 6i. VOL. I. M 162 WAR WITH THE POPE. [BOOK i. Alva's troops followed close in their rear, the enemy fled in confusion through the streets of the city, and left it in the hands of the victors. In this common dious position the viceroy for the present took up his quarters. On the approach of the Spanish army the duke of Guise saw the necessity of bringing his operations against Civitella to a decisive issue. He accordingly, as a last effort, prepared for a general assault. But, although it was conducted with great spirit, it was repulsed with still greater by the garrison ; and the French commander, deeply mortified at his repeated failures, saw the necessity of abandoning the siege. He could not effect even this without sustaining some loss from the brave defenders of Civitella, who sallied out on his rear as he drew off his discomfited troops to the neighbouring valley of Nireto. Thus ended the siege of Civitella, which, by the confidence it gave to the loyal Neapolitans throughout the country, as well as by the leisure it afforded to Alva for mustering his resources, may be said to have decided the fate of the war. The siege lasted twenty-two days, during fourteen of which the guns from the four batteries of the French had played incessantly on the beleaguered city. The viceroy was filled with admiration at the heroic conduct of the inhabitants, and, in token of respect for it, granted some important immunities to be enjoyed for ever by the citizens of Civitella. The women, too, came in for their share of the honours, as who- ever married a maiden of Civitella was to be allowed the same immunities, from whatever part of the country he might come. 10 10 The particulars of the siege Guerra f ra Paolo Quarto e Filippo of Civitella may be found in Nores, Secondo, MS., Andrea, Guerra CHAP, vi.] SIEGE OF CIVITELLA. 163 The two armies were now quartered within a few miles of each other. Yet no demonstration was made, on either side, of bringing matters to the issue of a battle. This was foreign to Alva's policy, and was not to be expected from Guise, so inferior in strength to his antagonist. On the viceroy's quitting Giulia Nuova, however, to occupy a position somewhat nearer the French quarters, Guise did not deem it prudent to remain there any longer, but, breaking up his camp, retreated, with his whole army, across the Tronto, and, without further delay, evacuated the kingdom of Naples. The Spanish general made no attempt to pursue, or even to molest his adversary in his retreat. For this he has been severely criticised, more particularly as the passage of a river offers many points of advantage to an assailant. But, in truth, Alva never resorted to fighting when he could gain his end without it. In an appeal to arms, however favourable may be the odds, there must always be some doubt as to the result. But the odds here were not so decisively on the side of the Spaniards as they appeared. The duke of Guise carried off his battalions in admirable order, protecting his rear with the flower of his infantry and with his cavalry, in which last he was much superior to his enemy. Thus the parts of the hostile armies likely to have been brought into immediate conflict would have afforded no certain assurance of success to the Spa- niards. Alva's object had been not so much to defeat the French as to defend Naples. This he had now achieved, with but little loss ; and, rather than incur de Roma, p. 222, et seq., Ossorio, cap. 9, De Thou, Histoire uni- Albse Vita, torn. ii. pp. 53-59, verselle, torn. iii. p. 87, et aeq., Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. iii. etc. M 2 164 TVAR WITH THE POPE. [BOOK r. the risk of greater, he was willing, in the words of an old proverb, to make a bridge of silver for the flying foe. 11 In the words of Alva himself, " he had no idea of staking the kingdom of Naples against the embroidered coat of the duke of Guise." 12 On the retreat of the French, Alva laid siege at once to two or three places, of no great note, in the capture of which he and his lieutenants were guilty of the most deliberate cruelty ; though in the judg- ment of the chronicler, it was not cruelty, but a wholesome severity, designed as a warning to such petty places not to defy the royal authority. 13 Soon after this, Alva himself crossed the Tronto, and took up a position not far removed from the French, who lay in the neighbourhood of Ascoli. Although the two armies were but a few miles asunder, there was no attempt at hostilities, with the exception of a skirmish in which but a small number on either side were engaged, and which terminated in favour of the Spaniards. This state of things was at length ended by a summons from the pope to the French commander to draw nearer to Rome, as he needed his presence for the protection of the capital. The duke, glad, no doubt, of so honourable an apology for his retreat, and satisfied with having so long held his ground against a force superior to his own, fell back, in good order, upon Tivoli, which, as it commanded the great avenues to Rome on the east and afforded good accommodations for his troops, he 11 " Quiso guardar el precepto Vera y Figueroa, Kesultas de la de gnerra que 63 : Hazer la puente Vida del Duque de Alva, p. 66. de plata al enemigo, que se va." 13 " Quiso usar alii desta seve- Aaurea, Guerra de Roma, p. ridad, no por crueza, sino para dar 285. exemplo a los otros, que no se 12 " No pensava jugar el Reyno atreuiesse un lugarejo a defen- de Napoles contra una casaca de derse de un exercito real." An- brocado del Duque de Guisa." drea, Guerra de Roma, p. 292. CHAP, vi.] SIEGE OF CIVITELLA. 165 made his head-quarters for the present. The manner in which the duke of Alva adhered to the plan of defensive operations settled at the beginning of the campaign, and that, too, under circumstances which would have tempted most men to depart from such a plan, is a remarkable proof of his perseverance and inflexible spirit. It proves, moreover, the empire which he held over the minds of his followers, that, under such circumstances, he could maintain implicit obedience to his orders. The cause of the pope's alarm was the rapid suc- cesses of Alva's confederate, Mark Antony Colonna, who had defeated the papal levies, and taken one place after another in the Campagna, till the Romans began to tremble for their capital. Colonna was now occupied with the siege of Segni, a place of considerable importance ; and the duke of Alva, relieved of the presence of the French, resolved to march to his support. He accordingly recrossed the Tronto, and, passing through the Neapolitan ter- ritory, halted for some days at Sora. He then traversed the frontier, but had not penetrated far into the Campagna when he received tidings of the fall of Segni. That strong place, after a gallant defence, had been taken by storm. All the usual atrocities were perpetrated by the brutal soldiery. Even the sanctity of the convents did not save them from pollution. It was in vain that Colonna interfered to prevent these excesses. The voice of authority was little heeded in the tempest of passion. It mattered little, in that age, into whose- hands a captured city fell ; Germans, French, Italians,, it was all the same. The wretched town, so lately nourishing, it might be, in all the pride of luxury and wealth, was claimed as the fair spoil of the 1 66 WAR WITH THE POPE. [COOK i. victors. It was their prize-money, which served in default of payment of their long arrears, usually long in those days ; and it was a mode of payment as convenient for the general as for his soldiers. 14 The fall of Segni caused the greatest consternation in the capital. The next thing, it was said, would be to assault the capital itself. Paul the Fourth, incapable of fear, was filled with impotent fury. " They have taken Segni," he said, in a conclave of the cardinals ; " they have murdered the people, destroyed their property, fired their dwellings. Worse than this, they will next pillage Palliano. Even this will not fill up the measure of their cruelty. They will sack the city of Borne itself; nor will they reapect even my person. But, for myself, I long to be with Christ, and await without fear the crown of martyrdom." 15 Paul the Fourth, after having brought this tempest upon Italy, began to consider himself a martyr ! Yet even in this extremity, though urged on all sides to make concessions, he would abate nothing of his haughty tone. He insisted, as a sine qua non, that Alva should forthwith leave the Boman territory and restore his conquests. When these conditions were reported to the duke, he coolly remarked that " his holiness seemed to be under the mistake of supposing that his own army was before Naples, instead of the Spanish army being at the gates of Borne." 16 14 Andrea, Guerra de Roma, p. y yo, que desseo ser co Christo, 302. Ossorio, Albas Vita, torn. li. aguardo sin miedo la corona del p. 96. Nores, Guerra fra Paolo martirio." Andrea, Guerra de Quarto e Filippo Secondo, MS. Roma, p. 303. " Si mostro pron- 14 " Los enemigos ban tornado tissimo e disposto di sostenere il a Sena con saco, muerte, y fuego. martirio." Nores, Guerra fra Pao- . . . Entraran en Roma, y la sa- lo Quarto e Filippo Secondo, MS. queran, y prenderan a mi persona ; w Andrea,GuerradeRoma,p.306. CHAP, vi 1 ROME MENACED BY THE SPANIARDS. 167 After the surrender of Segni, Alva effected a junc- tion with the Italian forces, and marched to the town of Colona, in the Campagna, where for the present he quartered his army. Here he formed the plan of an enterprise the adventurous character of which it seems difficult to reconcile with his habitual caution. This was a night-assault on Rome. He did not communicate his whole purpose to his officers, but simply ordered them to prepare to march on the following night, the twenty-sixth of August, against a neighbouring city, the name of which he did not disclose. It was a wealthy place, he said, but he was most anxious that no violence should be offered to the inhabitants, in either their persons or pro- perty. The soldiers should be forbidden even to enter the dwellings ; but he promised that the loss of booty should be compensated by increase of pay. The men were to go lightly armed, without baggage, and with their shirts over their mail, affording the best means of recognising one another in the dark. The night was obscure, but unfortunately a driving storm of rain set in, which did such damage to the roads as greatly to impede the march, and the dawn was nigh at hand when the troops reached the place of destination. To their great surprise, they then understood that the object of attack was Rome itself. Alva halted at a short distance from the city, in a meadow, and sent forward a small party to recon- noitre the capital, which seemed to slumber in quiet. But on a nearer approach the Spaniards saw a great light, as if occasioned by a multitude of torches, that seemed glancing to and fro within the walls, inferring some great stir among the inhabitants of that quarter. Soon after this, a few horsemen were 108 WAR WITH THE TOPE. [BOOK i. seen to issue from one of the gates and ride off in the direction of the French camp at Tivoli. The duke, on receiving the report, was satisfied that the Romans had, in some way or other, got notice of his design ; that the horsemen had gone to give the alarm to the French in Tivoli ; and that he should soon find himself between two enemies. Not relish- ing this critical position, he at once abandoned his design, and made a rapid countermarch on the place he had left the preceding evening. In his conjectures the duke was partly in the right and partly in the wrong. The lights which were seen glancing within the town were owing to the watchfulness of Caraffa, who, from some apprehen- sions of an attack, in consequence of information he had received of preparations in the Spanish camp, was patrolling this quarter before daybreak to see that all was safe ; but the horsemen who left the gates at that early hour in the direction of the French camp were far from thinking that hostile battalions, lay within gunshot of their walls. 17 Such is the account we have of this strange affair. Some historians assert that it was not the duke's- design to attack Rome, but only to make a feint, and, by the panic which he would create, to afford the pope a good pretext for terminating the war. In support of this, it is said that he told his son Fer- dinand, just before his departure, that he feared it would be impossible to prevent the troops from sacking the city if they once set foot in it. 18 Other 17 Nores, Guerra fra Paolo ra, Filipe Scgundo, lib. iv. cap. Quarto e Filippo Secondo, MS. 11. Andrea, Gnerra de Roma, pp. 18 " Dixo a Don Fernando do 306-311. Rolazione di Bernardo Toledo su hijo estas pulabras: Nava^ero. Ossorio, Albas Vita, Temo que hemos de saquear a torn. li. p. 117, et seq. Cabre- Roma, y no querria." Andrea* Guorra de Roma, p. 312. CHAP. vi.J ROME MENACED BY THE SPANIARDS. 1C9 accounts state that it was no feint, but a surprise meditated in good earnest, and defeated only by the apparition of the lights and the seeming state of preparation in which the place was found. Indeed, one writer asserts that he saw the scaling-ladders, brought by a corps of two hundred arquebusiers, who were appointed to the service of mounting the walls. " The Venetian minister, Navagero, assures us that Alva's avowed purpose was to secure the person of his holiness, which he thought must bring the war at once to a close. The duke's uncle, the cardinal of Sangiacomo, had warned his nephew, according to- the same authority, r.ot to incur the fate of their countrymen who had served under the Constable de Bourbon at the sack of Rome, all of whom, sooner or later, had come to a miserable end. 20 This warning may have made some impression on the mind of Alva, who, however inflexible by nature, had con- scientious scruples of his own, and was, no doubt, accessible as others of his time to arguments founded on superstition. We cannot but admit that the whole affair the preparations for the assault, the counsel to the officers, and the sudden retreat on suspicion of a discovery all look very much like earnest. It is quite possible that the duke, as the Venetian asserts, may have intended nothing beyond the seizure of the pope. But that the matter would have stopped there no one will believe. Once fairly within the walls, even 19 Ibid., ubi supra. avete potuto ; e vi esorto che nor> 20 " II Cardinal Sangiacomo, lo facciate mai ; perche, tutti suozio, dopola tregua di quaranta quelli dclla nostra nazione che si giorni, fu a vendcrlo e gli dissc : trovarono all' ultimo sacco, souo Figliuol mio, avete fatto bene a capitati male." llclazione di Ber- 11011 cntrarc in Roma, come so che uardo Navagero. 170 WAR WITH THE POPE. [*oo*. *. the authority of Alva would have been impotent to restrain the license of the soldiery; and the same scenes might have been acted over again as at the taking of Rome under the Constable de Bourbon, or on the capture of the ancient capital by the Goths. When the Romans, on the following morning, learned the peril they had been in during the night, and that the enemy had been prowling round, like wolves about a sheepfbld, ready to rush in upon their sleeping victims, the whole city was seized with a panic. All the horrors of the sack by the Constable de Bourbon rose up to their imaginations or rather memories, for many there were who were old enough to remember that terrible day. They loudly cla- moured for peace before it was too late ; and they pressed the demand in a manner which showed that the mood of the people was a dangerous one. Strozzi, the most distinguished of the Italian captains, plainly told the pope that he had no choice but to come to terms with the enemy at once. 21 Paul was made more sensible of this by finding now, in his greatest need, the very arm withdrawn from him on which he most leaned for support. Tidings had reached the French camp of the decisive victory gained by the Spaniards at St. Quentin, and they were followed by a summons from the king to the duke of Guise to return with his army, as speedily as possible, for the protection of Paris. The duke, who was probably not unwilling to close a campaign which had been so barren of laurels to the French, declared that " no chains were strong enough to keep him in Ttaly." He at once repaired to the Vatican, and there laid before his holiness the com- sl Eclazionc cli Bernardo Navagcro. CHAP, vi.] PAUL CONSENTS TO PEACE. 171 mands of his master. The case was so pressing that Paul could not in reason oppose the duke's departure. But he seldom took counsel of reason, and in a burst of passion he exclaimed to Guise, " Go, then ; and take with you the consciousness of having done little for your king, still less for the Church, and nothing for your own honour. "* Negotiations were now opened for an accommoda- tion between the belligerents, at the town of Cavi. Cardinal Caraffa appeared in behalf of his uncle, the pope, and the duke of Alva for the Spaniards, Through the mediation of Venice, the terms of the treaty were finally settled, on the fourteenth of Sep- tember, although the inflexible pontiff still insisted on concessions nearly as extravagant as those he had demanded before. It was stipulated in a preliminary article that the duke of Alva should publicly ask pardon, and receive absolution, for having borne arms against the holy see. " Sooner than surrender this point," said Paul, " I would see the whole world perish ; and this, not so much for my own sake as for the honour of Jesus Christ." 23 It was provided by the treaty that the Spanish troops should be immediately withdrawn from the territory of the Church, that all the places taken from the Church should be at once restored, and that the French army should be allowed a free passage to their own country. Philip did not take so good care of his allies as Paul did of his. Colonna, who had done the cause such good service, was not even reinstated in the possessions of which the pope had deprived him. But a secret article provided that his claims should be determined hereafter by the '- Sismondi, Histoire des Fran- S3 Giannone, Istoria di Napoli ^ais, torn, xviii. p. 41. torn. x. p. 43. ] 72 WAR WITli THE POPE. [BOOK u joint arbitration of the pontiff and the king of Spain." The treaty was, in truth, one which, as Alva bitterly remarked, "seemed to have been dictated by the vanquished rather than by the victor." It came hard to the duke to execute it, especially the clause relating to himself. " Were I the king," said he, haughtily, " his holiness should send one of his nephews to Brussels, to sue for my pardon, instead of my general's suing for his." 25 But Alva had no power to consult his own will in the matter. The orders from Philip were peremptory, to come to some terms, if possible, with the pope. Philip had long since made up his own mind that neither profit nor honour was to be derived from a war with the Church, a war not only repugnant to his own feelings, but which placed him in a false position, and one most prejudicial to his political interests. The news of peace filled the Romans with a joy great in proportion to their former consternation. Nor was this joy much diminished by a calamity which at any other time would have thrown the city into mourning. The Tiber, swollen by the autumnal rains, rose above its banks, sweeping away houses and trees in its fury, drowning men and cattle, and breaking down a large piece of the wall that sur- rounded the city. It was well that this accident had not occurred a few days earlier, when the enemy was at the gates. * 24 Korea, Guerra fra Paolo stato in suo luogo, et egli nel mio. Quarto e Filippo Secondo, MS. il Cardinal Carafa sarebbe andato- Andrea, Guerra de Roma, p. 314 in Fiandra a far quelle etesse De Thou, Histoire universelle, eommissioni a sua Maefta che io- torn. iii. p. 128. Giannone, Is- vengo hora di fare a sua Santita." toria di Napoli, torn. x. p. 45. Leti, Vita di Filippo II., torn. L Ossorio, Albas Vita, torn. ii. p. 131. p. 293. M " Hoggi il mio Re* ha fatto J4 Relazione de Bernardo Nava- una gran Bciocchezza, e se io fossi gero. CHAP, vi.] PAUL CONSENTS TO PEACE. 173 On the twenty-seventh of September, 1557, the duke of Alva made his public entrance into Home. He was escorted by the papal guard, dressed in its gay uniform. It was joined by the other troops in the city, who on this holiday service did as well as better soldiers. On entering the gates, the concourse was swelled by thousands of citizens, who made the air ring with their acclamations, as they saluted the Spanish general with the titles of Defender and Liberator of the capital. The epithets might be thought an indifferent compliment to their own government. In this state the procession moved along, like the triumph of a conqueror returned from his victorious campaigns to receive the wreath of laurel in the capitol. On reaching the Vatican, the Spanish commander fell on his knees before the pope and asked his pardon for the offence of bearing arms against the Church. Paul, soothed by this show of concession, readily granted absolution. He paid the duke the distin- guished honour of giving him a seat at his own table ; while he complimented the duchess by sending her the consecrated golden rose, reserved only for royal persons and illustrious champions of the Church. 37 Yet the haughty spirit of Alva saw in all this more of humiliation than of triumph. His conscience, like that of his master, was greatly relieved by being dis- charged from the responsibilities of such a war. But he had also a military conscience, which seemed to be quite as much scandalised by the conditions of the peace. He longed to be once more at Naples, 97 Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, MS. Leti, Vita di Filippo IT., torn. x. p. 45. Nores, Guerra fra torn. i. p. 293. Andrea, Guerra Paolo Quarto e Filippo Secondo, de Koma, p. 316. 174 WAR WITH THE TOPE. [BOOK i. where the state of things imperatively required his presence. When he returned there, he found abundant occupation in reforming the abuses which had grown out of the late confusion, and especially in restoring, as far as possible, the shattered condition of the finances, a task hardly less difficult than that of driving out the French from Naples. 88 Thus ended the war with Paul the Fourth, a war into which that pontiff had plunged without prepara- tion, which he had conducted without judgment and terminated without honour. Indeed, it brought little honour to any of the parties concerned in it, but, on the other hand, a full measure of those calamities which always follow in the train of war. The French met with the same fate which uniformly befell them when, lured by the phantom of military glory, they crossed the Alps to lay waste the garden of Italy, in the words of their own proverb, " the grave of the French." The duke of Guise, after a vexatious campaign, in which it was his greatest glory that he had sustained no actual defeat, thought himself fortunate in being allowed a free passage, with the shattered remnant of his troops, back to his own country. Naples, besides the injuries she had sustained on her borders, was burdened with a debt which continued to press heavily for generations to come. Nor were her troubles ended by the peace. In the spring of the following year, 1558, a Turkish squadron appeared off Calabria ; and, running down 18 Charles the Fifth, who re- sent to him, saying that he already ceived tidings of the peace at knew enough ; and for a long Ynste, was as much disgusted time after " he was heard to mut- with the terms of it as the duke ter between his teeth," in a tone himself. He even vented his in- which plainly showed the nature dignation against the duke, as if of his thoughts. Eetiro y Es- he had been the author of the tancia, ap. Mignet, Charles-Quint, peace. He would not consent to p. 307. read the despatches which Alva CHAP, vi.] PAUL CONSENTS TO PEACE. 1?5 the coast, the Moslems made a landing on several points, sacked some of the principal towns, butchered the inhabitants, or swept them off into hopeless slavery. 29 Such were some of the blessed fruits of the alliance between the grand seignior and the head of the Catholic Church. Solyman had come into the league at the invitation of the Christian princes. But it was not found so easy to lay the spirit of mischief as it had been to raise it. The weight of the war, however, fell, as was just, most heavily on the author of it. Paul, from his palace of the Vatican, could trace the march of the enemy by the smoking ruins of the Campagna. He saw his towns sacked, his troops scattered, his very capital menaced, his subjects driven by ruinous taxes to the verge of rebellion. Even peace, when it did come, secured to him none of the objects for which he had contended ; while he had the humiliating con- sciousness that he owed this peace, not to his own arms, but to the forbearance or the superstition of his enemies. One lesson he might have learned, that the thunders of the Vatican could no longer strike terror into the hearts of princes, as in the days of the crusades. In this war Paul had called in the French to aid him in driving out the Spaniards. The French, he said, might easily be dislodged hereafter ; " but the Spaniards were like dog-grass, which is sure to strike root wherever it is cast." This was the last great effort that was made to overturn the Spanish power in Naples ; and the sceptre of that kingdom con- tinued to be transmitted in the dynasty of Castile with as little opposition as that of any other portion of its broad empire. 89 Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, torn, x, p. 46. 1 76 WAR WITH THE POPE. [BOOK u Being thus relieved of his military labours, Paul set about those great reforms, the expectation of which had been the chief inducement to his election. But first he gave a singular proof of self-command, in the reforms which he introduced into his own family. Previously to his election, no one, as we have seen, had declaimed more loudly than Paul against nepotism, the besetting sin of his prede- cessors, who, most of them old men, and without children, naturally sought a substitute for these in their nephews and those nearest of kin. Paul's partiality for his nephews was made the more con- spicuous by the profligacy of their characters. Yet the real bond which held the parties together was hatred of the Spaniards. When peace came, and this bond of union was dissolved, Paul readily opened his ears to the accusations against his kinsmen. Convinced at length of their unworthiness and of the flagrant manner in which they had abused his confidence, he deprived the Caraffas of all their offices, and banished them to the farthest part of his dominions. By the sterner sentence of his successor, two of the brothers, the duke and the cardinal, perished by the hand of the public exe- cutioner. 30 After giving this proof of mastery over his own feelings, Paul addressed himself to those reforms which had engaged his attention in early life. He tried to enforce a stricter discipline and greater regard for morals, both in the religious orders and the secular clergy. Above all, he directed his efforts against the Protestant heresy, which had begun to show itself in the head of Christendom, as it had 80 Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, Paolo Quarto e Filippo Secondo, torn. x. p. 50. Notes, Gucrra fra MS. CHAP, vi.] PAUL'S SUBSEQUENT CAREER. 1?7 long since done in the extremities. The course he adopted was perfectly characteristic. Scorning the milder methods of argument and persuasion, he resorted wholly to persecution. The Inquisition, he declared, was the true battery with which to assail the defences of the heretic. He suited the action so well to the word that in a short time the prisons of the Holy Office were filled with the accused. In the general distrust no one felt himself safe, and a panic was created scarcely less than that felt by the inhabi- tants when the Spaniards were at their gates. Happily, their fears were dispelled by the death of Paul, which took place suddenly, from a fever, on the eighteenth of August, 1559, in the eighty-third year of his age, and fifth of his pontificate. Before the breath was out of his body, the populace rose en masse, broke open the prisons of the Inquisition, and liberated all who were confined there. They next attacked the house of the grand inquisitor, which they burned to the ground ; and that func- tionary narrowly escaped with his life. They tore down the scutcheons, bearing the arms of the family of Caraffa, which were affixed to the public edifices. They wasted their rage on the senseless statue of the pope, which they overturned, and, breaking off the head, rolled it, amidst the groans and execrations of the bystanders, into the Tiber. Such was the fate of the reformer who, in his reforms, showed no touch of humanity, no sympathy with the sufferings of his species. 81 Yet, with all its defects, there is something in the character of Paul the Fourth that may challenge our admiration. His project renewing that of Julius 81 Nores, Gnerra fra Paolo Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, torn. Quarto e Filippo Secondo, ilS. x. p. 50. VOL. I. N 178 WAR WITH TIIE POPE. [BOOK i. the Second of driving out the barbarians from Italy was nobly conceived, though impracticable. " What- ever others may feel, I at least will have some care for my country," he once said to the Venetian ambassador. " If my voice irt ufchoeded, it will at least be a consolation to me to reflect that it has been raised in such a cause, and that it will one day be said that an old Italian, on the verge of the grave, who might be thought to have nothing better to do than to give himself up to repose and weep over his sins, had his soul filled with this lofty design. " 32 ra " Delia quale se altri non cesse nn giorno : che nn vecchio voleva aver cura, voleya alraeno italiano che, essendo vicino alia averla esso ; e sebbene i suoi con- morte, doveva attendere a riposare sigli non fossero uditi, avrebbe e a piangere i snoi peccati, avesse almeno la coiisolazione di avere avnto tanto alti disigni." Rela- avuto quest' animo, e one si di- zione di Bernardo Navagero. CHAP. VII.] 179 CHAPTER VII. WAR WITH FRANCE. England joins in the War. Philip's Preparations. Siege of St. Quentin. French Army routed. Storming of St. Quentin. Suc- cesses of the Spaniards. 1557. WHILE the events related in the preceding chapter were passing in Italy, the war was waged on a larger scale, and with more important results, in the northern provinces of France. As soon as Henry had broken the treaty and sent his army across the Alps, Philip lost no time in assembling his troops, although in so quiet a manner as to attract as little attention as possible. His preparations were such as enabled him not merely to defend the frontier of the Netherlands, but to carry the war into the enemy's country. He despatched his confidential minister, Ruy Gomez, to Spain, for supplies both of men and money ; instructing him to visit his father, Charles the Fifth, and, after acquainting him with the state of affairs, to solicit his aid in raising the necessary funds. 1 Philip had it much at heart to bring England into the war. During his stay in the Low Countries he was in constant communication with the English o 1 Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. Silva a 11 de Marco, 1557, MS. *-. cap. 2. Carta del Key Don Papiers d'litat de Granville, torn. Filipe Segundo a Kuy Gomez de v. pp. 61, 63. N 2 180 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK K cabinet, and took a lively interest in the government of the kingdom. The minutes of the privy council were regularly sent to him, and as regularly returned with his remarks, in his own handwriting, on the margin. In this way he discussed and freely criti- cised every measure of importance ; and on one occasion we find him requiring that nothing of moment should be brought before parliament until it had first been submitted to him. 3 In March, 1557, Philip paid a second visit to Eng- land, where he was received by his fond queen in the most tender and affectionate manner. In her letters she had constantly importuned him to return to her. On that barren eminence which placed her above the reach of friendship, Mary was dependent on her hus- band for sympathy and support. But if the channel of her affections was narrow, it was deep. Philip found no difficulty in obtaining the queen's- consent to his wishes with respect to the war with France. She was induced to this not merely by her habitual deference to her husband, but by natural feelings of resentment at the policy of Henry the Second. She had put up with affronts, more than once, from the French ambassador, in her own court; and her throne had been menaced by repeated con- spiracies, which if not organised had been secretly encouraged by France. Still, it was not easy to bring the English nation to this way of thinking. It had been a particular proviso of the marriage-treaty that England should not be made a party to the war against France ; and subsequent events had tended * Tytler, in his England tinder side of them. The commentaries, Edward VI. and Mary (vol. ii. p. which are all in the royal auto- 483), has printed extracts from graph, seem to be as copious as the the minutes of the council, with minutes themselves, the commentaries of Philip by the -CHAP. VIL] ENGLAND JOINS IN THE WAR. 181 to sharpen the feeling of jealousy rather towards the Spaniards than towards the French. The attempted insurrection of Stafford, who crossed over from the shores of France at this time, did for Philip what possibly neither his own arguments nor the authority of Mary could have done. It was the last of the long series of indignities which had been heaped on the country from the same quarter ; and parliament now admitted that it was no longer con- sistent with its honour to keep terms with a power which persisted in fomenting conspiracies to overturn the government and plunge the nation into civil war.* On the seventh of June a herald was de- spatched, with the formality of ancient and somewhat obsolete usages, to proclaim war against the French king in the presence of his court and in his capital. This was done in such a bold tone of defiance that the hot old Constable Montmorency, whose mode of proceeding, as we have seen, was apt to be summary, strongly urged his master to hang up the envoy on the spot. 3 The state of affairs imperatively demanded Philip's presence in the Netherlands, and after a residence of less than four months in London he bade a final adieu to his disconsolate queen, whose excessive fondness may have been as little to his taste as the coldness of her subjects. Nothing could be more forlorn than the condition 8 " Herrera, Historia general 13. Gaillard, Histoire de la Ri- del Mundo, de XV. Anos del valite de la France et de 1'Espagne Tiempo del Sefior Rey Don Felipe (Paris, 1801), torn. v. p. 243. II. (Valladolid, 1600), lib. iv. cap. [* The question of declaring existence ; the last had been dis- war was debated, and finally de- solved eighteen months before, -elded in the affirmative, by the the next did not meet till the privy council. " There was no ensuing January." ED.] Parliament," says Mr. Froudc,"in 182 WAR WITH FRANCE. [WX>K i. of Mary. Her health wasting under a disease that cheated her with illusory hopes, which made her ridiculous in the eyes of the world ; her throne, her very life, continually menaced by conspiracies, to some of which even her own sister was supposed to be privy; her spirits affected by the consciousness of the decline of her popularity under the gloomy system of persecution into which she had been led by her ghostly advisers; without friends, without children, almost it might be said without a husband, she was alone in the world, more to be commiserated than the meanest subject in her dominions. She has had little commiseration, however, from Protestant writers, who paint her in the odious colours of a fanatic. This has been compensated, it may be thought, by the Roman Catholic historians, who have invested the English queen with all the glories of the saint and the martyr. Experience may convince us that public acts do not always furnish a safe criterion of private character, especially when these acts are connected with religion. In the Catholic Church the individual might seem to be relieved, in some measure, of his moral responsibility, by the system of discipline which intrusts his conscience to the keeping of his spiritual advisers. If the lights of the present day allow no man to plead so humiliating an apology, this was not the case in the first half of the sixteenth century, the age of Mary, when the Reformation had not yet diffused that spirit of inde- pendence in religious speculation which, in some degree at least, has now found its way to the darkest corner of Christendom. A larger examination of contemporary documents, especially of the queen's own correspondence, justifies the inference that, with all the infirmities of a temper CHAP, vn.] PHILIP'S PREPARATIONS. 183 soured by disease and by the difficulties of her posi- tion, she possessed many of the good qualities of her illustrious progenitors, Katharine of Aragon and Isabella of Castile ; the same conjugal tenderness and devotion, the same courage in times of danger, the same earnest desire, misguided as she was, to do her duty, and, unfortunately, the same bigotry. It was indeed most unfortunate, in Mary's case, as in that of the Catholic queen, that this bigotry, from their position as independent sovereigns, should have been attended with such fatal consequences as have left an indelible blot on the history of their reigns.* On his return to Brussels, Philip busied himself with preparations for the campaign. He employed the remittances from Spain to subsidise a large body of German mercenaries. Germany was the country which furnished, at this time, more soldiers of fortune than any other ; men who served indifferently under the banner that would pay them best. They were not exclusively made up of infantry, like the Swiss, but, besides pikemen, lanzknechts, they maintained a stout array of cavalry, reiters, as they were called, " riders," who, together with the cuirass and other defensive armour, carried pistols, probably of rude workmanship, but which made them formidable from the weapon being little known in that day. They were, indeed, the most dreaded troops of their time. The men-at-arms, encumbered with their unwieldly lances, were drawn up in line, and required an open plain to manuoevre to advantage, being easily discom- posed by obstacles ; and once broken, they could hardly rally. But the reiters, each with five or six 4 See Tytler's valuable work, its candid author to conclusions Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary. eminently favourable to the per- The compilation of this work led sonal character of Queen Mary. 1S4 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i. pistols in his belt, were formed into columns of con- siderable depth, the size of their weapons allowing them to go through all the evolutions of light cavalry, in which they were perfectly drilled. Philip's cavalry was further strengthened by a fine corps of Burgundian lances, and by a great number of nobles and cavaliers from Spain, who had come to gather laurels in the fields of France, under the eye of their young sovereign. The flower of his infantry, too, was drawn from Spain ; men who, independently of the indifference to danger and wonderful endurance which made the Spanish soldier inferior to none of the time, were animated by that loyalty to the cause which foreign mercenaries could not feel. In addition to these, the king expected, and soon after received, a reinforcement of eight thousand English under the earl of Pembroke. They might well fight bravely on the soil where the arms of England had won two of the most memorable victories in her history. The whole force, exclusive of the English, amounted to thirty-five thousand foot and twelve thousand horse, besides a good train of battering artillery. 5 The command of this army was given to Emanuel Philibert, prince of Piedmont, better known by his title of duke of Savoy. No man had a larger stake in the contest, for he had been stripped of his dominions by the French, and his recovery of them depended on the issue of the war. Pie was at this * Conf. De Thou, Histoire uni- content himself with what seems verselle, torn. iii. p. 1 18. Cabrera, to be the closest approximation Filipe Segundo, lib. iv. cap. 4, to the truth. Some writers carry Campana, Vita del Re Filippo the Spanish foot to fifty thousand, Secondo, parte ii. lib. 9, Herrera, I have followed the more tem- Historia general, lib. iv. cap. 14. perate statement of the contem- The historian here, as almost porary De Thou, who would not everywhere else where numerical be likely to underrate the strength, estimates are concerned, must of an enemy. CHAP, vu.] PHILIP'S PREPARATIONS. 185 time but twenty-nine years of age ; but he had had large experience in military affairs, and had been intrusted by Charles the Fifth, who had early dis- cerned his capacity, with important commands. His whole life may be said to have trained him for the profession of arms. He had no taste for effeminate pleasures, but amused himself, in seasons of leisure, with the hardy exercise of the chase. He strengthened his constitution, naturally not very robust, by living as much as possible in the open air. Even when conversing, or dictating to his secretaries, he preferred to do so walking in his garden. He was indifferent to fatigue. After hunting all day he would seem to require no rest, and in a campaign had been known, like the knights- errant of old, to eat, drink, and sleep in his armour for thirty days together. He was temperate in his habits, eating little, and drinking water. He was punctual in attention to business, was sparing of his words, and as one may gather from the piquant style of his letters, had a keen insight into character, looking below the surface of men's actions into their motives. 6 His education had not been neglected. He spoke several languages fluently, and, though not a great reader, was fond of histories. He was much devoted to mathematical science, which served him in his profession, and he was reputed an excellent engineer. 7 In person the duke was of the middle size ; well made, except that he was somewhat bow-legged. His complexion was fair, his hair light, and his deport- ment very agreeable. 6 See the letters of the duke ractera of those he had to deal published in the Papiers d'ttat with. de Granvelle (torn, v., passim), 7 Relazione della Corte di Sa- business-like documents, seasoned voja di Gio. Francesco Morosini, with lively criticisms on the cha- 1570, ap. Relazioni degli Ambas- ciatori Veneti, vol. ir. 186 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i. Such is the portrait of Emanuel Pbilibert, to whom Philip now intrusted the command of his forces, and whose pretensions he warmly supported as the suitor of Elizabeth of England. There was none more worthy of the royal maiden. But the duke was a Catholic ; and Elizabeth, moreover, had seen the odium which her sister had incurred by her marriage with a foreign sovereign. Philip, who would have used some constraint in the matter, pressed it with such earnestness on the queen as proved how much importance he attached to the connexion. Mary's conduct on the occasion was greatly to her credit ; and, while she deprecated the displeasure of her lord, she honestly told him that she could not in conscience do violence to the inclinations of her sister. 8 The plan of the campaign, as determined by Philip's cabinet, 9 was that the duke should imme- diately besiege some one of the great towns on the northern borders of Picardy, which in a manner commanded the entrance into the Netherlands. Rocroy was the first selected. But the garrison, who were well provided with ammunition, kept within their defences, and maintained so lively a cannonade on the Spaniards that the duke, finding the siege was likely to consume more time than it was worth, broke up his camp and resolved to march against St. Quentin. This was an old frontier town of Picardy, important in time of peace as an entrepot for the trade that was carried on between France and the Low Countries. It formed a convenient place of deposit, at the present period, for such booty See the letter of the queen to Papiers d'etat de Granvelle, Philip, in Strype, Catalogue of torn. v. p. 1 15. Originals, No. 5G. CHAP, vii.] SIEGE OF ST. QUENTIN. 187 as marauding parties from time to time brought back from Flanders. It was well protected by its natural situation, and the fortifications had been originally strong ; but, as in many of the frontier towns they had been of late years much neglected. Before beginning operations against St. Quentin, the duke of Savoy, in order to throw the enemy off his guard and prevent his introducing supplies into the town, presented himself before Guise and made a show of laying siege to that place. After this demonstration he resumed his march, and suddenly sat down before St. Quentin, investing it with his whole army. Meanwhile the French had been anxiously watching the movements of their adversary. Their forces were assembled on several points in Picardy and Cham- pagne. The principal corps was under the command of the duke of Nevers, governor of the latter province, a nobleman of distinguished gallantry and who had seen some active service. He now joined his forces to those under Montmorency, the constable of France, who occupied a central position in Picardy, and who now took the command, for which his rash and impetuous temper but indifferently qualified him. As soon as the object of the Spaniards was known, it was resolved to reinforce the garrison of St. Quentin, which otherwise, it was understood, could not hold out a week. This perilous duty was assumed by Gaspard de Coligni, admiral of France. 10 This personage, the head of an ancient and honoured house, was one of the most remarkable men of his 10 De Thou, Histoire universelle, par MM. Michaud et Poujoulat torn. iii. p. 147. Commentaires (Paris, 1838), torn. vii. p. 535. de Francois de Rabutin, ap. Nou- Herrera, Historia general, lib. iv. velle Collection des Memoires cap. 14. Cabrera, 1 ilipe Segundo, pour servir a 1'Histoire de France, lib. iv. cap. 5. 188 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i. time. His name Las gained a mournful celebrity in the page of history, as that of the chief martyr in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. He embraced the doctrines of Calvin, and by his austere manners and the purity of his life well illustrated the doctrines he embraced. The decent order of his household, and their scrupulous attention to the services of religion, formed a striking contrast to the licentious conduct of too many of the Catholics, who, however, were as prompt as Coligni to do battle in defence of their faith. In early life he was the gay companion of the duke of Guise. 11 But as the Calvinists, or Huguenots, were driven by persecution to an inde- pendent and even hostile position, the two friends, widely separated by opinion and by interest, were changed into mortal foes. That hour had not yet come. But the heresy that was soon to shake France to its centre was silently working under ground. As the admiral was well instructed in military affairs, and was possessed of an intrepid spirit and great fertility of resource, he was precisely the person to undertake the difficult office of defending St. Quentin. As governor of Picardy he felt this to be his duty. Without loss of time, he put himself at the head of some ten or twelve hundred men, horse and foot, and used such despatch that he succeeded in entering the place before it had been entirely invested. He had the mortification, how- 31 " Us furent tous deux, dans follies plus extravagantes que 'enr jeuues ans, . . . sy grands tous les autres ; et sur tout ne compagnons, amis et confederez faisoient nulles follies qu'ils ne de court, qne j'ay ouy dire a fissent mal, tant ils etoient rude* Elusieurs qui les ont veus habiller |oueurs et malheureux en lenrs s plus souvant de mesmes pa- jeux." Brantome, (Euvres, torn, rures, mesnies livrees, . . . tous iii. p. 2ti5. deux fort enjoiiez et faisant des CHAP, vn.] SIEGE OF ST. QUENTIN. 1 89 ever, to be followed only by seven hundred of his men, the remainder having failed through fatigue or mistaken the path. The admiral found the place in even worse condi- tion than he had expected. The fortifications were much dilapidated ; and in many parts of the wall the masonry was of so flimsy a character that it must have fallen before the first discharge of the enemy's cannon. The town was victualled for three weeks, and the magazines were tolerably well sup- plied with ammunition. But there were not fifty arquebuses fit for use. St. Quentin stands on a gentle eminence, protected on one side by marshes, or rather a morass of great extent, through which flows the river Somme, or a branch of it. On the same side of the river with St. Quentin lay the army of the besiegers, with their glittering lines extending to the very verge of the morass. A broad ditch defended the outer wall. But this ditch was commanded by the houses of the suburbs, which had already been taken possession of by the besiegers. There was, moreover, a thick plantation of trees close to the town, which would afford an effectual screen for the approach of an enemy. One of the admiral's first acts was to cause a sortie to be made. The ditch was crossed, and some of the houses were burned to the ground. The trees on the banks were then levelled, and the approach to the town was laid open. Every preparation was made for a protracted defence. The exact quantity of provision was ascertained, and the rations were assigned for each man's daily consumption. As the supplies were inadequate to support the increased population for any length of time, Coligni ordered 190 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i. that all except those actively engaged in the defence of the place should leave it without delay. Many, under one pretext or another, contrived to remain, and share the fortunes of the garrison. But by this regulation he got rid of seven hundred useless persons, who, if they had stayed, must have been the victims of famine ; and " their dead bodies," the admiral coolly remarked, " would have bred a pesti- lence among the soldiers." 12 He assigned to his men their several posts, talked boldly of maintaining himself against all the troops of Spain, and by his cheerful tone endeavoured to inspire a confidence in others which he was far from feeling himself. From one of the highest towers he surveyed the surrounding country, tried to ascertain the most practicable fords in the morass, and sent intelligence to Montmorency that, without relief, the garrison could nob hold out more than a few days. 13 That commander, soon after the admiral's de- parture, had marched his army to the neighbourhood of St. Quentin, and established it in the towns of La Fere and Ham, together with the adjoining villages, so as to watch the movements of the Spaniards, and co-operate, as occasion served, with the besieged. He at once determined to strengthen the garrison, if possible, by a reinforcement of two thousand men under Dandelot, a younger brother of the admiral, and not inferior to him in audacity and enterprise. 18 "II falloit les nonrrir ou les ' 3 Memoires de Coligni. De faire mourir de faim, qui eust pen Thou, Histoire universelle, torn, apporter une peste dans la ville." iii. p. 151. Rabutin, ap. Nouvelle Memoires de Gaspard de Coligni, Collection des Memoires, torn. vii. ap. Collection nniverselle des Me- p. 540. Gamier, Histoire do moires particuliers relatif sal' His- France (Paris, 1787), torn, xxvii. toire de France (Paris, 1788), p. 358. torn. xJ. p. 252. CHAP, vii.] SIEGE OF ST. QUENTIX. 191 But the expedition miserably failed. Through the treachery or the ignorance of the guide, the party mistook the path, came on one of the enemy's out- posts, and, disconcerted by the accident, were thrown into confusion and many of them cut to pieces or drowned in the morass. Their leader, with the remainder, succeeded, under cover of the night, in making his way back to La Fere. The constable now resolved to make another at- tempt, and in the open day. He proposed to send a body, under the same commander, in boats across the Somme, and to cover the embarkation in person with his whole army. His force was considerably less than that of the Spaniards, amounting in all to about eighteen thousand foot and six thousand horse, besides a train of artillery consisting of sixteen guns." His levies, like those of his antagonist, were largely made up of German mercenaries. The French peasantry, with the exception of the Gascons, who formed a fine body of infantry, had long since ceased to serve in war. But the chivalry of France was represented by as gallant an array of nobles and cavaliers as ever fought under the banner of the lilies. On the ninth of August, 1557, Montmorency put his whole army in motion ; and on the following morning, the memorable day of St. Lawrence, by nine o'clock, he took up a position on the bank of the Somme. On the opposite side, nearest the town, 11 There is not so much dis- cavalry at one thousand less, crepancy in the estimates of the For authorities on the Spanish French as of the Spanish force. side, see Cabrera, Filipe SegunJp, I have accepted the statements of lib. iv. cap. 7. Hen-era,. Historia the French historians Gamier general, lib. iv. cap. 1">. Cam- (Histoii-e do France, torn, xxvii. pan a, Vita del Re Filippo Se- p. l>5 !) and Do Thou (torn. iii. condo, parte ii. lib. 9. p. 1 -IS), who, however, puts the 1 92 WAR WITH FRANCE. [LOOK i. lay the Spanish force, covering the ground, as far as the eye could reach, with their white pavilions ; while the banners of Spain, of Flanders, and of Eng- land, unfurled in the morning breeze, showed the various nations from which the motley host had been gathered. 18 On the constable's right was a windmill, com- manding a ford of the river which led to the Spanish quarters. The building was held by a small detach- ment of the enemy. Montmorency's first care was to get possession of the mill, which he did without dif- ficulty ; and by placing a garrison there, under the prince of Conde", he secured himself from surprise in that quarter. He then profited by a rising ground to get his guns in position so as to sweep the opposite bank, and at once opened a brisk cannonade on the enemy. The march of the French had been con- cealed by some intervening hills, so that when they suddenly appeared on the farther side of the Somme it was as if they had dropped from the clouds ; and the shot which fell among the Spaniards threw them into great disorder. There was hurrying to and fro, and some of the balls striking the duke of Savoy's tent, he had barely time to escape with his armour in his hand. It was necessary to abandon his position, and he marched some three miles down the river, to the quarters occupied by the commander of the cavalry, Count Egmont. 16 Montmorency, as much elated with this cheap suc- 15 Rabutin, ap. Nouvelle Col- p. 146. DC Thou, Histoire nni- lection des Memoires, torn. vii. verselle, torn. iii. p. 157. The p. 548. first of these writers, Francois 18 Rabutin, ap. Nouvelle Col- de Rabutin, is one of the best lection des Memoires, torn. vii. authorities for these transactions, p. 548. Monpleinchamp, His- in which he took part as a fol- toire d'Emmanuel Philibert Due lower of the due de Nevers. de Savoie (Amsterdam, 16U9), -CHAP, vn.] BATTLE OP ST. QUENTIN. 193 cess as if it had been a victory, now set himself about passing his troops across the water. It was .attended with more difficulty than he had expected. There were no boats in readiness, and two hours were wasted in procuring them. After all, only four or five could be obtained, and these so small that it would be necessary to cross and recross the stream many times to effect the object. The boats, crowded with as many as they could carry, stuck fast in the marshy banks, or rather quagmire, on the opposite side ; and when some of the soldiers jumped out to lighten the load, they were swallowed up and suf- focated in the mud. 17 To add to these distresses, they were galled by the incessant fire of a body of troops which the Spanish general had stationed on an eminence that commanded the landing. While, owing to these causes, the transportation of the troops was going slowly on, the duke of Savoy had called a council of war, and determined that the enemy, since he had ventured so near, should not be allowed to escape without a battle. There was a practicable ford in the river, close to Count Egmont's quarters ; and that officer received orders to cross it at the head of his cavalry and amuse the enemy until the main body of the Spanish army, under the duke, should have time to come up. Lamoral, Count Egmont, and prince of Gavre, a person who is to occupy a large space in our sub- sequent pages, was a Flemish noble of an ancient and illustrious lineage. He had early attracted the 17 " Encore a aortirdes bateaux, les creux des mareta, d'ou ils ne a cause de la presse, les soldats i-ouvoient sortir, ct demeuroient ne pouvoient suivre les addresses la. embourbez et noyez." Rubutin, .et sentes qui leur estoient ap- up. Nouvelle Collection des paveillees ; de fa9on qu'ils s'escar- moires, torn. vii. p. 649. toient et se jettoient a coste dans VOL. I. O 194 WAR WITH FRAXCE.' [BOOK i. notice of the emperor, who had raised him to various important offices, both civil and military, in which he had acquitted himself with honour. At this time, when thirty-five years old, he held the post of lieu- tenant-general of the horse, and that of governor of Flanders. Egmont was of a lofty and aspiring nature, filled with dreams of glory, and so much elated by success that the duke of Savoy was once obliged to rebuke him, by reminding him that he was not the com- mander-in-chief of the army. 18 With these defects he united some excellent qualities, which not unfre- quently go along with them. In his disposition he was frank and manly, and, though hasty in temper, had a warm and generous heart. He was dis- tinguished by a chivalrous bearing, and a showy, imposing address, which took with the people, by whom his name was held dear in later times for his devotion to the cause of freedom. He was a dashing officer, prompt and intrepid, well fitted for a brilliant coup -de-main, or for an affair like the present, which required energy and despatch ; and he eagerly under- took the duty assigned him. The light horse first passed over the ford, the existence of which was known to Montmorency ; and he had detached a corps of German pistoleers, of whom there was a body in the French service, to defend the passage. But the number was too small, and the Burgundian horse, followed by the infantry, advanced, in face of the fire, as coolly and in as good order as if they had been on parade. 19 The 18 Brantome, CEuvres, torn. L the artillery, hardly probable, as p. 361. the French batteries were three " I quote the words of Mon- miles distant, up the river. But ploinchamp (Histoire du Due de accuracy does not appear to be oavoie, p. 147), who, however, the chief virtue of this writer, speaks of the tire as coming from CHAT. vii-J BATTLE OF ST. QUENIIN. 195 constable soon received tidings that the enemy had begun to cross; and, aware of his mistake, he reinforced his pistoleers with a squadron of horse under the due de Nevers. It was too late : when - the French commander reached the ground the , enemy had already crossed in such strength that it would have been madness to attack him. After a brief consultation with his officers, Nevers deter- mined, by as speedy a countermarch as possible, to join the main body of the army. The prince of Conde*, as has been mentioned, occu- pied the mill which commanded the other ford, on the right of Montniorency. From its summit he could descry the movements of the Spaniards, and their battalions debouching on the plain, with scarcely any opposition from the French. He advised the constable of this at once, and suggested the necessity of an immediate retreat. The veteran did not relish advice from one so much younger than himself, and testily replied, " I was a soldier before the prince of Conde was born ; and, by the blessing of Heaven, I trust to teach him some good lessons in war for many a year to come." Nor would he quit the ground while a man of the reinforcement under Dandelot remained to cross." The cause of this fatal confidence was information he had received that the ford was too narrow to allow more than four or five persons to pass abreast, which would give him time enough to send over the troops and then secure his own retreat to La Fere. As it turned out, unfortunately, the ford was so "Mandaauprince,poartoute monde, et qu'il comptoit bien en rSponse, qu'il licit bien jenne vingt ans lui dpnner encore des pour vouloir lui apprendre son lemons." Garnier, Histoire da metier, qu'il commandoit les ar- France, torn, rxvii. p. 364. me*es avant que celui-ci fut au c 2 196 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i. wide enough to allow fifteen or twenty men to go abreast. The French, meanwhile, who had crossed the river, after landing on the opposite bank, were many of them killed or disabled by the Spanish arquebusiers ; others were lost in the morass ; and of the whole number not more than four hundred and fifty, wet, wounded, and weary, with Dandelot at their head, succeeded in throwing themselves into St. Quentin. The constable, having seen the last boat put off, gave instant orders for retreat. The artillery was sent forward in the front, then followed the infantry, and, last of all, he brought up the rear with the horse, of which he took command in person. He endeavoured to make up for the precious time he had lost by quickening his march, which, however, was retarded by the heavy guns in the van. The due de Nevers, as we have seen, declining to give battle to the Spaniards who had crossed the stream, had prepared to retreat on the main body of the army. On reaching the ground lately occupied by his countrymen, he found it abandoned ; and joining Conde, who still held the mill, the two officers made all haste to overtake the constable. Meanwhile, Count Egmont, as soon as he was satisfied that he was in sufficient strength to attack the enemy, gave orders to advance, without waiting for more troops to share with him the honours of victory. Crossing the field lately occupied by the constable, he took the great road to La Fere. But the rising ground which lay between him and the French prevented him from seeing the enemy until he had accomplished half a league or more. The day was now well advanced, and the Flemish captain had some fears that, notwithstanding his cnir. vn.] FRENCH ARMY ROUTED. 197 speed, the quarry had escaped him. But, as he turned the hill, he had the satisfaction to descry the French columns in full retreat. On their rear hung a body of suttlers and other followers of the camp, who by the sudden apparition of the Spaniards were thrown into a panic, which they had well-nigh com- municated to the rest of the army." To retreat before an enemy is in itself a confession of weakness sufficiently dispiriting to the soldier. Montmorency, roused by the tumult, saw the dark cloud gathering along the heights, and knew that it must soon burst on him. In this emergency, he asked counsel of an old officer near him as to what he should do. " Had you asked me," replied the other, "two hours since, I could have told you : it is now too late." 28 It was indeed too late, and there was nothing to be done but to face about and fight the Spaniards. The constable, accordingly, gave the word to halt, and made dispositions to receive his assailants. Egmont, seeing him thus prepared, formed his own squadron into three divisions. One, which was to turn the left flank of the French, he gave to the prince of Brunswick and to Count Hoorne, a name afterwards associated with his own on a sadder occa- sion than the present. Another, composed chiefly of Germans, he placed under Count Mansfeldt, with orders to assail the centre. He himself, at the head of his Burgundian lances, rode on the left against Montmorency 's right flank. Orders were then given 81 Rabutin, who gives this ac- n " Appellant a lui dans ce count, says it would be impossible trouble le vieux d'Oignon, officier to tell how the disorder began, experimente, il lui demanda : bon It came upon them so like a homme, que faut-il faire? Mon- thunderclap that no man had seigneur, repondit d'Oignon, il y a distinct recollection of what a deux heures que je voun passed. Rabutin, ap. Nouvelle 1'aurois bien dit, maintenant je Collection des Memoires, torn. vii. n'en sais rien." Garnier, Histoir* p. 550. de France, torn, zxvii. p. oG8. 193 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i. to charge, and, spurring forward their horses, the whole column came thundering on against the enemy. The French met the shock like well- trained soldiers, as they were ; but the cavalry fell on them with the fury of a torrent sweeping everything before it, and for a few moments it seemed as if all were lost. But the French chivalry was true to its honour, and at the call of Montmorency, who gallantly threw him- self into the thick of the fight, it rallied, and, returning the charge, compelled the assailants to give way in their turn. The struggle, now continued on more equal terms, grew desperate ; man against man, horse against horse, it seemed to be a contest of personal prowess, rather than of tactics or military science. So well were the two parties matched that for a long time the issue was doubtful ; and the Spaniards might not have prevailed in the end, but for the arrival of reinforcements, both foot and heavy cavalry, who came up to their support. Unable to withstand this accumulated force, the French cava- liers, overpowered by numbers, not by superior valour, began to give ground. Hard pressed by Egmont, who cheered on his men to renewed efforts, their ranks were at length broken. The retreat became a flight ; and, scattered over the field in all directions, they were hotly pursued by their adversaries, espe- cially the German sclucarzreiters, those riders "black as devils," 23 who did such execution with their fire-arms as completed the discomfiture of the French. Amidst this confusion, the Gascons, the flower of the French infantry, behaved with admirable cool- '-* " Noirg commc de beaux diables." Brantome, (Euvres, torn. iii. p. 186. CHAP, vii.] FBESCII ARMY HOUTED. 199 ness. 24 Throwing themselves into squares, with the pikemen armed with their long pikes in front, and the arquebusiers in the centre, they presented an impenetrable array, against which the tide of battle raged and chafed in impotent fury. It was in vain that the Spanish horse rode round the solid masses bristling with steel, if possible, to force an entrance, while an occasional shot, striking a trooper from his saddle, warned them not to approach too near. It was in this state of things that the duke of Savoy, with the remainder of the troops, including the artillery, came on the field of action. His arrival could not have been more seasonable. The heavy guns were speedily turned on the French squares, whose dense array presented an obvious mark to the Spanish bullets. Their firm ranks were rent asunder; and, as the brave men tried in vain to close over the bodies of their dying comrades, the horse took advantage of the openings to plunge into the midst of the phalanx. Here the long spears of the pike- nieii were of no avail, and, striking right and left, the cavaliers dealt death on every side. All now was confusion and irretrievable ruin. No one thought of fighting, or even of self-defence. The only thought was of flight. Men overturned one another in their eagerness to escape. They were soon mingled with the routed cavalry, who rode down their own countrymen. Horses ran about the field without riders. Many of the soldiers threw away their arms, to fly the more quickly. All strove to 24 " Icelles compagnies dc fan- Ton en avoit veu en France il y trie, on ce pen qu'elles sc com- avoit long-temps." Rabutin, ap. liortoieiit, autant belles, bieu Nouvelle Collection des Memoires, complcttes et bien ariucos, quo torn. vii. p. 551. 200 WAR WITH FRANCE. [roo* *. escape from the terrible pursuit which hung on their rear. The artillery and ammunition-waggons choked lip the road and obstructed the flight of the fugitives. The slaughter was dreadful. The best blood of Franca flowed like water. Yet mercy was shown to those who asked it.. Hundreds and thousands threw down their arms and obtained quarter. Nevers, according to some ac- counts, covered the right flank of the French army. Others state that he was separated from it by a. ravine or valley. At all events, he fared no better than his leader. He was speedily enveloped by thfr cavalry of Hoorne and Brunswick, and his fine corps of light horse cut to pieces. He himself, with the prince of Conde', was so fortunate as to make his escape, with the remnant of his force, ta La Fere. Had the Spaniards followed up the pursuit, few Frenchmen might have been left that day to tell the; story of the rout of St. Quentin. But the fight had already lasted four hours ; evening was setting in ; and the victors, spent with toil and sated with carnage, were content to take up their quarters on the field of battle. The French, in the meantime, made their way, one after another, to La Fere, and, huddling together in, the public squares, or in the quarters they had before occupied, remained like a herd of panic-struck deer in whose ears the sounds of the chase are still ringing. But the loyal cavaliers threw off their panic, and recovered heart, when a rumour reached them that their commander, Montmorency, was still making head, with a body of stout followers, against the? enemy. At the tidings, faint and bleeding as. they were, they sprang to the saddles which they CHAP. vn.j FRENCH ARMY ROUTED. 201 had just quitted, and were ready again to take the field." But the rumour was without foundation, Montmo- rency was a prisoner in the hands of the Spaniards. The veteran had exposed his own life throughout the action, as if willing to show that he would not shrink in any degree from the peril into which he had brought his followers. When he saw that the day was lost, he threw himself into the hottest of the battle, holding life cheap in comparison with honour. A shot from the pistol of a schwarzreiter, fracturing his thigh, disabled him from further resistance; and he fell into the hands of the Spa- niards, who treated him with the respect due to his rank. The number of prisoners was very large, according to some accounts, six thousand, of whom six hundred were said to be gentlemen and persons of condition. The number of the slain is stated, as usual, with great discrepancy, varying from three to six thousand A much larger proportion of them than usual were men of family. Many a noble house in France went into mourning for that day. Among those who fell was Jean de Bourbon, count d'Enghien, a prince of the blood. Mortally wounded, he was carried to the tent of the duke of Savoy, where he soon after expired, and his body was sent to his countrymen at La Fere for honourable burial To balance this bloody roll, no account states the loss of the Spaniards at over a thousand men. 1 * 85 " A ces nouvelles s'esleverent pre'ce'dente ; tontefois ce munnnn> tellement lenrs esprits et courages se trouva nul et demeura assoupi qu'iU recoururent incontinent aux en peu d'heure." Rahutin, ap. armes, et n'oyoit-on plus partout Nouvelle Collection des Memoircd, que demander harnois et chevaux, torn. vii. p. 552. et trompettes sonner a cheval, "* Campana, Vita del Re Fi- ayant chacun reconvert sea forces lippo Secondo, parte ii. lib. 9. et sentimens pour venger la honte According to some accounts, the 202 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i More than eighty standards, including those of the cavalry, fell into the hands of the victors, together with all the artillery, ammunition- waggons, and baggage of the enemy. France had not ex- perienced such a defeat since the battle of Agin- court.* 7 King Philip had left Brussels, and removed his quarters to Cambray, that he might be near the duke of Savoy, with whom he kept up daily com- munication throughout the siege. Immediately after the battle, on the eleventh of August, he visited the camp in person. At the same tune, he wrote to his father, expressing his regret that he had not been there to share the glory of the day. 28 The emperor seems to have heartily shared this regret. 59 It is quite certain, if Charles had had the direction of affairs, he would not have been absent. But Philip had not the bold, adventurous spirit of his father. His talent lay rather in meditation than in action ; and his calm, deliberate forecast better fitted him for the council than the camp. In enforcing levies, in raising supplies, in superintending the organisation of the army, he was indefatigable. The plan of the loss did not exceed fifty. This, cap. 15. DC Thou, Hlstoire uni- considering the spirit and length verselle, torn. iii. pp. 154160. of the contest, will hardly be Garnier, Histoire de France, torn, credited. It reminds one of the xxvii. pp. 361-.172. Carta de wars with the Moslems in the Filipe 2 do su padre anundandoie Peninsula, where, if we are to la victoria de San Quentin, MS. take the account of the Spaniards, M " Pues yo no me hallo alii, their loss was usually as one to a de quo me pesa lo quo V.M. no hundred of the enemy. puede pensar, no puedo dar re- 17 For the preceding pages, see lacion de lo quo paso sino de Babutin, ap. Nouvelle Collection oydas." Carta de Felipe 2 d " a su The French government had iv. cap. 16. Ferreras, Histoire good reasons for its distrust. It g6nerale d'Espagne, torn. vii. appears from the correspondence p. 397. of Granvelle that that minister 19 " Hablo que era de tener en employed a respectable agent to mas la pressa del Condestable, take charge of the letters of St.- que si fuera la misma persona del Andre, and probably of the other Key, porque faltando el, falta el prisoners, and that these letters govierno general todo." Carta del were inspected by Granvelle before Mayordomo Don Luis Mendez they passed to ^thc French camp. Qmxada al Secretario Juan Vaz- See Papers d'Etat de Granvelle, qucz de Molina, MS. torn. v. p. 178. 232 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i. it, on the part of France, was the cardinal of Lorraine, brother of the duke of Guise, a man of a subtle, intriguing temper, and one who, like the rest of his family, notwithstanding his pacific demonstrations, may be said to have represented the war party in France. 21 On the part of Spain the agents selected were the men most conspicuous for talent and authority in the kingdom ; the names of some of whom, whether for good or for evil report, remain immortal on the page of history. Among these were the duke of Alva and his great antagonist, as he became afterwards in the Netherlands, William of Orange. But the principal person in the commission, the man who in fact directed it, was Anthony Perrenot, bishop of Arras, better known by his later title of Cardinal Granvelle. He was son of the celebrated chancellor of that name under Charles the Fifth, by whom he was early trained, not so much to the duties of the ecclesias- tical profession as of public life. He profited so well by the instruction that, in the emperor's time, he succeeded his father in the royal confidence, and surpassed him in his talent for affairs. His accom- modating temper combined with his zeal for the interests of Philip to recommend Granvelle to the favour of that monarch ; and his insinuating address and knowledge of character well qualified him for conducting a negotiation where there were so many jarring feelings to be brought into concord, 21 Some historians, among them among his papers thus notices Sismondi, seem to have given the French cardinal : " Toute la more credit to the professions of demonstration que faisoit ledict the politic Frenchman than they cardinal de Lorraine de desirer deserve (Histoire des Francais, paix, estoit chose faincte a la torn. xviii.p. 73). Granvelle, who francoise et,pour nous abuser." understood the character of his Papiers d'Etat de Granvelle* antagonist better, was not so torn, v- p. 168. easily duped. A memorandum CHAP. vin.J NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. 233 so many hostile and perplexing interests to be re- conciled. As a suspension of hostilities was agreed on during the continuance of the negotiations, it was decided to remove the armies from the neighbourhood of each other, where a single spark might at any time lead to a general explosion. A still stronger earnest was given of their pacific intentions by both the monarchs' disbanding part of their foreign mercena- ries, whose services were purchased at a ruinous cost, that made one of the great evils of the war. The congress met on the fifteenth of October, 1558, at the abbey of Cercamps, near Cambray. Between parties so well disposed it might be thought that some general terms of accommodation would soon be settled. But the war, which ran back pretty far into Charles the Fifth's time, had continued so long that many territories had changed masters during the contest, and it was not easy to adjust the respective claims to them. The duke of Savoy's dominions, for example, had passed into the hands of Henry the Second, who moreover asserted an hereditary right to them through his grandmother. Yet it was not possible for Philip to abandon his ally, the man whom he had placed at the head of his armies. But the greatest obstacle was Calais. "If we return without the recovery of Calais," said the English envoys, who also took part in this con- gress, " we shall be stoned to death by the people. " a Philip supported the claim of England ; and yet it was evident that France would never relinquish a post so important to herself, which after so many s2 " Adjoustant que, si Calais certainement le petiple lea lapide- demeuroit aux Francois, ny luy roit." Papiers d'Etat de Gran- ny ses collegues n'oseroyent re- velle, toin. v. p. 3191 tourner en Angleterre, et que 234 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i. years of hope deferred had at last come again into her possession. While engaged in the almost hope- less task of adjusting these differences, an event occurred which suspended the negotiations for a time and exercised an important influence on the affairs of Europe. This was the death of one of the parties to the war, Queen Mary of England. Mary's health had been fast declining of late, under the pressure of both mental and bodily disease. The loss of Calais bore heavily on her spirits, as she thought of the reproach it would bring on her reign and the increased unpopularity it would draw upon herself. " When I die," she said, in the strong language since made familiar to Englishmen by the similar expression of their great admiral, "Calais will be found written on my heart. 5 ' 23 Philip, who was not fully apprised of the queen's low condition, early hi November sent the count, afterwards duke, of Feria as his envoy to London, with letters for Mary. This nobleman, who had married one of the queen's maids of honour, stood high in the favour of his master. With courtly manners, and a magnificent way of living, he com- bined a shrewdness and solidity of judgment that eminently fitted him for his present mission. The queen received with great joy the letters which he brought her, though too ill to read them. Feria, seeing the low state of Mary's health, was earnest with the council to secure the succession for Eliza- beth. He had the honour of supping with the princess at her residence in Hatfield, about eighteen miles from . -* " Were I to die this moment, in the curious collection of auto- want of frigates would be found graph letters which belonged to written on my heart." The the late Sir Robert Peel, original of this letter of Nelson is CHAP. VHI.] MARY'S DEATH. 235 London. The Spaniard enlarged, in the course of conversation, on the good-will of his master to Elizabeth, as shown in the friendly offices he had rendered her during her imprisonment, and his desire to have her succeed to the crown. The envoy did not add that this desire was prompted not so much by the king's concern for the interests of Elizabeth as by his jealousy of the French, who seemed willing to countenance the pretensions of Mary Stuart, the wife of the dauphin, to the English throne. 24 The princess acknowledged the protection she had received from Philip in her troubles. " But for her present prospects," she said, "she was indebted neither to the king nor to the English lords, however much these latter might vaunt their fidelity. It was to the people that she owed them, and on the people she relied." 25 This answer of Elizabeth furnishes the key to her success. The penetrating eye of the envoy soon perceived that the English princess was under evil influences. The persons most in her confidence, he wrote, were understood to have a decided leaning to the Lutheran heresy, and he augured most unfavourably for the future prospects of the kingdom. On the seventeenth of November, 1558, after. a 21 Philip's feelings in this matter : * " Tras csto vdola muy indig- may be gathered from a passage nada de las cosas que se han in a letter to Granvelle, in. which hecho contra ella en vida de la he says that the death of the Reina : muy asida al pueblo, y young queen of Scots, then very muy confiada qne lo tiene todo ill, would silence the pretensions de su parte (como es verdad), y which the French made to Eng- dando a entender que el Pueblo laud, and relieve Spain from a la ha puesto en el estado quo great embarassmcnt: "Silareyna esta; y de esto no reconoce nada moca se muriesse, C[\\Q diz que a V. M. ui a la nobleza del Reino, anda muy mala, nos quitaria de aunque dice que la han cnviado a hartos cmbaniyos y del derecho promoter todos que Ic scran fieles." que prt'tendon a Inglatcrra." Mcmori.is do la Real Academia Papiers d'Etat ile Grauvelle, torn. de la Historia (Madrid, 1832), v. p. 64-3. torn. vii. p. 254. 236 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i. brief but most disastrous reign, Queen Mary died. Her fate has been a hard one. Unimpeachable in her private life, and, however misguided, with deeply- seated religious principles, she has yet left a name held in more general execration than any other on the roll of English sovereigns. One obvious way of accounting for this, doubtless, is by the spirit of persecution which hung like a dark cloud over her reign. And this not merely on account of the per- secution, for that was common with the line of Tudor, but because it was directed against the professors of a religion which came to be the esta- blished religion of the country. Thus the blood of the martyr became the seed of a great and powerful church, ready through all after-time to bear testi- mony to the ruthless violence of its oppressor. There was still another cause of Mary's unpopu- larity. The daughter of Katharine of Aragon could not fail to be nurtured in a reverence for the illus- trious line from which she was descended. The education begun in the cradle was continued in later years. When the young princess was betrothed to her cousin, Charles the Fifth, it was stipulated that she should be made acquainted with the language and the institutions of Castile, and should even wear the costume of the country. " And who," exclaimed Henry the Eighth, " is so well fitted to instruct her in all this as the queen, her mother ?" Even after the match with her imperial suitor was broken off by his marriage with the Portuguese infanta, Charles still continued to take a lively interest in the fortunes of his young kinswoman; while she, in her turn, naturally looked to the emperor, as her nearest relative, for counsel and support. Thus drawn towards Spain by the ties of kindred, by sympathy, CHAP, vm.] MARY'S DEATH. 237 and by interest, Mary became in truth more of a Spanish than an English woman ; and when all this was completed by the odious Spanish match, and she gave her hand to Philip the Second, the last tie seemed to be severed which had bound her to her native land. Thenceforth she remained an alien in the midst of her own subjects. Very different was the fate of her sister and successor, Elizabeth, who ruled over her people like a true-hearted English queen, under no influence and with no interests dis- tinct from theirs. She was requited for it by the most loyal devotion on their part ; while round her throne have gathered those patriotic recollections which, in spite of her many errors, still render her name dear to Englishmen. On the death of her sister, Elizabeth, without opposition, ascended the throne of her ancestors. It may not be displeasing to the reader to see the portrait of her sketched by the Venetian minister at this period, or rather two years earlier, when she was twenty-three years of age. " The princess," he says, "is as beautiful in mind as she is in body; though her countenance is rather pleasing from its expression, than beautiful. 28 She is large and well made ; her complexion clear, and of an olive tint ; her eyes are fine, and her hands, on which she prides herself, small and delicate. She has an excellent genius, with much address and self-command, as was abundantly shown in the severe trials to which she was exposed in the earlier part of her life. In her temper she is haughty and imperious, quali- ties inherited from her father, King Henry the 18 " Non manco bella d' animo gratiosa che bella." Kelatione che sia di corpo ; ancor' che di di Giovanni Micheli, MS. faccia si pub dir' che sia piu tosto 238 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i. Eighth, who, from her resemblance to himself, is said to have regarded her with peculiar fondness." 27 He had, it must be owned, an uncommon way of show- ing it. One of the first acts of Elizabeth was to write an elegant Latin epistle to Philip, in which she ac- quainted him with her accession to the crown, and expressed the hope that they should continue to maintain " the same friendly relations as their an- cestors had done, and, if possible, more friendly." Philip received the tidings of his wife's death at Brussels, where her obsequies were celebrated with great solemnity, on the same day with her funeral in London. All outward show of respect was paid to her memory. But it is doing no injustice to Philip to suppose that his heart was not very deeply touched by the loss of a wife so many years older than himself, whose temper had been soured, and whose personal attractions, such as they were, had long since faded under the pressure of disease. Still, it was not without feelings of deep regret that the ambitious monarch saw the sceptre of England barren though it had proved to him thus suddenly snatched from his grasp. We have already seen that Philip, during his resi- dence in the country, had occasion more than once to interpose his good offices in behalf of Elizabeth. It was perhaps the friendly relation in which he thus stood to her, quite as much as her personal qualities, that excited in the king a degree of interest which 27 " Delia persona e grande, et pnta ne i sospetti, et pericoli ne i ben fonnata, di bella carne, ancor quail s' & ritroyata cosi ben go- che olivastra, begl' occhi, et sopra vernare. ... Si tien superba, et tutto bella mano, di one fa pro- gloriosa per il padre ; del quale fcssione, d' un spirito, et ingegno dicono tutti che e anco piu simile, mirabile: il che na eaputo molto et per cio gli fu sempre cara." ben dimostrare, con 1' essersi sa- Ibid. CHAP. Tin.] ACCESSION OP ELIZABETH. 239 seems to have provoked something like jealousy in the bosom of his queen. 28 However this may be, motives of a very different character from those founded on sentiment now determined him to retain, if possible, his hold on England, by transferring to Elizabeth the connexion which had subsisted with Mary. A month had not elapsed since Mary's remains were laid in Westminster Abbey, when the royal widower made direct offers, through his ambassador, Feria, for the hand of her successor. Yet his ardour did not precipitate him into any unqualified declara- tion of his passion : on the contrary, his proposals were limited by some very prudent conditions. It was to be understood that Elizabeth must be a Roman Catholic, and, if not one already, must repu- diate her eiTors and become one. She was to obtain a dispensation from the pope for the marriage. Philip was to be allowed to visit Spain whenever he deemed it necessary for the interests of that king- dom, a provision which seems to show that Mary's over-fondness, or her jealousy, must have occasioned him some inconvenience on that score. It was further to be stipulated that the issue of the mariiage should not, as was agreed in the contract with Mary, inherit the Netherlands, which were to pass to his son Don Carlos, the prince of Asturias. Feria was directed to make these proposals by word of mouth, not in writing ; " although," adds his con- siderate master, " it is no disgrace for a man to have his proposals rejected, when they are founded, not on 78 The Spanish minister, Feria, Philip had the good feelingor desired his master to allow him good taste to refuse. Memorias to mention Mary's jealousy, as an do la Heal Academia, torn. viL argument to recommend his suit p. 260. to the favour of Elizabeth. But 240 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i. worldly considerations, but on zeal for his Maker and the interests of religion." Elizabeth received the offer of Philip's hand, quali- fied as it was, in the most gracious manner. She told the ambassador, indeed, that " in a matter of this kind she could take no step without consulting her parliament. But his master might rest assured that, should she be induced to marry, there was no man she should prefer to him." 29 Philip seems to have been contented with the encouragement thus given, and shortly after he addressed Elizabeth a letter, written with his own hand, in which he endeavoured to impress on her how much he had at heart the success of his ambassador's mission. The course of events in England, however, soon showed that such success was not to be relied on, and that Feria's prognostics in regard to the policy of Elizabeth were well founded. Parliament soon entered on the measures which ended in the sub- version of the Roman Catholic and the restoration of the Reformed religion. And it was very evident that these measures, if not originally dictated by the queen, must at least have received her sanction. Philip, in consequence, took counsel with two of his ministers, on whom he most relied, as to the expediency of addressing Elizabeth on the subject and telling her plainly that unless she openly dis- avowed the proceedings of parliament the marriage could not take place. 30 Her vanity should be e9 " Dijo qnc convcnclria con- estas cosas de la religion, y la sultarlo con el Parlamento ; bien amonestasse y rogasse de mi parte que el Rey Catolico debia estar que no hiziesse en este parlarnento segnro que en caso de casarsc, mudansa en ella, y que si la seria el preferido a todos." Me- hiciesse que yo no podria venir en morias de la Real Academia, lo del casamiento, como en effecto torn. vii. p. 264. no yendria." Carta del Rey 3u "Paresceme quo seria bien Phclipe al Dnque de Alba, 7 de qne el conde Ic bablasse claro en Fcbrcro, 1559, MS. CHAP, vm.] ACCESSION OP ELIZABETH. 241 soothed by the expressions of his regret at being obliged to relinquish the hopes of her hand. But, as her lover modestly remarked, after this candid statement of all the consequences before her, what- ever the result might be, she would have no one to blame but herself. 31 His sage advisers, probably not often called to deliberate on questions of this delicate nature, entirely concurred in opinion with their master. In any event, they regarded it as im- possible that he should wed a Protestant. What effect this frank remonstrance had on the queen we are not told. Certain it is, Philip's suit no longer sped so favourably as before. Elizabeth, throwing off all disguise, plainly told Feria, when pressed on the matter, that she felt great scruples as to seeking a dispensation from the pope ; 32 and soon after she openly declared in parliament, -whali she was in the habit of repeating so often, that she had no other purpose but to live and die a maid. 33 It can hardly be supposed that Elizabeth entertained serious thoughts, at any time, of marrying Philip. If she encouraged his addresses, it was only until she felt herself so securely seated on the throne that she was independent of the ill-will she would incur by their rejection. It was a game in which the heart, probably, formed no part of the stake on either side. In this game, it must be confessed, the English queen showed herself the better player of the two. Philip bore his disappointment with great equa- 81 " Convendria que hablasse se le avia dicho antes." Carta claro a la Reyna, y le dixesse del Rey Phelipe al Duque de ra jatnente que aunque yo desseo Alba, 7 de Febrero, 1559, MS. riucho este negocio (y por aqui M " Dijo que pensaba estar sin evanescella quanto pudiesse), pero casarse, porque tenia niucho que entendiesse que si haria mu- escrupulo en lo de la dispensa del dan^a en la religion, yo lo hacia Papa." Memorias de la Real eu este desseo y voluntad, por que Academia, torn. vii. p. 265. tlespues no pudiesse dezir que no 33 Ibid., p. 266. VOL. I. B 242 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK L nimity. He expressed his regret to Elizabeth that she should have decided in a way so contrary to what the public interests seemed to demand. But, since it appeared to her otherwise, he should acquiesce, and only hoped that the same end might be attained by the continuance of their friendship, 3 ' With all this philosophy, we may well believe that, with a character like that of Philip, some bitterness must have re- mained in the heart, and that, very probably, feelings of a personal nature mingled with those of a political in the long hostilities which he afterwards carried on with the English queen. In the month of February the conferences for the treaty had been resumed, and the place of meeting changed from the abbey of Cercamps to Cateau- Cambresis. The negotiations were urged forward with greater earnestness than before, as both the monarchs were more sorely pressed by their necessi- ties. Philip, in particular, was so largely in arrears to his army, that he frankly told his ministers " he was on the brink of ruin, from which nothing but a peace could save him." 35 It might be supposed that, in this state of things, he would be placed in a dis- advantageous attitude for arranging terms with his 34 " Aunque habia recibido pena ledge.Philip will be in the greatest de no haberse concluido cosa que embarrassment that any sove- tantp deseaba, y parecia convenir reign ever was : " No ay un real y al bien publico, pues a ella no le deveseles a la gente alemana, habia parecido tan necessario, y demas de lo que seles a pagado que con buena amistad se con- aora de la vieja deuda, mas d'un segniria el mismo fin, quedaba mylion d'escudos. . . . Por esso satisfecho y contento." Memo- mirad como hazeys, quo sino se rias de la Real Academia, torn. vii. haze la paz yo veo el rey puesto p. 265. en el mayor trance que rey s'a 35 The duke of Savoy, in a letter visto jamas, si e"l no tiene otros to Granvelle, says that the king is dineros, que yo no SB", 6 que el in arrears more than a million of senor Eraso alle algun secretto crowns to the German troops que tiene reservado para esto." alone ; and, unless the ministers Papicrs d'Etat de Granvelle, torn, have some mysterious receipt for v. p. 458. raising money, beyond his know- CHAP, viii.] TREATY OP CATEAU-CAMBKESIS. 243 adversary. But Philip and his ministers put the best face possible on their affairs, affecting a con- fidence in their resources, before their allies as well as their enemies, which they were far from feeling ; like some half-famished garrison, which makes a brave show of its scanty stock of supplies, in order to win better terms from the besiegers. 38 All the difficulties were at length cleared away, except the vexed question of Calais. The English queen, it was currently said in the camp, 'would cut off the head of any minister who abandoned it. Mary, the young queen of Scots, had just been married to the French dauphin, afterwards Francis the Second. It was proposed that the eldest daughter born of this union should be united to the eldest son of Elizabeth, and bring with her Calais as a dowry. In this way the place would be restored to England without dishonour to France. 87 Such were the wild expedients to which the parties resorted in the hope of extricating themselves from their embarrassment ! At length, seeing the absolute necessity of bringing the matter to an issue, Philip ordered the Spanish plenipotentiaries to write his final instructions to Feria, his minister in London. The envoy was authorised to say that, although England had lost Calais through her own negligence, yet Philip would 86 The minister in London was said Dolphin's and Queen of instructed to keep up the same Scott's eldest daughter shall show of confidence to the English: marry with your highnes eldest " Todavia mostramos rostro a los sonne, who with her shall have Franceses, como tambien es me- Callice." Forbes, State Papers nester que alia se haga con los of Elizabeth, vol. i. p. 54. It Ingleses, que no se puede confiar seemed to be taken for granted que no vengan Franceses a saber that Elizabeth was not to die a cellos lo que alii podrian en- maiden queen, notwithstanding tender." Ibid., p. 479. her assertions, so often reiterated, 87 Ibid., p. 4J3. " That the to the contrary. B 2 244 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK 1 stand faithfully by her for the recovery of it. But, on the other hand, she must be prepared to support him with her whole strength by land and by sea, and that not for a single campaign, but for the war so- long as it lasted. The government should ponder well whether the prize would be worth the cost. Feria must bring the matter home to the queen, and lead her, if possible, to the desired conclusion, but so that she might appear to come to it by her own suggestion rather than by his. The respon- sibility must be left with her. 38 The letter of the plenipotentiaries, which is a very long one, is a model in its way, and shows that, in some particulars, the science of diplomacy has gained little since the six- teenth century. Elizabeth needed no argument to make her weary of a war which hung like a dark cloud on the morning of her reign. Her disquietude had been increased by the fact of Scotland having become a party to the war ; and hostilities, with little credit to that country, had broken out along the borders. Her own kingdom was in no condition to allow her to make the extraordinary efforts demanded by Philip. Yet it was plain, if she did not make them, or consent to come into the treaty, she must be left to carry on the war by herself. Under these cir- cumstances, the English government at last consented to an arrangement which, if it did not save Calais, so far saved appearances that it might satisfy the nation. w "Hablando con la reyna sin qui9& despues pensasse que no 10 persuadirla, ny a la paz, ny a que estuviesse bien, V. S. tenga dexe Calais, ny tampoco a que respecto a proponerle las razones venga bien a las otras condiciones en balanca, de manera que pesen propuestas por los Franceses, siempre mucho mas las que la han para que en ningun tiempo pueda de inclinar al concierto." Papiers dezir que de parte de S. M. la d'etat de Granvelle, torn. v. hayan persuadido a cosa que p. 479. CHAP, vra.] TREATY OF CATEAU-CAMBRESIS. 245 It was agreed that Calais should be restored at the end of eight years. If France failed to do this, she was to pay five hundred thousand crowns to England, whose claims to Calais would not, however, be affected by such a payment. Should either of the parties, or their subjects, during that period, do anything in contravention of this treaty, or in violation of the peace between the two countries, the offending party should forfeit all claim to the disputed territory. 39 It was not very probable that eight years would elapse without affording some plausible pretext to France, under such a provision, for keeping her hold on Calais. The treaty with England was signed on the second of April, 1559. On the day following was signed that between France and Spain. By the provisions of this treaty, the allies of Philip, Savoy, Mantua, Genoa, were reinstated in the possession of the terri- tories of which they had been stripped in the first years of the war. Four or five places of importance in Savoy were alone reserved, to be held as guaran- tees by the French king until his claim to the inheri- tance of that duchy was determined. The conquests made by Philip in Picardy were to be exchanged for those gained by the French in Italy and the Netherlands. The exchange was greatly for the benefit of Philip. In the time of Oharles the Fifth the Spanish arms had experienced some severe reverses, and the king now received more than two hundred towns in return for the five places he held in Picardy. 40 Terms so disadvantageous to France roused the 89 See the treaty, in Dumont, * Gamier, Histoire de France, Corps diplomatiqxie (Amsterdam, torn, xxvii. p. 570. 1728), torn. v. p. 31. 246 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i. indignation of the duke of Guise, who told Henry plainly that a stroke of his pen would cost the country more than thirty years of war. " Give me the poorest of the places you are to surrender," said he, " and I will undertake to hold it against all the armies of Spain !" 41 But Henry sighed for peace, and for the return of his friend the constable. He affected much deference to the opinions of the duke. But he wrote to Montmorency that the Guises were at their old tricks, 42 and he ratified the treaty. The day on which the plenipotentiaries of the three great powers had completed their work, they went in solemn procession to the church and returned thanks to the Almighty for the happy consummation of their labours. The treaty was then made public ; and, notwithstanding the unfavourable import of the terms to France, the peace, if we except some ambitious spirits, who would have found their account in the continuance of hostilities, was wel- comed with joy by the whole nation. In this senti- ment all the parties to the war participated. The more remote, like Spain, rejoiced to be delivered from a contest which made such large drains on their finances ; while France had an additional reason for desiring peace, now that her own territory had become the theatre of war. The reputation which Philip had acquired by his campaigns was greatly heightened by the result of his negotiations. The whole course of these nego- tiations long and intricate as it was is laid open to us in the correspondence fortunately preserved 41 " Mettez-moi, sire, dans la la France et de 1'Espagne, torn. v. pins mauvaise des places qn'on p. 294. vous propose d'abandonner, et n Gamier, Histoire de France, qne vos ennemis tachent de m'en torn, xxvii. p. 567. deloger." Gaillard, Rivalite" de CHAP, vux] TREATY OF CATEAU-CAMBRESIS. 247 among the papers of Granvelle ; and the student who explores these pages may probably rise from them with the conviction that the Spanish plenipo- tentiaries showed an address, a knowledge of the men they had to deal with, and a consummate policy, in which neither their French nor English rivals were a match for them. The negotiation all passed under the eyes of Philip. Every move in the game, if not by his suggestion, had been made at least with his sanction. The result placed him in honourable contrast to Henry the Second, who, while Philip had stood firmly by his allies, had, in his eagerness for peace, abandoned those of France to their fate. The early campaigns of Philip had wiped away the disgrace caused by the closing campaigns of Charles the Fifth ; and by the treaty he had negotiated, the number of towns which he lost was less than that of provinces which he gained/ 3 Thus he had shown himself as skilful in counsel as he had been successful 48 "Pour tant de restitutions qu'clle ne cedpit de provinces." on de concessions que revenoit-il Gaillard, Rivalite de la France et a la France ? moms de places de 1'Espagne, torn. v. p. 292.* * [The language of the text is Mantua and Genoa respectively* an incorrect version of Gaillard's On the side of the Netherlands somewhat rhetorical statement, the "two hundred" places restored The provinces " lost" by France to Philip consisted chiefly of in- were "gained," not by Philip, but significant castles and villages, the by his allies. The chief cession exceptions being Thionville and made by the former power was one or two other strong places, that of territory belonging to the loss of which was more than. Savoy, including that duchy, balanced by the recovery of Saint- Bresse and Bugey, and the Quentin and the adjacent for- greater part of Piedmont what, tresses. There was also a virtual in short, was considered the abandonment by the Empire of its " natural frontier" of France on claim to the " three bishoprics" the side of Italy. Hence the in- Metz, Toul, and Verdun. Had dignation which the treaty excited Ferdinand and the electors in- at the time, and with which it is sisted on their restitution, Philip still referred to by French his- was apparently prepared to make torians. The other conquests of this a sine qua non of peace. France in the same quarter and ED.] in Corsica were surrendered to 248 WAR WITH FRANCE. [note i. in the field. Victorious in Picardy and in Naples, he had obtained the terms of a victor from the king of France, and humbled the arrogance of Rome, in a war to which he had been driven in self-defence. 44 Faithful to his allies and formidable to his foes, there \vas probably no period of Philip's life in which he possessed so much real consideration in the eyes of Europe as at the time of signing the treaty of Cateau- Cambresis. In order to cement the union between the different powers, and to conciliate the good-will of the French nation to the treaty by giving it somewhat of the air of a marriage-contract, it was proposed that an alliance should take place between the royal houses of France and Spain. It was first arranged that the hand of Henry's daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, should be given to Carlos, the son and heir of Philip. The parties were of nearly the same age, being each about fourteen years old. Now that all prospect of the English match had vanished, it was thought to be a greater compliment to the French to substitute the father for the son, the monarch himself for the heir-apparent, in the marriage-treaty. The disparity of years between Philip and Elizabeth was not such as to present any serious objection. The proposition was said to have come from the French negotiators. The Spanish envoys replied that, notwithstanding 44 CTiarles the Fifth, who, in the consequences before God and his monastic seclusion at Yuste, man : " Pues no se puede hazer might naturally have felt more otra cosa, y el Rey se ha justifi- scruples at a collision with Rome cado en tantas maneras cum- than when, in earlier days, he pliendo con Dios y el mundo, por held the pope a prisoner in his escusar los danos que dello se capital, decidedly approved of his seguiran, forzado sera usar del Bon's course. It was a war of ultimo remedio." Carta del Em- necessity, he said, in a letter to perad or a Juan Vazquez de Molina, Juan Vazquez de Molina, and 8 de Agosto, 1557, MS. Philip would stand acquitted of CHAP, vm.] TREATY OF CATEAU-CAMBRESIS. 249 their master's repugnance to entering again into wedlock, yet, from his regard to the French monarch, and his desire for the public weal, he would consent to waive his scruples, and accept the hand of the French princess, with the same dowry which had been promised to his son Don Carlos. 45 Queen Elizabeth seems to have been not a little piqued by the intelligence that Philip had so soon consoled himself for the failure of his suit to her. " Your master," said she, in a petulant tone, to Feria, " must have been much in love with me, not to be able to wait four months !" The ambassador an- swered somewhat bluntly, by throwing the blame of the affair on the queen herself. "Not so," she retorted ; "I never gave your king a decided answer." "True," said Feria, "the refusal was only implied, for I would not urge your highness to a downright 'No,' lest it might prove a cause of offence between so great princes." 46 In June, 1559, the duke of Alva entered France for the purpose of claiming the royal bride, and espousing her in the name of his master. He was accompanied by Kuy Gomez, count of Melito, better known by his title of prince of Eboli, by the prince of Orange, the Count Egmont, and other noblemen, whose high rank and character might give lustre to the embassy. He was received in 45 " II nous a semble mieulx de tion, d'y condescend franche- leur dire rondement, que combien merit.? Granvelle, Papiers d'Etat, vostre majeste soit tousjcrars este torn. v. p. 580. dure et difficile a recepvoir persua- <6 " El Conde la dijo, que aunque sious pour se remarier, que toutes- las negativas habian sido en cierto fois, aiant represent6 a icelle le modo mdirectas, e"l no habia queri- desir du roi tres-chrestien et le do apurarla hasta el punto de decir bien que de ce manage pourra redondamente que no, por no dar ucceder, et pour plus prompte- motivo a indignaciones entre dos ment consolider ceste union et tan grandes Principes." Mem. paix, elle s'estoit r6solue, pour de la Academia, torn. vii. p. monstrer sa bonne et svnce're affec- 268. 250 WAR WITH FRANCE. [BOOK i. great state by Henry, who, with his whole court, seemed anxious to show to the envoy every mark of respect that could testify their satisfaction with the object of his mission. The duke displayed all the stately demeanour of a true Spanish hidalgo. Al- though he conformed to the French usage by saluting the ladies of the court, he declined taking this liberty with his future queen, or covering himself, as repeatedly urged, in her presence, a piece of punctilio greatly admired by the French, as altogether worthy of the noble Castilian breeding/ 7 On the twenty-fourth of June, the marriage of the young princess was celebrated in the church of St. Mary. King Henry gave his daughter away. The duke of Alva acted as his sovereign's proxy. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the prince of Eboli placed on the finger of the princess, as a memento from her lord, a diamond ring of inestimable value ; and the beautiful Elizabeth, the destined bride of Don Carlos, became the bride of the king his father. It was an ominous union, destined, in its mysterious conse- quences, to supply a richer theme for the pages of romance than for those of history. The wedding was followed by a succession of bril- liant entertainments, the chief of which was the tournament, the most splendid pageant of that spectacle-loving age. Henry was at that time busily occupied with the work of exterminating the Pro- testant heresy, which, as already noticed, had begun to gather formidable head in the capital of his dominions. On the evening of the fifteenth of June 47 " Osservando egli 1' usanza coprirsi la testa* per istanza, che Francesft nel baciar tutte 1' altre da lei ne gli fusse fatta ; il che fu Dame di Corte, nell' arriuar alia notato per nobilissimo, e degno futura sua Reina, non solo inter- atto di creaza Spagnuola." Cam- xnise quella famigliare cerimonia, pana, Filippo Secondo, parte ii. ma non sollo ne anche giamai lib. 11. CHIP, vin.] DEATH OF HKSXY THE SECOND. 251 he attended a session of the parliament, and arrested some of its principal members for the boldness of their speech in his presence. He ordered them into confinement, deferring their sentence till the termi- nation of the engrossing business of the tourney." 8 The king delighted in these martial exercises, in which he could display his showy person and match- less horsemanship in the presence of the assembled beauty and fashion of his court. 49 He fully main- tained his reputation on this occasion, carrying off one prize after another, and bearing down all who encountered his lance. Towards evening, when the games had drawn to a close, he observed the young count of Montgomery, a Scotch noble, the captain of his guard, leaning on his lance as yet unbroken. The king challenged the cavalier to run a course with him for his lady's sake. In vain the queen, with a melancholy boding of some disaster, besought her lord to remain content with the laurels he had already won. Henry obstinately urged his fate, and compelled the count, though extremely loth, to take the saddle. The champions met with a furious shock 4S The work of extermination from other sources, may be found was to cover more ground than in more than one passage of this Henry's capital or country, if we histoiy. may take the word of the English <9 Brantome, who repays the commissioners, who, in a letter favours he had received from dated January, 1559, advise the Henry the Second by giving him queen, their mistress, that " there a conspicuous place in his gallery was an appoinctement made be- of portraits, eulogises his graceful twene the late pope, the French, bearing in the tourney, and his king, and the king of S pain e, for admirable horsemanship : "Mais the joigning of their forces to- sur tout ils 1'admiroient fort en sa gether for the suppression of belle grace qu'il avoit en ses annes religion, . . . th' end whereof was et a cheval; comme de vray, to constraine the rest of christien- c'estoit le prince du monde qui dome, being Protestants, to receive avait la meilleure grace et la plus the pope's authorite* and his reli- belle tenue', et qui scavoit anssi gion." (Forbes, State Papers, bien monstrer la vertu et bonte" vol. i. p. 296.) Without direct d'un cheval, et en cachet le vice." evidence of such a secret under- ffiuvres, torn. ii. p. 353. standing, intimations of it, derived 252 WAR WITH FKANCE. [BOOK i. in the middle of the lists. Montgomery was a rude j ouster. He directed his lance with such force against the helmet of his antagonist that the bars of the visor gave way. The lance splintered ; a fragment struck the king with such violence on the temple as to lay bare the eye. The unhappy monarch reeled in his saddle, and would have fallen but for the assistance of the constable, the duke of Guise, and other nobles, who bore him in their arms senseless from the lists. Henry's wound was mortal He lingered ten days in great agony, and expired on the ninth of July, in the forty-second year of his age, and the thirteenth of his reign. It was an ill augury for the nuptials of Elizabeth. 50 The tidings of the king's death were received with demonstrations of sorrow throughout the kingdom. He had none of those solid qualities which make either a great or a good prince. But he had the showy qualities which are perhaps more effectual to secure the affections of a people as fond of show as the nation whom Henry governed." There were others in the kingdom, however, that growing sect of the Huguenots, who looked on the monarch's death with very different eyes, who rejoiced in it as a deliverance from persecution. They had little -cause to rejoice. The sceptre passed into the hands of a line of imbecile princes, or rather of their mother, the famous Catherine de Medicis, who reigned in their stead, and who ultimately proved herself the most merciless foe the Huguenots ever encountered. 50 Brantome, CEuvres, torn. ii. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, bears p. 351. De Thou, Histoire uni- testimony to the popularity of Terselle, torn. iii, p. 367. Cabrera, Henry: "Their was marvailous Filipe Segundo, lib. iv. cap. 29. great lamentation made for him, Campana, Filippo Secondo, parte and weaping of all sorts, both ii. lib. 11. Forbes, State Papers, men and women." Forbes, State vol. i. p. 151. Papers, vol. i. p. 151. 41 The English commissioner, CHAP. JZ.J 253 CHAPTER IX. LATTER DAYS OF CHAELES THE FiFfH. Charles at Ynste. His Mode of Life. Interest in Public Affairs. Celebrates his Obsequies. Last Illness. Death and Character. 15561558. WHILE the occurrences related in the preceding chapter were passing, an event took place, which, had it happened earlier, would have had an im- portant influence on the politics of Europe, and the news of which, when it did happen, was everywhere received with the greatest interest. This event was the death of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, in his monastic retreat at Yuste. In the earlier pages of our narrative we have seen how that monarch, after his abdication of the throne, withdrew to the Je- ronymite convent among the hills of Estremadura. The reader may now feel some interest in following him thither, and in observing in what manner he accommodated himself to the change, and passed the closing days of his eventful life. The picture I am enabled to give of it will differ in some respects from those of former historians, who wrote when the Archives of Simancas, which afforded the most authentic records for the narrative, were inaccessible to the scholar, native as well as foreign. 1 1 This pleasing anticipation is Charles the Fifth, then a virgin not destined to be realised. Since topic, has become a thrice-told the above was written, in the sum- tale, thanks to the labours of Mr. xner of 1851, the cloister-life of Stirling, M.Amdd6ePichot, and M. 254 LATTER DAYS OP CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOK L Charles, as we have seen, had early formed the determination to relinquish at some future tune the cares of royalty, and devote himself, in some lonely retreat, to the good work of his salvation. His con- sort, the Empress Isabella, as appears from his own statement at Yuste, had avowed the same pious pur- pose. 2 She died, however, too early to execute her plan; and Charles was too much occupied with his ambitious enterprises to accomplish his object until the autumn of 1555, when, broken in health and spirits, and disgusted with the world, he resigned the sceptre he had held for forty years, and withdrew to a life of obscurity and repose. The spot he had selected for his residence was situated about seven leagues from the city of Pla- sencia, on the slopes of the mountain-chain that traverses the province of Estremadura. There, nestling among the rugged hills, clothed with thick woods of chestnut and oak, the Jeronymite convent was sheltered from the rude breezes of the north. Towards the south, the land sloped by a gradual declivity till it terminated in a broad expanse, the Vera of Plasencia, as it was called, which, fertilised by the streams of the sierra, contrasted strongly in its glowing vegetation with the wild character of the mountain scenery. It was a spot well fitted for such as would withdraw themselves from commerce with the world and consecrate their days to prayer and holy meditation. The Jeronymite fraternity had prospered in this peaceful abode. Many of the monks had acquired reputation for sanctity, and some of them for learning, the fruits of which might Mignet ; while the publication of verify their statements. See tho the original documents from Si- postscript at end of this chapter, mancas, by M. Gachard, will pat it 2 Sandoval. Hist, de Carlos V., in the power of every scholar to torn. ii. p. 611. CHAP. .] CHARLES AT YUSTB. 255 be seen in a large collection of manuscripts preserved in the library of the monastery. Benefactions were heaped on the brotherhood. They became proprietors of considerable tracts of land in the neighbourhood, and they liberally employed their means in dispensing alms to the poor who sought it at the gate of the convent. Not long before Charles took up his resi- dence among them, they had enlarged their building by an extensive quadrangle, which displayed some architectural elegance in the construction of its cloisters. Three years before the emperor repaired thither, he sent a skilful architect to provide such accommodations as he had designed for himself. These were very simple. A small building, containing eight rooms, four on each floor, was raised against the southern wall of the monastery. The rooms were low, and of a moderate size. They were protected by porticos, which sheltered them on two sides from the rays of the sun, while an open gallery, which passed through the centre of the house, afforded means for its perfect ventilation. But Charles, with his gouty constitu- tion, was more afraid of the cold damps than of heat ; and he took care to have the apartments provided with fireplaces, a luxury little known in this tem- perate region. A window opened from his chamber directly into the chapel of the monastery ; and through this, when confined to his bed and too ill to attend mass, he could see the elevation of the host. The furniture of the dwelling according to an authority usually fol- lowed was of the simplest kind; and Charles, we are told, took no better care of his gouty limbs than to provide himself with an armchair, or rather half a chair, which would not have brought four reals at 256 LATTER DAYS OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOK i. auction.* The inventory of the furniture of Yuste tells a very different story. Instead of " half an armchair," we find, besides other chairs lined with velvet, two armchairs especially destined to the emperor's service. One of these was of a peculiar construction, and was accommodated with no less than six cushions and a footstool, for the repose of his gouty limbs. His wardrobe showed a similar attention to his personal comfort. For one item we find no less than sixteen robes of silk and velvet, lined with ermine or eider-down, or the soft hair of the Barbary goat. The decorations of his apartment were on not merely a comfortable, but a luxurious scale : canopies of velvet ; carpets from Turkey and Alcaraz ; suits of tapestry, of which twenty- five pieces are specified, richly wrought with figures of flowers and animals. Twelve hangings, of the finest black cloth, were for the emperor's bedchamber, which, since his mother's death, had been always dressed in mourning. Among the ornaments of his rooms were four large clocks of elaborate workman- ship. He had besides a number of pocket watches, then a greater rarity than at present. He was curious in regard to his timepieces, and took care to 8 " Una sola silla de caderas, The authority, doubtless, is of the que mas era media silla, tan vieja highest value, as the prior, who y ruyn que si se pusiera en venta witnessed the closing scenes of no dieran por ella quatro reales." Charles's life, drew up his relation Sandoval, Hist, de Carlos V., torn. for the information of the regent ii. p. 610. See also El perf ecto Joanna, and at her request. Why Desengafio, por el Marques de the good father should have pre- Valparayso, MS. The latter sented his hero in such a poverty- writer, in speaking of the furni- stricken aspect it is not easy to ture, uses precisely the same say. Perhaps he thought it would language, with the exception of a redound to the credit of the em- single word, as Sandoval. Both peror that he should have been claim to have mainly derived willing to exchange the splendours their account of the cloister-life of of a throne for a life of monkish Charles the Fifth from the prior mortification, of Yuste, Fray Martin de Angulo. nt.] CHARLES AT YUSTE. 257 provide for their regularity by bringing the manu- facturer of them in his train to Yuste. Charles was served on silver. Even the meanest utensils for his kitchen and his sleeping apartment were of the same costly material, amounting to nearly fourteen thousand ounces in weight. 4 The inventory contains rather a meagre show of books, which were for the most part of a devotional character. But Charles's love of art was visible in a small but choice collection of paintings which he brought with him to adorn the walls of his retreat. Nine of these were from the pencil of Titian. Charles held the works of the great Venetian in the highest honour, and was desirous that by his hand his like- ness should be transmitted to posterity. The em- peror had brought with him to Yuste four portraits of himself and the empress by Titian; and among the other pieces by the same master were some of his best pictures. One of these was the famous "Gloria," in which Charles and the empress appear, in the midst of the celestial throng, supported by angels, and in an attitude of humble adoration.' He had the painting hung at the foot of his bed, or, according to another account, over the great altar in the chapel. It is said, he would gaze long and fondly on this pic- ture, which filled him with the most tender recollec- tions ; and, as he dwelt on the image of one who had been so dear to him on earth, he may have looked forward to his reunion with her in the heavenly mansions, as the artist had here depicted him. 8 4 The reader will find an extract ' Mignet has devoted a couple from the inventory of the royal of pages to an account of this re- jewels, plate, furniture, ), p. 110, the emperor are reported with a et seq. CHAP, n.] HIS INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 273 Charles's attention in his retirement, singularly enough, was the financial. " It has been my con- stant care," he writes to Philip, " in all my letters to your sister, to urge the necessity of providing you with funds, since I can be of little service to you in any other way." 37 His interposition, indeed, seems to have been constantly invoked to raise supplies for carrying on the war. This fact may be thought to show that those writers are mistaken who accuse Philip of withholding from his father the means of maintaining a suitable establishment at Yuste. Charles, in truth, settled the amount of his own income ; and in one of his letters we find him fixing this at twenty thousand ducats, instead of sixteen thousand, as before, to be paid quarterly and in advance. 38 That the payments were not always punctually made may well be believed in a country where punctuality would have been a miracle. Charles had more cause for irritation in the con- duct of some of those functionaries with whom he had to deal in his financial capacity. Nothing appears to have stirred his bile so much at Yuste as the proceedings of some members of the board of trade at Seville. " I have deferred sending to you," he writes to his daughter, the regent, " in order to see if, with tune, my wrath would not subside. But, far from it, it increases, and will go on increasing till I learn that those who have done wrong have atoned 17 Carta del Emperador al Eey, me ayudan con dinero, loa podri- 25 de Mayo, 1558, MS. On the amos atraer a lo que conviniesse." margin of this letter we find the " Besalle las manos por lo que en following memoranda of Philip esto ha mandado y suplicalle lo himself, showing how much im- lleve adelante y que de aca so portance he attached to * is hara lo mismo, y avisarle de lo father's interposition * this que se han hecho hasta agora." matter: "Volverselo -. suplicar ^ Carta del Emperador a Juan con gran instar''a,, pues que- Vazquez, 31 de Marzo, 1557, MS. damos in tale nerminos que, si VOL. I. T 274 LATTER DAYS OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOK i. for it. Were it not for my infirmities," he adds, " I would go to Seville myself, and find out the authors of this villany and bring them to a summary reckon- ing." 39 "The emperor orders me," writes his secre- tary, Gaztelu, " to command that the offenders be put hi irons, and, in order to mortify them the more, that they be carried, in broad daylight, to Simancas, and there lodged, not in towers or chambers, but in a dungeon. Indeed, such is his indignation, and such are the violent and bloodthirsty expressions he commands me to use, that you will pardon me if my language is not so temperate as it might be."** It had been customary for the board of trade to receive the gold imported from the Indies, whether on public or private account, and hold it for the use of the government, paying to the merchants interested an equivalent in government bonds. The merchants, naturally enough not relishing this kind of security so well as the gold, by a collusion with some of the members of the board of trade, had been secretly allowed to remove their own property. In this way the government was defrauded as the emperor regarded it of a large sum on which it had calcu- lated. This, it would seem, was the offence which had roused the royal indignation to such a pitch. Charles's phlegmatic temperament had ever been liable to be ruffled by these sudden gusts of passion ; and his conventual life does not seem to have had any very sedative influence on him in this particular. 39 Carta del Emperador a la * " Es tal su indignacion y tan. Princesa, 31 de Marzo, 1557, sangrientas las palabras y vehe- MS. The whole letter is singu- mencia con que manda escribir a larly characteristic of Charles, v. m. que me disculpard sino lo Its authoritative tone shows that, hago con mas templan9a y modo." though he had parted with the Carta de Martin de Gaztelu a crown, ke had not parted with Juan Vazquez, 12 de Mayo, 1557, the temper of a sovereign, and of MS. an absolute sovereign too. CHAP, n.] HIS INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 275 For the first ten months after his arrival at Yuste, the emperor's health, under the influence of a tem- perate climate, the quiet of monastic life, and more than all, probably, his exemption from the cares of state, had generally improved. 41 His attacks of gout had been less frequent and less severe than before. But in the spring of 1558 the old malady returned -with renewed violence. " I was not in a condition," he writes to Philip, " to listen to a single sermon during Lent." 42 For months he was scarcely able to write a line with his own hand. His spirits felt the pressure of bodily suffering, and were still further depressed by the death of his sister Eleanor, the queen-dowager of France and Portugal, which took place in February, 1558. A strong attachment seems to have subsisted between the emperor and his two sisters. Queen Eleanor's sweetness of disposition had particularly endeared her to her brother, who now felt her loss almost as keenly as that of one of his own children. " She was a good Christian," he said to his secretary, Gaztelu ; and, as the tears rolled down his cheeks, he added, " We have always loved each other. She was my elder by fifteen months ; and before that period has passed I shall probably be with her."* 41 " His majesty was so well," que en toda esta quaresma no he writes Gaztelu, early in the sum- podido oyr un sermon, y esto es mer of 1557, "that he could rise la causa porqueno os escribo esta from his seat, and support his de mi mano.' Carta del Emper- arquebuse, without aid." He ador al Key, 7 de Abril, 1558, could even do some mischief with MS. his fowling-piece to the wood- tt " Sintiolo cierto mucho, y se pigeons. Carta de Gaztelu a le arrasuron los ojos, y me dijo lo Vazquez, 5 de Junio, 1557, MS. mucho que el y la de Francia so 42 < Porque desde tantos de habian siempre querido, y_ por noviembre hasta pocos dias ha cuan buena cristiana la tenia, y hame dado [la gota] tres vezes y que le llevaba quince meses de muy rezio, y me ha tenido muchos tiempo, y que, segun el se iba dias en la cama, y hestado hasta sintiendo de poco aca, podria 3er de poco . > a tail trabajado y flaco que dentro de ellos le hiciese com- T 2 276 LATTER DAYS OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOK * Before half that period the sad augury was fulfilled. At this period as we shall see hereafter the attention of the government was called to the Lutheran heresy, which had already begun to dis- close itself in various quarters of the country, Charles was possessed of a full share of the spirit of bigotry which belonged to the royal line of Castile, from which he was descended. While on the throne this feeling was held somewhat in check by a regard for his political interests. But in the seclusion of the monastery he had no interests to consult but those of religion ; and he gave free scope to the spirit of intolerance which belonged to his nature. In a letter addressed, the third of May, 1558, to his daughter Joanna, he says, " Tell the grand inquisitor from me to be at his post, and lay the axe at the root of the evil before it spreads further. I rely on your zeal for bringing the guilty to punishment, and for having them punished, without favour to any one, with all the severity which their crimes demand."* 4 In another letter to his daughter, three weeks later, he writes, " If I had not entire confidence that you would do your duty, and arrest the evil at once by chastising the guilty in good earnest, I know not how I could help leaving the monastery and taking the remedy into my own hands. " 4 * Thus did Charles make his voice heard from his retreat among pafiia." Carta de Gaztelu a Vaz- mostracion y rigor que la calidad quez, 21 de Febrero, 1558, ap. de sus culpas mereceran, y esto Gachard, Retraite et Mort, torn, sin exception de persona alguna." i. p. 270. See also Mignet, Carta del Emperador a la Prin- Charles-Quint, p. 330. cesa, 3 de Mayo, 1558, MS. 44 " Y que para ello les deis y ** " No se si toviera sufrimi- mandeis dar todo el favor y calor ento para no salir de aqui arre- qne fuere necesario y para que mediallo." Carta del Emperador los que fueren culpados scan a la Princesa, 25 de Mayo, 1558, punidos y castigados con la de- MS. CHAP, ii.] HE CELEBRATES HIS OBSEQUIES. 277 the mountains, and by his efforts and influence render himself largely responsible for the fiery perse- cution which brought woe upon the land after he himself had gone to his account. About the middle of August tho emperor's old enemy, the gout, returned on him with uncommon force. It was attended with symptoms of an alarm- ing kind, intimating, indeed, that his strong consti- tution was giving way. These were attributed to a cold which he had taken, though it seems there was good reason for imputing them to his intemperate living ; for he still continued to indulge his appetite for the most dangerous dishes as freely as in the days when a more active way of life had better enabled him to digest them. It is true, the physician stood by his side, as prompt as Sancho Panza's doctor, in his island domain, to remonstrate against his master's proceedings. But, unhappily, he was not armed with the authority of that functionary; and an eel- pie, a well-spiced capon, or any other savouiy abomi- nation, offered too great a fascination for Charles to heed the warnings of his physician. The declining state of the emperor's health may have inspired him with a presentiment of his approach- ing end, to which, we have seen, he gave utterance some time before this, in his conversation with Gaz- telu. It may have been the sober reflections which such a feeling would naturally suggest that led him, at the close of the month of August, to conceive the extraordinary idea of preparing for the final scene by rehearsing his own funeral He consulted his con- fessor on the subject, and was encouraged by the accommodating father to consider it as a meritorious act. The chapel was accordingly hung in black, and the blaze of hundreds of wax-lights was not sufficient 27S LATTER DAYS OF CIIAELES THE FIFTH. [COOK i. to dispel the darkness. The monks in their con- ventual dresses, and all the emperor's household, clad in deep mourning, gathered round a huge catafalque, shrouded also in black, which had been raised in the- centre of the chapel. The service for the burial of the dead was then performed ; and, amidst the dismal wail of the monks, the prayers ascended for the departed spirit, that it might be received into the mansions of the blessed. The sorrowful attendants were melted to tears, as the image of their master's death was presented to their minds, or they were touched, it may be, with compassion for this pitiable display of his weakness. Charles, muffled in a dark mantle, and bearing a lighted candle in his hand, mingled with his household, the spectator of his own obsequies ; and the doleful ceremony was concluded by his placing the taper in the hands of the priest, in sign of surrendering up his soul to the Almighty. Such is the account of this melancholy farce given us by the Jeronymite chroniclers of the cloister-life- of Charles the Fifth, and which has since been repeated losing nothing in the repetition by every succeeding historian, to the present time." Nor does there seem to have been any distrust of its correct- ness till the historical scepticism of our own day had subjected the narrative to a more critical scrutiny. It 49 The history of this affair fur- scene by leaving the emperor in a lushes a good example of the swoon upon the floor. Lastly,, ereseit eundo. The nutbor of the Robertson, after making the em- MS. discovered by M. Bakhuizen, peror perform in his shroud, lay* noticed more fully in the next him in his coffin, where after join- note, though present at the cere- ing in the prayers for the rest of mony, contents himself \vith a his own soul, not yet departed, he general outline of it. Siguenca, is left by the monks to his medi- who follows next in time and in tations ! Where Robertson got authority, tells us of the lighted all these particulars it would not candle which Charles delivered to be easy to tell ; certainly not from the priest. Strada, who wrote a the authorities cited at the bottom generation later, concludes the of his page. CHAP. .] HE CELKBRATES HIS OBSEQUIES. 279 was then discovered that no mention of the affair was to be discerned in the letters of any one of the emperor's household residing at Yuste, although there are letters extant written by Charles's physi- cian, his major-domo, and his secretary, both on the thirty-first of August, the day of the funeral, and on the first of September. With so extraordinary an event fresh in their minds, their silence is inexpli- cable. One fact is certain, that, if the funeral did take place, it could not have been on the date assigned to it ; for on the thirty-first the emperor was labouring under an attack of fever, of which his physician has given full particulars, and from which he was destined never to recover. That the writers, there- fore, should have been silent in respect to a ceremony which must have had so bad an effect on the nerves of the patient, is altogether incredible. Yet the story of the obsequies comes from one of the Jeronymite brethren then living at Yuste, who speaks of the emotions which he felt, in common, with the rest of the convent, at seeing a man thus bury himself alive, as it were, and perform his funeral rites before his death. 47 It is repeated by another of the fraternity, the prior of the Escorial, who had ample means of conversing with eye-witnesses.* And, f " Et j'assure que le coenr pied the convent at the time of nous f endait de voir qu'un homme the emperor's residence there, the vpulut en quelque sorte s'enterrer MS. is stamped with the highest vivant, et faire ses obseques avant authority ; and M. Gachard will de mourir." Gachard, Ketraite et doubtless do a good service to Morte, torn. i. p. Ivi. M. Gachard letters by incorporating it in the has given a translation of the second volume of his " Ketraite et chapter relating to the funeral, Mort." from a curious MS. account of w Siguenca, Hist, de la Orden Charles's convent-life, discovered de San Geronimo, parte iii. pp. 200, by M. Bakhuizen in the archives 201. Siguenca's work, which at Brussels. As the author was combines much curious learning one of the brotherhood who occu- with a simple elegance of style, 280 LATTER DAYS OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOS i. finally, it is confirmed by more than one writer near enough to the period to be able to assure himself of the truth. 4 * Indeed, the parties from whom the account is originally derived were so situated that if the story be without foundation it is impossible to explain its existence by misapprehension on their part. It must be wholly charged on a wilful mis- statement of facts. It is true, the monkish chroni- cler is not always quite so scrupulous in this particular as would be desirable, especially where the honour of his order is implicated. But what interest could the Jeronymite fathers have had in so foolish a fabri- cation as this ? The supposition is at variance with the respectable character of the parties, and with the -air of simplicity and good faith that belongs to their narratives." We may well be staggered, it is true, by the fact that no allusion to the obsequies appears in any of the letters from Yuste ; while the date assigned for them, moreover, is positively disproved. Yet we was the fruit of many years of mock funeral was after all appro- labour. The third volume, con- priated to his real one, it would taining the part relating to the seem to imply that the former emperor, appeared in lb'05, the never took place. It were greatly year before the death of its author, to be wished that the MS . of Fray who, as already noticed, must Martin de Angulo could be de- have had daily communication tected and brought to light. As with several of the monks, when, prior of Yuste while Charles was after Charles's death, they had there, his testimony would be in- been transferred from Yuste to valuable. Both Sandoval and the the gloomy shades of the Escorial. marquis of Yalparayso profess to 49 Such, for example, were Vera have relied mainly on Angulo'a y Figueroa, Conde de la Roca, authority. Yet in this very affair whose little volume appeared in of the funeral they disagree. 1613 ; Strada, who wrote some * Siguenca's composition may twenty years later ; and the mar- be characterised us simplex mun~ quis of Valparaiso, whose MS. is ditiis. The MS. of the monk of dated 1638. I say nothing of Yuste, found in Brussels, is Sandoval, often quoted as autho- stamped, says M. Gachard, with rity for the funeral, for, as he tells the character of simplicity and us that the money which the em- truth. Retraite et Mort, torn. i. peror proposed to devote to a p. rx. ciAr. n.] HE CELEBRATES HIS OBSEQUIES. 281 may consider that the misstatement of a date is a verj different thing from the invention of a story, a,nd that chronological accuracy, as I have more than once had occasion to remark, was not the virtue of the monkish, or indeed of any other, historian of the sixteenth century. It would not be a miracle if the obsequies should have taken place some days before the period assigned to them. It so happens that we have no letters from Yuste between the eighteenth and the twenty-seventh of August. At least, I have none myself, and have seen none cited by others. If any should hereafter come to light, written during that interval, they may be found possibly to contain some allusion to the funeral Should no letters have been written during the period, the silence of the parties who wrote at the end of August and the beginning of September may be explained by the fact that too long a time had elapsed since the performance of the emperor's obsequies for them to suppose it could have any connexion with his illness, which formed the subject of their correspondence. Difficulties will present themselves, whichever view we take of the matter. But the reader may think it quite as reasonable to explain those difficulties by the supposition of in- voluntary error as by that of sheer invention. Nor is the former supposition rendered less pro- bable by the character of Charles the Fifth. There was a taint of insanity in the royal blood of Castile, which was most fully displayed in the emperor's mother, Joanna. Some traces of it, however faint, may be discerned in his own conduct before he took refuge in the cloisters of Yuste. And though we may not agree with Paul the Fourth in regarding 82 LAT1ER DAYS OF CHARLES THE FIFTH, [coon this step as sufficient evidence of his madness," we may yet find something in his conduct, on more than one occasion, while there, which is near akin to it> Such, for example, was the morbid relish which he discovered for performing the obsequies not merely for his kindred, but of any one whose position seemed to him to furnish an apology for it. Not a member of the toison died but he was prepared to commemorate the event with solemn funeral rites. These, in short, seemed to be the festivities of Charles's cloister-life. These lugubrious ceremonies had a fascination for him that may remind one of the tenacity with which his mother, Joanna, clung to the dead body of her husband, taking it with her wherever she went. It was after celebrating the obsequies of his parents and his wife, which occupied several successive days, that he conceived, as we are told, the idea of rehearsing his own funeral, a piece of extravagance which becomes the more credible when we reflect on the state of morbid excitement to which his mind may have been brought by dwelling so long on the dreary apparatus of death. But, whatever be thought of the account of the mock funeral of Charles, it appears that on the thirtieth of August he was affected by an indisposi- tion which on the following day was attended with most alarming symptoms. Here also we have some particulars from his Jeronymite biographers which we do not find in the letters. On the evening of the thirty-first, according to their account, Charles ordered a portrait of the empress, his wife, of whom, as we have seen, he had more than one in his collec- tion, to be brought to him. He dwelt a long while on its beautiful features, " As if," says the chronicler, 41 Mignet, Charles-Quint, p. 1. CHAP. .] HIS LAST ILLNESS. 283 " he were imploring her to prepare a place for him in the celestial mansions to which she had gone."* 2 He then passed to the contemplation of another picture, Titian's " Agony in the Garden," and from this to that immortal production of his pencil, the " Gloria," as it is called, which is said to have hung over the high altar at Yuste, and which, after the emperor's death, followed his remains to the Escorial. 6 * He gazed so long and with such rapt attention on the picture as to cause apprehension in his physician, who, in the emperor's debilitated state, feared the effects of such excitement on his nerves. There was- good reason for apprehension ; for Charles at length, rousing from his reverie, turned to the doctor and complained that he was ill. His pulse showed him to be in a high fever;- As the symptoms became more unfavourable, his physician bled him, but without any good effect. 64 The Kegent Joanna, on learning her father's danger, instantly dispatched her own physician from Valladolid to his assistance. But no earthly remedies could avail. It soon became evident that the end was approaching." Charles received the intelligence not merely with composure, but with cheeVfvilness. It was what he had long desired, he said. His first care was to complete some few arrangements respecting his affairs. On the ninth of September he executed a u " Estuvo Tin pocroa, Carlos Quinto, p. 127 ; 'igueroa, Carlos Quinto*p. 127. Valparayso, El perfecto Desen- 63 This famous picture? painted gano, MS. in the artist's best stylt, forms M Vera y Figueroa, Carlo* now one of the noblest ornaments Quinto, p 127. Siguenga, Orden of the Museo of Madrid. See de San Geronirao, parte iii. p. 201. Ford, Handbook of Spain, p. 758. Carta de Luis Quixada al * For the above account of the 17 de Setienibre, 1558, MS. 284 LATTER DAYS OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOK i. codicil to his will. The will, made a few years previous, was of great length, and the codicil had not the merit of brevity. Its principal object was to make provision for those who had followed him to Yuste. No mention is made in the codicil of his son Don John of Austria. He seems to have communi- cated his views in regard to him to his major-domo, Quixada, who had a private interview of some length with his master a few days before his death. Charles's directions on the subject appear to have been scrupulously regarded by Philip. 66 One clause in the codicil deserves to be noticed. The emperor conjures his son most earnestly, by the obedience he owes him, to follow up and bring to justice every heretic in his dominions, and this with- out exception and without favour or mercy to any one. He conjures Philip to cherish the Holy Inqui- sition as the best instrument for accomplishing this good work. " So," he concludes, " shall you have my blessing, and the Lord shall prosper all your undertakings."* 7 Such were the last words of the dying monarch to his son. They did not fall on a deaf ear ; and the parting admonition of his father served to give a keener edge to the sword of perse- cution which Philip had already begun to wield. 86 The Begent Joanna, it seems, as no allusion had been made to suspected, for some reason or him in the emperor's will, there other, that the boy in Quixada's could be no foundation for the care was in fact the emperor's rumour : " Ser ansy que yo tenya eon. A few weeks after her un muchacho de hun cabafiero father's death she caused a letter amygo myo que me abia encomen- io be addressed to the major- dado anos a, y que pues S. M. en domo, asking him directly if this su testamento ni codecilyo, no were the case, and intimating a azia memorya del, que hera razon desire to make a suitable provi- tenello por burla." Carta de Luis sion for the youth. The wary Quixada al Rey, 28 de Noviembre, functionary, wno tells this in his 1658, MS. private correspondence with Philip, * 7 Codicilo del Emperador, ap. endeavoured to put the regent off Sandoval, Hist, de Carlos V., torn, the scent by stating that the lad ii. p. 657. was the son of a friend, and that, CHAF. ix.] HIS LAST ILLNESS. 285 On the nineteenth of September, Charles's strength had declined so much that it was thought proper to administer extreme unction to him. He preferred to have it in the form adopted by the friars, which, comprehending a litany, the seven penitential psalms, and sundry other passages of Scripture, was much longer and more exhausting than the rite used by the laity. His strength did not fail under it, however ; and the following day he desired to take the com- munion, as he had frequently done during his illness. On his confessor's representing that, after the sacra- ment of extreme unction, this was unnecessary, he answered, " Perhaps so, but it is good provision for the long journey I am to set out upon." 48 Ex- hausted as he was, he knelt a full quarter of an hour in his bed during the ceremony, offering thanks to God for his mercies, and expressing the deepest con- trition for his sins, with an earnestness of manner that touched the hearts of all present. 59 Throughout his illness he had found consolation in having passages of Scripture, especially the Psalms, read to him. Quixada, careful that his master should not be disquieted in his last moments, would allow very few persons to be present in his chamber. Among the number was Bartolome de Carranza, who had lately been raised to the archiepiscopal see of Toledo. He had taken a prominent part in the per- secution in England under Mary. For the remainder of his life he was to be the victim of persecution him- self, from a stronger arm than his, that of the Inquisition. Even the words of consolation which " Si bien no sea necessario no * 9 Carta sobre los liltimos mo- os parece, que es buena compafiia mentos del Emperador Carlos V., para Jornada tan larga." Sando- escrita en Yuste, el 27 de Setiem- val, Hist, de Carlos V., torn. ii. bre,1558,ap.Documentosin6dito8, p. 617. torn. vi. p. 668. 286 LATTER DAYS OP CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOK fc he uttered in this chamber of death were carefully treasured up by Charles's confessor, and made one of the charges against him in his impeachment for heresy. On the twenty-first of September, St. Matthew's day about two hours after midnight, the emperor, who had remained long without speaking, feeling that his hour had come, exclaimed, "Now it is time !" The holy taper was placed lighted in his right hand, as he sat up leaning on the shoulder of the faithful Quixada. With his left he endeavoured to clasp a silver crucifix. It had comforted the empress, his wife, in her dying hour ; and Charles had ordered Qi ixada to hold it in readiness for him on the like occasion. 60 It had lain for some time on his breast ; and as it was now held up before his glazing eye by the archbishop of Toledo, Charles fixed his gaze long and earnestly on the sacred symbol, to him the memento of earthly love as well as heavenly. The archbishop was repeating the Psalm De Profundis, " Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord !" when the dying man, making a feeble effort to embrace the crucifix, exclaimed, in tones so audible as to be heard in the adjoining room, "Ay, Jesus /" and, sinking back on the pillow, expired without a struggle. 61 He had always prayed perhaps fearing 60 Carta de Luis Quixadad Juan Setiembre, 1558, MS. For the Vazquez, 25 de Setiembre, 1558, accounts of this death -bed scene, MS. Carta del mismo al Bey, see Carta del mismo al mismo, 30 deSetiembre,1558,MS. Carta 21 de Setiembre, MS. Carta del del Arzobispo de Toledo a la mismo al Rey, 21 de Setiembre, Princesa, 21 de Setiembre, 1558, MS. Carta del mismo al mismo, MS. 30 de Setiembre, MS. Carta del 61 "Tomo la candela en la mano Arzobispo de Toledo a la Princesa, derecha la qual yo tenya, y con la 21 de Setiembre, MS. Carta del yzquyerda tomo el crucifixo de- Medico del JSmperador (Henrico ziendo, ya es tiempo, y con dezir Matisio) a Juan Vazquez, 21 de Jesus acabo." Carta de Luis Setiembre, MS. Carta sobre los Quixada a Juan Vazquez, 25 de ultimos momentos del Emperador, CHAP, n.] HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. 287 the hereditary taint of insanity that he might die in possession of his faculties." His prayer was granted. The emperor's body, after being embalmed and placed in its leaden coffin, lay in state in the chapel for three days, during which three discourses were pronounced over it by the best preachers in the convent. It was then consigned to the earth, with due solemnity, amidst the prayers and tears of the brethren and of Charles's domestics, in presence of a numerous concourse of persons from the surrounding country. The burial did not take place, however, without some difficulty. Charles had requested by his will that he might be laid partially under the great altar, in such a manner that his head and the upper part of his body might come under the spot where the priest stood when he performed the service. This was dictated in all humility by the emperor ; but it raised a question among the scrupulous ecclesiastics as to the propriety of permitting any bones save those of a saint to occupy so holy a place as that beneath the altar. The dispute waxed somewhat warmer than was suited to the occasion ; till the momentous affair was finally adjusted by having an excavation made in the wall, within which the head was introduced, so as to allow the feet to touch the verge of the hallowed ground. 83 The emperor's body did not long abide in its resting-place at Yuste. Before many years had elapsed, it was transported, 27 de Setiembre, ap. Documentos " " Temiendo siempre no lo ineditos, vol. vi. p. 667. San- poder iener en acjuel tiempo." doval, Hist, de Carlos V., torn. ii. Carta de Luis Quixada al Rey, p. 618. The MSS. referred to 30 de Setiembre, MS. may now be all found in the w Documentos ineditos, torn. vi. printed collection of Gachard. p. 669. 288 LATTER DAYS OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOK u by command of Philip the Second, to the Escorial ; and in that magnificent mausoleum it has continued to repose, beside that of the Empress Isabella. The funeral obsequies of Charles were celebrated with much pomp by the court of Rome, by the Regent Joanna at Valladolid, and, with yet greater magni- ficence, by Philip the Second at Brussels. Philip was at Arras when he learned the news of his father's death. He instantly repaired to a monastery in the neighbourhood of Brussels, where he remained secluded for several weeks. Meanwhile he ordered the bells in all the churches and convents throughout the Netherlands to be tolled thrice a day for four months, and during that time that no festivals or public rejoicings of any kind should take place. On the twenty-eighth of December the king entered Brussels by night, and on the following day, before the hour of vespers, a procession was formed to the church of Ste. Gudule, which still challenges the admiration of the traveller as one of the noblest monuments of mediaeval architecture in the Nether- lands. The procession consisted of the principal clergy, the members of the different religious houses, bearing lighted tapers in their hands, the nobles and cavaliers about the court, the great officers of state, and the royal household, all clad in deep mourning. After these came the knights of the Golden Fleece, wearing the insignia and the superb dress of the order. The marquis of Aguilar bore the imperial sceptre, the duke of Villahermosa the sword, and the prince of Orange carried the globe and the crown of the- empire. Philip came on foot wrapped in a sable mantle, with his head buried in a deep cowl. His train was borne by Ruy Gomez de Silva, the favourite CHAP. EC.] HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. 280 minister. Then followed the duke of Savoy, walking also alone, with his head covered, as a prince of the blood. Files of the Spanish and German guard, in their national uniforms, formed an escort to the pro- cession, as it took its way through the principal streets, which were illumined with a blaze of torch- light, that dispelled the gathering shadows of evening. A conspicuous part of the procession was a long train of horses led each by two gentlemen, and displaying on their splendid housings, and the ban- ners which they carried, the devices and arms of the several states over which the emperor presided. But no part of the pageant attracted so much notice from the populace as a stately galley, having its sides skilfully painted with battle-pieces suggested by different actions in which Charles had been engaged, while its sails of black silk were covered with inscriptions in letters of gold, that commemo- rated the triumphs of the hero. Although the palace was at no great distance from Ste. Gudule's, the procession occupied two hours in passing to the church. In the nave of the edifice stood a sort of chapel, constructed for the 'occasion. Its roof, or rather canopy, displaying four crowns embroidered in gold, rested on four Ionic pillars curiously wrought. Within lay a sarcophagus co- vered with a dark pall of velvet, surmounted by a large crimson cross. The imperial crown, together with the globe and sceptre, was deposited in this chapel, which was lighted up with three thousand wax tapers. In front of it was a scaffolding covered with black, on which a throne was raised for Philip. The nobles and great officers of the crown occupied the seats, or rather steps, below. Drapery of dark velvet and VOL. L U 290 LATTER DAYS OF CIIAKLES 'HI I! 1 II' ! II. [F.OOK i, cloth of gold, emblazoned with tlie imperial arms, was suspended across the arches of the nave ; above which ran galleries, appropriated to the duchess of Lorraine and the ladies of the court. 64 The traveller who at this time visits this venerable pile, where Charles the Fifth was wont to hold the chapters of the Golden Fleece, while he gazes on the characteristic effigy of that monarch, as it is displayed on the superb windows of painted glass, may call to- mind the memorable day when the people of Flan- ders, and the rank and beauty of its capital, were gathered together to celebrate the obsequies of the great emperor ; when, amidst clouds of incense and the blaze of myriads of lights, the deep tones of the organ, vibrating through the long aisles, mingled with the voices of the priests, as they chanted their sad requiem to the soul of their departed sovereign. 65 M Sandoval, Hist, de Carlos V., A number of persons were knecl- tom. ii. p. 620. ing and saying their prayers in 65 At least, such were the rapt attention, little heeding the images suggested to my mind, Protestant strangers who were as I wandered through the aisles curiously gazing at the pictures of this fine old cathedral, on a and statues with which the edifice visit which I made to Brussels a was filled. I was most struck /ew years since, in the summer with one poor woman, who was of 1850. Perhaps the reader kneeling before the shrine of will excuse, as germaine to this the saint, whose marble corpse, matter, a short sketch relating to covered by a decent white it, from one of my letters written gauze veil, lay just before her, on the spot to a distant friend : separated only by a light railing. "Then the noble cathedral of The setting sun was streaming in Brussels, dedicated to one Saint through the rich coloured panes Gudule the superb organ filling of the magnificent windows, that its long aisles with the most rose from the iioor to the ceiling heart-thrilling tones, as the of the cathedral, some hundred voices of the priests, dressed in feet in height. The glass was of their rich robes of purple and the time of Charles the Fifth, gold, rose in a chant that died and I soon recognised his familiar away in the immense vaulted faco, the protruding jaw of the distance of the cathedral. It Austrian line. As I heard the was the service of the dead, and glorious anthem rise up to heaven the coffin of some wealthy in this time-honoured cathedral, burgher, probably, to judge from which had witnessed generation its decorations, was in the choir, after generation melt away, and CHAP, a.] HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. 291 I have gone somewhat into detail in regard to the latter days of Charles the Fifth, who exercised in his retirement too important an influence on public affairs for such an account of him to be deemed an impertinent episode to the history of Philip the Second. Before parting from him for ever, I will take a brief view of some peculiarities in his personal rather than his political character, which has long since been indelibly traced by a hand abler than mine. Charles, at the time of his death, was in the fifty- eighth year of his age. He was older in constitution than in years. So much shaken had he been, indeed, in mind as well as body, that he may be said to have died of premature old age. Yet his physical develop- ment had been very slow. He was nearly twenty- one years old before any beard was to be seen on his chin. 68 Yet by the time he was thirty-six, grey hairs began to make their appearance on his temples. At forty the gout had made severe inroads on a constitu- tion originally strong ; and before he was fifty, the man who could keep the saddle day and night in his campaigns, who seemed to be insensible to fatigue as he followed the chase among the wild passes of the Alpuj arras, was obliged to be carried in a litter, like a poor cripple, at the head of his armies. 67 His mental development was equally tardy with which now displayed, in undying tolarnrn (Amstelodami, 1(J70, fol.), colours, the effigies of those who ep. 734. had once worshipped within its 67 In this outline of the cha- walls, I was swept back to a dis- racter of Charles the Fifth I have tant period, and felt I was a not hesitated to avail myself of contemporary of the grand old the masterly touches which times when Charles the Fifth Ranke has given to the portrait held the chapters of the Golden of this monarch, in the intro- Fleece in this very building." duction to that portion of his 66 " De Rege vero Caesaro ajtmt, great work on the nations of qui ab eo veniunt, barbatum jam Southern Europe which he has esse." Petri Martyris Opus Epis- devoted to Spain. IT 2 292 LATTER DAYS OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOK i. his bodily. So long as Chievres lived the Flemish noble who had the care of his early life Charles seemed to have no will of his own. During his first visit to Spain, where he came when seventeen years old, he gave so little promise that those who approached him nearest could discern no signs of his future greatness. Yet the young prince seems to have been conscious that he had the elements of greatness within him, and he patiently bided his time. " Nondum" " Not yet" was the motto which he adopted for his maiden shield, when but eighteen years old, at a tournament at Valladolid. But when the death of the Flemish minister had released the young monarch from this state of depen- dence, he took the reins into his own hands, as Louis the Fourteenth did on the death of Mazarin. He now showed himself in an entirely new aspect. He even displayed greater independence than his pre- decessors had done. He no longer trusted every- thing, like them, to a council of state. He trusted only to himself ; and if he freely communicated with some one favourite minister, like the elder Granvelle, and the cardinal, his son, it was in order to be coun- selled, not to be controlled by their judgments. He patiently informed himself of public affairs ; and when foreign envoys had their audiences of him, they were surprised to find him possessed of everything relating to their own courts and the objects of their mission. Yet he did not seem to be quick of apprehension, or, to speak more correctly, he was slow at arriving at his results. He would keep the courier waiting for days before he could come to a decision. When he did come to it, no person on earth could shake it. Talking one day with the Venetian Contarini about CHAP, ix.] HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. 293 this habit of his mind, the courtly minister remarked that "it was not obstinacy to adhere to sound opinions." " True," said Charles, " but I some tunes adhere to those that are unsound." 68 His indefatigable activity both of mind and body formed a strong contrast to the lethargy of early years. His widely scattered empire, spreading over the Low Countries, Spain, Germany, and the New World, presented embarrassments which most princes would have found it impossible to overcome. At least, they would have been compelled to govern, in a great measure, by deputy, to transact their business by agents. But Charles chose to do every- thing himself, to devise his own plans and to execute them in person. The number of his jour- neys by land and by water, as noticed in his farewell address, is truly wonderful; for that was not the day of steamboats and railways. He seemed to lead the life of a courier. But it was for no trivial object that he made these expeditions. He knew where his presence was needed; and his promptness and punctuality brought him at the right time on the right spot. No spot in his broad empire was far removed from him. He seemed to possess the power of ubiquity. The consciousness of his own strength roused to a flame the spark of ambition which had hitherto slept in his bosom. His schemes were so vast that it was a common opinion he aspired to universal monarchy. Like his grandfather, Ferdinand, and his own son, Philip, he threw over his schemes the cloak of religion. Or, to deal with him more fairly, religious principle probably combined with personal policy to " Qualche fiate io son fermo by Ranke, Ottoman and Spanish in le cattive." Contarini, cited Empires, p. 29. "9i LATTEll DAYS OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. [BOOS i. determine Ills career. He seemed always ready to do battle for the Cross. He affected to identify the cause of Spain with the cause of Christendom. He marched against the Turks, and stayed the tide of Ottoman inroad in Hungary. He marched against the Protestants, and discomfited their armies in the heart of Germany. He crossed the Mediterranean, and humbled the Crescent at Algiers. He threw himself on the honour of Francis, and travelled through France to take vengeance on the rebels of Flanders. He twice entered France as an enemy and marched up to the gates of Paris. Instead of the modest legend on his maiden shield, he now assumed the proud motto, " Plus ultra" and he vin- dicated his right to it by sending his fleets across the ocean and by planting the banner of Castile on the distant shores of the Pacific. In these enterprises he was generally successful His success led him to rely still more on himself. " Myself, and the lucky moment," was his favourite saying. The " Star of Austria" was still a proverb. It was not till the evening of life that he complained of the fickleness of fortune, that his star, as it descended to the horizon, was obscured by clouds and darkness. Thus Charles's nerves were kept in a state of per- petual excitement. No wonder that his health should have sunk under it, like a plant forced by extraordinary stimulants to an unnatural production at the expense of its own vitality. Hi a habits were not all of them the most conducive to health. He slept usually only four hours; too short a time to repair the waste caused by incessant toil.* His phlegmatic temperament did not incline See Bradford, Correspon- the Fifth and his Ambassadors deuce of the Emperor Charles at the Courts of England and CHAP, ix.] HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. 205 Mm to excess. Yet there was one excess of which he was guilty, the indulgence of his appetite to a degree most pernicious to his health, A Venetian contemporary tells us that, before rising in the morn- ing, potted capon was usually served to him, dressed with sugar, milk, and spices. At noon he dined on a variety of dishes. Soon after vespers he took another meal, and later in the evening supped heartily on anchovies, or some other gross and savoury food of which he was particulary fond. 70 On one occasion complaining to his maitre-d? hotel that the cook sent him nothing but dishes too insipid and tasteless to be eaten, the perplexed functionary, knowing Charles's passion for timepieces, replied that " he did not know what he could do, unless it were to serve his majesty a ragout of watches !" The witticism had one good efiect, that of provoking a hearty laugh from the emperor, a thing rarely wit- nessed in his latter days. 71 It was in vain that Cardinal Loaysa, his confessor, remonstrated, with an independence that does him credit, against his master's indulgence of his appetite, .assuring him that resistance hero would do more for France, with a Connecting Nar- humori grossi et viscosi." Bado- rative and Biographical No- varo. Notizie delli Stati et Corti tices of tho Emperor (London,