Krai
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE
 
 - 3 -
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF THE 
 ~~ EMPEROR CHARLES 
 THE FIFTH. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM 
 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'ANNALS OF THE ARTISTS OF SPAIN. 
 
 FROM THE SECOND LONDON EDITION. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 CROSBY, NICHOLS & COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK: CHARLES S. FRANCIS & CO. 
 
 1853.
 
 $15
 
 TO 
 
 RICHARD FORD, 
 
 AS A MARK OF ADMIRATION FOR HIS WHITINGS, 
 
 AND AS A MEMORIAL OF FRIENDSHIP, 
 
 THIS WORK IS 
 
 INSCRIBED.
 
 CONTENTS OF THE PREFACE. 
 
 Authorities cited in this work : PAGE 
 
 Fr. J. de Siguer^a v 
 
 Fr. P. de Sandoval vi 
 
 J. A. de Vera, Fr. M. de Angulo, and Marquis of Valparaiso vii 
 
 Father P. Ribadeneira viii 
 
 M. Gachard and T. Gonzalez ix 
 
 Doubts as to the self-performed obsequies of Charles V. examined' xii 
 
 Notice of the portrait of Charles V. on the title-page xvii 
 
 Postscript for a second edition xviii
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE first, and perhaps the best, printed account of the 
 cloister life of Charles the Fifth, is to be found in Joseph 
 de Siguenga's History of the Order of St. Jerome. The 
 author was born about 1545, of noble parents, in the Ara- 
 gonese city from whence, according to the Jeromite custom, 
 he afterwards took his name. He became a monk about 
 the age of twenty-one, at El Parral, near Segovia, and hav- 
 ing studied at the royal college of the Escorial, he obtained 
 great fame as a preacher in and around Segovia, and was 
 made prior of his convent. Removing to the Escorial, he 
 devoted himself to literary labor in the library which was 
 then being collected and arranged by the learned Arias 
 Montano. His reputation for knowledge soon stood so 
 high, that Philip the Second used to say of him, that he 
 was the greatest wonder of the new convent, which was 
 called the eighth wonder of the world. The first of his 
 literary works, a series of discourses on Ecclesiastes, was 
 denounced as heretical before the bar of the Inquisition at 
 Toledo ; but he defended it so well, that he received honor- 
 able acquittal, and returned to the Escorial with an unblem- 
 ished character for orthodoxy, to write the history of St. 
 Jerome and his Order. The first volume, containing the life 
 of the saint, was published in 1595, in quarto, at Madrid ; 
 the second and third, in folio, in 1600 and 1605. The au- 
 thor died in 1606, of apoplexy, at the Escorial, having been 
 twice elected prior of the house. 
 
 One of the most able and learned of ecclesiastical histori-
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 ans, Siguenqa, for the elegance and simple eloquence of his 
 style, has been ranked among the classical writers of Castille. 
 Like all monkish chroniclers, he has been compelled to bind 
 up a vast quantity of the tares of religious fiction with the 
 wheat of authentic history ; but he writes with an air of sin- 
 cerity and good faith, and when he is not dealing with mira- 
 cles and visions, he seems to be earnest in his endeavor to 
 discover and record the truth. In relating the life of the 
 emperor at Yuste, he had the advantage of conversing with 
 many eyewitnesses of the facts ; Fray Antonio de Villacas- 
 tin, and several other monks of Yuste, were his brethren at 
 the Escorial ; the emperor's confessor, Regla, and his favor- 
 ite preacher, Villalva, filled the same posts in the household 
 of Philip the Second, and were therefore often at the royal 
 convent ; the prior may also have seen there Quixada, the 
 chamberlain, and Gaztelu, the secretary, of Charles ; and at 
 Toledo or Madrid he may have had opportunities of knowing 
 Torriano, the emperor's mechanician. 
 
 Fray Prudencio de Sandoval, bishop of Pamplona, printed 
 his well-known History of Charles the Fifth at Valladolid, 
 in folio, the first part in 1604, and the second part in 1606. 
 In the latter, a supplementary book is devoted to the em- 
 peror's retirement at Yuste. It was drawn up, as we are told 
 by the author, from a manuscript relation in his possession, 
 written by Fray Martin de Angulo, prior of Yuste, at the 
 desire of the infanta Juana, daughter of the emperor and re- 
 gent of Spain at the time of his death. As Angulo came to 
 Yuste, on being elected prior, only in the summer of 1558, 
 his personal knowledge of the emperor's sayings and doings 
 was limited to the last few months of his life. There can be 
 little doubt that his relation was known to Siguenja, whose 
 position as prior of the Escorial must have given him ac- 
 cess to all the royal archives. 
 
 Juan Antonio de Vera y Figueroa, count of La Roca, 
 printed his Epitome of the Life of Charles the Fifth, in 
 quarto, at Madrid, in 1613. It contains little that Sandoval
 
 PREFACE. VU 
 
 and others had not already published ; but there are a few 
 anecdotes of the emperor's retirement which the author may 
 have picked up from tradition. Being more than seventy 
 years of age at his death, in 1658, he may have conversed 
 with persons who had known his hero. He also may have 
 seen the narrative of the prior Angulo. 
 
 Of that narrative a copy exists, or did lately exist, in the 
 National Library at Madrid. It was seen there some years 
 ago by M. Gachard, of Bruxelles.* My friend Don Pascual 
 de Gayangos kindly undertook to search for it, but he was 
 not successful in discovering the original document, or 
 even an early copy. He found, however, a manuscript work 
 of the seventeenth century, which professed to embody the 
 account by Angulo. This work, entitled El perfecto Desen- 
 gano, was written in 1638, and dedicated to the count duke 
 of Olivares ; and its author, in whose autograph it is written, 
 was the Marquess del Valparaiso, a knight of Santiago and 
 member of the council of war. It is one of the countless 
 treatises of that age, on the virtues of princes, of which Charles 
 the Fifth, in Spain at least, was always held up as a model. 
 The second part, of which a copy is now before me, is en- 
 titled, " Life of the Emperor in the Convent of Yuste, taken 
 from that which was written by the Prior Fray Martin de 
 Angulo, by command of the Princess Dona Juana, and from 
 other Books and Papers of equal Quality and Credit" With 
 exception of a few sentences, and a few trifling alterations, 
 the greater part of this narrative is word for word that of 
 Sandoval. I likewise recognize a few excerpts from Vera. 
 Unless, therefore, we suppose that Sandoval and Vera, an- 
 ticipating the process adopted by Valparaiso, transferred the 
 document of Angulo to their own pages, we must hold it very 
 doubtful whether the marquis had more than a second-hand 
 knowledge of the narrative of the prior. 
 
 * Bulletins de CAcadimie Royale des Sciences et des Btlles Lettres, Tom. 
 XII. Premiere Panic, 1845. 
 rt*
 
 Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 The Jesuit Pedro Ribadeneira, in his Life of Father Fran- 
 cisco Borja, printed in quarto, at Madrid, in 1592, gave a 
 long and circumstantial account of the interviews which took 
 place in Estremadura between that remarkable man and 
 Charles the Fifth. Born in 1527, and in very early life a 
 favorite disciple of Loyola, Ribadeneira had ample opportu- 
 nities of gathering the materials of his biography from the 
 lips of Borja himself. He is not always accurate in his dates 
 and names of places, but I do not think that his mistakes of 
 this kind are sufficiently important to discredit in any great 
 degree the facts which he relates. 
 
 These are the principal writers who have treated of the 
 latter days of Charles the Fifth, and who might have con- 
 versed with his contemporaries. From their works, Strada, 
 De Thou, Leti, and later authors, writing on the same sub- 
 ject, have drawn their materials, which, in passing from pen 
 to pen, have undergone considerable changes of form. 
 
 Our own Robertson has told the story of the emperor's 
 life atYuste with all the dignity and grace which belongs to 
 his style, and much of that inaccuracy which is inevitable 
 when a subject has been but superficially examined. Citing 
 the respectable names of Sandoval, Vera, and De Thou, he 
 seems to have chiefly relied upon Leti, one of the most live- 
 ly and least trustworthy of the historians of his time. He 
 does not appear to have been aware of the existence of Si- 
 guenc_a, the author, as we have seen, of the only printed 
 account of the imperial retirement which can pretend to 
 the authority of contemporary narrative. 
 
 A visit which I paid to Yuste in the summer of 1849 led 
 me to look into the earliest records of the event to which the 
 ruined convent owes its historical interest. Finding the sub- 
 ject but slightly noticed, yet considerably misrepresented, by 
 English writers, I collected the results of my reading into 
 two papers, contributed to Fraser^s Magazine* in 1851. 
 
 * Nos. for April and May, 1851.
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 An article by M. Gachard, in the Bulletins of the Royal 
 Academy of Bruxelles,* afterwards informed me that the 
 archives of the Foreign Office of France contained a MS. 
 account of the retirement of Charles the Fifth, illustrated 
 with original letters, and compiled by Don Tomas Gonzalez. 
 Of the existence of this precious document I had already 
 been made aware by Mr. Ford's Handbook for Spain ; but 
 my inquiries after it, both in Madrid and in Paris, had proved 
 fruitless. During the past winter I have had ample opportu- 
 nities of examining it, opportunities for which I must express 
 my gratitude to the President of France, who favored me 
 with the necessary order, and to Lord Normanby, late British 
 ambassador in Paris, and M. Drouyn de Lhuys, who kindly 
 interested themselves in getting the order obeyed by the un- 
 willing officials of the archives. As the Gonzalez MS. has 
 formed the groundwork of the following chapters, it may not 
 be out of place here to give some account of that work and 
 of its compiler. 
 
 At the restoration of Ferdinand the Seventh to the throne 
 of Spain, the royal archives of that kingdom, preserved in 
 the castle of Simancas, near Valladolid, were intrusted to 
 the care of Don Tomas Gonzalez, canon of Plasencia. They 
 were in a state of great confusion, owing to the depredations 
 of the French invader, subsequent neglect, and the partial 
 return of the papers which followed the peace. Gonzalez 
 succeeded in restoring order, and he also found time to use 
 his opportunities for the benefit of historical literature. To 
 the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of History he contrib- 
 uted a long and elaborate paper on the relations between 
 Philip the Second and our queen Elizabeth ; and he had 
 prepared this account of the retirement of Charles the Fifth, 
 and had had it fairly copied for the press, when death brought 
 his labors to a premature close. His books and papers fell 
 
 * Bulletins de FAcad. Roy. des Sciences et des Belles Lettres, Tom. XII. 
 IcrePartie, 1845.
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 into the hands of his brother Manuel, for whom he had ob- 
 tained the reversion of his post at Simancas. At the revolu- 
 tion of La Granja, in 1836, Manuel, being displaced, was 
 reduced to poverty. The memoir left by Tomas appearing 
 salable, he offered it to the governments of France, Russia, 
 Belgium, and England, at the price of 10,000 francs, or 
 about .400, reserving the right of publishing it for his own 
 behoof, or of 15,000 francs without such reservation. No 
 purchaser occurring, he was forced to lower his demands, and 
 at last he disposed of it, in 1844, for the sum of 4,000 francs, 
 to the archives of the French Foreign Office, of which 
 M. Mignet was then director.* Of what possible use this 
 curious memoir could be in the conduct of modern foreign 
 affairs, it is difficult even to guess ; but it is due to M. Mignet 
 to say, that, both during his tenure of office and since, he has 
 taken every precaution in his power to keep his prize sacred 
 to the mysterious purpose for which he had originally des- 
 tined it. 
 
 By the terms of his bargain M. Mignet acquired both the 
 original MS. of Gonzalez, and the fair copy enriched with 
 notes in his own hand. The copy contains 387 folio leaves, 
 written on both sides, the memoir filling 266 leaves, and the 
 appendix 121. There is also a plan of the palace, and part 
 of the monastery of Yuste. 
 
 The memoir is entitled, " The Retirement, Residence, 
 and Death of the Emperor Charles the Fifth in the Monas- 
 tery of Yuste ; an Historical Narrative founded on Docu- 
 ments.' 1 '' t It commences with many political events pre- 
 vious to, and not much connected with, the emperor's retire- 
 ment ; such as the negotiations for the marriage of Philip 
 the Second with the infanta Mary of Portugal, and after- 
 
 * I am enabled to state the exact sum through the kindness of M. 
 Van cle AVeyer, Belgian minister to the court of England, who obtained 
 the information from M. Gachard. 
 
 t " Retiro, Estancia, y Muerte del Emjwador Cailos Quinto en el Monus- 
 terio de Yuste ; Relation historica documcntada."
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 wards with queen Mary of England ; the regency established 
 in Spain during his absence ; the deaths of queen Juana, 
 mother of the emperor, and of popes Julius the Third and 
 Marcellus the Second ; the truce of Vaucelles ; and the dip- 
 lomatic relations of pope Paul the Fourth with the courts of 
 France and Spain. But the bulk of the memoir consists al- 
 most wholly of original letters, selected from the correspond- 
 ence carried on between the courts at Valladolid and Brux- 
 elles, and the retired emperor and his household, in the years 
 1556, 1557, and 1558. The principal writers are Philip the 
 Second, the infanta Juana, princess of Brazil and regent of 
 Spain, Juan Vazquez de Molina, secretary of state, Fran- 
 cisco de Eraso, secretary to the king, and Don Garcia de 
 Toledo, tutor to Don Carlos ; the emperor, Luis Quixada, 
 chamberlain to the emperor, Martin de Gaztelu, his secre- 
 tary, William Van Male, his gentleman of the chamber, and 
 Mathys and Cornelio, his physicians. The thread of the 
 narrative is supplied by Gonzalez, who has done his part 
 with great judgment, permitting the story to be told as far as 
 possible by the original actors in their own words. 
 
 The appendix is composed of the ten following docu- 
 ments referred to in the memoir, and of various degrees of 
 value and interest. 
 
 1. Instructions given by the Emperor to his Son at Augs- 
 burg, on the 9th of January, 1548. 
 
 2 '1 
 
 3. I Speeches pronounced by the Emperor at BruxeUes 
 
 4. [ during the Ceremonies of his Abdication. 
 
 5. j 
 
 6. Letter from the Cardinal Archbishop (Siliceo) of To- 
 
 ledo to the Princess- Regent of Spain, 28th June, 
 1556. 
 
 7. Extract from the Inventory of the Furniture and Jew- 
 
 els belonging to the Emperor at his Death. 
 
 8. Protest of Philip the Second against the Pope, 6th 
 
 May, 1557.
 
 Xll PREFACE. 
 
 9. Justification of the King of Spain against the Pope, 
 
 the King of France, and the Duke of Ferrara. 
 10. Will of the Emperor, with its Codicil. 
 Of these papers, Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, and perhaps some of 
 the others, have already been printed : of No. 7 I have given 
 an abstract in my appendix. 
 
 Notwithstanding the minute information which Gonzalez 
 has brought to light respecting the daily life of the emperor 
 at Yuste, sorrte doubt still rests on the question whether 
 Charles did or did not perform his own obsequies. Gonzalez 
 treats the story as an idle tale : he laments the credulity dis- 
 played even in the sober statements of Siguen^a ; and he 
 pours out much patriotic scorn on the highly-wrought picture 
 of Robertson. The opinions of the canon, on all other mat- 
 ters carefully weighed and considered, are well worthy of 
 respect, and require some examination. 
 
 Of Robertson's account of the matter, it is impossible to 
 offer any defence. Masterly as a sketch, it has unhappily 
 been copied from the canvas of the unscrupulous Leti.* In 
 every thing but style it is indeed very absurd. " The em- 
 peror was bent," said the historian, " on performing sorhe act 
 of piety that would display his zeal, and merit the favor of 
 Heaven. The act on which he fixed was as wild and un- 
 common as any that superstition ever suggested to a weak 
 and disordered fancy. He resolved to celebrate his own 
 obsequies before his death. He ordered his tomb to be 
 erected in the chapel of the monastery. His domestics 
 marched thither in funeral procession, with black tapers in 
 their hands. He himself followed in his shroud. He was 
 laid in his coffin, with much solemnity. The service for the 
 dead was chanted, and Charles joined in the prayers which 
 were offered up for the rest of his soul, mingling his tears 
 with those which his attendants shed, as if they had been 
 
 * Vita ddf Invitissimo Imp. Carlo V. da Gregorio Leti, 4 vol., 12mo, 
 Amsterdam, 1700, IV. 370-374.
 
 PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 celebrating a real funeral. The ceremony closed with 
 sprinkling holy water on the coffin in the usual form, and, 
 all the assistants retiring, the doors of the chapel were shut. 
 Then Charles rose out of the coffin, and withdrew to his 
 apartment, full of those awful sentiments which such a sin- 
 gular solemnity was calculated to inspire. But either the 
 fatiguing length of the ceremony, or the impressions which 
 the image of death left on his mind, affected him so much, 
 that next day he was seized with a fever. His feeble frame 
 could not long resist its violence, and he expired on the 21st 
 of September, after a life of fifty-eight years, six months, 
 and twenty-five days." 
 
 Siguen^a's account of the affair, which I have adopted, is 
 that Charles, conceiving it to be for the benefit of his soul, 
 and having obtained the consent of his confessor, caused a 
 funeral service to be performed for himself, such as he had 
 lately been performing for his father and mother. At this 
 service he assisted, not as a corpse, but as one of the specta- 
 tors ; holding in his hand, like the others, a waxen taper, 
 which, at a certain point of the ceremonial, he gave into the 
 hands of the officiating priest, in token of his desire to com- 
 mit his soul to the keeping of his Maker. There is not a 
 word to justify the tale that he followed the procession in his 
 shroud, or that he simulated death in his coffin, or that he 
 was left behind, shut up alone in the church, when the ser- 
 vice was over. 
 
 In this story respecting an infirm old man, the devout son 
 of a church whose services for the dead are of daily occur- 
 rence, I can see nothing incredible, or very surprising. Ab- 
 stractedly considered, it appears quite as reasonable that a 
 man on the brink of the grave should perform funeral rites 
 for himself, as that he should perform such rites for persons 
 who had been buried many years before. But without ven- 
 turing upon this dark and dangerous ground, it may be safe- 
 ly asserted that superstition and dyspepsia have driven men 
 into extravagances far greater than the act which Siguen^a
 
 XIV PREFACE. 
 
 has attributed to Charles. Nor is there any reason to doubt 
 the historian's veracity in a matter in which the credit of his 
 order, or the interest of the church, is in no way concerned. 
 He might perhaps be suspected of overstating the regard 
 entertained by the emperor for the friars of Yuste, were his 
 evidence not confirmed by the letters of the friar-hating 
 household. But I see no reason for questioning the accura- 
 cy of his account of the imperial obsequies. That account 
 was written while he was prior of the Escorial, and as such 
 almost in the personal service of Philip the Second, a prince 
 who was peculiarly sensitive on the score of his father's 
 reputation.* And it was published with the authority of his 
 name, while men were still alive who could have contradict- 
 ed a misstatement. 
 
 The strongest objection urged by Gonzalez to the story 
 rests on the absence of all confirmation of it in the letters 
 written from Yuste. We know, he says, that on the 26th 
 of August, 1558, the emperor gave audience to Don Pedro 
 Manrique ; that on the 27th he spent the greater part of the 
 day in writing to the princess-regent ; and that on the 28th 
 he had a long conference with Garcilasso de la Vega on the 
 affairs of Flanders. Can we therefore believe what is al- 
 leged by Siguenc.a, that the afternoon of the 27th and the 
 morning of the 28th were given by Charles to the perform- 
 ance of his funeral rites ; and if rites so remarkable were 
 performed, is it credible that no allusion to them should be 
 made in letters written at Yuste on the days when they took 
 place ? 
 
 Part of the objection falls to the ground, when reference is 
 made to the folio of Siguen<ja. He says that the obsequies 
 were celebrated, not on the 27th and 28th, but on the 30th, 
 of August ; and it so happens, that on that day and the next 
 no letters were written at Yuste, or at least, that none bear- 
 ing either of those dates fell into the hands of Gonzalez. 
 
 * See Chap. X. p. 288.
 
 PREFACE. XV 
 
 The emperor's attack of illness, on the 30th, was ascribed by 
 the physician to his having sat too long in the sun in his west- 
 ern alcove ; and his being able to sit there tallies with Si- 
 guenca's statement, that he felt better after his funeral. 
 From the absence of allusion in the letters to a service so 
 remarkable, I infer, not that it never took place, but that the 
 secretary and chamberlain did not think it worthy of remark. 
 Charles was notoriously devout, and very fond oF devotional 
 exercises beyond the daily routine of religious observance. 
 His punctuality in performing his spiritual duties may be 
 noted in the Yuste letters, where frequent mention is made 
 of his receiving the Eucharist at the hermitage of Belem, a 
 fact stated in proof, we may be sure, not of his steadfastness 
 in the faith, but of the robustness of his health. But of the 
 services performed in the church for the souls of his de- 
 ceased parents and wife, which both Siguen^a and Sandoval 
 have recorded, and which I see no reason to doubt, no notice 
 whatever occurs in the letters, except a casual remark which 
 fell from the pen of secretary Gaztelu, on the 28th of April, 
 1558, that " Juan Gaytan had come to put in order the wax 
 and other things needful for the honors of the empress, which 
 his majesty was in the habit of celebrating on each May- 
 day. 1 ' The truth seems to be, that the most hearty enmity 
 prevailed between the Jeromites and the imperial household ; 
 and that the chamberlain and his people abstained from all 
 communications with the monks not absolutely necessary, 
 and left the religious recreations as well as the spiritual in- 
 terests of their master entirely in the hands of the confessor 
 and the prior. Keeping no record of the functions per- 
 formed within the walls of the convent, it is possible that the 
 lay letter-writers of Yuste might have passed over in silence 
 even such a scene as that fabled by Robertson ; while in the 
 sober pages of Siguenca, there really seems nothing that a 
 Spaniard of 1558, living next door to a convent, might not 
 have deemed unworthy of special notice. 
 b
 
 XVI PREFACE. 
 
 It is remarkable that Gonzalez, while so strenuously deny- 
 ing the credibility of the story, should have furnished, under 
 his own hand, a piece of evidence of some weight in its 
 favor. In an inventory of state papers of Castille, drawn up 
 by him in 1818, and existing at Simancas, and in duplicate 
 in the Foreign Office at Madrid, M. Gachard found the fol- 
 lowing entry : 
 
 " No. 119, ann. 1557. Original Letters of Charles T., 
 written from Xarandilla and Yuste to the Infanta Juana, 
 
 and Juan Vazquez de Molina They treat of the 
 
 public affairs of the time : ITEM, OF THE MOURNING STUFFS 
 
 ORDERED FOR THE PURPOSE OF PERFORMING HIS FUNERAL 
 HONORS DURING HIS LIFE." * 
 
 M. Gachard supposes that this entry may have been tran- 
 scribed by Gonzalez from the wrapper of a bundle of papers 
 which he had found thus entitled, and the contents of which 
 he had neglected to verify. If his subsequent researches did 
 not discover any such documents, it is to be regretted that 
 he had not at least corrected the error of the inventory. 
 
 The gravest objection to the account of the affair which I 
 have adopted is, that it is not wholly confirmed by the prior 
 Angulo. In Angulo's report, says M. Gachard, it is stated 
 that Charles ordered his obsequies to be performed during 
 his life ; but it is not stated whether the order was fulfilled. 
 Sandoval, professing to take Angulo for his guide, is alto- 
 gether silent on the subject ; and as he can hardly be sup- 
 posed to have been ignorant of the work of Siguenca, there 
 is room for the presumption that he rejected the evidence of 
 that churchman. But on a mere presumption, founded on 
 the fact that a Benedictine did not choose to quote the writ- 
 ings of a Jeromite, I cannot agree to discard evidence other- 
 wise respectable. I have therefore followed prior Siguenca, 
 
 * " Item, de los lutos que encargd para hacerse las honras en vida." Bull. 
 dt FAcad. Roy., XII. Premiere Partie, p. 257.
 
 PREFACE. XVII 
 
 of the Escorial, the revival of whose version of the story 
 will, I hope, in time, counteract the inventions of later writ- 
 ers, inventions which I have more than once heard gravely 
 recognized as instructive and authentic history in the pulpit 
 discourses of popular divines. 
 
 It may be a source of disappointment to my readers, as it 
 is to myself, that I have not been able to lay before them 
 any of the original letters of the emperor and his servants, 
 and their royal and official correspondents. In obtaining 
 access, however, to the manuscript of Gonzalez, I was sub- 
 jected to conditions which rendered this impossible. The 
 French government, I was informed, had entertained the 
 design of publishing the entire work, a design which the 
 revolution of 1848 of course laid upon the shelf, but which, I 
 trust, will ere long be carried into effect. Meanwhile, I be- 
 lieve that neither the memoir nor the letters contain any in- 
 teresting fact, or trait of character, which will not be found 
 in the following pages, with sorne illustrations of the em- 
 peror and his history, gathered from other sources, which I 
 hope may not be found altogether without value. 
 
 The portrait of the emperor, on my title-page, is taken 
 from the fine print, engraved by Eneas Vico from his own 
 drawing, a head surrounded by a florid framework of 
 architectural and emblematical ornaments. This seems to 
 have been the portrait which Charles, according to Lodovico 
 Dolce, examined so curiously and approved so highly, and 
 for which he rewarded Vico with two hundred crowns.* 
 The drawing was probably made several years before the 
 plate was engraved, but I have been unable to find any satis- 
 factory contemporary portrait of the emperor in his latter 
 days. Perhaps none exists, as Charles, at the age of thirty- 
 five, considered himself, as he told the painter Holanda, 
 
 * Dialogo della Pittura de M. Lod. Dolce, sm. 8vo, Vinegia, 1557, 
 fol. 18.
 
 XV111 PREFACE. 
 
 already too old for limning purposes. The eagle and orna- 
 ments around the present head are selected from wood-cuts 
 in Spanish books of 1545* and 1552.t 
 
 KEIR, 31 st May, 1852. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT FOR A SECOND EDITION. 
 
 THE favor with which this work has been received having 
 rendered a second edition necessary, I have endeavored to 
 acknowledge my sense of the kindness of the public, by 
 bestowing on its pages a careful revision, as well as some 
 new matter which I hope will be found to enhance its utility 
 and interest, without greatly increasing its size. 
 
 128 PAHK STREET, GROSVEXOR SQUARE, 
 December 2lst, 1852. 
 
 * Al. Ant. Nebrissensis : Rerum a Fernando et Elizabetha, gest., &e., 
 fol., Granada, 1545. 
 
 t J. C. Calvete : Viage del Principe D. Phelippe, fol., Anvers, 1552. 
 The neatly executed arms on the title-page bear the mark generally 
 attributed to Juan D'Arphe y Villafane, the famous goldsmith, engraver, 
 and artistic author of Valladolid.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 First notices of the intention of 
 Charles V. to retire from the 
 world 1 
 
 Mary, queen of England, offers 
 him her hand 2 
 
 He transfers it to his son Philip, 
 who breaks off a match with 
 the infanta Mary of Portugal 2 
 
 Abdicates his crown 1155-6 . 3 
 
 Prepares to sail for Spain, with 
 his sisters 4 
 
 Eleanor, queen dowager of 
 France and Portugal ... 4 
 
 Mary, queen dowager of Hun- 
 gary 5 
 
 They sail from Flushing on the 
 17th 7 
 
 And land on the 28th Septem- 
 ber, 1556 8 
 
 Laredo 8 
 
 Want of preparations to receive 
 them 8 
 
 Arrival of Luis Quixada . . 9 
 
 They set out on the 6th of Oc- 
 tober 11 
 
 Journey to Medina de Pomar, 
 
 PAGB 
 
 where they arrive on the 9th 
 
 of October 11-13 
 
 Visitors 14 
 
 Arrival at Burgos on 13th Oc- 
 tober ; reception there . . 14 
 
 Journey to Valladolid 16th- 
 21st October 16 
 
 Don Carlos melts the emperor 
 at Cabezon 17 
 
 Valladolid 19 
 
 Infanta Jnana, princess dow- 
 ager of Brazil, and regent of 
 
 Spain 19-21 
 
 i Festivities at Valladolid . .21 
 ! Perico de Sant Erbas ... 22 
 1 Don Constantino de Braganza, 
 and causes of ill-will between 
 Spain and Portugal ... 22 
 
 Affairs submitted to the em- 
 peror 23 
 
 Anthony, duke of Vendome, 
 proposes to sell his rights to 
 Navarre 24 
 
 Doubts as to the emperor's 
 choice of a retreat .... 25 
 
 Don Carlos 26 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The emperor sets ont from 
 Valladolid on the 4th No- 
 vember 28 
 
 Medina del Campo .... 29 
 Rodrigo de Duenas .... 29 
 Pefiaranda, Alaraz, Barco de 
 Avila, &c, 30 
 
 b* 
 
 Tornavacas 31 
 
 The pass of Puertonucvo . . 32 
 Reach Xarandilla on the 12th 
 
 November 33 
 
 The Vera of Plasencia ... 33 
 Reasons for the emperor's 
 
 choice of a retreat examined 34
 
 XX 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Village and castle of Xarandilla 36 
 The count of Oropesa ... 37 
 
 Bud weather 37 
 
 Public affairs 38 
 
 Pope Paul IV. and Henry II. 
 
 of France 38, 39 
 
 They combine against Philip 
 II. ; Coligny invades Flan- 
 ders ; Duke of Guise in- 
 vades Naples 39 
 
 Flanders defended by Emanuel 
 
 Philibert, duke of Savoy . . 40 
 Naples, by duke of Alba . . 40 
 
 The infanta Mary of Portugal 42 
 
 Xavarre 43 
 
 Barbary 4.' 
 
 Buildings at Yuste . . . . 44 
 The emperor visits them . . 45 
 Discontent of his household . 45 
 Quixada ; Gaztclu . . . 45, 46 
 The emperor's love of eating 47, 48 
 Partridges from Gama, and 
 sausages from Tordcsillas, 
 and presents to his larder . 49 
 Quixada's fears . . . . 49, 50 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The household of the emperor 51 
 The confessor, Fray Juan de 
 
 Regla 51 
 
 The chamberlain, Luis Quixada 53 
 His wife, Magdalena de Ulloa, 
 
 and Don John of Austria . 54 
 The secretary, Martin de Gaz- 
 
 telu 57 
 
 William Van Male, gentleman 
 
 of the chamber 57 
 
 He translates the emperor's 
 
 Memoirs 58 
 
 Is made to print Acuna's trans- 
 lation of Chevalier Delibere . 59 
 
 His letters 61 
 
 Loss of his books 62 
 
 Marriage 63 
 
 Henry Mathys, or Mathisio, the 
 
 physician 64 
 
 Dr. Giovanni Antonio Mole, 
 
 and Dr. Cornelio .... 64 
 Giovanni or Juanelo Torriano, 
 
 the mechanician .... 65 
 Visitors of the emperor ... 65 
 Father Francisco Borja, of the 
 
 company of Jesus .... 65 
 
 His history 65-69 
 
 Visits Xarandilla on the 17th 
 
 December, 1556 .... 69 
 Conversations with the em- 
 peror 70-74 
 
 Don Luis de Avila y Zuniga . 74 
 His Commentaries on the War in 
 
 Germany 75 
 
 Visits Xarandilla on the 21st 
 
 January, 1557 77 
 
 The archbishop of Toledo, and 
 
 the bishop of Plasencia . . 77 
 
 Emperor's health 78 
 
 An attack of gout 78 
 
 Senna wine 79 
 
 Neapolitan manna . . . . 79 
 
 Lorenzo Pires 79 
 
 News from Italy 80 
 
 Emperor's disgust 80 
 
 His anxiety for the safety of 
 
 Oran 80 
 
 Works at Yuste 81 
 
 Servants paid off, and take leave 81 
 Removal to Yuste on the 3d 
 
 February, 1557 82 
 
 Blunder of the prior .... 83 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Order of St. Jerome .... 84 
 
 Yuste, its site 86 
 
 Its foundation in 1408, and its 
 
 early history 87 
 
 Its remarkable monks . . 88, 89 
 Fr. Ilernando de Corral, the 
 
 literary friar 89 
 
 Fr. Ant.'de Villacastin ... 91
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXI 
 
 Fr. Juan de Ortega .... 
 
 The charities of Yuste . . . 
 
 The " palacio " of Yuste . . 
 
 Prospect from the windows 
 
 The great " nogal " of Yuste . 
 
 Domestic arrangements . . . 
 
 List of the chief members of the 
 household, with their sala- 
 ries 95, 
 
 Emperor's health, and employ- 
 ments of the physicians . . 
 
 Furniture of the palace . . 
 
 Plate 
 
 Emperor's dress 
 
 92 Pictures and portraits . . . 100 
 
 92 Books 102 
 
 93 Music 103 
 
 94 The chaplains, Fr. Fran, de 
 
 94 Villalva, Fr. Juan de Aco- 
 
 95 loras, Fr. Juan de Santan- 
 dres 104 
 
 Emperor's day 105 
 
 96 Torriano and his clocks . . . 106 
 His mechanical toys .... 107 
 
 97 Emperor's pet birds, and his 
 
 98 j shooting excursions . . .108 
 
 99 ! His last appearance on horse- 
 
 99 j back 108 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The household become more 
 
 reconciled to Yuste . . .110 
 Monsieur Lachaulx . . . .110 
 Improvement in the emperor's 
 
 health Ill 
 
 His attention to business . . 112 
 His style and title .... 112 
 He accredits an ambassador to 
 
 Portugal 112 
 
 Petitioners 112 
 
 Eefutation of the tale that he 
 repented of his retirement 113-115 
 
 His revenue 115 
 
 Punctually paid 116 
 
 The financial difficulties of 
 
 Spain 117 
 
 The princess-regent seizes up- 
 on the bullion belonging to 
 the traders of Seville, who 
 resist her officers with suc- 
 cess 118 
 
 The emperor's indignation 
 
 against them . . . . 118-120 
 Foreign affairs: Buy Gomez 
 
 de Silva 120 
 
 He is lodged in the convent . 121 
 Emperor consulted as to send- 
 ing Don Carlos to Flan- 
 ders 121 
 
 War in the Netherlands and 
 
 Navarre 122 
 
 Affairs of Italy 122 
 
 Duke of Guise invades Naples 122 
 Duke of Alba defends it . . 122 
 
 Solyman the Magnificent . .123 
 
 The pirates of the Mediterra- 
 nean 123-125 
 
 Levies for the army in Flanders 125 
 
 The emperor appeals to the 
 church for a loan . . . .125 
 
 The archbishops of Toledo and 
 Zaragoza, and the bishop of 
 Cordova 125 
 
 Archbishop Valdes of Seville 126 
 
 His excuses . 127 
 
 His discussion with Ochoa, and 
 its result 127-129 
 
 Second visit of Ruy Gomez de 
 Silva to Yuste 129 
 
 Anthony, king of Navarre, and 
 his agents 129, 130 
 
 Death of John III., king of 
 Portugal 130 
 
 Jealousy between Portugal and 
 Spain 131 
 
 Emperor condoles with his sis- 
 ter, queen Catherine . . . 131 
 
 The princess of Brazil disap- 
 pointed of the regency of 
 Portugal 132 
 
 Battle of St. Quentin .... 132 
 
 Joy occasioned by the news at 
 
 Yuste 133 
 
 i The dilatory policy of Philip 
 II 134 
 
 Guiso retreats from the Nea- 
 politan frontier 134 
 
 Alba advances towards Rome 135
 
 XXII 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Shameful treaty between Philip 
 
 II. and the Pope . . . .135 
 Emperor's displeasure . . .136 
 
 Don Carlos 138 
 
 Letters from his tutor, D. Gar- 
 
 cia de Toledo, to the em- 
 peror 138, 139 
 
 Opinion of the Venetian envoy 
 at Bruxelles 139 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Emperor's good health . . .141 
 Famine and sickness in the 
 
 Vera 142 
 
 Emperor's garden and its im- 
 provements 142 
 
 His poultry and fish-ponds . . 143 
 His care for his domestic com- 
 forts 143 
 
 Quixada obtains leave of ab- 
 sence 144 
 
 The friars become unruly . .145 
 
 Quixada's return 145 
 
 His dislike to Yuste . . . .146 
 Death of Fr. Juan de Ortega . 146 
 Turbulent peasants of Quacos 148 
 J. G. Sepulveda, the historian, 
 
 visits Ynste 149 
 
 D. Luis de Avila 150 
 
 His house at Plasencia and its 
 
 frescoes 151 
 
 His Commentaries on the German 
 
 War 151 
 
 Partiality of the emperor for 
 
 him 152 
 
 Fresco picture of the battle of 
 Rend, and the remark of the 
 emperor upon it 153 
 
 Report of the emperor's re- 
 moval to Navarre . . . .154 
 D. Francisco Bolivar . . . .154 
 D. Martin de Avendano. . .155 
 Presents to the emperor's 
 larder from the friars of 
 Guadalupe, the bishop of 
 Segovia, &c., and the duch- 
 ess of Bejar 155 
 
 Visits of queens Eleanor and 
 
 Mary 156 
 
 Their correspondence with the 
 
 duke of Infantado . . . .157 
 The infanta Mary of Portugal 158 
 Jealousy between Portugal and 
 
 Spain 158 
 
 The queens go to Badajoz . .159 
 Hurricane at Yuste .... 160 
 Father Francisco Borja sent to 
 Lisbon by the princess-re- 
 gent 160 
 
 Returns by way of Yuste . .161 
 Emperor's confidence in him .. 162 
 Borja's judgment between his 
 son and the admiral of Ara- 
 
 gon 162 
 
 Alms given to Borja . . . .163 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The emperor's health declines 164 ' Affairs in Flanders, and Span- 
 
 Burglary at Yuste 164 
 
 Dispute with the corregidor of 
 
 Plasencia 165 
 
 Don Juan de Acuna . . . .165 
 The treaty between Philip II. 
 and the pope, and the em- 
 peror's dissatisfaction with 
 
 it 165, 166 
 
 Duke of Alba, and his share in 
 the business 167 
 
 ish losses 169 
 
 Duke of Guise takes Calais . 169 
 The emperor's regret . . . .170 
 Reports of the pregnancy of 
 Mary, queen of England 
 and Spain, and her death . 171 
 
 Emperor's gout 171 
 
 Meeting at Badajoz between 
 the queens and the infanta 
 Mary of Portugal . . . .172
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXlll 
 
 Queen Eleanor taken ill at 
 
 Talaverilla 173 
 
 Dies, leaving her fortune to the 
 
 infanta of Portugal . . . . 174 
 Grief of the emperor . . . .175 
 Luis de Avila visits him . .176 
 Queen Mary at Yuste . . .176 
 Removes to Xarandilla . . .177 
 Goes to Valladolid, attended 
 
 by Quixada 177 
 
 Emperor requests that she may 
 be consulted in public af- 
 fairs 178 
 
 The princess-regent refuses . 178 
 Emperor's scheme of finance . 179 
 Seville bullion case . . . .179 
 The grand inquisitor refuses to 
 
 attend the body of queen 
 Juana to Granada . . . .180 
 Emperor's health and occupa- 
 tions 181 
 
 His fondness for religious cere- 
 monies 181 
 
 He flogs himself in the choir 
 
 on Fridays in Lent . . . 1 83 
 
 His familiarity with the friars . 184 
 
 His good-nature to his servants 1 85 
 
 He is disturbed by women at 
 
 the convent gate . . . .186 
 
 The remedy 187 
 
 The renunciation of the impe- 
 rial crown completed 3d May, 
 
 1558 187 
 
 Consequent order of Charles . 187 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Church in danger 189 
 
 Church abuses and reform 
 
 movement 190,191 
 
 Heretical books 192 
 
 Spanish heretics not Protes- 
 tants 194 
 
 Causes of the suppression of 
 
 heresy in Spain . . . 195-197 
 Measures of the grand inquisi- 
 tor Valdes 198 
 
 Dr. Aug. Cazalla 198 
 
 Letters and words of the em- 
 peror 199 
 
 Fr. Domingo de Roxas . . .199 
 Progress of the persecution . 200 
 Anxiety of the emperor . . .201 
 His letters to the regent . . .201 
 His letter to the king, and its 
 
 autograph postscript . 201,202 
 The king's memorandum . . 202 
 Quixada's interview with the 
 
 grand inquisitor 202 
 
 The inquisitor's measures de- 
 tailed in letter to* the em- 
 peror 203 
 
 Censure of books 203 
 
 Catalogue of prohibited books, 
 
 1559 204 
 
 Dr. Mathys burns his Bible . 205 
 Father Borja's son .... 205 
 Pompeyo Leoni . . . 206 
 
 Fr. Domingo de Guzman . . 206 
 Death of Const. Ponce de la 
 
 Fuente 206 
 
 Of Dr. Cazalla 207 
 
 Of Fr. Fro. de Roxas, and D. 
 
 de Guzman 208 
 
 The emperor's hatred of her- 
 esy, and regrets for having 
 spared the life of Luther . . 209 
 Fr. Bart. Carranza de Miranda 
 
 made archbishop of Toledo 210 
 Account of him . . . 211", 212 
 Jealousy of Valdes .... 212 
 Carranza's reception at Valla- 
 dolid 213 
 
 War in Flanders 214 
 
 Duke of Guise takes Thion- 
 
 ville 215 
 
 Battle of Gravelines gained by 
 
 the Spaniards 215 
 
 Turkish fleet on the coast of 
 
 Spain 216 
 
 Menorca attacked, and Ciu- 
 
 dadella sacked 217 
 
 Measures of defence . . . .218 
 Quixada returns to Yuste with 
 his wife and Don John of 
 
 Austria 219 
 
 Illness of the regent .... 220 
 Her proposal for changing the 
 capital of Sppin 220
 
 XXIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Affair of the adelantado of 
 Canary 221 
 
 Death of the prior of Yuste . 222 
 
 Emperor refuses to interfere 
 in the election of his succes- 
 sor 222 
 
 Fr. Martin de Angulo appoint- 
 ed 222 
 
 Visits of Don Luis de Avila, 
 the bishop of Avila, count of 
 
 Oropesa, Garcilasso de la 
 
 Vega, &c 222, 223 
 
 Father Fro. Borja 224 
 
 The emperor's Memoirs . . . 224 
 His anxiety as to his treatment 
 
 by historians 225 
 
 Ocampo and Sepulveda . . . 225 
 Courtly reply of Borja . . . 226 
 Recollections of him in the 
 
 Vera 227 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Emperor's health during the 
 
 spring and summer of 1558 228 
 Meals and symptoms .... 228 
 The physician becomes alarmed 
 
 in August 229 
 
 Emperor's attention to religious 
 
 rites 230 
 
 Performs his own obsequies on 
 
 the 30th of August . . . 231 
 Taken ill next day ... 232 
 Meditations on his wife's por 
 
 trait and other pictures . 232 
 Laid on his death-bed . . 233 
 Details of his illness . . . 233 
 
 Making of his will 233 
 
 Dr. Cornelio sent for . . . . 234 
 Slight improvement in the case 234 
 Physic, delirium, and let- 
 ters 234,235 
 
 Codicil to the will 235 
 
 News of the defeat of the count 
 
 of Alcaudete in Africa 236, 237 
 Emperor signs the codicil . . 238 
 Its recommendations to the 
 
 king to put down heresy . . 238 
 Kegla's suggestion regarding 
 
 Don John of Austria . . . 239 
 Queen of Hungary consents to 
 
 go to Flanders 239 
 
 Emperor's illness increases 240, 241 
 He receives extreme unction . 242 
 
 His last private conference with 
 
 Quixada 243 
 
 He insists on receiving the eu- 
 
 charist 244 
 
 His devoutness 244 
 
 Archbishop of Toledo arrives, 
 and sees the emperor . . . 245 
 
 Closing scene 246 
 
 Death 247 
 
 Preparations for the interment 248 
 Funeral sermons and rites . . 249 
 Remarks on the character of 
 
 Charles 250, 251 
 
 On his abdication and its 
 
 causes 251 -255 
 
 His love of monks and con- 
 vents 255 
 
 It descends to his children 256, 257 
 His disappointments at Yuste 258 
 The prudence and extreme 
 
 dulness of his writings . . 259 
 His popular manners .... 260 
 His religious moderation in the 
 world, and his bigotry in the 
 
 cloister 261, 262 
 
 The Carolea of Sempere . . . 263 
 The Carlo Famoso of Capata . 263 
 Extracts from the latter . . . 264 
 Mention of Don John of Aus- 
 tria in the poem 265 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Portents at the death of the 
 emperor 266 
 
 Contents of the codicil to his 
 will . . 267-269
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXV 
 
 Paper relating to Don John of 
 
 Austria 270 
 
 The princess-regent's orders re- 
 specting his personal prop- 
 erty 271 
 
 Quixada and his wife, and 
 
 Don John 271 
 
 Note on the traditional origin 
 
 of the name of Quacos . . 272 
 Funeral honors of the emperor 
 
 at Valladolid 272 
 
 At Bruxelles, &c 273 
 
 At Lisbon, Rome, and Lon- 
 don 275 
 
 Emperor's body removed to the 
 
 Escorial in 1574 . . . 275, 276 
 Placed in the Pantheon by 
 
 Philip IV. in 1654 .... 276 
 Remark of Philip IV. . . .277 
 The emperor's Sarcophagus 
 said to have been opened by 
 Charles III. for Mr. Beck- 
 ford 278 
 
 Queen Mary of Hungary . . 279 
 Third marriage of Philip II. . 280 
 His return to Spain .... 280 
 The princess-regent Juana 281, 282 
 Luis Quixada .... 282 - 285 
 
 His death 286 
 
 Dona Magdalena de Ulloa . . 286 
 Extract from a letter of Don 
 
 John of Austria 286 
 
 Don John's affection for her . 287 
 
 Her death 288 
 
 William Van Male .... 288 
 Correspondence between Philip 
 II. and the bishop of Arras 
 respecting his papers . 288, 289 
 
 Martin de Gaztelu 290 
 
 Fr. Juan de Regla 290 
 
 Fr. Francisco de Villalva . .291 
 Fr. Juan de A^oloras . . . 292 
 Fr. Juan de Santandres . . . 292 
 Fr. Antonio de Villacastin . . 293 
 Giovanni Torriano . . 294 - 296 
 Father Francisco Borja . 296 - 300 
 
 His beatification 300 
 
 Archbishop Carranza of To- 
 ledo 301 - 306 
 
 Monastery of Ynste .... 307 
 Visited by Philip II. in 1570 . 307 
 Repaired by Philip IV. in 1638 309 
 
 The monks 309 
 
 Visit of D. Antonio Ponz . .310 
 Visit of M. Cfeborde .... 310 
 The monastery burnt by the 
 
 French in 1809 311 
 
 Visit of Lord John Russell in 
 
 1813 311 
 
 Robbed by the Constitution- 
 alists in"l820 312 
 
 Visited by Mr. Ford in 1832 . 312 
 Monasteries suppressed in 
 
 1837 313 
 
 State of the monastery in 
 1849 313,314 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Extracts from the inventory of the effects of Charles the Fifth at 
 
 Yuste 315 
 
 Books 316 
 
 Plate 317 
 
 Jewels ............ 319 
 
 Crucifixes, paintings, &c. ......... 320 
 
 Furniture of the emperor's chamber 321 
 
 Stable, &c 321
 
 THE 
 
 CLOISTER LIFE 
 
 OP THE 
 
 EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BAY OF BISCAY; LAEEDO ; BURGOS, AND 
 VALLADOLID. 
 
 IT is not possible to determine the precise time at 
 which the emperor Charles the Fifth formed his cele- 
 brated resolution to exchange the cares and honors of 
 a throne for the religious seclusion of a cloister. It 
 is certain, however, that this resolution was formed 
 many years before it was carried into effect. With 
 his empress, Isabella of Portugal, who died in 1538, 
 Charles had agreed that, so soon as state affairs and 
 the ages of their children should permit, they were to 
 retire for the remainder of their days, he into a con- 
 vent of friars, and she into a nunnery. In 1542, he 
 confided his design to the duke of Gandia ; and in 
 1546, it had been whispered at court, and was men- 
 tioned by Bernardo Navagiero, the sharp-eared envoy 
 of Venice, in a report to the doge.* 
 
 * Relatione, Luglio, 1546; printed in Correspondence of the Emperor 
 Charles V. Edited by Rev. W. Bradford. 8vo, London, 1850, p. 475. 
 
 1
 
 6 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 In 1548, Philip, heir apparent of the Spanish mon- 
 archy, was sent for by his father to receive the oath 
 of allegiance from the states of the Netherlands ; and 
 in 1551, he invested him with the duchy of Milan. 
 When only in his eighteenth year, the prince had 
 been left a widower by the death of his wife, Mary, 
 daughter of John the Third of Portugal. On his re- 
 turn to Spain, he entered into negotiations for the 
 hand of a second Portuguese bride, his cousin, the in- 
 fanta Mary, daughter of his father's sister Eleanor, by 
 the late king, Don Emanuel. After delays unusual 
 even in Peninsular diplomacy, these negotiations had 
 almost reached a successful issue, when the emperor, 
 on the 30th of July, 1553, from Flanders, addressed 
 Philip in a letter which produced a very memorable 
 effect on the politics of Europe. Mary Tudor, he 
 wrote, had inherited the crown of England, and had 
 given him an early hint of her gracious willingness to 
 become his second empress. For himself, this tempt- 
 ing opportunity must be foregone. " Were the do- 
 minions of that kingdom greater even than they .are," 
 he said, " they should not move me from my purpose, 
 a purpose of quite another kind." But he desired 
 his son to take the matter into his serious considera- 
 tion, and to weigh well the merits of the English 
 princess before he resolved to conclude any other 
 match. The prompt and decisive reply of the infan- 
 ta's lover, who was rarely prompt or decisive, shows 
 how early in life he deserved the title, afterwards given 
 to him by historians, of the Prudent. Concurring in 
 the emperor's opinion, that one or other of them 
 ought to marry the queen of England, and seeing that 
 matrimony was distasteful to his father, he professed
 
 THE EiMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. O 
 
 his readiness to take the duty on himself. He had, 
 happily, not absolutely concluded the Portuguese 
 match, and he would therefore at once proceed to 
 break it off, on the plea that the dowry promised was 
 insufficient. Father and son being thus of one mind, 
 that diplomatic campaign was opened which ended 
 in adding another kingdom to the hymeneal conquests 
 for which the house of Austria was already famous,* 
 and in placing Philip, as king-consort, on the throne 
 of England. On the same day when Charles sug- 
 gested to his son the propriety of breaking faith with 
 his favorite sister's only child, he signed the first or- 
 der for money to be spent in building his retreat at 
 Yuste, a Jeromite convent in Estremadura in Spain ; 
 and as soon as the treachery had been completed and 
 the prize secured, he began seriously to prepare for a 
 life of piety and repose. 
 
 That Philip might meet his English bride on equal 
 terms, the emperor had ceded to him, before his mar- 
 riage, in 1554, the titles of king of Naples and duke 
 of Milan. Recalling him from Windsor, in 1555, he 
 assembled the states at Brussels, on the 25th of Oc- 
 tober, and made his solemn abdication of the domains 
 of the house of Burgundy in favor of the king of Na- 
 ples and England. On the 16th of January, in the 
 following year, he signed and sealed a similar act for 
 the Spanish kingdoms ; and on the 27th of August, 
 he placed in the hands of the young prince of Orange, 
 
 * And so tersely celebrated in the epigram of Matthias Corvinus : 
 
 Bella gerant alii ; tu felix Austria nube ! 
 
 Nam qua2 Mars aliis dat tibi regna Venus. 
 Fight those who will ; let well-starred Austria wed, 
 And conquer kingdoms in the marriage bed.
 
 4 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 the famous William the Silent, a deed of renunciation 
 of the imperial crown, to be laid before the electoral 
 diet, which was then, as was already understood, to 
 confer the vacant dignity on Charles's brother Ferdi- 
 nand, king of the Romans and actual sovereign of the 
 archduchies of Austria. 
 
 These arrangements made, early in September, 
 1556, a fleet assembled at Flushing, under the com- 
 mand of Don Luis de Carvajal, for the purpose of con- 
 veying the retiring emperor to Spain. He was at- 
 tended to the coast by his son, now Philip the Second 
 of Spain, by his nephew and daughter, Maximilian 
 and Mary, king and queen of Bohemia, and by the 
 many nobles of the Netherlands. He was likewise 
 accompanied by his two sisters, who were to be the 
 companions of his voyage, being, like himself, about 
 to seek retirement in Spain. 
 
 Of these royal ladies, the elder was the gentle and 
 once beautiful Eleanor, queen dowager of Portugal 
 and of France. She was now in her fifty-eighth year, 
 and much broken in health. In youth the favorite 
 sister of the emperor, and in later days always ad- 
 dressed by him as madame ma meilleur saeur* she had 
 nevertheless been the peculiar victim of his policy and 
 ambition. As a mere lad, he had driven from his court 
 her first love, Frederick, prince-palatine, that he might 
 strengthen his alliance with Portugal by marrying her 
 to Emanuel the Great, a man old enough to be her 
 father, and tottering on the brink of the grave. When 
 she became a widow, two years afterwards, her hand 
 
 * See his letters to her amongst the Papiers d'etat du Cardinal de 
 fjranvfJle d'uprt.s les manuscrits de la Biblioth. de Besan^on, Tom. I. - 
 VIII. 4lo, Paris, 1840 - 50.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. D 
 
 was used by her brother, first as a bait to flatter the 
 hopes and fix the fidelity of the unfortunate Constable 
 de Bourbon, and next as a means of soothing the 
 wounded pride and obtaining the alliance of his cap- 
 tive, the constable's liege lord. The French marriage 
 was probably the more unhappy of the two. Francis 
 the First never forgot that he had signed the contract 
 in prison, and speedily forsook his new wife for the 
 sake of mistresses, new or old. The queen was 
 obliged to solace herself with such reflections as were 
 plentifully supplied in the pedantic Latin verses of 
 the day, in which the world was told, that whereas 
 the fair Helen of Troy had been a cause of war, the 
 no less lovely Eleanor of Austria was a bond and 
 pledge of peace. She bore her husband's neglect with 
 heroic meekness : she was an affectionate mother to 
 the children of her predecessor, and, so far as her in- 
 fluence extended, an unwearied peacemaker between 
 the houses of Valois and Austria. Since 1547, the 
 year of her second widowhood, she had lived chiefly 
 at the court of the emperor, whose last public act of 
 brotherly unkindness had been to instigate his son to 
 break his troth to her only daughter. 
 
 The other sister, Mary, queen dowager of Hungary, 
 was five years younger than Eleanor, and a woman 
 of a very different stamp. Her husband, Louis the 
 Second, had been slain in 1526, fighting the Turk 
 among the marshes of Mohacz. Inconsolable for his 
 loss, Mary, then only twenty-three years of age, took 
 a vow of perpetual widowhood, a vow from which she 
 never sought a dispensation. In spite of this act of 
 feminine devotion, she was, even in that age of man- 
 ly women, remarkable for her intrepid spirit and her 
 i*
 
 6 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 iron frame. To much of the bodily strength of her 
 Polish ancestress, Cymburgis of the hammer-fist, she 
 united the cool head and the strong will of her brother 
 Charles. Hunting and hawking she loved like Mary 
 of Burgundy, and her horsemanship must have de- 
 lighted the knightly heart of her grandsire Maxi- 
 milian. Not only could she bring down her deer with 
 unerring aim, but, tucking up her sleeves, and drawing 
 her knife, she would cut the animal's throat, and rip 
 up its belly in as good style as the best of the royal 
 foresters?* It w T as to her that the imperial ambassador 
 in England made known Mary Tudor's desire for 
 some " wild-boar venison," to grace the feasts which 
 followed her coronation, a desire which was forth- 
 with gratified by the arrival in London of the lieuten- 
 ant of the royal venery of Flanders, with a prime six- 
 year-old boar, as a gift from the queen of Hungary.f 
 Roger Ascham, meeting the sporting dowager as she 
 galloped into Spa, far ahead of her suite, although it 
 was her tenth day in the saddle, recorded the fact in 
 his note-book, with a remark which briefly summed 
 up the popular opinion of her character. " She is," 
 says he, " a virago ; she is never so well as when she 
 is flinging on horseback and hunting all the night 
 long."$ To the firm hand of this Amazon sister the 
 emperor very wisely committed the government of the 
 turbulent Low Countries. During more than twenty 
 stormy years she administered it with much vigor and 
 
 * Libra de la Monteria del Rey D. Alonso ; fol, Sevilla, 1582. See 
 the Discurso de G. Argote de Molina, fol. 19. 
 
 t Papiers de Granvdk, IV. 121-135. 
 
 $ P. Fraser Tytler's Orig. Letters of the Reigns of K. Edward VI. and 
 Q. Mary, 2 vols., 8vo, London, 1839, II. p. 127.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 7 
 
 tolerable success, now foiling the ambitious schemes 
 of Denmark and of France ; now repressing Anabap- 
 tist or Lutheran risings ; and always gathering as she 
 could the sinews of war for the imperial armies abroad. 
 Her latest exploit was a foray, during the siege of 
 Metz, into French Picardy, which she led in person 
 with so much courage and conduct, that Henry the 
 Second found it necessary to come to the rescue of 
 his province. She was now in her fifty-second year, 
 bronzed rather than broken by her toils, and still fit 
 for the council or the saddle. 
 
 The vessel prepared for the emperor was a Biscayan 
 ship of five hundred and sixty-five tons, the Espiritu 
 Santo, but generally called the Bertendona, from the 
 name of the commander. The cabin of Charles was 
 fitted up with green hangings, a swing bed with cur- 
 tains of the same color, and eight glass windows. 
 His personal suite consisted of one hundred and fifty 
 persons. The queens were accommodated on board 
 a Flemish vessel, and the entire fleet numbered fifty- 
 six sail. The royal party embarked on the 13th of 
 September, but the state of the weather did not allow 
 them to put to sea until the 17th. The next day, as 
 they passed between the white cliffs of Kent and Ar- 
 tois, they fell in with an English squadron of five sail, 
 of which the admiral came on board the emperor's 
 ship, and kissed his hand. On the 20th, contrary 
 winds drove them to take shelter under the isle of 
 Portland for a night and a day. The weather contin- 
 uing unfavorable, on the 22d the emperor ordered 
 the admiral to steer for the isle of Wight, but a fair 
 breeze springing up as they came in sight of that 
 island, the fleet once more took a westerly course, and
 
 8 
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 gained the coast of Biscay without further adventure. 
 On the afternoon of Monday, the 28th of September, 
 the good ship Bertendona cast anchor in the road of 
 Laredo. 
 
 The gulf of Laredo is a forked inlet of irregular 
 form, opening towards the east, and walled from the 
 northwestern blast by the rocky headland of Santona. 
 The town, with its castle, stands at the mouth of the 
 gulf on the southeastern shore. Once a commercial 
 station of the Romans, it became an important arse- 
 nal of St. Ferdinand of Castille. From Laredo, Ra- 
 rnon Bonifaz sailed to the Guadalquivir and the con- 
 quest of Seville ; and a Laredo-built ship struck the 
 fatal blow to the Moorish capital, by bursting the 
 bridge of boats and chains which connected the Gold- 
 en Tower with the suburb of Triana, an exploit com- 
 memorated by St. Ferdinand in the augmentation of 
 a ship to the municipal bearings of Laredo. After 
 some centuries of prosperity, the town was cruelly 
 sacked, in 1639, by the archbishop of Bordeaux, the 
 apostolic admiral of Louis the Thirteenth. Santan- 
 der rose upon its ruins ; its population dwindled from 
 fourteen to three thousand ; fishing craft only were 
 found in its sand-choked haven; yet, true to its mar- 
 tial fame, it sent a gallant band of seamen to perish 
 at Trafalgar. 
 
 This ancient seaport was now the scene of a de- 
 barkation more remarkable than any which Spain had 
 known since Columbus stepped ashore at Palos, with 
 his red men from the New World. Landing on the 
 evening of the 28th of September, 1556,* the emperor 
 
 * De Thou (Hist, sui Temp., Lib. XVII.) says, that Charles on landing
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. \J 
 
 was received by Pedro Manrique, bishop of Sala- 
 manca, and Durango, an alcalde of the court, who 
 were in waiting there by order of the infanta Juana, 
 regent of Spain. He was joined on the following 
 morning by the two queens. The arrival of the royal 
 party seemed to take the bishop and the town by sur- 
 prise, for few preparations had as yet been made -for 
 its reception. The admiral Carvajal instantly de- 
 spatched his brother Alonso to court with the intelli- 
 gence, which he delivered at Valladolid on the 1st of 
 October. The princess-regent had already given or- 
 ders to Colonel Luis Quixada, the emperor's cham- 
 berlain, who had preceded him to Spain, to prepare a 
 residence for her father. These arrangements com- 
 pleted, Quixada had returned to his country-house at 
 Villagarcia, six leagues to the northwest of Vallado- 
 lid, whither a courier was now sent with orders for 
 him to repair with all speed to the coast. The active 
 chamberlain was in the saddle by two in the morning 
 of the 2d of October, and making the best of his way, 
 on his own horses, to Burgos, he there took post, and 
 accomplished the entire distance (fifty-six leagues, or 
 about two hundred and ten English miles) in three 
 days, dismounting on the night of the 4th at Laredo. 
 The presence of the stout old soldier was much 
 wanted. Half of the emperor's people were ill ; Mon- 
 sieur Lachaulx and Monsieur d'Aubremont had ter- 
 
 knelt down and kissed the earth, ejaculating, " I salute thee, common 
 mother ! Naked came I forth from the womh to receive the treasures of 
 the earth, and naked am I about to return to the bosom of the universal 
 mother." Had the emperor really done or spoken so, it is most unlikely 
 that his secretary would have failed to mention it in his letters, none of 
 which contain any hint that can justify the tale.
 
 10 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 tian and quartan fevers ; seven or eight of the meaner 
 attendants were dead ; yet there were no doctors to 
 give any assistance. There was even a difficulty in 
 finding a priest to say mass, the staff' of physicians 
 and chaplains which had been ordered down from 
 Valladolid not having yet been heard of. But for the 
 well-stored larder of the bishop of Salamanca, there 
 would have been short commons at the royal table. 
 When the secretary, Martin Gaztelu, wrote to com- 
 plain of these things, there was no courier at hand to 
 carry the letter. The weather was wet and tempes- 
 tuous, and of a fleet of ships, laden with wool, which 
 the royal squadron had met at sea, some had returned 
 dismasted to port, and others had gone to the bot- 
 tom.* The Flemings were loud in their discontent, 
 and very ill-disposed to penetrate any further into a 
 country so hungry and inhospitable. The alcalde who 
 was charged with the preparations for the journey, 
 w r as at his wit's end, though hardly beyond the begin- 
 ning of his work. The emperor himself was ill, and 
 out of humor with the badness of the arrangements ; 
 but he was cheered by the sight of his trusty Quixada, 
 and welcomed him with much kindness. 
 
 From the moment that the old campaigner took 
 the command, matters began to wear a more hopeful 
 aspect. The day after his arrival was spent in vigor- 
 ous preparation ; and in the morning of the 6th of 
 
 * The loss of the vessel of Francis Cachopin, with eighty men, and a 
 cargo worth 80,000 ducats, is particularly mentioned by Gaztelu, in his 
 letter to Juan Vazquez de Molina, dated 6th of October. This storm, 
 seems to be the sole foundation for Strada's story {De Bella Betyico, 2 
 torn., sm. 8vo, Antv. 1640, 1. p. 10) that the emperor's ship went down 
 a few hours after he had quitted her. No trace of such an accident is to 
 be found in the Gonzalez MS.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 11 
 
 October, a messenger came from Valladolid with a 
 seasonable supply of provisions. That morning, 
 while Gaztelu penned a somewhat desponding ac- 
 count of the backwardness of things in general, Qui- 
 xada wrote a cheerful announcement that they were 
 to begin their march that day at noon, after his 
 majesty had dined, a promise which he managed 
 to fulfil. 
 
 The emperor, in spite of the discomforts of his so- 
 journ at Laredo, is said to have left to the town some 
 marks of his favor. The parish church of the As- 
 sumption of the Virgin a fine temple of the thir- 
 teenth century, grievously marred by the embellish- 
 ments of the eighteenth was happy in the posses- 
 sion of a holy image, Our Lady of the Magian kings, 
 full of miraculous power, and of benevolence to sail- 
 ors. Two lecterns of bronze, in the shape of eagles 
 with expanded wings, and an altar-ternary of silver, 
 which still adorn her shrine, are prized as proofs that 
 Charles the Fifth enjoyed and valued her protection.* 
 
 The feeble state of the emperor's health required 
 that he should travel by easy stages. His first day's 
 march, along the rocky shore of the gulf, and up the 
 right bank of the Ason, was hardly three leagues. 
 The halting-place was Ampuero, a village, hung on 
 the wooded side of Moncerrago. Next day, about 
 four leagues were accomplished, on a road which still 
 kept along the sylvan valley of the Ason, a moun- 
 tain stream, renowned for its salmon, and for the 
 grand cataract in which it leaps from its source high 
 
 * Madoz : Diccionario geografico estadistico historico de Espana, 17 vols 
 roy. 8vo. Madrid, 1850, art. Laredo; a work of the greatest Talue and 
 importance.
 
 12 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 up in the sierra. La Nestosa, a hamlet in a fertile 
 hill-embosomed plain, was the second day's bourne. 
 The third journey, of four leagues, was on the ridge 
 of Tornos, to Aguera, a village buried among the 
 wildest, mountains of the great sierra which divides 
 the woods and pastures of Biscay from the brown 
 plains of Old Castille. On the fourth day, a march 
 of five leagues across the southern spurs of the same 
 range, brought the travellers to Medina de Pomar, a 
 small town on a rising ground in a wide and wind- 
 swept plain. Here the emperor paused a day to re- 
 pose. 
 
 He had performed the journey with tolerable ease, 
 in a horse-litter, which he exchanged, when the road 
 was rugged or very steep, for a chair carried by men. 
 Two of these chairs, and three litters, in case of ac- 
 cident in the wild highland march, formed his travel- 
 ling equipment. By his side rode Luis Quixada, or 
 Lachaulx if the presence of the chamberlain, who 
 acted as marshal and quarter-master, was required 
 elsewhere. The rest of the attendants followed on 
 horseback, and the cavalcade was preceded by the 
 alcalde Durango and five alguazils, with their wands 
 of office, a vanguard which Quixada said made the 
 party look like a convoy of prisoners. These algua- 
 zils, and the general shabbiness of the regiment under 
 his command, were matters of great concern to the 
 colonel ; but his remonstrances met with no sympathy 
 from the emperor, who said the tipstaves did very well 
 for him, and that he did not mean for the future to 
 have any guards attached to his household. 
 
 On the road, between Ampuero and La Nestosa, 
 they met Don Enrique de Guzman, coming from
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 13 
 
 court, charged with a large stock of provisions and 
 ample supply of conserves. These latter dainties the 
 emperor immediately desired to taste, and finding 
 their quality good, he gave orders that they were to 
 be kept sacred for his peculiar eating. Guzman was 
 accompanied by Don Pedro Pimentel, gentleman of 
 the chamber to the young prince, Don Carlos, bear- 
 ing letters of compliment from his master, who de- 
 sired that the emperor would indicate to his ambassa- 
 dor, as he called Pimentel, the place on the road 
 where he was to meet him. Without sett.ling this 
 point, Quixada wrote, by the emperor's orders, to 
 court, desiring that a regular supply of melons should 
 be sent for the imperial table, and that some portable 
 glass windows should be got ready for use on the 
 journey beyond Valladolid, as the nights were already 
 becoming chill. He asked also for the dimensions of the 
 apartments prepared at Valladolid for the queens, that 
 he might send forward fitting tapestry for their deco- 
 ration ; and he begged that the measurements might 
 be taken with great exactness, as their majesties, es- 
 pecially the queen of Hungary, could not bear the 
 slightest mistake in the execution of their behests. 
 The royal dowagers had brought with them from 
 Flanders a profusion of fine tapestry of all kinds, 
 much of which still adorns the walls of the Spanish 
 palaces. They did not travel in company with their 
 brother, but kept one day's march in the rear, as it 
 would have been difficult to lodge their combined fol- 
 lowers. The management of their journey, and the 
 selection of their quarters, rested with the all-provident 
 Quixada; who had found time to make general ar-
 
 14 
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 rangements on these heads as he galloped down the 
 road from Villagarcia. 
 
 During the day of rest at Medina, the imperial 
 quarters were thronged with noble and civic visitors, 
 who rode into town from all points of the compass. 
 Addresses came from the corporations of Burgos, Sal- 
 amanca, Palencia, Pamplona, and other cities ; from 
 the archbishop of Toledo, and other prelates. On 
 the llth of October, Charles again mounted his litter, 
 and travelled five leagues to Pesadas, a poor town, on 
 a bleak table-land, swept by the merciless north wind, 
 where he was met by the constable of Navarre. Af- 
 ter a brief audience, he dismissed that nobleman, with 
 a request that he would go forward and welcome the 
 two queens. The night of the 12th of October was 
 passed, after a five leagues' march, at Gondomin ; 
 and the next day, a journey of about the same length, 
 still over vast undulating heaths, rough with thickets 
 of dwarf oak, led to the domains of the Cid, beyond 
 which rose the ancient gate and beautiful twin spires 
 of Burgos. 
 
 Two leagues from the city, the emperor was met 
 by the constable of Castille, Don Pedro Fernandez 
 de Velasco, and a gallant company of loyal gentle- 
 men. The constable, whom age and infirmities had 
 compelled to exchange, like his lord, the saddle for 
 the litter, conducted him with all honor to the noble 
 palace of the Velascos, popularly known as the Casa 
 del Cordon, from the massive cord of St. Francis, 
 which enfolds and protects the great portal. He of- 
 fered hospitality to the whole of the imperial train, but 
 this Luis Quixada was instructed to decline. While 
 the emperor made his entry into the city, the bells of
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 15 
 
 the cathedral rang a peal of welcome ; and at night, 
 the chapter made a still finer display of loyalty, in a 
 grand illumination of its steeples. For once, sombre 
 Burgos, which was said to wear mourning for all 
 Castille,* seems to have laid aside its weeds. 
 
 The privations, spiritual and temporal, endured by 
 Charles at Laredo, and arising, as it appears, from 
 miscalculation of time, are the sole evidence furnished 
 by his servants of that neglect which even Spanish 
 historians have long been in the habit of depicting, as 
 if to deter princes from the dangerous experiment of 
 abdication. Had the emperor really been exposed to 
 this mortification, perhaps his pride would have led 
 him to suffer in silence. But then his hundred and 
 fifty followers, newly come from the flesh-pots of 
 Flanders, must have starved ; and they at least would 
 have cried aloud, and spared not. So far from the 
 imperial traveller being allowed to pass through his 
 ancient kingdom unnoticed, his stay of two days 
 at Burgos seems to have been a perpetual levee. 
 Amongst those who came to pay their homage were 
 the admiral of Castille, the dukes of Medina-Cell, 
 Medina-Sidonia, Maqueda, Najera, Infantado, and 
 many other grandees. The royal councils of state, 
 the royal chancery of Valladolid, and other pub- 
 lic bodies, sent deputations with loyal addresses. 
 Amongst the lesser nobles who came in crowds to 
 the Casa del Cordon, not the least noticeable was 
 Don Gutierre de Padilla, brother of the gallant Juan 
 de Padilla, with whom, thirty-five years before, the 
 
 * And. Navagiero : 77 Viaygio fatto in Spagna^ sm. 8vo, Vinegia, 1563, 
 fol. 35.
 
 16 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 constitutional liberties of Castille had perished in the 
 disastrous wars of the Commons. For fighting on the 
 winning side in that horoic struggle, Gutierre had 
 been rewarded with a commandery, and at this time 
 he held the honorary post of gentleman of the imperial 
 chamber. 
 
 Brom Burgos the emperor set out for Valladolid 
 on the 16th of October. In spite of his infirmities, 
 the constable offered to accompany him part of the 
 first day's journey^ an offer which, however, his guest 
 would not accept. But to the great contentment of 
 Quixada, Don Francisco de Beaumont insisted on 
 joining the cavalcade with an escort of cavalry, thus 
 superseding the alcalde and his alguazils. Their road 
 lay along the rich vale and near the right bank of the 
 Arlanzon, a river sometimes rolling its muddy waters 
 in a deep and rapid stream, sometimes expanding 
 them into broad shallows. The 'first resting-place 
 was about four leagues from Burgos, at the village 
 of Celada ; the second, seven leagues farther, at Palen- 
 zuela, where the emperor was pleased to find a sup- 
 ply of flounders, newly arrived from court. Fish was 
 his favorite food, yet it never agreed with him ; so 
 these flounders were probably the cause of the indis- 
 position of which he complained at "Torquemada, 
 where, after a journey of four leagues, he passed the 
 night. In this town of vine-dressers, seated amongst 
 productive gardens and orchards, near the confluence 
 of the Arlanzon, the Arlanza, and the Pisuerga, he 
 was met by the bishop of the neighboring city of Pa- 
 lencia. This prelate was a man of some distinction ; 
 his skilful diplomacy in repressing a formidable rebel- 
 lion had saved Peru to Castille ; and he had very
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 17 
 
 lately received from the emperor his present mitre, as 
 the reward of his services.* He now waited on his 
 benefactor with a magnificent supply of meat, game, 
 and fruit, sufficient to feast the whole of his train. 
 
 The next night the emperor was lodged three 
 leagues farther on, at Duenas, where Ferdinand of 
 Aragon first met Isabella the Catholic, and where the 
 count of Buendia now received their descendant in 
 his feudal castle on the adjacent height, overlooking 
 the broad valley of the Pisuerga. Some gentlemen 
 from Valladolid meeting him here, advised him to 
 enter the capital by way of Cigales, and the Puente- 
 mayor, by which means he would at once reach the 
 palace, without noise and without a crowd. " No," 
 said he ; "I will go the usual way, by the gate of San 
 Pedro ; for it would be a shame not to let my people 
 see me." f The fifth day, his journey was again a 
 short one, of three leagues ; and the halting-place was 
 Cabezon, a village within two leagues of the capital, 
 and boasting of a fine bridge over the Pisuerga. 
 Here the infant Don Carlos was in waiting, by his 
 grandfather's directions. It was the first time that the 
 emperor had seen the unhappy heir of his name and 
 his honors. He embraced him with much appear- 
 ance of affection, and made him sup at his table. 
 During the meal, the prince took a fancy to a little 
 portable chafing-dish, which the emperor carried in his 
 hand for warmth, and begged to have it for his own ; 
 to which the proprietor replied, that he should have 
 
 * F. Fernandez de Pulgar : Historia de Palencia, 4 vols. fol., Madrid, 
 1679, III. p. 201. 
 
 t " Ruindad no dejarse ver por los suyos," are the words in the origi- 
 nal letter of the reporter, Gaztelu or Quixada. 
 2*
 
 18 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 it as soon as he was dead, and had no further use 
 for it. 
 
 Early next day, the 21st of October, Juan Vazquez 
 de Molina, secretary of state, came to Cabezon, and 
 had a long conference with the emperor, of whom he 
 had been an old and approved servant. He found 
 him in good health and spirits, not at all fatigued 
 with his journey, and in all respects better than his 
 attendants had known him for several years. Charles 
 would not, however, accept the honors of a public 
 reception, which it had been proposed to give 
 him at Valladolid ; but desired that the pomps pre- 
 pared for the occasion might be reserved until the 
 arrival of the queens, who were also on the road. 
 Accordingly he made his entry that same afternoon, 
 without parade of any kind, and was received in the 
 court of the palace by his grandson, Don Carlos, and 
 by his daughter, the princess-regent* 
 
 * The emperor's itinerary from Laredo to Valladolid was as follows ; 
 the- distances being computed as far as possible by the fine maps of Col. 
 Don Francisco Coello, now in course of publication at Madrid : 
 
 Leagues. 
 
 October 6, Monday, Laredo 
 
 to Ampuero, 
 
 . 3 
 
 7, Tuesday, 
 
 . La Nestosa, 
 
 4 
 
 8, Wednesday, . 
 
 Aguera, 
 
 . 4 
 
 9, Thursday, . 
 
 . Medina de Pomar 
 
 5 
 
 11, Saturday, 
 
 Pesadas, 
 
 . 5 
 
 12, Sunday, 
 
 . Gondomin, 
 
 5 
 
 13, Monday, . 
 
 Burgos, 
 
 . 5 
 
 16, Thursday, . 
 
 . Celada, . 
 
 4 
 
 17, Friday, . 
 
 Palenzuela, . 
 
 . 7 
 
 18, Saturday, . 
 
 . Torquemada, 
 
 4 
 
 19, Sunday, . 
 
 Duenas, 
 
 . 3 
 
 20, Monday, 
 
 . Cabezon, . 
 
 3 
 
 21, Tuesday, . 
 
 Valladolid, . 
 
 . 2 
 
 In all about 51 leagues.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 19 
 
 Valladolid was at this time at the height of its 
 prosperity, as the wealthy and flourishing capital of 
 the Spanish monarchy. It possessed a noble palace 
 standing in delicious gardens ; a splendid college 
 erected by cardinal Mendoza and built all of white 
 marble in the florid Gothic of Ferdinand and Isa- 
 bella ; and some religious houses, such as San Benito 
 and San Pablo, unexcelled as examples of the rich 
 and fantastic transition style of architecture. Other 
 churches and convents, and many mansions of the 
 great nobles, adorned the streets and squares, spread 
 their long fronts to the great parade-ground known 
 as the Campo Grande, or rose amongst the gardens 
 which fringed the Pisuerga. 
 
 The princess-regent Juana was the second daugh- 
 ter of the emperor, and widow of Juan, prince of Bra- 
 zil, heir apparent of the Portuguese crown. Her mar- 
 ried life had been no less brief than bright ; the prince, 
 who loved her tenderly, dying in less than thirteen 
 months after their union. Juan was the only son, not 
 only of his parents, but of the decaying house of 
 Avis ; and therefore on his pregnant widow of nine- 
 teen were centred all the hopes of the Portuguese 
 nation. In spite, however, of the prayers which 
 rose in every church, and the processions which glit- 
 tered through every town between the Minho and 
 Cape St. Vincent, alarming portents preceded the 
 royal birth. A woman, clad in black, was seen to 
 stand by the bed of Juana, snapping her fingers, and 
 blowing into the air, as if in prediction of the futility 
 of the national hope ; and Moorish figures, with torch- 
 es in their hands, rushed at night by the palace win- 
 dows, in full view of the princess and her ladies, rid-
 
 20 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 ing on the wintry blast, and uttering doleful cries as 
 they descended into the sea. But in the night of the 
 loth of January, 1554, a shout of joy rung through 
 the broad square between the palace and the Tagus, 
 when it was announced to the expectant crowds that 
 the prince was born whose romantic fate has made 
 the name of Sebastian so famous in song and story. 
 From the pangs of travail, the young mother, who 
 had been kept ignorant of her husband's death, 
 passed to the sorrows of widowhood ; she wept for 
 the father of her child as Rachel for her children, and 
 would not be comforted ; and but for the king, who 
 forbade the cutting off her fine auburn hair, she 
 would have retired with her grief to a nunnery.* 
 Having repaid to the house of Avis the debt incurred 
 by the house of Austria at the birth of Don Carlos, 
 she was soon recalled to Spain, to govern that coun- 
 try, as regent, first for her father the emperor, and now 
 for her brother, Philip the Second. This high post 
 she filled with firmness and moderation, displaying 
 no want of sagacity, except in her policy towards the 
 enthusiasts for religious reform, whom she treated 
 with the foolish severity practised by many of the 
 mildest and wisest rulers of the time. Her policy was 
 ever directed by that strong family feeling which the 
 princes of the nineteenth century have learned to call 
 by the more decorous name of public spirit. Of per- 
 sona] ambition she appears to have been entirely free. 
 For many months before her brother returned to 
 Spain, she was constantly urging him to come back 
 and ease her of the burden of power. To her father 
 
 * M. de Mencses : Chronica de D. Sebastiao, fol., Lisboa, 1 730, pp. 
 27-30.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 21 
 
 her deference was ever most readily and affectionately 
 paid. Devotion was the ruling passion of her wid- 
 owed life ; her recreation during her regency was to 
 retire, for prayer and scourging, to the convent which 
 the Franciscans called their Scala Cceli, amongst the 
 gloomy rocks and tall pines of Abrojo. She encour- 
 aged her ladies to become nuns, but dissuaded them 
 from becoming wives ; and she would never give audi- 
 ence to foreign ambassadors but covered from head to 
 foot with a veil, drawing it aside for a moment only 
 when some envoy, more curious than his fellows, de- 
 sired permission to identify her pale and melancholy 
 face. 
 
 While at Valladolid, the emperor and his suite were 
 lodged in the house of Don Gomez Perez de las Ma- 
 rinas. Another residence was assigned to the queens, 
 who arrived on the 22d of October, the day after their 
 brother. The grandees, the dignitaries of the church 
 and the law, the council of state in their robes of cere- 
 mony, and the college doctors in their scarlet hoods, 
 met them in grand procession, and conducted them 
 into the city in triumph. They were charmed wiih 
 their reception ; Quixada and his" people had made 
 no mistake about the tapestries ; and queen Mary, at 
 the banquet in the evening, remarked that every day 
 she found new cause to rejoice that she had come to 
 Spain. The banquet was followed by a ball, at which 
 the emperor also was present. The admiral of Cas- 
 tille, the duke of Sesa, heir of the great captain, the 
 count of Benevente, and the marquis of Astorga, were 
 amongst the chief nobles who came to do homage to 
 their ancient lord, whose hand was also kissed by the 
 members of the council of Castille. It was probably
 
 22 
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 at this ball that Charles caused the wives of all his 
 personal attendants to be assembled around him, and 
 bade each in particular farewell. Perico de Sant Er- 
 bas, a famous jester of the court, passing by at the 
 moment, the emperor good-humoredly saluted him by 
 lifting his hat. This buffoon had formerly been wont 
 to make the emperor laugh by calling his son Philip 
 Senor de Todo, lord of All,* and now that he was so, 
 this opportunity of reviving the old joke was too good 
 to be lost by the bitter fool. " What! do you uncover 
 to me ? " said the jester ; " does it mean that you are 
 no longer an emperor?" "No, Pedro," replied the 
 object of the jest ; " but it means that I have nothing 
 to give you beyond this courtesy." f 
 
 On the 27th of October, Don Constantino de Bra- 
 ganza arrived from Lisbon to congratulate the emper- 
 or, in the name of his cousin, John the Third, and his 
 sister Catherine, king and queen of Portugal, on his 
 safe return to Spain. Charles received him with that 
 perfect graciousness with which he knew well how to 
 meet the advances of a rival who had just cause for 
 dissatisfaction. For the courts of Lisbon and Valla- 
 dolid, though friendly in appearance, were really upon 
 terms far from cordial. Not only had Philip the Sec- 
 ond broken his faith to an infanta of Portugal, but his 
 father had aided him in foiling the designs of a Por- 
 tuguese infant upon the crown matrimonial of Eng- 
 land. For that splendid prize the gallant Don Luis 
 of Portugal had been one of the earliest candidates. 
 Knowing that the prince of Spain was already be- 
 
 * Bradford's Correspondence of Claries V. Relatione di Navagiero, p. 
 439. 
 t J. A. de Vera : Vida del Emp. Carlos V., 4to, Bruxelles, 1656, p. 245.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 23 
 
 trothed to his half-sister, and being himself a brother- 
 in-law, as well as a brother in arms, of his sire, he at 
 once confided his plan to the emperor, and asked for 
 his aid in its execution. Charles received his confi- 
 dence graciously, and affected to favor his pretensions, 
 until Philip had made his election sure. Don Luis 
 was lately dead, leaving a bastard son, who, as prior 
 of Crato, afterwards became famous for a time as 
 Philip's most formidable rival for the crown of Portu- 
 gal. But the affront which the house of Avis had re- 
 ceived in the persons of Don Luis and the infanta, was 
 still too recent to be forgotten, and may have been 
 partly the cause why the princess Juana so soon for- 
 sook her baby son, and the kingdom which was his 
 heritage. The national enmities which burned on 
 the opposite shores of the Guadiana were not extinct 
 in royal bosoms at Lisbon and Valladolid ; France 
 was careful to fan the useful flame ; and it was sus- 
 pected that the moidores of Brazil were not unknown 
 to the troops which were now planting the lilied ban- 
 ner on fortress after fortress along the ever-fluctuating 
 frontier of French and Austrian Flanders. 
 
 During his stay at Valladolid, the emperor every 
 day held long conferences on public affairs with the 
 princess-regent and the secretary Vazquez. He could 
 not approach the machine of government which he 
 had so long directed without examining with lively 
 interest its condition and its movements. He was 
 anxious now to give its present guides the benefit 
 of his parting advice, advice which, as the event 
 proved, he continued to transmit from Yuste by every 
 post, and which was ended only with his powers of 
 hearing and dictating despatches. But that he now
 
 24 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 intended to abstain from further interference with 
 business of state is plain, from a letter which he wrote 
 to Philip the Second on the 30th of October. 
 
 This letter relates chiefly to certain overtures which 
 had been made to the emperor by Anthony de Bour- 
 bon, whom he called duke of Vendorne, but who was 
 known in France by the title of king of Navarre. 
 Since Ferdinand the Catholic had driven John the 
 Third across the Pyrenees, the dominions of the house 
 of D'Albret hardly extended beyond the horizon of its 
 fair castle of Pau. The chains in which Castille held 
 Navarre were stronger than those through which Don 
 Sancho clove his way at Navas de Tolosa, and which 
 his exiled descendants still emblazoned in gold on 
 their blood-red shield. Yet the late king Henry, hus- 
 band of the story-loving pearl of Margarets, had willed 
 himself a provisional tomb, until fortune should per- 
 mit him to be laid in the cathedral of Pamplona. 
 His son-in-law, the chief of the Bourbons, was, how- 
 ever, neither very solicitous nor very hopeful of dis- 
 turbing Henry's repose at Lescar. To the courage, 
 courtesy, and good humor which seldom desert a 
 Bourbon in high or low estate, the first king of the 
 name added, in full measure, that laxity of principle 
 and instability of purpose which seem to belong to 
 the blood. Protestant and Catholic, Huguenot and 
 Leaguer by turns, he anticipated in his career all that 
 tarnished, little that ennobled, the name of his son 
 Henry the Fourth ; and he died detested by the party 
 which he had forsaken, and described, by the party to 
 which he had attached himself, as a man without 
 heart and without gall. As governor of .Picardy, he 
 had lately commanded against the imperial troops in
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 25 
 
 Flanders; but he had now joined his strong-minded 
 wife, Jane d'Albret, in her principality of Bearne. 
 Menaced even in that modest domain by the all-pow- 
 erful Guises, who recommended its annexation to the 
 realm of France, they were desirous of securing the 
 protection of their other great neighbor beyond the 
 Pyrenees. Anthony had therefore proposed to cede 
 to the king of Spain, for a suitable consideration, all 
 his wife's rights to coronation or to interment at 
 Pamplona. 
 
 Writing to Philip the Second, the emperor informed 
 him that this matter had been brought under his no- 
 tice at Burgos, by the duke of Albuquerque, viceroy 
 of Navarre, and that he had given audience to Mon- 
 sieur Ezcurra, the confidential agent of the duke of 
 Vendome. The subject had also been discussed at 
 Valladolid. He had refused, however, to enter upon 
 the affair, and left it entirely in the king's hands. He 
 hoped that the prince of Orange and the chancellor 
 had come to a settlement with the king of the Ro- 
 mans, as to the last formalities of his renunciation of 
 the empire ; and he entreated Philip to hasten the set- 
 tlement by all the means in his power, being anxious 
 to enter his monastery " free from this, as from other 
 cares." 
 
 While Charles was thus bent on conventual quiet, 
 he was so reserved in his communications with his 
 attendants, that they were still in doubt whether he 
 really intended to shut himself up for life in the dis- 
 tant cloister of Yuste. From Burgos Gaztelu wrote, 
 that, in spite of his constant opportunities, he was un- 
 able to penetrate the emperor's intentions, the ex- 
 pressions which he let fall being always, as it seemed, 
 3
 
 26 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 purposely equivocal. At Valladolid, however, he had 
 commanded the attendance of the prior of Yuste, and 
 the general of the order of Jerome, Fray Francisco de 
 Tofino ; and he gave audience so frequently to these 
 friars, that the Flemings must have begun to despair 
 of escaping the backwoods of Estremadura. 
 
 The acquaintance of the emperor and his grand- 
 son, Don Carlos, which commenced at Cabezon, was 
 of course improved at Valladolid. On the grand- 
 father's side, there seems to have been little of the 
 fondness which usually belongs to the relationship. 
 Although only eleven years old, Carlos had already 
 shown symptoms of the mental malady which dark- 
 ened the long life of queen Juana, his great-grand- 
 mother by the side both of his father, Philip of Spain, 
 and of his mother, Mary of Portugal. Of a sullen 
 and passionate temper, he lived in a state of perpet- 
 ual rebellion against his aunt, and displayed in the 
 nursery the weakly, mischievous spirit which marked 
 his short career at his father's court. His sad and 
 early death, still mysterious both in its cause and its 
 circumstances, has made him the darling of romance; 
 and in that fairy realm, he goes crowned with im- 
 mortal garlands, such as certainly have never been 
 won in the battle-fields of life by any son or descend- 
 ant of his sire. He might possibly have become the 
 champion of the people's rights, and of liberty of con- 
 science ; but it was scarcely probable that a her6 of 
 that order should be born in the purple of the house 
 of Hapsburg. His shadowy claims to the title have 
 been maintained by several Schiller-struck champions.* 
 
 * Of these one of the latest and most plausible in his view is Don
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 27 
 
 But his high faculties for good or evil, if he possessed 
 them, certainly escaped the shrewd insight of his 
 grandfather, who regarded him merely as a froward 
 and untractable child, whose future interests would 
 be best served by a present unsparing use of the rod. 
 Recommending, therefore, to the princess an increased 
 severity of discipline in the management of her 
 nephew, the emperor remarked to his sisters that he 
 had observed with concern the boy's unpromising 
 conduct and manners, and that it was very doubtful 
 how the man would grow up. This opinion was 
 conveyed by queen Eleanor to Philip the Second, who 
 had requested his aunt to note carefully the impres- 
 sion made by his son ; and it is said to have laid the 
 foundation for the aversion which the king entertained 
 towards Carlos. 
 
 Adolfo de Castro. See his agreeable work, Historia de los Protestantes 
 Espandes, 8vo, Cadiz, 1851, pp. 243-319, or T/ie Spanish Protestants, 
 translated by T. Parker, fcap. 8vo, London, 1851, pp. 278-339, in 
 which, however, I cannot admit that he makes out his case.
 
 28 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CASTLE OF XAEANDILLA. 
 
 SINCE the emperor had turned fifty and had begun 
 to lose his teeth, he had ceased to eat in public, or at 
 least performed that royal function in private as often 
 as good policy permitted. On the 4th of November 
 he exhibited himself at table to his subjects for the 
 last time, dining about noon before as many of the 
 citizens of Valladolid as chose to attend and could 
 find standing room in the apartment. Immediately 
 afterwards he bade farewell to the princess-regent and 
 her nephew, and set forward on his journey to Es- 
 tremadura, dismissing, at the Campo gate, a crowd 
 of grandees who had wished to ride for some miles 
 beside his litter. 
 
 The following which he had brought from Burgos 
 continued to attend him, with a small escort of horse 
 and a company of forty halberdiers commanded by 
 a lieutenant. They had not gone far over the naked 
 plain, patched here and there with stubby vineyards, 
 when the emperor complained of illness, and halted 
 his litter. His servants retired with him into a way- 
 side garden, and by the application of hot cushions to 
 his stomach he was soon sufficiently restored to pro- 
 ceed. At the ferry of the broad Duero he looked to- 
 wards the fortress of Simancas, which rose on its 
 round hill-top out of the plain a few miles higher up
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 29 
 
 the river, and remarked to Quixada that he hoped the 
 thirty thousand ducats, with which he counted upon 
 paying his people, had been lodged there in safety. 
 The day's march of four leagues closed at Val- 
 destillas, a village seated amongst low woods of 
 melancholy pine. 
 
 The next day's journey, which was somewhat short- 
 er, brought the party to Medina del Campo, a fine 
 old historical town in a singularly bad site, with a 
 grand collegiate church presiding over many other re- 
 ligious buildings, and a noble hospital, well supplifed 
 with patients by the miasma which rose from the 
 stagnating Zapardiel that crept beneath the walls. 
 Here was an ancient residence of the crown of Cas- 
 tille, called La Mota, a stately pile hallowed by the 
 death-bed of Isabella the Catholic. The emperor, 
 however, was not lodged there, but in the house of 
 one Rodrigo de Duenas, a rich money-broker, whither 
 he was conducted by the authorities and by most of the 
 inhabitants, who had met him at the gate. His host, 
 imitating, perhaps unconsciously, the splendid Fug- 
 gers of Augsburg, had provided, amongst other luxu- 
 ries for the emperor's use, a chafing-dish of gold, filled, 
 not with the usual charred vine-tendrils, but with the 
 finest cinnamon of Ceylon. Charles was so displeased 
 with this piece of ostentation, that he refused, very 
 uncourteously and unreasonably as it seems, to allow 
 the poor capitalist to kiss his hand, and on going 
 away, next day, ordered his night's lodging to be paid 
 for.* From Medina he privately sent one of his chap- 
 
 * This story is told by Gonzalez ; but whether on the authority of a 
 letter does not appear. 
 
 3*
 
 30 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 lains to Tordesillas to observe the state and service of 
 the chapel which he had endowed there for the benefit 
 of the souls of his parents. 
 
 In the course of the third day's march he remarked 
 to his attendants that, thank God ! they were now 
 getting beyond the reach of state and ceremony, and 
 that there would be now no more visits to make or re- 
 ceive, or receptions to undergo. Six or seven leagues, 
 still over vast bare, undulating plains, where the plough 
 feebly contended with the waste, brought them to 
 Hrcajo de los Torres, a lone village, built on a wind- 
 swept table-land. The fourth day was marked by an 
 improvement in the weather, which had hitherto been 
 rainy, and by the arrival of a courier from court with 
 a supply of potted anchovies and other favorite fish 
 for the emperor. He also was presented with an of- 
 fering of eels, trouts, and barbel, by the townspeople 
 of Pefiaranda, where he rested for the night in the 
 mansion of the Bracamontes. The road now ap- 
 proached the southern hills and entered the straggling 
 woods of evergreen oak which clothe the base, and be- 
 come dense on the lower slopes, of the wild sierra of 
 Bejar, the centre of that mountain chain which forms 
 the backbone of the Peninsula, stretching from Mon- 
 cayo in Aragon to the rock of Lisbon on the Atlantic. 
 
 In the fifth day's march the emperor began to feel 
 the keenness of the mountain air; the little chafing- 
 dish was constantly in his hand ; and the previous 
 night having been chilly, he sent forward a messenger 
 to superintend the warming of his room at Alaraz, a 
 village sweetly nestled in the valley of the Gamo. 
 Here he wrote to the king on the morning of the 9th 
 of November; and sleeping that night at Gallegos de
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 31 
 
 Solmiron, he arrived on the 10th at Barco de Avila, 
 a small walled town, finely placed in a rich vale, over- 
 hung by the lofty sierras of Bejar and Credos, and 
 watered by the fresh stream of the Tormes, dear to 
 the angler and to the lyric muse of Castille. A sec- 
 ond courier from court here overtook the party, with 
 some eider-down cushions for the emperor, who was 
 much pleased with their warmth and lightness, and 
 said he would have them made into jackets and dress- 
 ing-gowns for his own use. The eighth day's march, 
 of six or seven mountain leagues, was the hardest 
 they had yet encountered. The road, constantly as- 
 cending the rocky and wood-clad steeps, was extreme- 
 ly bad ; and although the country people whom they 
 met aided in overcoming the difficulties of the way, 
 the calvacade did not reach the halting-place at Tor- 
 navacas until after dark. The ernperor, however, bore 
 the fatigue with all the spirit and something of the 
 strength of his younger days ; he was even able, on his 
 arrival, to go out to see some of the villagers fish the 
 pools of the Xerte by torchlight, and he afterwards 
 supped heartily on the fine trout taken in the course 
 of this picturesque sport. i 
 
 He was now within six or seven leagues of Xaran- 
 dilla, the village in the neighborhood of Yuste where 
 he proposed to remain until his conventual abode was 
 ready. His original intention had been to go thither 
 by way of Plasencia, and thence along the Vera, or 
 valley, in which the village stood. But from Torna- 
 vacas there led to Xarandilla a track across the moun- 
 tains, by which a day's journey could be saved, and 
 Plasencia, with its episcopal and municipal civilities, 
 avoided. This shorter 'but far rougher road, the em-
 
 32 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 peror determined to face. He set out on his last 
 march in good time in the morning of the 12th of No- 
 vember, his calvacade being swelled by a great band 
 of the last night's fishermen, and other peasants, who 
 carried planks and poles, relieved the bearers of the 
 chairs, led the mules, and pointed out the way. This 
 assistance was not only useful, but necessary, the road 
 being as wild a mountain path as mule ever traversed. 
 Overhung, for the most part, with the bare boughs of 
 great oaks and chestnuts, the narrow and slippery 
 track sometimes followed, sometimes crossed, torrents 
 swollen with the late rains, wound beneath toppling 
 crags, climbed the edge of frightful precipices, and 
 reached its culminating horror in the pass of Puerto- 
 nuevo, a chasm rugged and steep as a broken stair- 
 case, which cleft the topmost crest of the sierra. On 
 this airy height, the traveller, pausing to take breath, 
 suddenly sees the fair Vera unrolled, in all its green 
 length, at his feet. Girdled with its mountain wall, 
 this nine-league stretch of pasture and forest, broken 
 here and there with village roofs and convent belfries, 
 slopes gently to the west, where beautiful Plasencia, 
 crowned with cathedral towers and throned on a ter- 
 race of rock, sits queenlike amongst vineyards and 
 gardens and the silver windings of the Xerte. 
 
 The emperor was charmed with the aspect of his 
 promised land. " Is this indeed the Vera ! " said he, 
 gazing intently at the landscape at his feet. He then 
 turned his eye to the north, into the forest-mantled 
 gorge, between the beetling rocks of the Puertonuevo. 
 " Now," he said, looking back, as it were, through the 
 gates of the world he was leaving, " 't is the last pass
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 33 
 
 I shall ever go through." Ya no pasare otro puerto* 
 During the ascent and descent, he was carried in a 
 chair, the stout and vigilant Quixada marching at his 
 side with a pike in his hand. They reached Xaran- 
 dilla before sunset, and alighted at the castle of the 
 count of Oropesa, the great feudal lord of the vicinity, 
 and head of an ancient branch of the Toledos. The 
 Flemings were overcome with fatigue and with dis- 
 gust at the obstacles which every step had put be- 
 tween themselves and home. But all agreed that the 
 emperor bore the journey remarkably well, and did 
 not appear greatly wearied at its close. He chose a 
 bed-room different from that allotted to him by his 
 host ; and requested that a fire-place might be imme- 
 diately added to the chamber which he was afterwards 
 to occupy, f 
 
 Xarandilla was, and still is, the most considerable 
 village in the Vera of Plasencia, a city so called by 
 its founder on account of the beauty of its site, and 
 its " pleasantness to saints and men." Walled to the 
 
 * Puerto has in Spanish the double signification of " gate " and 
 " mountain pass. 1 ' 
 t In this itinerary, from Valladolid to Xarandilla, I am without means 
 
 of computing the distances with any certainty : 
 
 Leagues. 
 November 4, Tuesday, Valladolid to Valdestillas, . . 4 
 
 5, "Wednesday, . . Medina del Campo, . 3 
 
 6, Thursday, . . Horcajo de los Torres, 3 
 
 7, Friday, . . . Penaranda, . . 4 
 
 8, Saturday, . . Alaraz, . . 4 
 
 9, Sunday, . . . Gallegos de Solmiron, 3 
 
 10, Monday, . . Barco de Avila, . 3 
 
 11, Tuesday, . . . Tornavacas, . 6 or 7 
 12, Wednesday, Xarandilla, . . 6 or 7 
 
 In all, 36i to 38<J leagues.
 
 34 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 north by lofty sierras, and watered with abundant 
 streams, its mild climate, rich soil, and perpetual ver- 
 dure led some patriotic scholars of Estremadura to 
 identify this beautiful valley with the Elysium of 
 Homer, " the green land without snow, or winter, 
 or showers," in spite of the "soft-blowing sea- 
 breeze " which refreshed the one, and the torrents of 
 rain which sometimes deluged the other. With 
 greater plausibility the Vera was conjectured to have 
 been the scene where Sertorius fell by the traitor- 
 hand of Perperna.* Saintly history also deemed it 
 hallowed, in the seventh century, by the last labors of 
 St. Magnus of Ireland;! and in the eighth century, 
 by the martyrdom of fourteen Andalusian bishops 
 slain in one massacre by the Saracen. The fair val- 
 ley was unquestionably famous throughout Spain for 
 its wine, oil, chestnuts, and citrons, for its magnificent 
 timber, for the deer, bears, wolves, and all other ani- 
 mals of the chase, which abounded in its woods, and 
 for the delicate trout which peopled its mountain 
 waters. 
 
 The reasons which guided Charles the Fifth in his 
 choice of a retreat have never been satisfactorily ex- 
 plained. There is no direct evidence that he had even 
 
 Strada : De Bdh Belgico, Lib. I. 
 
 t He was a prior of a convent at Garganta la Olla. J. de Tamayo 
 Salazar : San Epitacio de Tui, 4to, Madrid, 1646, p. 42 ; and Sancti His- 
 pani, 6 vols. fol., Lugd. 1657, V. p. 68. The fact, however, is disputed 
 and the honor claimed for the Alps, and a place called Fuessen, supposed 
 to be derived from Fauces, of which Garganta is also a translation. The- 
 odore of St. Gall, who wrote the life of St. Magnus (printed by J. Mes- 
 singham, Florilegium Sanct. Hibernice, 4to, Paris, 1624, p. 296), is entirely 
 silent as to the claims of the Vera.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 35 
 
 visited the Vera before he came there to die.* It is 
 possible that the patriotism of some Estremaduran 
 companion in arms, and his talk on the march or by 
 the camp fire, may have obtained for his native prov- 
 ince the honor of being the scene of the emperor's 
 evening of life. While making the pilgrimage to the 
 shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in April, 1525.f 
 or during the few days which he spent at Oropesa on 
 his way to Seville, in February, 1526, $ it is not im- 
 probable that love of the chase may have tempted 
 Charles to penetrate the surrounding forests, and that 
 the sylvan valley may have remained pictured in his 
 memory as the very solitude for some future Diocle- 
 tian. In 1534 he was at Salamanca, visiting his old 
 tutor, bishop Luis Cabeza de Vaca, and undergoing 
 the pompous and pedantic civilities of the univer- 
 sity ; and it is also possible that in that journey he 
 may have had a glimpse of his final resting-place. 
 
 * Robertson ( Charles V., B. XII.) cites no authority for his account of 
 the matter. " From Valladolid," says he, '' he [the emperor] continued 
 his journey to Plasencia [a town which, as we have seen, he purposely 
 avoided]. He had passed through this place a great many years before ; 
 and having been struck at that time with the delightful situation of the 
 monastery of St. Justus, belonging to the order of St. Jerome, not many 
 miles distant from the town, he had then observed to some of his at- 
 tendants that this was a spot to which Diocletian might have retired with 
 pleasure. The impression had remained so strong on his mind that he 
 pitched upon it as the place of his own retreat." 
 
 t Fr. Gabriel de Talavera : Historia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, 
 4to, Toledo, 1597. The letter of brotherhood, carta de hermandad, given 
 to the emperor, printed at fol. 210, is dated 21 April, 1525. 
 
 t Itinerary of the Emperor, by Vandenessc,from 1519 to 1551, printed in 
 Bradford's Correspondence, p. 490. He remained at Oropesa (erroneously 
 written Aropesa) from the 25th to the end of February. 
 
 Gil Gonzalez de Avila : Historia de Salamanca, 4to, Salamanca, 
 1606, p. 475.
 
 36 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 But there was no palace or hunting-seat of the crown 
 near enough to the Vera to have made him naturally 
 familiar with so remote a spot ; nor do the annals of 
 Yuste, or even of Plasencia, contain any record of an 
 imperial visit either to the sequestered convent or to 
 the pleasant city. Of the natural charms of the place 
 he may have heard enough to attract him thither ; 
 the reputation of the valley for salubrity, which 
 seems to have been scarcely deserved,* was probably 
 rather the consequence than the cause of its being 
 chosen for his retreat by the monarch of the fairest 
 portions of Europe. 
 
 The village of Xarandilla is seated on the side of 
 the sierra of Xaranda, and near the confluence of two 
 mountain torrents which fall from the rugged Pena- 
 negra. Its chief feature is the parish church of Our 
 Lady of the Tower, perched on a mass of rock forty 
 feet high, and approached by steep and narrow stairs, 
 which give it the appearance of a place rather of de- 
 fence than devotion. The mansion of the Oropesas, 
 built in the feudal style, with corner towers, has long 
 been in ruins; and of its imperial inmate, the village 
 has preserved no other memorial than a fountain, 
 which is still called the fountain of the emperor, in 
 the garden of a deserted monastery once belonging 
 to the order of St. Augustine. 
 
 * Mariana (De Reb. Hisp., Lib. XI. cap. 14, fol., Toleti, 1592, p. 533) 
 gives the city of Plasencia an opposite character. The site was called 
 Ambroz, but Alonso VIII. changed the name ; " quod nomen Placen- 
 tise appellatione mutari placuit, ominis caussa quasi divis et hominibus 
 placiturae et ex regionis amaenitate, quamvis cceli salubritate non eadem." 
 This passage is cited by Fr. Alonso Fernandez, in his Historia y Anales 
 de Plasencia, fol., Madrid, 1627, p. 6, with the suppression, rather patri- 
 otic than honest, of the latter damaging clause.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 37 
 
 Here Charles remained for nearly three months, 
 awaiting the completion of the works at Yuste. His 
 abode, though only an occasional residence of his 
 host, Fernando, fourth count of Oropesa, was com- 
 modious in all save fireplaces, and in the opinion of 
 his attendants was handsomely furnished and fitted 
 up. He installed himself in a room with a southern 
 aspect, opening upon a covered gallery, and overlook- 
 ing a flower-garden planted with orange-trees. For 
 a few days he lived as the count's guest ; but finding 
 that his stay might be indefinitely prolonged, he after- 
 wards commenced housekeeping on his own account. 
 On the 18th of November, therefore, Oropesa and his 
 brother, Francisco Alvarez de Toledo, who had been 
 viceroy of Peru,* and ambassador to the council of 
 Trent, took their leave, and returned to their usual 
 home, somewhere on their adjoining estates, which 
 extended far into the Vera on one side, and across the 
 mountain to Tornavacas on the other. 
 
 During the whole month of November the weather 
 was cold and stormy, giving a cheerless prospect of 
 the winter climate of Estremadura. Rain fell every 
 day, sometimes in torrents, and was followed by fogs, 
 sometimes so thick that a man became invisible at 
 the distance of twelve paces. Yuste, on its wooded 
 hill-side, was wrapped in a mantle of perpetual and 
 impenetrable mist. For whole days it was impos- 
 sible to leave the house, the streets of Xarandilla be- 
 ing canals of muddy water, through which Luis 
 Quixada waded from his lodging to his daily duties, 
 in fisherman's boots made of felt and cowhide. 
 
 * P. de Rojas: Discursos Genealogicos, 4to, Toledo, 1636, p. 111.
 
 38 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 Meanwhile the emperor, wrapped in a robe of eider- 
 down made from the princess's cushions, sat by the 
 fireside, in good health and spirits, attended by the 
 secretary Gaztelu, who read to him the despatches 
 which arrived almost daily from Valladolid, and 
 wrote replies from his dictation. The course of 
 events in Flanders was watched by Charles with es- 
 pecial interest ; he was always eager for intelligence, 
 and Gaztelu never finished reading a letter without 
 being asked if there was no more. 
 
 By a remarkable coincidence, the year which saw 
 the emperor descend from his throne, at the age of 
 fifty-six, to prepare for his tomb, likewise saw a new- 
 ly elected pope plunging, at the age of eighty, into 
 the vortex of political strife, with all the reckless ardor 
 of a boy. The two men seemed to have changed 
 characters as well as places. Charles, the most am- 
 bitious of princes, was about to turn monk ; Caraffa, 
 the most studious and ascetic of monks, bursting from 
 that chrysalis state, shone forth as the most splendid 
 and restless sovereign in Europe. No Gregory or 
 Alexander ever played the old pontifical game of 
 usurpation and nepotism with more arrogance and 
 audacity than Paul the Fourth. Since Clement stole 
 from his sacked city and beleaguered castle in the 
 cuirass and jack-boots of a trooper, the popes had 
 taken care to exert only in the gentlest manner their 
 paternal authority over the house of Hapsburg. But 
 Paul, as if his studies had never been disturbed by 
 the trumpets of Bourbon, flung experience and pru- 
 dence to the winds. Hating Spain with the hatred 
 of an hereditary bondsman, the old volcanic Neapoli- 
 tan poured forth against her torrents of the foulest
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 39 
 
 abuse, and, sitting in the pastoral chair of St. Peter, 
 he denounced the Spanish portion of his Christian 
 flock as " heretics, schismatics, accursed of God, the 
 spawn of Jews and Moors, the orTscouring of the 
 earth." ' War seemed to offer a prospect, not only of 
 gratifying his hatred with sharper weapons than 
 words, but of providing his nephews with duchies, 
 which were seldom to be obtained in times of peace. 
 He therefore lured France across the Alps, holding 
 out such hopes of the crown of Naples as no French 
 king has ever been able to realize or resist. Henry 
 the Second, only a few months before, had concluded 
 a truce for five years with the king of Spain. But at 
 the call of the minister of truth and peace, whose he- 
 reditary device happened to bear the canting motto, 
 Cara Fe, he was ready to commit any profitable per- 
 fidy and undertake any promising war. The admiral 
 Coligny was therefore sent to carry fire and sword 
 into Flanders; and the gallant duke of Guise, the 
 ablest general in France, led twenty thousand of her 
 best troops into Italy. 
 
 Philip the Second, too faithless himself to be sur- 
 prised at the bad faith of his royal brother, took vig- 
 orous measures to frustrate his endeavors. He gave 
 the military command of the Netherlands to duke 
 Emanuel Philibert of Savoy ; he intrusted the duke ' 
 of Alba with the defence of Naples ; and he himself 
 
 * " Heretici, scismatici, et maladetti de Dio, seme de' Giudei et de 1 
 Marrani. feccia del mondo." Cited by Federigo Badovaro in his Rela- 
 tione, 1557, made to his government as ambassador from Venice to the 
 king of Spain, of which an account is given in an interesting paper by 
 Marchal in the Bulletins de FAcadtmie Roycdc des Sciences et Belles Lettres 
 de Bruxelles, Tom. XII. 1" partie, 1845, p. 63.
 
 40 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 passed into England, and secured the cooperation of 
 the love-sick Mary, in the teeth of her distrustful and 
 Spain-hating ministers and people. 
 
 After a lapse of three centuries, Emanuel Philibert 
 still ranks as the most able and honest prince of that 
 royal line of Savoy, in which, although ability has 
 seldom been wanting, geography seems to have ren- 
 dered honesty almost impossible.* His father, duke 
 Charles, in the long wars between Francis the First 
 and Charles the Fifth, had been nearly stripped of his 
 territory. Part was conquered by his nephew and 
 enemy, the king; and part was held, for security's 
 sake, in the strong grasp of his brother-in-law and 
 friend, the emperor. When his life and injuries were 
 ended, Emanuel Philibert found a few remote valleys 
 of highland Piedmont the sole dominion of the house 
 which claimed the crowns of Cyprus and Jerusalem. 
 Happily the young Ironhead, as he was called, had 
 early foreseen that the career of a soldier of fortune 
 was the one path by whrch he could hope to regain 
 his position among the princes of Europe. He there- 
 fore gave himself, heart and soul, to the profession of 
 arms, and, having served with distinction under his 
 imperial uncle in Germany and Flanders, he was al- 
 ready, though still under thirty, reckoned one of the 
 best captains in the service of Spain.f 
 
 Ferdinand duke of Alba became, in his old age, the 
 last of the great soldiers of Castille. His grandfather, 
 the first duke, under the Catholic king, had led the 
 Christian chivalry to the leaguer of Granada; his 
 
 * "La Geographic Ics empeche d'etre honndtes gens." Prince de 
 Ligne : Melanges, 5 torn. 8vo, Paris, 1829, V. p. 29. 
 
 t Histoire d' Emanuel Philibert, 12mo, Amsterdam, 1693, p. 5.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 41 
 
 father had left his bones among the Moors in the Af- 
 rican isle of Zerbi ; and he himself had fought by the 
 side of the emperor on the banks of the Danube, be- 
 neath the walls of Tunis, in Provence and Dauphiny, 
 and in the Protestant electorates. He had held inde- 
 
 \ 
 
 pendent commands of importance in Catalonia and 
 Navarre, and he had commanded in chief in the cam- 
 paign which closed with the victory at Muhlberg and 
 the capture of the duke of Saxony. These triumphs 
 had been clouded by his repulse from Metz, and his 
 late reverses in the Milanese ; but the stern discipli- 
 narian was still hardly past the prime of life, and in 
 full favor with his sovereign ; and he joined the army 
 of Naples, resolved to win back on the Roman Carn- 
 pagna the laurels which he had lost on the plains of 
 the Po.* 
 
 Besides the momentous affairs of Italy and the 
 Netherlands, several minor matters claimed and ob- 
 tained the emperor's attention. Foremost among 
 them stood the negotiations with the court of Portu- 
 
 * J. V. Eustant : Historia dd Duque de Alva, 2 torn., 4to, Madrid, 1751 ; 
 a book which seems to be little more than a translation of the rare Latin 
 life by Osorio. This famous leader is held very cheap by Badovaro in 
 his Relatione, already quoted at p. 39. He accuses him, not only of ig- 
 norance of military affairs, but of cowardice, and asserts that his appoint- 
 ment to the chief command in Germany astonished the whole army, and 
 was a mere job to please the Spaniards, which the emperor consented to, 
 because he had made up his mind to do the whole work himself. As 
 regards Charles, this statement is so improbable, that it may well be 
 supposed to rest on the authority of some of the numerous enemies of 
 Alba, who hated him for his haughty manners and severe discipline. It 
 is certain that he had every opportunity of learning his profession in all 
 the imperial wars, that the emperor himself employed him at Metz, and 
 that in his old age he was so far superior to any other general in the 
 Spanish service, that Philip the Second intrusted him, though in dis- 
 grace at the time, with the conquest of Portugal. 
 4*
 
 42 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 gal, touching the infanta Mary. Queen Eleanor, the 
 mother of this princess, had not seen her since the 
 time when she herself had been recalled, in her first 
 widowhood, to Castille by the emperor, and had left 
 her baby under the care of her half-brother, John the 
 Third. She parted with her sadly against her will, 
 and only because the usages of Portugal and the 
 clamors of the city of Lisbon did not permit an in- 
 fanta to leave the kingdom. It had since been the 
 main object of the fond mother's heart to negotiate 
 for her daughter such a marriage as should set her free 
 from this thraldom, and once more reunite them. She 
 had first affianced her to the Dauphin, who did not 
 live to fulfil his engagement; and she afterwards 
 vainly endeavored to match her with Maximilian, king 
 of Bohemia, and Philip of Castille.* In following her 
 brother and sister to Spain, Eleanor was much influ- 
 enced by the hope of inducing her daughter to come 
 and reside with her in that country. Philip the Second 
 also seemed desirous of making some amends for his 
 ungenerous treatment of the infanta, by marrying her 
 to their mutual cousin, the archduke Charles of Austria. 
 John the Third of Portugal, her guardian, was like- 
 wise solicitous to provide her with a husband, and had 
 offered her hand, not only to the archduke, but also to 
 the emperor Ferdinand his father, and to the duke of 
 Savoy, without success, f Dispirited by these morti- 
 fications, Mary herself turned her thoughts to the nat- 
 ural refuge of a love-lorn damsel of thirty-six, the 
 cloister ; and the falseness of Philip had filled her 
 
 * Damiam de Goes : Cftronica do liei Dom Emanuel, 4 tom.,fol., Lisbon, 
 1566-7, IV. p. 84. 
 
 I Meneses : Chronica de D Selastiao, p. 69.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 4o 
 
 heart with bitterness towards Spain and her Spanish 
 relations, and with distrust of any proposal which 
 came from beyond the Guadiana. She even demurred 
 about complying with the desire of her mother, that 
 they should meet on the frontier of the two kingdoms ; 
 and the king of Portugal sustained her objections, on 
 the ground that he did not wish her to be inveigled 
 into taking the veil in a Spanish nunnery. The em- 
 peror had already declined his son's invitation to in- 
 terfere, but he now found it impossible to resist the 
 entreaties of his sisters and the princess-regent. He 
 therefore allowed the Portuguese ambassador, Don 
 Sancho de Cordova, to come to Xarandilla on the 
 29th of November, and gave him several audiences 
 during his two days' stay. 
 
 King Anthony of Navarre, as he was called in 
 France, in right of his wife, or the duke of Vendome, 
 as he was styled in Spain, had also contrived to gain 
 the emperor's attention to his proposals.* His emis- 
 sary, M. Kzcurra, therefore presented himself at Xa- 
 randilla, on the 3d of December, and was dismissed 
 with a letter, written in cipher, to the secretary Vaz- 
 quez. 
 
 On the 8th of December there arrived a Jew of Bar- 
 bary, bringing with him papers to prove that the king 
 of France was negotiating a secret treaty at Fez, by 
 which it was rendered probable that Moorish rovers 
 would soon revenge on the coasts of Spain the rav- 
 ages committed by the Spanish troops on the frontiers 
 of Picardy. The informer was sent on to Valladolid, 
 on the 9th, with a letter to the secretary of state. 
 
 * Chap. I. p. 24.
 
 44 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 The progress of the works at Yuste, and the prepa- 
 rations for removal thither, were subjects of every-day 
 discussion. The new buildings had been commenced 
 more than three years before, the first money being 
 paid for the purpose on the 30th of July, 1553. Gas- 
 par de Vega, one of the best of the royal architects, 
 gave the plans, working, however, it is said, from a 
 sketch drawn by the emperor's own hand. Yuste was 
 visited on the 24th of May, 1554, by Philip, at the de- 
 sire of his father, as he was on his road to England. 
 He assisted at the procession of Corpus Christi, in- 
 spected the works with great minuteness, and slept a 
 night in the convent. The control of the cash and 
 the general superintendence of the building were in- 
 trusted to Fray Juan de Ortega, general of the Jero- 
 mites, and Fray Melchor de Pie de Concha. Ortega 
 was a man of ability and learning, who enjoyed for a 
 time the reputation of having written Lazarillo de 
 Tormes, the charming parent of those picaresque sto- 
 ries in which modern fiction had its birth* Certain 
 reforms which he attempted to introduce into the rule 
 of his order met with so much opposition and odium, 
 that he was deposed from the generalship, when his 
 successor, Tofino, thought fit to remove him and his 
 assistant, Concha, from their functions at Yuste. The 
 emperor, however, was highly indignant at this inter- 
 ference, and immediately replaced them in their du- 
 ties, which they continued to discharge at the time of 
 his arrival at Xarandilla. 
 
 The greatest secrecy had been enjoined as to the 
 purpose of these architectural operations, and Charles 
 had evinced much displeasure on learning that his in- 
 tention of retiring to the monastery had been spoken
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 45 
 
 of in the country, owing to the indiscreet tattling of 
 the friars. Ortega, as well as the general Tofiiio, had 
 been summoned to meet him at Valladolid, and now 
 at Xarandilla they and the prior of Yuste had long 
 and frequent audiences. On the 22d of November, in 
 spite of the rain and fog, the emperor got into his lit- 
 ter, and went over to the convent, to inspect the state 
 of the works for himself. It being the feast of St. 
 Catherine, it was his first care to perform his devo- 
 tions in the church. Notwithstanding the gloom of 
 the weather and the wintry forest, he declared himself 
 satisfied with what he saw, and ordered forty beds to 
 be prepared, twenty for masters and twenty for ser- 
 vants, as speedily as possible. His intention was to 
 remain at Xarandilla until the arrival of certain books 
 and papers, which it was necessary to consult before 
 settling with the domestics whom he was about to 
 discharge ; but he hoped to remove to the convent in 
 the middle of December. 
 
 Meanwhile, the household, especially the Flemish 
 and more numerous portion of it, was in a state of 
 discontent, bordering on mutiny. The chosen para- 
 dise of the master was regarded as a sort of hell upon 
 earth by the servants. The mayordomo and the sec- 
 retary poured, by every post, their griefs into the ear 
 of the secretary of state. The count of Oropesa, wrote 
 Luis Quixada. had been driven away from Xaran- 
 dilla by the damp, and Yuste was well known to be 
 far damper than Xarandilla. His majesty had been 
 pleased to approve of the abode prepared for him, but 
 he himself had likewise been there, and knew that it 
 was full of defects and discomfort. The rooms were 
 too small, the windows too large ; the window which
 
 46 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 opened from the emperor's bed-room into the church 
 would not command the elevation of the host at the 
 high altar; and if service were performed at one of 
 the side altars, where the officiating monk could be 
 seen by his majesty in bed, his majesty in bed would 
 be seen by the monk. In spite of the glass and the 
 shutters, he feared that the emperor would be dis- 
 turbed during the night when the hours were chanted. 
 The apartments on the ground floor were in utter 
 darkness, and reeking with moisture ; the garden was 
 paltry, the orange-trees few, and the boasted prospect, 
 what was it, but a hill and some oak-trees ? Never- 
 theless, he hoped the place might prove better than it 
 promised ; and he entreated the secretary not to show 
 his letter to her highness, nor to tell her of the dispar- 
 aging tone in which he had written about Yuste. 
 
 Gaztelu was equally desponding. Some of the 
 friars were to be drafted off into other convents, to 
 make room for the new-comers ; and none being 
 willing to forego the chances of imperial favor, fierce 
 dissensions had arisen on this point, and had even 
 reached the emperor's ears. It seemed as if his maj- 
 esty must adjust these quarrels himself, or seek an- 
 other retreat, which would be much against his incli- 
 nation ; but, indeed, what good could be expected to 
 come of wishing to live among friars ? Their quarter- 
 master, Ruggier, in reporting progress, had ventured 
 to complain of the want of servants' accommodation. 
 At this the emperor was very angry, and, telling him 
 that he wanted his service and not his advice, said he 
 must find means of lodging twenty-one of the people 
 at Yuste, and the rest at Quacos, " a place," added 
 Gaztelu, piteously, "worse than Xarandilla." Still
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 47 
 
 more was the emperor exasperated at a letter which 
 he received from the queen of Hungary, entreating 
 him to think twice before he settled in a spot " so un- 
 healthy as Yuste " ; and he expressed great wrath 
 against those who had given her such information, 
 and whom he suspected to be Monsieur Lachaulx and 
 the doctor Cornelio, who had lately come from court. 
 Poor Lachaulx might well be excused if he had given 
 an unfavorable report of the climate, for he continued 
 to burn and shiver with violent ague fits, and the doc- 
 tor found a good many patients in the ranks of the 
 household. In spite, however, of these various dis- 
 tresses, the Flemings, according to the testimony of 
 the Castillians, looked fair and fat, and fed voracious- 
 ly on the " hams and other bucolic meats " of Estre- 
 madura, a province still unrivalled in its swine and 
 its savory preparations of pork. 
 
 In this matter of eating, as in many other habits, 
 the emperor was himself a true Fleming. His early 
 tendency to gout was increased by his indulgences at 
 table, which generally far exceeded his feeble powers 
 of digestion. Roger Ascham, standing " hard by the 
 imperial table at the feast of Golden Fleece," watched 
 with wonder the emperor's progress through " sod 
 beef, roast mutton, baked hare," after which "he fed 
 well of a capon," drinking also, says the fellow of St. 
 John's, " the best that ever I saw ; he had his head in 
 the glass five times as long as any of them, and never 
 drank less than a good quart at once of Rhenish 
 wine." * Even in his worst days of gout and dyspep- 
 sia, before setting out from Flanders, the fulness and 
 
 * Works of Roger Ascham, 4to, London, 1761, p. 375.
 
 48 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 frequency of the meals which occurred between his 
 spiced milk in the morning and his heavy supper at 
 night, so amazed an envoy of Venice,* that he thought 
 them worthy of especial notice in his despatch to the 
 senate. The emperor's palate, he remarked, was, like 
 his stomach, quite worn out; he was ever complain- 
 ing of the sameness and insipidity of the meats 
 served at his table ; and the chief cook, Monfalco- 
 netto, at last protested, in despair, that he knew not 
 how to please his master, unless he were to gratify his 
 taste for culinary novelty and chronometrical mechan- 
 ism by sending him a pasty of watches. 
 
 Eating was now the only physical gratification 
 which he could still enjoy, or was unable to resist. He 
 continued, therefore, to dine to the last upon the rich 
 dishes, against which his ancient and trusty confes- 
 sor, cardinal Loaysa, had protested a quarter of a cen- 
 tury before. f The supply of his table was a main 
 subject of the correspondence between the mayor- 
 domo and the secretary of state. The weekly courier 
 from Valladolid to Lisbon was ordered to change his 
 route that he might bring, every Thursday, a pro- 
 vision of eels and other rich fish (pescado grueso) for 
 Friday's fast. There was a constant demand^ for 
 anchovies, tunny, and other potted fish, and some- 
 times a complaint that the trouts of the country were 
 too small ; the olives, on the other hand, were too 
 large, and the emperor wished, instead, for olives of 
 Perejon. One day, the secretary of state was asked 
 
 * Badovaro. See p 39. 
 
 t Cartas al Emp. Carlos V. escritas en los Arios de 1530 -32. Copiadas 
 de las Autografas en el Archive de Simancas. Par G. Heine. 8vo, Berlin, 
 1848, p. 69.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 49 
 
 for some partridges from Gama, a place from whence 
 the emperor remembered that the count of Osorno 
 once sent him, into Flanders, "some of the best par- 
 tridges in the world." * Another day, sausages were 
 wanted " of the kind which the queen Juana, now in 
 glory, used to pride herself in making, in the Flemish 
 fashion, at Tordesillas," and for the receipt for which 
 the secretary is referred to the marquis of Denia. 
 Both orders were punctually executed. The sau- 
 sages, although sent to a land supreme in that manu- 
 facture, gave great satisfaction. Of the partridges, 
 the emperor said that they used to be better, ordering, 
 however, the remainder to be pickled. 
 
 The emperor's weakness being generally known or 
 soon discovered, dainties of all kinds were sent to 
 him as presents. Mutton, pork, and game were the 
 provisions most easily obtained at Xarandilla ; but 
 they were dear. The bread was indifferent, and 
 nothing was good and abundant but chestnuts, the 
 staple food of the people. But in a very few days 
 the castle larder wanted for nothing. One day the 
 count of Oropesa sent an offering of game ; another 
 day a pair of fat calves arrived from the archbishop 
 of Zaragoza ; the archbishop of Toledo and the duch- 
 ess of Frias were constant and magnificent in their 
 gifts of venison, fruit, and preserves ; and supplies of 
 all kinds came at regular intervals from Seville and 
 from Portugal. 
 
 Luis Quixada, who knew the emperor's habits and 
 constitution well, beheld with dismay these long 
 
 * The count managed that they should reach Flanders in perfect con- 
 dition by " echandoles orin en la boca." The emperor considered that 
 this singular preservative would not be necessary in the present journey. 
 5
 
 50 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 trains of mules laden, as it were, with gout and bile. 
 He never acknowledged the receipt of the good things 
 from Valladolid without adding some dismal fore- 
 bodings of consequent mischief; and along with an 
 order he sometimes conveyed a hint that it would be 
 much better if no means were found of executing it. 
 If the emperor made a hearty meal without being the 
 worse for it, the mayordomo noted the fact with exul- 
 tation ; and he remarked with complacency his maj- 
 esty's fondness for plovers, which he considered harm- 
 less. But his office of purveyor was more commonly 
 exercised under protest; and he interposed between 
 his master and an eel-pie, as, in other days, he would 
 have thrown himself between the imperial person and 
 the point of a Moorish lance.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 51 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SERVANTS AND VISITORS. 
 
 IT was during the emperor's stay at Xarandilla, that 
 his household was joined by the friar of the order of 
 St. Jerome, whom he had chosen as his confessor. 
 To this important post Juan de Regla was perhaps 
 fairly entitled, by his professional distinction ; and he 
 was certainly one of those monks who knew how to 
 make ladders, to place and favor, of the ropes which 
 girt their ascetic loins. An Aragonese by birth, he 
 first saw the light in a peasant's hut on the moun- 
 tains of Jaca, in 1500, the same year in which the fu- 
 ture Csesar, who was destined to be his spiritual son, 
 was born, in the halls of the house of Burgundy, in 
 the good city of Ghent. At fourteen, he was sent to 
 Zaragoza, to make one of the motley crew of poor 
 scholars, so often the glory and the shame of the 
 Spanish church, and the delight of the picaresque lit- 
 erature. Obtaining as he could the rudiments of 
 what was then held to be learning, he lived on alms 
 and the charity-soup dispensed by the Jeromites of 
 Santa Engracia. During the vacations, by carrying 
 letters or messages, sometimes as far as Barcelona, 
 Valencia, or Madrid, he earned a little money, which 
 he spent in books. His diligent pursuit of knowledge 
 having attracted the notice of the fathers of Santa 
 Engracia, their favor obtained for him the post of do-
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 mestic tutor to two lads of family, who were about to 
 enter the university of Salamanca. In that congenial 
 abode he remained for thirteen years, in the last six 
 of which he was released from the duties of peda- 
 gogue, and free to pursue his private reading of theol- 
 ogy, canon law, and the Biblical tongues. With his 
 mind thus stored, he returned, in his thirty-sixth year, 
 to Zaragoza, and received the habit of St. Jerome in 
 the familiar cloisters of Santa Engracia. Ere long, 
 he had made himself the most popular confessor with- 
 in its walls, young and old flocking to his chair in 
 such crowds, that it seemed as if perpetual holy-week 
 were kept in the convent church. As a preacher, his 
 success was not so great ; and the critics considered 
 his discourses to be deficient in learning, of which, 
 nevertheless, he had enough to be chosen as one of 
 the theologians sent, in 1551, by Charles the Fifth to 
 represent the doctors of Aragon at the council of 
 Trent. At his return from this honorable, but fruit- 
 less mission, he became prior of the convent whose 
 broken meat he had once eaten ; and he would have 
 been elected to that office a second time, had not the 
 emperor summoned him to Xarandilla to commence 
 a higher career of ambition, and to enter political life 
 at the precise age at which Charles himself was retir- 
 ing from it. On being introduced into the imperial 
 presence, Regla chose to speak, in the mitre-shunning 
 cant of his cloth, of the great reluctance which he had 
 felt in accepting a post of such weighty responsibility. 
 " Never fear," said Charles, somewhat maliciously, as 
 if conscious that he was dealing with a hypocrite; 
 " before I left Flanders, five doctors were engaged for 
 a whole year in easing my conscience ; so you will 
 have nothing to answer for but what happens here."
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 53 
 
 It may be as well now to sketch the portraits of the 
 other members of the imperial household, who after- 
 wards formed the principal personages of the tiny 
 court of Yuste. Foremost in interest as in rank 
 stands the active mayordomo, who has already fig- 
 ured so frequently in this narrative, Luis Quixada, 
 or, to give him his full Castillian appellation, Luis 
 Mendez Quixada Manuel de Figueredo y Mendoza. 
 He was the second son of Gutierre Goncalez Quixa- 
 da, lord of Villagarcia, by Maria Manuel, lady of Villa- 
 mayor, and with his two brothers early embraced the 
 profession of arms. The elder brother became so dis- 
 tinguished as a leader of the famous infantry of Spain, 
 that it was sufficient praise to say of soldiers in that 
 service that they were as well appointed and as well 
 disciplined as those of Gutierre Quixada.* He was 
 slain before Tunis, in 1535, when the family estates 
 passed to the second brother, Luis. Commencing his 
 career as a page in the imperial household, Luis had 
 likewise served with distinction in the same cam- 
 paign as a captain of foot. His sagacity allayed the 
 discord which had arisen between the Spanish and 
 Italians about the post of honor before Goleta ;f and 
 he was wounded while leading his company to the 
 assault of its bastions. J At Tarvanna he was again 
 at the head of a storming party, when his younger 
 brother, Juan, fell at his side, slain by a ball from a 
 French arquebuse. His services soon raised him to 
 the grade of colonel, and he was also promoted, in the 
 imperial household, to the post of deputy mayordomo, 
 
 * Carlos de Loaysa, p. 66. 
 
 t Sandoval : Hist, de Carlos V., Lib. XXII. c. 17. t Ibid., c. 27. 
 
 J. G. Scpulveda : De Rebus gestis Caroli V., Lib. XXVIII. c. 27.
 
 54 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 under the duke of Alba, and in that capacity con- 
 stantly attended the person and obtained the entire 
 confidence of the emperor. In 1549, he married Dona 
 Magdalena de Ulloa, a lady of blood as blue and na- 
 ture as gentle as any in Castille.* The marriage took 
 place at Valladolid, the bridegroom appearing by 
 proxy, but he soon after obtained leave of absence 
 from Bruxelles, and joined his bride in Spain. They 
 retired for a while to his patrimonial mansion at Villa- 
 garcia, a small town lying six leagues from Vallado- 
 lid, beyond the heath of San Pedro de la Espina, in 
 the vale of the Sequillo. 
 
 To Quixada's care the emperor afterwards confided 
 his illegitimate son, in later years so famous as Don 
 John of Austria. The boy was sent to Spain in 1550, 
 in his fourth year, under the name of Geronimo, in 
 the charge of one Massi, a favorite musician of the 
 emperor, who was told that he was the son of Adrian 
 de Bues, one of the gentlemen of the imperial cham- 
 ber.! At this man's death he remained for some time 
 
 * Juan de Villafafie : Vida de Dona Magdalena de Ulloa, 4to, Sala- 
 manca, 1723, p. 43. 
 
 t With the emperor's will was deposited in the royal archives a packet 
 of four papers, which appears to have been at first in the custody of 
 Philip II., being inscribed in his handwriting, " If I die before his maj- 
 esty, to be returned to him ; if after him, to be given to my son ; or, 
 failing him, my next heir." In the first of these papers, the contents 
 of which will be noticed more particularly in another place, the emperor 
 acknowledged Geronimo to be his son, begotten, during his widowhood, 
 of an unmarried woman in Germany, and referred his heir for further 
 information concerning him to Adrian de Bues ; or, in case of his death, 
 to Oger Bodoarte, porter of the imperial chamber. Inside this document 
 was the receipt granted by Massi, his wife Ana de Medina, and their sou 
 Diego, for the son of Adrian de Bues, and a sum of one hundred crowns 
 to defray his travelling expenses to Spain, and one year's board and
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 55 
 
 with his widow at Leganes, near Madrid, learning his 
 letters from the curate and sacristan, running wild 
 among the village children, or with his crossbow 
 ranging the corn-clad plains in pursuit of sparrows. 
 It was not until 1554 that he was transferred to the 
 more fitting guardianship of the lady of Villagarcia ; 
 the imperial usher who brought him, bringing her also 
 a letter from Quixada, commending the young stran- 
 ger to her care as " the son of a great man, his dear 
 friend." Magdalena, who had no children of her own, 
 took the pretty sun-burnt boy at once to her heart, 
 and watched over him with the tenderest solicitude ; 
 supposing, for some time, that he was the offspring of 
 some early attachment of her lord. A fire breaking 
 out in the house at midnight, Quixada, by rushing to 
 the rescue of his ward before he attended to the safety 
 of his wife, led her afterwards to suspect the truth.* 
 But as long as the emperor lived, the mayordomo 
 never suffered her to penetrate the mystery. Amongst 
 the neighbors Don John passed for a favorite page. 
 The parental care of his guardians, whom he called, 
 according to a usual mode of Castillian endearment, 
 his uncle and aunt, he returned with the affection of 
 a son. Dona Magdalena used to make him the dis- 
 penser of the alms of bread and money, which were 
 given at her gate on stated days to the poor ; and her 
 
 lodging, calculated from the 1st of August, 1550, and binding themselves 
 to accept fifty ducats for his annual keep in future, and to preserve the 
 strictest secrecy as to his parentage. This curious receipt is dated 
 Bruxelles, 13 June, 1550, and is signed by the parties. Oger Bodoarte 
 signing for the woman, at her husband's request, she being unable to 
 write. The documents are printed at full length in the Papiers de 
 Granvelle, IV. 496. 
 * Villafafie : Vida de M de Ulloa. p. 43.
 
 56 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 efforts to imbue him with devotion towards the Bles- 
 sed Virgin are supposed by his historians to have 
 borne good fruit, in the banners, embroidered with 
 Our Lady's image, which floated from every galley 
 in his fleet at Lepanto. In the early part of his edu- 
 cation, Quixada had but little share, being generally 
 absent in attendance on the emperor. During his 
 brief visits to his estate, he lived the usual life of a 
 country hidalgo, amusing himself with the chase and 
 law, and carrying on a tedious plea with his tenants 
 about manorial rights, in which he was ultimately de- 
 feated. He was, nevertheless, much attached to his 
 paternal fields on the naked plains of Old Castilie, 
 and although he may have been contented to exchange 
 them for the active life of the camp or the court, it 
 was not without many a pang that he prepared for 
 his banishment to the wilds of Estremadura. Uncon- 
 sciously portrayed in his own graphic letters, the best 
 of the Yuste correspondence, he stands forth the type 
 of the cavalier, and " old rusty Christian," * of Cas- 
 tilie, spare and sinewy of frame, and somewhat for- 
 mal and severe in the cut of his beard and the fashion 
 of his manners ; in character reserved and punctilious, 
 but true as steel to the cause espoused or the duty 
 undertaken ; keen and clear in his insight into men 
 and things around him, yet devoutly believing his 
 master the greatest prince that ever had been or was 
 to be ; proud of himself, his family, and his services, 
 and inclined, in a grave, decorous way, to exaggerate 
 their importance; a true son of the church, with an 
 
 * " Cristiano vicjo rancioso," Don Quixote, Part I. cap. xxvii., so 
 translated by Sbclton.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 57 
 
 instinctive distrust of its ministers ; a hater of Jews, 
 Turks, heretics, friars, and Flemings ; somewhat tes- 
 ty, somewhat obstinate, full of strong sense and strong 
 prejudice ; a warm-hearted, energetic, and honest 
 man. 
 
 Martin Gaztelu, the secretary, comes next to the 
 mayordomo in order of precedence, and in the im- 
 portance of his functions. His place was one of great 
 trust. The whole correspondence of the emperor 
 passed through his hands. Even-the most private and 
 confidential communications addressed to the princess- 
 regent by her father, were generally written at his dic- 
 tation by Gaztelu ; for the imperial fingers were sel- 
 dom sufficiently free from gout to be able to do more 
 than add a brief postscript, in which Dona Juana was 
 assured of the affection of her buen padre Carlos. The 
 secretary had probably spent his life in the service of 
 the emperor ; but I have been unable to learn more of 
 his history than his letters have preserved. His epis- 
 tolary style was clear, simple, and business-like, but 
 inferior to that of Quixada in humor, and in careless, 
 graphic touch, and more sparing in glimpses of the 
 rural life of Estremadura three hundred years ago. 
 
 William Van Male, or, as the Spaniards called him, 
 Malines, or in that Latin form in which his name still 
 lingers in the by-ways of literature, Malineus, was 
 the scholar and man of letters of the society. Born at 
 Bruges, of a noble but decayed family, and with a 
 learned education for his sole patrimony, he went to 
 seek his fortune in Spain, and the service of the duke 
 of Alba, an iron soldier, who cherished the arts of 
 peace with a discerning love very rare in his profession 
 and his country. He afterwards turned his thoughts
 
 58 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 towards the church, but not obtaining any preferment 
 he did not receive the tonsure. About 1548, Don Luis 
 de Avila, grand-commander of Alcantara, and a sol- 
 dier, historian, and court favorite of great eminence, 
 engaged him to put into Latin his commentaries on 
 the wars in Germany, holding out hopes of placing 
 him, in return, in the imperial household. Van Male 
 executed his task with much elegance,* but Avila 
 failed to fulfil the hopes he had excited, although the 
 modest ambition of his translator did not soar beyond 
 the post of historiographer, and two hundred florins 
 a year. Another and a better friend, however, the 
 Seigneur de Praet, obtained for Van Male, in 1550, 
 the place of barbero, or gentleman of the imperial 
 chamber of the second class. 
 
 His learning, intelligence, industry, cheerful dispo- 
 sition, and simple nature, made him a great favorite 
 with the emperor, who soon could scarcely dispense 
 with his attendance by day or night. With a strong 
 natural taste for arts and letters, Charles often during 
 his busy life regretted that his imperfect early educa- 
 tion debarred him from many literary pursuits and 
 pleasures. In Van Male he had found a humble in- 
 strument, ever ready, able, and willing to supply his 
 deficiencies. Sailing up the Rhine, in 1550, he be- 
 guiled the tedium of the voyage by composing a 
 memoir of his campaigns and travels. The new 
 gentleman of the chamber was employed on his old 
 task of translation ; and he accordingly turned the 
 
 * Ludov. de Avila Commentariorum de Bello Germanico a Caroli Ccesare 
 gesto, Lib. IL, 8vo, Antverpiae, 1550. It was printed by Steels, who re- 
 printed it the same year ; and another edition was published in 12mo, at 
 Strasburg, in 1620.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 59 
 
 emperor's French, which he likewise pronounced to 
 be terse, elegant, and eloquent, into Latin, in which 
 he put forth his whole strength, and combined, as he 
 supposed, the styles of Livy, Csesar, Suetonius, and 
 Tacitus. 
 
 Another of the emperor's literary recreations was to 
 make a version, in Castillian prose, of the old and 
 popular French poem, called Le Chevalier Delibere, 
 an allegory composed some twenty years before, by 
 Oliver de la Marche, in honor of the ducal house of 
 Burgundy. Fernando de Acuna, a soldier-poet, and 
 at that time keeper of the captive elector, George Fred- 
 erick of Saxony, was then commanded to turn it into 
 rhyme, a task which he performed very happily, work- 
 ing up the emperor's prose into spirited and richly 
 idiomatic verse, retouching and refreshing the anti- 
 quated flattery of the last century, and stealing, here 
 and there, a chaplet from the old Burgundian monu- 
 ment to hang upon the shrine of Aragon and Castille. 
 The manuscript was finally given to Van Male, in 
 order to be passed through the press, the emperor tell- 
 ing him that he might have the profits of the publica- 
 tion for his pains, but forbidding that the book should 
 contain any allusion to his own share in its produc- 
 tion. Against this condition Van Male remonstrated, 
 knowing, no doubt, that the name of the imperial 
 translator would sell the book far more speedily and 
 certainly than any possible merit of the translation, 
 and alleging that such a condition was an injustice 
 both to the honorable vocation of letters and to the 
 world at large. The emperor, however, was inflexi- 
 ble, and the Spanish courtiers wickedly affected the 
 greatest envy at the good fortune of the Fleming.
 
 60 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 Luis de Avila, with special malice, in his quality of 
 author, assured the emperor that the book would yield 
 a profit of five hundred crowns, upon which Charles, 
 charmed at being generous at no cost at all, remarked, 
 " Well, it is right that William, who has had the 
 greatest part of the sweat, should reap the harvest." 
 Poor Van Male saw no prospect of reaping any thing 
 but chaft'; he timidly hinted at the risk of the under- 
 taking, and did his best to escape the threatened boon. 
 But hints were thrown away on the emperor ; he was 
 eager to see himself in type ; and he accordingly or- 
 dered Jean Steels to strike off, at Van Male's expense, 
 two thousand copies of a book which is now scarce, 
 perhaps because the greater part of the impression 
 passed at once from the publisher to the pastry-cook. 
 The pecuniary results have not been recorded, but 
 there is little doubt that the Fleming's fears were jus- 
 tified rather than the hopes of the malicious compan- 
 ions, whom he called, in his vexation, " those windy 
 Spaniards." 
 
 During the six harassed and sickly years which 
 preceded the emperor's abdication, Van Male was his 
 constant attendant, and usually slept in an adjoining 
 room, to be ever within call. Many a sleepless night- 
 Charles beguiled by hearing the poor scholar read the 
 Vulgate, and illustrate it by citations from Josephus 
 or other writers ; and sometimes they sang psalms to- 
 gether, a devotional exercise of which the emperor 
 was very fond. He had composed certain prayers for 
 his own use, which he now required Van Male to put 
 into Latin, and otherwise correct and arrange. The 
 work was so well executed that Charles several 
 times spoke, in the hearing of some of the other cour-
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 61 
 
 tiers, of the comfort he had found in praying in Van 
 Male's terse and elegant Latinity, instead of his own 
 rambling French. This praise from the master pro- 
 duced the usual envy among the servants ; the chap- 
 lains, especially, were indignant that a layman should 
 have thus poached upon their peculiar ground and be 
 praised for it, and they assailed him with all kinds of 
 coarse jests, and saluted him by a Greek name signi- 
 fying praying-master. They did not, however, under- 
 mine his credit; the emperor treated him with undi- 
 minished confidence ; he alone was present when the 
 doctors Vesalius and Barsdorpius were wrangling 
 over the symptoms and the diseases of his master's 
 shattered frame ; and, as he watched through the long 
 winter nights by the imperial couch, he was admitted 
 to a nearer view than any other man had ever at- 
 tained of the history and the workings of that ardent, 
 reserved, and commanding mind. " I was struck 
 dumb," he wrote to his friend De Praet, after one of 
 these mysterious confidences, " and I even now trem- 
 ble at the recollection of the things which he told 
 me." 
 
 The small collection of letters to De Praet* contain 
 nearly all that is known of the life of Van Male. 
 These letters were written for the most part in 1550, 
 1551, and 1552, sometimes by the emperor's bedside, 
 and often long after midnight, when his tossings had 
 subsided into slumber. Lively and agreeable as let- 
 
 * Lettres sur la Vie interieure de TEmpereur Charles Quint., ecrites par 
 Guillaume Van Male, publiees par le Baron de Reiffenberg, 8vo, 
 Bruxelles, 1843. M. Reiftenberg has fallen into an error in supposing 
 (p. xxiii ) that Van Male retired from the emperor's service at the time 
 of the abdication. 
 
 6
 
 62 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 ters, they are invaluable for the glimpses they afford 
 of the every-day life of Charles. In them we can look 
 at the hero of the sixteenth century with the eyes of 
 his valet. We can see him in his various moods, 
 now well and cheerful, now bilious and peevish ; ever 
 suffering from his fatal love of eating (edacitas dam- 
 nosa), yet never able to restrain it; rebelling against 
 the prudent rules of Baersdrop and the great Vesa- 
 lius, and appealing to one Caballo ( Caballus, by Van 
 Male called onagrus magnus], a Spanish quack, whose 
 dietary was whatever his patient liked to eat and 
 drink : calling for his iced beer before daybreak, and 
 then repenting at the warnings of Van Male and the 
 dysentery ; now listening to the book of Esdras, or 
 criticizing the wars of the Maccabees, anc^ now laugh- 
 ing heartily at a filthy saying of the Turkish envoy; 
 groaning in his bed, in a complication of pains and 
 disorders ; or mounting his favorite genet, matchless 
 in shape and blood, to review his artillery in the vale 
 of the Moselle. 
 
 In spite of his busy life, Van Male found time for 
 his beloved books, and De Praet being also a book- 
 collector, the letters addressed to him are full of noti- 
 ces of borrowings and lendings, buyings and exchang- 
 ings, of favorite authors, generally the classics. At 
 the memorable flight from Innspruck, when the em- 
 peror in his litter was smuggled by torchlight through 
 the passes into Carinthia, the library of Van Male 
 fell, with the rest of the imperial booty, into the hands 
 of the pikemen of duke Maurice. " Ah," says he, 
 "with how many tears and lamentations have I 
 wailed the funeral wail of my library ! " When the 
 emperor's great army lay before Metz, sanguine of
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 63 
 
 success and plunder, the afflicted scholar prepared for 
 his revenge, and engaged some Spanish veterans, 
 masters in the art of pillage, to assist him in securing 
 the cream of the literary spoil. " Non ultra metas" 
 however, was the new reading which the gallantry of 
 Guise enabled the wits of Metz to offer of the famous 
 " Plus ultra " of Austria ; and Van Male was balked 
 of the hours of delicious rapine to which he looked 
 forward amongst the cabinets of the curious. 
 
 But if he were willing on an occasion to make free 
 with other men's book-shelves, he was also willing that 
 other men should make free with the produce of his 
 own brains. The emperor having read Paolo Gio- 
 vio's account of his expedition to Tunis, was desirous 
 that certain errors should be corrected. Van Male 
 was therefore desired to undertake the task, and he 
 commenced it, so new was the art of reviewing, by 
 reading the work four times through. He then drew 
 up, with the assistance of hints from the emperor, a 
 long letter to the author, in a style soft and courtly as 
 the bishop's own, which was signed and sent by Luis 
 de Avila, who, having served in the war, was judged 
 more eligible as the ostensible critic. 
 
 Under the pressure of duties at the desk and in the 
 dressing-room, the health of Van Male gave way, and 
 he was sometimes little less a valetudinarian than the 
 great man to whom he administered Maccabees, phy- 
 sic, or iced beer. He had seized the opportunity of a 
 short absence on sick leave to crown a long attach- 
 ment by marriage ; and some time before his master's 
 abdication, he had applied for a place in the treasury 
 of the Netherlands, under his friend De Praet. The 
 emperor, on hearing of his entrance into the wedded
 
 64 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 state, expressed the warmest approbation of the step, 
 and interest in his welfare. " You will hardly believe," 
 wrote the simple-minded good man, " with what ap- 
 proval Caesar received my communication, and how, 
 when we were alone, not once, but several times, he 
 laid me down rules for my future guidance, exhorting 
 me to frugality, parsimony, and other virtues of do- 
 mestic life." His majesty, however, gave him nothing 
 but good advice, unwilling, perhaps, to diminish the 
 value of his precepts by lessening the necessity of 
 practising them. Getting no place, therefore, Van 
 Male was forced, with his dear Hippolyta and her 
 babes, to encounter the Bay of Biscay, and the moun- 
 tain roads of Spain. 
 
 The emperor, indeed, could not do without him. 
 Peevish with gout, and wearied by the delays at 
 Yuste, and the discontent among his people, he one 
 day scolded him so harshly for being out of the way 
 when he called, that Van Male tendered his resigna- 
 tion, which was accepted. But ere a week had 
 elapsed, both parties had cooled down ; and the Span- 
 ish secretary remarked that William had not only 
 been forgiven, but was as much in favor as before. 
 His temper must have been excellent, for he contrived 
 to be a favorite with his master without being the de- 
 testation of his Castillian fellow-servants. 
 
 The doctor of the court was a young Fleming, 
 named Henry Mathys, or, in the Spanish form, Ma- 
 thisio. He had not held the appointment long, and 
 there being much sickness at Xarandilla, it was 
 thought advisable to summon to his aid Dr. Giovanni 
 Antonio Mole, from Milan. Cornelio, a Spaniard, 
 who had long been physician to the emperor, and
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 65 
 
 who was now in attendance on the princess-regent, 
 was also sent for to Valladolid. They remained, 
 however, only a few weeks in attendance, and Ma- 
 thys was again left in sole charge of the health of the 
 emperor and his people. He appears to have dis- 
 charged his functions creditably ; and with the pen, 
 at least, he was indefatigable, for every variation in 
 the imperial symptoms, and every pill and potion 
 with which he endeavored to neutralize the slow poi- 
 sons daily served up by the cook, he duly chronicled 
 in Latin despatches, usually addressed to the king, 
 and written with singular dulness and prolixity. 
 
 Giovanni, or, as he was familiarly called, Juanelo 
 Torriano, was a native of Cremona, who had attained 
 considerable fame as a mechanician, and in that ca- 
 pacity had been introduced into the emperor's service 
 many years before, by the celebrated Alonso de Ava- 
 los, Marques del Vasto. Charles brought him to Es- 
 tremadura to take care of his clocks and watches, and 
 to construct these and other pieces of mechanism for 
 the amusement of his leisure hours. 
 
 Besides the envoys and other official people whom 
 state affairs called to Xarandilla, there were several 
 ancient servants of the emperor who came thither to 
 tender the homage of their loyalty. One of these de- 
 serves especial notice for the place he holds in the 
 history, not only of Spain, but of the religious strug- 
 gles of the sixteenth century, Francisco Borja, who, 
 a few years before, had exchanged his dukedom of 
 Gandia for the robe of the order of Jesus. In his bril- 
 liant youth, this remarkable man had been the star and 
 pride of the nobility of Spain. He was the heir of a 
 great and wealthy house, a branch of the royal line of 
 
 6
 
 66 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 Aragon, which had already given two pontiffs to 
 Rome, and to history several personages remarkable 
 for the brightness of their virtues and the blackness 
 of their crimes. " The universe," cried a poet, some 
 ages later, in a frenzy of panegyric,* "is full of Borja ; 
 there are Borjas famous by sea, Borjas great by land, 
 Borjas enthroned in heaven " ; and he might have 
 added, that there was no room to doubt that in the 
 lower regions also the house of Borja was fairly rep- 
 resented. Francisco was distinguished no less by the 
 favor of the emperor than by the splendor of his birth, 
 the grace of his person, and the endowments of his 
 mind. Born to be a courtier and a soldier, he was 
 was also an accomplished scholar and no inconsider- 
 able statesman. He broke horses and trained hawks 
 as well as the most expert master of the manage and 
 the mews; he composed masses which long kept their 
 place in the choirs of Spain; he was well versed in 
 polite learning, and deeply read in the mathematics ; 
 he wrote Latin and Castillian, as his works still testi- 
 fy, with ease and grace ; he served in Africa and Italy 
 with distinction ; and as viceroy of Catalonia he dis- 
 played abilities for administration which in a few 
 years might have placed him high amongst the 
 Mendozas and De Lannoys. The pleasures and 
 honors of the world, however, seemed from the first 
 to have but slender attraction for the man so rarely 
 fitted to obtain them. In the midst of life and its tri- 
 umphs, his thoughts perpetually turned upon death 
 and its mysteries. Ever punctilious in the perform- 
 
 * Epitome de la Eloquencia Espanola, par D. Francisco Josef Artiga, 
 12mo, Huesca, 1692. See dedication to the duke of Gandia, by Fr. 
 Man Artiga, the author's son.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 67 
 
 ance of his religious duties, he early began to de- 
 light in spiritual contemplation and to discipline his 
 mind by self-imposed penance. Even in his favorite 
 sport of falconry he found occasion for self-punish- 
 ment, by resolutely fixing his eyes on the ground at 
 the moment when he knew that his best hawk was 
 about to stoop upon the heron. These tendencies 
 were confirmed by an accident which followed the 
 death of the empress Isabella. As her master of the 
 horse, it was Borja's duty to attend the body from 
 Toledo to the chapel-royal of Granada, and to make 
 oath to its identity ere it was laid in the grave. But 
 when the coffin was opened and the cerements drawn 
 aside, the progress of decay was found to have been 
 so rapid, that the mild and lovely face of Isabella 
 could no longer be recognized by the most trusted and 
 the most faithful of her servants. His conscience 
 would not allow him to swear that the mass of cor- 
 ruption thus disclosed was the remains of his royal 
 mistress, but only that, having watched day and 
 night beside it, he felt convinced that it could be no 
 other than the form which he had seen enshrouded at 
 Toledo. From that moment, in the twenty-ninth 
 year of his prosperous life, he resolved to spend what 
 remained to him of time in earnest preparation for 
 eternity. A few years later, the death of his beautiful 
 and excellent wife strengthened his purpose, by snap- 
 ping the dearest tie which bound him to the world. 
 Having erected a Jesuits' college at Gandia, their first 
 establishment of that kind in Europe, and having 
 married his eldest son and his two daughters, he put 
 his affairs in order, and retired into the young and 
 still struggling society of Ignatius Loyola. In the
 
 68 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 year 1548, the thirty-eighth of his age, he obtained 
 the emperor's leave to make his son fifth duke of 
 Gandia, and he himself became father Francis of the 
 company of Jesus. 
 
 He was admitted to the company, and received ec- 
 clesiastical tonsure at Rome, from whence, to escape 
 a cardinal's hat, he soon returned to Spain, and retired 
 to a severe course of theological study, in a hermitage 
 near Loyola, the Mecca of the Jesuits. Plenary in- 
 dulgence having been conceded by the Pope to all who 
 should hear his first mass, he performed that rite, and 
 preached his first sermon, in the presence of a vast 
 concourse in the open air, at Vergara. As provincial 
 of Aragon and Andalusia, he afterwards labored as a 
 preacher and teacher in many of the cities of Spain ; 
 he had procured and superintended the foundation of 
 colleges at Alcala and Seville ; and he was now en- 
 gaged in instituting and organizing another at Pla- 
 sencia. 
 
 In the world, Borja had been the favorite and trust- 
 ed friend of most of his royal cousins of Austria and 
 Avis. When he had joined the society of Jesus, the 
 infant Don Luis of Portugal for some time enter- 
 tained the design of assuming the same robe ; and 
 when the queen Juana lay dying at Tordesillas, it was 
 father Borja who was sent by the princess-regent to 
 administer the last consolations of religion, and who 
 began to acquire a reputation for miraculous powers, 
 because the crazy old woman gave some feeble sign 
 of returning reason, as she came face to face with 
 death. Charles himself seems to have regarded him 
 with affection as strong as his cold nature was capable 
 of feeling. It can have been with no ordinary interest
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 69 
 
 that he watched the career of the man whom alone he 
 had chosen to make the confidant of his intended ab- 
 dication, and who had unexpectedly forestalled him 
 in the execution of the scheme. They were now in 
 circumstances similar, yet different. Both had volun- 
 tarily descended from the eminence of their hereditary 
 fortunes. Broken in health and spirits, the emperor 
 was on his way to Yuste, to spend the evening of his 
 days in repose. The duke, on the other hand, in the 
 full vigor of his age, had entered the humblest of relig- 
 ious orders, to begin a new life of most strenuous toil. 
 In Spain, many a stout soldier died a monk; his own 
 ancestor, the infant Don Pedro of Aragon, had closed 
 a life of camps and councils, in telling his beads 
 amongst the Capuchins of Barcelona.* But it was 
 reserved for Borja to leave the high road of ambition, 
 in life's bright noon, for a thorny path, in which the 
 severest asceticism was united with the closest official 
 drudgery, and in which there was no rest but the 
 grave. 
 
 Having learned from the count of Oropesa that the 
 emperor had been frequently inquiring about him, 
 father Francis the Sinner, for so Borja called himself, 
 arrived at Xarandilla on the 17th of December. He 
 was attended by two brothers of the order, father Mar- 
 cos, and father Bartolome Bustamente. The latter, 
 an aged priest, who had been secretary to cardinal 
 Tavera, was known to fame as a scholar and as archi- 
 tect of the noble hospital of St. John Baptist, at To- 
 ledo, a structure on which the cardinal archbishop had 
 so lavished his wealth, that his enemies said it would 
 
 * urita, Anales de Aragon, An. 1358, Lib. IX. c. 18.
 
 70 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 certainly procure him and Bustamente warm places in 
 purgatory.* The ernperor received Borja with a cor- 
 diality which was more foreign to his nature than his 
 habits, but which, on this occasion, was probably sin- 
 cere. Both he and his Jesuit guest had withdrawn 
 from the pomps and vanities of life ; but custom being 
 stronger than reason or faith, their greeting was as 
 ceremonious as if it had been exchanged beneath the 
 canopy of state at Augsburg or Valladolid. Not only 
 did the priest, lapsing into the ways of the grandee, 
 kneel to kiss the hand of the prince, but he even in- 
 sisted on remaining upon his knees during the inter- 
 view. Charles, who addressed him as duke, finally 
 compelled him to assume a less humble attitude, only 
 by refusing to converse with him until he should have 
 taken a chair and put on his hat.f 
 
 * Salazar de Mendo?a : Chronica del Card. Juan de Tavera, 4to, To- 
 ledo, 1603, p. 310. 
 
 t In this portion of my narrative, I have followed Ribadeneira and 
 Nieremberg (Vidas de F. Borja. 4to, Madrid, 1592, p. 93 ; and fol., 
 Madrid, 1644, p. 134), who have, however, fallen into an error, which 
 the MS. of Gonzalez enables me to correct. Both say that Borja first 
 visited the retired emperor at Yuste, and Nieremberg asserts that he 
 came from Alcala de Henares ; whereas he came from Plasencia, and 
 paid his visit at Xarandilla. Gonzalez disbelieves their account of the 
 emperor's desire to seduce Borja from the company, and of what passed 
 at the interview, but assigns no reason for his disbelief. The conversa- 
 tion, as reported by Ribadeneira, appears very probable, and his report is 
 so circumstantial, that we may well suppose it to have been drawn up 
 either from Borja's own recital, or from notes found amongst his pa- 
 pers. In the letters of Quixada, in the Gonzalez MS., we are told that 
 Borja was admitted to long audiences of the emperor on the 17th, 21st, 
 and 22d of December, and we may conjecture that he likewise saw him 
 on the 18th, 19th, and 20th, days on which the mayordomo did not 
 happen to be writing to the secretary of state. Quixada throws no light 
 whatever on the subject of their conversations, and therefore no discredit 
 on Ribadeneira's statement.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 71 
 
 Borja had been warned, by the princess-regent, say 
 the Jesuits, that the emperor intended to urge him to 
 pass from the company to the order of St. Jerome. 
 He therefore anticipated his design, by asking leave 
 to give an account of his life since he had made re- 
 ligious profession, and of the reasons which had de- 
 cided his choice of a habit, " of which matters," said 
 he, " I will speak to your majesty as I would speak 
 to my Maker, who knows that all I am going to say 
 is true." Leave being granted, he told, at great length, 
 how, having resolved to enter a monastic order, he 
 had prayed and caused many masses to be said for 
 God's guidance in making his election ; how, at first, 
 he inclined to the rule of St. Francis, but found that, 
 whenever his thoughts went in that direction, he was 
 seized with an unaccountable melancholy ; how he 
 turned his eyes to the other orders, one after another, 
 and always with the same gloomy result ; how, on 
 the contrary, when, last of all, he thought of the com- 
 pany of Jesus, the Lord had filled his soul with peace 
 and joy ; how it frequently happened, in the great or- 
 ders, that monks arrived at higher honor in this life 
 than if they had remained in the world, a risk which 
 he desired by all means to avoid, and which hardly 
 existed in a recent and humble fraternity, still in that 
 furnace of trial through which the others had long ago 
 passed ; how the company, embracing in its scheme 
 an active as well as a contemplative life, provided for 
 the spiritual welfare of men of the most opposite char- 
 acters, and of each man in the various stages of his 
 intellectual being ; and lastly, how he had submitted 
 these reasons to several grave and holy fathers of the 
 other orders, and had received their approval and their
 
 72 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 blessing, ere he took the vows which had now for ten 
 years been the hope and the consolation of his life. 
 
 The emperor listened to this long narrative with at- 
 tention, and expressed his satisfaction at hearing his 
 friend's history from his own lips. " For," said he, 
 " I felt great surprise when I received at Augsburg 
 your letters from Rome, notifying the choice which 
 you had made of a religious brotherhood. And I still 
 think that a man of your weight ought to have en- 
 tered an order which had been approved by age, rather 
 than this new society, in which no white hairs are 
 found, and which besides, in some quarters, bears but 
 an indifferent reputation." To this Borja replied, that 
 in all institutions, even in Christianity itself, the purest 
 piety and the noblest zeal were to be looked for near 
 the source ; that had he known of any evil in the com- 
 pany, he would never have joined, or would already 
 have left it ; and that in respect of white hairs, though 
 it \v"as hard to expect that the children should be old 
 while the parent was still young, even these were not 
 wanting, as might be seen in his companion, the 
 father Bustamente. That ecclesiastic, who had be- 
 gun his novitiate at the ripe age of sixty, was accord- 
 ingly called into the presence. The emperor at once 
 recognized him as a priest who had been sent to his 
 court at Naples, soon after the campaign of Tunis, 
 charged with an important mission by cardinal Ta- 
 vera, primate and governor of Spain. 
 
 Three hours of discourse with these able, earnest, 
 and practised champions of Jesuitism had some effect 
 even upon a mind so slow to be convinced as that 
 of Charles. He hated innovation with the hatred of 
 a king, a devotee, and an old man ; and having fought
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 73 
 
 for forty years a losing battle with the terrible monk 
 of Saxony, he looked with suspicion even upon the 
 great orthodox movement led by the soldier of Gui- 
 puzcoa. The infant company, although, or perhaps 
 because, in favor of the Vatican, had gained no foot- 
 ing at the imperial court; and, as its lame grew, the 
 prelates around the throne, sons or friends of the an- 
 cient orders, were more likely to remind their master 
 how its general had once been admonished by the 
 holy office of Toledo, than to dwell on his piety and 
 eloquence, or the splendid success of his missions in 
 the East. In Bobadilla, one of the first followers of 
 Loyola, the emperor had seen something of the fiery 
 zeal of the new society ; he had admired him on the 
 field of Muhlberg, severely wounded, yet persisting in 
 carrying temporal and spiritual aid to the wounded 
 and dying; but on the publication of the unfortunate 
 Interim, meant to soothe^ but active only to inflame 
 the hate of Catholics and Reformers, he had been 
 compelled to banish this same good Samaritan from 
 the empire for his virulent attacks upon the new 
 decree.* This unexpected opposition strengthened 
 Charles's natural dislike to the company ; and he after- 
 wards rewarded with a colonial mitre the blustering 
 Dominican Cano, who announced from the pulpits of 
 Castille the strange tidings that the Jesuits were the 
 precursors of Antichrist foretold in the Apocalypse. 
 His new confessor, Fray Juan de Regla, with monkish 
 subserviency and rancor, espoused the same cause, 
 and openly spoke of the company as an apt instru- 
 
 t Nieremberg: Vldas de Jg. Loyola y otros Bijos de la Compania, fol., 
 Madrid, 1645, pp. 649, 650. 
 
 7
 
 74 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 ment of Satan or the great Turk.* Latterly, however, 
 the vehement old pope, having frowned on the order 
 as a thing of Spain and perdition, may perhaps have 
 prepared his imperial rival to view it with a more fa- 
 vorable eye. His prejudices, in fact, at last yielded 
 to the earnest and temperate reasonings of his ancient 
 servant and brother-in-arms ; and his feelings towards 
 the Jesuits leaned from that time to approval and 
 friendly regard. 
 
 The talk of the emperor and his guest sometimes 
 reverted to old days. " Do you remember," said 
 Charles, " how I told you, in 1542, at Monc.on, dur- 
 ing the holding of the Cortes of Aragon, of my inten- 
 tion of abdicating the throne ? I spoke of it to but 
 one person besides." The Jesuit replied that he had 
 kept the secret truly, but that now he hoped he might 
 mention the mark of confidence with which he had 
 been honored. " Yes," said. Charles ; " now that the 
 thing is done, you may say what you will." 
 
 .After a visit of five days at Xarandilla, Borja took 
 his leave and returned to Plasencia. The emperor 
 appears usually to give him audience alone, for no 
 part of their conversation was reported either by the 
 secretary or by the mayordomo. Nor is any notice 
 taken of Borja in their correspondence, beyond the 
 bare mention of his arrival and departure, and of the 
 emperor's remark, that " the duke was much changed 
 since he first knew him as marquis of Lombay." 
 
 Of the emperor's few intimate friends it happened 
 that one other, Don Luis de Avila y Zuniga, was now 
 his neighbor in Estremadura. This shrewd politician, 
 
 Nieretnberg : Vida de F. Borja, p. 1 73.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 75 
 
 lively writer, and crafty courtier, a very different per- 
 sonage from father Francis the Sinner, was no less 
 welcome at Xarandilla. He was one of the most 
 distinguished of that remarkable band of soldier-states- 
 men who shed a lustre round the throne of the Span- 
 ish emperor and maintained the honor of the Spanish 
 name for the greater part of the sixteenth century. 
 At the holy see, under Pius the Fourth and Paul the 
 Fourth, he had twice represented his master, and had 
 attempted to urge on the lagging deliberations of the 
 council of Trent; he had served with credit at Tunis; 
 and he commanded the imperial cavalry during the 
 campaigns of 1546 and 1547 in Germany, and at the 
 siege of Metz. These services obtained for him the 
 post of chamberlain, and the emperor's full confidence ; 
 and he was also made grand commander, or chief 
 member after the sovereign, of the order of Alcantara. 
 With these honors, and six skulls of the virgins of 
 Cologne, presented to him by the grateful elector, he 
 returned to Plasencia, to share the honors with the 
 wealthy heiress of Fadrique de Zuniga, marquis of 
 Mirabel, and to place the skulls in the rich Zuniga 
 chapel in the church of San Vicente.* He was now 
 living in laurelled and lettered ease in the fine palace 
 of the Mirabels, which is still one of the chief archi- 
 tectural ornaments of king Alonso's pleasant city. 
 
 By his commentaries, on the war of the emperor 
 with the Protestants of Germany, Avila earned a high 
 rank amongst the historians of his time. His Castil- 
 lian was pure and idiomatic ; and his style, for clear- 
 ness and rapidity, was compared by his admirers to 
 
 * A. F. Fernandez : Historia de Plasencia, fol., Madrid. 1627, p. 113.
 
 76 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 that of Csesar. Besides these literary merits, the book, 
 from the intimate relation existing between the author 
 and the chief actor in the story, was invested with 
 something of an official authority. It was accepted 
 as a record, not merely of what the green-cross knight 
 had seen, but of what the Catholic emperor wished to 
 be believed. At this time, therefore, it had already 
 passed through several editions,* and had been trans- 
 lated into Latin, f Flemish, $ and English, into Ital- 
 ian || by the author himself, and twice into French, at 
 Ant\verp^[ and at Paris.** In Germany it had cre- 
 ated a great sensation ; the duke of Bavaria and the 
 count-palatine were enraged beyond measure at the 
 free handling displayed in their portraits by this Span- 
 ish master ; the diet of Passau presented a formal re- 
 monstrance to the emperor against the libels of his 
 chamberlain ; and Albert, margrave of Brandenburg, 
 who by changing sides during the war had peculiarly 
 exposed himself to castigation, proposed that the 
 author should maintain the credit of his pen by the 
 prowess of his sword, f f The emperor, however, who 
 approved the history and loved the historian, inter- 
 posed to soothe the electors, cajole the diet, and forbid 
 
 * It appeared, says Xic. Antonio, first in Spain (without mentioning 
 any town) in 1546, and again in 1547. 
 
 t By Van Male. See p. 53. 
 
 J In 8vo (Steels) : Antwerp, 1550. 
 
 The Comentaries of Don Lewes de Avila and Suniga, great Master of 
 Acanter, which treattth of the great wars in Germanie, made by Cliarlts the 
 Fifth, marline Einperoure of Koine, &c , sm. 8vo, London, 1555 (Black 
 letter). The translator was John Wilkinson. 
 
 || In 12mo, Venice, 1549 ^ By Mat. Vaulchier, 8vo, 1550. 
 
 ** By G. Boilleau de Bullion, 1550. 
 
 tt R. Ascham : Discourse of Germany and the Emperor Charles his 
 Court, 4to, London (Black letter), N. D. fol. 14.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 77 
 
 the duel ; and a duke of Brunswick, some years after, 
 did the obnoxious volume the honor of translating it 
 into German. Pleased with his success, the author 
 was probably employing his leisure at PJasencia in 
 composing those commentaries on the war in Africa 
 which, though perused and praised by Sepulveda, 
 have not yet been given to the press. 
 
 His first visit to the emperor was paid on the 21st 
 of January, 1557. He spent the night at Xarandilla, 
 and returned home next day. Some weeks before, 
 on the 6th of December, his father-in-law, the marquis 
 of Mirabel, had likewise been graciously received. 
 Early in January, the archbishop of Toledo and the 
 bishop of Plasencia sent excuses for not paying their 
 respects, both prelates pleading the infirm state of 
 their health. The primate was the cardinal Juan 
 Martinez Siliceo, to whom, eleven years before, the 
 emperor had given that splendid mitre, not quite in 
 accordance, it was said, with his own wish, but at the 
 request of his son Philip, whose tutor the fortunate 
 cardinal had been. The bishop of Plasencia was 
 Don Gutierre de Carvajal, a magnificent prelate, who 
 shared the emperor's tastes and gout. He was the 
 builder of the fine Gothic chapel attached to the 
 church of St. Andrew at Madrid ; and his coat of 
 arms, or, with bend sable, commemorated on wall or 
 portal his various architectural embellishments in all 
 parts of his diocese.* Charles received the excuses 
 of both palates with perfect good humor, entreating 
 them not to put themselves to any inconvenience on 
 
 * P. de Salazar : Clironica de el Card. D. Juan de Tavera, 4to, Tole- 
 do, 1603, p. 355. A. Fernandez : Historia de Plasencia, p. 191. 
 7*
 
 78 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 his account, and remarking to Quixada, that neither 
 of them were persons much to his liking. 
 
 Until the close of the year 1556, the emperor had 
 enjoyed what was for him remarkably good health 
 and spirits. In the latter weeks of the year he had 
 been able to devote two hours a day to his accounts, 
 and to reckoning with Luis Quixada the sums due 
 to the servants whom he was about to discharge. 
 When the weather was fine, he used to go out with 
 his fowling-piece, and even walked at a tolerably brisk 
 pace. His chief annoyance was the state of his fin- 
 gers, which were so much swollen and disabled by 
 gout, that he remarked, on receiving from the duchess 
 of Frias a present of a chased silver saucepan and a 
 packet of perfumed gloves, " If she sends gloves, she 
 had better also send hands to wear them on." But 
 on the 27th and 28th of December, he felt several 
 twinges of gout in his knees and shoulders, and kept 
 his bed for a week, lying in considerable pain, and 
 wrapped in one of his eider-down robes, beneath a 
 thick quilted covering. For some days he was en-v 
 tirely deprived of the use of his right arm, and could 
 neither raise a cup to his lips, nor wipe his mouth. 
 Nevertheless, his appetite continued keen ; and he one 
 day paid the wife of Quixada the compliment of com- 
 mitting an excess upon sausages and olives, which 
 the good lady had sent to him from Villagarcia. As 
 the attack subsided, he complained of a sore throat, 
 which made it difficult for him to s wallow, ^m incon- 
 venience which the mayordomo did not much deplore, 
 saying sententiously, " Shut your mouth, and the 
 gout will get well." * 
 
 * " La gota se cura tapando la boca."
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 79 
 
 Barley-water, with yolks of eggs, formed his frequent 
 refreshment in his illness, and his medicine was given 
 in the shape of pills and senna-wine. This beverage 
 was one which he had long used, and about the con- 
 coction of which very precise directions had been 
 transmitted in the autumn, from Flanders, to the 
 secretary of state. A quantity of the " best senna- 
 leaves of Alexandria " were to be steeped, in the pro- 
 portion of about a pound to a gallon, in a jar of good 
 light wine, for three or four months ; the liquor was 
 then to be poured off' into a fresh jar; and after stand- 
 ing for a year, it was fit for use. The white wine of 
 Yepes was mentioned as the best for the purpose ; 
 but the selection was left to the general of the Jero- 
 mites, an order famous for its choice cellars. The em- 
 peror asked likewise for manna, and there being none 
 amongst the doctors stores, he ordered some to be pro- 
 cured from Naples, observing, at the same time, that 
 no supply had been sent since his abdication, the 
 single trivial incident and remark which lend support 
 to the common story that the change in his position 
 had made a change in the attention with which he 
 was treated. 
 
 On the 6th of January, though still in bed, he was 
 able to see Lorenzo Fires, the Portuguese envoy, on 
 the affairs of the infanta; when he also expressed his 
 hearty approval of king John's choice of the good 
 Aleixo de Meneses as governor of their grandson, Don 
 Sebastian.* On the 7th he got up, complaining only 
 at intervals of a heat in his legs, which were relieved 
 by being bathed with vinegar and water. In spite of 
 
 * Menezes : Chronica, p. 68.
 
 80 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 his omelettes of sardines, and the beer which no med- 
 ical warnings could induce him to forego, he was 
 soon restored to his usual health. 
 
 Despatches now came in from Italy, announcing 
 the truce of forty days, which the duke of Alba had 
 made with the pope and his nephew, after driving the 
 papal troops out of the town and citadel of Ostia. 
 The emperor was very angry that he had not pushed 
 on to Rome, and would not listen to the conditions 
 of the truce, but kept muttering between his teeth his 
 fears of the approach of the French from Piedmont. 
 He afterwards wrote to the king, expressing the great- 
 est displeasure at the conduct of Alba, who, he feared, 
 had suffered himself to be bribed by the concession of 
 certain patronage enjoyed by the pope in the duke's 
 marquisate of Coria. The conditions of the truce 
 despatched to Flanders by Alba were not ratified by 
 the king, and the war recommenced early in 1557. 
 
 Some days later, on the 31st of January, the em- 
 peror addressed a very earnest and anxious letter to 
 the princess-regent on the alarming aspect of affairs 
 both in Flanders and the Mediterranean, urging her 
 to use all diligence in raising men and money to 
 carry on the wars, and especially to provide for the 
 defence of Oran, which was then threatened by the 
 Moors. " If Oran be lost," he wrote, " I hope I shall 
 not be in Spain or the Indies, but in some place 
 where I shall not hear of so great an affront to the 
 king, and disaster to these realms." On the 2d of 
 February, he again entreated the princess to keep a 
 watchful eye on the frontiers of Navarre, and re- 
 marked that it was a pity the king should have or- 
 dered the duke of Alburquerque to England at a time
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 81 
 
 when the probable movements of the French forces 
 rendered his presence of so much importance in that 
 viceroyalty. In consequence of this remonstrance, the 
 duke was suffered to remain at Pamplona, to foil any 
 attempts at violent resumption of the kingdom by the 
 court of Pau. 
 
 Meanwhile the long-delayed buildings at Yuste 
 had almost arrived at a conclusion. Their slow prog- 
 ress had caused the emperor repeated disappoint- 
 ments. So far back as the 16th of December he was 
 so confident of being able to quit Xarandilla, that the 
 post was detained beyond the usual time, that the re- 
 moval to the convent might be announced at Yalla- 
 dolid. Hi0 departure was still further postponed by 
 his illness ; and the fathers of Yuste began to despair 
 of his ever coming to them at all. On the 21st of 
 January, a remittance of money arriving from court, 
 Quixada began to pay the servants their wages; and 
 on the 23d, he went over to Yuste to make a final 
 inspection, and to look for a house for himself in the 
 village of Quacos. On the 25th, Monsieur d'Aubre- 
 mont, one of the chamberlains, took his leave of the 
 emperor, who bade him farewell very graciously, and 
 presented him with letters to the king, and set forth 
 on his return to Flanders, with his private train of 
 twelve servants. On the 26th, all claims against the 
 privy purse were settled, and by the end of the month 
 the new household was definitely formed, on a re- 
 duced scale. The emperor at first wished to discharge 
 many more of his followers than Quixada thought 
 could be dispensed with ; and it was finally resolved 
 to send back ninety-eight to Flanders free of cost, 
 and to transfer about fifty-two to Yuste. The lieu-
 
 82 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 tenant and his halberdiers were dismissed, and also 
 the alguazils, with the alcalde Durango, to whom the 
 emperor presented the horses for which he had no 
 further use. Thirty mules were sent away to Valla- 
 dolid ; and eight mules, a small one-eyed horse, two 
 litters, and a hand-chair, were reserved for the reduced 
 stable establishment of the emperor. 
 
 All was ready at Xarandilla for departure on the 
 1st of February. But at the last moment it was 
 found that the friars, who had undertaken to lay in 
 provisions for the first day's consumption at Yuste, 
 had provided nothing at all. The business, therefore, 
 devolved on Quixada, and the removal was post- 
 poned for two days more. After dinner*on the 3d, 
 the emperor received all the servants who were going 
 away, saying a kind word to each as he was present- 
 ed by the mayordomo. " His majesty," wrote Quixa- 
 da, "was in excellent health and spirits, which was 
 more than could be said of the poor people whom he 
 was dismissing." All of them, he said, had received 
 letters of recommendation ; but it was a sad sight, 
 this breaking up of so old a company of retainers ; 
 and he hoped the secretary of state would do what he 
 could for those who went to Valladolid, not forgetting 
 the others who remained in Estremadura. At three 
 o'clock the emperor was placed in his litter, and the 
 count ofOropesa and the attendants mounted their 
 horses ; and, crossing the leafless forest, in two hours 
 the cavalcade halted at the gates of Yuste. 
 
 There the prior was waiting to receive his imperial 
 guest, who, on alighting, was placed in a chair and 
 carried to the door of the church. At the threshold 
 he was met by the whole brotherhood in procession,
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 83 
 
 chanting the Te Deum to the music of the organ. 
 The altars and the aisle were brilliantly lighted up 
 with tapers, and decked with their richest frontals, 
 hangings, and plate. Borne through the pomp to the 
 steps of the high altar, Charles knelt down and re- 
 turned thanks to God for the happy termination of 
 his journey, and joined in the vesper service of the 
 feast of St. Bias. This ended, the prior stepped for- 
 ward with a congratulatory speech, in which, to the 
 scandal of the courtiers, he addressed the emperor as 
 " your paternity," until some friar, with more presence 
 of mind and etiquette, whispered that the proper style 
 was " majesty." The orator next presented his friars 
 to their new brother, each kissing his hand and re- 
 ceiving his fraternal embrace. During this ceremony, 
 the retiring retainers, who had all of them attended 
 their master to fflre journey's close, stood round, ex- 
 pressing their emotion by tears and lamentations, 
 which were still heard, late in the evening, round the 
 gate. Attended by Oropesa and conducted by the 
 prior, the emperor then made an inspection of the 
 convent, and finally retired to sup in his new home, 
 and enjoy the repose which had so long been the 
 dream of his life.
 
 84 
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE MONASTERY OF ST. JEROME OF YUSTE. 
 
 THE Spanish order of St. Jerome was an offshoot 
 from the great Italian order of St. Francis of Assisi. 
 St. Bridget, a princess of Sweden, who, anticipating 
 queen Christina by three centuries, had taken up her 
 abode at Rome, foretold that there would soon arise 
 in Spain a society of recluses to tread in the footsteps 
 of the great doctor of Bethlehem. *The very next 
 year, in 1374, two hermits who ^d been living a 
 Franciscan life in the mountains oFToledo presented 
 themselves at Avignon, and, kneeling at the feet of 
 Gregory the Eleventh, obtained the institution of the 
 order of St. Jerome. The first monastery, San Barto- 
 lome of Lupiana, was built by the hands of the first 
 prior and his monks, on the north side of a bleak hill, 
 near Guadalaxara, in Old Castille. From this high- 
 land nest, the new religion spread its austere swarms 
 far and wide over Spain. Its houses, humble indeed 
 at first, arose in the Vega of Toledo, and in the pine- 
 forest of Guisando; a devout duke of Gandia planted 
 another in the better land of Valencia ; and in pastoral 
 Estremadura, ere the fourteenth century closed, the 
 shrine of Our Lady of Guadalnpe which rivalled 
 Loretto itself in miracles, in pilgrims, and in wealth 
 was committed to the keeping of a colony from 
 Lupiana. Each year the new habit a white wool- 
 len tunic, girt with leather, and a brown woollen scap-
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 85 
 
 ulary and mantle, of which the fashion and material 
 had been revealed to St. Bridget, and consecrated by 
 the use of St. Jerome and of the blessed Mary herself 
 became more familiar and more favored in city and 
 hamlet, among the motley liveries of the church. At 
 Madrid and Segovia, at Seville and Valladolid, stately 
 cloisters and noble churches, in the beautiful pointed 
 architecture of the fifteenth century, were built for St. 
 Jerome and his flock. A Jeromite monastery was one 
 of the first works undertaken at Granada by the Cath- 
 olic conquerors, and a Jeromite friar was enthroned 
 as the first archbishop in the purified mosque. The 
 completion of the superb cloister of St. Engracia, be- 
 gun by Ferdinand for the Jeromites of Zaragoza, was 
 the first architectural work of Charles the Fifth on 
 taking possession of his Spanish kingdoms. On the 
 Tagus, the Jeromite convent of Belem, the burial- 
 place of the royal line of Avis, and a miracle of jewel- 
 lery in stone, is one of the few surviving glories of Don 
 Emanuel. The town-like vastness of Guadalupe, its 
 fortifications, treasure-tower, and cellars, its orange- 
 gardens, and cedar-groves, and its princely domains, 
 astonished a far-travelled and somewhat cynical mag- 
 nifico of Venice* into a tribute of hearty admiration. 
 In Spain its wealth and importance have passed into 
 a proverb, which thus pointed out the path of prefer- 
 ment: 
 
 He who is a count, and to be a duke aspires, 
 
 Let him straight to Guadalupe, and sing among the friars. t 
 
 * Xavagiero : Vtaggio fatto in Spagna, sm. 8vo, Vinegia, 1563, pp. 
 11, 12. 
 
 t " Quien es conde, y dessea ser duque, 
 
 Metase fraile en Guadalupe." 
 
 Hern Nunez: Refranes, fol., Salamanca, 1555, fol. 106. 
 8
 
 86 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 The order reached the climax of its greatness when its 
 monks were installed by Philip the Second in the 
 palace convent of San Lorenzo of the Escorial. 
 
 The Escorial and Guadalupe, his houses, land?, 
 and flocks, were the best endowments of the Jeromite. 
 He could rarely boast of such eloquence and learning 
 as sometimes lay beneath the white robe of the Do- 
 minican preacher, or the inky cloak of the bookish Ben- 
 edictine. In his schools, he was taught no philosophy 
 but that of Thomas Aquinas ; and even if he did not 
 wholly lack Latin, he was altogether guiltless of that 
 Cicero- worship for which St. Jerome, in his memora- 
 ble dream, was flogged by seraphim before the judg- 
 ment-seat of Heaven. But to none of his rivals, white, 
 black, or gray, did he yield in the rigor of his religious 
 observance, in the splendor of his services, in the mu- 
 nificence of his alms, and in the abundant hospitality 
 of his table. In his convents, eight hours always, and 
 on days of festival twelve hours, out of the twenty- 
 four, were devoted to sacred offices ; and the prior of 
 the Escorial challenged comparison between the ordi- 
 nary service of his church and the holyday pomp of 
 the greatest cathedrals of Spain. In houses like 
 Guadalupe, large hospitals were maintained for the 
 sick, vast quantities of food were daily dispensed to 
 the poor, and the refectory boards were spread, some- 
 times as often as seven times a day, for the guests of 
 all ranks who carrfe in crowds to dine \vith St. Jerome. 
 The order early planted its standard in the Vera of 
 Plasencia ; choosing for its camp one of the sweet- 
 est spots of the sweet valley. Yuste stands on its 
 northern side, and near its eastern end, about two 
 leagues west of Xarandilla, and seven leagues east of
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 
 
 87 
 
 Plasencia. The site is a piece of somewhat level 
 ground, on the lower slope of the mountain, which is 
 clothed, as far as the eye can reach, with woods of 
 venerable oak and chestnut. About an English mile 
 to the south, and lower down the hill, the village of 
 Quacos nestles unseen amongst its orchards and mul- 
 berry gardens. The monastery owes its name, not to 
 a saint, but to a streamlet* which descends from the 
 sierra behind its walls, and its origin to the piety of 
 one Sancho Martin of Quacos, who granted, in 1402, 
 a tract of forest land to two hermits from Plasencia. 
 Here these holy men built their cells, and planted an 
 orchard ; and obtained, in 1408, by the favor of the 
 infant Don Fernando, a bull, authorizing them to 
 found a religious house of the order of St. Jerome. 
 In spite, however, of this authority, while their works 
 were still in progress, the friars of a neighboring con- 
 vent, armed with an order from the bishop of Plasen- 
 cia, set upon them, and dispossessed them of their 
 land and unfinished walls, an act of violence, against 
 which the Jeromit.es appealed to the archbishop of 
 Santiago. The judgment of the primate being given 
 in their favor, they next applied for aid to their neigh- 
 bor, Garci Alvarez de Toledo, lord of Oropesa, who 
 accordingly came forth from his castle of Xarandilla, 
 with his azure and argent banner, and drove out the 
 intruders. Nor was it only with the strong hand that 
 this noble protected the new community; for at the 
 chapter of St. Jerome, held at Guadalupe in 1415, 
 
 * Siguen<;a : Hist, de S. Geronimo, Parte II. p. 191. Some Spanish 
 writers, and almost all foreign writers, have called it San Yuste, or St. 
 Just, or St. Justus, as if the place had been called after one of the three 
 saints of that name, of Alcala, Lyons, or Canterbury.
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 their house would not have been received into the or- 
 der, but for his generosity in guaranteeing a revenue 
 sufficient for the maintenance of a prior and twelve 
 brethren, under a rule in which mendicancy was for- 
 bidden. The buildings were also erected mainly at 
 his cost, and his subsequent benefactions were mu- 
 nificent and many. He was therefore constituted, by 
 the grateful monks, protector of the convent, and the 
 distinction became hereditary in his descendants, the 
 counts of Oropesa. 
 
 These early struggles past, the Jeromites of Yuste 
 grew and prospered. Gifts and bequests were the 
 chief events in their peaceful annals. They became 
 patrons of chapelries and hermitages ; they made them 
 orchards and olive-groves; and their corn and wine 
 increased. The hostel, dispensary, and other offices 
 of their convent, were patterns of monastic comfort 
 and order ; and in due time they built a new church, 
 a simple, solid, and spacious structure, in the pointed 
 style. A few years before the emperor came to dwell 
 amongst them, they had added to their small antique 
 cloister a new quadrangle of stately proportions, and 
 of the elegant classical architecture which Berruguete 
 had recently introduced into Castille. 
 
 Although more remarkable for the natural beauty 
 which smiled around its walls, than for any growth of 
 spiritual grace within them, Yuste did not fail to 
 boast of its worthies. Early in the sixteenth century 
 one of its sons, Fray Pedro de Bejar, was chosen g^n- 
 eral of the order, and was remarkable for the vigor of 
 his administration and the boldness and efficacy of 
 his reforms. The prior Geronimo de Plasencia, a scion 
 of the great house of Zufiiga, was cited as a model of
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 89 
 
 austere and active holiness. The lay brother Melchor 
 de Yepes, after twice deserting the convent to be- 
 come a soldier, being crippled in felling a huge chest- 
 nut tree in the forest, became for the remainder of 
 his days a pattern of bedridden patience and piety. 
 Fray Juan de Xeres, an old soldier of the great cap- 
 tain, was distinguished by the gift of second-sight, 
 and was nursed upon his death-bed by the eleven 
 thousand virgins. Still more favored was Fray Rod- 
 rigo de Ca<jeres, for the blessed Mary herself, in an- 
 swer to his repeated prayers, came down in visible 
 beauty and glory, and received his spirit on the eve of 
 the feast of her assumption. The pulpit popularity of 
 the prior, Diego de San Geronimo, a son of the old 
 Castillian line of Tovar, was long remembered in the 
 Vera, in the names of a road leading to Garganta la 
 Olla, and of a bridge near Xaraiz, constructed, when 
 he grew old and infirm, by the people of these places, 
 to smooth the path of their favorite preacher to their 
 village pulpits.* 
 
 The fraternity now numbered amongst its members 
 a certain Fray Alonso Mudarra, who had been in the 
 world a man of rank, and employed in the civil ser- 
 vice of the emperor. Fray Hernando de Corral was 
 the man of letters of the band ; and it was perhaps 
 partly on account of this strange taste, that those who 
 did not think him a saint considered him a fool. The 
 tallest and brawniest of the brotherhood, his great 
 strength was equalled by his love of using it ; and 
 whenever there was any hard or rough work to be 
 done, he took it as an affront if he was not called to 
 
 * A. Fernandez, Hist, de Plasencia, p. 196.
 
 90 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 do it. Amongst his other eccentricities were noticed 
 his not returning to bed after early matins, but roam- 
 ing through the cloisters, praying aloud, and telling 
 his beads ; his buying, begging, and reading every 
 book that came in his way ; and the want of due 
 regard for the refectory cheer, which he sometimes 
 evinced by dividing amongst beggars at the gate the 
 entire contents of the conventual larder. He was 
 also particularly fond of the choral service, and careful 
 in compelling the attendance of his brethren ; and, 
 observing that the vicar chose frequently to absent 
 himself from this duty, he one day left his stall, and 
 returned with the truant, like the lost sheep in the 
 parable, struggling in his stalwart arms. The greater 
 part of his leisure being spent in reading, he was con- 
 sulted by the whole convent as an oracle of knowl- 
 edge ; and he likewise was supposed to be frequently 
 visited in his cell by the spirits of the departed. He 
 wrote much, it is said, but on what subjects, or with 
 what degree of merit, no evidence remains. The 
 black letter folios in the library of the convent were 
 frequently enriched with his notes, and of these a few 
 have survived the neglect of three centuries, and the 
 violence of three revolutions.* 
 
 Such were the friars of Yuste whose names have 
 survived in the records of the order; but there was 
 
 * In the fine and curious Spanish library of Mr. Ford, there is a copy 
 of the Chronica del R?y D. Alonzo el On^eno, fol., Valladolid, 1551, which 
 has the following entry on the back of the last leaf: En veinte y dos de 
 Miyo dd ano de m d.lii. (?) compre yo frai Hernando de Corral este libra 
 c tntr<Ulo costome xx reales. He then goes on to state the dates of the 
 emperor's arrival at the convent and death, and of the deaths of queen 
 Eleanor of France and queen Mary of Hungary.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 91 
 
 one among them who likewise belongs to the nobler 
 history of art. Fray Antonio de Villacastin was born, 
 about 1512, of humble parents, in the small town of 
 Castille, whence, according to Jeromite usage, he bor- 
 rowed his name. Early left an orphan, he was brought 
 up, or rather suffered to grow up, in the house of an 
 uncle, without prospect of future provision, and with- 
 out any preparation for gaining his bread except a 
 slight knowledge of reading and writing. When 
 about seventeen years old, being sent one day with a 
 jug and a real to fetch some wine, the necessity of 
 seeking his fortune struck him so forcibly as he walked 
 along, that by the time his errand was done, his mind 
 was made up. Meeting his sister in the street, he 
 handed her the jug and the copper change, and taking 
 the road at once, begged his way to Toledo, \vhere he 
 slept for the first night under the market tables in the 
 square of Zocodover. He was found there next morn- 
 ing by a master tiler, who, pitying his forlorn con- 
 dition, took him home, and taught him his trade of 
 making wainscots and pavements of colored tiles, at 
 which he wrought for ten years for his food and cloth- 
 ing. At the end of this long apprenticeship, becoming 
 enamored of the monastic state, he begged a real 
 the only one he ever possessed from his master's 
 son, and entered the Jeromite convent at La Sisla, 
 without the walls of Toledo. In assuming the cowl, 
 however, he by no means laid aside the trowel, which 
 was ever in his hand w r hen the house stood in need of 
 repair. Being a master of the practical part of build- 
 ing, he was also frequently employed in other monas- 
 teries of the order. In the Toledan nunnery of San 
 Pablo, the operations were so extensive that he was
 
 92 THE CLOISTER LIFE' OF 
 
 at work there for several years ; and his biographer 
 mentions, in his praise, that when his duties ended he 
 maintained no connection with the nuns, "nor ever 
 received any billets from them, a snare from which a 
 friar so placed seldom escapes." ' His architectural 
 reputation, after fifteen or sixteen years' practice in 
 the cloister, stood so high, that the general Ortega 
 selected him, in 1554, as master of the works at Yuste, 
 which he had now completed to the entire satisfac- 
 tion of the emperor. In these secular occupations he 
 strengthened and improved the secular virtues of good 
 temper and good sense, and yet maintained a high 
 character for zeal and punctuality in the religious 
 business of his cloth ; unconscious that he was train- 
 ing himself for one of the most important posts ever 
 filled in the world of art by a Spanish monk, that 
 of master and surveyor of the works at the palace- 
 monastery of the Escorial. 
 
 Fray Juan de Ortega, late general of the order,f 
 continued to reside with the fraternity of Yuste, al- 
 though he still remained a member of his own con- 
 vent at Alba de Tormes. In intelligence and man- 
 ners he was greatly above the vulgar herd of friars, 
 and was much esteemed and trusted by the emperor, 
 and even by his monk-hating household. 
 
 In works of charity, that redeeming virtue of the 
 monastic system, the fathers of Yuste were diligent 
 and bounteous. Of wheat, six hundred fanegas, or 
 about one hundred and twenty quarters, in ordinary 
 years, and in years of scarcity sometimes as much as 
 
 * Siguenga: Hist, de la Orden de S. Geron., Partc III. p. 893. 
 t Chap. II. p. 44.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 93 
 
 fifteen hundred fanegas, or three hundred quarters, 
 were distributed at the convent gate ; large donations 
 of bread, meat, oil^and a little money, were given, 
 publicly or in private, by the prior, at Easter, Christ- 
 mas, and other festivals ; and the sick poor in the vil- 
 lage of Quacos were freely supplied with food, medi- 
 cine, and advice. 
 
 The emperor's house, or palace, as the friars loved 
 to call it, although many a country notary is now 
 more splendidly lodged, was more deserving of the 
 approbation accorded to it by the monarch, than of 
 the abuse lavished upon it by his chamberlain. 
 Backed by the massive south wall of the church, the 
 building presented a simple front of two stories to the 
 garden and the noontide sun. Each story contained 
 four chambers, two on either side of a corridor, which 
 traversed the structure from east to west, and led at 
 either end into a broad porch, or covered gallery, sup- 
 ported by pillars and open to the air. Each room 
 was furnished with an ample fireplace, in accordance 
 with the Flemish wants and ways of the chilly inva- 
 lid. The chambers looking upon the garden were 
 bright and pleasant, but those on the north side were 
 gloomy, and even dark, the light being admitted to 
 them only by windows opening on the corridor, or on 
 the external and deeply shadowed porches. Charles 
 inhabited the upper rooms, and slept in that at the 
 northeast corner, from which a door, or window, had 
 been cut in a slanting direction into the church, 
 through the chancel wall, and close to the high altar. 
 The shape of this opening appears to have been al- 
 tered after the strictures passed on it by Quixada, for 
 r it now affords a good view of the space where the
 
 94 
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 high altar once stood. The emperor's cabinet, in 
 which he transacted business, was on the opposite 
 side of the corridor, and looked upon the garden. 
 From its window, his eye ranged over a cluster of 
 rounded knolls, clad in walnut and chestnut, in which 
 the mountain dies gently away into the broad bosom 
 of the Vera. Not a building was in sight, except a 
 summer-house peering above the mulberry tops at the 
 lower end of the garden, and a hermitage of Our Lady 
 of Solitude, about a mile distant, hung upon a rocky 
 height, which rose like an isle out of the sea of forest. 
 Immediately below the windows the garden sloped 
 gently to the Vera, shaded here and there with the 
 massive foliage of the fig, or the feathery boughs of 
 the almond, and breathing perfume from tall orange- 
 trees, cuttings of which some of the friars, themselves 
 transplanted, in after days vainly strove to keep alive 
 at the bleak Escorial. The garden was easily reached 
 from the western porch or gallery by an inclined path, 
 which had been constructed to save the gouty mon- 
 arch the pain and fatigue of going up and down 
 stairs. This porch, which was much more spacious 
 than the eastern, was his favorite seat when filled with 
 the warmth of the declining day. Commanding the 
 same view as the cabinet, it looked also upon a small 
 parterre with a fountain in the centre, and a short cy- 
 press-alley leading to the principal gate of the garden. 
 Beyond this gate and wall was the luxuriant forest ; 
 a wide space in front of the convent being covered by 
 the shade of a magnificent walnut-tree, even then 
 known as the great walnut-tree of Yuste, a Nestor of 
 the woods which has seen the hermit's cell rise into a 
 royal convent and sink into a ruin, and has survived
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 95 
 
 the Spanish order of Jerome, and the Austrian dy- 
 nasty of Spain. 
 
 The emperor's attendants were lodged in apart- 
 ments built for them near the new cloister, and in 
 the lower rooms of that cloister ; and the hostel of the 
 convent was given up to the physician, the bakers, 
 and the brewers. The remainder of the household 
 were disposed of in the village of Quacos. The em- 
 peror's private rooms being surrounded on three sides 
 by the garden of the convent, that was resigned to his 
 exclusive possession, and put under the care of his 
 own gardeners. The ground near the windows was 
 planted with flowers, under the citron-trees ; and far- 
 ther off, between the shaded paths which led to the 
 summer-house, vegetables were cultivated for his 
 table, which was likewise supplied with milk from a 
 couple of cows that pastured in the forest. The Je- 
 romites removed their pot-herbs to a piece of ground 
 to the eastward, behind some tall elms and the wall 
 of the imperial domain. The entrances to the palace 
 and its dependencies were quite distinct from those 
 which led to the monastery ; and all internal commu- 
 nications between the region of the friars and the 
 settlement of the Flemings were carefully closed or 
 , built up. 
 
 The household of the emperor consisted in all of 
 about sixty persons. His confidential attendants, who 
 composed his " chamber," as it was called, stand thus 
 marshalled in his will, doubtless in the exact order of 
 their precedence, and with the annexed salaries at- 
 tached to their names. 
 
 ( Chamberlain (mayor- ) 
 Luis Quixada, < 
 
 I domo), J
 
 96 
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 189 - 000 
 54. 
 
 Henrique Mathys, Physician, \ 
 
 I 
 
 Guyon de Moron, 5 Kee P er of the ward ' } 400 florins, or 40. 
 ( robe (guardaropa), ) 
 
 Martin de Gaztelu, Secretary, j 
 
 or 
 
 William Van Male, f 1 300 florins, or 30. 
 
 Charles Prevost," Gentlemen of the i 300 ' Qr 3Q 
 
 0-ricr BodarM } chamber (ayndas de K OQ or20 . 
 
 Martin Donjart, [ Comoro), j 300 
 
 O] . 
 
 Giovanni Torriano, Watchmaker, J 75 ' 000 maravedis, or 
 
 i 21 10s. 
 
 each 250 florins, or 
 
 21 10s. 
 
 Nicholas Beringuen, f Gentlemen of the 
 William Wykerslooth, I chamber, of the sec- 
 --- r 25. 
 
 Gabriel De Suet, [ 
 
 Peter Van Oberstraaten, Apothecary, 280 florins, or 28. 
 
 Peter Guillen, Assistant Apothecary, 80 " or 8- 
 
 The salary of Quixada, on returning to his post in 
 1556, was to be raised, and he himself had been asked 
 to name the amount of increase, which, however, he 
 declined to do, leaving the matter entirely in the hands 
 of his master. Charles, who was the most frugal of 
 men, was at this time in correspondence with the king 
 and the secretary of state on the subject; and in one 
 of his subsequent letters, J it appears that he considered 
 
 * The spelling of these Flemish names, both in the printed pages of 
 Sandoval and the MS. of Gonzalez is most inaccurate and perplexing. ' 
 "Prevost 1 ' is, in many cases, turned into Pul>cst, Dirk is Chirique, and 
 others are disguised beyond the powers of detection of any one but a 
 Fleming. Even the Italian Torriano, whose name, in its Spanish famil- 
 iar form, was Juanelo Torriano, sometimes figures as Juan el Latormno. 
 In turning the maravcclis and florins into English money, I have been 
 guided chiefly by Josef Garcia Cavallero : Breve Cotejo y Valance de 
 las Pesas y Medidas de rarias Naciones. 4to, Madrid, 1731. 
 
 t Xo doubt the person alluded to in Chap. III., p. 54, note, as Bodo- 
 arte. 
 
 t Gaztelu to Vazquez, 24th of August, 1587.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE ^FTH. 97 
 
 the mayordomo's rank entitled him to the same sal- 
 ary as that which had been enjoyed by the chamber- 
 lain of queen Juana, or that which was still paid to 
 the tutor of Don Carlos. Nevertheless, the question 
 remained unsettled, and it was one of the points to 
 be arranged by Archbishop Carranza, who, however, 
 did not arrive at Yuste until the emperor's accounts 
 with the world were on the eve of being closed. 
 
 Quixada, Moron, Gaztelu, and Torriano lived at 
 Quacos, where lodgings were likewise provided for 
 the laundresses, the only female portion of the house- 
 hold, and many of the inferior servants. So many of 
 them being Flemings, a Flemish capuchin, Fray John 
 Alis, was established at Xarandilla for the conven- 
 ience of those who wished to confess. 
 
 On the 4th of February, the emperor awoke in his 
 new home, in excellent health and spirits. He spent 
 the morning in inspecting the rooms, and the arrange- 
 ment of the furniture ; and in the afternoon he caused 
 himself to be carried in his chair to the hermitage of 
 Belem, about a quarter of a mile from the monastery. 
 The physicians Cornelio and Mole, who were still in 
 attendance, walked out to botanize in the woods, in 
 search of certain specifics against hemorrhoids, with 
 which their patient had been troubled. Not finding 
 them, Cornelio went to look for them at Plasencia, 
 and finally was obliged to procure a supply from Val- 
 ladolid. Meanwhile the symptoms of the disease 
 abated so much, that when, in about a fortnight, the 
 plants arrived, the emperor ordered them to be planted 
 in the garden, and even dispensed with the attend- 
 ance of the consulting doctors, dismissing them with 
 all courtesy, and letters to the princess-regent. 
 
 9
 
 98 ^THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 A great monarch, leaving of his own free will his 
 palace and the purple for sackcloth and a cell, is so 
 fine a study, that history, misled, nothing loath, by 
 pulpit declamation, has delighted to discover such a 
 model ascetic in the emperor at Yuste. " His apart- 
 ments, when prepared for his reception," says Sando- 
 val, " seemed rather to have been newly pillaged by 
 the enemy, than for a great prince; the walls were 
 bare, except in his bedchamber, which was hung with 
 black cloth ; the only valuables in the house were a 
 few pieces of plate of the plainest kind ; his dress, al- 
 ways black, was usually very old; and he sat in an 
 old arm chair, with but half a seat, and not worth 
 four reals." * This picture, accurate in only two of 
 the details, is quite false in its general effect. The 
 emperor's conventual abode, judging by the inventory 
 of its contents,! was probably not worse furnished than 
 many of the palaces in which his reigning days had 
 been passed. He was not surrounded at Yuste with 
 the .splendors of his host of Augsburg; but neither 
 did the fashions of the sumptuous Fugger prevail at 
 Ghent or Innsbruck, Valsain or Segovia. For the 
 hangings of his bed-room he preferred sombre black 
 
 * Sandoval, Tom. II. p. 825. Wilhelm Snouekaert, who had been 
 the emperor's librarian at Brussels, and who, under the more euphoni- 
 ous name of Zcnocarus, wrote De Republica Vita, $~c. Cces. Aug. Quinti 
 Curoli A/.r. Monarch^, fol., Bruges, 1559, says (p. 289) that Charles had 
 only twelve servants at Yuste. Yet he asserts (p. 288) that his dull, 
 meagre, and pompous book had been seen and approved by Don Luis 
 de Avila. Cesare Campana, in his Vita de Catholico Don Filifjjx) de 
 Austria, 3 vols , 4to, (Vicenza, 1605,) Part II. fol. 151, reduces this 
 slender retinue to four. 
 
 t Drawn up after his decease, by Quixada, Gaztelu, and Regla. An 
 abstract of the document will be found in the Appendix.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 99 
 
 cloth to gayer arras; -but he had brought from Flan- 
 ders suits of rich tapestry, wrought with figures, 
 landscapes, or flowers, more than sufficient to hang 
 the rest of the apartments ; the supply of cushions, 
 eider-down quilts, and linen was luxuriously ample ; 
 his friends sat on chairs covered with black velvet ; 
 and he himself reposed either on a chair with wheels, 
 or in an easy chair to which six cushions and a foot- 
 stool belonged. Of gold and silver plate, he had up- 
 wards of thirteen thousand ounces ; he washed his 
 hands in silver basins with water poured from silver 
 ewers ; the meanest utensil of his chamber was of the 
 same noble material ; and from the brief descriptions 
 of his cups, vases, candlesticks, and salt-cellars, it 
 seems probable that his table was graced with several 
 masterpieces of Tobbia and Cellini. 
 
 In his dress he had ever been plain to parsimony, 
 and therefore it is not very likely that he should turn 
 dandy in the cloister. His suit of sober black was no 
 doubt the same, or such another, as that painted by 
 Titian in tbe fine portrait wherein the emperor still 
 sits before us, pale, thoughtful, and dignified, in the 
 Belvidere palace at Vienna ; and he probably often 
 gave audience in such a " gowne of black taffety and 
 furred nightcap, like a great codpiece," as Roger As- 
 cham saw him in, "sitting sick in his chamber" at 
 Augsburg, and looking so like Roger's friend, " the 
 parson of Epurstone." ' In his soldier days he would 
 krfot and patch a broken sword-belt, until it would 
 have disgraced a private trooper ; f and he even car- 
 
 * Eng. Works, p. 375. 
 
 t Salazar de Mendoza : Origen de las Dignidades de Castilla, fol., To- 
 ledo, 1618, p. 161.
 
 100 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 ried his love of petty economy so far, that, being 
 caught near Naumburg in a shower, he took off his 
 velvet cap, which happened to be new, and sheltered 
 it under his arm, going bareheaded in the rain until 
 an old cap was brought him from the town.* His 
 jewel-case was, as might be supposed, rather miscel- 
 laneous than valuable in-its contents, amongst which 
 may be mentioned a few rings and bracelets, some 
 medals and buttons to be worn in the cap, several col- 
 lars and badges of various sizes of the Golden Fleece,f 
 some crucifixes of gold and silver, various charms, 
 such as the bezoar-stone against the plague, and gold 
 rings from England against cramp, a morsel of the 
 true cross, and other relics, three or four pocket- 
 watches, and several dozen pairs of spectacles. 
 
 If the emperor despised the vulgar gewgaws of 
 wealth and power, his retreat was adorned with some 
 pictures, few, but well chosen, and worthy of a dis- 
 cerning lover of art and of the patron and friend of 
 Titian. A composition on the subject of the Trinity, 
 and three pictures of Our Lady, by that great master, 
 
 * Rankc : Ottoman and Spanish Empires, Kelly's translation, 8vo, 
 London, 1843, p. 30. 
 
 t The collar of this order, given by Ferdinand VII. to the late duke 
 of Wellington, was believed in Spain to have belonged to Charles V. ; 
 and the same story was told of the Fleece sent, in 1851 or 1852, to the 
 president, now, " jiar la grace de Dieu et la volonte nationale" emperor 
 Napoleon III., of France. It is a compliment which the Spanish crown 
 very likely lias it in its power to pay ; as the emperor in the cours^of 
 his life must have possessed many badges of the order. In our duke's 
 case, the collar and badge may have been authentic ; but the connecting 
 ornament, as figured in Lord Downes's Orders and Batons of the Dnke of 
 ]\'<//in(jton, obi. fol., London, 1852, is plainly modern and spurious. 
 No such ornament is found on the medals or contemporary prints of 
 Charles V.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 
 
 101 
 
 filled the apartments with poetry and beauty ; and, as 
 specimens of his skill in another style, there were por- 
 traits of the recluse himself and of his empress. Our 
 Lord bearing his cross, and several other sacred pic- 
 tures, came from the easel of "Maestro Miguel," 
 probably Michael Cock, of Antwerp, famous for his 
 skill in copying, and his dishonesty in appropriating 
 the works of Raphael. Three cased miniatures of the 
 empress, painted in her youthful beauty, and soon 
 after the honeymoon in the Alhambra, kept alive 
 Charles's recollection of the wife whom he had lost ; 
 and Mary Tudor, knitting her forbidding brows on a 
 panel of Antonio More, hung on the wall, to remind 
 him of the wife whom he had escaped, and of the 
 kingdom which his son had conquered in that prudent 
 alliance. Philip himself, his sisters the princess- 
 regent, the queen of Bohemia, and the duchess of 
 Parma, and the king of France, portrayed on canvas, 
 or in relief on plain medallions, likewise helped by 
 their effigies to enliven the apartments of the empe- 
 ror, as well as by their policy to occupy his daily 
 thoughts and nightly dreams. Long tradition,* which 
 there seems little reason to doubt, adds, that over the 
 high altar of the convent, and in sight of his own bed, 
 he had placed that celebrated composition called the 
 " Glory of Titian," a picture of the last judgment, in 
 which Charles, his wife, and their royal children were 
 represented in the master's grandest style, as conduct- 
 ed by angels into life eternal. And another master- 
 piece of the great Venetian St. Jerome praying in 
 his cavern, with a sweet landscape in the distance 
 
 * Fr. Fran, de Los Santos : Description del Escorted, fol., Madrid, 1657, 
 fol. 71. 
 
 9*
 
 102 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 is also reputed to have formed the apposite altar-piece 
 in the private oratory of the emperor. 
 
 The palace of Yuste was less rich in books than in 
 pictures. The library indeed barely exceeded thirty 
 volumes, chiefly of works of devotion or science. 
 Amongst the religious books were the treatises on 
 Christian doctrine, by Dr. Constantine de la Fuente,* 
 who died soon after, a prisoner for heresy in the dun- 
 geons of Seville, and by Fray Pedro de Soto,f a lumi- 
 nary of Trent, and long the emperor's confessor, and 
 now employed by Philip to preach the Roman super- 
 stition in the not unwilling halls of Oxford. 
 
 Divine philosophy was represented by the writings 
 of Ptolemy and Appian, and by Italian, French, and 
 CastillianJ versions of Boethius De Consolatione, a 
 work which had the honor of being translated into 
 our English tongue by Alfred and by Chaucer ; and 
 which for a thousand years was preeminently the 
 book which no gentleman's library could be without. 
 For historical reading, there were Caesar's Commen- 
 taries in Italian, the German Wars, by the grand 
 commander of Alcantara, and some sheets in manu- 
 script of the great chronicle upon which the canon 
 Ocampo was now at work at Zamora. Besides the 
 Psalter, the only poetry in the collection was the 
 Chevalier Delibere of Ollivier de la Marche, and the 
 Castillian translation, versified from the emperor's 
 prose by Acuna,|| the latter being in manuscript, and 
 
 * Doctrina Christiana, 8vo, Antwerp, s. a. 
 
 t Institntionum Christianarum, Libri III., 16mo. August, 1548. 
 
 J Probably that by Fr. Alberto de Aguayo, 4to, Sevilla, 1521. 
 
 Chap. III. p. 75. 
 
 || Chap. III. p. 59.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 103 
 
 both adorned with colored plates and drawings. " A 
 large volume, filled with illuminated drawings on 
 vellum," seems to imply that Charles brought with 
 him to the woods some memorials of Clovio and Ho- 
 landa. as well as of the bolder pencil of Titian ; and 
 there were also several illuminated rnissals and hours, 
 and a quantity of maps of Italy, Flanders, Germany, 
 and the Indies. Most of the books were bound in crim- 
 son velvet, with clasps and corners of silver, the sump- 
 tuous dress in which the early bibliomaniacs loved 
 to array their treasures, but which the ever-teeming 
 press was fast turning into a more sober garb of goat- 
 skin or hog-skin. 
 
 Music, ever one of the favorite pleasures of Charles, 
 here also lent its charms to soothe the cares which 
 followed him from the world, and the dyspepsia from 
 which he would not even try to escape. A little 
 organ, with a silver case and of exquisite tone, was 
 long kept at the Escorial, with the tradition,* that it 
 had been the companion of his journeys, and the sol- 
 ace of his evenings when encamped before Tunis. 
 The order of St. Jerome being desirous to gratify the 
 taste of their guest, the general had reinforced the 
 choir of Yuste with fourteen or fifteen friars, chosen 
 from the different monasteries under his sway, for 
 their fine voices and musical skill. In the manage- 
 ment of the choir and organ, the emperor took a lively 
 interest^ and from the window of his bedroom his 
 voice might often be heard to accompany the chant 
 of the friars. His ear never failed to detect a wrong 
 note, and the mouth whence it came ; and he would 
 
 * BeckforcTs Italy, Spain, and Portugal, fcap. 8ro, London, 1840, p. 323.
 
 104 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 frequently mention the name of the offender, with the 
 addition of hideputa bermejo, or some other epithet 
 savoring more of the camp than the cloister. A sing- 
 ing-master from Plasencia being one day in the 
 church, ventured to join in the service; but he had 
 not sung many bars before orders came down from 
 the palace that the interloper should be silenced or 
 turned out. Guerrero, a chapel-master of Seville, 
 having composed and presented to the emperor a 
 book of masses and motets, one of the former was 
 soon selected for performance at Yuste. When it 
 was ended, the imperial critic remarked to his confes- 
 sor that Guerrero, the hidepula! was a cunning thief; 
 and going over the piece, he pointed out the stolen 
 passages, and named the masters whose works had 
 suffered pillage.* 
 
 Eloquence was likewise an art which the ernperor 
 loved, and of which the order desired to provide him 
 with choice specimens. Three chaplains, who were 
 esteemed the best preachers in the fold of Jerome, 
 were ordered to repair to Yuste for his delectation. 
 The foremost of these, Fray Francisco de Villalva, had 
 entered the convent of Montamarta, near Zamora, 
 about 1530. Being a promising youth, the prior sent 
 him to the college of the order at Siguenca, whence 
 he came forth an expert dialectician, and soon rose to 
 be the most popular preacher in Castille. His theo- 
 logical professor being appointed archbishop of Gran- 
 ada, took him into his service, and in that capacity 
 Villalva had an opportunity of studying for a year 
 .the best Italian orators at the council of Trent. He 
 
 * Sandoval, II. p. 828.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 105 
 
 was afterwards preacher to the great hospital at Za- 
 ragoza, whence he was summoned to Yuste. There 
 his eloquence charmed the emperor, as it had charmed 
 the peasants of Zamora ; and he so eclipsed his col- 
 leagues, that they seem to have been seldom called to 
 the pulpit except during a few weeks when Charles, 
 at the urgent request of the city of Zaragoza, spared 
 him for a while to his old admirers. 
 
 Fray Juan de A^oloras, a monk from the great 
 convent of Our Lady of Prado, near Valladolid, was 
 also an eminent divine and schoolman, and he had so 
 successfully combated the harsh tone and accent of 
 his native Biscay, that his delivery in the pulpit was 
 considered as a model of grace. Fray Juan de San- 
 tandres, from the convent of Santa Catalina, at Tala- 
 vera, was less eloquent than his compeers, but high- 
 ly esteemed for purity of doctrine and life. Besides 
 these regular and retained ministers, any Jeromite 
 with a reputation for preaching, who chanced to pass 
 that way, was sure of an invitation to display his 
 powers before the emperor at Yuste. 
 
 The simple and regular habits of Charles accorded 
 well with the monotony of monastic life. Every 
 morning, father Regla appeared at his bedside to in- 
 quire how he had passed the night, and to assist him 
 in his private devotions. He then rose, and was 
 dressed by his valets ; after which he heard mass, 
 going down, when his health permitted, into the 
 church. According to his invariable custom, which 
 in Italy was said to have given rise to the saying 
 dalla messa, alia mensa, from mass to mess, he went 
 from these devotions to dinner about noon. The 
 meal was long; for his appetite was voracious; his
 
 106 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 hands were so disabled with gout, that carving, which 
 he nevertheless insisted on doing for himself, was a 
 tedious process ; and even mastication was slow and 
 difficult, his teeth being so few and far between. 
 The physician attended him at table, and at least 
 learned the causes of the mischief which his art was 
 to counteract. The patient, while he dined, conversed 
 with the doctor on matters of science, generally of 
 natural history ; and if any difference of opinion 
 arose, father Regla was sent for to settle the point 
 out of Pliny. The cloth being drawn, the confessor 
 usually read aloud from one of the emperor's favorite 
 divines, Augustine, Jerome, or Bernard, an exercise 
 which was followed by conversation, and an hour of 
 slumber. At three o'clock the monks were mustered in 
 the convent to hear a sermon delivered by one of the 
 imperial preachers, or a passage read by Fray Bernar- 
 dino de Salinas from the Bible, frequently from the 
 Epistle to the Romans, the book which the emperor 
 preferred. To these discourses or readings Charles 
 always listened with profound attention ; and if sick- 
 ness or business compelled him to be absent, he never 
 failed to send a formal excuse to the prior, and to re- 
 quire from his confessor an account of what had been 
 preached or read. The rest of the afternoon was de- 
 voted to seeing the official people from court, or to 
 the transaction of business with his secretary. 
 
 Sometimes the workshop of Torriano was the re- 
 source of the emperor's spare time. He was very 
 fond of clocks and watches, and curious in reckoning 
 to a fraction the hours of his retired leisure. The 
 Lombard had long been at work upon an elaborate 
 astronomical timepiece, which was to perform not
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 107 
 
 only the ordinary duties of a clock, but to tell the 
 days of the month and year, and to denote the move- 
 ments of the planets. In this delicate labor, the 
 mechanician advanced as slowly as the doctors of 
 Trent in the construction of their system of theology. 
 Twenty years had elapsed since he had first conceived 
 the idea, and the actual execution cost him three 
 years and a half. Indeed, the work had not received 
 the last touches at the time of the emperor's death. 
 Of wheels alone, it contained eighteen hundred ; the 
 material of the case was gilt bronze, and its form 
 round, about two feet in diameter, and somewhat less 
 in height, with a tapering top, which ended in a tower 
 containing the bell and hammer. Charles was great- 
 ly pleased with the ingenious toy ; he inquired what 
 inscription the maker intended to put upon it; and 
 being told that nothing had been contemplated be- 
 yond the words, IANNELLVS . TVRRIANVS . CREMONENSIS . 
 
 HOROLOGIORVM . ARCHITECTOR . added FACILE . PRIN- 
 
 CEPS . which accordingly made part of the epigraph. 
 On the back of the clock Juanelo caused his own por- 
 trait to be graven, encircling it with a legend, less in 
 accordance with his original modest intentions than 
 with the emperor's laudatory amendment, QVI . SIM . 
 
 SCIES . SI . PAR . OPVS . FACERE . CONABERIS. 
 
 He likewise made for the emperor a smaller clock, 
 less multiform and ambitious in its functions, and in- 
 closed in a case of crystal, which allowed the working 
 of the machinery to be seen, and suggested the motto, 
 
 VT . ME . FVGIENTEM . AGNOSCAM. 
 
 He also constructed a self-acting mill, which, though 
 small enough to be hidden in a friar's sleeve, could 
 grind two pecks of corn in a day ; and the figure of a
 
 108 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 lady who danced on the table to the sound of her own 
 tambourine.* Other puppets were also attributed to 
 him, minute men and horses, which fought, and 
 pranced, and blew tiny trumpets, and birds which 
 flew about the room as if alive ; toys which, at first, 
 scared the prior and his monks out of their wits, and 
 for a while gained the artificer the dangerous fame 
 of a wizard.f 
 
 Sometimes the emperor fed his pet birds, which ap- 
 pear to have succeeded in his affections the stately 
 wolf-hounds that followed at his heels in the days 
 when he sat to Titian ; or he sauntered among his 
 trees and flowers, down to the little summer-house 
 looking out upon the Vera ; or sometimes, but more 
 rarely, he strolled into the forest with his gun, and 
 shot a few of the wood-pigeons which peopled the 
 great chestnut-trees. His out-door exercise was always 
 taken on foot, or, if the gout forbade, in his chair or 
 litter ; for the first time that he mounted his pony he 
 was seized with a violent giddiness, and almost fell 
 into the arms of his attendants.^: Such was the last 
 appearance in the saddle of the accomplished cavalier, 
 of whom his soldiers used to say, " that, had he not 
 been born a king, he would have been the prince of 
 light-horsemen," and whose seat and hand on the 
 
 * Ambrosio de Morales : Antiguedades de Esjmna, fol., Alcala de 
 Henares, 1575, fol. 93. Morales knew Torriano well, and appears to 
 have seen the clock which he so minutely describes, although he does 
 not say where it was ultimately placed. 
 
 t Strada : De Bella Bely., Lib. I. 
 
 t Sandoval : Hist, de Carlos V., II. p. 825, and Siguen^a, III. p. 192, 
 whence many of these details are taken. 
 
 J. A. Vera y Figueroa : Vida del Emp. Carlos V., 4to, Brussels, 
 1656. p. 263.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 109 
 
 bay charger presented to him by our bluff king Hal,* 
 won, at Calais gate, the applause of the English 
 knights fresh from those tournays 
 
 " Where England vied with France in pride on the famous field of gold." 
 
 Next came vespers; and after vespers supper, a meal 
 very much like the dinner, consisting frequently of 
 pickled salmon and other unwholesome dishes, which 
 made Quixada's loyal heart quake within him. 
 
 * Stow's Annals, fol., London, 1631, p. 511. 
 
 10
 
 110 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 STATE CRAFT IN THE CLOISTER. 
 
 DIMLY seen over the wintry woodlands, and 
 through a November mist, Yuste had appeared to 
 the household at Xarandilla a place of penance ; but 
 their dismal forebodings were by no means realized 
 in their new quarters on the fresh hill-side, bright with 
 the sunshine of the budding spring. Writing on the 
 day of the emperor's arrival there, Monsieur Lachaulx 
 complained of nothing but the Jeromite neighbors. 
 " His majesty," he said, " was delighted with the 
 place, and still more were the friars delighted to see 
 him among them, an event which they had almost 
 ceased to hope for. May it please God that he shall 
 find them endurable, for they are ever apt to be im- 
 portunate, especially those who are such blockheads 
 as some of the fraternity here seem to be." Lachaulx 
 himself had apparently recovered from his ague, and 
 become reconciled to the climate of Estremadura, for 
 being one of the chamberlains who had been placed 
 on the retired list, he made the pilgrimage to Guada- 
 lupe, and afterwards resided for a few weeks on a 
 commandery of Alcantara which he enjoyed in the 
 province. He was afterwards chosen by the emperor 
 as his envoy to the queen of England, and set out on 
 that mission about the middle of March, with letters 
 in which Charles assured Mary, " that, although his
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. Ill 
 
 retreat was all he could wish it, he would not, in tak- 
 ing his own ease, fail to assist by word and deed such 
 measures as might be necessary for the furtherance 
 of those great affairs of which the king, his son, had 
 now his hands full." 
 
 Instructions had come from Valladolid to the local 
 authorities of Plasencia and the Vera, requiring their 
 implicit obedience to the order of the emperor ; and 
 contentment, or an approach to contentment, returned 
 to the troubled minds of the household. Secretary 
 Gaztelu candidly avowed that he had become recon- 
 ciled to Yuste, and that as a residence it was far bet- 
 ter than Xarandilla. Quixada admitted that the place 
 seemed to agree with his master, and that his general 
 health was excellent. While acknowledging the re- 
 ceipt of salmon from Valladolid, lampreys from the 
 Tagus, and pickled soles sent by the duchess of Bejar, 
 he nevertheless owned that his majesty's twinges of 
 gout had lately been less frequent and less severe. 
 On St. Martin's day, he said, he walked without as- 
 sistance to the high altar to make his offering. " You 
 cannot think," writes he to Vasquez, " how well and 
 plump he looks ; and his fresh color is to me quite 
 astonishing. But," he adds mournfully, " this is a 
 very lonely and doleful existence ; and if his majesty 
 came here in search of solitude, by my faith ! he has 
 found it." In another letter he says, "This is the 
 most solitary and wretched life I have ever known, 
 and quite insupportable to those who are not content 
 to leave their lands and the world, which I, for one, 
 am not content to do." 
 
 Philip the Second assured the Venetian envoy at 
 Bruxelles that his father's health seemed as complete-
 
 112 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 ly restored by the air of Ynste as if he had been there 
 for ten years.* From the time of his arrival at the 
 convent, he had been able to give close and regular 
 attention to public affairs. It is worthy of remark, 
 that during the greater part of his residence in Spain, 
 from his landing at Laredo in September, 1556, to the 
 3d of May, 1558. his public despatches were always 
 headed " the emperor," and addressed to " Juan Vaz- 
 quez de Molina, my secretary." He wrote not only 
 with the authority, but in the formal style, of a sover- 
 eign, and until his abdication of the imperial throne 
 had been accepted by the diet, he considered himself, 
 as in fact he was, emperor of the Romans. A dis- 
 pute about precedence, the great question of diplo- 
 macy until the first French revolution, arising at the 
 court of Lisbon between the ambassadors of France 
 and Spain, he accredited the Spaniard as ambassador 
 from himself as well as from his son, and so foiled 
 the pretensions of the Frenchman. It soon became 
 known that the recluse at Yuste had as much power 
 as the regent at Valladolid, and the gate was there- 
 fore besieged with suitors. Women presented them- 
 selves, asserting that they were widows of veterans 
 who had fought in Germany, in Italy, or in Africa; 
 " a class of petitioners," said Gaztelu, " very prone to 
 imposture," which was therefore civilly referred to 
 Valladolid. One Anton Sanchez, a venerable coun- 
 tryman from Criptana, came to complain of the mal- 
 administration of the villages and lands of the order 
 of Santiago ; he seemed respectable as well as vener- 
 able, and was kindly received and dismissed with let- 
 
 * Relations of Badovaro. See Chap. II. p. 39.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 113 
 
 ters of recommendation to the council of the orders. 
 A fiery English courier, who had been kept waiting a 
 whole month at court for the answer to his despatch- 
 es, losing all patience, made his way across the moun- 
 tains to lodge his complaint at Yuste. The emperor 
 received him with perfect courtesy, and transmitted 
 orders to Valladolid that his business should be con- 
 cluded, and he sent home forthwith. 
 
 It has been frequently asserted that the emperor's 
 life at Yuste was a long repentance for his resignation 
 of power ; and that' Philip was constantly tormented, 
 in England or in Flanders, by the fear that his father 
 might one day return to the throne.* This idle tale 
 can be accounted for only by the melancholy fact, that 
 historians have found it easier to invent than to inves- 
 tigate. An opinion certainly prevailed, even among 
 those who had access to good political information,! 
 that Charles would resume power when his health 
 was sufficiently reestablished, an opinion founded, 
 perhaps, on the fact, that the cession of the imperial 
 crown was still incomplete, and on the difficulty 
 which the world found in believing that the first 
 prince in Christendom had, of his own free will, de- 
 scended for ever from the first throne in the world. 
 But, however it may have arisen, the notion was jus- 
 tified by no word or deed of the emperor. So far 
 from regretting his retirement, Charles refused to en- 
 tertain several proposals that he should quit it. Al- 
 though he had abdicated the Spanish crowns, Philip 
 
 * G. Leti : Vita dele Emp. Carlo V., 4 vols., 12mo, Amsterd., 1700, 
 IV. 362, 363. Amelot de la Houssaye : Memoires, 2 vols., 1 2mo, Amst., 
 1700,1. 294. 
 
 t Relaiioiie of Badovaro. 
 10*
 
 114 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 had not yet formally taken possession of them, and 
 the princess-regent, fearing that the turbulent and still 
 free people of Aragon might make that a pretext for re- 
 fusing the supplies, was desirous that her father should 
 summon and attend a Cortes at Monzon, in which 
 the oath might be solemnly taken to the new king. 
 The emperor's disinclination to move obliged her to 
 find other means of meeting the difficulty, which was 
 finally surmounted without disturbing his repose. 
 Later in the year, in the autumn of 1557, it was 
 confidently reported that the old cloistered soldier 
 would take the command of an army which it was 
 found necesssary to assemble in Navarre, and at one 
 mournful moment he had actually taken it into con- 
 sideration whether he would leave his choir, his ser- 
 mons, and his flowers, for the fatigues and privations 
 of a camp. He was often urged, both by the king 
 and the princess-regent, directly by letters, and covert- 
 ly through his secretary and chamberlain, to instruct 
 the prince of Orange to keep in abeyance as long as 
 possible the deed of imperial abdication ; the reasons 
 alleged being, that, when the sceptre had absolutely 
 departed, the Pope would find fresh pretexts for inter- 
 ference in the internal affairs of the empire, and Span- 
 ish influence would be wofully weakened, in the 
 duchy of Milan especially, and generally throughout 
 Europe. But on this point Charles would listen nei- 
 ther to argument nor to entreaty: he was willing to 
 exercise his imperial rights so long as they remained 
 to him ; but he would not retard by an hour the ful- 
 filment of the exact conditions to which he had sub- 
 scribed at Brussels. Philip, on his side, seems to have 
 been as free from jealousy as his father was free from
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 115 
 
 repentance. Although frequently implored by his sis- 
 ter to return to Spain and relieve her of the burden of 
 power, he continued in Flanders, maintaining that his 
 presence was of greater importance near the seat of 
 war, and that, so long as their father lived and would 
 assist her with his counsel, she would find no great 
 difficulty in conducting the internal affairs of Castille. 
 In truth, Philip's filial affection and reverence shines 
 like a grain of fine gold in the base metal of his char- 
 acter: his father was the one wise and strong man 
 who crossed his path whom he never suspected, un- 
 dervalued, or used ill. The jealousy of which he is 
 popularly accused, however, seems at first sight prob- 
 able, considering the many blacker crimes of which he 
 stands convicted before the world. But the repose of 
 Charles cannot have been troubled with regrets for his 
 resigned power, seeing that in truth he never resigned 
 it at all, but wielded it at Yuste as firmly as he had 
 wielded it at Augsburg or Toledo. He had given up 
 little beyond the trappings of royalty ; and his was 
 not a mind to regret the pageant, the guards, and the 
 gold sticks. 
 
 The portion which he had reserved to himself of 
 the wealth of half the world was one sixteenth part 
 of the rents of the crown,* and a share of the profits of 
 the mines of Guadalcanal. The sum thus raised must 
 have fluctuated from year to year, but it was estimat- 
 
 * The technical words of Gaztelu are, ' ; derechos de once y seis al 
 millar," " duties of eleven and six in the thousand " ; of which I have 
 been able to find no explanation. My friend, Don Pascual de Gayangos, 
 thinks that it ought, perhaps, to have been "on^a y millar," meaning one 
 sixteenth of a thousand, or about 6^ per cent, of the crown rents, the 
 word " on^a," or ounce, the j 6 of a pound, being frequently used to denote 
 that fraction.
 
 116 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 ed by one writer* at twelve thousand ducats, or about 
 fifteen hundred pounds sterling, a provision scarcely 
 amounting to the half of that which his will directed 
 to be made for his natural son, Don John. A sum of 
 thirty thousand ducats was also lying at his disposal 
 in the fortress of Simancas. Soon after the emperor 
 had settled himself at Yuste, he sent Gaztelu to Valla- 
 dolid to arrange with Vazquez about the time and 
 mode of paying the instalments of his revenue. He 
 was likewise instructed to provide for the regular pay- 
 ment of certain alms to the convents in which daily 
 prayers were to be said for the emperors soul, the list 
 being headed by the name of the great Dominican house 
 of Our Lady of Atocha, the miraculous image which is 
 still the favorite idol of Madrid. The envoy returned 
 from Valladolid on the 8th of March, bringing the 
 good news that the mines of Guadalcanal were pro- 
 ducing in great and unusual abundance, and that the 
 king of Portugal had consented that the infanta Mary 
 should visit her mother in Spain. The despatches 
 from Yuste make no complaints of that unpunctuali- 
 ty of the treasury remittances on which historians 
 have frequently had to moralize. Gaztelu, indeed, 
 once cautioned the secretary of state against delays in 
 making his payments, the emperor, he wrote, being 
 most particular in requiring the exact performance of 
 each part of the service of his household.! The ad- 
 vice appears to have been followed ; for the only other 
 remark on the subject is one made by Charles him- 
 self, " the money for the expenses of my house al- 
 ways comes to hand in very good time." $ 
 
 * Sandoval. t Gaztelu to Vazquez, June 15th, 1557. 
 
 1 "La provision de dinero para mi casa llega siempre a muy bien 
 tiempo." Emperor to Vazquez, September 22d, 1557.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 117 
 
 In spite of the untold wealth which Spain possessed 
 beyond the ocean, the crown was in constant distress 
 for money. That financial ruin which was completed 
 by Olivares, had begun in the days of Granvella. By 
 means of bills of exchange, obtained at usurious rates 
 from the bankers of Genoa, the colonial revenue was 
 forestalled two years before it was collected ; and 
 the bars and ingots of Mexico and Peru may be said 
 to have been eaten up by courtiers and soldiers, fired 
 away in cannon, and chanted away by friars, before 
 they had been dug from the caverns of Sierra Madre, 
 or washed from the gravel of Yauricocha. When in 
 due time the precious freight of the galleons reached 
 the royal vaults at Seville, it belonged almost wholly 
 to foreign merchants; and the country having no 
 manufacturing or commercial industry in which the 
 golden harvest could become the seed of new public 
 and private wealth, it passed away to enrich poorer 
 soils and fructify in colder climes. The popular 
 sense of the value of the golden regions was embodied 
 in the proverb, used by expectants heart-sick with de- 
 ferred hope, who said that the event despaired of 
 "would come with the Indian revenue."* The war 
 in Italy and the war in Flanders, the fleets in the 
 Mediterranean, the fortresses on the shores of Africa, 
 now demanded such vast and increasing supplies, 
 that the princess-regent was almost at her wit's end 
 for ways and means of obtaining them. Many a 
 hint did she drop, in her despatches, of the good use 
 she could make of the money at Simancas. But the 
 emperor would take no hints, and, like another Shy- 
 
 * " No se logra mas que ha/.ienda de las IndJas." Mtmoires curieux 
 envoyez de Madrid, sin. 8vo, Paris, 1670.
 
 118 THE CLOISTER LIFE OP 
 
 lock, preferred keeping his ducats to pleasing his 
 daughter. 
 
 Necessity, which has no law and respects none, at 
 length drove the princess and her council to a step 
 contrary to every principle of justice. The plate fleet 
 having arrived at Seville, orders were sent down to the 
 Indian board to take possession of the whole bullion, 
 not only of that which belonged to the crown, but 
 also of that which was the property of private adven- 
 turers, who were to be paid its value in places under 
 government, in orders on the land revenue, or in 
 treasury bonds bearing interest. As might be expect- 
 ed, the robbers who proposed to buy, and the victims 
 who were required to sell, differed widely about the 
 price. The places were refused, the assignats scoffed 
 at; and finally the traders, aided by the wanderers 
 from whom the gains of their wild lives were about to 
 be wrested, attacked the royal officers as they were 
 landing their booty, and rescued it from the grasp of 
 the crown. 
 
 When the news of this transaction reached Yuste, 
 the emperor went into a fit of passion very unusual to 
 his cool temperament. The view which he took of 
 the matter was entirely royal and wrong. He would 
 not, perhaps he could not, see the injustice which had 
 been done to the subject; but he felt most keenly the 
 indignity which had been suffered by the crown. The 
 rough gold-seekers who had thus boldly defended their 
 hard-earned wealth, repelling violence by violence, ap- 
 peared to him no better than pirates who had boarded 
 a royal galleon on the high seas, or brigands who had 
 rifled a train of royal mules on the king's highway. 
 Were his health sufficiently strong, he said, he would
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 119 
 
 go down to Seville himself, and sift the matter to the 
 bottom ; he would not be trammelled by the ordinary 
 forms of justice, but would at once confiscate the 
 goods of the offenders, and place their persons in du- 
 rance, there to fast and do penance for their crime. 
 Unjust as this view of the affair was, it was precisely 
 the view which the traders expected the government 
 to take, and which they would themselves have taken 
 had they been the government. Alarmed for the con- 
 sequences, the prior and consuls of the merchants of 
 Seville the chairman and chamber of commerce of 
 their day raised a sum of money by subscription, 
 and set out to Valladolid with their offering, in hopes 
 of pacifying the regent and the council. On the way, 
 they craved leave to present themselves and tell their 
 story at Yuste. The emperor refused this request 
 with scorn, and assured the princess that he would 
 communicate his indignation to the king, were he to 
 write with both feet in the grave, or, to use his own 
 forcible phrase, " were he holding death in his teeth." * 
 A commission appointed to examine the matter began 
 its sittings in March, and continued them, with but 
 slender results, through the summer and autumn, 
 urged at intervals to despatch by the impatient inqui- 
 ries transmitted from Yuste. It was not till Septem- 
 ber that the emperor showed any symptoms of being 
 reasonable on the matter; nor till he had heard that 
 the most serious discontent prevailed among the com- 
 mercial men of Seville, would he allow Gaztelu to 
 write, that, for the sake of public credit, it might be 
 proper for the regent to alter her policy towards them, 
 
 * t; Soy bueno por ello aunque tengo la muerte entre los dientes, 
 holgarc dc hacerlo." Einp. to Princess-regent, 1st April, 1557.
 
 120 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 and take such a course as would keep them in good 
 humor. One of the arrested culprits, Francisco Tello, 
 however, died, after having been twice submitted to 
 the torture, in the dungeons of Simancas, merely for 
 refusing his gold to that exigency of state against 
 which the neighboring strong-box of the emperor was 
 inexorably shut. 
 
 In the spring of 1557, the foreign affairs of Spain 
 had assumed so grave an aspect, that the king deter- 
 mined to lay them before his father for his consid- 
 eration and advice. For this important mission he 
 selected Ruy Gomez de flilva, count of Melito, after- 
 wards so well known as prince of EbolL This cele- 
 brated favorite, now in his fortieth year, was head 
 of a considerable Portuguese branch of the great house 
 of Silva which traced its heroic lineage to the kings 
 who reigned in Alba Longa. At the marriage of the 
 emperor, he had held the bride's train as one of her 
 pages; attached to the person of Philip from the cra- 
 dle, he had been the playmate of his childhood, and 
 the friend of his youth ; he had accompanied the 
 prince on his travels, and had supported the timid and 
 awkward knight at the tournay and cane-play; not 
 long since, he had carried the wedding gifts to the 
 fond bride who awaited the king at Winchester ; and 
 he was himself married to the proud beauty and heir- 
 ess who was, or was to be, his master's imperious 
 mistress. Strong in these various relations, as in 
 capacity and experience, he was every day gaining 
 ground upon his rival, the magnificent bishop of Ar- 
 ras, and he now ranked as one of the most important 
 personages who stood near the Spanish throne.* 
 
 * Luis de Salazar: Historia de la Casa de Silva, 2 vols, fol., Madrid, 
 1685. II. 456.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 121 
 
 Charles had a high opinion of the favorite's prudence 
 and abilities ; he had for some days looked with anx- 
 iety for his arrival, and he now received him with 
 every demonstration of cordiality. Although he had 
 strictly forbidden the friars to entertain guests, on this 
 occasion he relaxed the rule, and ordered "Quixada to 
 provide him a lodging within the precincts of Yuste. 
 The favored envoy arrived there early on the 23d of 
 March, and was closeted for five hours with the em- 
 peror. Part of his message was an entreaty on behalf 
 of the king, that the ernperor, if his health permitted, 
 and state affairs rendered it expedient, would remove 
 from the monastery to some other residence nearer the 
 seat of government.* Philip also desired his father's 
 opinion on the policy of carrying Don Carlos to Flan- 
 ders to receive the oath of allegiance as heir apparent 
 to the dominions of the house of Burgundy ; and if 
 the emperor approved the design, the count was in- 
 structed to bring the prince with him when he re- 
 turned.f The journey, however, was never made by 
 Don Carlos, his grandfather considering that his fitful 
 and passionate temperament rendered it as yet un- 
 safe to produce him to the world. J Next day, the 
 count had a second audience as long as the first; and 
 the day following, the 25th of March, after hearing 
 mass at daybreak, he mounted his horse and took the 
 road to Toledo. 
 
 The external affairs of the kingdom certainly re- 
 quired at this time counsel of the greatest sagacity, 
 
 * Philip's original letter of the 2d February, 1557, to Ruy Gomez de 
 Silva, is given in the MS. of Gonzalez, 
 t Salazar: Hist, de la Casa de Silva, II. 473. 
 
 J Luis Cabrera de Cordova : Filipe Segundo, fol., Madrid, 1619, p. 144. 
 11
 
 122 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 and action of the greatest promptitude and courage. 
 War was raging on the frontier of the Netherlands, 
 and it was threatened on the frontier of Navarre. Co- 
 ligny, at the head of a considerable army, was laying 
 waste Flemish Artois ; and Henry the Second was 
 preparing forces for still greater operations. Although 
 Anthony of Navarre was still engaged in treating 
 about an amicable cession of his rights to the actual 
 possessor of his kingdom, he was suspected to be se- 
 cretly treating with France for aid to enable him to 
 regain Pamplona by the strong hand. The duke of 
 Alburquerque was charged with the defence of Na- 
 varre ; and in Flanders, where the more important 
 battles were to be fought, Philip the Second had 
 wisely committed his cause to the military genius of 
 the duke of Savoy. 
 
 Italy also presented grave causes for anxiety. Had 
 the power of the Roman see equalled the fury of Paul 
 the Fourth, the house of Austria would long ago have 
 found its neck beneath the heel of that fierce old pon- 
 tiff. The duke of Guise, with a gallant army, was 
 now in the states of the church, and advancing upon 
 the confines of Naples. The insolent incapacity of 
 the Caraffas and the inefficiency of their warlike prep- 
 arations, had not as yet cooled the ardor of their 
 French allies, nor become fully evident to their antag- 
 onist, the duke of Alba. At the beginning of this 
 year's campaign, fortune had frowned on the Spanish 
 arms. The papal forces, led by Strozzi, had recovered 
 Ostia, and had driven the Castillians out of Castel- 
 Gandolfo, Palestrina, and other strongholds, by which 
 they had hoped to bridle both the pope and the 
 Frenchman. Even the duke of Pagliano, Caraffa as
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 123 
 
 he was, had stormed Vicovaro and put the Spanish 
 garrison to the sword.* Alba, therefore, was acting 
 strictly on the defensive, being unwilling to waste 
 blood and treasure on fields where nothing was to be 
 gained but dry blows and barren glory, or, as he said, 
 " to stake the crown of Naples against the brocade 
 surcoat of the duke of Guise."f 
 
 The aid of the great Turk enabled the Most Chris- 
 tian King to attack his Most Catholic brother by sea 
 as well as by land, and to harass him at many points 
 of his extended shores. For the second time within 
 a few years, Christendom was scandalized by seeing 
 St. Denis, St. Peter, and Mahomet leagued against 
 St. James. Solyman the Magnificent had ascended 
 the throne of the east in the same year when Charles 
 the Fifth became emperor of the west. His reign was 
 no less active and eventful, and far more uniform in 
 its prosperity. By the capture of Rhodes, he had 
 driven back the outpost of Christendom to Malta ; he 
 had performed Moslem worship in the cathedral of 
 Buda, and had pushed his ravages to the gates of 
 Vienna ; his power was now acknowledged far up 
 the Adriatic ; and by his judicious protection of the 
 pirates of Africa and the Egean isles, his influence 
 was paramount in the Mediterranean. 
 
 The growth which this piracy was permitted to at- 
 tain is a striking proof of the mutual jealousy and 
 distrust which rendered the Christian powers incapa- 
 ble of any combined and sustained effort for the com- 
 
 * Alex. Andrea : De la Guerra de Kama y de Napoles, Ano de MD. LTI 
 y LVII, 4to, Madrid, 1589, pp. 146, 151. 
 
 t J. A. Vera y Figueroa : Hesultas de la Vida de Don Fern. Alvarez 
 de Toledo, Duque de Alba, 4to, Milan, 1643, p. 66.
 
 124 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 mon interests of Christendom. From Cadiz to Patras 
 there was hardly a spot which had not suffered, and 
 none which felt itself safe, from the wild marauders 
 from the shores of Numidia. Better built, and better 
 manned and equipped, than any other vessels on the 
 ocean, their light galiots and brigantines were ready 
 at all seasons, put out in all weathers, and, stooping 
 on their prey with the swiftness or precision of the 
 cormorant, overbore resistance or baffled pursuit. 
 Sailing in great fleets, they laid waste entire districts 
 and carried oft' whole populations. A few years be- 
 fore, Barbarossa had sold at one time, at his beautiful 
 home on the Bosphorus, where his white totnb still 
 gleams amongst its cypresses, no less than sixteen 
 thousand Christian captives into slavery. It was not 
 only the seaman, the merchant, or the traveller, who 
 was exposed to this calamitous fate. The peasant of 
 Aragon or Provence, who returned at sunset from 
 pruning his vines or his olives far from the sound of 
 the. waves, might on the morrow be ploughing the 
 main, chained to a Barbary oar. Sometimes a whole 
 brotherhood of friars, from telling their beads at ease 
 in Valencia, found themselves hoeing in the rice-fields 
 of Tripoli ; sometimes the vestals of a Sicilian nun- 
 nery were parcelled out amongst the harems of Fez. 
 The blood-red flag ventured fearlessly within range 
 of the guns of St. Elmo or Monjuich ; it had actually 
 floated on the walls of Gaeta ; and when it appeared 
 off the Ligurian shore, the persecuted duke of Savoy 
 wisely fled inland from his castle of Nice. Yet Eu- 
 rope continued to endure these outrages, as it might 
 have endured a visitation of earthquakes or of locusts ; 
 and the white-robed fathers of mercy annually set
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 125 
 
 forth on their beneficent pilgrimages with a ransom of 
 itself sufficient to perpetuate the evils which the order 
 of redemption was intended to relieve. Meanwhile, 
 with such a navy at his disposal as that of Tunis, and 
 Tripoli, and Algiers, and such commanders as Barba- 
 rossa, Sala, or Mami the Arnaut, the Sultan wielded 
 the greatest maritime power in the Mediterranean, 
 and was the most formidable of the foes against whom 
 the wisdom of Charles was now called to defend 
 Spain. 
 
 Flanders, however, appeared to be the point upon 
 which it was advisable that the strength of the crown 
 should be first concentrated. Ruy Gomez de Silva 
 had been instructed to raise eight thousand Castillians 
 for the army of the duke of Savoy. But the treasury 
 of Valladolid being already drained to its last ducat, 
 it became necessary to look elsewhere for the sinews 
 of war. The emperor was of opinion that it was now 
 time to apply for aid to the Church. The primate of 
 Spain, Cardinal Siliceo, was very infirm and very 
 loyal, and his tenure of the second wealthiest see in 
 Europe had been sufficiently long to make him very 
 rich. To his money-bags it was therefore determined 
 first to apply the lancet, and the operator at once set 
 off for Toledo. 
 
 The good old prelate bled freely and without a 
 murmur, pouring into the royal coffers, in the shape 
 of a benevolence, or loan which had but slender 
 chance of being paid, no less a sum than four hun- 
 dred thousand ducats. The archbishop of Zaragoza, 
 who was next applied to, was also tolerably generous, 
 contributing, from revenues of no great magnificence, 
 twenty thousand ducats. The bishop of Cordova 
 11*
 
 126 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 was less tractable. Although his see was very rich, 
 and he himself an illegitimate scion of the house of 
 Austria, it was not until he had received several hints 
 from the emperor himself that he consented to ad- 
 vance one hundred thousand ducats. Fernando de 
 Valdes, archbishop of Seville, was, however, the prel- 
 ate who strove with most spirit against, the spoliations 
 of the king's envoy. Magnificent to the church, and 
 mean to all the rest of the world, profligate, selfish, 
 and bigoted, with some refinement of taste, and much 
 dignity of manner, he was a fair specimen of the great 
 ecclesiastic of the sixteenth century. In spite of his 
 seventy-four years, his abilities and energies were un- 
 impaired, while his selfishness and bigotry were daily 
 becoming more intense. The splendid mitre of St. 
 Isidore was the sixth that had pressed his politic 
 brows ; for beginning his episcopal career in the little 
 Catalonian see of Helna, he had intrigued his way not 
 only to the throne of Seville, but to the chair of grand 
 inquisitor at Valladolid.* He left, as the principal 
 memorials of his name, as archbishop, the crown of 
 masonry and the weathercock Faith on the beautiful 
 belfry of his cathedral at Seville ; and as inquisitor, 
 two thousand four hundred death-warrants in the ar- 
 chives of the holy office of Spain. 
 
 When this astute prelate received from Ruy Go- 
 mez de Silva the unwelcome notice that the king ex- 
 pected his aid in the shape of mundane coin as well 
 as of spiritual fire, he adopted the truly Castillian 
 tactics of delay, and allowed two months to elapse 
 
 * D. Ortiz de Zuiiiga: Annales de Sevilla, fol., Madrid, 1677, pp. 503, 
 632.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 127 
 
 without returning any definite reply. At length the 
 emperor himself addressed him a letter similar in style 
 to that which had opened the purse-strings of the 
 bishop of Cordova. It was with much surprise, said 
 Charles, that he found an old servant of the crown, 
 who had held great preferment for so many years, thus 
 backward with his offering when the emergency was 
 so grave and the security so good. The archbishop, 
 seeing the affair growing serious, now left the court 
 and retired to the monastery, a few leagues off, of St. 
 Martin de la Fuente. From this retreat he penned a 
 reply, than which nothing could be more temperate, 
 plausible, dignified, and evasive. Professing the pro- 
 foundest reverence for his Catholic Caesarean majesty, 
 and gratitude for his past favors, he assured him that 
 he never had had the good fortune to possess four 
 hundred thousand ducats in his life. His revenues 
 were more than absorbed by the colleges which he 
 was building at Salamanca and Oviedo, and by a 
 chapel, likewise in progress, in Asturias, in which he 
 intended to endow seven chaplains to say perpetual 
 masses for the souls of his majesty and the empress. 
 All that he could do, therefore, was to borrow a por- 
 tion of the money which he had already allotted to 
 these charities, trusting that, small as it would be, the 
 emperor would accept it, and make provision for its 
 restitution in due time. 
 
 Meanwhile, unfortunately for the prelate's case, six 
 mules laden with silver were seen to arrive from the 
 south at his palace at Valladolid. The princess-re- 
 gent, therefore, directed Hernando de Ochoa, one of 
 the royal accountants, to proceed to St. Martin de la 
 Fuente, and reason the archbishop into compliance.
 
 128 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 The details of the interview are given in a letter from 
 Ochoa to the emperor.* Poverty was still the plea 
 urged by the prelate, but in a style very different from 
 the courtly tone of his letters from Yuste. How could 
 he find so much money? Where was it to come 
 from ? He had never had one hundred thousand du- 
 cats in his possession at one time in his life, nor 
 eighty thousand, nor sixty thousand, no, nor even 
 thirty thousand. Might all the devils take him if he 
 ever had ! He would also swear it, if needful, on the 
 most holy sacrament. Nothing daunted, the cool ac- 
 countant assured his lordship that he labored under a 
 mistake ; taking his archbishopric at the admitted an- 
 nual value of sixty thousand ducats, he proceeded to 
 anatomize the prelate's annual expenditure, and com- 
 pare it with his revenue; and considering that it was 
 notorious that his lordship never gave dinners or 
 bought plate, he ended by advising him to offer as a 
 compromise the sum of one hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand ducats. But he also recommended him to re- 
 turn to court, and attend to the business at once, or 
 else the emperor would infallibly find some means of 
 helping himself to the larger sum which he might 
 fairly demand. 
 
 Reasoning of the same kind was also used by the 
 archbishop's brother, who was afterwards sent to him 
 by the princess. Last of all came a second letter 
 from Yuste, in which the emperor plainly told his 
 " reverend father in Christ," that it was well known 
 that his coffers had lately been replenished with as 
 much silver as six mules could carry, and that he 
 
 * May 20th.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 129 
 
 hoped therefore that he would pay quietly, as it would 
 be very unpleasant to have to use stronger means of 
 compulsion. The old fox, however, was a match for 
 them all; he continued to fence for a week or two 
 more ; and he finally induced the princess to accept of 
 one third of the sum named by her accountant, or 
 fifty thousand ducats, of which only one half was to 
 be paid down in ready money. 
 
 Ruy Gomez de Silva was again at Yuste on the 
 14th of May, and on the 15th of July. On each occa- 
 sion he had a long interview with the emperor to re- 
 port his progress in the king's affairs. In his last visit 
 he was accompanied by Monsieur Ezcurra and Mon- 
 sieur Burdeo, agents of the duke of Vendome ; and 
 the emperor gave a patient hearing to their proposal 
 that their master should cede his claims on Navarre 
 on receiving the investiture of the duchy of Milan. 
 It cannot be supposed that Charles ever dreamed of 
 paying such a price for a province which was already 
 his own, and which had been part of the dominions of 
 his house for fifty years.* But it was of great impor- 
 tance to keep alive the hopes of the pretender, who, 
 like a true Bourbon, was intriguing both with France 
 and Spain, and capable of any treachery to either for 
 the slightest gain to himself. In August, he was re- 
 ported to have gone down to Rochelle to inspect the 
 squadron which Henry the Second was fitting out to 
 attack the annual plate fleet, now on its homeward 
 
 * In one of the papers mentioned in Chap. III. p. 54. note, Charles, 
 while he recorded his belief that Navarre had been justly conquered by 
 his grandfather, nevertheless charged Philip carefully to consider whether 
 it ought to be restored, or compensation allowed to any of the claimants, 
 a clear proof that he himself did not intend to settle the matter. Pa- 
 piers de Granuelle, IV. 500.
 
 130 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 voyage to the Guadalquivir. It was thought neces- 
 sary, therefore, to strengthen the forces of Albur- 
 querque, and to use double vigilance in guarding the 
 passes into Navarre ; and it was now that the rumor 
 arose _of the emperor's intention to take the command 
 there in person. During the summer, a considerable 
 body of troops had been embarked at Laredo, for 
 Flanders. Ruy Gomez de Silva followed, proba- 
 bly about the end of July, taking with him a sec- 
 ond detachment, and the money which he, the 
 regent, and the emperor had succeeded in wringing 
 from the poverty of the state and the avarice of the 
 church. 
 
 The king of Portugal died at Lisbon, on the llth 
 of June, and on the 15th the tidings reached Yuste. 
 John the Third was a prince of but slender capacity, 
 but the mantle of his father's good fortune remained 
 with him for a while ; and his reign belongs to the 
 golden age of Portugal, being illustrated with the 
 great names of De Gama and Noronha, De Castro and 
 Xavier. But disasters abroad and misfortune at home 
 clouded the close of his career. The death of his only 
 son, Don Juan, was closely followed by that of his 
 brother, the gallant Don Luis, to whom the nation 
 looked as natural guardian of the baby heir. The 
 king himself fell into premature decrepitude, both of 
 body and mind. The little Sebastian, his grandson, 
 was sitting one day by his bedside, when something 
 was brought to the king to drink. The child, asking 
 for something too, began to cry, because the cup of- 
 fered him had not a cover, like that which had been 
 given to his grandfather, a mark of early ambition 
 which the old man took very much to heart, and or-
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 131 
 
 dered the boy out of the room for thus desiring to be 
 treated like a king before his time.* 
 
 First cousin to Charles the Fifth, John was also 
 brother of his empress, husband of his sister, and 
 father-in-law of two of his children. But, in spite of 
 these intricately entwined ties, they were not on the 
 most cordial terms ; and the plans and policy of one 
 court were studiously kept secret from the other. 
 When secretary Gaztelu, therefore, wrote to the secre- 
 tary of state to send a speedy and ample supply of 
 the best and deepest mourning for the imperial house- 
 hold, he also required him to find out what had passed 
 in the Portuguese council of state, at a meeting at 
 which it was understood the late king had expressed 
 a wish to abdicate, and to appoint the princess of 
 Brazil as guardian of her son and regent of his king- 
 dom. But in making these inquiries, he was to be 
 especially careful that the emperor's name was not 
 connected with the affair. Don Fadrique Henriquez 
 de Guzman, mayordomo of Don Carlos, was soon 
 after despatched to Yuste, to be the bearer of the em- 
 peror's condolences to his sister, the widowed queen 
 Catherine. He arrived, with the mourning for the 
 household, on the 3d of July, was admitted to a long 
 audience on the 4th, and at daybreak on the 5th set 
 out for Lisbon. He was furnished with very minute 
 instructions, and was specially charged to make no 
 mention of the princess of Brazil in his conversations 
 with the queen or the ministers. But while the ern- 
 peror wished to avoid all apparent interference, he 
 was nevertheless very desirous that his daughter 
 
 * Menezes : Chronica, p. 43.
 
 132 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 should be appointed to the Portuguese regency. The 
 princess herself was naturally most anxious to have 
 the guardianship of her son and his interests; and it 
 was perhaps with a view to Portugal that she so fre- 
 quently implored her brother to relieve her from her 
 duties in Spain. But weeks passed away without 
 any certain intelligence, and although there were two 
 Spanish envoys at Lisbon, the princess determined to 
 send a third, in the person of father Francisco Borja. 
 Neither Portugal nor the house of Avis, however, 
 would submit to the rule of a sister of the king of 
 Spain. The regency was therefore given to the queen 
 dowager, who closed her able administration with the 
 brilliant defence of Mazagaon against the Moors. 
 The reins then passed to the feebler hands of the car- 
 dinal Henry, nor was Juana ever permitted to hold 
 any share of power, or even to embrace her son. 
 
 For disappointments in Portugal the emperor was 
 consoled by glorious news from Flanders. Philip had 
 landed there in July, with eight thousand troops, in- 
 trusted to him by his fond queen and her reluctant 
 people. Emboldened by this accession of strength, 
 and reinforced by the new levies from Spain, the duke 
 of Savoy was now able to carry on the war with 
 greater vigor. He held Coligny blockaded in St. 
 Quentin, a place of some strength on the steep bank 
 of the Somme. The constable de Montmorency, who 
 commanded the main French army, was ordered by 
 the king of France to throw some troops into the place. 
 Permitting this movement to be effected with but little 
 opposition, the duke seized that opportunity of pass- 
 ing the river with his whole force. By a succession 
 of skilful manoeuvres, he succeeded in surprising
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 133 
 
 Montmorency, and compelling him to give battle, 
 when count Egmont, at the head of seven thousand 
 cavalry, obtained in one brilliant charge the most 
 complete victory ever won by the lions and castles of 
 Spain from the lilies of France. The army of the 
 constable suffered utter annihilation, while the loss of 
 the duke was said not to exceed one hundred men. 
 The duke d'Enghien, Turenne, and other French 
 leaders of note, were slain ; and the constable and 
 four princes of the blood, the Rhinegrave, and a host 
 of the French nobility, with cannon, munition, and 
 countless banners, fell into the hands of the Span- 
 iard. 
 
 This great battle was fought on the 10th of August. 
 The first news was conveyed to the emperor in a brief 
 despatch from Vazquez, dated on the 20th, and prob- 
 ably reached Yuste about the 23d. A more detailed 
 account, which was afterwards printed at Vallado- 
 lid, soon arrived, brought or closely followed by a 
 courier sent by the king from Flanders. The empe- 
 ror listened to the intelligence with the greatest inter- 
 est, and ordered the messenger to be rewarded with 
 a gold chain and a handsome sum of money.* On 
 the 7th of September, a solemn mass was celebrated 
 in the conventual church, in token of thanksgiving, 
 and considerable alms were distributed from the im- 
 perial purse to the neighboring poor. The emperor 
 was much disappointed to learn that his son had not 
 been present in the field, and bestowed his maledic- 
 
 * Gonzalez says 150,000 ducats, which is probably a slip of the pen 
 for maravedis. The emperor is reported to have greatly disappointed 
 the soldier who brought him the sword and gauntlets of Francis the 
 First from the field of Pavia, by giving him only one hundred gold 
 crowns for his trouble. Relatione of Badovaro. 
 12
 
 134 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 tion upon the English troops, for whom the king was 
 reported to have been waiting in the rear. For some 
 weeks he continued impatient for news, counting the 
 days, as Quixada wrote, which must elapse before 
 the king could be at the gates of Paris. The citizens 
 of Paris, like the emperor, also took it for granted that 
 the Spaniards would march directly upon their capi- 
 tal, and many of the wealthier families fled southward 
 into the heart of the kingdom. But the hopes of 
 Yuste and the fears of the Louvre were equally foiled 
 of their fulfilment; for Philip, ever timid and procras- 
 tinating, wasted the golden moments and the enthu- 
 siasm of his troops on the capture of a few insignifi- 
 cant fortresses in Picardy. 
 
 The triumph of the duke of Savoy in the Nether- 
 lands had a singular effect upon the war in Italy. No 
 sooner had Guise commenced offensive operations 
 against the kingdom of Naples, than he discovered 
 that no aid was to be expected from the pope or his 
 nephews, and no reliance to be placed on their prom- 
 ises. They had already exasperated him by refusing 
 him Ostia or Ancona, which he wished to garrison, as 
 a retreat for his troops in case of the failure of the 
 enterprise. These robber-churchmen, indeed, treated 
 their French knight-errant very much as Gines de 
 Passamonte and his gang treated the good knight of 
 La Mancha, after he had rescued them, at the expense 
 of his bones, from the lash and the oar.* As Guise 
 lay on the border-stream of Tronto, he was joined by 
 little more than one half of the papal auxiliaries 
 which had been promised him ; and he had not ad- 
 
 * Don Quixote, Part I. Cap. 22.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 135 
 
 v a need far into the enemy's territory before the inso- 
 lence of the Roman leader, the marquis of Monte- 
 bello, compelled him to turn that Caraffa ignominious- 
 ly out of his camp. With zeal thus cooled, and with 
 forces quite inadequate to effect any permanent con- 
 quest for France, Guise therefore confined his opera- 
 tions to the capture of some paltry places in the 
 Abruzzi, and to an unsuccessful siege of Civitella, 
 from which he was driven with considerable loss both 
 of men and time. Retreating towards Rome, he 
 threatened to evacuate the ecclesiastical states, and 
 join the duke of Ferrara in an attack upon Parma 
 and the Milanese. Alba in his turn now crossed the 
 Tronto, marched into the Campagna, and took up a 
 position within sight of Rome. The pope and the 
 Caraffas, no less cowardly than rash, humbled them- 
 selves before Guise, and bribed him to assist them by 
 fresh promises ; and the war might have been again 
 renewed but for the tidings of St. Quentin. Happily 
 for art and its monuments, the panic of the king of 
 France, the baseness of the king of Spain, and the 
 supple treachery of Christ's vicar, saved Rome from a 
 second sack. Guise and his army were instantly re- 
 called ; Alba was instructed that his master valued 
 his great victory chiefly because it might restore him 
 to the good graces of the pope ; * and the holy father 
 himself made haste to sacrifice his friend, and con- 
 clude a close bargain with his foe. The terms ob- 
 tained were no less disgraceful to Paul and to Philip 
 than advantageous to the Roman see. The Pop'e 
 was bound not to take part against Spain during the 
 
 * J. V. Rustant: Historic, del Duque de Alba, 2 torn., 4to, Madrid, 
 1751,11.59.
 
 136 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 present war, and not to assist the duke of Guise with 
 provisions or protection. The king, on his side, en- 
 gaged to restore all the places he had taken from the 
 pope, and raze the fortifications with which he had 
 strengthened them ; to do homage for the crown of 
 Naples; and, while he claimed an amnesty for the 
 papal rebels, he permitted the pontiff to except from 
 it Marc Antonio Colonna and the chief Roman mag- 
 nates who had been the most active of Alba's allies, 
 and whose fortunes were best worth the acceptance 
 of the plundering Caraffas.* 
 
 The emperor had ever regarded Paul's policy with 
 indignation, which had lately become mingled with 
 scorn. He was for meeting his fury with calm firm- 
 ness ; and it was by his advice that the bulls of ex- 
 communication, which were frantically fulminated 
 against his son, were forbidden to be published in the 
 churches, and were declared contraband in the sea- 
 ports of Spain. Had the king been a heretic, said 
 Charles, he could not have been treated with greater 
 rigor; the quarrel was none of his seeking; and in 
 his endeavors to avoid it he had done all that was re- 
 quired of him before God and the world. Had the 
 matter been left in the hands of the emperor, Paul 
 would have been dealt with in the stern fashion 
 which brought Clement to his senses : Alba would 
 have been directed to advance, Rome would have 
 been stormed, the pontiff made prisoner ; and the pri- 
 mate of Spain and the prior of Yuste would have 
 been directed to put their altars into mourning, and 
 say many masses for the speedy deliverance of the 
 holy father of the faithful. 
 
 * J. V. Rustant : Hist. delD.de Alba, II. 61.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 137 
 
 It is not very clear why Philip the Second dealt 
 thus gently with the foolish and wicked old man who 
 was now at his mercy. Certain it is, that no senti- 
 ment of generosity towards a fallen foe ever found 
 place in that cold and selfish heart. His moderation 
 may have been dictated by pure superstition, or it 
 may have arisen from a secret desire to obtain, at 
 some future time, the Pope's sanction for his scheme 
 of dividing the great sees and abbeys of the Low 
 Countries ; a scheme which he afterwards executed at 
 the cost of so much blood, treasure, and territory. 
 
 The Roman treaty was almost the sole affair of im- 
 portance transacted during the emperor's sojourn at 
 Yuste, without his opinion having been first asked 
 and his approval obtained. About the middle of 
 October, he heard with some anxiety that Alba had 
 concluded a treaty with the Pope, but the precise con- 
 ditions, being probably still unknown at Valladolid, 
 did not then reach Yuste. Writing by his master's 
 desire for fuller information, Quixada confided to the 
 secretary of state that the emperor was very much 
 afraid that the terms obtained were bad, having gener- 
 ally observed that a treaty was sure to prove unfavor- 
 able when it was reported to be completed and yet the 
 specification of the particular clauses withheld. The 
 next instalment of news, that the French army had 
 effected their retreat, only increased the misgivings of 
 the emperor. At length there came a detailed account 
 of the negotiations, and a copy of the treaty, which 
 the secretary of state said had given satisfaction both 
 at Rome and at Valladolid. At each paragraph that 
 was read, the emperor's anger grew fiercer; and before 
 the paper had been gone through, he would hear no 
 
 12*
 
 138 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 more. He was laid up next day with an attack of 
 gout, which the people about him ascribed to the vex- 
 ation which he had suffered; and so deep an impres- 
 sion did the affair make upon his mind, that for 
 weeks after he was frequently overheard muttering to 
 himself, through his shattered teeth, broken sentences 
 of displeasure. 
 
 One of the subjects which lay nearest the emperor's 
 heart was the education of his grandson, Don Carlos. 
 The impression made upon him by the boy during his 
 brief stay at Valladolid had been, as we have seen, 
 unfavorable. The prince's governor, Don Garcia de 
 Toledo, was ordered to transmit to Yuste regular ac- 
 counts of his pupil's progress. His letters, though few 
 of them are in existence, were probably frequent, and 
 they are so minute in their details of the prince's 
 health and habits, that there is no doubt but the em- 
 peror took a lively interest in his grandson. Carlos 
 is painted by his tutor as a sickly, sulky, and back- 
 ward boy, certainly very unlikely to grow up the pa- 
 triot into which the poet's license and the historian's 
 paradox have turned him at a later period of his un- 
 happy life. On the 13th of July, Don Garcia com- 
 plained to the emperor that his pupil was lazy at his 
 books, and constipated in his bowels. The king, he 
 said, had ordered him down to Tordesillas, as a place 
 better suited for study than the court; but he, for his 
 part, thought that, if they were to leave Valladolid at 
 all, the prince would be nowhere so well as at Yuste, 
 under the eye of his grandfather. 
 
 A month later, on the 27th of August, he wrote 
 that Don Carlos was better in health, but so choleric 
 in temper, that they were thinking of putting him un-
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 139 
 
 der a course of physic for that disorder ; but that they 
 would wait until the emperor's pleasure was known. 
 He then described the prince's mode of passing 
 the day. Rising somewhat before seven, he prayed, 
 breakfasted, and went to hear mass at half past eight; 
 after which came lessons until eleven, when he 
 dined. A few hours were then given to amusement 
 with his companions, with whom he played at Iru- 
 cos (a game somewhat like bowls) or quoits; at 
 half past three he partook of a light meal (merienda), 
 which was followed by reading, and an hour of out- 
 door exercise, before or after supper, according to the 
 weather. By half past nine he had gone through the 
 prayers of his rosary, and was in bed, where he soon 
 fell fast asleep. The poor tutor was compelled still to 
 acknowledge that he had failed to imbue him with the 
 slightest love of learning, in which he consequently 
 made but little progress ; that he not only hated his 
 books, but showed no inclination for cane-playing, or 
 the still more necessary accomplishment of fencing; 
 and that he was so careless and awkward on horse- 
 back, that they were afraid of letting him ride much, 
 for fear of accidents. To the emperor, who had loved 
 and practised all manly sports with the ardor and 
 the skill of a true Burgundian, it must have been a 
 disappointment to learn that the prowess of duke 
 Charles and kaiser Max, which had dwindled wofully 
 in his son Philip, seemed altogether extinct in the 
 next generation. 
 
 These notices of the character of the heir apparent 
 are confirmed by the account of him which the Ve- 
 netian ambassador at the court of Bmxelles transmit- 
 ted to his republic. He reported that Don Carlos was
 
 140 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 a youth of a haughty and turbulent temper, which his 
 tutors vainly endeavored to tame by making him read 
 Cicero's treatise De Officiis ; and that, upon being 
 told that the Low Countries were settled upon the 
 issue of his step-mother, Mary of England, he declared 
 that he would maintain his right to those states in 
 single combat with any son who might be born to his 
 father in that marriage.* 
 
 * Relatione of Badovaro.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 141 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE VISIT OF THE QUEENS. 
 
 DURING the whole of the year 1557 the emperor's 
 health gave him but little annoyance, and cost Dr. 
 Mathys but little trouble or anxiety. It seemed as if 
 there were some truth in the saying, attributed by the 
 monks to Torriano, and supposed to have been the 
 result of his astrological researches, that the Vera was 
 the most salubrious place in the world, and Yuste the 
 most salubrious spot in the Vera.* In spite of gener- 
 ally eating too much, Charles slept well, and his gout 
 made itself felt only in occasional twinges ; so effec- 
 tually did the senna-wine counteract the syrup of 
 quinces which he drank at breakfast, the Rhine-wine 
 which washed down his midday meal, and the beer 
 which, though denounced by the doctor, was the habit- 
 ual beverage of the 'patient whenever he was thirsty. 
 He had suffered, in September, a slight attack of 
 dysentery from eating too much fruit. Towards the 
 end of October, he was troubled by an inflammation 
 in his left eye, and, while waiting one day for a 
 draught of senna-wine, fell down in a fainting-fit, 
 from which, however, he was soon recovered by a lit- 
 tle vinegar sprinkled on his face, and suffered no sub- 
 sequent ill effect. About the middle of December, he 
 
 * Siguen^a, III. 200.
 
 142 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 complained of feebleness, and of phlegm in his throat ; 
 and, for a while, forewent wine and beer, and drank 
 hypocras and hot water. With these exceptions, he 
 \vas in very tolerable health : he was able to go out 
 with his gun, though not always able to take a steady 
 aim without help : he passed a good deal of time in 
 the open air; and frequently went to confess and take 
 the sacrament at the hermitage of Bethlehem, a 
 dependency of the convent, and about a quarter of a 
 mile off in the forest. 
 
 In the Vera, the year was very unhealthy, the spring 
 having been marked by a famine, which extended 
 over the greater part of Estremadura. So severe was 
 the scarcity, that the emperor's sumpter mules, laden 
 with dainties, on their way to the convent, were pil- 
 laged by the hungry peasants ; and, in the Campo de 
 Aranuelo, almost the \vhole population of several 
 villages perished of starvation. In the autumn, se- 
 vere colds and fevers prevailed at Yuste and Quacos ; 
 and William Van Male lost two children, and was in 
 great apprehension for the life of his wife. 
 
 The emperor gave much of his leisure time and un- 
 employed thought to his garden. He had ever been 
 a lover of nature, and a cherisher of birds and flowers. 
 In one of his campaigns, the story was told, that, a 
 swallow having built her nest and hatched her young 
 upon his tent, he would not allow the tent to be 
 struck when the army resumed its march, but left it 
 standing for the sake of the mother and brood.* From 
 Tunis he is said to have brought not only the best 
 
 * Yieyra : 6Vmoens, Vol. XV. p. 195. Quoted in Southey's Common- 
 place Book, I. p. 408.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 143 
 
 of his laurels, but the pretty flower called the Indian 
 pink, sending it from the African shore to his gardens 
 in Spain, whence, in time, it won its way into every 
 cottage garden in Europe.* Yuste was a very para- 
 dise for these simple tastes and harmless pleasures. 
 The emperor spent part of the summer in embellish- 
 ing the ground immediately below his windows ; 
 he raised a terrace, on which he placed a fountain, 
 and laid out a parterre ; and beneath it he formed a 
 second parterre, planted, like the first, with flowers 
 and orange-trees. Amongst his poultry were some 
 Indian fowls, sent him by the bishop of Plasencia. 
 Of two fish-ponds which he caused to be formed with 
 the water of the adjacent brook, he stored one with 
 trout, and the other with tench. It was evidently his 
 wish to make himself comfortable in the retreat where 
 he had a reasonable prospect of passing many years. 
 In the autumn, he sent for an additional gamekeeper 
 to kill game for his table ; and in winter, for a new 
 stove for his apartments ; and he also received from 
 Flanders a large box of tapestry, amongst which was 
 a set of hangings wrought with scenes from his cam- 
 paigns at Tunis, which still exist in the queen of 
 Spain's palace at Madrid. He also contemplated an 
 addition to his little palace, and he had made several 
 drawings with his own hands of an intended oratory, 
 and a new wing for the accommodation of the king, 
 his son, who was to visit him as soon as public af- 
 
 * Eene Rapin, in his Hortorum Libri, IV., 4to, Paris, 1665, Lib. I. 
 ver. 952 - 954, thus celebrates the event : 
 
 " Hunc primus pceno quondam de littore florem, 
 Dum premeret duro obsidione Tunetum 
 Carolus Austriades terne transmisit Ibere."
 
 144 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 fairs permitted him to return to Spain. The plans 
 never proceeded farther than the paper stage ; nor was 
 Philip's visit to Yuste paid until the emperor's own 
 rooms were vacant. 
 
 During the spring, Luis Quixada's home-sick heart 
 was gladdened by leave of absence, a favor accord- 
 ed of the emperor's own free will, and unasked, as 
 the honest chamberlain was careful to observe in 
 his next letter to the secretary of state. He would 
 have been very glad, he added, if he were not com- 
 ing back any more, to eat asparagus and truffles 
 in Estremadura.* He set out on the 3d of April, and 
 the impatient English courier who had come the day 
 before with his complaints of Castillian dilatoriness f 
 was probably his companion as he rode through the 
 wild glens and over the sweet flowery wastes to 
 Valladolid. To the princess-regent and the queen he 
 carried letters, written in the emperor's own hand, 
 which showed how implicitly the old soldier was 
 trusted, and how he was treated almost like one of 
 the family. The letter to the regent briefly referred 
 her to the bearer for an account of her father's way of 
 life, and his views on financial matters, and on the 
 proper mode of dealing with the Sevillian rogues who 
 preferred keeping their money to giving it to the state ; 
 while in the letter to the queen of France, the royal 
 matron was advised by her brother to take counsel 
 with the mayordomo in the affair of the meeting 
 with her daughter, the impracticable infanta of Por- 
 tugal. 
 
 * " Bien me alegrara, no volver a Estremadnra a comer esparragos y 
 tarmos de tierra." To Juan Vazquez, March 28th, 1557. 
 t Chap. V. p. 113.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 145 
 
 At court and at his house at Villagarcia, Quixa- 
 da remained until August, when the emperor, who 
 missed him more each day, sent for him back. In 
 the absence of the chief of his household, he seems to 
 have fallen in some degree into the hands of the friars, 
 and by that circumstance to have partially lost his 
 prepossession in favor of the Jeromite robe. " The 
 friars," writes Gaztelu, in undisguised glee, " do not 
 understand his majesty ; and now at last he has found 
 out, I think, his mistake in supposing that they are 
 fit to be employed in his service in any way what- 
 ever." It was high time, therefore, that Quixada 
 should resume the command, and drive the monks 
 back over the frontier. He arrived at Yuste on the 
 21st of August, having ridden post to Medina del 
 Campo, and thence on what he called beasts of the 
 country. The emperor was very glad to see him ; 
 and he was also glad to find the emperor very well, 
 paler perhaps, but fatter than when he took his leave. 
 Rumors had reached Valladolid, probably in conse- 
 quence of the alarm raised in Navarre, that Charles 
 intended to leave the convent, but the chamberlain 
 now assured the secretary that they were unfounded. 
 " His majesty," he wrote, " is 'the most contented 
 man in the world, and the quietest, and the least de- 
 sirous of moving in any direction whatsoever, as he 
 tells us himself." * After thirty-five years of service, 
 and being by the death of his brother the last of his 
 house, Quixada had much wished to be relieved of 
 his official duties, and settle at home. But the em- 
 
 * " Esta el hombre el mas contento del mundo, y con mas reposo y 
 con menor gana para salir para ninguna parte y ansi lo dice." 
 13
 
 146 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 peror having so urged him to remain, that it was im- 
 possible to refuse, he had now resolved, he said, to 
 move his wife and household into Estremadura, in 
 spite of the expense and inconvenience to which it 
 must put him, and his great dislike to the country. 
 The letter in which this determination was conveyed 
 to Vazquez ended, as usual, with the date, " In 
 Yuste," to which the writer in this case added the 
 words, " evil to him who built it here ; 30th of Au- 
 gust, 1557." * 
 
 During this summer, in Fray Juan de Ortega f the 
 convent lost one of its best inmates, and the emperor 
 and his household their favorite amongst the friars. 
 Having been ailing for some time, he obtained leave, 
 at the end of May, to retire to his own convent at 
 Alba de Tormes. On the 24th of August, the whole 
 community of Yuste were saddened by the news of 
 his death. Finding himself no better, and getting 
 weary of his doctor, he put himself into the hands of 
 a gatherer of simples, the quack of the district, who 
 very speedily relieved him from his sufferings, and 
 from further need of physic. Ortega is one of those 
 men of whose life the remaining fragments make us 
 wish for more. As general, having suffered a vote of 
 censure for attempting to reform the order, the decree 
 of the chapter had likewise declared him and his asso- 
 ciates incapable of afterwards bearing any rule within 
 the domain of St. Jerome. The emperor must have 
 approved of his policy, or at least must have consid- 
 ered him unjustly treated, for he almost immediately 
 
 * En Yuste : mal haya quien aqui lo edifice ; a. los 30 de Augusto, 
 1557. 
 
 t Chap. II. p. 44 ; Chap. IV. p. 92.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 147 
 
 afterwards offered him a mitre in the Indies. But Or- 
 tega declined the honor, saying that the friar whom his 
 superiors had pronounced unfit to hold a priory must 
 be unfit to preside over a diocese, and that he consid- 
 ered it to be his duty to submit, as a private monk, to 
 the penance imposed upon him. In 1553, while he was 
 still general, there issued from an Antwerp press the 
 charming story of Lazarillo de Tormes, destined to be 
 a model of racy Castillian, and to found a new school 
 of literature. Leaving the courts and the castles, the 
 peers and paladins of conventional romance, the witty 
 novelist had taken for his hero a little dirty urchin of 
 Salamanca, and sent him forth to delight Europe 
 with his exquisite humor, keen satire, and vivid pic- 
 tures of Spanish life, and to win a popularity which 
 was not equalled until the great knight of La Mancha 
 took the field. The authorship, however, remained 
 unacknowledged and unknown ; and it was not until 
 after the death of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza that it 
 came to be generally ascribed to that accomplished 
 statesman, soldier, and historian. But at the decease 
 of Ortega there was found in his cell a manuscript 
 of the work, from which the fathers of Alba conjec- 
 tured that it must have been written in his college 
 days at Salamanca.* Whether the glory belong to 
 
 * The story is told by Siguenca, II. p. 184. N. Antonio includes 
 Lazarillo among the works of Mendoza, but he says that some people 
 still ascribed it to Ortega. Mr. Ticknor, in his excellent and discerning 
 criticism on Mendoza (History of Spanish Literature, 3 vols., 8vo, New 
 York, 1849, 1. 513) raises no doubt as to the authorship, without, how- 
 ever, stating on what, besides internal evidence, Mendoza's claim rests. 
 The first edition was printed at Antwerp, 1553; another appeared at 
 Burgos, in 1554, and a third at Antwerp, in the same year ; yet the first 
 mentioned by Antonio is that of Tarragona, 1586 ; so ignorant was the
 
 148 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 the layman or the churchman, the monk who was ca- 
 pable of so chivalrously refusing a mitre, and who 
 was supposed to be capable of writing the first and 
 one of the best modern fictions, must have been a 
 man of noble character, and of remarkable powers. 
 
 The ignorance and gossiping of the friars were not 
 the sole local annoyances suffered by the emperor and 
 his household. The villagers of Quacos were the 
 unruly Protestants who troubled his reign in the Vera. 
 Although these rustics shared amongst them the 
 greater part of the hundred ducats which he dispensed 
 every month in charity, they teased him by constant 
 acts of petty aggression, by impounding his cows, 
 poaching his fish-ponds, and stealing his fruit. One 
 fellow having sold the crop on a cherry-tree to the 
 emperor's purveyor at double its value, and for ready 
 money, when he found that it was left ungathered, re- 
 sold it to a fresh purchaser, who of course left nothing 
 but bare boughs behind him. Weary of this persecu- 
 tion, Charles at last sent for Don Juan de Vega, pres- 
 ident of Castille, who arrived on the 25th of August 
 at Luis Quixada's house, in the guilty village. Next 
 morning he had an interview of an hour and a half 
 with the emperor ; and spent the day following in 
 concerting measures with the licentiate Murga, the 
 rural judge, to whom he administered a sharp rebuke, 
 which that functionary in his turn visited upon the 
 unruly rustics. The president returned to Valladolid 
 on the 28th ; and a few days afterwards several cul- 
 prits were apprehended. But whilst Castillian jus- 
 
 laborious bibliographer of Spain being also a churchman of one of 
 the most curious and valuable portions of her literature, the novels.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 149 
 
 \ 
 
 tice was taking its usual deliberate course, some of 
 them who had relatives amongst the Jeromites of 
 Yuste, by the influence of their friends at court, 
 wrought upon the emperor's good nature so far, that 
 he himself begged that the sentence might be light.* 
 
 Of the unofficial visitors who paid their respects 
 during this year at Yuste, one of the earliest and cer- 
 tainly the most remarkable was Juan Gines Sepul- 
 veda, the historian, whose flowing style and pure La- 
 tinity gained him the title of the Livy of Spain. This 
 able writer had formerly held the post of chaplain to 
 the emperor, and tutor to prince Philip ; and was now 
 one of the historiographers-royal, in which capacity he 
 had retired to his estate at Pozoblanco, near Cordova, 
 to compose his annals of the emperor's reign, and 
 cultivate his flower-garden. Amongst other pieces of 
 sinecure church preferment which had fallen to his lot, 
 was the archpriesthood of Ledesma, to which he had 
 been recently presented. The fine weather early in 
 March had tempted him to set out for this new bene- 
 fice ; but being overtaken in the mountains of Gua- 
 dalupe by storms, which even the tempest-stilling bells 
 of Our Lady's holy church f could not calm, he was 
 glad to turn aside to the Vera to pay his homage to 
 the emperor, and to visit his old friend Van Male. 
 Charles, who had not seen him for eighteen years, re- 
 ceived him with great cordiality, and conversed with 
 him with much interest on the progress of his history. 
 The learned traveller was highly delighted with his 
 patron's kindness, the beauty of the place, and his 
 
 * Siguenqa, III. 198. 
 
 t Talavera, Hist, de Na. Sera, de Guadalupe, fol. 16. 
 13*
 
 150 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 few days of repose in Van Male's house at Quacos. 
 He had taken the mountain road by which Charles 
 had come to Yuste. The first part of his journey, 
 although toilsome, was ease itself to what was now 
 before him. Crossing the Puertonuevo in a storm 
 would try the nerve and task the endurance of a 
 smuggler in his prime ; and it is therefore not sur- 
 prising that it nearly cost the sedentary doctor of sixty 
 his life. He said the ascent was like the path of vir- 
 tue, as described by Hesiod, inasmuch as it was long, 
 and steep, and rugged ; but very unlike it, inasmuch 
 as it led, not to an easy plain, but to a descent yet 
 more frightful than the acclivity.* He had ridden 
 up ; but the rocks which now frowned over his head, 
 and the chasms which yawned at every turn beneath 
 him, so terrified him, that he dismounted from his 
 mule, and walked eight miles in the mud, through al- 
 ternate rain and snow. He arrived at Alba more dead 
 than alive ; and in spite of good nursing in the house 
 of a warm canon of Salamanca, the month of June 
 found him in his parsonage at Ledesma, still com- 
 plaining of the cold which he had caught in that wild 
 mountain march. f 
 
 Don Luis de Avila was a frequent visitor at Yuste. 
 Charles had always been fond of the society of his 
 lively Quintius Curtius ; and the historian regarded 
 the emperor with that enthusiastic admiration with 
 which a great man seldom fails to inspire his follow- 
 ers. The lords of Mirabel long preserved, probably 
 
 * The Works and the Days, V. 288. 
 
 t He calls it " iter totius Hispanise diflicillimum " ; describing it in 
 the letter to Van Male, in his Epistolce, sm. 8vo, Salamant. 155", Ep. 
 CII., fol. 274, or Opera, 4to, Madrid, 1780, III. p. 351.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 151 
 
 still possess, an heirloom brought into the Zufiiga 
 family by Avila, a marble bust of his favorite hero, 
 chiselled by the masterly hand of the elder Leoni, and 
 inscribed with this loyal doggrel, 
 
 Carolo quinto et c assai questo, 
 Perche si sa per tutto il mondo il resto. 
 
 Avila likewise caused some of the battles of the im- 
 perial captain to be painted in fresco on various ceil- 
 ings of the noble mansion, and they were now actually 
 in progress under his own superintendence. The 
 name of the artist has not survived, and his work, long 
 since faded, has proved the truth of the adage which 
 the old marquis of Mirabel had shortly before written 
 over one of the windows, todo pasa, all things 
 pass away.* 
 
 There is a heartiness in Avila's flattery which says 
 much for its honesty, and somewhat excuses its ex- 
 travagance. The bold dragoon concludes his German 
 commentaries with this blast of the true Castillian 
 trumpet : " When Caesar had subdued Gaul, after a 
 ten years' war, he made the whole world ring with his 
 story ; and only to have crossed the Rhine and passed 
 eighteen days in Germany seemed enough to vindi- 
 cate the power and dignity of the nation which ruled 
 the world. In less than a year our emperor conquered 
 this province, whose matchless valor has been con- 
 fessed both by ancient and modern times. In thirty 
 years Charlemagne subjugated Saxony ; our emperor 
 was master of it ah 1 in less than three months. The 
 greatness of this war demands a nobler pen than mine, 
 
 * A. Ponz: Viageen Espana, 18 vols., sm. 8vo, Madrid, 1784, VII. 
 117, 118, 122.
 
 152 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 which tells nothing but the naked truth, and what I 
 have seen with my own eyes of the exploits of him 
 who ought as far to excel in fame the great captains 
 of past ages, as he excels them all in valor and in 
 virtue." * 
 
 The adulation of bishop Giovio was as distasteful 
 to Charles as the Protestant abuse of Sleidan ; and 
 he was wont to call them his two liars. But Avila's 
 volume, bound in crimson" velvet and silver, adorned 
 his book-shelf; and the door of his cabinet was ever 
 open to the author. It is characteristic of the times, 
 that it was remarked as a singular favor that the em- 
 peror one day ordered a capon to be reserved for the 
 grand commander from his own well-supplied board."f 
 It may seem strange that a retired prince, who had 
 never been a lover of pomp, should not have broken 
 through the ceremonial law which enjoined a mon- 
 arch to eat alone, and which, when on the throne, he 
 had broken through once, though once only, in favor 
 of the duke of Alba. J Still, it must be remembered 
 that he was a Spaniard, living among Spaniards, with 
 whom punctilio was a kind of piety ; and that near a 
 century later the force of forms was still so strong, that 
 Richelieu himself, when most wanting in ships, pre- 
 ferred that the Spanish fleet should retire from the 
 blockade of Rochelle rather than its admiral should 
 wear his grandee-hat in the Most Christian presence. 
 
 The emperor was fond of talking over his cam- 
 paigns with the veteran who had shared and recorded 
 
 * Avila: Comentario de la Guerra de Alemdna, sra. 8vo, Anvers, 
 1549, p 180. 
 
 t Vera: Vidade Carlos V., p. 251. 
 
 } Kustant : Vida del D. de Albti, I. 182.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 153 
 
 them. One day, in the course of such conversation, 
 Don Luis spoke of the frescoes which were in progress 
 in his house at Plasencia, and said that on one of the 
 ceilings was to be painted the battle of Renti, and 
 the Frenchmen flying before the soldiers of Castille. 
 " Not so," said the emperor, " let the painter modify 
 this if he can, for it was no headlong flight, but an 
 orderly retreat." * This was not the less candid be- 
 cause French historians claimed the victory for France, 
 and recounted with pride the captured colors and can- 
 non, amongst which were the two huge pieces known 
 as the emperor's pistols.f Considering that the ac- 
 tion had been fought only three or four years before it 
 is reported to have been thus grossly misrepresented, 
 it is possible that Renti may have been substituted 
 by mistake for the name of some less doubtful field. 
 But Avila was of easy faith when the honor of Cas- 
 tille and the emperor were concerned ; and he may 
 well be supposed capable of some such loyal and pa- 
 triotic inaccuracy in fresco, when he did not hesitate 
 to print his belief that the miracle which had been 
 wrought for Joshua and the chosen people in the val- 
 ley of Ajalon, had been repeated on behalf of Charles 
 and his Spaniards on the banks of the Elbe.ij: Some 
 years after, the duke of Alba, who had also been at 
 Muhlberg, was asked by the king of France whether 
 he had observed that the sun stood still. " I was so 
 busy that day," said the cautious soldier, " with what 
 was passing on earth, that I had no time to notice 
 what took place in heaven." 
 
 * Vera : Vida de Carlos V., p. 252. 
 
 t L. Favyn : Hist, de Navarre, fol., Taris, 1C12, p. 814. 
 
 + Avila : Comentario, fol. 70.
 
 154 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 A visit which Avila paid to the convent in August 
 seems to have been prompted by an official letter ad- 
 dressed by the princess-regent to the authorities of Pla- 
 sencia, and containing, or supposed to contain, a hint 
 that the emperor proposed soon to set out for Navarre. 
 The city being greatly excited by the rumors thus 
 raised, the grand commander mounted his horse and 
 rode up to the Vera to make inquiries into the state 
 of matters at Yuste. The recluse was disposed rather 
 to pique than to gratify the curiosity of the knight of 
 the green cross. Writing on his return to the secre- 
 tary of state, Avila said, " I have left Fray Carlos in 
 a very calrrr and contented mood, not at all mistrust- 
 ing his strength, but believing himself quite equal to 
 the exertion of moving from his retreat. Since I was 
 there last, all his ideas on this head have been 
 changed ; and I could believe his undertaking any 
 thing from love to his son, knowing as I do his brave 
 spirit and his ancient habits, having been reared, as 
 he was, in war, like the salamander in the furnace. 
 The princess's letter has set us all on the tiptoe of 
 expectation here, and I do not think that there is a 
 man among us who would stay behind if the emperor 
 took the field. But if this bravata, as they say in 
 Italy, is really to be executed, I pray God it may be 
 done speedily, for the weather looks threatening, and 
 Navarre, with its early winter, is not Estremadura." * 
 
 Amongst other visitors at Yuste was Don Francisco 
 Bolivar, paymaster of the navy, who came on the 16th 
 of September, and had a long audience next day, to 
 
 * Luis de Avila to Vazquez ; Plascncia, 24th August, 1557. Gonza- 
 lez MS.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 155 
 
 lay before the emperor certain information about the 
 Turkish naval force, and to tell him that the fleet 
 of Solyman, which had been menacing the western 
 shores of the Mediterranean, had now steered for the 
 Levant. For this good news, Charles presented him, 
 when he took leave, with a gold chain. A few weeks 
 later, on the 6th of October, Don Martin de Aven- 
 dano, who had commanded a squadron newly ar- 
 rived from Peru, was received with a welcome so 
 hearty that Quixada noted it as remarkable in his let- 
 ter to the secretary of state. Perhaps the excellent 
 health which the emperor at that time enjoyed might 
 have been partly the cause of this cordiality, for the 
 chamberlain said, in the same letter, that he was un- 
 usually well, " very plump and fresh-colored, and ate 
 and slept better than he did himself." The admiral 
 was sent on his way rejoicing, with a strong letter of 
 recommendation to the king. 
 
 The visitors at Yuste were generally envoys, or 
 official personages. Avila and the count of Oropesa 
 and his brother were amongst the few exceptions. 
 The neighboring prelates and grandees continued to 
 send their contributions to the imperial larder. Oro- 
 pesa kept it supplied with game from the forest and 
 the hill; the Jeromites of Guadalupe, rich in lands 
 and beeves, presented calves, lambs fattened on bread, 
 and delicate fruits ; and the bishops of Segovia, Mon- 
 donedo, and Salamanca were careful to put in simi- 
 lar evidence that they had not forgotten the giver of 
 their mitres. Occasionally, the donors of these dain- 
 ties appeared to have nourished a hope of being rec- 
 ompensed with the loaves and fishes of court patron- 
 age and favor. A few leagues north of the convent,
 
 156 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 at the Alpine town of Bejar, was a noble castle of the 
 chief family of Zuniga, created dukes of the place by 
 Isabella the Catholic, a family known afterwards both 
 in arts and arms, and immortalized by the dedication 
 of Don Quixote. The mules sent to Yuste by the 
 duchess were in due time followed by the lady's chap- 
 lain, charged with a request that the emperor would 
 graciously assist the family in obtaining a boon for 
 which they had long been soliciting the crown, the 
 restoration of the older dukedom of Plasencia. Charles 
 answered his fair suitor somewhat bluntly, that he 
 considered the claim unfounded, and that he would 
 burden his conscience with no such matter. 
 
 Towards the end of September, the queens of 
 France and Hungary were expected in the Vera on a 
 visit to their brother. The castle of Xarandilla was 
 placed at their disposal by Oropesa, and prepared for 
 their reception under the superintendence of Quixada 
 and Van Male. The queens set out from Vallado- 
 lid on the 18th of September, accompanied by their 
 niece, the regent, who was going to her pious retreat 
 at Abrojo, and, travelling by easy stages, they reached 
 Xarandilla in ten days. On the 28th they came to 
 Yuste, attended by the bishop of Plasencia, and saw 
 the emperor for about an hour. During their stay of 
 ten or eleven weeks in the Vera, queen Eleanor, be- 
 ing in very feeble health, and easily fatigued, even by 
 the motion of her litter, was able to visit Yuste only 
 three times. On one of these occasions, she and her 
 sister came over in the morning to Quacos, and hav- 
 ing dined there, spent some hours at the convent, and 
 returned to the village to sleep. Quixada was some- 
 what scandalized at this arrangement, and proposed
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 157 
 
 an attempt to lodge the ladies for one night at Yuste ; 
 but Charles would not hear of it, nor would he even 
 offer them a dinner. The queen of Hungary was still 
 robust enough for the saddle ; she delighted in the 
 exercise \>f her limbs and tongue ; and she was there- 
 fore frequently on horseback, riding through the fad- 
 ing forest to her brother's inhospitable gate. 
 
 The queens had not yet determined where to estab- 
 lish their permanent abode, and wished to be guided 
 by the emperor's advice. They had at one time 
 thought of Plasencia, but upon this he put his decid- 
 ed negative. They next cast their eyes upon Guada- 
 laxara, in Castille ; the crown having a great extent 
 of land in and around that town, the rights and privi- 
 leges of which the king was willing to make over to 
 them for their lives. The town boasting of no man- 
 sion suitable to their rank but the palace of the duke 
 of Infantado, they applied for the use of that truly 
 noble pile. But. the duke, who had never been very 
 cordial with the Austrian royal family, excused giving 
 up his house on the plea of ill-health ; and in spite of 
 the regent's representations that, as it had been given 
 to the grand cardinal Mendoza by Isabella the Cath- 
 olic, it was scarcely polite to refuse to lend it for a 
 time to her granddaughters, he continued to urge this 
 plea in a number of letters, equally courtly, copious, 
 and tiresome. At the close of the year, Quixada, 
 writing to his friend, the secretary Erase, hinted to 
 that functionary that, as the queens still thought of 
 residing at Guadalaxara, it would be well for him to 
 place at their disposition a grange which he possessed 
 in the neighborhood, where they might amuse them- 
 selves in fishing or in the chase. Both of the royal 
 
 14
 
 158 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 widows, however, died before it was settled where 
 they were to live. 
 
 Their chief business at Yuste, at this time, was the 
 long-talked-of meeting between queen Eleanor and 
 the infanta of Portugal. To see this daughter once 
 more was the sole wish of the poor mother's heart. 
 The daughter, on the other hand, seemed hardly less 
 anxious to avoid the interview. Long after the king 
 of Portugal had given his consent, and even after his 
 death, she continued to raise up obstacles in the way, 
 in which she was countenanced by her uncle, the car- 
 dinal Henry. Father Francis Borja used his influ- 
 ence in vain. The Spanish ambassador at Lisbon, 
 Don Sancho de Cordova, who met the queens at 
 Xarandilla and Yuste, gave so unfavorable an account 
 of her intentions, that Eleanor began to despair alto- 
 gether of realizing her long-cherished hope. The em- 
 peror, at her request, himself wrote to his niece, urg- 
 ing compliance with her mother's very reasonable 
 wishes ; and, after many delays and a sham illness, 
 the reluctant damsel consented. Preparations were 
 immediately set on foot for receiving her at Badajoz 
 with due honor, and sixteen nobles and prelates were 
 chosen to wait upon her at the frontier. Among 
 them were the duke of Escalona, the count of Oro- 
 pesa, the grand commander of Alcantara, and the 
 bishops of Coria and Salamanca. 
 
 Many of the difficulties for which the infanta was 
 made responsible, no doubt, really arose from the ill- 
 feeling which at this time prevailed between the 
 courts of Lisbon and Valladolid. While these nego- 
 tiations were pending, a Portuguese courier was ar- 
 rested on suspicion of being a French spy, and on his
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 159 
 
 person was found an autograph letter from the king 
 of France, in which the queen-regent was informed of 
 the state of the war in the Netherlands, and entreated 
 to lend her assistance against Spain. This letter was 
 forwarded to Yuste by secretary Vazquez, with a re- 
 mark that it was better to trust even Frenchmen than 
 some Portuguese. The emperor, on the other hand, 
 told Quixada that he thought the letter might have 
 been written for the purpose of being intercepted, and 
 of exciting suspicion and discord, and that the boast- 
 ing of a Frenchman ought never to be taken serious- 
 ly. But he clearly indicated his own feelings of the 
 ill-will entertained at Lisbon towards his son's govern- 
 ment, in conveying to Vazquez the official informa- 
 tion which he had received from thence of a revolt in 
 Peru, and the death of the viceroy, the marquis of 
 Cafiete. " Although I well know," he wrote, " that 
 the court of Portugal would not have sent me this 
 news, had it been true, I should -wish to ascertain the 
 ground whereon such a rumor rests." * 
 
 The queens took leave of the emperor on the 14th 
 of December, and the next day set out for Badajoz. 
 Their departure was a great relief to Luis Quixada, 
 who had to attend to their comforts at Xarandilla, in 
 addition to his daily task of governing the emperor's 
 Flemings, and keeping on good terms with his friars. 
 The supplies required by their numerous retinue had 
 also produced a sort of famine in the Vera, and had 
 raised the price of mutton to a real, or twopence-half- 
 penny, a pound. The licentiate Murga, of Quacos, 
 was intrusted with the arrangements on the road, and 
 
 * Emperor to Vazquez, 22d September, 1557. Gonzalez MS.
 
 160 
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 the queens were everywhere received with public at- 
 tention and respect. At Truxillo the authorities 
 wished to give a public festival in their honor, which, 
 however, the royal ladies graciously declined; and 
 resting on the feast of St. Thomas, at Merida, they 
 arrived on Christmas eve at Badajoz, where Don Luis 
 de Avila was waiting to receive them. 
 
 They were fortunate in the weather, which was 
 clear and calm, except on the day which they spent 
 in the old Roman city. But on the day after they 
 left Xarandilla, a terrible hurricane visited that part 
 of the Vera. At Yuste, two of the emperor's chim- 
 neys were blown down, and one took fire ; and many 
 of his cedars and citrons measured their length upon 
 the discomfited parterres. Two houses fell at Xaran- 
 dilla, and another was overthrown at Quacos. 
 
 Father Borja had been selected by the princess- 
 regent for a special and secret mission to Lisbon in 
 the autumn, on the delicate subject of the regency of 
 Portugal. He received her summons at Simancas, 
 where he had founded a small Jesuits' house, and 
 whither he loved to escape from the distractions 
 of the court, to unstinted penance and prayer. The 
 sun of September was scorching the naked plains of 
 the Duero, and the good Jesuit was in feeble health. 
 Nevertheless, he immediately obeyed the regent's 
 mandate, and repaired to Yuste, by her direction, to 
 hold counsel with the em-peror ; * after which, scorn- 
 
 * Eibadeneira : Vida de P. F. Borja, fol. 105. Gonzalez is inclined 
 to doubt the fact; yet his MS. contains a letter (30th August, 1557) 
 from the princess to the emperor, in which she announces her intention 
 of sending Borja to Lisbon; and one from Gaztelu to Vazquez (28th 
 December, 1557), which proves that he had been there. As it is ex-
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 161 
 
 ing repose in the cool woodlands, he at once took the 
 road to Portugal across the charred wastes of Estre- 
 madura. This haste and the heat together threw him 
 into a fever, of which he nearly died in the town of 
 Evora ; and when once more able to resume his jour- 
 ney, he was nearly drowned in a squall in crossing 
 the Tagus to Lisbon. The queen Catherine, the car- 
 dinal Henry, and the infanta Mary, all vied with each 
 other in nursing him ; but he did not succeed in the 
 objects of his mission, for he obtained no promise of 
 the regency for the Spanish princess ; nor could he 
 even prevail upon the Portuguese infanta to perform 
 the very simple duty of setting out to meet her wid- 
 owed mother. He was again at Yuste about the 
 20th of December. The emperor paid him the unu- 
 sual compliment of lodging him in the palace, and 
 even entered into the preparation which Luis Quixa- 
 da was making for his reception. The mayordomo 
 having hung the walls of his chamber with tapestry, 
 the emperor, judging that it would rather offend than 
 please the Jesuit, ordered it to be taken down, and its 
 place to be supplied with some black cloth, of which 
 he despoiled his own anteroom.* 
 
 Bo ja remained at the convent for some days, and of 
 course had frequent interviews with the emperor. It 
 was probably now that Charles returned to him a 
 number of letters, written at his request by the Jesuit, 
 
 tremely probable that the Jesuit would have been instructed to see the 
 emperor on his way to Portugal, and as there are several gaps in the 
 correspondence in September, I am inclined to suppose that some letters 
 may have been lost, and I have therefore followed Ribadeneira. 
 
 * Nieretnberg : Vida de Borja, p. 136. This story is somewhat doubt- 
 ful, not because it is in itself improbable, but because, if true, it would 
 have been probably mentioned in the letters of Quixada to Vazquez. 
 14*
 
 162 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 on the politics and politicians of the court of Valla- 
 dolid. " You may be sure," said he, on restoring 
 them, " that no one but myself has seen them." The 
 confidence thus reposed by the shrewdest of princes 
 in Borja's judgment and observation shows how 
 keenly the things of earth may be scanned by eyes 
 which seem wholly fixed upon heaven.* 
 
 The emperor likewise told his friend of a dispute, 
 between two nobles, which had been referred to him 
 for decision, and on which he desired to have his 
 opinion, as he probably knew the rights of the case. 
 The matter in dispute was the title to certain lands ; 
 and the parties were Borja's son, Charles, duke of 
 Gandia, and Don Alonso de Cardona, admiral of 
 Aragon. Thus appealed to, the father behaved with 
 that stoical indifference to the voice of blood, which, 
 while it shocked some of his lay admirers, never 
 fails to command the loud applause of his rev- 
 erend biographers. "I know not," he said, "whose 
 cause is the just one, but I pray your majesty not 
 only not to allow the admiral to be wronged, but to 
 show him all the favor compatible with equity." 
 When the emperor expressed some not unnatural sur- 
 prise, the Cato of the company explained the singular 
 tone of his request, somewhat lamely as it seems, by 
 saying that perhaps the admiral needed the disputed 
 property more than the duke did, and that it was 
 good to assist the necessitous.! 
 
 During his stay at Yuste, Borja was treated with 
 marked distinction. Not only had his host arranged 
 
 * Sandoval, II. p. 833. 
 
 t Niereraberg : Vida de Borja, p. 155.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 163 
 
 the upholstery of his chamber, but he also sent him 
 each day the most approved dish from his well-sup- 
 plied board. When duty once more required the 
 father to take his staff in his hand, he carried with 
 him two hundred ducats for alms, which Quixada 
 had been directed by the emperor to force upon his 
 acceptance. " It is a small sum," said the chamber- 
 lain ; " but in comparison with my lord's present reve- 
 nues, it is perhaps the largest bounty he ever bestowed 
 at one time." f 
 
 ] Kibadeneira : Vida de Borja, p. 99.
 
 164 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE DEATH OF QUEEN ELEANOR. 
 
 THE year 1558 did not open auspiciously at Yuste. 
 The emperor continued to be troubled with flying 
 gout: he complained of itching and tingling in his 
 legs, from the knees downwards ; and he was some- 
 times seized with fits of vomiting. On the 7th of 
 January he was unable to leave his bed, or to see the 
 admiral of Aragon, who had come to state certain 
 grievances which he had against the master of Mon- 
 tesa, and who was therefore dismissed to spend a few 
 days in the pilgrimage to Guadalupe. The season 
 itself seemed to be unhealthy, for so many members 
 of the household were ill that Gaztelu proposed to 
 reinforce the medical staff with another doctor, one 
 Juan Munos, a good physician and surgeon, who had 
 been sent by the regent to attend upon her father at 
 Laredo. 
 
 On the night of the 8th of January, the palace was 
 broken into, and a sum of eight hundred ducats, set 
 apart for charitable uses, stolen from the emperors 
 wardrobe. The licentiate Murga was immediately 
 set to discover the robbers, but his perquisitions at- 
 tained no satisfactory end. Some of the household 
 were supposed to have been concerned, but the em- 
 peror would not permit the persons suspected to be 
 subjected to the torture, the usual mode of compelling
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 165 
 
 evidence in those days, "fearing," said Quixada, mys- 
 teriously, " that certain things might come out which 
 had better remain concealed." The culprits were 
 never found, nor was the cash recovered. It is some- 
 what remarkable that a few weeks afterwards the em- 
 peror divided two thousand ducats, as a largesse, 
 among his attendants, each receiving a sum propor- 
 tioned according to the amount of his salary. 
 
 While plagued by the depredations of thieves, the 
 emperor was also teased by the contentions of thief- 
 takers. The corregidor of Plasencia came over to 
 Quacos and arrested one Villa, an alguazil under 
 Murga, on pretence that he had exceeded his powers 
 by exercising his office within the city jurisdiction, 
 which, as the Plasencian affirmed, extended to the 
 limits of the village. Charles was much displeased, 
 and caused a complaint to be lodged at Valladolid, 
 the result of which was, that the corregidor was sus- 
 pended from his functions, and the jurisdiction of 
 Quacos enlarged by a fresh official act. The offend- 
 er, however, was forgiven, and reinstated in a few 
 weeks. 
 
 On the 10th of January, the emperor, though still 
 in bed, gave audience to Don Juan de Acufia, who 
 had recently come from Flanders ; and the same 
 day a rumor was brought by the count of Oropesa, 
 that the duke of Alba had lately arrived at Bruxelles, 
 and proposed resigning the viceroyalty of Naples, and 
 the command of the army in Italy. At this rumor 
 Charles displayed more displeasure than Quixada 
 thought good for his health ; and he refused to listen 
 to the despatches from court relating to the Italian 
 affairs until some days after they had arrived. When
 
 166 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 at last he permitted them to be read, and heard the 
 secret articles of the treaty with the pope, he only re- 
 marke'd that the reserved conditions were as bad as 
 those which had been made public. 
 
 Disgraceful as the treaty was, the anger felt by the 
 emperor may perhaps have arisen partly because the 
 negotiations had been conducted without his knowl- 
 edge or consent. Philip's love of temporizing was 
 notorious ; " Time and I against two," * was his favor- 
 ite adage ; and he often bought time at the price of 
 golden opportunity. When the victory of St. Quen- 
 tin had compelled the recall of Guise, Rome was so 
 completely in the power of Alba, that there was no 
 visible motive for hastening the pope's deliverance. 
 Had the king wished to consult his father, an armis- 
 tice of a few weeks would have given sufficient time 
 for communication between Bruxelles and Yuste. It 
 is therefore most probable that Philip, making, for rea- 
 sons which he did not wish to explain, a peace which 
 he felt the emperor must disapprove, purposely with- 
 held from him any knowledge of the treaty until it 
 was actually signed and sealed. It is certain that 
 great and unaccountable delay took place in laying be- 
 fore him some of the subsequent transactions in Italy. 
 Thus, although a rumor of Alba's departure had 
 reached Yuste on the 10th of January, it was not 
 until the 27th that a letter, addressed to the emperor 
 by Alba himself, and dated so far back as the 23d of 
 September, 1557, reached Yuste by the hands of Luis 
 de Avila. This letter announced that peace had been 
 concluded, and described the state of matters at 
 
 * " Tiempo y yo para otros dos."
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 167 
 
 Rome ; and further said, that, as the king's affairs were 
 now in a prosperous condition, the duke intended soon 
 to avail himself of his majesty's promise that his term 
 of service in Italy should be short, and to embark for 
 Lombardy ; after which he trusted ere long to kiss the 
 emperor's hand, and ask for some repose from his fa- 
 tigues of twenty-five years. To this letter Charles 
 deigned no answer, nor did he make any remark 
 upon it, but refused to listen to its details of public 
 affairs, with which he said he was already acquainted. 
 
 Alba was at this time already in the Netherlands. 
 He was soon followed thither by cardinal Caraffa, the 
 nephew to whom Paul the Fourth intrusted the duty 
 of driving a bargain with the king of Spain about the 
 money or territory with which the pontifical family 
 were to be bribed over to keep the peace ; * a negotia- 
 tion which the greedy churchman prolonged until far 
 into the spring. Philip received the duke with all 
 demonstrations of favor and gratitude, and was about 
 to appoint him to an important post in Spain. A 
 turn in the tide of events, however, induced him to 
 alter this resolution, and to keep him about his own 
 person in the capacity of president of the council of 
 war. 
 
 The emperor, on the other hand, remained unrecon- 
 ciled to the shameful peace with the Caraffas, nor did 
 he ever forgive Alba his share in the transaction. The 
 duke was anxious to ascertain his opinion of his con- 
 duct in remaining at court, and to obtain permission 
 to visit him atYuste; and Gaztelu was therefore pri- 
 vately desired by Vazquez to note whatever fell from 
 
 * A. Andrea : Guerra de Roma, &c., p. 315.
 
 168 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 him on these topics. But Charles would neither ex- 
 press his opinion, nor record the permission required, 
 showing a disposition, when his anger had cooled, 
 rather to avoid the subject than to forgive the duke. 
 Only two months before his death, hearing that Philip 
 had presented Alba with one hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand ducats, he remarked that the king of Spain did 
 more for the duke of Alba than the duke of Alba had 
 ever done for the king of Spain. 
 
 But on the whole, the emperor's displeasure, though 
 very mortifying, was rather creditable to the duke. 
 In his conduct towards the pope, Alba had exactly 
 fulfilled his sovereign's commands, though he never 
 approved of his policy. To kiss the toe of Paul, in 
 the name of his master, he felt like an act of personal 
 dishonor ; and he said, even in the pontiffs presence- 
 chamber, to some of the Italian leaders, " Were I 
 king of Spain, cardinal Caraffa should have gone to 
 Bruxelles, and done, on his knees, what I have done 
 this'day to the pope."* The shameful homage paid, 
 the pontiff loaded him with honors and caresses ; he 
 invited him to dinner ; and he offered to make over to 
 him ah 1 the church patronage of the holy see on his 
 estates in Spain. But this offer Alba declined, saying 
 that the concession and the acceptance of such a boon 
 would be liable to suspicion, which it was better to 
 avoid.f Had the emperor known of this noble act 
 of self-denial, and of the reluctance with which his old 
 comrade in arms had signed the treaty, he would 
 
 5 
 
 * A. de Castro : The Spanish Protestant, translated by F. Parker, sin. 
 8vo, London, 1851, p. 57. 
 
 t J. A. de Vera : Vtda del Duque de Alva, p. 73. See also Chap. 
 III. p. 80.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 169 
 
 surely have regarded him with different feelings : and, 
 as it would have been easy for Alba to bring these 
 facts under his notice, it is fair to conclude that he 
 bore the undeserved blame from a sense of chivalrous 
 honor to the king whom he served. 
 
 For the chagrin suffered by the emperor in Italian 
 politics, little compensation was afforded by the state 
 of things in the north. The victory of St. Quentin, 
 signal as it was, and important as it ought to have 
 been, had but a slight and transitory effect upon the 
 fortune of the war. The timid and procrastinating 
 policy of Philip the Second had already let slip the 
 opportunities afforded by that battle, as his blind big- 
 otry afterwards doomed to death the gallant Egmont, 
 whose prowess had carried the day. The French 
 king had been allowed, not only to rally his forces, but 
 once more to cross the frontiers of Flanders. The 
 duke of Nevers retook Ham; Genlis put twelve hun- 
 dred Spaniards to the sword at Chaulny. Guise, 
 burning to wipe away his disgraces in the Abruzzi 
 and the Roman plains, suddenly appeared before Cal- 
 ais on the first night of the new year. Trusting to the 
 strength of the fortifications, and to the surrounding 
 marshes, which made the place almost an island in 
 winter, the English government had for some years 
 past, in a spirit of fatal economy, withdrawn great 
 part of the garrison at that season. The only ap- 
 proaches by land were guarded by the forts of Ris- 
 bank and Newnham Bridge. These Guise attacked 
 at night, and was master of in the morning. The 
 roar of his artillery was heard at Dover ; but a storm 
 dispersed the squadron which put out with relief. 
 After some days of desultory and desperate fighting, 
 
 15
 
 170 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 lord Went worth struck his flag ; the English troops 
 filed off under a guard of Scottish archers ; and the 
 key of France, which two centuries before had re- 
 sisted, for eleven months, Edward the Third, fresh 
 from Cressy, was restored in one week to the house 
 of Valois. The honor of having first conceived and 
 planned the enterprise belonged to the admiral Co- 
 ligny, still a prisoner of war in the hands of the duke 
 of Savoy. But Guise had nobly retrieved his laurels: 
 and it would have been sufficient for his military 
 glory, had he been victor only in his two sieges, the 
 most remarkable of the age, the heroic defence of 
 Metz, and the dashing capture of Calais. France was 
 in an uproar of exultation ; St. Quentin was forgot- 
 ten ; and loud and long were the paeans of the Parisian 
 wits, " replenished with scoffs and unmeasured terms 
 against the English," who, in falling victims to a dar- 
 ing stratagem, gave, as it seemed to these poetasters, a 
 signal proof of the immemorial " perfidy " of Albion.* 
 The news of the loss of Calais reached Valladolid 
 at the end of January, and Yuste on the 2d of Feb- 
 ruary. In both places they were received with little 
 less sorrow and alarm than they had caused in Lon- 
 don. In the exploit of Guise the emperor lamented, 
 not only a loss and an affront suffered by the nation 
 of which his son was king, but an important acces- 
 sion to the strength of the most formidable neighbor 
 of the Spanish Netherlands. The word Calais, which 
 Mary Tudor dolefully declared to be written on her 
 heart, was also ever on the tongue of her kinsman 
 Charles. For days he spoke of nothing else, re- 
 
 * Hollinshed : Chronicles, 6 vols., 4to, London, 1808, IV. 93.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 171 
 
 curring perpetually to the sore subject, and saying 
 that now there was nothing but the castle of Ghent 
 between the French and Bruxelles. To his secretary 
 Gaztelu. he confessed that he had never in his life re- 
 ceived so painful a blow; and he wrote in the most 
 urgent terms to the princess-regent, telling her that 
 every nerve must now be strained to raise money to 
 repair the loss, and reinforce the king's army. The 
 chamberlain shared his master's feelings; and in his 
 letter on the occasion to Vazquez, severely criticized 
 the Castillian leaders for their remissness, and prophe- 
 sied that Gravelines, Nieuport, and Dunkirk would 
 likewise soon fall into the hands of the enemy. 
 
 As a slight consolation for the loss of Calais, came 
 a promise of a new heir to the kingdom in the shape 
 of a report of the pregnancy of the queen, a preg- 
 nancy in which, however, few people believed except 
 poor Mary herself, and which was in truth nothing 
 more than the crisis of the dropsy, which in a few 
 months gave her crown to Elizabeth, released her 
 people from the hateful yoke of Philip, and enabled 
 the mind of England once more to march on the no- 
 ble path of civil and religious freedom. 
 
 In this gloomy time of disaster, the emperor con- 
 tinued to suffer from gout, which sometimes so com- 
 pletely disabled his fingers, that, instead of signing the 
 necessary despatches, he was obliged to seal them 
 with a small private signet. In spite of his eider- 
 down robes and quilts, he lay in bed shivering, and 
 complaining of cold in his bones. His appetite was 
 beginning to fail him, but his repasts, though dimin- 
 ished in quantity, were still of a quality to pWplex the 
 doctor, consisting principally of the rich fish which
 
 172 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 the patient could neither dispense with nor digest. 
 His favorite beverage at this time was vino bastardo, 
 a sweet wine made from raisins, and brought from 
 Seville. When he got a little better, he ate, in spite 
 of all remonstrances, some raw oysters, a rash act, 
 upon which Quixada remarked despairingly to the 
 secretary of state, " Surely kings imagine that their 
 stomachs are not made like other men's." 
 
 Meanwhile the queens of France and Hungary ef- 
 fected their meeting with their daughter and niece, 
 the infanta Mary of Portugal. Early in January that 
 princess arrived at Elvas in great state, attended by a 
 gallant following of the Portuguese nobility. After 
 some points of etiquette had been argued and ad- 
 justed, she crossed the plains of the Guadiana, and 
 having been received in due form by a party of Span- 
 ish nobles at the border rivulet of Caya, she finally 
 reached the longing arms of her mother. Don Anto- 
 nio Puertocarrero was sent down from Valladolid to 
 offer her the congratulations of the princess-regent, to 
 which were added those of the emperor, the emperor 
 having likewise received, as he passed, credentials at 
 Yuste. At Badajoz the infanta remained for twenty 
 days, during which time her mother and aunt ex- 
 hausted all their arguments and caresses in the at- 
 tempt to induce her to settle in Spain. Queen El- 
 eanor gave her jewels to the value of fifty thousand 
 ducats, and queen Mary added a quantity of rich 
 dresses and household plenishing. But her heart was 
 sealed against the land of which she had hoped to be 
 queen, and against the nearest and tenderest ties of 
 her Spairreh blood. She therefore remained inflexible 
 in her determination to return to Portugal, and bade
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 173 
 
 an eternal farewell to her weeping mother with no 
 visible marks of concern. During her stay at Bada- 
 joz, however, she was careful to fulfil the laws of eti- 
 quette to the letter, and accordingly despatched Don 
 Emanuel de Melo to present her compliments to the 
 regent and the emperor. Her ambassador travelled 
 with unusual magnificence, and with his cavajcade of 
 fifty horsemen excited great stir in Quacos and at 
 Yuste. 
 
 On the llth of February, the queens set out from 
 Badajoz, and the emperor sent Gaztelu down to Tru- 
 xillo to meet them on the road. But they had ac- 
 complished only three leagues of their journey, when 
 Eleanor, who had been suffering at Badajoz with her 
 usual asthma, and a slight attack of fever, was taken 
 seriously ill at Talaverilla, a small ague-stricken town 
 on a melancholy plain. Dr. Cornelio, who was in at- 
 tendance, had the worst opinion of her case. Intelli- 
 gence of her danger was immediately sent off to the 
 infanta, who was still on the frontier of Portugal, but 
 who, nevertheless, refused to set foot again in Spain. 
 A courier was likewise despatched to Yuste, whence 
 Quixada was ordered instantly to ride post to Tala- 
 verilla. Gaztelu, who had probably met the courier 
 on the road, as he was going to Truxillo, arrived first, 
 on the morning of the 18th of February. He found 
 the queen sitting in her chair, panting for breath, and 
 suffering much pain ; but in full possession of her 
 faculties, and listening with eager interest to some 
 business of her daughter's. At six in the evening, 
 however, he was hastily sent for to take leave of her; 
 her strength was then utterly exhausted, and she was 
 lying in a state of stupor, the bishop of Palencia 
 
 15*
 
 174 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 standing at her side in his robes, ready to administer 
 the last solemn rite of the church. On hearing the 
 secretary announced, she roused herself for a moment, 
 and said, " Tell my brother, the emperor, that he must 
 take care of my daughter the infanta." With her 
 last thoughts thus fixed upon the thankless child who 
 had been, the idol of her life, she again sank into un- 
 consciousness ; and within an hour, her loving heart 
 had ceased to beat ; and the long account of her gen- 
 tle deeds, her womanly self-sacrifices, and her meekly- 
 borne sorrows, was closed for ever. Luis de Avila, 
 who stood by her dying bed, truly described her " as 
 the gentlest and most guileless creature he had ever 
 known ; and as one who left no better being in the 
 world." Quixada galloped into the town just in time 
 to see her before she expired, and immediately, in a 
 few simple lines of honest emotion, communicated 
 the event to his master at Yuste. 
 
 The remains of the queen were deposited at Meri- 
 da, and afterwards gathered to those of her kindred 
 at the Escorial. Her desire was, that the interment 
 should be simple and private, and the money which 
 more sumptuous obsequies would have cost should 
 be given to the poor. Under her will, her undutiful 
 daughter became her universal legatee, and inherited 
 a vast quantity of plate, jewels, and tapestry, sundry 
 large sums due to the queen by the crowns of France 
 and Spain, and various lordships in Castille and Lan- 
 guedoc ; a heritage which, with her patrimonial por- 
 tion and her towns of Viseu and Torres Vedras, made 
 her one of the greatest matches in Europe.* On the 
 
 * Dam. de Goes : Chronica do Rci D. Emanucl, IT. fol. 84.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 175 
 
 death of his English queen, Philip the prudent once 
 more turned his thoughts to his forsaken love, and for 
 a brief moment the Portuguese infanta was again 
 destined for the Spanish throne. A successful rival, 
 however, again intervened in the shape of peace with 
 France, and a young, lovely, and well-dowered daugh- 
 ter of Valois. Fate had marked Mary of Avis for sin- 
 gle blessedness ; and in spite of all the attempts made 
 on her behalf, she died unmarried, a fact which Por- 
 tuguese historians patriotically ascribe to her unwill- 
 ingness to deprive Portugal of her splendid dowry. 
 Her grand nephew, Don Sebastian, became heir to 
 the residue of her fortune which remained after the 
 completion of her splendid mausoleum, in a chapel of 
 Our Lady of Light, and of the nunneries and other 
 religious edifices which she had founded with lavish 
 piety in various parts of the kingdom.* 
 
 On the death of queen Eleanor, Gazteluand Quixa- 
 da set out for Yuste. Queen Mary, who was to fol- 
 low them slowly, in giving them audience on their 
 departure, was so overcome with grief for her loss, 
 that her messages to her brother were drowned in sobs 
 and tears. The emperor, on receiving the news, like- 
 wise wept bitterly, and displayed an emotion which 
 he rarely felt and still more rarely permitted to be 
 seen. For Eleanor, although her happiness never 
 stood in the way of his policy, had ever been his fa- 
 vorite sister. " There were but fifteen months," he 
 said, " between us in age, and in less than that time 
 I shall be with her once more," a prophecy which 
 was exactly fulfilled. The shock increased the vio- 
 
 * Pedro lie Marix : Dialtfjos de varla Historic/, sm. 8vo. Lisbon, 1594, 
 fol. 205.
 
 176 
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 lence of his disorders, and his strength was so much 
 prostrated, that Gaztelu did not venture to tell him 
 the intelligence which had just come, that Oran was 
 again menaced by a Turkish fleet. Nevertheless the 
 invalid gave his orders about mourning for the house- 
 hold, and about the masses to be said for the deceased 
 in the convent church. For many days he lay in bed, 
 sometimes tossing restlessly, sometimes unable to 
 move for pain, eating very little and sleeping still less. 
 It was not till the end of the month that he showed 
 any symptoms of amendment, or was able to sit up ; 
 or to taste a dried herring from Burgos with a head 
 of garlic ; or to receive visitors. Luis de Avila was 
 one of the first inquirers who presented himself ; and 
 the emperor was much the better for seeing him. 
 From the death-bed scene at Talaverilla, their conver- 
 sation passed to war and politics, when the emperor, 
 recurring to the loss of Calais, said that he regretted 
 it like death itself. 
 
 The queen of Hungary arrived on the 3d of March, 
 and on this occasion was lodged for some nights in 
 the convent. Coming next morning to visit her 
 brother, he was much affected on seeing Mary enter 
 his room alone ; and he afterwards said to Quixada, 
 that until then he had not felt the reality of queen 
 Eleanor's death. Observing the effect she had pro- 
 duced, queen Mary avoided it in future by going at- 
 tended either by the chamberlain, or by Avila, or by 
 the bishop of Palencia. The course of their genuine 
 natural sorrow was interrupted by the official sem- 
 blance of woe in the shape of Don Hernando de 
 Roxas, sent to Valladolid to condole with the court of 
 Lisbon, and of Dr. Bernardino de Tavora, on a simi-
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 177 
 
 lar mission from Lisbon to the courts of Valladolid 
 and Yuste. The emperor gave audiences to both of 
 these envoys, and found that the Portuguese brought, 
 on the part of his queen, not only a string of decent 
 and consolatory truisms, but some very uncomfortable 
 intelligence of a Turkish descent on the African pos- 
 sessions of the house of Avis, and of the accession to 
 power of a new Sultan of Fez, who was likely to be 
 troublesome both to Spain and Portugal.* 
 
 Queen Mary moved in a few days from Yuste to 
 her old abode at Xarandilla. On the 15th of March 
 she carne to take leave of, the emperor, and found him 
 again in bed, and suffering much pain from an ulcer- 
 ated finger. It was the last time that they met in 
 this world. She passed the night at Quacos, and set 
 off next day at noon for Valladolid, preceded by Luis 
 Quixada. who had started at dawn to provide for the 
 evening's repose. Some months afterwards she sent 
 some illuminated choir-books to the monks at Yuste, as 
 an offering to their church and a memorial of her visit 
 to the convent. For Mary shared her brother's tastes, 
 and was both a collector and a lover of works of art. 
 Evidence of her feeling on these matters is preserved 
 in the letter relating to a portrait of her nephew 
 Philip, painted by Titian, and lent by her to Philip's 
 longing bride, Mary of England, in which she dis- 
 plays the greatest solicitude, not only that the picture 
 should be safely and speedily returned, but that it 
 should also be seen at a due distance, and in an ad- 
 vantageous light.f 
 
 Quixada attended the queen not solely for her con- 
 venience, but partly to communicate to the princess- 
 
 * Meneze* : Chronica, p. 75. t Pupifrs d'Etat de Granvelle, IV. p. 150.
 
 178 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 regent some confidential instructions from the empe- 
 ror, and partly that he might now superintend the 
 removal of his own household from Villagarcia to 
 Quacos. He arrived at court at noon on the 19th, 
 and immediately saw the regent. His business was 
 to explain the emperor's views as to the best means 
 of raising money, the great end of all Spanish gov- 
 ernment, and to persuade the princess to consult 
 queen Mary in all state affairs of importance, and 
 especially on topics connected with Flanders, which 
 she had ruled so long and so wisely. With what- 
 ever deference Juana may have received her father's 
 financial advice, she showed no deference whatever 
 to his second proposal. She was desirous to resign 
 the government to her brother, but she would on no 
 account share it with her aunt. She would not even 
 permit Quixada to mention the emperor's wish to 
 the council of state. She was willing that Mary's 
 treasurer should be heard occasionally before the 
 council ; but as he was a Frenchman, and therefore 
 not entirely to be trusted, even this concession must 
 be cautiously used. But as to allowing the queen 
 herself a voice as a matter of right, that, she said, she 
 could never agree to; for Mary's temper was well 
 known to be so imperious, that, were she permitted to 
 meddle at all, she would soon make herself mistress 
 of the whole state. Besides, when she herself was 
 appointed regent, no such interference with her power 
 was proposed or even contemplated ; and in short, if 
 the point were insisted on, she would resign the 
 government.* The point was not insisted on, and 
 
 * Quixada to cmp., 19th of March, and princess to emp., 22d of 
 March, 1558. Gonzalez MS.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 179 
 
 queen Mary fixed her residence at Cigales, a ham- 
 let near which there was a small royal seat, about 
 two leagues from the capital, crowning a vine-clad 
 height on the western side of the vale of the Pisu- 
 erga. 
 
 The emperor's scheme of finance seems to have 
 been submitted' by the princess to the council, for a 
 memorial was immediately prepared by that body on 
 the subject, and forwarded for approval to Yuste. 
 This document suggested, as a means of raising 
 funds, an increase in the price of salt, the sale of cer- 
 tain lands belonging to the military orders, the sale of 
 certain honorary offices and of patents of nobility 
 [liidalguias] , and the sale of acts or patents conferring 
 legitimacy on the children of the clergy. 
 
 The inquiry into the Seville bullion case continued 
 to drag its slow length along, with results which were 
 submitted at intervals to the emperor. Some of the 
 merchants, accused of being averse to the seizure of 
 their property, having informed on each other, he ad- 
 vised that free pardon should be offered to all ship- 
 masters and sailors who should give evidence leading 
 to further discoveries. Nothing worthy of note was 
 elicited, but the facts, that there was hardly a trader 
 in Seville who was not guilty of concealing his gold 
 and silver ; and that so great was the distrust of the 
 royal mint, that some of the importers made quoits 
 (tejuelos} of those precious metals, hoping that, in that 
 humble disguise, they might escape the vigilance of 
 the royal searchers. 
 
 A proof of the straits to which the treasury was 
 reduced is found in a fresh skirmish which took place 
 between the self-willed grand inquisitor Valdes, and
 
 180 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 the court. Some months before, the emperor had 
 written to the princess, that, so soon as the body of his 
 mother, the late queen Juana, should be considered 
 sufficiently dry, it was to be transferred with proper 
 state from Tordesillas to Granada, and there laid be- 
 side her husband, Philip the handsome, in the mag- 
 nificent tomb of white marble, wrought by the deli- 
 cate chisel of Vigarny, in the chapel-royal of the ca- 
 thedral. Towards the end of March, the weather 
 being favorable, and the royal corpse being pro- 
 nounced ripe for removal, the marquis of Comares 
 and the grand inquisitor were ordered to hold them- 
 selves in readiness to escort it on the journey. But the 
 prelate excused himself, on the plea that he must at- 
 tend to the business of the holy office, and to the souls 
 of the Moriscos of Valladolid. The princess, on the 
 other hand, not only refused to admit this excuse, but 
 said that it was an excellent opportunity for him to 
 visit his diocese, from which he had been long absent; 
 and she therefore ordered him to proceed on the jour- 
 ney, and return by way of Seville. With this new order 
 the archbishop flatly refused to comply, alleging that, 
 since a certain decree of the council of Trent, which 
 had greatly extended the powers of chapters, he had 
 been waging such a war with his canons that it was 
 utterly impossible for him to honor them with his 
 presence. The infanta, finding him thus stubborn, 
 referred the matter to the council, which at once de- 
 cided against the recusant. Still the archbishop held 
 out, setting forth the hardship of his case in letters, 
 each of which was more cool, plausible, and copious 
 than the one before it; and at last hinting that, if he 
 were left to choose his own time, he would go down
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 181 
 
 to Granada, and find means of levying on the Moris- 
 cos there a fine of one hundred thousand ducats for 
 the royal service. The bait took; and the insolent 
 old churchman was left to pursue, undisturbed, his 
 present course of cruelty and exaction at Valladolid ; 
 and another holy man was appointed to pray beside 
 the crazy queen's coffin as it journeyed to the tomb. 
 
 Under a course of sarsaparilla and an infusion of 
 liquorice the emperor's health improved as the genial 
 spring weather came on. But his attack of gout had 
 shaken him considerably, and for many weeks painful 
 twinges were apt to revisit his arms and knees. Nor 
 was he so fit for exercise as he had been during the 
 previous year, and his gun ceased to persecute the 
 wood-pigeons in the walnut-trees. But he was still 
 able to sit or saunter among his new parterres, bright 
 and fragrant with vernal flowers, and to superintend 
 the progress of his fountain and summer-house, which 
 were ready in summer to shed their coolness and offer 
 their shade. To this family of pets, the queen of Por- 
 tugal added in April a pair of very small Indian cats, 
 and a parrot, gifted with wonderful faculties of speech, 
 which soon became the favorite of the palace. 
 
 The emperor's punctual attendance, whenever his 
 health permitted, on religious rites in church, and his 
 fondness for finding occasion for extraordinary func- 
 tions there, won him golden opinions among the 
 friars. On each 1st of May, during his stay at the 
 convent, he caused funeral honors to be celebrated for 
 his empress with great pomp, and a liberal allowance 
 of tapers. When he himself had completed a year of 
 residence, some good-humored bantering passed be- 
 tween him and the master of the novices, about its 
 
 16
 
 182 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 being now time for him to make profession : and he 
 afterwards declared, as the friars averred, that he was 
 prevented from taking the vows, and becoming one of 
 themselves, only by the state of his health. 
 
 St. Bias's day, 1558, the anniversary of his arrival, 
 was held as a festival and celebrated by masses, the 
 Te Deum, a procession, and a sermon by Villalva. 
 In the afternoon, the emperor provided a sumptuous 
 repast for the whole convent out of doors, it being the 
 custom of the fraternity to mark any accession to 
 their numbers by a picnic. The country people of 
 the Vera sent a quantity of partridges and kids to aid 
 the feast, which was also enlivened by the presence 
 of many of the Flemish retainers, male and female, 
 from the village of Quacos. The prior provided a 
 more permanent memorial of the day, by opening a 
 new book for the names of brethren admitted to the 
 convent, on the first leaf of which the emperor in- 
 scribed his name, an autograph which was the pride 
 of the archives until they were destroyed by the dra- 
 goons of Bonaparte. 
 
 On the first Sunday after he came to the convent, 
 as he went to mass, he observed the friar, who was 
 sprinkling the holy water, hesitate as he approached 
 to be aspersed. Taking the hyssop, therefore, from 
 his hand, he bestowed a plentiful shower upon his 
 own face and clothes, saying, as he returned the in- 
 strument, " This, father, is the way you must do it 
 next time." Another friar offering the pyx containing 
 the holy wafer to his lips, in a similar diffident man- 
 ner, he took it into his hands, and not only kissed it 
 fervently, but applied it to his forehead and eyes with 
 true oriental reverence.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 183 
 
 Feasting being his greatest pleasure, he considered 
 fasting at due times and seasons the first of human 
 duties; and during his last Lent in Flanders, he had 
 specially charged the papal nuncio to grant licenses 
 for the use of meat to no member of his household, 
 except the sick whose lives were in danger.* Al- 
 though provided with an indulgence for eating before 
 communion, he never availed himself of it but when 
 suffering from extreme debility ; and he always heard 
 two masses on the days when he partook of the sol- 
 emn rite. On Ash Wednesday he required his entire 
 household, down to the meanest scullion, to commu- 
 nicate; and on these occasions he would stand on 
 the highest step of the altar to observe if the muster 
 was complete. He was likewise particular in causing 
 the Flemings to be assembled for confession on the 
 stated days when their countryman, the Flemish 
 chaplain, came over from Xarandilla.f 
 
 The emperor himself usually heard mass from the 
 window of his bedchamber, which looked into the 
 church; but at complines he went up into the choir 
 with the fathers, and prayed in a devout and audible 
 voice in his tribune. During the season of Lent, 
 which came round twice during his residence at 
 Yuste, he regularly appeared on Fridays in his place 
 in the choir, and at the end of the appointed prayers, 
 extinguishing the taper which he, like the rest, held in 
 his hand, he flogged himself with such sincerity of 
 purpose, that the scourge was stained with blood, and 
 the pious singularly edified. Some of these scourges 
 were found, after his death, in his chamber, stained 
 
 * Relatione of Badovaro. See Chap. II. p. 39, note, 
 t Chap. IV. p. 97.
 
 184 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 with blood, and became precious heirlooms in the 
 house of Austria, and honored relics at the Escorial.* 
 On Good Friday he went forth at the head of his 
 household to adore the holy cross ; and, although he 
 was"so infirm that he was almost carried by the men 
 on whom he leaned, he insisted upon prostrating him- 
 self three times upon the ground, in the manner of 
 the friars, before he approached the blessed symbol 
 with his lips. The feast of St. Matthias he always 
 celebrated with peculiar devotion, as a day of great 
 things in his life, being the day of his birth, his coro- 
 nation, the victories of Bicocca and Pavia, and the 
 birth of his son Don John of Austria. On this festival, 
 therefore, he appeared at mass in a dress of ceremony, 
 and wearing the collar of the golden fleece, and at the 
 offertory expressed his gratitude by a large oblation. 
 The church was thronged with strangers, and the 
 crowd who could not gain admittance was so great, 
 that, while one sermon proceeded within, another was 
 pronounced outside, beneath the shadow of the great 
 walnut-tree of Yuste. 
 
 The emperor lived with the friars on terms of friend- 
 ly familiarity, of which they were very proud, and his 
 household somewhat ashamed. He always insisted on 
 his confessor being seated in his presence, and would 
 never listen to the entreaties of the modest divine, 
 that he should at least be allowed to stand when the 
 chamberlain or any one else came into the room. 
 " Have no care of this matter, Fray Juan," he would 
 
 * They were seen and handled there in the next century by Gaspar 
 Scioppius, as he relates in his caustic hook against Strada: Infamia 
 Famiani, 12mo, Amsterd , 1663, p. 18. He adds, that, being still stained 
 with the blood of Charles, they could have " given little pain to the 
 backs " of the Philips, his descendants, p. 19.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 185 
 
 say, " since you are my father in confession, and I am 
 equally pleased by your sitting in my presence, and 
 by your blushing when caught in the act." He knew 
 all the friars by sight and by name, and frequently 
 conversed with them, as well as with the prior ; and 
 he sometimes honored them with his company at 
 dinner in the refectory.* When the visitors of the 
 order paid their triennial visit of inspection to Yuste, 
 they represented to him with all respect, that his maj- 
 esty himself was the only inmate of the convent with 
 whom they had any fault to find ; and they entreated 
 him to discontinue the benefactions which he was in 
 the habit of bestowing on the fraternity, and which it 
 was against their rule for Jeromites to receive. One 
 of his favorites was the lay brother, Alonso Mudarra, 
 who, after having filled offices of trust in the state, 
 was now working out his own salvation as cook to 
 the convent. This worthy had an only daughter, 
 who did not share her father's contempt for mundane* 
 things. When she came with her husband to visit 
 him at Yuste, emerging from among the pots in his 
 dirtiest apron, he thus addressed her: "Daughter, be- 
 hold my gala apparel ; obedience is now my pleasure 
 and my pride ; for you, with your silks and vanities, 
 I entertain a profound pity ! " So saying, he returned 
 to his cooking, and would never see her again, an 
 effort of holiness to which he appears to owe his place 
 in the chronicles of the order. 
 
 While the emperor's servants were surprised by his 
 familiarity with the stupid friars, the friars marvelled 
 at his forbearance with his careless servants. They 
 
 * He dined with them on the 6th of June, St. Vincent's day, 1557, 
 and was observed to be in peculiarly good spirits. 
 16"
 
 186 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 noted his patience with Adrian the cook, although it 
 was notorious that he left the cinnamon, which his 
 master loved, out of the dishes whereof it was the 
 proper seasoning ; and how mildly he admonished 
 Pelayo the baker, who, getting drunk and neglecting 
 his oven, sent up burnt bread, which must have sorely 
 tried the toothless gums of the emperor. Neverthe- 
 less, the old military habits of the recluse had not al- 
 together forsaken him ; and there were occasions in 
 which he showed himself something of a martinet in 
 enforcing the discipline of his household and the con- 
 vent. Observing in his walks, or from his window, 
 that a certain basket daily went and came between 
 his garden and the garden of the friars, he sent for 
 Moron, minister of the horticultural department, and 
 caused him to institute a search, of which the result 
 was the harmless discovery that the cepevorous Flem- 
 ings were in the habit of bartering egg-plants with 
 the friars for double rations of onions. He had also 
 been disturbed by suspicious gatherings of young 
 women, who stood gossiping at the convent gate, 
 under pretence of receiving alms. At Yuste, the 
 spirit of misogyny was less stern than it had formerly 
 been at Mejorada, where the prior once assured queen 
 Mary of Castille, that if she opened, as she proposed, 
 a door from her palace into the conventual choir, he 
 and his monks would fly from their polluted abode.* 
 In his secular life, Charles was accused by one con- 
 temporary f of following the ways of pious times " be- 
 fore polygamy was made a sin," and praised by an- 
 
 * Fr. Pedro de la Vega : Cronica de los Frayles de Sant Hieronymo, fol., 
 Aloala, 1539, black letter, fol. xli. 
 
 t Badovaro. See Chap. II p. 39, note.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 187 
 
 other for being so severely virtuous as to shut his 
 window when he saw a pretty woman pass along the 
 street.* Here, however, he was determined that 
 neither he himself nor his Jeromite hosts should be 
 led into temptation. His complaint to the superior 
 not sufficiently suppressing the evil, it was repeated 
 to the visitors when they came their rounds. An or- 
 der was then issued that the conventual dole, instead 
 of being divided at the door, should be sent round in 
 certain portions to the villages of the Vera, for distri- 
 bution on the spot. And although it was well known 
 that St. Jerome had sometimes miraculously let loose 
 the lion, which always lies at his feet in his pictures, 
 against the women who ventured themselves within 
 his cloisters,! it was thought prudent to adopt more 
 sure and secular means for their exclusion. The crier 
 therefore went down the straggling street of Quacos, 
 making the ungallant proclamation, that any woman 
 who should be found nearer to the convent of Yuste 
 than a certain oratory, about two gunshots from the 
 gate, was to be punished with a hundred lashes. 
 
 On the 3d of May, 1558, the emperor received an 
 intimation from the secretary of state, that all the 
 forms of his renunciation of the imperial crown had 
 been gone through, and that the act against which 
 Philip and the court had so frequently remonstrated 
 was now complete. He expressed the greatest de- 
 light at this intelligence, and caused Gaztelu to reply 
 that in future he was to be addressed, not as emperor, 
 but as a private person, and that a couple of seals, 
 " without crown, eagle, fleece, or other device," were 
 
 * Zenocarns : Vita Caroti V., p. 268. 
 t P. de la Vega : Cronica, fol. xli.
 
 188 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 to be made and forthwith sent for his use. In this 
 letter the usual heading, " the emperor," was left out, 
 and it was addressed to Juan Vazquez de Molina, not, 
 as before, " my secretary," but " secretary of the coun- 
 cil of the king, my son." The blank seals were made 
 and sent; but, in spite of Charles's injunctions, the 
 princess-regent and all his other correspondents con- 
 tinued to address him by his ancient style and title of 
 " sacred Caesarean Catholic majesty," which indeed 
 it would have been no less difficult than absurd to 
 change.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 189 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE INQUISITION, ITS ALLIES AND ITS VICTIMS. 
 
 THE year 1558 is memorable in the history of Spain. 
 In that year was decided the question whether she 
 was to join the intellectual movement of the North, 
 or lag behind in the old paths of mediaeval faith ; 
 whether she was to be guided by the printing-press, 
 or to hold fast by her manuscript missals. It was in 
 that year that she felt the first distinct shock of the 
 great moral earthquake, out of which had already 
 come Luther and Protestantism, out of which was to 
 come the Thirty Years' War, the English common- 
 wealth, French revolutions, and modern republics. 
 The effect was visible and palpable, yet transient as 
 the effect produced by the great Lisbon earthquake 
 on the distant waters of Lochlomond. But to the 
 powers that were, it was sufficiently alarming. For 
 some weeks a church-in-danger panic pervaded the 
 court at Valladolid and the cloister of Yuste ; and it 
 was feared that, while the Most Catholic King was 
 bringing back his realm of England to the true fold, 
 Castille herself might go astray into the howling wil- 
 derness of heresy and schism. 
 
 The harvest of church abuses into which Luther 
 and his band thrust their sharp sickles in Germany, 
 had long been rank and rife to the south of ^he Pyre-
 
 190 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 nees. Nor were reapers, strong, active, and earnest, 
 wanting to the field. From the beginning of the six- 
 teenth century, not only laymen, but even friars, priests, 
 and dignitaries of the church, had stood forth with 
 voice and pen to make solemn protest against the 
 vices of the various orders of the priesthood ; against 
 the greedy avarice and dissolute lives of monks ; 
 against the regular clergy, who preferred their hawks 
 and hounds to their cures of souls ; against oppressive 
 prelates and chapters, who lived in open concubinage, 
 and heaped preferment upon their bastards ; and 
 even against Rome itself, where all these iniquities 
 were practised on an imperial scale, and whence Eu- 
 rope was irrigated with ecclesiastical pollution. In 
 the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and during the 
 infamous papacy of Alexander the Sixth, the disor- 
 ders of the Franciscan mendicants had reached such 
 a pitch of public scandal in Spain, that those of them 
 who adhered to the party which was called cloisteral, 
 in opposition to the reformed party of the observants, 
 were suppressed by law and actually expelled from 
 their monasteries. But although this just and neces- 
 sary measure was enforced by the strong hand of 
 Ximenes, then provincial of the order, and afterwards 
 cardinal-primate, the cowled vagabonds who, refusing 
 to purge and live cleanly, were driven from Toledo, 
 had the audacity to file out of the Visagra gate in 
 long procession, headed by a crucifix, and chanting 
 the psalm which celebrates the exodus of the people 
 of God from the bondage of Egypt.* Abundant proof 
 
 * Psalm cxiii. (in our version cxiv.) : " In exltu Israel de Egypto" &c. 
 See Eugenio de Robles : Vida del Cardenal D. Fran. Ximenes de Cisneros, 
 4to, Toledcy 1604, p. 68, and Alvar. Gomez : De Rebus Gestis a F. Xi- 
 menio Cisnerio, 4to, Compluti, 1569, fol. 7.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 191 
 
 of the demoralized state of the Spanish clergy, regu- 
 lar and secular, may be found in those collections of 
 obscene songs and poems, still preserved as curiosities 
 in libraries, and composed, chiefly in the cloister, in 
 an age when none but churchmen were writers, and 
 few but churchmen were readers.* Similar evidence, 
 perhaps still more convincing, exists in the proverbial 
 philosophy of Spain, that old and popular record in 
 which each generation noted its experience, where 
 clerical cant, greed, falsehood, gluttony, and unclean- 
 ness are so frequently lashed, as to leave no doubt of 
 the wisdom of the precept which said, " Parson, friar, 
 and Jew, friends like these eschew." f 
 
 These evils were so monstrous and so crying, that 
 those who denounced them enjoyed for a while the 
 support of popular feeling, and even the good-will of 
 the secular power. But while all good men, both lay 
 and ecclesiastic, deplored and even denounced the 
 wickedness of churchmen, there is no reason to be- 
 lieve that they were shaken in their faith in the infal- 
 lible church. They abhorred the hireling shepherd, 
 not only because he was hateful in himself, but be- 
 cause they loved the true fold, of which he was the 
 danger and the disgrace. Even the Inquisition itself 
 was no enemy to reform, and although its chief 
 business was to keep the Jew and the Moor under 
 the yoke of enforced Christianity, it occasionally took 
 cognizance of the grosser cases of clerical profligacy. 
 
 * See the curious essay on this subject, by Don Luis de Usoz y Eio, 
 prefixed to the Cancionero de Obrus de Burlas, 4to, Valencia, 1519 ; re- 
 printed, sra. 8 vo, London, 1841. 
 
 t " Clerigo frayle, o Judio, no le tengas por aniigo." See Essay by 
 Usoz, p. 27, cited in preceding note.
 
 192 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 Under the rule of Adrian of Utrecht, afterwards pope, 
 and of cardinal Manrique, the holy office issued a few 
 decrees against the heresy of Luther and against the 
 importation of heretical books into Spain. But the 
 offenders condemned under these laws were few, and 
 principally foreigners ; and the fires were usually kin- 
 dled for victims who were supposed to pray with 
 their faces turned to the east, to deal in astrology and 
 witchcraft, to keep the Sabbath, to circumcise their 
 children, or to use the unchristian luxury of the bath. 
 It was not until near the middle of the century that 
 the seed cast by the way-side took root in the stony 
 ground of Castille. Then it was that Spanish pens 
 began to be busy with translations of the Scriptures. 
 That such translations were as yet not forbidden may 
 be inferred from the fact, that the first work of the 
 kind, the Castillian New Testament of Enzinas, print- 
 ed at Antwerp in 1543, was dedicated to the emperor 
 Charles the Fifth. In spite, however, of this judicious 
 choice of a patron, the poor author very shortly found 
 himself in prison at Bruxelles as an heretical perverter 
 of the text. Notwithstanding his ill fortune, several 
 versions of the Psalms and other sacred books, and 
 a New Testament in verse, were put forth from the 
 presses of Antwerp and Venice. Commentaries, 
 glosses, dialogues, and other treatises of questionable 
 orthodoxy, followed in rapid succession. Their circu- 
 lation in Spain became so extensive, that the Inqui- 
 sition interfered with fresh laws and increased sever- 
 ities. The stoppage of the regular traffic only piqued 
 public curiosity, and the forbidden tracts were soon 
 smuggled in bales by the muleteers over the moun- 
 tains from Huguenot Beam, or run in casks, by Eng-
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 193 
 
 lish or Dutch traders, on the shores of Andalusia. 
 Something like public opinion began to gather and 
 stir ; strange questions were raised in the schools of 
 Alcala and Salamanca ; strange doctrines were spoken 
 from cathedral pulpits, and whispered in monastic 
 cloisters ; and high matters of faith, which had been 
 formerly left to the entire control of the clergy, 
 were handled by laymen, and even by ladies, at Se- 
 ville and Valladolid. No longer contented with 
 pointing out the weather-stains and rents in the huge 
 ecclesiastical fabric, reformers began to pry with in- 
 convenient curiosity into the nature of its foundations. 
 But no sooner had the first stroke fallen upon that 
 venerable accumulation of ages, than the chiefs of the 
 black garrison at once saw the full extent of their dan- 
 ger. To them the rubbish on the surface, being far 
 more productive, was at least as sacred as the eternal 
 rock beneath. Wisely, therefore, postponing their pri- 
 vate differences to a fitter season of adjustment, they 
 sallied forth upon the foe, armed with all the power of 
 the state as well as with all the terror of the keys. 
 The unhappy inquirers, uncertain of their own aims 
 and plans, were not supported by any of those polit- 
 ical chances and necessities which aided the triumph 
 of religious reform in other lands. The battle was 
 therefore short, the carnage terrible, and the victory 
 so signal and decisive, that it remains to this day a 
 source of shame or of pride to the zealots of either 
 party, who still love the sound of the polemic trum- 
 pet. The Protestant must confess that the new re- 
 ligion has never succeeded in eradicating the old, even 
 amongst the freest and boldest of the Teutonic peo- 
 ple. The Catholic, on the other hand, may fairly 
 
 17
 
 194 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 boast, that in the Iberian peninsula the seeds of re- 
 form were crushed by Rome at once and for ever. 
 
 What the new tenets were can hardly be made 
 clear to us, since they were not clear to the unhappy 
 persons who were burned for holding them. Protes- 
 tant divines have assumed that these tenets were 
 Protestant, on account of the savage vengeance with 
 which they were pursued by the church. In one fea- 
 ture these dead and forgotten dogmas have some in- 
 terest for the philosopher, in the glimmering perception 
 which appears in them, that tolerance is a Christian, 
 duty ; that honesty in matters of belief is of far greater 
 moment than the actual quality of the belief; and 
 that speculative error can never be corrected, or kept 
 at bay, by civil punishment. Yet none of the so- 
 called Spanish Protestants have enunciated these sen- 
 timents so clearly as the Benedictine Virues in his 
 treatise against the opinions of Luther and Melanc- 
 thon.* Had time been given for the new spirit of in- 
 quiry to shape itself into some definite form, it would 
 doubtless have greatly modified the character of Span- 
 ish religion ; although it is scarcely probable that it 
 would have led the children of the South, with their 
 warm blood and tendency to sensuous symbolism, 
 into that track of severe and progressive specula- 
 tion, into which reform conducted the people of 
 the North. But inquiry demands time ; and the 
 church being too wise to trifle with so deadly a foe, 
 it was strangled in the cradle by the iron gripe of the 
 inquisitor. 
 
 * A. de Castro : Spanish Protestants, translated by T. Parker ; sm. 
 8vo, London, 1851, p. liv., where a passage is quoted from the Dis- 
 pittat tones of Virues.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 195 
 
 It would be curious to investigate the causes to 
 which this repressive policy owed its success ; and to 
 discover the reasons why the Spaniard thus clung to 
 a superstition which the Hollander cast away ; why 
 the strong giant, whose flag was on every sea, and 
 whose foot was on every shore, shrank to a pigmy in 
 the field of theological speculation. But the germs 
 of a popular faith must be sought for far and wide in 
 the moral and physical circumstances of a people ; 
 and it would be far beyond the scope of a biographi- 
 cal fragment, to analyze the mixed blood of the 
 Spaniard, the air he breathes, the shape and soil of 
 his beautiful land, and the texture of his national his- 
 tory. Suffice it, therefore, to notice two points where- 
 in the victorious church possessed advantages in 
 Spain, which were wanting to her in the countries 
 where she was vanquished. The first of these was 
 the Inquisition, a police claiming unlimited jurisdic- 
 tion over thought, long established, well organized, 
 well trained, untrammelled by thew forms of ordinary 
 justice, and so habitually merciless, as to have accus- 
 tomed the nation to see blood shed like -water on ac- 
 count of religious error. Before this terrible machin- 
 ery the recruits of reform, raw, wavering, doubting, 
 without any clear common principle or habits of com- 
 bination, were swept away like the Indians of Mexico 
 before the cavalry and culverins of Cortes. The 
 second advantage of the Spanish church was her inti- 
 mate connection with the national glory, and her 
 strong hold, if not on the affections, at least on the 
 antipathies of the people. The Moorish wars, which 
 had been brought to a close within the memory of 
 men still alive, had been eminently wars of religion
 
 196 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 and of race ; they were domestic crusades, which had 
 endured for eight centuries, and in which the church 
 had led the van ; and in which the knights of Castille 
 deemed it no disloyalty to avow that they had been 
 guided to victory rather by the cross of Christ than 
 by the castles and lions of their beloved Isabella. 
 Deeply significant of the spirit of the enterprise and 
 the age was the fact, that it was the sacred cross of 
 Toledo, the symbol of primacy borne before the grand- 
 cardinal Mendoza, which was solemnly raised, in the 
 sight of the Christian host, in the place of the cres- 
 cent, on the red towers of the Alhambra.* Since that 
 proud day, the church, once more militant under car- 
 dinal Ximenes, had carried the holy war into Africa, 
 and gained a footing in the land of Tarik and the 
 Saracen. All good Christians devoutly believed, with 
 the chronicler,! that " powder burned against the infi- 
 del was sweet incense to the Lord." In Spain itself 
 there was still a large population of Moorish blood, 
 which made a garden of many a pleasant valley, and 
 a fortress of many a mountain range, and which, al- 
 though Christian in name, was well known to be 
 Moslem in heart and secret practice, and to be anx- 
 iously looking to the great Turk for deliverance from 
 thraldom. Every city, too, had its colony of Hebrews, 
 wretches who accumulated untold wealth, eschewed 
 pork, and continued to eat the paschal lamb. Against 
 these domestic dangers the church kept watch and 
 ward, doing, with the full approval of the Christian 
 
 * Pedro de Salazar : Cronica de el gran Cardenal D. Pedro Gonzalez de 
 Alendow, fol., Toledo, 1625, p. 256. 
 
 t Gonz. Fernandez de Oviedo : Quincuagenas ; quoted by Prescott, 
 Hist, of Ferdinand and Isabella.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 197 
 
 people, all that cruelty and bad faith could do to make 
 Judaism and Islamism eternal and implacable. When 
 the Barbary pirates sacked 'a village on the shores of 
 Spain, or made a prize of a Spanish galley at sea, it 
 was the church that sent forth those peaceful crusad- 
 ers, the white-robed friars of the order of Mercy, to 
 redeem the captives from African bondage. In Spain, 
 therefore, heresy, or opposition to the authority of the 
 church, was connected in the popular mind with all 
 that was most shameful in their annals of the past, 
 and all that was most hated and feared in the circum- 
 stances of the present, and in the prospects of the 
 future. In Northern Europe, the church had no mar- 
 tial achievements to boast of, and few opportunities of 
 appearing in the beneficent character of a protector 
 or redeemer. She was known merely in her spir- 
 itual capacity ; or as a power in the state no less 
 proud and oppressive than king or count ; or as the 
 channel through which the national riches were 
 drained off into the papal treasury at Rome. In the 
 North, the reformer was not merely the denouncer of 
 ecclesiastical abuses, but the champion of the people's 
 rights, and the redresser of their wrongs. But in 
 Spain, the poor enthusiast, to his horror, found him- 
 self associated in popular esteem, as well as in the 
 Inquisition dungeons, with the Jew, the crucifier of 
 babies, and the Morisco, who plotted to restore the 
 Caliphate of the West. Men's passions became so 
 inflamed against the new doctrines, that an instance 
 is recorded of a wretched fanatic, who asked leave, 
 which was joyfully granted, to light the pile whereon 
 his young daughters were to die. Long after the ex- 
 citement had passed away, a mark of the torrent re-
 
 198 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 mained in the proverbial phrase, in which the aspect 
 of poverty was described as being " ugly as the lace 
 of a heretic." * 
 
 The inquisitor-general, archbishop Valdes, had for 
 some months past been watching the movement party 
 in the church with anxiety, not unmingled with alarm. 
 He had even applied to the pope for extended pow- 
 ers. In February he received a brief, in which were 
 renewed and consolidated all the decrees ever issued 
 by popes or councils against heresy, a document in 
 which Paul, unable to resist the temptation of insult- 
 ing Philip the Second, even while he was treating 
 with him, conferred upon the Inquisition the power of 
 deposing from their dignifies heretics of whatever 
 degree, were they bishops, archbishops, or cardinals, 
 dukes, kings, or emperors, f 
 
 The first heretic of note who was arrested at Valla- 
 dolid was Dr. Augustin Cazalla, an eminent divine 
 who had for ten years attended Charles the Fifth in 
 Germany and the Netherlands as his preacher, and in 
 that capacity had distinguished himself by the force 
 and eloquence with which he had denounced Luther 
 and his errors. But while he saved others, the doctor 
 himself became a castaway. Having been for some 
 time suspected of holding new opinions, he was ar- 
 rested on the 23d of April, as he was going to 
 preach beyond the walls of the city, and was lodged 
 in the prison of the Inquisition. His sister, and sev- 
 eral other noble ladies, were likewise taken at the 
 same time ; and orders were given to search for an 
 
 * A. de Castro: Hist, de los Protestantes Espanoles, pp. 218, 311. 
 t Llorente : Hist, de la Inquisition, 8 vols , sm. 8vo, Barcelona, 
 1835. III. 204.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 199 
 
 important member of the party, Fray Domingo de 
 Roxas, son of the marquis of Poza, a Dominican of 
 high reputation for sanctity. 
 
 Notice of these events was immediately sent to 
 Yuste. The emperor heard of them with much emo- 
 tion, emotion not of pity for the probable fate of 
 his chaplain, but of horror of the crime laid to his 
 charge. He soon afterwards addressed two letters to 
 the princess-regent ; one a private and tender epistle, 
 the other a public despatch to be laid before the coun- 
 cil. In both of them he entreated her to lose no time 
 and spare no pains to uproot the dangerous doctrine; 
 and in the second, he advised that all who were found 
 guilty should be punished, without any exception ; 
 and said that, if the state of his health permitted, he 
 would himself undertake any toil for the chastisement 
 of so great a crime, and the remedy of so great an 
 evil. Talking of the same matter with the prior of 
 Yuste, he again expressed the same opinion and the 
 same wish. " Father," said he, " if any thing could 
 drag me from this retreat, it would be to aid in chas- 
 tising these heretics. For such creatures as those now 
 in prison, however, this is not necessary, but I have 
 written to the Inquisition to burn them all, for none of 
 them will ever become true Catholics, or are worthy to 
 live." * 
 
 His advice was taken, though not with the promp- 
 titude he desired. But the alguazils of holy office 
 knew no repose from their labor of capturing the cul- 
 prits. In a few days Fray Domingo de Roxas was 
 taken, with several other members of the Roxas fami- 
 
 * Sandoval, II. p. 829.
 
 200 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 ly, and several noble ladies of the family of the mar- 
 quis of Alcani9es, a branch of the great house of 
 Henriquez. New arrestments and new informations 
 followed so fast upon each other, that the Inquisition 
 was overwhelmed with business, and its prisons filled 
 to overflowing. Rumors were rife of a rising among 
 the Jews of Murcia, and of a general emigration of 
 the Moriscos of Aragon towards the frontiers of 
 France. The regent and her court were at their 
 wits' ends at the dangers which were thus thickening 
 around them. 
 
 The crafty old inquisitor-general alone rejoiced in 
 the public panic and confusion. He was now secure 
 from all chance of being sent to attend a royal corpse 
 across the kingdom ; of being ordered into exile 
 amongst his refractory canons ; or of being fleeced of 
 his savings by the crown. So long as the faithful 
 were menaced by this flood of Lutheran heresy, so 
 long would he be the greatest man in the ark of safe- 
 ty, the church. He therefore took his measures 
 rather to direct than to lull the storm. Visiting Sala- 
 manca, he made there a large seizure of Bibles and 
 other heretical books, and convened a council of doc- 
 tors, with whose assistance he drew up a censure on 
 the new doctrines, which he caused to be published in 
 all the cities of the kingdom. In order the better to 
 probe the seat of the disease, this zealous minister of 
 truth sent out a number of spies to mix with the sus- 
 pected Lutherans, under pretence of being inquirers or 
 converts, and thus to make themselves acquainted 
 with their numbers, principles, hopes, and designs. 
 Lured to destruction by these wretches, many persons 
 of all ranks were arrested at Toro and Zamora, Pa-
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 201 
 
 lencia and Logrono. Seville was the great southern 
 seat of heresy, and in the neighboring convent of St. 
 Isidro del Campo, the Jeromite friars almost to a man 
 were tainted with the new opinions. Valladolid, 
 however, was the stronghold of the sect, and in spite 
 of the odor of sanctity which surrounded the pious 
 regent, the brimstone savor of false doctrine offended 
 the orthodox nostril in the very precincts of the palace. 
 
 So engrossed was the emperor with the subject, that 
 he postponed to it for a while all other affairs of state. 
 He urged the princess to remember that the welfare 
 of the kingdom and of the church of God was bound 
 up in the suppression of heresy, and that therefore it 
 demanded greater diligence and zeal than any tempo- 
 ral matter. He had been informed that the false 
 teachers had been spreading their poison over the land 
 for nearly a year ; a length of time for which they 
 could have eluded discovery only through the aid or 
 the connivance of a great mass of the people. If it 
 were possible, therefore, he would have their crime 
 treated in a short and summary manner, like sedition 
 or rebellion. The king his son had executed sharp and 
 speedy justice upon many heretics, and even upon 
 bishops, in England ; how much more, then, ought his 
 measures to be swift and strong in his own hereditary 
 and Catholic realms? He recommended the princess 
 to confer with Quixada, and employ him in the busi- 
 ness according as she judged best. 
 
 To the king in Flanders he wrote in a similar strain, 
 insisting on the necessity of vigor and severity. And 
 as if the letter penned by the secretary were not suffi- 
 ciently forcible and distinct, he added this postscript 
 in his own hand :
 
 202 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 " Son, the black business which has risen here has 
 shocked me as much as you can think or suppose. 
 You will see what I have written about it to your sis- 
 ter. It is essential that you write to her yourself, and 
 that you take all the means in your power to cut out 
 the root of the evil with rigor and rude handling. But 
 since you are better disposed, and will assist more 
 warmly, than I can say or wish, I will not enlarge 
 further thereon. Your good father, Charles." * 
 
 After reading this letter and postscript, Philip wrote 
 on the margin this memorandum of a reply for the 
 guidance of his secretary: 
 
 " To kiss his hands for what he has already ordered 
 in this business, and to beg that he will carry it, on, 
 and [assure him] that the same shall be done here, 
 and [that I will take care] to advise him of what has 
 been done up to the present time." f 
 
 At the end of May, Quixada, by the emperor's or- 
 der, saw the inquisitor-general, and urged on him the 
 expediency of despatch in his dealings with heretics, 
 and of even dispensing in their cases with the ordinary 
 forms of his tribunal. But in this, as in every thing 
 else, archbishop Valdes would take his own way and 
 no other. With his usual plausibility, he assured the 
 
 * " Hijo, este negro negocio que aca se ha levantado, me tiene tan 
 escandalizado cuanto lo podeis pensar y juzgar. Vos vereis lo que escribo 
 sobre ello a vuestra hermana. Es menester que escribais y que lo pro- 
 cureis cortar de raiz y con mucho rigor y recio castigo. Y porque se 
 tcneis mas voluntad y asistereis de mas hervor que yo lo sabira ni podria 
 decir ni desear no me alargare mas en esto. De vuestro buen padre, 
 Carlos." Emperor to Philip the Second, 25th of May, 1558. Gonzalez 
 MS. 
 
 I Besalle los manos por lo que en esto ha mandado y suplicarle lo 
 lleve adelante, que de aca se hara lo mismo y avisarle de lo que se ha 
 hecho hasta agora.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 203 
 
 chamberlain that the roots of the disease could not be 
 laid bare more thoroughly than by the ordinary opera- 
 tions of inquisitorial surgery. Besides, so many peo- 
 ple were crying out for quick and condign punishment 
 to fall upon the criminals, that there was every reason 
 to hope, that the greater part of the nation still stood 
 fast in the faith. He had, however, sent for the bishop 
 of Tarafcona and the inquisitor of Cuenca to assist 
 him in hearing cases, and would use every prudent 
 method of shortening the proceedings. 
 
 A few days later, on the 2d of June, the archbish- 
 op himself wrote to the emperor, and submitted to 
 him various new measures which appeared to him 
 likely to be useful. First of all, he would extend the 
 holy office to Galicia, Biscay, and Asturias, provinces 
 which had not as yet benefited by its paternal care. 
 He next proposed to make confession and communion 
 obligatory upon all the king's subjects, and to open a 
 register of such persons as habitually absented them- 
 selves from those sacraments. A third suggestion 
 was, that no schoolmaster should be allowed to exer- 
 cise his calling until he had been licensed by a lay 
 and a clerical examiner. And lastly, the book trade 
 was to be placed under the severest restrictions. It 
 was to be declared unlawful to print any book with- 
 out the author's and printer's names, and without the 
 permission of the holy office, a permission which was 
 also to be obtained before any book could be imported 
 into the kingdom. Foreigners were to be forbidden 
 from selling books ; and Spanish books printed abroad 
 were to be totally prohibited. Booksellers were to be 
 compelled to hang up in their shops lists of all the 
 books which they kept for sale. Lastly, informers
 
 204 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 were to be rewarded with the third or fourth part of 
 the property of such persons as might, be convicted 
 through their means of breaches of any of these laws. 
 Unwise, unjust, and impracticable as these measures 
 were, it does not appear that they were so considered 
 by the emperor, or that he withheld his approval from 
 any of their absurd provisions. The inquisitor-general 
 therefore proceeded to enforce them. One of his first 
 steps was to prepare a catalogue of books prohibited 
 by the church, which was published at Valladolid in 
 the following year, and became the harbinger and 
 model of the famous expurgatory index, opened by 
 Paul the Fourth, in which the Vatican continues to re- 
 cord its protest against the advancement of knowl- 
 edge.* Thus it came to pass that Mariana and Solis, 
 Cervantes and Calderon, were forced to wait upon the 
 pleasure and tremble at the caprice of licenser after 
 licenser; that the beauty, the integrity, and even the 
 existence, of some of the finest works of the human 
 mind were so long jeoparded in the dirty hands of 
 stupid friars. There were ages in which the church, 
 as the sanctuary of art, and knowledge, and letters, 
 deserved the gratitude of the world ; but for the last 
 three centuries she has striven to cancel the debt, in 
 the noble offspring of genius which she has strangled 
 in the birth, and in the vast fields of intellect which 
 her dark shadow has blighted. 
 
 * Cathalogus Lilrorum rjui prohibentur Mandate Uhisfriss. ft revcrendiss. 
 D. D. Fernandi de Guides Hispalen. Archiepis. Inquisitoris Generalis His- 
 panice necnon et Snpremi Sanctce ac Generalis Inuuisitionis Senatus. Hie 
 Anno MDLIX. editus Pincia, 4to, of 28 leaves, or 56 pages, including title. 
 It is extremely rare, and seems to have been unknown to Brundt. A 
 copy is in the possession of D. Pascual de Gayangos, at Madrid.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 205 
 
 For a time, at least, the vigilance exercised over 
 bookshop and library was very strict. At Yuste, Dr. 
 Mathys had a small Bible, in French, and without 
 notes, which, in these times of doubt and danger, he 
 feared might get him into trouble. He therefore 
 asked the secretary of state to procure him a license 
 to retain and read the volume. Vazquez replied, that 
 the inquisitors demurred about granting this request; 
 and the prudent doctor, therefore, soon after intimated 
 that he had burned the forbidden book in the presence 
 of the emperor's confessor. 
 
 The physician judged wisely. When court ladies 
 and Jeromite friars were attacked with the plague of 
 heresy, and carried off to the hospitals of the Inquisi- 
 tion, who could feel certain of escaping the epidemic, or 
 the cure? The most catholic horror of the new doc- 
 trines was therefore professed at Yuste ; and Gaztelu, 
 reporting, at the beginning of June, that ceaseless rain 
 had been falling for nearly twenty days, remarked, 
 that such weather would do much damage in the 
 country, but that the errors of Luther would do far 
 more. The emperor was much distressed by a rumor 
 that a son of father Borja had been arrested at Se- 
 ville. He immediately wrote to the secretary of state 
 to send him a statement of the fact, and was relieved 
 by learning that it was not known at court. It turned 
 out to be a fiction of the friars of Yuste, who, thinking 
 it hard that the fold of Jerome alone should have the 
 shame of harboring wolves in sheep's clothing, were 
 nothing loath to cast a stone at the austerely orthodox 
 and rapidly rising company of Jesus. On discovering 
 the story's source the emperor was not greatly sur- 
 prised ; for, said Gaztelu, " the friars and Flemings 
 18
 
 206 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 are ever filling his ears with fables, and I myself stink 
 in their nostrils by reason of the many lies I have 
 brought home to them." 
 
 Another rumor, which was better founded, spoke of 
 the arrest of Pompeyo Leoni, one of the royal artists. 
 Much annoyed, the emperor applied to Vazquez for 
 information of the crime of " Pompeyo, son of Leoni, 
 the sculptor who made my bust and the king's, and 
 brought them with him to Spain in the fleet in 
 which I myself came hither." The secretary an- 
 swered that the sculptor was imprisoned for main- 
 taining certain Lutheran propositions; and that he 
 was sentenced to appear at an auto-de-fe, and after- 
 wards suffer a year's imprisonment in a monastery; 
 but that the busts were in safety. 
 
 At Seville, Fray Domingo de Guzman, also a new- 
 made prisoner, was likewise known to the emperor. 
 Of him, however, on hearing of his arrest, Charles 
 merely remarked that he might have been locked up 
 as much for being an idiot as for being a heretic. A 
 more illustrious victim of the Andalusian holy office 
 was Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, magistral 
 canon of Seville, and famous as a scholar, as a pulpit- 
 orator, and as author of several theological works 
 much esteemed both in Italy and Spain. He had 
 attended the emperor in Germany as his preacher 
 and almoner, and one of his writings was, at this 
 time, on the imperial bookshelf at Yuste.* For him 
 Charles entertained more respect, and upon hearing 
 that he had been committed to the castle of Triana, 
 observed, " If Constantino be a heretic, he will prove a 
 
 * Sandoval, II. p. 829.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 207 
 
 great one." * Like Cazalla, the canon, after thunder- 
 ing against reform in the land of reform, had returned 
 to Spain a reformer. His immediate " merits," for so 
 the Inquisition, with grim irony, called the acts or 
 opinions which qualified a man for the stake, were 
 certain heretical treatises in his handwriting which 
 had been dug, with his other papers, out of a wall. 
 
 Notwithstanding the crowded state of the prisons, 
 the Inquisition did not see fit to vary, during this year, 
 the monotony of the bull-fights by indulging the peo- 
 ple with an auto-de-fe. The emperor was therefore 
 dead before the unhappy clergymen, who had stood 
 by his bed in sickness and conversed with him at table 
 in health, were sent to expiate with their blood their 
 speculative offences against the church. Dr. Cazalla 
 was one of fourteen heretics who were "relaxed," or, 
 in secular speech, burnt, in May, 1559, at Valladolid, 
 before the regent and his court. Unhappily for his 
 party and for his own fair fame, the poor chaplain be- 
 haved with a pusillanimity very rare amongst Span- 
 iards when brought face to face with inevitable death, 
 or amongst men who suffer for conscience' sake. 
 Denying the crime of "dogmatizing," as the Inquisi- 
 tion well called preaching, he confessed that he had 
 held heretical opinions, and abjectly abjured them all. 
 His tears and cries, as in his robe, painted with 
 devils, he walked in the sad procession and stood 
 upon the fatal stage, moved the contempt of his com- 
 panions, amongst whom his brother and sister had 
 also come calmly to die. At the price of this humili- 
 ation he obtained the grace of being strangled before 
 
 * Chap. IV. p. 102.
 
 208 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 he was cast into the flames. A report had spread 
 amongst the populace that he had declared that, if his 
 penitence and sufferings should obtain him salva- 
 tion, he would appear the day after his death riding 
 through the city on a white horse. The inquisitors, 
 availing themselves of a rumor of which they perhaps 
 were authors, next day turned a white horse loose in 
 the streets, and caused it to be whispered that the 
 steed was indeed ridden by the departed doctor, al- 
 though not in such shape as to be visible to every 
 carnal eye.* Fray Francisco de Roxas, amidst a band 
 in which the shepherd and the muleteer were asso- 
 ciated in suffering and in glory with the noble knight 
 and the delicate lady, died bravely, in October, 1559, 
 at Valladolid, in the presence of Philip the Second. 
 Fray Domingo de Guzman suffered at Seville in 
 1560, in that auto-de-fe in which English Nicholas 
 Burton also perished, and in which Juana Bohorques, 
 a young mother who had been racked to death a few 
 weeks before, was solemnly declared to have been 
 innocent by her murderers themselves. Constantino 
 Ponce de la Fuente, confessing to the proscribed doc- 
 trines, but refusing to name his disciples, had been 
 thrown into a dungeon, dark and noisome as Jere- 
 miah's pit, far below the level of the Guadalquivir, 
 where a dysentery soon delivered him from chains 
 and the hands of his tormentors. " Yet did not his 
 body," says a churchman, writing some time after, in 
 the true spirit of orthodoxy, and with all the bitterness 
 of contemporary gall,f " for this escape the avenging 
 
 * A. de Castro : Sjxinish Protestants, p. 98. 
 
 t Nicolas Antonio : art. Constantino Ponce de la Fuente.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 209 
 
 flames." At this same auto-de-fe of 1560, they 
 burned the exhumed bones of Constantino, together 
 with his effigy, modelled with some care, and imitat- 
 ing, with outstretched arms, the attitude in which he 
 was wont to charm the crowds that gathered beneath 
 his pulpit at Seville. 
 
 During the progress of the hunt after heretics 
 Charles frequently conversed with his confessor and 
 the prior on the subject which lay so near his heart. 
 So keen was his hatred of the very name of heresy, 
 that he once reproved Regla for citing, in his pres- 
 ence, in proof of some indifferent topic, a passage 
 from a book by one Juan Fero, because that forgotten 
 writer was then known to have been no Catholic.* In 
 looking back on the early religious troubles of his reign, 
 it was ever his regret that he did not put Luther to 
 death when he had him in his power. He had spared 
 him, he said, on account of his pledged word, which, 
 indeed, he would have been bound to respect in any 
 case which concerned his own authority alone ; but 
 he now saw that he had greatly erred in preferring the 
 obligation of a promise to the higher duty of aveng- 
 ing upon that arch-heretic his offences against God. 
 Had Luther been removed, he conceived that the 
 plague might have been stayed ; but now it seemed to 
 rage with ever-increasing fury. He had some conso- 
 lation, however, in recollecting how steadily he had 
 refused to hear the points at issue between the church 
 and the schismatics argued in his presence. At this 
 price he had declined to purchase the support of some 
 
 * Salazar de Mendosa: Dignidades de Castilla, fol., Madrid, 1617, 
 fol. 161. 
 
 18"
 
 210 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 of the Protestant princes of the empire, when he first 
 took the field against the Saxon and the Hessian : he 
 had refused to buy aid at this price, even when flying 
 with only ten horsemen before the army of duke 
 Maurice. He knew the danger, especially for the un- 
 learned, of parleying with heretics who had their quiv- 
 ers full of reasons so apt and so well ordered. Sup- 
 pose one of their specious arguments had been planted 
 in his soul, how did he know that he could ever have 
 got it rooted out?* Thus did a great man misread 
 the spirit of his time ; thus did he cling, to the last, to 
 the sophisms of blind guides who taught that crass 
 ignorance was saving faith, and that the delectable 
 mountains of spiritual perfection were to be climbed 
 only by those who would walk with stopped ears and 
 hoodwinked eyes. 
 
 In this year, cardinal Siliceo having gone to St. 
 Ildefonso's bosom, the vacant archiepiscopal throne 
 of Toledo became a mark for the intrigues of every 
 ambitious churchman within the dominions of Spain. 
 The grand inquisitor, busy as he was with his massa- 
 cre of the innocents, of course found time to urge his 
 claim to a seventh mitre. But his niggard responses 
 to the appeals of the needy crown were still remem- 
 bered both at Bruxelles and at Yuste ; so for him 
 promotion came neither from the north nor from the 
 west. 
 
 The golden prize was given to Fray Bartolome 
 Carranza de Miranda, a name which stands high on 
 the list of the Wolseys of the world, of men remem- 
 bered less for the splendid heights to which they had 
 
 * Sandoval, II. p. 829.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 211 
 
 climbed, than for their sudden and signal fall. From 
 a simple Dominican monk, Carranza had risen to be 
 a professor at Valladolid, a leading doctor of Trent, 
 prior of Palencia, provincial of Spain, and prime ad- 
 viser of Philip the Second in that short-lived return to 
 popery which Spanish churchmen loved to call the 
 restoration of England. In England the ruthless 
 black friar had been a mark for popular vengeance; 
 and Oxford, Cambridge, and Lambeth long remem- 
 bered how he had preached the sacrifice of the mass, 
 how he helped to dig up the bones of Bucer, and how 
 he had aided at the burning of Cranmer. For these 
 services his master had rewarded him with the richest 
 see in Christendom; and he came to Spain in the 
 summer to take possession of his throne, little dream- 
 ing that his implacable and indefatigable rival, the 
 inquisitor Valdes, was already preparing the indict- 
 ment which was to make his primatical reign a long 
 disgrace. 
 
 Carranza had been well known to the emperor, 
 who had given him his first step on the ladder of pro- 
 motion by sending him to display his lore and his 
 eloquence at the council of Trent. There he acquit- 
 ted himself so well, that Charles offered him, first the 
 Peruvian bishopric of Cuzco, next the post of confes- 
 sor to prince Philip, and lastly the bishopric of the 
 Canaries. His refusal of all these dignities some- 
 what surprised his patron ; and this surprise became 
 displeasure when lie learned that the refuser had ac- 
 cepted the mitre of Toledo. William, one of the 
 emperor's barbers, related that he had heard his mas- 
 ter say, " When I offered Carranza the Canaries he 
 declined it; no\v he takes Toledo. What are we to
 
 212 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 think of his virtue ? " These feelings were doubtless 
 fostered by his confessor, Regla, who, as a Jeromite, 
 naturally hated a Dominican, and afterwards proved 
 himself one of the bitterest enemies of the persecuted 
 prelate. The truth is, that Carranza, though a priest, 
 seems to have been an honest and unambitious man ; 
 he carried his reluctance so far beyond the bounds of 
 decent clerical coyness, as to recommend to the king 
 three eminent rivals as better qualified than himself 
 for the primacy ;* and the great crosier was thrust by 
 Philip into his unwilling hand, on the ground that he 
 was of all men best fitted to keep the wolf of heresy 
 from the door of the true fold. 
 
 The emperor had given away, in his time, too 
 many mitres to wonder long at the worldly-minded- 
 ness of a churchman. Valdes. also, was too astute to 
 attempt to injure his rival merely by alleging against 
 him a vice inherent in their common cloth. He 
 stabbed, therefore, at what was then the tenderest 
 spot in any reputation, prieslly or laic, by casting a 
 suspicion on his orthodoxy. Before the unconscious 
 archbishop arrived at court, the inquisitor secretly in- 
 formed the regent that many of the captive heretics 
 had made very unpleasant confessions respecting the 
 opinions of the new primate; and that the king ought 
 to be put on his guard against him ; and he gave a 
 glimpse into the ways of his tribunal, by adding, that 
 although nothing substantial had yet been advanced, 
 still, had as much been said of an^ other person, that 
 person would already have been taken into custody. 
 
 * Salazar dc Miranda: Vidt Je Fr. Bart, de Carranza y Miranda, 
 12mo, Madrid, 1788, p. 34.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 213 
 
 The infanta of course forwarded this intelligence to 
 Yuste, and the emperor expressed a wish to hear more 
 of the matter, desiring, however, that it should be 
 handled with the greatest caution and reserve. 
 
 Carranza sailed from Flanders on the 24th of June, 
 but being detained by contrary winds on the English 
 shore, he did not land at Laredo until the beginning 
 of August. On the 13th of that month he kissed the 
 regent's hand at Valladolid, where he resided for 
 some weeks in great honor in the noble convent of 
 San Pablo, with his brethren of the order of St. Dom- 
 inick. Caressed and consulted both by the princess 
 and by the knot of priests who were plotting his ruin, 
 he took his seat several times in the council of state, 
 and also at the council board of the Inquisition. To 
 the latter tribunal he gave an account of his proceed- 
 ings against heresy in Flanders, and against the Span- 
 iards who had fled thither from spiritual justice; and 
 he assisted the inquisitor-general with advice upon 
 the new laws to be promulgated against the press. 
 He was, however, desirous of proceeding to his dio- 
 cese, being unwilling to break, at the outset of his 
 episcopal career, the rules which he had laid down in 
 his tract, written when he was a simple monk, on the 
 residence of bishops, a tract which gained him many 
 enemies among the hierarchy,* and which must have 
 been peculiarly distasteful to the absentee of Seville. 
 It was determined, therefore, that he should visit 
 Yuste, as he went to Toledo, in order to lay before 
 the emperor some evidence on the quarrel between his 
 
 * Noticia de la Vida de Bart Carranza de Miranda, par D. M. S-, 8vo, 
 Madrid, 1845, p. 7.
 
 214 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 eldest daughter Mary and her husband, Maximilian, 
 king of Bohemia, whom she charged with inconstan- 
 cy, and wished to be parted from. This affair being 
 referred to the decision of Charles, he was desirous of 
 having an account of it from a prudent and impartial 
 witness. 
 
 The war in Flanders had continued to smoulder on 
 during the spring, with few actions worthy of record, 
 and little loss or gain to either party. At the end of 
 April, the French must have made a movement caus- 
 ing some alarm at Bruxelles, for on the 3d of May a 
 cabinet courier, named Espinosa, was sent off by 
 land to Spain, with a cipher despatch concealed in his 
 stirrup-leathers. Galloping across the enemy's coun- 
 try without let or hindrance, he reached Valladolid 
 on the 10th, and was sent on by the princess to carry 
 his news, and tell his story at Yuste. The emperor 
 gave him a long audience, and overwhelmed him 
 with questions about the king's measures of defence, 
 which appeared to the old soldier to be better than 
 usual. " He asked," wrote the secretary, " more 
 questions than were ever put to the damsel Theo- 
 dora,"* a Christian slave whose beauty and various 
 erudition charmed a king of Tunis, in an old and pop- 
 ular Spanish tale.f In a few weeks, however, the 
 duke of Guise marched upon the Moselle, and stormed 
 
 * " Le hizo," said Gaztelu, " mas preguntas qne se pudieran hacer a 
 la donzella Theodor." Gazteln to Vazquez, 18th of May. 1558. Gon- 
 zalez MS. 
 
 t The Historia de la Donzdla Theodora was a popular story, written, 
 no one seems to know when, by one Alfonso, an Aragonese. Antonio 
 ji"ii:ns a date neither to the hook nor the author. The earliest edition 
 cited by Brunei is that of 1607. The tale was afterwards dramatized by 
 Lope de Vega. Ticknor, Hist, of Sjxin. Lit^ II. 312.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 215 
 
 the important and strongly fortified town of Thion- 
 ville, putting the greater part of the garrison to the 
 sword, and expelling the inhabitants in order to give 
 their homes to a colony of his old clients of Metz. 
 This loss was severely felt by the emperor, who con- 
 tinued to deplore it, until he was comforted by the 
 tidings of the victory at Gravelines. 
 
 The marechal de Thermes, governor of Calais, wish- 
 ing to illustrate his new baton by some gallant ser- 
 vice, had undertaken a foray into the Spanish Nether- 
 lands. Having carried fire and sword, rapine and 
 rape, along a considerable length of coast, he was at 
 last met by Egmont, near the town of Gravelines, on 
 the banks of the Aa. The battle, fought for several 
 hours with great obstinacy, was at last turned against 
 the lilies by the sudden appearance of an English 
 sailor, who mingled in the fray with all the effect of 
 Neptune in an Homeric field. Cruising along the 
 coast with twelve small vessels, admiral Milan, hear- 
 ing the firing, put into the river, and galled the flank 
 of the French with broadsides so unexpected and se- 
 vere, that they were soon in headlong flight. Two 
 hundred prisoners were reserved as curious trophies 
 by the English tars ; the greater part of the army was 
 cut off in detail by the furious peasantry ; the mare- 
 chal and his chief officers fell into the hands of Eg- 
 mont ; and the battle, which was the last event of any 
 importance in the war, had a considerable influence 
 in bringing about the peace of Cateau-Cambresis in 
 the following winter. But the emperor had, as usual, 
 to lament the opportunities wasted by his son; and 
 often observed, that now was the time to have invest- 
 ed Calais, when the enemy was disheartened, the gar-
 
 216 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 rison weakened, and the governor taken. Luis Quixa- 
 da entertained the same idea, which, however, does 
 not appear to have struck any of the leaders in Flan- 
 ders. The chamberlain was especially delighted to 
 hear of the capture of Monsieur de Villebon, one of 
 the marechal's lieutenants. " I knew him very well," 
 he wrote to Vazquez, " when he served under the 
 duke of Vendome in Picardy ; and when we were at 
 Hesdin, he was quartered in a town only two or three 
 leagues off, so that we frequently corresponded by 
 letters. I should have taken him myself one day, had 
 a spy given me intelligence two hours sooner. He is 
 a man quite able to pay a ransom of twelve or fifteen 
 thousand crowns." * 
 
 Meanwhile, the dreaded navy of Solyman was 
 again menacing the shores of Spain. Early in spring 
 a cloud of Turkish sail had been seen so far in the 
 west that it was thought necessary to victual and 
 strengthen the garrision of Goleta. On the 5th of 
 May, Don Luis de Castelvi came to Yuste to report 
 on the affairs of Italy, and brought with him such in- 
 telligence of a treaty which was said to be then form- 
 ing between France and the pope, the Venetian and 
 the Turk, that the emperor ordered him to proceed at 
 once to the king at Bruxelles. In June a squadron 
 of Algerine galleys gave chase to a line of battle ship 
 sent by the viceroy of Sicily with further munitions to 
 Goleta, and forced her to put back and run for Sar- 
 dinia. The Turkish navy was known to be assem- 
 bling at Negropont, and it was at one time supposed, 
 though erroneously, that a French ambassador was 
 
 Vazquez, 17th August, 1558.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 217 
 
 . 
 
 on board, for the purpose of directing a descent on the 
 dominions of Spain. The government of Valladolid, 
 therefore, congratulated itself on having taken the 
 advice of the emperor, and having sent eight thousand 
 men and four hundred lances to Oran, under the 
 count of Alcaudete. Towards the middle of June an 
 Ottoman fleet of one hundred and thirty sail was de- 
 scried from the watch-towers of Naples ; a French 
 squadron put out to meet them with provisions; and 
 at the end of the month the Turkish flag was flying 
 proudly on Christian waters among the islands of 
 Spain. Charles considered that the first point of at- 
 tack was very likely to be Rosas, a Catalonian fortress 
 on which France had long looked with a covetous 
 eye, and he therefore urged upon the regent the im- 
 portance of making its defences secure. Mustapha 
 pacha did not long leave the matter in suspense, for, 
 after threatening Mallorca, and finding it too strong, 
 he steered for the smaller island of Menorca, and cast 
 anchor, with a hundred and forty sail, before the town 
 of Ciudadella. Landing fifteen thousand men and 
 twenty-four pieces of cannon, he battered the place 
 for seven days, and made several attempts to storm 
 it ; but the obstinate valor of the Menorcans would 
 probably have baffled his efforts, had it not been for a 
 fire, which, breaking out in the university, blew up the 
 magazine and a great part of the town wall. The 
 besieged then made a gallant sally, with their women, 
 children, and wounded, hoping to cross the island to 
 Mahon, a feat which was actually accomplished, 
 though not without severe loss. The disappointed 
 Turk sacked and pillaged the town, and having col- 
 lected his booty and a few prisoners, put to sea the 
 
 19
 
 218 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 same night.* Taking a northerly course, he was sup- 
 posed to have gone to Marseilles to water and victual 
 his fleet. 
 
 Meanwhile, all precautions were taken to strength- 
 en the defences of the eastern coast. Twelve hundred 
 men were thrown into Perpignan, and Don Garcia de 
 Toledo was sent to take the command of that impor- 
 tant frontier post. The defence of the coast of Anda- 
 lusia was intrusted to the count of Tendilla. The 
 duke of Maqueda was ordered to exercise the closest 
 vigilance over the Moriscos of Catalonia and Valen- 
 cia, especially at Denia and Alicante ; a force of five or 
 six hundred men was appointed to guard the sierras 
 of Espadon and Bernia, strongholds of the suspected 
 race ; and a few watch-towers were repaired and in- 
 trenched for rallying-posts, strict orders being also 
 issued to the commanders to destroy them as soon as 
 the danger was past, lest the defences of the Christian 
 should become offensive positions of the Moor. The 
 emperor was much distressed at the fall of Ciudadella. 
 His anxiety made him forget his ailments ; and such 
 was his eagerness for news, that he gave orders that 
 he was to be called at whatever hour of the night a 
 courier should arrive from the Mediterranean. The 
 alarm did not subside until the 17th of August, when 
 tidings came from Catalonia that the Ottoman flag 
 had disappeared from that part of the sea, and that 
 Don Francisco de Cordova, son of the governor of 
 Oran, who had been hovering on the pacha's wake 
 with two galleys of the order of St. John, reported 
 
 * V. Mut: Historia del Reyno deMallorca, fol., Mallorca, 1650, Lib. X. 
 Cap. 7, p. 453, which ought to be 436, there being an error in the paging 
 of thi* very rare volume from p. 69 to the end.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 219 
 
 that the fleet had at last steered for the Levant. On 
 the same day it was also announced at Yuste that 
 some reprisal for the damage done at Menorca had 
 been made by the duke of Alburquerque on the infi- 
 del's most Christian brother of France, by crossing 
 the Bidassoa and burning St. Jean de Luz. 
 
 While the Turk was thus spreading terror along 
 the coast of Spain, and troubling the repose of Yuste, 
 the hero who was first to quell his pride, and set 
 bounds to the dominion of the crescent, was waging 
 predatory war upon the orchards of Quacos. Early 
 in July, Quixada returned from Valladolid and Villa- 
 garcia, bringing with him his wife and household, and 
 the future victor of Lepanto. During the journey, 
 Dona Magdalena suffered greatly from the summer 
 heat ; but she was consoled for her fatigues by the 
 kindness and courtesy of the emperor. Immediately 
 on her arrival, he sent one of his attendants to call 
 upon her with presents, and to bid her welcome to 
 her new home : and some days after, when she came 
 to Yuste to kiss his hand, he received her with marked 
 favor. In this visit she was doubtless attended by 
 Don John of Austria, who passed for her page ; and 
 the emperor was said to be much pleased with the 
 beauty and manners of his boy. But so strictly was 
 the secret of his birth kept, that no mention of his 
 existence is to be found in any extant correspondence 
 between Yuste, Valladolid, and Bruxelles, during the 
 lifetime of the emperor. Yet his real parentage was 
 suspected in the country, probably on account of the 
 attention which he met with at Yuste, and which 
 was not likely to escape the notice of the idle and 
 gossiping friars and Flemings. The crossbow with
 
 220 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 which the future admiral had dealt destruction 
 amongst the sparrows and larks in the cornfields 
 about Leganes, found ampler and nobler game in 
 the woodlands of the Estremaduran hills. But he 
 sometimes varied his sport by making forays upon 
 the gardens of Quacos, which the peasants, nothing 
 daunted by his whispered rank, resented by pelting 
 him with stones when they caught him in their fruit- 
 trees.* 
 
 Early in July the emperor was alarmed by hearing 
 of the illness of his daughter, the princess-regent, 
 who was attacked by a fever, which prevented her 
 attention to business for a few days. He expressed 
 great anxiety on her account, and ordered frequent 
 couriers to bring him intelligence of her state, which, 
 however, was never dangerous, and soon approached 
 convalescence. Amongst the last public measures 
 which Juana brought under the notice of her father, 
 was a scheme for changing the seat of government. 
 She was in favor of a change, as she considered 
 Valladolid neither healthy nor conveniently situated. 
 Many members of the council of state were, however, 
 opposed to it, " but you know," wrote the infanta, 
 " how these gentlemen prefer their ease and good lodg- 
 ing before all things." Madrid appeared to her the 
 fittest place, were it not so disliked by the king; and 
 she also mentioned the names of Toledo, Burgos, and 
 Guadalaxara. The plan was not executed until some 
 years after the return of Philip to Spain. The king 
 having agreed that Don Carlos and his tutor should 
 be sent to Yuste, and the emperor being unwilling to 
 
 * Ponz: Viage de Espana, VII. p. 140.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 221 
 
 receive them, the princess proposed ^;hat she should 
 accompany her nephew thither, in order to visit her 
 father, and confer with him on this question of the 
 capital, and other business of state. The queen of 
 Hungary was likewise to be of the party, it being 
 the wish of Philip that the emperor should persuade 
 her to return to the Low Countries, and once more 
 assume the government. The removal of the heir 
 apparent, and the visit of the royal ladies to Yuste, 
 were, however, prevented by the fatal illness of the 
 emperor. 
 
 Another affair which weighed on the mind of the 
 princess at this time was a dispute between her and 
 the council of state. A young courtier, the adelan- 
 tado of Canary, after making love to one of her ladies, 
 finally proposed for her hand, and was accepted. But 
 failing in the performance of his promise, he met the 
 complaint made by the fair one to the regent by pro- 
 testing that the matter was a joke, and that he had 
 never considered it as serious. The princess, though 
 she preferred her ladies to become brides of heaven 
 rather than wives of mortals, was highly indignant 
 with the lord of Canary, and caged him in the tower 
 of Medina del Campo. The council of state here 
 interfered, alleging that it had a right to be consulted 
 in any similar case of imprisonment. The regent 
 therefore remitted the affair to the emperor, entreating 
 him, however, to decide in her favor ; for it much con- 
 cerned, as she conceived, the dignity of her house- 
 hold, that young men should not be permitted to 
 plight their troth to her ladies, before witnesses and 
 in her very antechamber, and then flutter off on the 
 plea that the thing was a jest. The award of the 
 
 19 *
 
 222 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 emperor, and the after-fate of the false wooer and for- 
 saken damsel, have not been recorded. 
 
 In the spring of this year the monotony of the con- 
 ventual life at Yuste was broken by the death of the 
 prior. He died at Lupiana, where he had gone to 
 attend the chapter of his order. That chapter had 
 elected as general the prior of Cordoba, who likewise 
 died before the electors separated. The new general 
 being Fray Juan de A^aloras, one of the emperor's 
 preachers, the friars of Yuste petitioned the emperor 
 to request him to wave his privilege, and permit them 
 to choose their new prior. But Charles, to the great 
 delight of his household, at once, and rather drily, re- 
 fused to meddle in the matter, or to interfere with the 
 rules of their order; and the vacant post was therefore 
 given, in the usual way, to Fray Martin de Angulo, a 
 monk of Guadalupe. 
 
 Don Luis de Avila was, as usual, a frequent guest 
 at Yuste. During this year he had a lawsuit in 
 hand, regarding his jurisdiction as lieutenant of the 
 castle of Plasencia ; and he of course attempted to 
 enlist in his cause the favor of the emperor, who 
 would, however, say nothing until he had heard the 
 other side of the story from the secretary of state. 
 The grand commander seems also to have been ap- 
 plying for employment ; and a false report was spread 
 in July, that he had actually set out for Flanders by 
 order of the king. The bishop of Avila paid a visit 
 in April, which was followed in May by his transla- 
 tion to the wealthy see of Cordoba; and in June the 
 bishop of Segovia offered to come and give thanks 
 for his promotion to the archbishopric of Santiago, 
 but was excused the journey by the emperor. Oro-
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 223 
 
 pesa spent part of the summer at Xarandilla, where 
 he, his brother, and his two sons, had the misfortune 
 to be attacked with fever all at one time. The count 
 and the other Toledos were frequently at Yuste. Gar- 
 cilasso de la Vega, probably a nephew of the poet, 
 came about the middle of August. Having been 
 sent as ambassador to the holy see, on the acces- 
 sion of Philip the Second, the hasty old pontiff ar- 
 rested him, because of a letter addressed by him to 
 the duke of Alba, and found, or pretended to be found, 
 by Paul in the boot-sole of an intercepted courier. 
 This outrage had been the first signal for hostilities. 
 The emperor's wrath with the Roman policy of Alba 
 and Philip having cooled down, he received Garci- 
 lasso with much courtesy, questioned him minutely 
 about Italian politics during two long audiences, lis- 
 tened with great interest to his relation, and after- 
 wards said he was greatly pleased by the envoy's way 
 of telling his story. He kept him at Yuste for ten 
 days, and sent him to Valladolid charged with mes- 
 sages to the queen of Hungary, and the task of ex- 
 plaining her brother's reasons for desiring her return 
 to the government of the Netherlands. This mission 
 fulfilled, he was ordered to come back and report the 
 queen's decision. Don Pedro Manrique, procurator 
 to the cortes from the city of Burgos, came on the 
 26th of August, and was likewise graciously received, 
 and dismissed with a letter to the king, one of the 
 latest which the emperor signed. The last visitor 
 who found him in health was the old count of Uruefia. 
 This grandee arrived on the night of the 26th, at ten 
 o'clock, " with a world of horses and servants," for 
 whom Qubcada found it very difficult to provide lodg-
 
 224 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 ing. The emperor received him very kindly, and the 
 old noble took his departure immediately after having 
 kissed hands, to be allowed to perform that ceremo- 
 ny being, as the chamberlain noted with wonder, " his 
 sole business and only request." 
 
 Father Borja paid his last visit to Yuste this sum- 
 mer, probably in July or August. He came, it is said, 
 at the request of Charles, who desired the benefit of 
 his spiritual counsels. It was, perhaps, at this time 
 that the emperor spoke to him of the memoirs which 
 he had drawn np of his journeys and campaigns.* 
 They were not written, he said, for the sake of mag- 
 nifying his own deeds, but for the sake of recording 
 the truth ; because he had observed in the histories of 
 his time, that the authors erred as often from igno- 
 rance of the facts as from prejudice and passion. 
 But he desired to know if his friend thought that a 
 man's writing about his own actions at all, savored 
 too much of carnal vanity. The judgment of Borja 
 on this case of conscience, if it were ever delivered, 
 has not been preserved. Nor is the fate of the me- 
 moirs known. In a letter addressed to Philip the 
 Second by Ruscelli, in 1561, they were spoken of as 
 being in preparation for the press, and likely to be 
 soon given to the w"orld.t Brantome, at a later date, 
 expressed an author's surprise that a literary venture 
 so safe and so inviting had been so long neglected by 
 the booksellers. J It is not plain, therefore, that Borja 
 is to be blamed for the loss, if indeed they are lost, 
 
 * Chap III. p. 58. 
 
 t Published by Belle-Forest. See Bayle's Dictionaiy, art. Charles V. 
 f Brantome : Discours sur Charles V., (Euircs, 8 vols., 8vo, Paris, 
 1787, IV. 37.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 225 
 
 of these precious commentaries of the Caesar of Cas- 
 tille. 
 
 Charles neither felt nor affected that indifference 
 about his place in history which many remarkable 
 men have affected, and few, perhaps, have felt. This 
 very year he had given a proof of the opposite senti- 
 ment. Florian de Ocampo, his veteran chronicler, 
 was still at work, in his study at Zamora, on his gen- 
 eral chronicle of Spain. Anxious for the preservation 
 of the work, the emperor induced the regent to ad- 
 dress letters to the bishop, the dean, and the corregidor 
 of that city, requiring them, in the event of the old 
 man's death, to take possession of his papers, amount- 
 ing to three thousand sheets, and to hold themselves 
 responsible for their safety.* Similar steps were taken 
 to preserve the writings of Sepulveda, on whom the 
 emperor had himself urged the necessity of adopting 
 such precautions, when he visited Yuste the year be- 
 fore.! I n the work of Ocampo, Charles, although 
 perhaps he did not know it, had no personal interest ; 
 for the good canon, purposing to write the history of 
 his patron, had begun his chronicle at Noah's flood, 
 
 * Benito Cano, in his life of Ocampo, prefixed to the fine edition of 
 the Cronica, 4to (Madrid, 1791), gives the end of March, 1555, as the 
 date of the chronicler's death, which date has been adopted by Rezabel 
 in his BiUiot. de Escritores Individuos de los C'olegios Mayores, 4to (Madrid, 
 1805, p. 234), and by Mr. Ticknor in his Hist, of Span. Literature, I. p. 
 555. But Gaztelu, in his letter in the Gonzalez MS., addressed to Vaz- 
 quez on the 30th of May, 1558, orders precautions to be taken about the 
 cronica, of Ocampo, " in case of the old man's death," " si occurria su 
 fallecimiento, estandoya tan i-fejo." Another letter (9th of July) suggests 
 that the measures taken by the regent respecting Ocampo's papers, 
 should also be taken respecting Sepulveda's, both writers being so old. 
 Ocampo must therefore have been alive for some time after May, 1558. 
 
 t Chap. VI. p. 149.
 
 226 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 and after some thirty or forty years' labor was sur- 
 prised by death, while narrating the exploits of the 
 Scipios. Sepulveda had more judiciously broken 
 ground nearer Ghent and the last year of the last cen- 
 tury, and so left his Latin history of the emperor com- 
 pleted. The fruit of Charles's foresight was therefore 
 found after many days, in 1780, when the work was 
 first given to the world. 
 
 Borja might, perhaps, have rejoiced in mortifying 
 his own lust of literary fame, or even in undergoing 
 the penance of historical slander. But he was hardly 
 capable of advising the imperial author to put his 
 manuscript into one of his Flemish fireplaces. In his 
 dealings with royalty the stern Jesuit had not quite 
 cast off, or on occasion he could resume, ways and 
 language befitting the chamberlain's gold key. To 
 one of the emperor's devout queries he replied in a 
 style of courtly gallantry, which sounds strange in the 
 mouth of father Francis the Sinner, and which would 
 have done credit to some later Jesuit, appointed to 
 labor in the vineyard of Versailles. Narrating the 
 course of his penances and prayers, Charles asked him 
 whether he could sleep in his clothes; " for I must 
 confess," added he, contritely, " that my infirmities, 
 which prevent me from doing many things of the 
 kind that I would gladly do, render this penance im- 
 possible in my case." Borja, who practised every 
 kind of self-torment, and who in early life had in one 
 year fasted down a cubit of his girth, eluded the ques- 
 tion by an answer no less modest than dexterous. 
 " Your majesty." said he, " cannot sleep in your 
 clothes, because you have watched so many nights in 
 your mail. Let us thank God that you have done
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 227 
 
 better service by keeping those vigils in arms than 
 many a cloistered monk who sleeps in his shirt of 
 hair." 
 
 During his brief stay at Yuste, the Jesuit won a 
 new ally to his cause in Dona Magdalena de Ulloa, 
 whose mind was deeply touched by his pious walk 
 and conversation. The seed thus sown by the way- 
 side sprang up long afterwards in the substantial 
 shape of three colleges built and endowed for the 
 company by that good and devout lady. Almost a 
 hundred years later, the fame of the third general of 
 Jesus still lingered in the Vera. In 1650, the cente- 
 narian of Guijo used to tell how he had seen the em- 
 peror, the count of Oropesa, and father Francis, in the 
 woods between that village and Xarandilla, and point 
 out a great tree under which they had made a repast, 
 of which he, a loitering urchin, had been permitted to 
 gather up the crumbs. But of the individual aspect 
 of that remarkable group his memory had preserved 
 nothing for the third generation except the dark robe 
 and the " meek and penitent face of him whom we 
 called the holy duke." * 
 
 * Cienfuegos : Vlda de F. Borja, fol., Madrid, 1726, p. 270.
 
 228 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE DEATH OF THE EMPEROR. 
 
 DURING the spring of 1558, the emperor's health 
 recovered from its winter's decline. At the end of 
 March, Dr. Mathys, in his usual solemn style, in- 
 formed the secretary of state that he considered his 
 majesty well enough to leave off his sarsaparilla and 
 liquorice-water. In May he was living as usual, and 
 eating voraciously. His dinner began with a large 
 dish of cherries, or of strawberries, smothered in cream 
 and sugar; then came a highly-seasoned pastry; and 
 next the principal dish of the repast, which was fre- 
 quently a ham, or some preparation of rashers, the 
 emperor being very fond of the staple product of ba- 
 con-curing Estremadura. "His majesty," said the 
 doctor, " considers himself in very good health, and 
 will not hear of changing his diet or mode of living ; 
 trusting too much to the force of habit, and to the 
 strength of his constitution, which, in bodies full of 
 bad humors, like his, frequently breaks down suddenly, 
 and without warning." * His hands occasionally 
 troubled him, and his fingers were sometimes ulcer- 
 ated. But his chief complaint was of the heat and 
 itching in his legs at night, which he endeavored to 
 relieve by sleeping with them uncovered ; a measure 
 
 * Mathys to Vazquez, 18th May, 1558.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 229 
 
 whereby temporary ease was purchased at the expense 
 of a chill, which crept into the upper part of his body, 
 in spite of blankets and eider-down quilts. Later in 
 the summer he had some threatenings of gout, and 
 his appetite diminished so much, that he sometimes 
 lived for days on bread and conserves. It is evident, 
 however, that Quixada, an excellent judge of his mas- 
 ter's symptoms, not. only apprehended no danger, but 
 considered that his life might be prolonged for years; 
 else he would never have put himself to the trouble 
 and expense of bringing his family down to Estrema- 
 dura. On his arrival he reported favorably of the 
 emperors health, spirits, and looks. Yet Dona Mag- 
 dalena had not been many weeks in her new abode at 
 Quacos, when a bell, tolling from amongst the woods 
 of Yuste, announced that she might prepare for her 
 return to Villagarcia. 
 
 It was not until the 9th of August that the physi- 
 cian became seriously alarmed about the state of his 
 patient. To cure the uneasy sensations in his legs at 
 night, Charles had had recourse to cold bathing, by 
 way of a repellent, regardless of the remonstrances of 
 Mathys. " I would rather," he said, "have a slight 
 fever, than suffer this perpetual itching." In vain the 
 doctor observed that men were not allowed to choose 
 their own maladies, and that some worse evil might 
 happen to him if he used so dangerous a remedy. 
 The repellent system did not answer ; the patient's 
 legs continuing to itch, and his throat being choked 
 with phlegm. Still he was able to attend to business, 
 and sufficiently alive to minor matters to be much an- 
 noyed at a frost which killed some melons of a pecu- 
 liarly choice kind, that were ripening for his table. 
 20
 
 230 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 On the 16th and 17th of August, he was seized with 
 violent purgings and with pains in the head, which 
 bore a suspicious resemblance to gout. But as these 
 symptoms soon subsided, he was supposed to have 
 caught cold by sleeping, as the nights were getting 
 chill, with open doors and windows. Much illness 
 prevailed in the Vera, and so many of the household 
 were on the sick list, that Quixada was obliged to be 
 at the palace at daybreak, and did not get home to 
 Quacos till nine in the evening. The weather was 
 very changeable and trying to delicate frames. The 
 cold of the early part and middle of the month \vas 
 succeeded by terrific storms of wind and thunder, in 
 which twenty-seven cows were struck dead by light- 
 ning, as they pastured in the forest. 
 
 About this time, according to the historian of St. 
 Jerome, the emperor's thoughts seemed to turn more 
 than usual upon religion and its rites. Whenever, 
 during his stay at Yuste, any of his friends, of the de- 
 gree of princes or knights of the fleece, had died, he 
 had ever been punctual in doing honor to their memo- 
 ry, by causing their obsequies to be performed by the 
 friars ; and these lugubrious services may be said to 
 have formed the festivals of his gloomy life in the 
 cloister. The daily masses said for his own soul were 
 always accompanied by others for the souls of his 
 father, mother, and wife. But now he ordered further 
 solemnities of the funeral kind to be performed in be- 
 half of these relations, each on a different day, and at- 
 tended them himself, preceded by a page bearing a 
 taper, and joining in the chant, in a very devout and 
 audible manner, out of a tattered prayer-book. 
 
 These rites ended, he asked his confessor whether
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 231 
 
 he might not now perform his own funeral, and so do 
 for himself what would soon have to be done for him 
 by others. Regla replied, that his majesty, please 
 God, might live many years, and that when his time 
 came these services would be gratefully rendered, 
 without his taking any thought about the matter. 
 " But," persisted Charles, " would it not be good for 
 my soul?" The monk said that certainly it would; 
 pious works done during life being far more effica- 
 cious than when they were postponed till after death. 
 Preparations were therefore at once set on foot; a 
 catafalque which had served before on similar occa- 
 sions was erected ; and on the following day, the 
 30th of August, as the monkish historian relates, this 
 celebrated service was actually performed.* The high 
 altar, the catafalque, and the whole church shone with 
 a blaze of wax-lights ; the friars were all in their pla- 
 ces, at the altars, and in the choir, and the household 
 of the emperor attended in deep mourning. " The 
 pious monarch himself was there, attired in sable 
 weeds, and bearing a taper, to see himself interred 
 and to celebrate his own obsequies." f While the 
 mass for the dead was sung, he came forward and 
 gave his taper into the hands of the officiating priest, 
 in token of his desire to yield his soul into the hands 
 of his Maker. High above, over the kneeling throng 
 and the gorgeous vestments, the flowers, the curling 
 incense, and the glittering altar, the same idea shone 
 forth in that splendid canvas whereon Titian had pic- 
 tured Charles kneeling on the threshold of the heav- 
 enly mansions prepared for the blessed. 
 
 * Gonzalez denies this, as it seems to me, on insufficient grounds, 
 which I have discussed in the preface to these chapters, 
 t Siguen<;a, III. p. 201.
 
 232 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 Many years before, self-interment had been prac- 
 tised by a bishop of Liege, cardinal Erard de la 
 Marck, Charles's ambassador to the diet during his 
 election to the imperial throne; an example which 
 may perhaps have led to the ceremonies at Yuste. 
 For several years before his death, in 1528, did this 
 prelate annually rehearse his obsequies and follow his 
 coffin to the stately tomb which he had reared in his 
 cathedral at Liege.* 
 
 The funeral rites ended, the emperor dined in his 
 western alcove. He ate little, but he remained for a 
 great part of the afternoon sitting in the open air, and 
 basking in the sun, which, as it descended to the hori- 
 zon, beat strongly upon the white walls. Feeling a vio- 
 lent pain in his head, he returned to his chamber and 
 lay down. Mathys, whom he had sent in the morning 
 to Xarandilla to attend the count of Oropesa in his 
 illness, found him, when he returned, still suffering 
 considerably, and attributed the pain to his having 
 remained too long in the hot sunshine. Next morn- 
 ing he was somewhat better, and was able to get up 
 and go to mass, but still felt oppressed, and com- 
 plained much of thirst. He told his confessor, how- 
 ever, that the funeral service of the day before had 
 done him good. The sunshine again tempted him 
 into his open gallery. As he sat there, he sent for a 
 portrait of the empress, and hung for some time, lost 
 in thought, over the gentle face, which, with its blue 
 eyes, auburn hair, and pensive beauty, somewhat re- 
 sembled the noble countenance of that other Isabella, 
 
 * On the tomb were these words : EKARDUS A MARKA, MORTEM 
 IIABENS R..E ocuns viVExs rosuiT. Am. de la Houssaye : Memoires 
 Historiques, &c., 2 vols., 12mo, Amsterd., 1722, p. 186.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 233 
 
 the great queen of Castille. He next called for a pic- 
 ture of Our Lord praying in the garden, and then for 
 a sketch of the Last Judgment, by Titian. Having 
 looked his last upon the image of the wife of his 
 youth, it seemed as if he were now bidding farewell, 
 in the contemplation of these other favorite pictures, 
 to the noble art which he had loved with a love that 
 cares and years and sickness could not quench, and 
 that will ever be remembered with his better fame. 
 Thus occupied, he remained so long abstracted and 
 motionless, that Mathys, who was on the watch, 
 thought it right to awake him from his reverie. On 
 being spoken to, he turned round, and complained 
 that he was ill. The doctor felt his pulse, and pro- 
 nounced him in a fever. Again the afternoon sun 
 was shining over the great walnut-tree, full into the 
 gallery. From this pleasant spot, filled with the fra- 
 grance of the garden and the murmur of the fountain, 
 and bright with glimpses of the golden Vera, they 
 carried him to the gloomy chamber of his sleepless 
 nights, and laid him on the bed from which he was to 
 rise no more. 
 
 The minute particulars of his last illness, which 
 have been preserved by eyewitnesses, or by persons 
 who had conversed with them, will be most conven- 
 iently grouped under the dates to which they belong. 
 It was on the 31st of August that the fever declared 
 itself, but after going to bed that evening, his thirst 
 subsided, and he felt easier. 
 
 September the 1st. No great change took place in 
 
 his condition. But he was aware that the hand of 
 
 death was upon him, and wishing to finish his will, he 
 
 ordered that the secretary of state should be imme- 
 
 20*
 
 234 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 diately applied to for a royal license empowering 
 Gaztelu to act on the occasion as a notary. Direc- 
 tions were at the same time given that couriers and 
 horses should be kept in readiness along the road, 
 to insure despatch in the communications between 
 Valladolid and Yuste. 
 
 September the 2d. The emperor awoke, com- 
 plaining of violent thirst, and attempted to relieve it 
 by drinking barley-water and sugar. Quixada begged 
 leave to send for more doctors ; the patient said he 
 did not like to have many of them about him ; but he 
 at last agreed that Cornelio might be called in, from 
 Cigales. During the day he dozed at intervals, and 
 towards the afternoon his mind was observed to wan- 
 der; but in the evening he had rallied sufficiently to 
 confess and receive the eucharist, after which, at half 
 past eight, the physician took from him nine or ten 
 ounces of very black, bad blood, which afforded con- 
 siderable relief. 
 
 September the 3d. He awoke refreshed, and alto- 
 gether rather better. At eleven he took some refresh- 
 ment, and drank some wine and water, and a little 
 beer; and then he heard Gaztelu read that part of his 
 will which related to his household. In the afternoon 
 he was again bled in the hand. This evening Quixa- 
 da determined to pass the night in the palace, which 
 he did not again quit while his master continued to 
 breathe. 
 
 September the 4th. The pain had left the empe- 
 ror's head, but the fever was still high. He regretted 
 that more blood had not been taken from him, feeling 
 too full of it; an opinion from which the doctors dis- 
 sented. During the whole day he was very restless.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 235 
 
 He had stripped off the jacket, under-waistcoat, and 
 drawers which he usually wore in bed, and lay toss- 
 ing in his shirt under a single silken coverlet; and he 
 insisted on the doors and windows of his room being 
 kept open. He complained bitterly of thirst, which 
 the permitted syrup-vinegar and manna seemed to 
 aggravate rather than allay; and the doctors were 
 obliged to allow him nine ounces of his favorite beer, 
 which he drank eagerly, with apparent relief. Vomit- 
 ing and a slight perspiration followed. Quixada was 
 looking anxiously for Dr. Cornelio, and had sent on 
 horses to wait on the road for his litter. 
 
 September the 5th. Dr. Mathys administered to 
 the emperor a strong dose of rhuburb in three pills. 
 He felt so much better, that he gave orders that if the 
 post-courier, who went out every afternoon at four, 
 should meet Cornelio before he had accomplished half 
 the journey, he was to tell him to go back. " But," 
 said Quixada in his letter, " I shall take care that he 
 does not meet him at all, unless it be very near this 
 place." 
 
 September the 6th. The patient was worse again ; 
 very feverish all day, and in the afternoon delirious; 
 but in the evening he was easier, and again sensible. 
 An express arrived with a notary's license for Gazte- 
 lu, and letters from the regent and the great officers 
 of state full of grief for the emperor's illness. The 
 princess was very anxious for leave to visit her father, 
 but he would not consent to it. In the afternoon 
 there was a storm, so violent, and accompanied with 
 such unusual darkness, that the post could not be 
 despatched. 
 
 September the 7th. No change. The post sent 
 off with a double bag.
 
 236 THE CLOISTER LIFE OP 
 
 September the 8th. Dr. Cornelio arrived, and with 
 him Garcilasso de la Vega. The emperor was nei- 
 ther better nor worse; Dr. Mathys stating the fact in 
 a very long letter, which ended with the remark that 
 the fever was not in itself dangerous, and might even 
 prove beneficial, but that, the constitution of the pa- 
 tient considered, the result must be regarded with 
 much doubt and apprehension. The sick man, how- 
 ever, was sufficiently easy and collected to receive 
 Garcilasso, who had come laden with a heap of de- 
 spatches, which were destined to remain unread ; and 
 to express the greatest satisfaction at learning that 
 his sister, the queen of Hungary, had accepted the 
 government of the Netherlands. Gaztelu employed 
 the day in drawing out in due form a codicil to be 
 added to the will. In the afternoon the wind and 
 rain again roared round the convent, and the post 
 was once more detained by the violence of the tem- 
 pest. 
 
 September the 9th. The emperor remained as 
 before. A new gloom overspread the household in 
 consequence of tidings from Africa, that Don Man in 
 de Cordova, count of Alcaudete, and the army of 
 Oran, had been cut to pieces by the infidels. For 
 many years viceroy of the Spanish dominions in 
 Africa, and well skilled in the ways of the Moors 
 both in policy and war, the ill-fated veteran was one 
 of the most trusted counsellors of the crown. During 
 the spring and summer, the fortunes of a war between 
 Hassan, pacha of Algiers, son and heir of Barbarossa, 
 and Halif, the new king of Fez, gave him hopes 
 of turning Moslem quarrels to Christian advantage. 
 Mostagan, a fortified town about twelve leagues to
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 237 
 
 the east of Oran, was a prize upon which his hopes 
 had been long fixed. About the middle of August, 
 therefore, at the head of six thousand four hundred 
 men, and a considerable train of artillery, he marched 
 thither, sending along the coast nine brigantines laden 
 with munitions, and relying on promises of further 
 aid from the king of Fez. But the expedition, which 
 ought to have been a surprise, was ruined by the un- 
 due caution of its approach. The convoy was cap- 
 tured by an Algerine fleet; the Moorish ally proved 
 faithless; the attack on Mostagan failed; and in their 
 hasty retreat the weary, thirsty, and famished Chris- 
 tians were overtaken by the army of Hassan. At 
 Mazagran the old count, who had completely lost his 
 head, was trampled to death in the gateway by his 
 own terrified troops, and the greater part of his army 
 fell beneath the Turkish scymitar and the Arab spear, 
 or was sent to row in the galleys of Algiers. His son, 
 Don Martin de Cordova, was taken prisoner, and only a 
 handful of fugitives escaped to tell their tale of disaster 
 at Oran. With Alcaudete, who had been looked upon 
 as a leader no less prudent than brave, fell many 
 knights and nobles of Andalusia ; and the fate of his 
 expedition caused such mourning as had been un- 
 known in Spain since the fatal day when that other 
 Cordova, the good knight of Aguilar, fell with his 
 gallant band in the pass of the Red Sierra.* Quixada 
 and Garcilasso, friends of many of the victims, were 
 
 * L. de Marmol Carvajal: Description de Africa, 3 torn., fol., Granada, 
 1573-99, II. pp. 197- 199. Fr. Diego de Haedo : Uistoriade Argel, fol., 
 Valladolid, 1612, p. 174. Don Martin de Cordova was ransomed, and 
 lived to be governor of Oran, and to revenge his father. A. Lopez de 
 Haro: Nobilario de Esparia, 2 torn., fol., Madrid, 1622, II. 153.
 
 238 
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 greatly astonished that a commander of so much ex- 
 perience should have put any trust in the Punic 
 promises of a Moor. They did not venture to break 
 the news to the emperor, knowing how keenly he 
 would feel the reverse suffered by his son in the land 
 of his own glory and misfortune.* He therefore went 
 to the grave unconscious of the calamity which had 
 befallen Spain. No visible change had taken place in 
 his condition ; but he was able to hear the codicil of 
 his will read, and to sign and seal it. 
 
 Charles had made his will on the 6th of June, 1554, 
 at Bruxelles. The codicil, from its great length, its 
 minuteness, and the frequent recurrence of provisions 
 to be observed in case he died before he should see 
 his son, there being now no hope of such a meeting, 
 appears to have been prepared some time before. But 
 as it was read to him ere his trembling hand affixed 
 the last stamp of his authority, it remains as a proof 
 that one of his latest acts was to charge Philip, by his 
 love and allegiance, and by his hope of salvation, " to 
 take care that the heretics were repressed and chas- 
 tised with all publicity and rigor, as their faults de- 
 served, without respect of persons, and without regard 
 to any plea in their favor." The rest of the paper is 
 filled with directions for his interment, and with a list 
 of legacies to forty -eight servants, and many thought- 
 ful arrangements for the comfort of those who had 
 followed him from Flanders. Although willing to 
 send all his Protestant subjects to martyrdom, he 
 watched with fatherly kindness over the fortunes of 
 grooms and scullions. It is said that Fray Juan de 
 
 * Chap. III. p. 80.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 239 
 
 Regla proposed that Don John of Austria should be 
 named in the will as next heir to the crown, failing 
 the emperor's grandchildren ; but if this incredible ad- 
 vice were given by the confessor, the dying man had 
 energy enough left to reject it with indignation.* 
 
 September the 10th. He was somewhat easier, 
 although very weak, and able to take no nourishment, 
 except a few spoonfuls of mutton-broth. He once 
 more received the eucharist, and confessed with great 
 devoutness. Garcilasso was admitted to his bedside 
 to take leave, and again was assured of the relief he 
 felt in knowing that the Netherlands were to be gov- 
 erned by queen Mary. Gaztelu wrote that it was his 
 majesty's particular desire that a safe-conduct should 
 be immediately prepared for Dr. Cornelio and ten or 
 twelve persons, who were to go to Flanders, but that 
 it was to be kept secret for the present from the queen, 
 for good and sufficient reasons. Quixada, in his let- 
 ter to Vazquez, said that it would be well that orders 
 should be sent to him for his guidance, in case it 
 should please God to make the sickness of his majesty 
 mortal. 
 
 September the llth. A crisis in the fever had 
 been looked for on this day ; and the doctors were of 
 opinion that it was changing into what they called a 
 double tertian. Don Luis de 'Avila came, and re- 
 mained at Quacos. 
 
 September the 12th. The patient had passed a 
 better night, and was able to take some food; and 
 hopes of a recovery began to be entertained. 
 
 * Salazar de Mendoqa (Dign. de Castillo, fol. 161) says that Regla 
 used to tell the story himself.
 
 240 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 September the 13th. These hopes faded. He 
 was decidedly worse. Nothing would remain on his 
 stomach, and his weakness, and the state of his pulse, 
 greatly alarmed the two physicians. His throat was 
 .constantly choked with phlegm, which, being too fee- 
 ble to expectorate, he endeavored to remove with his 
 finger. Letters from the regent and the queen of 
 Hungary continued to express their wish to go to 
 Yuste. Quixada, writing in reply, said that his maj- 
 esty had always, since the beginning of his illness, 
 been averse to this proposal, and that, when he himself 
 spoke of it again to-day, the emperor shook his head, 
 as if to say no. Had his majesty been equal to any 
 exertion, he would have also ventured to remind him 
 that he ought formally to thank the queen for consent- 
 ing to return to Flanders, knowing, as he did, how 
 glad and how grateful he had been on receiving the 
 intelligence. But in truth he was unfit, not only to 
 write, but even to dictate a letter, or to attend to any 
 business whatsoever. If the archbishop of Toledo, 
 therefore, was on the road to Yuste, he need not hurry 
 himself. When he arrived, he must lodge either at a 
 Dominican monastery, about a league off, or at Qua- 
 cos; as no stranger could be put up at Yuste without 
 the express orders of his majesty. 
 
 September the 15th. Rhubarb pills had been 
 again administered with good effect, and hope is not 
 yet extinguished. " But," adds Quixada, " you can 
 hardly imagine how weak his majesty is. We all of 
 us do our best to anticipate his wants ; and if our 
 blood would do him good, we would give it most joy- 
 fully." 
 
 September the 16th. The doctors considered him
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 241 
 
 in a slight degree better. Avila, on the other hand, 
 thought him hanging between life and. death. A 
 courier came from Lisbon with letters from the queen 
 of Portugal, and to carry back news of the emperor's 
 health. Catherine was aware of the dangerous state 
 of her brother, and she had given great alms for the 
 benefit of his soul, and had ordered masses to be said 
 for him in every church in the kingdom. 
 
 September the 17th. Mathys wrote that the em- 
 peror had been seized with ague fits, the cold fits 
 lasting much longer than the hot; that he vomited 
 frequently and violently, " after which his majesty lies 
 unable to speak or move, and does not even ask for 
 water to wash his mouth." Gaztelu informed the 
 secretary of state that he was no better ; and that cer- 
 tain moneys had arrived from Seville. Quixada 
 wrote, not only to Vazquez, but to the regent and to 
 the king. In each of the letters he said that the doc- 
 tors now entertained little hope, and that the empe- 
 ror's state was truly deplorable. To the king he gave 
 a brief sketch of the codicil w r hich had been added to 
 the will. " The emperor," he wrote, "having once ex- 
 pressed a desire to be buried here, and that the em- 
 press should be brought from Granada to be laid be- 
 side him, I ventured to observe that this house was 
 not of sufficient quality to be made the resting-place 
 of so great sovereigns ; upon which he said he would 
 leave the matter in the hands of your majesty." The 
 chamberlain concluded by assuring the king that in 
 the matter he knew of perhaps alluding to Don 
 John he would use every precaution in the world 
 until his majesty came to Spain. 
 
 September the 18th. The emperor, wrote Mathys, 
 21
 
 242 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 touched nothing to-day but a little chicken-broth, and 
 some watered wine; the phlegm in his throat was 
 very troublesome. Quixada said that he had not 
 spoken a word for twenty-two hours ; and Avila gave 
 it as his opinion that he was certainly worse, what- 
 ever the doctors might say. 
 
 September the 19th. Mathys announced that the 
 hot and cold fits continued with great violence, ancl 
 that his pulse was getting feebler and feebler. Dr. 
 Cornelio had been ill and feverish all yesterday, and 
 was no better to-day. At eight in the evening, 
 Quixada wrote that a servant of the archbishop of 
 Toledo was just come, to say that the primate might 
 be looked for immediately ; but it was now of no con- 
 sequence when he arrived, as all hope of the emperor 
 being able to attend to business was past. Called to 
 the sick-room, the writer laid his pen down, and re- 
 sumed it in three quarters of an hour. He wrote 
 thus : " The doctors say the fever rises and his strength 
 sinks. Ever since noon, I have been keeping them 
 from giving him extreme unction. They have been 
 with me again to say it is time, but I have sent them 
 to feel his pulse once more ; and I will not allow the 
 thing to be done until the necessity for it is quite 
 plain. Thrice have they thus tried to bury him, as it 
 were, and it goes to my very soul to see it." The 
 course of the pen was once more checked. " I had 
 written thus far, when the doctors came, and urged 
 me to make haste. We have therefore given his maj- 
 esty extreme unction. It seemed to me premature, 
 but I yielded to the opinion of those who ought to 
 know best. You will understand how I, who have 
 served him thirty-seven years, feel at seeing him thus
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 
 
 243 
 
 going. May God take him to heaven ! But I say 
 again, that, to my thinking, the end will not be to- 
 night. God be with him, and with us all ! The cere- 
 mony is just now over, nine at night, Monday, Sep- 
 tember the 19th." 
 
 There were two forms of administering this crown- 
 ing rite, a longer form for churchmen and a briefer 
 one for the laity. At the request of the prior, the em- 
 peror was asked, by Quixada, which of the two he 
 preferred, and he chose to be treated in the ecclesias- 
 tical fashion. This involved the reading of the seven 
 penitential psalms, a litany, and several passages of 
 Scripture; through all of which the emperor made 
 the proper responses in an audible voice. After the 
 service was over, he appeared rather revived than ex- 
 hausted by it. 
 
 September the 20th. During the whole of the 
 past night he had been attended by his confessor, and 
 by the preacher Villalva, who frequently read aloud, 
 at his request, passages from Scripture, usually from 
 the Psalms. The psalm which he liked best was that 
 beginning Domine ! refugium factum est nobis* Soon 
 after daybreak, he signified his wish to be left alone 
 with his chamberlain. When the door was shut upon 
 the retiring clergy, he said: "Luis Quixada, I feel 
 that I am sinking little by little, for which I thank 
 God, since it is his will. Tell the king, my son, that 
 I beg he will settle with my servants who have at- 
 tended me to my death ; that he will find some em- 
 ployment for William Van Male ; and that he will 
 forbid the friars of this convent to receive guests in the 
 
 * " Lord! thou hast been our refuge." Psalm xc of our version.
 
 244 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 house." He then expressed his great regret at not 
 being able to confer with the archbishop of Toledo, 
 about the affair between the king and queen of Bo- 
 hemia ; and said he had intended to have sent an en- 
 voy to convey his opinion of the matter to Maximilian, 
 but had waited until he should have heard the pri- 
 mate's story. " As for what he told me to say of 
 myself," said Quixada, in writing to Philip the Sec- 
 ond, " I do not repeat it, being so nearly concerned in 
 it; and other things I will also leave untold until it 
 pleases God to bring your majesty hither." The em- 
 peror afterwards asked for the eucharist. Fray Juan 
 de Regla reminded him that, after having received ex- 
 treme unction, that sacrament was no longer neces- 
 sary. " It may not be necessary," said the dying man, 
 "but it is good company on so long a journey." 
 About seven in the morning, therefore, the consecrated 
 wafer was brought from the high altar of the church, 
 followed by the friars in solemn procession. The pa- 
 tient received it, with great devoutness, from the hands 
 of his confessor; but he had great difficulty in swal- 
 lowing the sacred morsel, and afterwards opened his 
 mouth, and made Quixada see if it had all gone down. 
 In spite of his extreme weakness, he followed all the 
 responses as usual, and repeated, with much fervor, 
 the whole verse, In manus luas, Domine ! commendo 
 spiritum meum ; redimisti nos, Domine ! Deus veriln- 
 tis;* and he afterwards remained kneeling in his bed 
 for some time, and uttering ejaculations in praise of 
 the blessed sacrament, so pious and so apposite that 
 
 * Into thy hands, Lord, I commend my spirit ; thou hast redeemed 
 us, O Lord God of truth.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 245 
 
 the friars conceived them to be prompted by the Holy 
 Ghost. He was soon, however, seized with violent 
 vomitings; and, during the greater part of the day, 
 lay motionless, with closed eyes, but not unconscious 
 of what went on around him. 
 
 About noon the archbishop arrived, and was imme- 
 diately admitted to the sick-room, where he was rec- 
 ognized by the patient, who addressed a few words 
 to him, and told him to go and repose himself. The 
 count of Oropesa and his brother, Don Francisco, 
 also came, although they were themselves hardly re- 
 covered from their illness. In the afternoon it was 
 supposd that the emperor's strength was ebbing fast, 
 and all his friends assembled at the palace. They 
 found him perfectly calm and collected, for which he 
 expressed great thankfulness, it having long been his 
 dread that he might die out of his mind. A few words 
 of consolation, touching forgiveness of sins, were at 
 intervals addressed to him by the archbishop, words 
 which Regla treasured up and reported to the Inqui- 
 sition. Sad and swarthy of visage, Carranza had 
 also a hoarse, disagreeable voice. Hearing it on one 
 of these occasions, the emperor gave a sign of impa- 
 tience so unmistakable, that Quixada thought it 
 right to interpose, and whisper, " Hush, my lord, you 
 are disturbing his majesty." The primate took the 
 hint, and was silent. 
 
 Towards eight o'clock in the evening, Charles asked 
 if the consecrated tapers were ready ; and he was evi- 
 dently sinking rapidly. The physicians acknowledged 
 that the case was past their skill, and that all hope 
 was over. Cornelio retired ; Ma thy s remained by the 
 bedside, occasionally feeling the patient's pulse, and 
 21
 
 243 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 whispering to the group of anxious spectators, " His 
 majesty has but two hours to live, but one hour, 
 but half an hour." Charles meanwhile lay in a stu- 
 por, seemingly unconscious, but now and then mur- 
 muring a prayer and turning his eyes to heaven. At 
 length he raised himself, and called for "William." 
 Van Male was instantly at his side, and understood 
 that he wished to be turned in bed, during which op- 
 eration the emperor leaned upon him heavily, and ut- 
 tered a groan of agony. The physician now looked 
 towards the door, and said to the archbishop, who 
 was standing in its shadow, " Domine^jam moritur!" 
 " My lord, he is now dying!" The primate came for- 
 ward with the chaplain Villalva, to whom he made a 
 sign to speak. It was now nearly two o'clock in the 
 morning of the 21st of September, St. Matthew's day. 
 Addressing the dying man, the favorite preacher told 
 him how blessed a privilege he enjoyed in having been 
 born on the feast of St. Matthias the apostle, who had 
 been chosen by lot to complete the number of the 
 twelve, and in being about to die on the feast of St. 
 Matthew, who for Christ's sake had forsaken wealth, 
 as his majesty had forsaken imperial power. For 
 some time the preacher held forth in this pious and 
 edifying strain. At last the emperor interposed, say- 
 ing, " The time is come : bring me the candles and 
 the crucifix." These were cherished relics, which he 
 had long kept in reserve for this supreme hour. The 
 one was a taper from Our Lady's shrine at Monster- 
 rate, the other, a crucifix of beautiful workmanship, 
 which had been taken from the dead hand of his wife 
 at Toledo, and which afterwards comforted the last 
 moments of his son at the Escorial. He received
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 247 
 
 them eagerly from the archbishop, and taking one in 
 each hand, for some moments he silently contemplated 
 the figure of the Saviour, and then clasped it to his 
 bosom. Those who stood nearest to the bed now 
 heard him say quickly, as if replying to a call, " Ya, 
 voy, Senor" " Now, Lord, I go." As his strength 
 failed, his fingers relaxed their hold of the crucifix, 
 which the primate therefore took, and held it up before 
 him. A few moments of death-wrestle between soul 
 and body followed ; after which, with his eyes fixed on 
 the cross, and with a voice loud enough to be heard 
 outride the room, he cried, " Ay, Jesus ! " and expired. 
 The clock had just struck two. In or near the 
 chamber of death were assembled the prior, the chap- 
 lains, and Fray Pedro de Sotomayer ; Quixada and 
 Gaztelu, and the two physicians; the count of Orope- 
 sa, his brother Don Francisco, and his uncle, Don 
 Diego, abbot of Cabanas ; Don Luis de Avila, and 
 archbishop Carranza. Don John of Austria, in his 
 quality of page to Quixada, is likewise supposed to 
 have witnessed the end of him whom he was after- 
 wards so proud to call <Ks sire. The count, the pri- 
 mate, the grand commander, the doctor, the secretary, 
 and the chamberlain immediately retired to write let- 
 ters to Valladolid. All agreed that the behaviour of 
 the emperor on his death-bed had been most pious and 
 edifying. Avila recorded with pride that his master 
 had given him a look of recognition just before the 
 final struggle. Quixada said he had died as devoutly 
 as the queen of France, and in a manner worthy of 
 the " greatest man that ever had lived, or ever would 
 live, in the world." * 
 
 * " El hombre mas principal que jamas ay o habria." Quixada to
 
 248 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 On the day of the emperor's death, his body was 
 washed, anointed, and embalmed. A messenger 
 was sent to Plasencia for two hundred yards of black 
 cloth for hangings for the church ; and that day and 
 the next were spent in making other preparations for 
 the funeral. On the 23d of September, the licentiate 
 Murga, of Quacos, being disabled by illness, the cor- 
 regidor of Plasencia, Don Pedro Osorio Zapata, ar- 
 rived, and in his presence the will was read, and a 
 certificate of the death properly drawn up and signed. 
 The body, in a lead coffin, inclosed in a massive outer 
 case of chestnut-wood, and covered with a black vel- 
 vet pall, was then lowered through the bedroom win- 
 dow into the church, and placed on a canopied cata- 
 falque in front of the high altar.f The funeral ser- 
 vices lasted for three days, and the monks of three 
 neighboring convents swelled the company of mourn- 
 ers, and the solemn dirges for the dead. Each day 
 mass was said by the primate, assisted by the prior as 
 
 the king : Gonzalez MS. A few particulars of the death-bed scene I 
 have gleaned from a letter, written on ^e 27th of September, 1558, by 
 one of the monks of Yuste, which forms^art of the Collecion de Documen- 
 tos Ineditos para la Historia de Espana. par P. Martin Fernandez de Na- 
 varete, D. Miguel de Salva, y Don Pedro Sanz de Baranda, 8 vols., 4to, 
 Madrid, 1842-6, VI. p. 667. The names both of the receiver and of 
 the writer are unknown ; but it is not improbable that the letter pro- 
 ceeded from the pen of Fray Hernando Corral ; see Chap. IV. p. 89. 
 
 t Sandoval (II. p. 835) says that these preparations had been hardly 
 made, when the corregidor of Plasencia arrived, with his clerks and con- 
 stables, and, in spite of the friars' remonstrances, opened the coffin, in 
 order to identify the body. This story, so improbable in itself, would 
 not be worth mentioning but for the fact, that Sandoval professes to have 
 been guided, in his account of the emperor at Yuste, by a paper drawn 
 up by the prior. But as it is contradicted by the evidence of the Gonza- 
 lez MS., and not mentioned by Siguenca, I have rejected it. 
 
 Another better known fable seems to be indebted for general circula-
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 249 
 
 deacon, and the prior of Granada as sub-deacon. A 
 funeral sermon was preached on the first day, by the 
 eloquent Villalva, who had found an occasion worthy 
 of all his powers. By desire of Quixada, the orator 
 had kept notes, day by day, of what occurred at the 
 imperial death-bed;* and these he now wrought into 
 a discourse so impassioned, that some of the hearers 
 declared that it made their flesh creep and their hair 
 stand on end. Sermons were also pronounced on the 
 second day, by Fray Luis de San Gregorio, prior of 
 Granada, and on the third, by Fray Francisco de An- 
 gulo, prior of Sta. Engracia, at Zaragoza. The im- 
 perial dust was then mingled with the common earth. 
 u Let my sepulture," said the will of Charles, " be so 
 ordered, that the lower half of my body lie beneath, 
 and the upper half before, the high altar, that the 
 priest who says mass may tread upon my head and 
 my breast." But the clergy present being divided in 
 opinion as to the lawfulness of placing under the high 
 altar a corpse not in the odor of sanctity, the matter 
 
 tion to Dr. Salazar de Mendoqa. In his Dignidades de Castillo,, p. 158, 
 he tells us that Charles, five years before his death, had caused his cof- 
 fin to be made, with a winding-sheet, and other furniture of the tomb, 
 and kept them in his bedroom, and looked at them nightly before retir- 
 ing to rest. People who saw the box thought it must be filled with treas- 
 ures, or important papers ; and when asked about it, the emperor would 
 smile, and say it did contain something which he valued very highly. 
 Salazar, a Spaniard, cites as his authority a Frenchman, Pierre Gregoire 
 of Thoulouse, who tells the story at great length in his work De Repub- 
 lica, 2 torn., fol, Lugduni, 1609, Lib. VI. Cap. III. Sect. 8, Tom. I. p. 
 139, and says he found it " in oratione funebri ejus (Caroli V.) Sueuca." 
 a source which I have been unable to discover. Sandoval had heard 
 it, but did not believe it. 
 
 * Los Santos : Hist, de la Orden de S. Geronimo, quarta parte, fol., 
 Madrid. 1680, p. 516.
 
 250 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 was compromised by laying the coffin in a cavity made 
 in the wall behind, so that it encroached on a very 
 small portion of the holy ground. 
 
 So ended the career of Charles the Fifth, the great- 
 est monarch of the memorable sixteenth century. The 
 vast extent of his dominions in Europe, the wealth of 
 his Transatlantic empire, the sagacity of his mind, and 
 the energy of his character, combined to render him 
 the most famous of the successors of Charlemagne. 
 Preeminently the man of his time, his name is seldom 
 wanting to any monument of the age. He stood be- 
 tween the days of chivalry, which were going out, and 
 the days of printing, which were coming in; respect- 
 ing the traditions of the one, and fulfilling many of 
 the requirements of the other. Men of the sword 
 found him a bold cavalier; and those whose weapons 
 were their tongues or their pens, soon learned to re- 
 spect him as an astute and consummate politician. 
 Like his ancestors, Don Jayme, or Don Sancho, with 
 lance in rest, and shouting Santiago for Spain! he 
 led his knights against the Moorish host, among the 
 olives of Goleta ; and even in his last campaign in 
 Saxony, the cream-colored genet of the emperor was 
 ever in the van of battle, like the famous piebald 
 charger of Turenne in later fields of the Palatinate. 
 Some historians have contrasted Charles with his 
 more showy and perhaps more amiable rival, Francis 
 the First, making the two monarchs the impersona- 
 tions of opposite qualities and ideas ; the ernperor of 
 state craft and cunning, the king of soldiership and 
 gallantry. Francis was, no doubt, oftener to be seen 
 glittering in armor, and adorning the pageants of roy- 
 alty and war ; but Charles was oftener in the trench
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 251 
 
 and the field, scenes for which alone he cared to don 
 his battered mail and shabby accoutrements. His 
 journey across France, in order to repress the revolt 
 of Ghent, was a finer example of daring, of a great 
 danger deliberately braved for a great purpose, than 
 is to be found in the story of the gay champion of the 
 field of gold. In the council-chamber he was ready 
 to measure minds with all comers ; with the Northern 
 envoy who claimed liberty of conscience for the Prot- 
 estant princes ; with the magnifico who excused the 
 perfidies of Venice ; or the still subtler priest, who 
 stood forth in red stockings to gloze in defence of the 
 still greater iniquities of the holy see. In the prose- 
 cution of his plans, and the maintenance of his influ- 
 ence, Charles shrank from no labor of rnind, or fa- 
 tigue of body. When other sovereigns would have 
 sent an ambassador, and opened a negotiation, he 
 paid a visit, and concluded a treaty. From Gron- 
 i^gen to Otranto, from Vienna to Cadiz, no unjust 
 steward of the house of Austria could be sure that his 
 misdeeds would escape detection on the spot from 
 the keen, cold eye of the indefatigable emperor. 
 The name of Charles is connected, not only with the 
 wars and politics, but with the peaceful arts, of his 
 time : it is linked with the graver of the Vico, the 
 chisel of Leoni, the pencil of Titian, and the lyre of 
 Ariosto ; and as a lover and patron of art, his fame 
 stood as high at Venice and Nuremberg as at Ant- 
 werp and Toledo. 
 
 The admiration which was raised by the great 
 events of his reign, was sustained to the last by the 
 unwonted manner of its close. In our days, abdica- 
 tion has been so frequently the refuge of weak men,
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 fallen in evil times, or the last shift of baffled bad men, 
 that it is difficult for us to conceive the sensation which 
 must have been produced by the retirement, of Charles. 
 England is among the few nations of Europe to whose 
 thrones there are no pretenders expiating in exile 
 the sins of themselves and their sires ; perhaps the 
 sole nation whose royal house has no member who 
 has put off, or has declined to put on, the hereditary 
 crown. Now that the divinity which doth hedge a 
 king has become a bowing wall and a tottering fence, 
 it is almost impossible to look upon the solemn cere- 
 mony which was enacted at Bruxelles with the feeling 
 or the eyes of the sixteenth century. The act of the 
 emperor was a thing not indeed altogether unheard 
 of, but known only in books and distant times. The 
 knights of the fleece, who wept on the dais, around 
 their Ca?sar, knew little more about Diocletian than 
 was known by the farmers and clothiers who elbowed 
 each other in the crowd below. It was only some 
 rare student who remembered that a Theodosius and 
 an Isaac had submitted their heads to the razor, to 
 save their necks from the axe or the bowstring; that 
 a Lothaire had led a hermit's life in the forest of Ar- 
 dennes ; that a Carloman had milked the ewes of the 
 Benedictines at Monte Cassino. Spanish history 
 afforded several examples of abdications, but they 
 belonged to the misty ages of the Goth, and the Cas- 
 tillian who was in the habit of alluding to very re- 
 mote antiquity as "the days of king Wamba," per- 
 haps seldom knew that the example set by that mar- 
 tial monarch had been followed by Bermudo, and 
 Alonso, and Rarniro, when they, in their turns, ex- 
 changed the diadem for the cowl. The act of Charles,
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 253 
 
 therefore, was fitted to strike the imagination of men, 
 by the novelty of the occasion, by the solemnity of 
 the circumstances, by the splendor of the abdicated 
 crowns, and by the world-wide fame with which they 
 had been won. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the emperor gave the 
 true reasons of his retirement when, panting for 
 breath, and unable to stand alone, he told the states 
 of Flanders that he resigned the government because 
 it was a burden which his shattered frame could no 
 longer bear. He was fulfilling the plan which he 
 had cherished for nearly twenty years. Indeed, he 
 seems to have determined to abdicate almost at the 
 time when he determined to reign. So powerful a 
 mind as that of Charles, has seldom been so tardy in 
 giving evidence of power. Until he appeared in 
 Italy, in 1529, the thirtieth year of his age, his strong 
 will had been as wax in the hands of other men. Up 
 to that time, the most laborious, reserved, and inflexi- 
 ble of princes was the most docile subject of his min- 
 isters. His mind ripened slowly, and his body de- 
 cayed prematurely. By nature and hereditary habit 
 a keen sportsman, in his youth he was unwearied in 
 tracking the bear and the wolf over the hills of Tole- 
 do and Granada ; and he was distinguished for his 
 prowess against the bull and the boar.* Yet ere he 
 had turned fifty, he was reduced to amuse himself by 
 shooting crows and daws amongst the trees of his 
 garden. The hand which had yielded the lance, and 
 curbed the charger, was so enfeebled with gout, that 
 
 * Libra de la Monteria : Discurso de G. Argote de Molina, p. 6. Rankc's 
 Ottoman and Spanish Empires, translated jby Kelly, 8vo, London, 1843, 
 p. 30. 
 
 22
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 it was sometimes unable to break the seal of a letter. 
 Declining fortune combined with decaying health to 
 maintain him in that general vexation of spirit which 
 he shared with king Solomon. His later schemes of 
 policy and conquest ended in nothing but disaster and 
 disgrace. The pope, the Turk, the king of France, 
 and the Protestant princes of the empire, were once 
 more arrayed against the potentate, who, in the bright 
 morning of his career, had imposed laws upon them 
 all. The flight from Innsbruck avenged the cause 
 which seemed lost at Muhlberg. While the doctors 
 of the church assembled at Trent, in that council 
 which had cost so much treasure and intrigue, con- 
 tinued their solemn quibblings, the Protestant faith 
 was spreading itself even in the dominions of the or- 
 thodox house of Hapsburg. The emperor's well- 
 known device, the pillars of Hercules, with the proud 
 motto, PLUS ULTRA, for which the inventor had been 
 rewarded with two mitres,* became the butt of the 
 pedantic wits of France. Guise and the gallant 
 townsmen of Metz, furnished a new reading, NON 
 ULTRA METAS, for the motto ; f and Paris was made 
 merry with the suggestion that the pillars should be 
 changed into a crab, and the words into PLUS CITRA,^ 
 to express the ebb of the imperial fortunes. The 
 finances both of Spain and the other dominions of 
 
 * Luis Marliano, author of this famous device, was paid for his inge- 
 nuity, first with the bishopric of Tuy (sorely against the will of cardinal 
 Ximenes ; Alv. Gomez: De Rebus Gestis, fol. 151), and afterwards with 
 that of Ciudad Rodrigo. Rod. Mendez Silva : Catalago Real, 4to, 
 Madrid, 1656, fol. 136. 
 
 t Le Moyne : De i Art des Devises, 4to, Paris, 1666, p. 215. 
 
 } Strada : De Bello Belgico, Lib. I., 2 torn., sm. 8vo, Antwerp, 1640, 
 T. 17.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 255 
 
 Austria were in the utmost disorder ; and the lord of 
 Mexico and Peru had been forced to beg a loan from 
 the duke of Florence. It is no wonder, therefore, that 
 Charles seized the first gleam of sunshine and return- 
 ing calm to make for the long-desired haven of ref- 
 uge ; that he relieved his brow of its thorny crowns 
 as soon as he had obtained an object dear to him as a 
 father, a politician, and a devotee, by placing his son 
 Philip on the rival throne of the heretic Tudors. 
 
 His habits and turn of mind made a religious house 
 the natural place of his retreat Like a true Castillian, 
 
 " With age, with cares, with maladies opprest, 
 He sought the refuge of conventual rest." 
 
 Monachism had for him the charm, vague yet power- 
 ful, such as soldiership has for the young ; and he was 
 ever fond of catching glimpses of the life \vhich he 
 had resolved, sooner or later, to embrace. When the 
 empress died, he retired to indulge his grief in the 
 cloisters of La Sisla, near Toledo. After his return 
 from one of his African campaigns, he paid a visit to 
 the noble convent of Mejorado, near Olmedo, and 
 spent two days in familiar converse with Jeromites, 
 sharing their refectory fare, and walking for hours in 
 their garden alleys of venerable cypress. When he 
 held his court at Bruxelles, he was often a guest at the 
 convent of Groenendael ; and the monks commemo- 
 rated his condescension as a monarch as well as his 
 skill as a marksman, by placing his statue in bronze 
 on the banks of their fishpond, at a point where he had 
 brought down a heron from an amazing height. At 
 Alcala, when attending service in the university 
 church, he would not occupy the throne prepared for 
 him, but insisted on sitting with the canons, saying
 
 256 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 that he never could be better placed than among rev- 
 erend and learned divines.* 
 
 These church predilections, colored with religious 
 melancholy, Charles inherited from his ancestors on 
 both sides of the house, and transmitted to his de- 
 scendants. Ferdinand the Catholic was not free from 
 them ; and the emperor Maximilian was said to have 
 entertained, in his latter days, the notable design of 
 taking orders and getting himself chosen pope. Philip 
 the Second was preeminently the friend of friars : in 
 his wretched cell adjoining the church of the Escorial 
 he lived a life of the severest asceticism ; and, ever reck- 
 less of the blood of his people, he was often to be 
 seen on his knees, reverently dusting and polishing 
 the golden reliquaries in which he had enshrined the 
 bones of his saints. Don John of Austria, when sick- 
 ening of deferred hope of a throne, instinctively turned 
 his thoughts to the cowl and a celestial crown. Philip 
 the Third never missed visiting a convent when the 
 opportunity occurred ; they long remembered, at Mont- 
 serrate, the devotion with which he clambered to every 
 rock-hewn cell of that romantic hermit-warren ; and 
 when the third part of Siguen9a's Jeromite history 
 appeared, he sat up a whole night to read the fascinat- 
 ing folio.f Even the licentious Philip the Fourth 
 and the half-idiot Charles the Second were careful 
 to send the best buck or the best boar from their day's 
 heap of game to the prior of the Escorial ; and, in 
 the true spirit of their grandsire of Yuste, they used 
 
 * Alf. Sanctii : De Rebus Hispanice anacephaleosis, 4to, Compluti, 
 1634, p. 327. 
 
 t Porreno : Hechos y Dichos de Felipe III., 4to, Madrid, 1723, 
 pp. 332-334.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 257 
 
 to descend into the pantheon of their palace-convent, 
 and muse upon death amongst the ashes of their 
 ancestors. 
 
 Nor were the princesses of the Spanish house of 
 Austria untinged with the religious melancholy of their 
 race. Like queen Juana, many of them ended their 
 days in the cloister ; and a few even took the veil and 
 wore the ring of lady abbess. Amongst these were 
 the regent Juana and her sister, the empress Mary, 
 with her daughter the archduchess Margaret, who re- 
 fused the hand of her uncle, Philip the Second, and, 
 as sister Margaret of the Cross, was famous for near 
 half a century among the vestals of Madrid. The 
 infanta Isabella, the able ruler of the Netherlands, at 
 the death of her husband took the habit, though not 
 the vows, of a Franciscan nun, as the habit which 
 had been worn with so much holy distinction by ladies 
 of her name and lineage, the Isabellas of Hungary 
 and of Portugal.* The married life of queen Mar- 
 garet, wife of Philip the Third, was divided between 
 childbed and church.f Paris, with its pageantries 
 and the new pleasures of bridehood and a throne, 
 could not dispel the constitutional gloom from the 
 young heart of Maria Teresa. " What did you think 
 of your reception ? " asked Anne of Austria, on the 
 evening of her arrival at the Louvre. " I thought," 
 replied the queen of Louis the Fourteenth, " of that 
 other pageant which shall one day carry me to the 
 
 * C. de Benavente : Advertencias para Reyes, 4to, Madrid, 1643 
 pp. 228, 229. 
 
 t See her life, Vida y Muerte de Dona Margarita de Austria, por Diego 
 de Guzman, 4to, Madrid, 1617. 
 22
 
 S58 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 tomb."* The influence of Spanish blood may be 
 seen in the declining years of Louis himself, and in 
 the strange story of the devout Bourbon, who wore 
 the family honors of Orleans between the profligate 
 regent and the infamous Egalite. 
 
 To the last, Charles loved his woodland nest at 
 Yuste. It has been said that he was wont to declare 
 that he had enjoyed there more real happiness in one 
 day than he had derived from all his triumphs,! an 
 extravagant assertion, which is nevertheless far nearer 
 the truth than the idle tale that his retirement was a 
 long repentance of his abdication. But the cloister, 
 like the world, was not without its disappointments. 
 He had escaped only from the pageantry of courts, not 
 from the toil and excitement of public affairs. To 
 Yuste he had come, seeking solitude and repose ; but 
 although his chamberlain complained bitterly that he 
 had indeed found the one, his own long and labored 
 despatches prove that he enjoyed but little of the other. 
 He began by attempting to confine his attention to a 
 few matters in which he was specially interested, and 
 which he hoped ere long to bring to a happy termina- 
 tion ; but the circle gradually widened, and at last his 
 anxious eye learned once more to sweep the whole 
 horizon of Spanish policy. From the war in Flan- 
 ders he would turn to the diplomacy of Italy or Por- 
 tugal ; and his plans for replenishing the treasury at 
 Valladolid, were followed by remarks on the garrisons 
 in Africa, or the signal-towers along the Spanish 
 shore. He watched the course of the vessel of state 
 
 * Fr. Juan B. de Soria : Historia de Dona Hlgria Teresa de Austria, 
 Reina de Francia, sin. 8vo, Madrid, 1684, p. 11. 
 
 t Phil. Camerarii Mtditationes Historical, 3 torn., 4to, Francofurti, 
 1602-9, I. p. 210.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 259 
 
 with interest as keen as if the helm were still in his 
 own hands ; and the successes and the disasters of his 
 son affected him as if they were his own. Unfortu- 
 nately, in 1557 and 1558, the disasters greatly out- 
 numbered and outweighed the successes. On one 
 side of the account stood the brilliant but barren vic- 
 tory of St. Quentin, and the less signal but better 
 employed victory of Gravelines ; on the other, there 
 were the bullion riots at Seville, the disgraceful treaty 
 of Rome, the loss of Calais and of Thionville, the 
 sack of Menorca, and the outburst of heresy. He 
 might well dread the arrival of each courier ; and the 
 destruction of the army of Oran was announced in 
 the despatches which lay unread on his table at the 
 time of his death. 
 
 The prudence and moderation which generally 
 guided his acts in the world dictated his writings at 
 Yuste. Notwithstanding his displeasure with the 
 Roman negotiations of Alba and the loss of Calais 
 and Thionville, which he expressed freely enough in 
 conversation, few traces of ruffled temper are to be 
 found in his written remarks on these subjects. It 
 was this caution and self-control which saved his 
 reign from many of those disorders and scandals 
 which disgraced the rule of his successors. The 
 three Philips were governed by favorites and viziers, 
 minions of fortune, who in time became her martyrs. 
 The ministers of Charles neither rose so high nor fell 
 so low ; he never had a Perez, a Lerma, an Olivares, 
 or a Calderon. 
 
 Perhaps the very qualities which rendered the de- 
 spatches of the emperor so admirable as state papers, 
 at the dates which they bore, and in the hands to
 
 260 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 which they were addressed, tend to diminish their 
 value as materials for his biography. A close rea- 
 soner, careful in analyzing facts, and subtle in pene- 
 trating motives, Charles was nevertheless one of the 
 most tiresome writers who ever drove the quill of po- 
 litical or diplomatic correspondence. Heavy and re- 
 dundant in style, his pictures of men and events are 
 flat and colorless ; and even in argument, his vivacity 
 is cramped and crippled by the fence of caution and 
 reserve which ever hedges his path. Very rarely 
 does it happen that any spark of human feeling or 
 passion illumines his weary records of the daily toils 
 of power; of hopes and fears, to which a generous 
 heart can seldom respond ; of selfish intrigues and ig- 
 noble rivalries ; and of all the dusty plans of an ambi- 
 tion which never soared above the family tree of 
 Hapsburg. , 
 
 In the cloister, Charles was no less popular than he 
 had been in the world. In spite of his feeble health 
 and phlegmatic temperament, in spite of his caution, 
 which was ever suspicious, and his selfishness, which 
 frequently made him false ; in spite of his jealous love 
 of power, and of his contempt for popular rights, 
 there was still in his conduct and bearing that inde- 
 scribable charm which wins the favor of the multi- 
 tude. A little book, of no literary value, but frequent- 
 ly printed both in French and Flemish, sufficiently 
 indicates in its title the qualities which colored the 
 popular view of his character. The Life and Actions, 
 Heroic and Pleasant, of the Invincible Emperor, Charles 
 the Fifth, was long a favorite chap-book in the Low 
 Countries. It relates how he defeated Solyman the 
 Magnificent, and how he permitted a Walloon boor
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 261 
 
 to obtain judgment against him for the value of a 
 sheep, killed by the wheels of his coach ; how he rode 
 down the Moorish horsemen at Tunis ; and how he 
 jested, like any private sportsman, with the woodmen 
 of Soigne. A similar reputation for affability and 
 good humor, heightened by the added quality of sanc- 
 tity, he left behind him in the sylvan monastery of 
 Estremadura. Doomed by royal etiquette to eat 
 alone, he sometimes broke through the rule in favor 
 of St. Benedict or St. Jerome. Dining in former 
 years with the fathers of Montserrate, the prior, a 
 rough Aragonese, ventured to tell him that he had 
 polluted their sober board by eating flesh-meat there, 
 a monkish pleasantry which the imperial guest won 
 the hearts of his hosts by taking in perfectly -good 
 part.* At Yuste he occasionally dined in the refec- 
 tory, improving the conventual cheer by the good hu- 
 mor of his conversation no less than by the science of 
 his cook. 
 
 In one point alone did Charles in the cell differ 
 widely from Charles on the throne. In the world, 
 fanaticism had not been one of his vices ; he feared 
 the keys no more than his cousin of England, and he 
 confronted the successor of St. Peter no less boldly 
 than he made head against the heir of St. Louis. 
 While he held Clement the Seventh prisoner at 
 Rome, he permitted even at Madrid the mockery of 
 masses for that pontiff's speedy deliverance. Against 
 the Protestants he fought rather as rebels than as 
 heretics, and he frequently stayed the hand of the vic- 
 
 * Vida que el Emperador tuvo en el Convento de Yuste: in the MS. en- 
 titled El Perfecto Desengano por el Marques de Valparaiso, 1638, of 
 which I have given an account in my preface.
 
 262 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 torious zealots of the church. At Wittenberg he set 
 a fine example of moderation, in forbidding the de- 
 struction of the tomb of Luther, saying that he con- 
 tended with the living and not with the dead.* To 
 a Venetian envoy, accredited to him at Bruxelles, in 
 the last year of his reign, he appeared free from all 
 taint of polemical madness, and willing that subjects 
 of theology should be discussed in his presence, with 
 fair philosophical freedom.f 
 
 But once within the walls of Yuste, he assumed all 
 the passions, prejudices, and superstitions of a friar. 
 Looking back on his past life, he thanked God for the 
 evil that he had been permitted to do in the matter of 
 religious persecution, and repented him, in sackcloth 
 and ashes, for having kept his plighted word to a her- 
 etic. Religion was the enchanted ground whereon 
 his strong will was paralyzed and his keen intellect 
 fell grovelling in the dust. Protestant and philosophic 
 historians love to relate how Charles, finding that no 
 two of his timepieces could be made to go alike, re- 
 marked that he had perhaps erred in spending so 
 much blood and treasure in the hope of compelling 
 men to a yet more impossible uniformity in the more 
 difficult matters of religion. The antithesis of some 
 declaimer on toleration, passing from pen to pen, has 
 at last been placed by a Sleidan or a Jovius, more 
 careless or unscrupulous than their fellows, as an 
 aphorism in the mouth of the emperor himself, against 
 whom it was probably, in the first instance, launched.:}: 
 
 * Juncker: ] r ita Mart. Luteri, sm. 8vo, Francofurti. 1699, p. 219. 
 Sleidan: De Statu Rdiy. et Reip., Lib. XIX., is cited as his authority, 
 t Rekitione of Badovaro. 
 f I have sought in vain for the inventor of this popular fiction, of
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 263 
 
 It would have been well for his own fame, well, per- 
 haps, for the moral and intellectual progress of Spain, 
 had such a sentiment been found in the table-talk of 
 the Spanish Diocletian. But it is certain that the 
 philosophy of 
 
 " him who walked 
 In the Salonian garden's noble shade," 
 
 was unknown, or unapproved, at Yuste, in the clois- 
 ter of the Jeromite or in the cabinet of the imperial 
 recluse. 
 
 While Charles lived and died at Yuste, no less than 
 two aspiring pens were at work upon epic poems to 
 commemorate his reign. Sempere, a merchant of 
 Valencia, was first in the field, in 1560, with his 
 Carolea, of which the thirty printed cantos bring the 
 hero's history down only to his coronation at Bologna. 
 The huge and worthless fragment was never com- 
 pleted.* In 1568, Luis Capata, a soldier, published, 
 likewise at Valencia, his Carlo Famoso, in fifty can- 
 tos, to which he had given the labor of thirteen years. 
 He, too, commenced his rhymed annals for the 
 poem was nothing more on a scale so colossal, that 
 he was compelled to compress into the final canto the 
 last twelve years of his hero's life. From this wilder- 
 
 which I can find no trace in books of the sixteenth century. Strada, 
 De Bella Bely., Lib. I. p. 13, speaking of the emperor's love of watch- 
 making and watches, adds, " quorum videlicit rotas multo quam fortunse 
 facilius temperabat " ; a remark which was kindly pointed out to me by 
 Mr. Macaulay, as the possible germ of the story. It is told in its present 
 shape, as a well-known anecdote, in Harris's Description of the Gardens of 
 Loo, 4to, London, 1699, pp. 70-72, the earliest book in which I have met 
 with it. Hume relates it in his History of Queen Mary Tudor, whence it 
 was probably transplanted, without question, by Robertson, who, having 
 the will and codicil of Charles before him in Sandoral, ought to have 
 rejected it on internal evidence. 
 
 * Ticknor's Hist, of Spanish Literature, II. p. 456.
 
 264 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 ness of justly neglected verse I venture to select these 
 stanzas, as a fair specimen of the poem and of the 
 admiration with which the retirement of Charles was 
 regarded. 
 
 " Y el emperador, que antes no solia 
 Caber en todo el mundo de aposento, 
 En Yuste, en nuestra Espana un abadia, 
 Se recogio & la fin a un aposento : 
 Y alii (puesto en el del un pie) bivia, 
 Mas qu'en su cielo Jupiter contento, 
 En religion sin habito biviendo 
 A quantos havia monges excediendo. 
 
 " Otros se ban del imperio descargado, 
 Mas que no de virtud de miedo lleno, 
 Qu'en la una mano vian el hierro ayrado, 
 Y en el otra el vaso oculto de veneno ; 
 Imitando al castor, y aun tan loado 
 Les fue, que de sn fama hoy dura el trueno, 
 Mas el dexo un imperio, 6 caso duro, 
 Glorioso, dulce, en paz, quieto y seguro. 
 
 " Carlo que como cisne su fin siente 
 Al nino Don Juan de Austria ante si llama, 
 Y le dize quien es, y de alii ausente 
 Se le encomienda al rey que tanto el ama : 
 Y hecho lo que un rey tan excellente 
 En tal tiempo devia, como una llama 
 Que le falta ya al fin el nutrimiento 
 Se fue agozar de Dios a su alto assierto." * 
 
 " So Charles the emperor, whose mighty reign 
 The globe itself scarce held within its bound, 
 At Yuste, a fair abbey of our Spain, 
 A lowly home and quiet haven found : 
 Here, half his heart in heaven, did he remain, 
 Tranquil as Jove with sovran glories crown'd ; 
 In all things save the hood a holy friar, 
 In Christian graces peerless in the choir. 
 
 Carlo Famoso de Don Luys Capata, 4to, Valencia, 1566, fol. 287.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 265 
 
 " Kings erst have left their sceptred state and sway, 
 Pale terror prompting, not calm strength of soul ', 
 Flash'd, in their dreams, the falchion's dreadful ray, 
 Lurk'd, in their fears, the drug within the bowl ; 
 (So beavers, hunted, cast their spoils away,) 
 Yet fame's loud tongues the noble deed extol : 
 But greater Charles, with glory all his own, 
 Resign'd a peaceful, sure, and splendid throne. 
 
 " His end at last foreknowing, like the swan, 
 The emperor to his side bids quickly bring 
 The opening Austrian flower, his young Don John ; 
 Reveals his birth ; and to the absent king 
 Commends in loving wise this other son ; 
 Then, sooth 'd with holy rites, his soul takes wing, 
 With fitful nickering like a lamp that dies, 
 To God's high seat and bliss beyond the skies." 
 
 The statement with regard to Don John is, perhaps, 
 not wholly to be relied upon; nor is it to be wholly 
 rejected. Capata wrote while the events were fresh 
 in men's memories ; in his dedication to the king he 
 challenged comparison for accuracy with any prose 
 historian ; and he professed to mark with an asterisk 
 every passage in which he had ventured to embellish 
 fact with fiction. No asterisk throws a doubt upon 
 the incident above recorded. By the letters written 
 from Yuste, it is neither confirmed nor discredited. 
 Quixada, De Bues, Bodart, and Philip the Second 
 seem to have been the only persons in the secret ; but 
 during the life of the emperor, the chamberlain never 
 alluded to it in his correspondence with the king ; and 
 even after his master's death he mentioned it, as the 
 next chapter will show, very cautiously, very briefly, 
 and with evident reluctance. 
 
 23
 
 266 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FINAL NOTICES OF THE COURT AND MONASTERY 
 OF YUSTE. 
 
 CHARLES the Fifth did not leave the world without 
 some of those portents in which his age loved to trace 
 the influence of a remarkable death upon the opera- 
 tions of external nature. A comet appeared over 
 Yuste at the beginning of his last illness, and was last 
 seen in the night on which he died. In the spring, a 
 lily in his garden, growing beneath his windows, bore 
 two buds, of which one flowered and faded in due 
 course, but the other remained a bud through the" 
 summer and autumn, to the great astonishment of the 
 gardeners and the friars. But on the night of the 
 20th of September it burst into full bloom, as an em- 
 blem of the whiteness of the parting spirit, and of the 
 sure and certain hope of its reception into the man- 
 sions of bliss. Reverently gathered in the morning, 
 this wondrous lily was fastened upon the black veil 
 which covered the sacramental shrine in the convent- 
 ual church, and remained there until it dropped off 
 from decay. In the week following the obsequies, a 
 pied bird, large as a vulture, but of a kind unknown 
 in the Vera, perched at night on the roof of the church, 
 exactly over the imperial grave, and disturbed the 
 friars by barking like a dog. For five successive 
 nights it barked there in the clear moonlight, always
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 267 
 
 at the same hour, and always arriving from the east 
 and flying away towards the west. And four years 
 later, a holy capuchin of the new world, Fray Gon- 
 c^alo Mendez, as he knelt in his convent chapel at 
 Guatemala, was blessed with a vision wherein he 
 saw the emperor before the judgment-seat of our 
 Lord, making his defence against the accusing de- 
 mons, and with so much success that he received 
 honorable acquittal, and was in the end borne off to 
 heaven by the angels of light. * 
 
 The codicil of the will of Charles, the only part of 
 the document which properly belongs to his life at 
 Yuste, is drawn up with a minuteness of detail very 
 characteristic of the careful habits of the man. After 
 a profession of attachment to the church, and hatred 
 of heresy, and after the directions for his burial, which 
 have been already noticed, he proceeds to describe a 
 monument and altar-piece which he wished to be 
 erected in the church of the convent, in the event of 
 Yuste being chosen by his son for the final resting- 
 place for his bones. The altar-piece was to be of al- 
 abaster, a copy in relief of Titian's picture of the 
 Last Judgment, the picture on which he was gazing 
 at the moment when he felt the first touch of death. 
 A custodia, or sacramental tabernacle, was likewise 
 to be made of alabaster and marble, and placed be- 
 tween statues of the empress and himself. These 
 effigies were to be sculptured kneeling, with hands 
 clasped as if in prayer, barefoot, and with uncovered 
 heads, and clad in sheets like penitents. For further 
 particulars he referred the I3ng to Luis Quixada and 
 the confessor Regla, who were fully instructed in his 
 meaning and wishes. In case of the removal of his
 
 268 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 body, instead of the altar-piece and monument, the 
 convent was to receive a picture for their high altar, of 
 such kind as the king should appoint. 
 
 The emperor next expresses his concern at hearing 
 that the pensions which he had granted to the servants 
 whom he had dismissed at Xarandilla had been very 
 ill paid, and he entreats the king to order their punc- 
 tual payment for the future. He directs that the friars 
 of Yuste, and the friars from other convents, who had 
 been specially emplo^d in his service as readers, 
 preachers, musicians, or in other capacities, shall re- 
 ceive such gratuities as shall appear sufficient to 
 father Regla and Quixada. To the confessor himself 
 he bequeathes an annual pension of four hundred du- 
 cats, (about 80 sterling,) and four hundred ducats 
 in legacy. Of Quixada he twice speaks in the most 
 affectionate terms, acknowledging his long and good 
 services, and his willing fidelity in incurring the ex- 
 pense and inconvenience of removing his wife and 
 household to Quacos. Lamenting that he has done 
 so little to promote his interest, he earnestly recom- 
 mends him to the king's favor, and leaves him a leg- 
 acy of two thousand ducats, (400 sterling,) and a 
 pension of the value of his present emoluments, with- 
 out mentioning the amount, until he shall be provided 
 with a better appointment. He also desires the in- 
 fanta to cause the amount of fines recovered, or that 
 should be recovered, by his attorney, from the poachers 
 and rioters of Quacos, to be paid into the hands of 
 a person named by the executors, for distribution 
 amongst the poor of the village. The contents of his 
 larder and cellar, and his stores of provisions in gen- 
 eral, at the day of his decease, and likewise the dis-
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 269 
 
 pensary, with its drugs and vessels, he leaves to the 
 brotherhood of Yuste ; and to the poor, any money 
 which may remain in his coffers after defraying the 
 wages of his servants. 
 
 These are all mentioned by name, and for the most 
 part receive pensions, except a few, to whom small 
 gratuities are given, it being explained that previous 
 provision has been made for them. The pensions 
 range from four hundred florins, (32 sterling,) con- 
 ferred on the doctor, Mathys, to ninety florins, which 
 requite the services of Isabel Plantin, laundress of the 
 table linen. The gratuities vary from one hundred 
 and fifty thousand maravedis, (about 45 sterling,) 
 left to the secretary Gaztelu, to seven thousand five 
 hundred maravedis, given to Jorge de Diano, a boy 
 employed in the workshop of Torriano. That mecha- 
 nician himself, being already pensioned to the amount 
 of two hundred crowns, receives only fifteen thousand 
 maravedis ; and he is likewise reminded that he has 
 been paid something to account on the price of a 
 clock which is in hand, and for which his employer is 
 content that the executors shall pay a fair valuation. 
 
 The executors of the will were Quixada, Gaztelu, 
 and father Regla. Immediately after the obsequies 
 they began to carry its provisions into effect. The 
 wages of the servants were all paid in gold, and most 
 of them took their departure to Valladolid, the Flem- 
 ings being anxious to secure berths in the fleet which 
 was then assembling at Laredo, to carry the queen of 
 Hungary to her government in the Netherlands. The 
 cook and some of the confectioners, recommended by 
 Quixada, were taken into .the service of the princess- 
 regent. Amongst the friars, the executors distributed 
 
 23
 
 270 THE CLOISTER LIFE 
 
 eleven hundred and ninety ducats in gratuities. The 
 largest of these gratuities was a sum of two hundred 
 ducats to the preacher Villalva. Fray Lorenzo de 
 Losar received one hundred and fifty ducats, for act- 
 ing as purveyor to the emperor's household; the friars 
 from Zaragoza and Granada, who had been in attend- 
 ance as preachers for three months, had forty each ; 
 Fray Marcos de Cardona, counter-bass, and an assist- 
 ant in the garden of the emperor, seventy ; and thirty- 
 five were divided amongst the four relations of Fray 
 Juan de Villamayor, who had died three months be- 
 fore in the post of chapel-master. Strict injunctions 
 were laid upon the prior of Yuste that no one was to 
 be permitted, under any pretext whatever, but the 
 king's order, to lodge in the palace, which he and his 
 fraternity were expected to keep in proper repair. 
 
 Of Don John of Austria, the sole acknowledgment 
 of him as son of Charles the Fifth, and the only decla- 
 ration of his father's intentions with regard to him, 
 were contained in a separate paper executed at Brux- 
 elles, on the 6th of June, 1554, and already deposited 
 in the custody of the king.* By this document 
 Charles acknowledged that he required that Geroni- 
 rno, for so Don John was called, his natural son 
 born to him in his widowhood of a German unmarried 
 woman, should be educated in a manner befitting his 
 rank ; and he intimated his wish that he should after- 
 wards enter one of the reformed monastic orders ; 
 provided, however, that his inclinations were not 
 forced or even influenced in the matter. In the event 
 of his preferring a secular career, lands of the annual 
 
 * Papiers de Cranvdle, IV. 496. See also Chap. III. p. 54, note.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 271 
 
 value of between twenty and thirty thousand ducats, 
 in the kingdom of Naples, were to be settled upon 
 him and his heirs. 
 
 Quixada and Gaztelu were employed for some 
 weeks in drawing up an inventory of the emperor's 
 effects, and in superintending their removal to Valla- 
 dolid. The regent was very minute in the instruc- 
 tions which she sent down for their guidance. On 
 rinding that the physician Cornelio, and some of the 
 other attendants, had asked for the mules in the im- 
 perial stable, and that the old one-eyed pony had been 
 actually made over to the doctor, she issued a man- 
 date, that nothing which had been used by her father, 
 or in his service, should be given away. She likewise 
 required that his favorite cat and talking parrot should 
 be sent to her; and these pets were accordingly forth- 
 with despatched to Valladolid by Quixada, in one of 
 the imperial litters, attended by a trusty servant.* 
 Dona Magdalena de Ulloa improved her spare time in 
 Estremadura by making a pilgrimage with Don John 
 of Austria to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 
 and adoring beneath the galaxy of silver lamps, gifts 
 of royal devotees, to which her companion was one 
 
 * The litter in which these incongruous passengers travelled was prob- 
 ably that which is now preserved in the royal armory at Madrid. De- 
 scribed in the catalogue (Catalogo de la Armeria Real, No. 2425, Svo, 
 Madrid, 1849, p. 179) as something between a black leather trunk and a 
 Sclavonian kibitka, it is very like a large cradle. It is engraved in Jubi- 
 nal : La Armeria Real de Madrid, 2 vol., fol., Paris, 8. A. II. pi. 30. In 
 the same armory (Cat., No. 1931. p. 121) are four iron trenchers, which 
 belonged to the emperor's campaigning canteen, and which are causti- 
 cally contrasted, in the Hand-book for Sfxiin, p. 450, with the "golden 
 necessaires'" left behind by the runaway Bonapartes at Vittoria and 
 Waterloo.
 
 272 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 day to add the brightest star, in the beautiful " fanal " 
 taken from the galley of the Turkish admiral at Le- 
 panto.* The chamberlain and secretary had much 
 difficulty in settling various small and unexpected 
 claims brought against the emperor's estate by the 
 neighboring peasants, and supported by their friends 
 the friars. At length, however, these quibblings were 
 disposed of, and Quixada was able to bid farewell to 
 Quacosf and to Estremadura early in the month of 
 December. 
 
 At Valladolid, funeral honors were performed for 
 the emperor, in the presence of the regent and her 
 court, in the beautiful church of the royal Benedic- 
 tines. A sermon was preached on the occasion by 
 Francisco Borja, from the text, Ecce longavifugiens 
 et mansi in solitudine, " Lo ! then would I wander afar 
 
 * Fr. Gabriel de Talavera : Historia de Na. Senora de Guadalupe, 4to, 
 Toledo, 1597, fol. 156. 
 
 t To the Hon. Colonel Percy, who spent some days during the last 
 winter (1851 -2) at Yuste, I am indebted for the following tradition of 
 the Vera, picked up from the bailiff of the convent. The village of Qua- 
 cos, says the legend, was originally called by the more euphonious name 
 of Villaflor del Key. Don John of Austria attending some rural festival 
 there, and getting into a quarrel with the villagers, received a blow on 
 the head so severe, that he was carried insensible to the monastery of 
 Yuste. The emperor, enraged at this affront, decreed that the name of 
 the village should be changed ; and, the cry of a duck striking his ear at 
 the moment that he was devising a new appellation, he selected the word 
 Quacos. This idle tale may perhaps be founded on some older tradition ; 
 but it is certain that Quacos was so called before Charles or Don John 
 came to Yuste, in the letters of Quixada and Gaztelu from Xarandilla. 
 AVhatever the origin of the name, there is some traditionary reproach at- 
 tached to it. The inhabitants, to this day, dislike any allusion to the 
 above story ; and to speak to a native of the place of " Quacos con per- 
 don," " Quacos, by your leave," as if it were a word unfit for ears polite, 
 is a mode of topographical teasing from which serious quarrels have been 
 known to arise.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 273 
 
 off, and remain in the wilderness."* It was filled 
 with praise of the emperor for his pious magnanimity 
 in taking leave of the world before the world had 
 
 o 
 
 taken leave of him, praise which, in the mouth of a 
 Jesuit, who had once been a wealthy grandee, must 
 have savored somewhat of self-glorification. Amongst 
 other edifying reminiscences of his friend, Borja told 
 his hearers that he had it from the lips of the deceased, 
 that never, since he was one-and-twenty years old, 
 had he failed to set apart some portion of each day 
 for inward prayer. 
 
 Solemn services were also performed for the em- 
 peror in all the convents of the order of Jerome ; and 
 the great fraternity of Guadalupe, in their noble 
 Gothic church, displayed peculiar magnificence in 
 honor of the imperial devotee, to whom, when a pil- 
 grim at the Virgin's shrine thirty-two years before, the 
 prior had granted a brief of brotherhood, whereby he 
 was entitled to the benefit of fifty-four annual masses 
 sung by the friars. f Obsequies were celebrated by the 
 primate of Spain at Talavera and at Toledo; and 
 Seville and Naples also distinguished themselves by 
 the lavish loyalty of their funeral pomps. 
 
 But Bruxelles excelled all the cities of the Austrian 
 dominion in the splendor with which she did honor to 
 the emperor's memory. The ceremonies took place 
 on the 29th and 30th of December. The procession, 
 in which walked Philip the Second, robed and hooded 
 like a friar, and attended by the dukes of Brunswick 
 and Savoy, and a host of the nobility of Spain, Ger- 
 
 * Psalm liv. 7, in the Vulgate ; or in our translation, Iv. 7. 
 t Talavera : Hist, du Guadalupe, fol. 210.
 
 274 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 many, and the Netherlands, was two hours in passing 
 from the palace to the church of St. Gudule. Its 
 principal feature was a great galley, placed on a cun- 
 ningly devised ocean, which answered the double pur- 
 pose of supporting some islands emblematic of the 
 Indies, and of concealing the power which rolled the 
 huge structure along. FaiJh, Hope, and Charity were 
 the crew of this enchanted bark ; and her sides were 
 hung with twelve paintings of Charles's principal ex- 
 ploits, which were further set forth in golden letter- 
 press upon the sails of black satin. A long line of 
 horses followed, each led by two gentlemen, and bear- 
 ing on its housings the blazon of one of the states of 
 the emperor. They were led up the aisle of the 
 church, past the altar, and past the stalls occupied by 
 the knights of the golden fleece. As the last horse, 
 covered with a black footcloth, went by, the count of 
 Bossu, one of the knights, the early playmate and dear 
 friend of the emperor, threw himself on his knees, and 
 remained for some time prostrate on the pavement in 
 an agony of grief.* The funeral discourse was pro- 
 nounced by Francis Richardot, afterwards bishop of 
 Arras, an eminent scholar and divine, and esteemed 
 the most eloquent preacher within the dominions of 
 , Burgundy.f 
 
 Funeral honors were also performed in most of the 
 
 * An elaborate account of it, with many curious plates, came from the 
 press of Ch. Plantin. La magnified e somtuosa Pompa Funerale fatta in 
 Burselle, il di xxix di Decembre, MDLVIII, nell' essequie dello invitissimo 
 Carlo Quinto, fol., An versa, 1559. 
 
 t Papiers de Granvelle, IV. p. 510 ; V. p. 4, note. This oraison funtbre, 
 and those on Mary Queen of Hungary and Mary Queen of England, form 
 a very rare volume, fol., Antwerp, 1558.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 275 
 
 foreign capitals, and those at Lisbon and Rome were 
 peculiarly splendid. They were celebrated in several 
 places in France, after peace had been concluded be- 
 tween the crowns ; and even our Protestant Elizabeth 
 caused a solemn dirge and mass of requiem to be 
 sung for the emperor's soul in her abbey of Westmin- 
 ster.* It was computed that throughout Europe his 
 obsequies were performed in upwards of three thou- 
 sand churches, at a cost of six millions of ducats.f 
 
 The church of Yuste was merely a temporary rest- 
 ing-place of the imperial dead. The emperor, in his 
 will, had confided the care of his bones to his son, ex- 
 pressing a wish, however, to be laid beside his wife 
 and his parents in the cathedral of Granada, in the 
 splendid chapel-royal, rich with the tombs and tro- 
 phies of Ferdinand and Isabella. Philip, however, 
 shivering in the rear at St. Quentin, had already 
 vowed to St. Lawrence the great monastery which it 
 was his after delight to make the chief monument of 
 the power and the piety of the house of Hapsburg. 
 At the Escorial, therefore, he united the bones of his 
 father and mother, and placed them, on the 4th of 
 February, 1574, in a vault in front of the high altar, 
 beneath the jasper shrine which yet contains their fine 
 effigies kneeling in emblazoned mantles, and wrought 
 in bronze by Leoni. THOU, OF THE CHILDREN OF 
 CHARLES THE FIFTH, says the inscription, WHO SHALT 
 
 * On the 24t!i of December, 1558. Queen Mary's funeral had been 
 celebrated there on the 13th. 
 
 t Gregorio Leti (Vita de Carlo V., 4 torn., 12mo, Amsterdam, 1700, 
 IV. 412, 413), quoting, without saying where he found it, an account of 
 the emperor's life and death, by father Regla, says that Eegla computed 
 the number of services at 3,700, while Saavedra made them only 2,400.
 
 276 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 SURPASS THE GLORY OF HIS ACTIONS, TAKE THIS PLACE : 
 LET THE REST REVERENTLY FORBEAR.* The OCCasioil 
 
 of this first funeral solemnity in the new temple was 
 marked by one of those terrific storms, which visit 
 the bleak sierra, and which were sent, as the monks 
 supposed, by the devil, in the hope of overthrowing 
 the new fortress of piety.f A grand arch of timber, 
 erected at the portal of the still unfinished church, was 
 blown away before the eyes of the trembling worship- 
 pers, and its hangings of rich brocades, rent into minute 
 shreds, were scattered far and wide over the surround- 
 ing chase. The ceremonies lasted for three days ; the 
 emperor's body, which had been brought from Yuste 
 by the duke of Alcala and the bishop of Jaen, was 
 once more laid in the tomb, with all the rites used at 
 the interment of a Jeromite friar ; and his funeral ora- 
 tion was pronounced for the second time by his favor- 
 ite preacher, Villalva. 
 
 Eighty years afterwards, the repose of Charles was 
 again disturbed by his great-grandson, Philip the 
 Fourth. For thirty-three years, that prince was en- 
 gaged in building the celebrated pantheon, begun by 
 his father, Philip the Third, at the Escorial. On the 
 16th of March, 1654, the dust of the Austrian kings 
 of Spain, and of their consorts who had continued the 
 royal line, was translated from the plain vault of 
 Philip the Second to this splendid sepulchral chamber. 
 Fray Juan de Avellanada pronounced a discourse on 
 Ezekiel's text, " O ye dry bones, hear the word of the 
 
 * HUXC LOCUM SI QUIS POSTER. CAROLO V. HABITAM G LORI AM 
 RERUM GESTARUM SPLENDORE SUPERAVERIS, IPSE SOLCS OCCCPATO, 
 CETERI KEVEREXTER ABSTINETE. 
 
 t Siguen<ja, III. p. 569.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 277 
 
 Lord!"* a burst of intrepid panegyric, worthy of 
 the audience, which, after warning future kings of 
 Spain that they must live well if they wished to sleep 
 by the side of the holy Philip the Second, the preacher 
 closed with a prayer to that glorified prince and his 
 royal companions in bliss to become his advocates 
 before the throne of the Almighty.f Each of the 
 seven coffins was carried by three nobles and three 
 Jeromite friars ; the procession was headed by the re- 
 mains of the fair Isabel of Bourbon, the first queen of 
 Philip the Fourth, and it was closed by the dust of 
 Charles the Fifth. After infinite splendid ceremonies, 
 they were borne round the church in procession, and 
 at last down the long marble staircase to their superb 
 place of rest, which gleamed in the light of countless 
 tapers and golden lamps, reflected from marble, and 
 jasper, and gold, like a creation of Oriental romance. 
 The grandees who bore the coffin of Charles were the 
 prime-minister, Don Luis de Haro, the duke of 
 Abrantes, and the marquis of Aytona. As the body 
 was deposited in the marble sarcophagus, the cover- 
 ings were removed to enable Philip the Fourth to 
 come face to face with his great ancestor. The corpse 
 was found to be quite entire, and even some sprigs of 
 sweet thyme, folded in the winding-sheet, retained, as 
 the friars averred, all their vernal fragrance, after the 
 lapse of fourscore winters. After looking for some 
 minutes in silence at the pale dead face of the hero 
 of his line, the king turned to Haro, and said, " Cuer- 
 po honrado, honored body, Don Luis." " Very hon- 
 
 * Ezek. xxxrii. 4. 
 
 t Los Santos : Description del Escorial, fol. 183, 184. 
 24
 
 278 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 ored," replied the minister; words brief, indeed, but 
 very pregnant, for the prior of the Eseorial has re- 
 corded that they comprehended all that a Christian 
 ought to feel on so solemn an occasion.* 
 
 Once again, at the distance of four generations, the 
 emperor's grave is said to have been opened by the 
 descendant of that despised Anthony of Bourbon at 
 whose claims on Navarre Charles had scoffed, and 
 whose posterity had wrested from the house of Aus- 
 tria the sceptre of Spain and the Indies. Mr. Beck- 
 ford used to relate, that when he was leaving Madrid, 
 Charles the Third, as a parting civility, desired to 
 know what favor he would accept at his hands. The 
 boon asked and granted was leave to see the face of 
 Charles the Fifth, in order to test the fidelity of the 
 portraits by Titian. The finest portraits of Charles, 
 as well as his remains, were then still at the Eseorial. 
 The marble sarcophagus being moved from its niche, 
 and the lid raised, the lights of the Pantheon once 
 more gleamed on the features of the dead emperor. 
 The pale brow and cheek, the slightly aquiline nose, 
 the protruding lower jaw, the heavy Burgundian lip, 
 and the sad and thoughtful expression, remained 
 nearly as the Venetian had painted them, and un- 
 changed since the eyelids had been closed by Quixa- 
 da. There, too, were the sprigs of thyme, seen by 
 Philip the Fourth, and gathered seven ages before in 
 the woods of Yuste.f 
 
 * " Exprimiendo Su Magestad en breves palabras todo aquel sentir, a. 
 que se puede alargar la piedad Christiana en caso semejante." Lo3 
 Santos: Descrip. del Eseorial, fol., Madrid, 1657, fol. 156. 
 
 t For this curious anecdote I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. 
 Beckford's daughter, the duchess of Hamilton. He had left, unfortu-
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 279 
 
 Those who have read this record of the last years 
 of Charles the Fifth may perhaps desire to know 
 somewhat of the subsequent fortunes, both of the per- 
 sonages who have figured in its pages, and of the 
 convent of Yuste and its miniature palace. 
 
 Queen Mary of Hungary did not live to complete 
 her preparations for returning to the Netherlands. To- 
 wards the close of July she had had a slight attack of 
 small-pox ; but early in August she was sufficiently 
 recovered to propose to accompany her niece, the 
 princess-regent, in her visit to Yuste. Perhaps her 
 active mind and frame, filled with an energy which 
 astonished the slow officials at Valladolid, after a life 
 spent in stormy councils and rapid marches, sunk un- 
 der the fatigues of her enforced leisure. She died at 
 Cigales, on the 28th of October, 1558, five weeks after 
 the death of her brother. So passed away, in the 
 same year, and within a few months of one another, 
 the royal personages of the remarkable group which 
 landed at Laredo. Sixteen years afterwards, their 
 ashes were united at the Escorial, queen Eleanor 
 being brought from her provisional resting-place at 
 Merida, and queen Mary from the royal abbey of San 
 Benito at Valladolid. Their bronze effigies, royally 
 robed, kneel behind those of Charles and his empress, 
 with clasped hands and prayerful faces, turned to the 
 magnificent high altar. 
 
 nately, no note or memorandum of the fact, and therefore the date, and 
 the names of the other witnesses of this singular spectacle, cannot now 
 be recovered. His letters prove that he was at Madrid at the close of 
 1787 and in the spring of 1795. I have been unable to obtain any cor- 
 roborative evidence from Spain, and therefore the story must be taken 
 simply as told by Mr. Beckford.
 
 280 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 The death of Mary Tudor, queen of England and 
 Spain, concurred, with the fortune of the war, to dis- 
 pose both the French and the Spanish monarchs to 
 peaceful counsels. Philip the Prudent immediately 
 began to look around him for an advantageous match, 
 worthy of the matrimonial genius of Austria. After 
 some new coquetting with the court of Portugal for 
 the forsaken infanta, he fixed upon the beautiful Eliz- 
 abeth of Valois, already betrothed to his son, Don 
 Carlos, daughter of the king of France. The duke of 
 Alba married her, as proxy for his master, in June, 
 1559 ; and Margaret, sister of Henry the Second, at 
 the same time gave her hand to the duke of Savoy. 
 It was at the tournament held in honor of this double 
 alliance, that the eye of Henry was pierced by the 
 fatal splinter of Montgomery's lance. Pope Paul the 
 Fourth, who had meanwhile quarrelled with the 
 worthless nephews for whose sakes he had set Chris- 
 tendom in a flame, soon followed his ally to the grave. 
 Philip was now able to return to Spain. He arrived 
 at Valladolid, and assumed the government on the 
 8th of September ; and the auspicious event was cel- 
 ebrated by an auto-de-fe, at which the galleries and 
 the scaffold were brilliantly filled with orthodox gran- 
 dees and heretic victims. Among the courtiers ap- 
 peared the count of Oropesa, bearing the sword of 
 state, the symbol of so much cruel injustice. It was 
 at this butchery that Philip uttered the sentiment 
 which so gladdened the hearts arid strengthened the 
 hands of the savage priesthood. Don Carlos de Sesa, 
 one of the noblest and best of the sufferers, as he 
 passed beneath the royal balcony, appealed to the 
 king to know the cause for which he was sentenced
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 281 
 
 to die. " I would myself," said Philip, " carry the 
 wood to burn my own son, were he a heretic like 
 you." * 
 
 The infanta Juana, princess of Brazil, relieved of 
 her regency by the arrival of the king, and still disap- 
 pointed in her hopes of obtaining the regency of Por- 
 tugal, brought her brief secular career to a close at the 
 age of twenty-three. Retiring to Madrid, she there 
 founded a nunnery, selecting her first barefooted re- 
 cluses, by the advice of father Borja, from the Francis- 
 can convent of Santa Clara, at Gandia. Some years 
 before, a certain holy confessor of that house, praying 
 one night alone in the chapel, at the shrine of Our 
 Lady of Grace, beheld seven stars glide from under 
 the Virgin's mantle, and revolve, each in its course, 
 around the dim aisles. These stars, it was revealed 
 to him, represented seven new convents, of which the 
 Gandian house was to be the mother. Six of the 
 offshoots had already sprung ; the piety of the infanta 
 now provided the last in the royal nunnery of Our 
 Lady of Consolation, of which the first abbess was a 
 Borja and aunt of the Jesuit. This convent soon be- 
 came one of the finest in Madrid, and no less remark- 
 able for its stately cloister and pleasant gardens, than 
 for the piety of its noble virgins, who for a while had 
 for their confessor Fray Nicolas Factor, the canonized 
 capuchin and painter of Valencia. Here Dona Juana 
 devoted herself, for the remainder of her days, to re- 
 ligious exercises, not assuming the veil, yet becoming 
 every year more strict in her self-imposed rule of life. 
 Her favorite relaxation was to take the air at the 
 
 * Cabrera: D. Filipe It, p. 236. 
 24*
 
 282 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 country palace of the Pardo, attended by a band of 
 musicians ; but even this harmless pleasure she soon 
 abandoned as sinful. Her chief occupation was em- 
 broidering scarfs and handkerchiefs, which she like- 
 wise displayed great skill in selling at a high price to 
 her courtly visitors for the benefit of the poor. If a 
 confessor of reputation came to Madrid, she would go 
 wrapped in her mantle and veil, and kneel in her turn 
 among the crowd of penitents who flocked to his 
 grated chair. Her joy was to enrich her convent with 
 relics, which she enshrined in caskets of silver and 
 gold ; and in the chapel where they were kept, she 
 made herself an oratory, which became her place of 
 daily resort for meditation and prayer, or, as a biog- 
 rapher called it, "the Aranjuez of her devout pleas- 
 ures, the Pardo of her spiritual delights." But in 
 spite of her secluded habits, Brantome, with what 
 truth I know not, asserts that she wished to marry 
 Charles the Ninth of France, a prince fourteen years 
 younger than herself, and that she felt it as a bitter 
 disappointment when her niece, the archduchess Eliz- 
 abeth, came as a bride to the Tuileries.* Dying after 
 a short illness at the Escorial, in 1573, Dona Juana 
 was buried in her favorite convent at Madrid, five 
 years before her son, Don Sebastian, was slain in 
 battle by the Moors of Barbary. Shortly after her 
 death, Fray Nicolas Factor, saying a mass for her 
 soul, beheld her in a vision, attended by St. Mary 
 Magdalene, St. Ines, and St. Dorothea, which he took 
 for a sign that she was already released from the 
 
 * Brantome: (Euvres, 8 vols., 8vo, Paris, 17S7, II. p. 541.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 283 
 
 pains of purgatory.* Her sister, the widowed empress 
 Mary, came to Madrid, in 1580, and took up her 
 abode in the convent of Our Lady of Consolation, 
 where her daughter, the archduchess Margaret, took 
 the veil, and lived for fifty years, a burning and a shin- 
 ing light amongst the devout virgins of Castille. 
 
 From registering the effects of the dead emperor, 
 Luis Quixada passed into the service of the reigning 
 king. The letter, in which he narrated, on the 30th 
 of September, the principal circumstances of the im- 
 perial death-bed to Philip, concluded with these 
 words : " For myself I will not be importunate 
 with your majesty, but only ask you to remember 
 that I have served your father, to the best of my pow- 
 er, for thirty-seven years, and that I will serve you to 
 my life's end." Philip had an early occasion to ob- 
 serve the fidelity and tact with which the old soldier 
 could fulfil a trust and keep a secret. Immediately 
 after the death of Charles, it was whispered at Valla- 
 dolid that there lived in Quixada's family a lad who 
 was supposed to be his master's son ; and the rumor 
 reaching the ear of the regent, secretary Vazquez, by 
 her desire, wrote confidentially to the chamberlain, to 
 inquire if it was true. Quixada replied, that a boy, 
 who had been committed to his care, some years be- 
 fore, by a friend whom he could not name, certainly 
 resided in his house ; but what reason was there for 
 
 * Christ. Moreno: Vida de Nicolas Factor, 4to, Barcelona, 1618, p. 
 178. The other particulars of the princess's life are taken from Fr. 
 Juan Carillo, Relation historica de la real Fundacion del Monasterio de 
 las Descalzas de Sta. Clara de Madrid, de las Vidas de Da. Juana de Aus- 
 tria sit Fitndadora. y de la Etnperatriz Maria su Hermana, c., 4to, Ma- 
 drid, 1616. See also GIT. de Quintana : Ilistoria de Madrid, fol., 
 Madrid, 1629, fol. 412.
 
 284 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 supposing that his parentage had been correctly sur- 
 mised, when the emperor had mentioned his name 
 neither in his will, nor in the codicil affixed to it ? 
 Not satisfied with this answer, Vazquez repeated the 
 question, which was again evaded. Meanwhile, 
 Quixada applied to the king, whom he knew to be 
 in the secret, for instructions. He again wrote, on 
 the 13th of December, from Valladolid, saying that 
 the matter was much discussed, but that he always 
 denied any knowledge of it, and should continue to 
 hold the same language, even to the regent, who had 
 hitherto had the goodness to ask no questions. Being 
 aware, as he was, of the king's desire that nothing 
 should be made public until he himself arrived in 
 Spain, he had taken every precaution to insure se- 
 crecy ; but he had nevertheless been careful that the 
 boy should be educated according to his quality in 
 life. 
 
 . From court Quixada and his wife soon retired, with 
 Don John, to Villagarcia. When Philip the Second 
 came to Spain, in 1559, he appointed his brother and 
 his guardian to meet him near the neighboring con- 
 vent of San Pedrq de la Espina. Quixada assem- 
 bled his vassals, and rode forth in state with his charge, 
 having first made the secret of his birth known to 
 Dona Magdalena, and asked pardon for having so 
 long withheld it from her. They met the king in a 
 wild, rocky glen, in the chase of Torozos. and were 
 graciously received, Philip, who had come thither un- 
 der pretext of hunting, remarking that he had never 
 captured game which had given him so much pleas- 
 ure.* They afterwards followed the court to Madrid, 
 
 * VillafaSe : Vida de Da. Mnjd. de Ulloa, pp. 49, 50, 52.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 285 
 
 where Quixada had an opportunity of once more sig- 
 nalizing his devotion to his master's son, by rescuing 
 him from a fire, which burnt down their house in the 
 night, before he attended to the safety of Dona Mag- 
 dalena. His loss by this fire amounted to a hundred 
 thousand ducats, besides the destruction of his family 
 archives. His services were not neglected by the 
 king, who made him master of the horse to the heir 
 apparent, and president of the Council of the Indies, 
 and gave him, besides, the commanderies of Viso, El 
 Moral, and Santa Cruz de Argamasilla, considerable 
 benefices in the order of Calatrava.* 
 
 When Don Juan was sent, in 1569, to command 
 against the Moriscos, whom Christian oppression and 
 bad faith had driven to a revolt in the Alpuxarras, the 
 old mayordomo went with him as a military tutor, 
 with the rank of general of infantry. Luis de Avila 
 served in the same expedition. They were reconnoi- 
 tring the strong mountain fortress of Seron, when 
 a bold sally from the place threw the Castillians into 
 confusion, bordering on flight. Quixada was engaged 
 in rallying and reassuring them, when a ball from an 
 infidel gun brought his campaigns to a close. Shot 
 through the shoulder, he fell by the side of his pupil, 
 from whose hemlet a ball glanced as he covered the 
 retreat of the party who bore the wounded veteran 
 from his last field.f Carried to Canilles, Quixada 
 
 * El Moral was worth, in 1669, 7,500 ducats annually; Journal du 
 Voyage en Espagne, 4to, Paris, 1682, p. 369. Argamasilla had been 
 previously held by the favorite Ruy Gomez de Silva ; Hist, de la Oasa de 
 Silva, II. 464. 
 
 i Luys de Marmol Carvajal : Hisforia del Rtbdion y Casllgo de los 
 Mvriscos de Granada, fol., Malaga, 1600. fol. 195.
 
 286 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 died there on the 25th of February, 1570, in the arms 
 of his wife, who had hastened from Madrid to nurse 
 him.* Don John mourned for him as for a father, 
 and buried him, with military honors, in the church of 
 the Jeromite friars at Baza, whence his bones were 
 afterwards removed to Villagarcia. 
 
 When the good Dofia Magdalena left the Christian 
 camp, Don John rode for some miles beside her litter, 
 and embraced her tenderly when they parted. Dur- 
 ing the rest of the campaign, amidst the fatigues and 
 anxieties of command, he seized every opportunity of 
 writing to her ; and one of his hurried letters from the 
 field, recurring to their mutual loss, concludes with 
 these affectionate words: "Luis died as became 
 him, fighting for the glory and safety of his son, and 
 covered with immortal honor. Whatever I am, what- 
 ever I shall be, I owe to him, by whom I was formed, 
 or rather begotten, in a nobler birth. Dear sorrowing 
 widowed mother! I only am left to you, and to you 
 indeed do I of right belong, for whose sake Luis died, 
 and you have been stricken with this woe. Moderate 
 your grief with your wonted wisdom. Would that I 
 were near you now, to dry your tears, or mingle them 
 with mine ! Farewell, dearest and most honored 
 mother ! and pray to God to send back your son from 
 these wars to your bosom."f "We may be sure Mag- 
 dalena's oratory was the scene of many such prayers. 
 Her childless widowhood was passed at her husband's 
 house of Villagarcia, and was chiefly spent in works 
 
 * VillafaHe, Vida de Da. Magd. de Ullod, p. 78. 
 
 t Preserved in a Latin dress in Joannis Austriaci Vita, auctore Antonio 
 Osorio, a MS. in the National Library at Madrid, for a transcript of which 
 I am indebted to my friend Don Pascual de Gayangos.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 287 
 
 of charity and devotion, performed for the benefit of 
 his soul. For her darling young prince she busied 
 herself in occupations of a more practical and secular 
 kind ; and the hero of Lepanto wore no linen but 
 wh.at was fashioned by her loving hands. The filial 
 affection with which he always regarded her is one of 
 the most pleasing features in his wayward character 
 and checkered history ; he never came back to Spain 
 without paying her a visit, or went to the wars with- 
 out bidding her farewell.* When she was founding 
 her college at Villagarcia, in 1576, he wrote to the 
 pope's secretary to ask for the necessary licenses, en- 
 forcing his request with these words: "There is 
 nothing I so much desire as to gratify the wish of this 
 lady, whom I regard as my own mother."! I n 1577, 
 as he took leave of her, on going to govern the Neth- 
 erlands, she was seized with a presentiment of evil, 
 and instituted daily masses for his health. Her fore- 
 bodings were just; for within two years, into which 
 had been compressed an age of toil, anxiety, and mor- 
 tification, he lay on his death-bed at Namur, raving, 
 in his delirium, of battle-fields, and leaving, as his last 
 message to the brother, who was suspected of repaying 
 his loyal service with poison, the request that his bones 
 might be laid near the dust of his sire at the Escorial.J 
 Doiia Magdalena's chief tie to the world was now 
 broken. For a while she adopted Don John's natural 
 daughter Anna, but she placed the child, at the age 
 of seven years, in a convent, at Madrid, where she 
 afterwards took the veil. Religion had then no rival 
 in the widow's heart ; and her days were passed in 
 
 * Vanderhammen : Vida de D. Juan de Austria, fol. 292. 
 
 t Villafane : Vida de Da. Magd. de Ulloa, p. 284. 
 
 J Vanderhammen : Vida de D. Juan de Austria, fol. 324.
 
 288 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 doing good, after the fashion prescribed by her Jesuit 
 counsellors. For the company, she built and endowed 
 colleges, not only at Villagarcia, but at Oviedo and 
 Santander ; and her bounty furnished many a silver 
 chalice and paten to the rural churches of Biscay and 
 Asturias. Her life of kindly deeds and blameless en- 
 thusiasm came to an end in 1598, when she was laid 
 beside her lord in the collegiate church of Villagarcia. 
 Amongst the relics of that temple, two crucifixes were 
 held in peculiar veneration, one being that which 
 Magdalena had pressed to her dying lips, the other a 
 trophy rescued, by the emperor's old companion in 
 arms, from a Moorish bonfire in the Alpuxarras.* 
 
 William Van Male, the amiable and scholarly gen- 
 tleman of the emperor's chamber, returned to Flan- 
 ders, with the slender annual pension of one hundred 
 and fifty florins, which was to be reduced to one half 
 on his succeeding to the keepership of the palace of 
 Bruxelles, a post of which the king had granted him 
 the reversion. On the 17th of February, 1561, Philip 
 the Second wrote from Toledo, to the bishop of 
 Arras, his minister in Flanders, that he had heard that 
 Van Male was likely to write some history of his 
 majesty, now in glory ; that it was possible such a 
 work might contain some things either untrue or un- 
 worthy of the merits of the deceased ; and that there- 
 fore the bishop had better institute a search, as if for 
 some other purpose, amongst Van Male's papers, and 
 if any such writings were found, send it to him to 
 Spain, that it might be burned as it deserved. 1 The 
 emperor's poor scholar and faithful servant was hap- 
 
 * VillafaSe : Vida de M. de Ulloa, pp. 78, 443.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 289 
 
 pily saved this indignity by the protecting hand of 
 death. On the 7th of March, Arras replied from 
 Bruxelles, that Van Male having died before the re- 
 ceipt of the king's letter, he himself had already taken 
 the precaution of searching amongst his papers for 
 historical documents or notes, but that none had been 
 found. A good many days before his death, Van 
 Male himself, he reported, had been observed to tear 
 up and burn a large quantity'of papers. He had also 
 been often heard, by his intimate friends, to lament, 
 even with tears, how Luis Quixada, soon after the 
 emperor's decease, had taken from him, almost by 
 force, the memoirs which his majesty and he had 
 composed ; and to say that he hoped nevertheless one 
 day to write, from memory, an account of his master, 
 and that he should have already begun the work had 
 it not been for the infirm state of his health.* If this 
 report of Van Male's table-talk be true, it seems plain 
 that the loss of the curious memoirs of Charles the 
 Fifth, composed by himself and translated into Latin 
 by an elegant scholar, if indeed they are lost, and 
 not only buried in some forgotten hoard of Spanish 
 historic lore, may be added to the black catalogue 
 of the misdeeds of his dull, bigoted, and cruel son. 
 Van Male was buried in the church of St. Gudule, at 
 Bruxelles, where his widow, Hippolyta Reynen, was 
 laid by his side in 1579. Their epitaph praised the 
 probity and various learning of the husband, and the 
 piety and prudence of the wife.f Their son Charles 
 
 * Papiers de Gram-die, VI. p. 291 . 
 
 t It is cited by M. de Reiffenberg (Lettres de G. Van Male, p. 23) 
 and gives January 1st, 1560, as the date of Van Male's death, which 
 M. Gachard thinks reconcilable with the date in the Granvelle Papers, 
 25
 
 290 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 considerably bettered the fortunes of the family ; he 
 was ambassador in France in 1598, and one of the 
 negotiators of the treaty of Verviers for the archduch- 
 ess infanta Isabella ; their grandson, Aurelius Au- 
 gustus, died in Madrid in 1662, first member of the 
 supreme council of the Netherlands, in the service of 
 Philip the Fourth, and was buried in the church of 
 St. Andrew, beneath an epitaph which was a long 
 relation of dignities and virtues.* 
 
 Of Martin de Gaztelu, the prudent and painstaking 
 secretary of the emperor, my researches have discov- 
 ered no farther trace, beyond the fact that he assisted 
 at the final obsequies of his late master at the Esco- 
 rial, in 1574. 
 
 From the vigils and dirges of Yuste, Fray Juan de 
 E-egla hastened to court to await the arrival of the 
 king. Philip received him graciously and gave him 
 a long audience, for the purpose of hearing his ac- 
 count of the emperor's retirement and death, and cer- 
 tain secrets respecting Don John of Austria, confided 
 to him by the dying man for the ear of his successor. 
 It may be fairly supposed that the friar discreetly 
 suppressed his own suggestions, if, indeed, they were 
 his, as to the alteration of the line of succession in 
 Don John's favor: for he was commanded to remain 
 at court as one of the executors of the emperor's will, 
 and received an order for the payment of his pension 
 out of the royal revenues in the see of Calahorra. 
 He was afterwards elected prior of the Jeromite con- 
 by allowing for the two ways of counting the years, from the 1st January 
 or from Easter. See the Bulletin de fAcad. Roy. de Bruxelles, llth Jan- 
 uary, 1845. 
 
 * Reiffenberg : Lettres de G. Van Male. pp. xxiii., xxx.. xxxii.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 291 
 
 vent at Madrid, a house rich with the gifts of' kings 
 and queens, and much frequented and favored by the 
 royal family; and ere long, in spite of his repugnance 
 to the custody of a royal conscience, he accepted the 
 post of confessor to his majesty. We are assured by 
 his panegyrist that he bore these honors with exem- 
 plary meekness and moderation, asking for favors only 
 for his convent, and referring all petitioners who 
 besought his influence in the closet, either to the tri- 
 bunals of justice or to the ministers of state. Of his 
 annual pension he gave one fourth to the poor of Ca- 
 lahorra, and the rest to his Jeromite brethren at Zara- 
 goza. But if he were free from avarice and political 
 intrigue, he was deeply stained with another vice of 
 his calling. His hate was bitter and inextinguishable, 
 and displayed itself in the eager and unscrupulous 
 zeal with which he ran at the head of the pack that 
 hunted the unfortunate archbishop Carranza into the 
 castle of St. Angelo. He died of fever in the summer 
 of 1574, in the rising cloisters of the Escorial.* Dur- 
 ing his long life he had formed a considerable col- 
 lection of books, which he bequeathed, as a last token 
 of filial love, to his mother convent of Sta. Engracia, 
 and which was accordingly added to its noble library, 
 famous for literary treasures, and for the lovely pros- 
 pect commanded by its grand windows, extending 
 over the garden of the Ebro to the snowy peaks of 
 the Pyrenees.f 
 
 Fray Francisco de Villalva, on the return of Philip 
 the Second to Spain, was appointed one of his preach- 
 
 * Signer^, III. p. 448. 
 
 t Vine. Blasco de Lanuza: Historia de Aragon, 2 torn., 4to, Zaragoza, 
 1622, I. 110.
 
 292 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 ers, and was ever afterwards much in his confidence in 
 ecclesiastical affairs. In framing the constitution of 
 the convent of the Escorial, in which the Jeromites 
 saw with exultation their ancient seats of Lupiana 
 and Guadalupe outdone in magnificence, Villalva 
 was constantly consulted. He was likewise em- 
 ployed to report on the claim of the metropolitan 
 church of Toledo to retain a missal and breviary of 
 its own in spite of a decree of the council of Trent ; 
 and he drew up, on this subject, a paper so learned 
 and so lucid, that it silenced, and his friends said 
 convinced, the successor of St. Ildefonso and his 
 chapter of golden canons. Preaching before the king 
 at the Escorial on Easter-day, 1575, Villalva was 
 seized, as he descended from the pulpit, with an ill- 
 ness of which he died in a few days. Notwithstand- 
 ing his fame as a preacher, none of his sermons ap- 
 pear to have found their way to the press ; but as his 
 celebrated discourse at the emperor's funeral at Yuste 
 was handed about in manuscript, and sent both to 
 the regent at Valladolid and to the king at Bruxelles, 
 it is possible that it may still survive in some of the 
 older libraries of Spain or the Netherlands.* 
 
 The preacher, Fray Juan de A^alores, was general 
 of the order of Jerome from 1558 to 1561 ; he was 
 afterwards named by the king as one of the commis- 
 sioners to examine the famous propositions of arch- 
 bishop Carranza; and he eventually harangued his 
 way to the patriarchal chair and the mitre of the 
 Canaries.f 
 
 Fray Juan de Santandres, the third preacher, ended 
 
 * Los Santos : Hist, de San Geron., p. 515. 
 1 Siguen^a, III. pp. 207, 370.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 293 
 
 his days as friar of his convent at Talavera, the chief 
 incident and reward of his harmless and obscure life 
 being, that it was vouchsafed to him to foretell, at 
 some distance of time, the exact day and hour of his 
 own death.* 
 
 Fray Antonio de Villacastin, the builder of the 
 palace of Yuste, returned to his convent of La Sisla, 
 near Toledo, and for some years performed the hum- 
 bler functions of baker to the fraternity. When the 
 building of the Escorial was commenced, in 1563, he 
 was appointed master of the works ; and for forty 
 years he superintended the execution of every detail 
 of the mighty fabric, from the hewing of the granite 
 by Biscayan masons, to the painting of the frescoes 
 on wall or dome by Cambiaso or Tibaldi. His clear 
 head, strong memory, cool temper, and sound practi- 
 cal knowledge enabled him to fill the post with great 
 credit to himself, and to the general satisfaction both 
 of those whose money he spent and of those whose 
 labors he directed. Philip the Second was very fond 
 of him ; being attracted at first, it is said, by the retir- 
 ing habits of the friar, who always retreated at his 
 approach, and was caught in the end only by a strat- 
 agem, the king following him along the top of an 
 unfinished wall, which afforded no way of escape. In 
 the course of his duties, he had his share of the hard 
 knocks, and hair-breadth escapes, of which scaffold- 
 ings and cranes offer so many occasions. Later in life, 
 he was afflicted with a dangerous swellmg in the arm, 
 for which the surgeon threatened amputation. But 
 one night, as he lay awake with the pain, he felt a 
 
 * Siguciuja. III. p. 193. 
 25*
 
 294 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 pair of hands rubbing and kneading the diseased limb, 
 which forthwith began to recover, and was as sound 
 as the other in a few days. Fray Antonio then con- 
 fided the fact to the prior Siguen^a, who agreed with 
 him in believing that the mysterious manipulator 
 was none other than the blessed St. Lawrence him- 
 self. When the huge monastery was completed, the 
 eyes of Villacastin were attacked with cataract, 
 which, not being operated upon by the saint of the 
 gridiron, rendered the sufferer quite blind. He died 
 in 1603, aged ninety, and he was interred, by his own 
 desire, beneath the cloister pavement, at the door of 
 the cell in which he had so long lived and labored. 
 In the church of the Escorial, Luca Cambiaso has in- 
 troduced the pale grave face of Villacastin, very near 
 his own, in the group on the threshold of the glory of 
 heaven, which he painted in fresco, on the vaulted 
 ceiling of the choir. 
 
 From Yuste, Juanelo Torriano went to Toledo, 
 where he was employed by the corporation to supply 
 the city with water from the Tagus, which flows be- 
 neath its rock-built walls. Of this work he had, many 
 years before, in Italy, constructed a model, at the sug- 
 gestion of his patron, the Marques del Vasto, who 
 had come from Spain enchanted with the noble old 
 capital, and grieving for the dearth of water which it 
 endured, though girdled with a deep and abundant 
 stream. The merit of the plan belonged partly to 
 Roberto Valtujio, but many improvements were add- 
 ed by Torriano ; the water being raised to the height 
 of the alcazar by an ingenious combination of wheels, 
 placed in an edifice of brick built on the margin of 
 the river. The learned Morales left a long descrip-
 
 THE EMPEKOR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 295 
 
 tion of the work, or artificio, as it was called, and 
 lauded it as a miracle of mechanical genius. He like- 
 wise furnished a Latin inscription for a statue of the 
 artist, with which it was at one time intended to 
 crown the building, and a copy of verses which con- 
 clude with these extravagant lines : 
 
 " Aerias rapes jubet hunc transcendere ; paret ; 
 Atque hie sideribus proximus ecce fluit" * 
 
 " He bids the Tagas scale the rocks, and lo ! 
 Obedient, near the stars, the waters flow.'' 
 
 In the middle of the seventeenth century the work 
 was still in use, and was noticed by Quevedo in a 
 Castillian lyric of a very different cast, in which some 
 bantering praise is thus given to Torriano : 
 
 " Flamenco dicen que fue 
 Y sorbedor de lo puro ; 
 Muy mal con el agua estaba 
 Que en tal trabajo la puso." t 
 
 " Juanelo, 'tis clear, was fond of his beer, 
 
 And drank his schnaps neat, like a Fleming"; 
 No weakness or whim, for water, in him 
 The lymph to such labors condemning ! " 
 
 The Tagus stream, however, soon rested from its 
 labors ; for the mechanism falling to decay was never 
 repaired ; and Toledo returned to her old Tantalus 
 state-, and that simpler hydraulic machinery, of mules 
 and water-jars, to which she still adheres. A few 
 ruined brick arches on the right bank of the river, 
 below the bridge, and immediately beneath the towers 
 of the alcazar, are the sole remains of the work of the 
 ingenious Lombard. He was afterwards engaged at 
 
 * Morales : Antig. de Espana, fol. 92. 
 
 t Itinerarlo desde Madrid a su Torre, Obras, 3 torn., 4to, Brussels, 
 1600-1. Poesias, p. 420.
 
 296 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 Madrid, in making some draw-wells on an improved 
 principle. But Toledo continued to be his home, and 
 he died there, leaving a daughter behind him, in 1585, 
 and was buried in the convent of the Carmen. The 
 street in which he lived is still called " the street of 
 the wooden man," " calle del hombre de pato" in 
 memory, says tradition, of a puppet, of his making, 
 which used to walk daily to the archiepiscopal palace, 
 and return laden with allowance of bread and meat, 
 after doing ceremonious obeisance to the donor.* The 
 city of Toledo honored Torriano with a medal, bear- 
 ing his head, shaggy, bearded, and stern ; on the re- 
 verse was a gushing fountain, supported on the head 
 of a nymph, and surrounded by thirsty ancients, with 
 the inscription, VIRTVS . NVNQVAM .DEFICIT, the mech- 
 anician's favorite motto. His bust, finely executed 
 in marble, perhaps by Berruguete, still adorns the 
 cabinet of natural history in the archbishop's palace 
 at Toledo.f His portrait, inscribed with his name 
 and the medal motto, likewise hangs in the smaller 
 cloister of the Escorial.J 
 
 Father Borja continued to preach, teach, and travel 
 with unflagging zeal and remarkable success. Soon 
 after pronouncing the emperor's funeral sermon, he 
 was again in Portugal, visiting his colleges at Evora, 
 Coimbra, Braga, and Porto, and negotiating for Jhe 
 princess of Brazil in the affair of the regency. His 
 holiness and his catholic enthusiasm did not, however, 
 protect him from suspicions of heresy in the reform 
 panic which overspread the court and church of Spain. 
 
 * Ponz: Viage, I. 161, 162. where the medal is engraved. 
 
 t J. Amador de los Rios : Toledo Pintoresca, 8vo, Madrid, 1845. p. 201. 
 
 t Description del Escorial, sm. 8vo, Madrid, 1843, p 225.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 297 
 
 He had communicated, it was said, with Fray Do- 
 mingo de Roxas, and he was summoned by arch- 
 bishop Carranza to bear witness on his behalf before 
 the Inquisition. Reports injurious to his orthodoxy 
 and to that of the company for a while shook Borja's 
 credit with the king ; and they certainly obtained for 
 him the ill-will of the inquisitor Valdes, and for a 
 little devotional treatise, which he had written many 
 years before, a place in that prelate's famous cata- 
 logue of prohibited books. That such imputations 
 should have been cast on an order of which the first 
 rule was unqualified submission to the holy see, well 
 exemplifies the blind fury of polemic war, in which 
 men who confound friends with foes pretend to judge 
 of the subtile distinctions between speculative truth 
 and error. 
 
 Out of Spain, however, the fame of Borja was un- 
 tarnished, and his influence unshaken. Called to 
 Rome by pope Pius the Fourth, to advise on the 
 affairs of the church, he was twice chosen vicar-gen- 
 eral of the company, and finally, on the death of 
 Laynez, in 1567, received the staff of Loyola. Dur- 
 ing his vigorous rule of seven years, the company 
 lengthened its cords and strengthened its stakes in 
 every part of the globe, and in every order and con- 
 ditipn of mankind. Jesuit politicians gained the 
 ear of princes and prelates who had hitherto re- 
 garded the society with coldness or enmity ; Jesuit 
 scholars and thinkers, no less elegant than profound, 
 spoke through the press in every language of Europe ; 
 Jesuit colleges, presided over by teachers the ablest 
 that the world had yet seen, arose amid the snows of 
 Poland and the forests of Peru; Barbary, Florida,
 
 298 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 and Brazil were watered with the blood of Jesuit mar- 
 tyrs ; and Jesuit ministers of mercy moved arnid the 
 roar of battle on the bastions of Malta and the decks 
 of Lepanto. Never was discipline so perfect as in 
 the ranks of the company ; never were the minds of 
 many so skilfully combined into a single intellectual 
 machine, developing the powers of all, yet moved by 
 the will of one. Like Ignatius, Borja brought to his 
 religious command much of his old military spirit ; 
 and his addresses to his followers were frequently 
 illustrated by images such as might have presented 
 themselves to Gonsalvo or Alba. " Let the preacher," 
 says he, in his excellent rules for the composition and 
 delivery of a sermon, " think himself a mere piece of 
 artillery, with which God is to batter and overthrow 
 the proud walls of Babylon, and his own part of the 
 business nothing but the lump of iron or brass, cold 
 and heavy, and the dirty powder, black and of ill savor, 
 and of none effect until it is touched with the fire of 
 the Holy Spirit." * In spite of the duties of his com- 
 mand, he himself continued in person to batter the 
 walls of Babylon, both from the pulpit and with the 
 pen ; his sermons and his treatises, collected after his 
 death, filling a folio of goodly dimensions. 
 
 The general of Jesus visited Spain for the last time 
 in 1571, being specially sent thither by pope Pius^he 
 Fifth as the companion of the cardinal-legate who 
 was commissioned to preach a new crusade against 
 the Turk in the courts of Western Christendom. From 
 the moment when Borja stepped ashore at Barcelona 
 his progress was a perpetual triumph. His son Fer- 
 
 * Tratado para los predicadores. Kibadeneira : Vida de F. Borja, 
 p. 233.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 299 
 
 nando received him with autograph letters of welcome 
 from the king and cardinal Espinosa ; his former 
 subjects, the turbulent Catalonians, flocked in crowds 
 to crave his blessing; at Valencia, his eldest son, the 
 duke of Gandia, met him at the gates with the flower 
 of the Valencian nobility ; at Madrid he held an in- 
 fant of Spain at the baptismal font; and he was 
 treated by the king, not only as an old and trusted 
 counsellor, but with the honor due to a bearer of a 
 morsel of the true cross, presented by the pope -to the 
 splendid reliquary of the Escorial. Of the offers of 
 new houses for the company which now poured in, 
 the last which Borja accepted was that of Dona Mag- 
 dalena de Ulloa to build a college at Villagarcia, a 
 pious work in which he found, after many days, the 
 bread which he had cast upon the waters at Yuste. 
 In Portugal the usual honors awaited him ; the young 
 king, Sebastian, imploring his benediction, and the 
 cardinal-infant, Henry, busying himself about the re- 
 pair of his travel-worn wardrobe. In France, Charles 
 the Ninth, forsaking for a day the chase of Chambord, 
 led the gallant cavalcade which met the Jesuit father 
 beyond the walls of Blois ; and Catherine of Medicis, 
 seating the stranger at her side, begged for his rosary 
 as a relic, and reverently listened to his exhortations 
 to the extinction of heresy and heretics, exhortations 
 which she so signally obeyed, a few months later, on 
 the night of St. Bartholomew. During his progress 
 from court to court, and from castle to castle, Borja 
 led the rigid life of a mendicant friar, fasting at royal 
 banquets, and sleeping at night on the floors of tapes- 
 tried chambers. He suffered no day to pass without 
 saying mass ; and it was during the performance of
 
 300 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 this rite on a cold winter's morning, in a church lately 
 sacked by the Huguenots, that the seeds of deadly 
 disease were sown in his enfeebled frame. The icy 
 air of Mont Cenis accelerated the progress of the dis- 
 order, and he lay almost in a dying state, for some 
 days at Turin and for some months at Ferrara, under 
 the care of the princes of Savoy and of Este. Rallying 
 somewhat in the summer of 1572, he proceeded to 
 Loretto to pay his last devotions at Our Lady's shrine. 
 Thenee, feeling the hand of death upon him, he hur- 
 ried forward to Rome, travelling night and day, with- 
 out moving from his litter. For two days after his 
 arrival at the house of the company, his bedchamber 
 was besieged by ambassadors, anxious to do honor to 
 the friend of their sovereigns, and by cardinals desir- 
 ous of taking leave of him whom they once thought 
 of placing in the chair of St. Peter. On the third 
 day the Roman populace crowded to the church of 
 the Jesuits to see the general laid beside his compan- 
 ions in glory and toil, and his predecessors in power, 
 Loyola and Laynez. 
 
 The company of Jesus and the house of Borja soon 
 discovered that their dead chief, a saint amongst 
 grandees, was likewise a grandee amongst saints. His 
 prayers, they alleged, had restored health to the sick, 
 sight to the blind, and teeth to the toothless ; and 
 father Bustamente, in one of their mountain marches, 
 falling with his mule over a precipice, had reached 
 the bottom unhurt, by virtue of the intercession of his 
 companion. Relics and images of him grew potent 
 in cases of fever and childbirth, flesh wounds and 
 heart disease ; earthquakes, both in Italy and New 
 Spain, were assuaged by his invocation ; and his por-
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 301 
 
 trait, in a village church of New Granada, sweated 
 for twenty-one days shortly before the death of the 
 viceroy, who was a Borja, and during some persecution 
 which the company was sustaining at Madrid. One 
 of the Jesuit's bones relieved the parturient pangs of 
 the duchess of Uzeda ; another cured the ague of the 
 pious queen Margaret. Pleading these portents, his 
 grandson, the cardinal-duke of Lerma, applied, in 
 1615, to pope Paul the Fifth for his canonization ; and 
 his claim being examined and the devil's advocate 
 heard with all the grave impartiality of the church, a 
 brief of beatification was issued, in 1624, by pope 
 Urban the Eighth. One of the saint's arms was left 
 at Rome, the rest of his body was removed to Ma- 
 drid, and exposed, in a silver shrine beneath lamps of 
 silver, to the adoration of the faithful in the church of 
 the company. 
 
 Archbishop Carranza went from Yuste to Toledo, 
 and devoted the remainder of 1558 and the first six 
 months of 1559 in the duties of his high calling. 
 Meanwhile, bis enemy, the inquisitor Valdes, was 
 leaving no stone unturned to establish a case of heresy 
 against him. Soon after his appointment to the pri- 
 macy, Carranza had published, at Antwerp, a folio 
 catechism of Christianity, or an account of all that 
 is professed in receiving the sacrament of baptism.* 
 
 * Comentarios del reverendissimo Senor Frai Bartholonie Carranqa de 
 Miranda, Arqobispo de Toledo, sobre el Catechismo Christiana, fol., Anvers : 
 1558. This book was so rigidly suppressed by the Inquisition, that, not- 
 withstanding its fame as the cause of the archbishop's trial, it has not 
 been mentioned by Brunet. I bought my copy at the sale of the library 
 of the late canon Riego, who was also a dealer in books, and whose note 
 in the fly leaf, on the excessive rarity of the volume, thus concludes : 
 " Sn precio de este examplar dos onzas de oro o seis guineas." 
 26 

 
 302 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 To the Protestant, who in these days looks into this 
 very rare and still more tedious volume, the work ap- 
 pears to breathe the fiercest spirit of intolerant Ro- 
 manism. Heresy is reprobated ; Bibles in the vulgar 
 tongue are condemned ; Spain is praised as the one 
 land where the fountain of truth is still unpolluted ; 
 Philip the Second is exhorted to further persecutions ; 
 Mary Tudor is extolled as the saviour of the soul of 
 England. " In these dangerous times," says the pre- 
 late, in his dedication to the king, " when heretics are 
 so zealous in propagating error, it behoves Catholics 
 to make some exertions in the cause of truth ; at the 
 request of several churches of Spain, I have therefore 
 composed this work in Castillian for the use of private 
 persons, and I shall shortly translate it into Latin for 
 the benefit of other countries, especially of England." 
 Yet this was the book in which the sharp-eyed in- 
 quisitor contrived to find materials sufficient for the 
 ruin of his rival. The rack, which often agonized its 
 victims into the wildest accusations against them- 
 selves, easily obtained a large mass of evidence against 
 the primate from heretics who pretended that he was 
 the author or- the accomplice of their sins against the 
 true faith. Hope or fear also brought many free aux- 
 iliaries to the councils of the inquisitor ; and many a 
 friar in the habit of St. Jerome or St. Francis was 
 ready to join in a cry against the Dominican who had 
 secured the mitre of Toledo. To be armed against 
 all chances, Valdes procured the ratification, by pope 
 Pius the Fourth, of his predecessor's briefs, which em- 
 powered the Inquisition to arrest even prelates who 
 were suspected of heresy. 
 
 The snare being thus laid, the princess-regent, who
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 303 
 
 had resigned herself entirely to the influence of Valdes, 
 summoned the archbishop to court in the summer of 
 1559 ; and the familiars of the holy office arrested 
 him, at night and in his bed, at a village on the road 
 to Valladolid. He had for some time foreseen the 
 storm, and he put his whole trust in the friendly dis- 
 position of the king. Philip, however, from some 
 cause which is still a mystery, was now eager to abase 
 the man upon whom he had so lately thrust greatness. 
 When brought before the holy office, Carranza refused 
 to be judged by Valdes, alleging the notorious per- 
 sonal animosity with which that prelate regarded 
 him. The matter being referred to the pope, he au- 
 thorized the king to choose a new judge ; Philip chose 
 the archbishop of Santiago, who must have been in 
 the interest of Valdes ; for he, in his turn, devolved 
 his powers on two councillors of the Inquisition, mere 
 tools and creatures of their chief. Advised by his ad- 
 vocate that it was useless to appeal against injustice 
 so manifest and wilful, Carranza permitted the trial 
 to proceed ; and at first he had some hope of an ac- 
 quittal, on the ground that his book had been declared 
 orthodox by commissioners appointed to examine it 
 by the council of Trent. His enemies, however, had 
 the art to prevent the opinion of the commission from 
 being ratified by the council, although they failed in 
 obtaining a decree of condemnation, and although 
 eleven dignitaries of the church expressed their appro- 
 bation of the catechism. At length Carranza ap- 
 pealed to pope Pius. But he, instead of trying the 
 cause himself, was persuaded by the king to send for 
 the purpose a legate and two other judges to Spain. 
 Pius, however, died soon afterwards, and his successor
 
 304 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 insisted that the trial should be adjourned to Rome. 
 Pius the Fifth, an honest man, though a bigot, re- 
 membered the good service which had been done by 
 Carranza in England, and was indignant at the in- 
 justice with which he was treated by the Inquisition 
 and his sovereign. When, therefore, he had succeeded, 
 in the teeth of Philip, in bringing both parties before 
 him in 1567, he took every occasion of mortifying the 
 accusing inquisitors, the deputies of Valdes ; and he 
 would probably have decided in favor of the prisoner. 
 But he, too, was called to his account before pronoun- 
 cing sentence; and the case was re-opened before 
 Gregory the Thirteenth. This pontiff was equally 
 unwilling to condemn the prelate or to displease the 
 king. In a long and ambiguous judgment, drawn up 
 in 1576, he therefore took a middle course, very differ- 
 ent from that which the king desired, and from that 
 which justice dictated. The catechism was declared 
 to contain sixteen heretical propositions, which the 
 author was required publicly to abjure; and while he 
 was relieved from all previous ecclesiastical censures, 
 he was suspended, during the pope's pleasure, from 
 his preferment, and ordered to perform certain pen- 
 ances, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment in 
 the Dominican convent at Orvietto. The sufferings 
 endured by the Spanish primate met with great sym- 
 pathy at Rome. When the pope's decision was 
 known, he at once proceeded to perform part of his 
 penance by visiting the seven basilicas ; and he was 
 attended by so splendid a retinue of friends^ that this 
 humiliation wore the appearance of a triumph. But 
 long imprisonment at Valladolid, and in the castle of 
 St. Angelo, had broken his health and enfeebled his
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 305 
 
 constitution. The unwonted excitement and exer- 
 tion, therefore, produced an attack of inflammation, 
 of which he died on the 2d of May, 1576, in the con- 
 vent of Minerva. He was buried with great pomp in 
 the conventual church, and the pope made a wretched 
 atonement for his injustice, by inscribing his tomb 
 with an epitaph in which he was praised as a man 
 illustrious by his lineage, his life, his almsdeeds, his 
 eloquence, and his doctrine. His sad and anxious 
 countenance, tolerably painted by Luis de Carbajal, 
 appears among the portraits of the primates in the 
 winter chapter-room at Toledo. 
 
 While suffering in prison the sickness of deferred 
 hope, the unhappy prelate may perhaps have lamented 
 that he had reached Yuste too late to explain to the 
 emperor the circumstances of his promotion, and to 
 learn and remove the suspicions which had been cast 
 upon his faith. This was the mischance which marked 
 the ebb of his fortune. It is impossible to conjecture 
 the cause which turned $he esteem of Philip the 
 Second into hatred so bitter and unrelenting.* The 
 scandal and inconvenience of having his primate even 
 suspected of heresy in the midst of a reform panic was 
 so great and glaring, that his natural course would 
 have been to hush the matter up, even had he believed 
 the charge. But the charge was untenable, and sup- 
 ported by evidence that would have been admitted 
 only before a tribunal of unscrupulous enemies. The 
 single expression which a cursory perusal of the cate- 
 chism has enabled me to detect as being likely to 
 
 * It was known to Antonio Perez, who says he had stated it in one of 
 his twelve memorials, which are unfortunately lost. 
 26*
 
 306 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 alarm those who benefited by supporting every exist- 
 ing abuse, is the prelate's desire " to resuscitate the 
 ancient belief of the primitive church and the wisest 
 and purest age," * a desire alleged by all religious 
 reformers, from the brave men of Germany, who burst 
 the bonds of spiritual tyranny, to the triflers of our 
 own day in England, who wage puny war about 
 bowings and kneelings and flowers, the mechanism 
 and the millinery of worship. It may be that Carran- 
 za's printed theology contains (what theology does 
 not?) passages capable of an interpretation neither 
 intended nor foreseen by the writer. It may be that 
 he helped himself to ideas or phrases from Lutheran 
 books, whose authors he would willingly have burnt 
 just as the inquisitor Torquemada sent sorcerers to 
 the stake, yet protected himself from poison by keep- 
 ing a piece of unicorn's horn on his table. Yet the 
 historian of the Spanish Inquisition was unable to 
 find in the catechism any one of the sixteen proposi- 
 tions, upon which the po^fe pronounced sentence of 
 condemnation, a sentence wrung from the pontiff, 
 with much difficulty, even by the immense influence 
 of the crown of Spain. It is certain that Carranza 
 for the greater part of his life had been a divine of 
 approved orthodoxy, and a preacher of high reputa- 
 tion ; that both in England and the Netherlands he 
 had been a vigilant shepherd of the faithful and un- 
 sparing butcher of heretics ; and that one of his first 
 acts as primate was to advise the king to appropriate 
 the revenues of one canonry in every cathedral of 
 Spain to the use of the Inquisition. It seems, there- 
 
 * Catechismo, Prologo, fol. 2.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 307 
 
 fore, but reasonable to believe that he spoke the plain 
 truth when he made his dying declaration that he had 
 never held any of the heretical opinions of which he 
 had been accused.* 
 
 In memory of the emperor, the monastery of Yuste 
 was dignified with the title of royal. Philip the Sec- 
 ond confirmed its privileges in 1562, and honored it in 
 1570 with a visit of two days. As he approached the 
 precincts, he stopped his coach, in order to read the 
 inscription which the monks, or perhaps Quixada, had 
 caused to be carved beneath the imperial arms upon 
 the corner-stone of the garden wall : 
 
 " In this holy house of St. Jerome of Yuste was 
 ended in retirement the life, spent in defending the 
 faith and maintaining justice, of Charles the Fifth, 
 emperor, king of the Spains, most Christian and 
 most invincible. He died on the 21st of September, 
 1558." f 
 
 On the wall of the open gallery, on the west side 
 of the palace, the following inscription records the 
 exact date when the emperor, sitting there, was first 
 attacked by the illness which carried him to the 
 grave : 
 
 " His majesty the emperor, Don Charles the Fifth, 
 our lord, was seated in this place when his malady 
 
 * Don Adolfo de Castro considers Carranza a Protestant, and com- 
 bats the position of Llorente, but without showing that any one of the 
 sixteen propositions are found in the catechism, or in any other way, as 
 it appears to me, proving what he asserts. Spanish Protestants, pp. 126 
 to 189. 
 
 t En esta santa casa de Hieronimo de Ynste se retiro a acabar su 
 vida, el que toda la gasto en defensa de la fe, y conservation de la jus- 
 ticia, Carlos V. cmperador, rev de las Espafias, Christianissimo, invic- 
 tissimo. Murio 11 21 de Setieinbrc de 1558.
 
 308 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 seized him on the 31st of August, at four o'clock in 
 the afternoon ; he died on the 21st of September, at 
 half past two in the morning, in the year of our Lord 
 1558." * 
 
 Out of respect to the memory of his sire, Philip 
 would not sleep in the room where the emperor died, 
 but occupied an adjoining closet, so small that there 
 was hardly room for a camp-bed.f He presented the 
 fraternity with some relics and a gilt cup ; and he 
 provided them with an exact copy of the " Glory " of 
 Titian, which he had removed from their altar to the 
 hall of the Escorial where the monks assembled to 
 hear Scripture readings. A new altar and architec- 
 tural decorations were also designed for Yuste, by 
 Juan de Herrera, the architect of the Escorial, and 
 finished in 1583, by Juan de Segura. Some further 
 statues and embellishments, which were probably 
 disfigurements, were added by Juan Gomez de Mora, 
 in the reign of Philip the Third 4 The top was 
 adorned with the imperial eagle of Hapsburg, and the 
 armorial bearings of the emperor ; bearings which the 
 
 * Su magestad el empcrador don Carlos quinto nuestro sefior, en este 
 lugar estava Jasentado quando le dio el mal, a los treinta y uno de 
 Agosto a las quatro de la tarde ; fallecio a los 21 de Setiembre a los dos 
 y media de la manana ano de No. Sr., 1558. 
 
 t These particulars are mostly taken from the HancR^ook of Spain, 
 1845, p. 552, and from the notes made on the spot by Mr. Ford, from the 
 MS. book of Documents, written by Fr. Luis de Sta. Maria in 1620, and 
 shown to him by the prior in 1832. The Abbe St. Real, in his dull 
 Don Carlos, Nouvelle Historique ((Euvres, 8 vol., 12mo, Paris, 1757, 
 Vol. V.), most absurdly makes Yuste the scene of the imaginary loves of 
 Carlos and Queen Isabella. The book was written in 1672, and trans- 
 lated into English "by H. I., 12mo, London, 1674," as a piece of authen- 
 tic history ; and, more extraordinary still, was cited as such by Bayle, 
 art. Charles V. 
 
 t Ponz : Viage, VII. 136.
 
 THE 'EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 309 
 
 monks also planted in box in the centre of their prin- 
 cipal cloister. 
 
 In the year 1638 the palace underwent a complete 
 repair, by order of Philip the Fourth, and at a cost of 
 six thousand ducats.* 
 
 Until the present century, Yuste lacked not a due 
 succession of Jeromite fathers. Neither in the days 
 of Charles, nor in subsequent times, were its worthies, 
 who are commemorated in the history of the order, 
 men of sufficient mark to impress their names upon 
 any mere secular record. Content to mortify their 
 bodies, they made little or no use of their minds. 
 Only a few appear to have deviated from the beaten 
 track of even monkish mediocrity. Fray Antonio de 
 Belvis was popular as an orator in the pulpits of An- 
 dalusia. Fray Juan de los Santos evinced sufficient 
 taste for study to be sent by the community to the 
 college of Siguenca. Ill health, however, cut short 
 his academical career, and he returned to Yuste to 
 dress vines, and to tend the sick, a work of mercy to 
 which he fell a sacrifice, dying of the fever of which 
 he had signally cured one of his brethren. At the 
 Escorial, Fray Bernardino deJ3alinas became a favor- 
 ite of Philip the Second; and Fray Miguel de Ala- 
 exos enjoyed the dignity of prior from 1582 to 1589. 
 One monk was distinguished as a leader of the choir ; 
 another as an instructor of the novices ; and a third 
 obtained honorable notice as an agriculturalist by cer- 
 tain improvements effected on the conventual farm of 
 Valmorisco. Some were revered for benefactions to 
 the house ; others for their austerities ; and a few for 
 
 * Valparaiso MS. See page 220, note.
 
 310 
 
 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 the visions which had brightened or darkened their 
 cells. Strangers were desired to observe the silver 
 candlesticks of the altar, and the manuscript book of 
 the choir, the gift of Fray Christobal, or the work of 
 Fray Luis ; and they were told how father Paul had 
 scaled the steep of spiritual perfections by making a 
 ladder his nightly couch ; and how father Christopher 
 resigned his meek spirit into the real and visible hands 
 of Our Blessed Lady. 
 
 Don Antonio Ponz, the laborious traveller, and long 
 the traveller's best guide in Spain, visited Yuste about 
 1780, and was lodged in the palace of the emperor. 
 He remarked in the church two pictures of Our Lord, 
 bearing the cross, and crowned with thorns, which the 
 friars attributed to a painter brought to Spain by 
 queen Mary of Hungary. Some years before, the 
 Vera had suffered greatly by a plague of caterpillars 
 which had killed many of the chestnut-trees, and by 
 accidental fires which had charred whole tracts of the 
 forest. The famine thus produced had much dimin- 
 ished the population, and the owners of the soil were 
 endeavoring to restore prosperity by encouraging agri- 
 culture and the growth of silk. 
 
 Early in the present century, Yuste was visited by 
 M. Alexandre Laborde, the well-known French travel- 
 ler, and became the subject of an inaccurate sketch 
 and ground plan by M. Liger, his artist, and of a 
 meagre description by himself.* 
 
 * A. Laborde : Voyage Pittoresque et Historique (FEsfxigne, 2 vol. 
 (2 parts in each), fol., Paris, 1806, Vol. I. 2 eme Partie, p. 118. His 
 view has been reproduced in a wood-cut in Jubinal's Armcria Heal de 
 Madrid, II. p. 111. There is also a wretched wood-cut view of the 
 " palacio " of Yuste, with letter-press still more absurd, in the Semanario 
 Pintoresco Espanol, No. 38, 18th December, 1836, p. 312.
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 311 
 
 It was the war of independence which began the 
 ruin of the fair home of the monarch and the monk. 
 In 1809, the Vera of Plasencia, like the rest of Estre- 
 madura, was in the hands of the French, under Soult. 
 The first foraging party who visited Yuste did no 
 harm ; but the next comers, a body of two hundred 
 dragoons, finding a dead Frenchman near the convent 
 gate, broke in and sacked the place. The buildings 
 were set on fire on the 9th of August, and continued 
 to burn for eight days. All the archives of the house 
 were destroyed, but a single folio volume of notes 
 and documents, written in 1620, by Fray Luis de Sta. 
 Maria, which the prior happened to be consulting 
 about some rights disputed by the peasants of Qua- 
 cos, when the Frenchmen burst in, and which he 
 saved by throwing into a thicket in the garden. The 
 
 / o 
 
 church was saved from destruction by its massive 
 walls and vaulted roof, and it was likewise the means 
 of protecting the palace and a portion of the cloister. 
 Here some of the friars continued to dwell, and in the 
 spring of 1813 they had the honor of receiving an 
 English traveller, perhaps the first who had set foot 
 within their precincts since the courier who came to 
 complain to Charles the Fifth of the dilatory habits 
 of the ministry at Valladolid.* Certain it is, that 
 since the time when Avila and Sepulveda discussed 
 the literature of the day with Van Male, and Ruy 
 Gomez and Garcilasso discoursed on affairs of state 
 with the emperor, Yuste had received no statesman 
 or man of letters so distinguished as Lord John 
 Russell. 
 
 * Chap. V. p. 113.
 
 312 THE CLOISTER LIFE OF 
 
 The brief triumph of the constitutionalists in 1820 
 was a signal for the first dispersion of the friars. 
 During the vacancy of the monastery, the work of 
 destruction went on briskly. The few vases belong- 
 ing to the dispensary of Charles the Fifth which had 
 escaped the French, were carried off by one Morales, 
 an apothecary of liberal opinions, to his shop at Xa- 
 randilla. The patriots of Texeda helped themselves 
 to the copy of the " Glory " of Titian, and hung it in 
 their parish church. The palace was utterly gutted, 
 and the church was used as a stable. 
 
 When the arms of the holy alliance had once more 
 placed the crown and the cowl in the ascendant, a 
 handful of picturesque drones again gathered at their 
 pleasant hive of Yuste. They feebly and partially 
 restored it, patching up the offices formerly occupied 
 by the emperor's servants into some cells and a refec- 
 tory. But they were unable to raise money enough 
 to pay for bringing their altar-piece back from Texe- 
 da. Mr. Ford, best of travellers, was one of the last 
 of. their visitors, passing a pleasant May-day with 
 them in 1832, and sleeping at night in the chamber 
 of the emperor. The monks were about twelve in 
 number, and amongst them was a patriarch, Fray 
 Alonso Cavallero, who had taken the cowl at Yuste, 
 in 1778, and remembered Ponz and his visit. " The 
 good-natured, garrulous brotherhood" accompanied 
 the stranger in his ramble about the ruined buildings 
 and gardens; in the evening he supped with the prior 
 and procurator in an alcove, overlooking the lovely 
 Vera, and sweet and melodious with the scent of 
 thyme and the song of nightingales ; and at dawn, on
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH. 313 
 
 the morrow, an early mass was said for the parting 
 guest.* 
 
 Five years afterwards, in 1837, came the final sup- 
 pression of the monasteries. The poor monks were 
 again turned out, some to die of starvation near their 
 old haunts, others to die for Don Carlos and the 
 church on the hills of Biscay. The royal monastery 
 of Yuste soon fell into utter and irremediable ruin. 
 
 When I visited it in 1849, it was inhabited only by 
 the peasant bailiff of the lay proprietor, who eked out 
 his wages by showing the historical site to the pass- 
 ing stranger. The principal cloister was choked with 
 the rubbish of the fallen upper story, the richly carved 
 capitals which had supported it peeping here and 
 there from the soil and the luxuriant mantle of wild 
 shrubs and flowers. Two sides of the smaller and 
 older cloister were still standing, with blackened walls 
 and rotting floors and ceiling. The strong granite- 
 built church, proof against the fire of the Gaul, and 
 the wintry storms of the sierra, was a hollow shell, 
 the classical decorations of the altar, and quaint 
 wood-work of the choir, having been partly used for 
 fuel, partly carried off to the parish church of Quacos. 
 Beautiful blue and yellow tiles, which had lined the 
 chancel, were fast dropping from the walls ; and above, 
 the window through which the dying glance of 
 Charles had sought the altar, remained like the eye- 
 socket in a skull, turned towards the damp, blank 
 space that was once bright with holy tapers and the 
 coloring of Titian. In a vault beneath, approached 
 
 * Handbook, 1845, pp. 551 - 553. The account of Yuste is one of the 
 best travelling sketches in that charming book. 
 27
 
 314 CLOISTER LIFE OF CHARLES THE FIFTH. 
 
 by a door of which the key could not be found, I was 
 told that the coffin of chestnut-wood, in which the 
 emperor's body had lain for sixteen years, was still 
 kept as a relic. Of his palace, the lower chambers 
 were used as a magazine for fuel ; and in the rooms 
 above, where he lived and died, maize and olives were 
 garnered, and the silk-worm wound its cocoon in dust 
 and darkness. His garden below, with its tank and 
 broken fountain, was overgrown with tangled thickets 
 of fig, mulberry, and almond, interspersed with a few 
 patches of pot-herbs, and here and there an orange- 
 tree, or a cypress, to mark where once the terrace 
 smiled with its blooming parterres. Without the gate, 
 the great walnut-tree, sole relic of the past with which 
 time had not dealt rudely, spread forth its broad and 
 vigorous boughs to shroud and dignify the desolation. 
 Yet in the lovely face of nature, changeless in its 
 summer charms, in the hill and forest and wide Vera, 
 in .the generous soil and genial sky, there was enough 
 to show how well the imperial eagle had chosen the 
 nest wherein to fold his wearied wings.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A SELECTION FROM THE EXTRACTS MADE BY DON TOMAS GON- 
 ZALEZ FROM THE INVENTORY OF THE JEWELS, WARDROBE, 
 AND FURNITURE OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES THE FIFTH, 
 AT YUSTE, DRAWN UP AFTER. HIS DEATH, BY FRAY JUAN 
 DE REGLA, MARTIN DE GAZTELU, AND LUIS QUIXADA. 
 
 A bag, of mulberry silk, containing three portraits of the 
 empress, painted on vellum, and two pictures of the " Last 
 Judgment." 
 
 Bags, containing portraits of the duchess of Parma, on a 
 small panel, and of the emperor when a boy ; and a por- 
 trait of the king of France, with his genealogy. 
 
 A box of black leather, lined with crimson velvet, containing 
 four bezuar stones,* variously set in gold, one of which 
 the emperor ordered to be given to William Van Male, 
 his gentleman of the chamber, being sick, as it was sus- 
 pected, of the plague. 
 
 Various quadrants, astrolabes, and other mathematical in- 
 struments. 
 
 * The bezuar, bezoar, or beza, was a stone found in the kidneys of 
 the cervicabra, a wild animal of Arabia, partaking of the nature of the 
 deer and the goat, and somewhat larger than the latter. The stone was 
 supposed to be formed of the poison of serpents which had bitten her 
 producer, combined with the counteracting matter with which nature had 
 furnished it. It was a charm against plague and poison. For marvel- 
 lous properties, see Gaspar de Morales : Libra de las Virtudcs y Proprie- 
 dades maravillosas de Piedras preciosas, sm. 8vo, Madrid, 1605, fol. 202- 
 211.
 
 316 APPENDIX. 
 
 A sand-glass, set in ebony, with its box. 
 
 Twenty-seven pairs of spectacles: 
 
 Thirty-nine pairs of gold and enamelled clasps (clavos) to be 
 
 worn in the cap. 
 
 A cameo medal (medallade camafeo), with its gold mounting. 
 A number of gold toothpicks. 
 
 BOOKS, 
 
 Amongst which, amounting in all to about thirty-one volumes, and usually 
 described as bound in crimson velvet, with silver clasps and mountings, the 
 following names occur: 
 
 El Caballero determinado* in French, with illuminated 
 paintings. 
 
 The same, in manuscript, in Castillian (romance), by Don 
 Hernando de Acuna ; likewise with illuminations. 
 
 Boethius, De Consolatione ; three copies ; in French, Italian, 
 and Castillian. 
 
 The War of Germany, by the Comendador-Mayor of Alcan- 
 tara (Don Luis de Avila).t 
 
 A large book of vellum ; containing many drawings and 
 illuminations. 
 
 Several missals and books of hours, with illuminations. 
 
 The Christian Doctrine, by Dr. Constantino. f 
 
 The Meditations of Fray Luis de Granada. 
 
 The Christian Doctrine, by Fray Pedro de Soto. 
 
 Csesar's Commentaries, in Tuscan. 
 
 Commentary on the Psalm In te Domine speravi, in manu- 
 script, by Fray Tomas de Puertocarrero. 
 
 Astronomicon Csesaris de Pedro Apiano. 
 
 Tolomeo. 
 
 Two portfolios, with some manuscript sheets of the histories 
 written by Florian de Ocampo and others. 
 
 * Chap. HI. p. 59. t Chap. III. p. 75. J Chap. VIII. p. 206.
 
 APPENDIX. 317 
 
 Two books of Meditation. 
 
 Titelman's Exposition of the Psalms.* 2 vols. 
 
 A book of Memorias, with its gold pen. Probably a note- 
 
 book, but possibly the emperor's Memoirs. t 
 Maps of Italy, Flanders, Germany, and the Indies. 
 A large portfolio of black velvet, containing papers, and 
 
 sealed up for the princess-regent. 
 The fowling-piece (arcabuz) used by his majesty, and various 
 
 crossbows (ballestas), quivers (carcajos), and other trap- 
 
 pings and furniture of the chase (arreos y muebles de 
 
 PLATE. 
 
 Approxi mate 
 weight 
 
 PLATE OF THE CHAPEL. in marks. 
 
 A variety of chalices,' candlesticks, crucifixes, mon- 
 
 strances, &c. ....... 100 
 
 PLATE OF THE CHAMBER. 
 
 Cups, basins, jugs, bottles, pitchers, candlesticks ; a 
 warming-pan with its handle (calentador con man- 
 go} ; a " pizpote " ; a basin in the shape of a tor- 
 toise, used by his majesty in washing his teeth 
 (fuente a mantra de galapago en que S. M. lavaba 
 Jos dientes) ; a salt-box of Moorish workmanship 
 (caja para sal labrada a la morisca), &/c. . . 150 
 
 PLATE OF THE PANTRY. 
 
 A gold and enamelled salt-cellar, with its cover ; six 
 square gilt trenchers, with the arms of his majesty ; 
 eight saucers ; chafing-dishes for keeping the dishes 
 warm on the table ; cups, spoons, knives, and forks, 70 
 
 * Commentarii paraphrastic} in Psalmos, was printed at Antwerp, in 
 1552, by Steels, at the particular request of the emperor, conveyed by 
 Van Male. See Van Male's Letters, by Keiffenberg; Ep. XXXII. p. 87. 
 
 t Chap. in. p. 58, and Chap. X. p. 289. 
 27*
 
 318 APPENDIX. 
 
 PLATE OF THE CELLAR. 
 
 A piece of gold, to be put hot into water or wine, 
 for the use of his majesty (weighing upwards of 5| 
 ounces).* 
 
 Jars, mugs, and bottles, of various shapes (jarros, 
 tarros, fiascos, cubiletes). 
 
 Silver mouth-pieces (brocales con tornillos), to screw 
 on to leathern hunting-bottles ; tubes (canutos), 
 with which his majesty drank when he had the 
 gout ; spoons, &c 400 
 
 PLATE OF THE LARDER. 
 Two large } 
 
 Thirty-six middle-sized > dishes. 
 Thirty-six smaller ) 
 
 Two dishes for serving sucking-pigs (lechones), 
 
 saucers, &.c. . . . . . . 650 
 
 PLATE OF THE DISPENSARY. 
 
 Cups, mugs, pans, pots, boxes, phials ; box for carry- 
 ing preserved lemon-peel or candied pumpkin (dia- 
 citron o calabazate), &c. ..... 65 
 
 PLATE OF THE WAX-ROOM. 
 Six wrought candlesticks, ..... 26 
 
 Weight, in marks, about 1561 
 or 12,488 ounces t 
 
 * Liquor, in which hot metal was quenched, was held to possess valu- 
 able astringent properties. See Bacon's remarks on the subject, in his 
 Historia Vitas et Mortis, V. 7 ; Works, 10 vols., 8vo, London, 1803, Vol. 
 VIII. p. 422. His New Advices in Order to Health, Vol. II. p. 224. con- 
 tains the following memorandum : " To use once during sapper wine 
 in which gold is quenched." 
 
 t The mark of Cologne, or, as it was called in Spain, of Burgos, con- 
 tained eight ounces. J. Garcia Cavallero : Breve Cotejo y Valance, pp. 
 33, 36, 108.
 
 APPENDIX. 319 
 
 PLATE AND JEWELS IN THE CARE OF THE KEEPER OF, 
 THE JEWELS. 
 
 A reliquary full of reliques. 
 
 A piece of the true cross. 
 
 Another piece, set in a cross of gold. 
 
 Several vessels for sprinkling perfumes (almarras) of silver. 
 
 Two bracelets, and two rings of gold, and one of bone, all 
 
 good for hemorrhoids (almorranas). 
 A blue stone, with two clasps (corchetes) of gold, good for 
 
 gout. 
 
 Rosaries, chains, and several pairs of spectacles. 
 The great Order of the Golden Fleece, with its collar, and 
 
 several others of a smaller size. 
 A small picture on panel of Our Lady, mounted with silver, 
 
 which belonged to the empress. 
 A box containing a crucifix of wood, the same which his 
 
 majesty and the empress held in their hands when they 
 
 died, and two scourges (disciplinas). 
 A signet-ring of Chalcedony, engraved with the imperial 
 
 arms. 
 Eighteen files to file his majesty's teeth. 
 
 CRUCIFIXES, PAINTINGS, AND OTHER ARTICLES. 
 
 A picture of the Trinity, on canvas, by Titian. 
 
 A large picture on wood, with Jesus Christ bearing his cross, 
 Our Lady, St. John, and St. Veronica, by master Michael * 
 (in the monastery). 
 
 A picture on wood, a crucifix, which stands upon the prin- 
 cipal altar, with gilt base and top. 
 
 A picture of the scourging of Christ, by Titian. 
 
 A picture of Our Lady, on wood, by master Michael. 
 
 A picture of Christ bearing his cross, by master Michael, and 
 another of Our Lady, on stone, joined with it, by Titian. 
 
 * Chap. IV. p. 101.
 
 320 APPENDIX. 
 
 A picture of Our Lady, on wood, by Titian. 
 A picture of Our Lady with Our Lord in her arms, on can- 
 vas, by Titian. 
 Portraits of the emperor and the empress, on canvas, by 
 
 Titian. 
 A portrait of the emperor in armor, by Titian. 
 
 A full-length portrait of the empress, by Titian. 
 
 A portrait of the queen of England, on wood, by Thomas 
 (doubtless a mistake for Antonio) More. 
 
 A picture with four figures, portraits of children of the queen 
 of Bohemia. 
 
 Tapestry of gold, silver, and silk, representing the Adoration 
 of the kings. 
 
 An altar-piece with doors, containing pictures of the Virgin 
 and babe, and of the Annunciation of the Virgin, and 
 adorned with nine gold medallions of various sizes, por- 
 traits of the emperor, the empress (2), king Philip (2), the 
 queen of England, the queen of Bohemia (2), and the 
 princess of Portugal. 
 
 Several other pictures of sacred subjects, without names of 
 masters. 
 
 Three large books of paper, with drawings of trees, flowers, 
 men, and other objects, from the Indies. 
 
 The great clock made by Master Juanelo, with its case, and 
 the table of walnut-wood with cloth cover, upon which it 
 stands in his majesty's chamber. 
 
 Another clock, of crystal, with its base, by the said Juanelo. 
 
 Another clock, called the Portal. 
 
 Another, called the Mirror. 
 
 Others, round and small, for the pocket. 
 
 Six pieces of tapestry, landscapes. 
 
 Seven pieces, with animals and landscapes. 
 
 Twelve pieces, with foliage (verdura). 
 
 Fine coverings for seats (ianca/es), with foliage. 
 
 Twelve hangings of fine black cloth for the apartments of the 
 emperor (in the monastery).
 
 APPENDIX. 321 
 
 Four door-curtains (ante-puertas) of black cloth. 
 
 Seven carpets (alfombras), four Turkish, and three of Al- 
 
 carez. 
 
 Canopies (dosels) of fine black velvet. 
 A quantity of linen. 
 
 IN HIS MAJESTY'S CHAMBER. 
 
 Two beds, of different sizes. 
 
 Six blankets of white cloth. 
 
 Fourteen feather bolsters (colchones de pluma). 
 
 Thirty-seven pillows (almohadas] , with much holland bed- 
 linen (ropa de holanda) of all kinds. 
 
 Six chairs, covered with black velvet. 
 
 His majesty's arm-chair, with six cushions and a footstool. 
 
 Chair in which his majesty was carried, with its staves (andas 
 de brazo). 
 
 Twelve chairs of walnut- wood, garnished with nails (tacho- 
 nadas). 
 
 IN THE WARDROBE. 
 
 Sixteen long robes, lined with eider-down, ermine, Tunis kid- 
 skin, or velvet. 
 
 Six bornooses (albornoces), one of them presented to his 
 majesty at Tunis. 
 
 IN THE STABLE. 
 
 Four mules of burden, one of them chestnut and named 
 
 " Cardenala." 
 A gray horse. 
 Two other mules. 
 
 IN THE HARNESS-ROOM. 
 
 A litter lined with black velvet, and mounted outside with 
 steel. Delivered at Valladolid on the 26th of October, 
 1558.
 
 322 APPENDIX. 
 
 Another, of smaller size, with a seat inside, lined with black 
 serge, and covered outside with leather. 
 
 The whole of the above property, not left in the monas- 
 tery, was given over to the charge of Juan Esteque, keeper 
 of his majesty's jewels, on the 1st of November, 1558. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 SIETCALF AND COMPAXT, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
 
 Date 
 
 A 000660181 9