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THE CLOISTER LIFE
OF THE
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE.
Two hundred and sixty-five copies of this Large Paper Edition
printed for England, and one hundred and fifty for America.
The engravings given in duplicate, and the initial letters and
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Each copy numbeied and type distributed.
No.Jr/.
CHARLES V.
g^j^f/^gj^
THE CLOISTER LIFE
OF THE
EMPEROR CHARLES V,
BY
SIR WILLIAM STIRLING-MAXWELL
BARONET
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INCORPORATING THE AUTHOR'S LATEST NOTES
ADDITIONS AND EMENDATIONS
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DEDICATION OP TUB FIRST EDITION.
Zo tbe 1Rea^er.
Many Alterations and Additions made by my father,
and referred to in the Editor's Preface, have been carefully
incorporated in this New Edition of his Works ; and the
Illustrations now added are chosen from many which he
had collected for that purpose.
JOHN STIRLING-MAXWELL.
POLLOK, Se^i. 1S9O.
VOLUME THE FIFTH.
PACK
The Emperor Charles V., after Titian ; engraved in mezzotint on
copper by R. B. Parkes Frontispiece
Collar and Badge of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
From Pirro Ant. Ferrari, " Cavallo Frenato," fol. Napoli,
1602 Dedication
Philip II., King of Spain, after Titian; engraved in mezzotint on
copper by R. B. Parkes 16
Anthony Perrenot, Bishop of Arras, afterwards Cardinal
Granvelle. From a print by Martin Rota . . . .16
Badge of the Order of the Golden Fleece . . . . 27
The Infanta Dona Juana, Princess of Brazil, Regent of
Spain. From a print of Peter Aleridnus, after an older one by
F. Hogenberg 5S
Ferdinando Gonsalvo de Cordoba, Duke of Sesa. From the
print by Nicolo Nelli, 1 568 59
Ferdinand, Duke of Alba. From a contemporary print . . 84
Device of the Emperor Charles V 96
Juanelo Torriano. From a drawing by B. Montanes, after a bust
in the Academy of St. Ferdinand at Madnd; engraved in
tnezzotint on copper by R. B. Parkes 1:8
Helmet of the Emperor Charles V. //; the Armeria Real at
Madrid, No. 232 141
VI 11
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Palace of Yuste, and Village of Quacos, 1832. Printed in
colours from aquatint plates by S. J. Hodson,from original water-
colour sketch at Keir . .144
Plan of the Monastery of Yuste, 1554 157
Gate of the Palace of Yuste. From a water-colour drawing at
Keir by J. F. UEgville, after a sketch by the Author in 1849 ;
printed in colours from aquatint plates by S. J. Hodson . . .160
The Emperor Charles V. From a woodcut by Melchior Lorch . 163
Badge of the Golden Fleece. From CI. Paradin, "Devises
Heroiques," 1^77 ■ ■ 167
Philip II., King of Spain. From a picture by Alonso Sanchez Coello,
at Keir 169
Great Walnut Tree of Yuste. From a water-colour drawing
at Keir by J. F. LfEffville, after a sketch made on the spot by the
Author in 1849 ; printed in colours from aquatint plates by S. J.
Hodson 176
Church and Palace of Yuste. From a water-colour drawing at
Keir by J. F. lyEgville, after a sketch made on the spot in 1851 by
Lieut.-Col. the Hon. H. Percy; printed in colours from aquatint
plates by S. J. Hodson 192
Convent and Palace of Yuste. From a water-colour drawing at
Keir by J. F. lyEgville, after a sketch made on the spot in 1851 by
Lieut.-Col. the Hon. H. Percy; printed in colours from aquatint
plates by S. J. Hodson 208
Don Carlos, Infanta of Spain, son of Philip II. After a paint-
ing by Alonso Sanchez Coello, in the Museo del Prado, Madrid,
No. 1032 ; engraved in mezzotint on copper by R. B. Parkes . .218
Juan Gines Sepulveda. From a print by J. Barcelon, in the
" Reiratos de los Espaiioles Ilustres," fol. Madrid, 1791 ; engraved
in mezzotint on copper by R. B. Parkes 240
Arms of Don John of Austria, with Collar and Badge of
the Order of the Golden Fleece. From " Equile Joannis
Austriaci^' delin. a J. Siradano, obi. fol., circa 1580 . . . 282
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Bartolome Carranza de Miranda. From a print by J. Barcelon ;
engraved in mezzotint on copper by A'. B. Partes .... 304
Arms of Don John of Austria. From " L' Austria" de Ferrante
Caraffa, ^to, Napoli, 1572 386
Isabella of Valois, Third Queen of Philip II. From a minia-
ture by Felipe de Liaho, at Keir 412
Don John of Austria. From a picture by Alonso Sanchez Coello,
formerly in the Galerie Espagnole 0/ the Louvre, now at Keir . 4 19
Don Luis Mendez Quixada. From a draining by D. Montanes
after a picture by Titian in the possession of the Conde de OTiate at
Madrid 429
Fray Francisco Borja. From a p>rint by Caspar Massi ; engraved
in mezzotint on copper by R. B. Parkes 448
" La Gloria " of Titian. From a print by Cornelius Cort after the
picture formerly in the Convent of Yuste, now in the Museo del
Prado, Madrid, No. 462 480
VOL. V.
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
O apology would have been necessary for
issuing a new edition of this work had it
been a mere reprint of that which last had
the advantage of the author's revision ; but
full justification was found in the fact that, during the
subsequent years of his life, he had enriched both text
and notes with important additions and corrections,
which the editor has incorporated.
There is also given, in the Appendix, Notices of the
Emperor Charles V.in 1555 and 1556, which the author
contributed to the publications of the Philobiblon Society
in 1856.
The editor's own additions, which are confined to
the notes, are derived chiefly from works on the subject
published since 1853, and are distinguished by being
placed within brackets.
xu
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
The illustrations consist of portraits, from the author's
collection, of the leading personages referred to, and five
coloured engravings from water-colour sketches of Yuste
at Keir. A plan of the convent in 1554 is also given,
derived from Gachard.
ROBERT GUY.
The Wern, Pollokshaws,
March, 1891. ,
CONTENTS OF THE AUTHOR'S PREFACES.
PACE
Authorities cited in this work —
Fr. J. de Siguenfa xv
Fr. P. de Sandoval xvii
J. A. de Vera, Fr. M. de Angulo and Marquess of Valparaiso xvii-xviii
Father P. Ribadeneira xix
M. Gachard and T. Gonzalez ...... xx-xxiv
Doubts as to the self-performed Obsequies of Charles V. examined . xxiv
Don Modesto Lafuente xxx
Notice of the Portrait of Charles V. on the title-page .... xxxi
Postscript for a Second Edition ........ xxxiii
Postscript for a Third Edition xxxv
M. Bakhuizen van den Brink's Analysis of a MS. by a Monk of Yuste xxxv
M. Th. Juste xxxix
M. Mignet xxxix
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
HE first, and perhaps the best, printed account
of the cloister life of Charles V. is to be
found in Joseph de Siguenfa's History of
the Order of St. Jerome. The author was
born, about 1545, of noble parents, in the Aragonese
city from whence, according to the Jeronymite custom,
he afterwards took his name. He became a monk
about the age of twenty-one, at El Parral, near Se-
govia, and having 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 con-
vent. Eemoving to the Escorial, he devoted himself
to literary labour 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 II. used to say of him, that lie was the greatest
wonder of the new convent, which was called the eighth
wonder of the world. The first of his literary works, a
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
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 honourable
acquittal, and returned to the Escorial with an un-
blemished character for orthodoxy, to write the history
of St. Jerome and his Order. The first volume, con-
taining the life of the saint, was published in 1595, in
quarto, at Madrid ; the second and third, in folio, in
1600 and 1605. The author died in 1606, of apopkxy,
at the Escorial, having been twice elected prior of the
house.
One of the most able and learned of ecclesiastical his-
torians, Siguen9a, for the elegance and simple eloquence
of his style, has been ranked among the classical writers
of Castile. 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 sincerity and good faith, and
when he is not dealing with miracles and visions, he
seems to be earnest in his endeavour to discover and
record the truth. In relating the life of the Emperor
at Yuste, he had the advantage of conversing with many
eye-witnesses of the facts. Fray Antonio de Villacastin
and several other monks of Yuste were his brethren at
the Escorial ; the Emperor's confessor, Regla, and his
favourite preacher, Villalva, filled the same posts in the
household of Philip II., and were therefore often at
the royal convent ; the prior may also have seen there,
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xvii
Quixada the chamberlain, and Gaztelu the secretary, of
Charles ; and at Toledo or Madrid he may have had
opportunities of knowing ToiTiano, the Emperor's mecha-
nician.
Fray Prudencio de Sandoval, Bishop of Pamplona,
printed his well-known History of Charles V. at Valla-
dolid, in folio, the first part in 1604, and the second part
in 1606. In the latter a supplementary book is devoted
to the Emperor'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, daugh-
ter of the Emperor and Regent 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 know-
ledge 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 Siguen9a, whose
position as prior of the Escorial must have given him
access to all the royal archives.
Juan Antonio de Vera y Figueroa, Count of La Eoca,
printed his Epitome of the Life of Charles V., in quarto,
at Madrid, in 16 13. It contains little that Sandoval
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 165S, he
may have conversed with persons who had known his
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
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 Desengano, 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 Val-
paraiso, 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 V., in Spain
at least, was always held up as a model The second
part, of which a copy is now before me, is entitled. Life
of the Emperor in the Convent of Yiiste, taken from that
which was tvritten 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 altera-
tions, the greater part of this narrative is word for word
that of Sandoval. I likewise recognise a few excerpts
from Vera. Unless, therefore, we suppose that Sandoval
1 Bulletins de V Academic Royale des Sciences ct dcs Belles Lettres, torn. xii.
Premifere Paitie. 1843.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
XIX
and Vera, anticipating the process adopted by Valparaiso,
transferred the document of Angulo to their own pages, it
seems very doubtful whether the Marquess had more than
a second-hand knowledge of the narrative of the prior.
The Jesuit Pedro Ribadeneira, in his lAfe of Father
Francisco Borja, printed in quarto, at Madrid, in 1592,
gave a long and circumstantial account of the interviews
which took place in Estremadura between that remark-
able man and Charles V. Bom in 1527, and in very
early life a favourite disciple of Loyola, Ribadeneira
had ample opportunities 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 V., and who might have con-
versed with his contemporaries. From their works, Strada,
De Thou, Lcti, and later authors, writing on the same
subject, have drawn their materials, which, in passing
from pen to pen, have undergone considerable changes
of form.
Our own Robertson has told the stoiy of the Emperor's
life at Yuste with much dignity and grace, and still more
inaccuracy. Citing the respectable names of Sandoval,
Vera, and De Thou, he seems to have chiefly relied upon
Leti, one of the most lively and least trustworthy of the
XX
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
historians of his time. He does not appear to have been
aware of the existence of Siguenga — the author, as we
have seen, of the only printed account of the imperial
retirement which can pretend to the authority of con-
temporary 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 subject but slightly noticed, yet consider-
ably misrepresented, by English writers, I collected the
results of my reading into two papers, contributed to
Fraser's Magazine, in April and May, 1851.
An article by M. Gachard, in the Bulletins of the
Eoyal Academy of Bruxelles,^ afterwards informed me
that the archives of the Foreign Office of France con-
tained a MS. account of the retirement of Charles V.,
illustrated with original letters, and compiled by Don
Tomas Gonzalez. Of the existence of this precious docu-
ment 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 opportunities of examin-
ing it — opportunities for which I must express my
gratitude to the President of France, who favoured me
with the necessary order, and to Lord Normanby, late
British ambassador in Paris, and M. Drouyn de Lhuys,
' Bulletins de V Academic Royalc des Sciences et des Belles Letlrcs, torn. xii.
Premiere Partie. 1845.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
XXI
who kindly interested themselves in getting the order
obeyed by the unwilling 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 VII. to the throne
of Spain, the royal archives of that kingdom, preserved in
the castle of Simancas, near Valladolid, were entrusted
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 contributed a long and elaborate
paper on the relations between Philip II. and our Queen
Elizabeth ; and he had prepared this account of the re-
tirement of Charles V., and had had it fairly copied for
the press, when death brought his labours to a premature
close. His books and papers fell into the hands of his
brother Manuel, for whom he had obtained the reversion
of his post at Simancas. At the revolution of La Granja,
in 1836, Manuel being displaced and beggared, offered
the memoir of Charles V. 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
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
reservation. No purchaser at that price appearing, he at
last 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 destined 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 Tlie Retirement, Residence, and
Death of the Emperor Charles V. in the Monastery of
Yuste; a historical narrative founded on documents.^
It commences with an account of many political events
previous to, and not much connected with, the Emperor's
retirement ; such as the negotiations for the marriage of
Philip II. with the Infanta Mary of Portugal, and after-
wards with Queen Mary of England ; the regency estab-
' I am enabled to state the exact sum through the kindness of M. Van de
Weyer, Belgian Minister to the court of England, who obtained the information
from M. Gachard.
^ Retiro estancia y muerle del Emperador Carlos Quiiito en el ntonasterio de
Yuste ; relacioii hislorica documenladu.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xxiii
lished in Spain during his absence ; the deaths of Queen
Juana, mother of the Emperor, and of Popes Julius III.
and Marcelhis II. ; the truce of Vaucelles ; and the
diplomatic relations of Pope Paul IV. with the courts of
France and Spain. But the bulk of the memoir consists
almost wholly of original letters, selected from the corre-
spondence canied on between the courts at Valladolid and
Bruxelles, and the retired Emperor and his household, in
the years 1556, 1557, and 1558. The principal writers
are Philip II., the Infanta Juana, Princess of Brazil and
Regent of Spain, Juan Vazquez de Molina, secretary of
state, Francisco 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 secretary, William Van Male, his gentleman
of the chamber, and Mathys and Cornelio, his physicians.
The thiead of the narrative is supplied by Gonzalez, who
has done his part with great judgment, permitting the
stoiy 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 : —
I. Instrudion!> given by the Emperor to his nan at Atigshurg, on the
()th January 1548.
2,'
3. Speeches p-onounced by the Emperor at Bruxelles during the cere-
4. monies of his abdication.
5-
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
6. Letter from the Cardinal- Archbishop (Siliceo) of Toledo to the
Princess-Regent of Spain, 2Sth June 1556.
7. Extract from the inventory of the furniture and jewels belonging to
the Emperor at his death.
8. Protest of Philip IT. against the Pope, 6th May 1557.
9. Justification of the King of Spain against the Pope, the King of
France, and the Diike of Ferrara.
I o. 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 Gon-
zalez has brought to light respecting the daily life of
the Emperor at Yuste, some 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 displayed even in the sober state-
ment of Siguen9a ; and he pours out much patriotic
scorn on the highly wrought picture of Robertson. The
opinions of the canon, on all other matters carefully
weighed and considered, are well worthy of respect, and
require some examination.
Of Eobertson's account of the matter, it is impossible
to offer any defence. Masterly as a sketch, it has un-
happily been copied from the canvas of the unscrupulous
Leti,^ who had himself copied and caricatured the account
given by Strada. In everything but style it is indeed
' Vita delV inviiissimo imp. Carlo V. da Gregorio Leti, 4 vols 121110, Amster-
dam, 17CX), iv. pp. 370-4.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
XXV
very absurd. " The Emperor was bent," says the historian,
" on performing some act of piety that would display his
zeal, and merit the favour of Heaven. The act on which
he fixed was as wild and uncommon as any that super-
stition 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
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 singular 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 2 1 st September, after a life of fifty-
eight years, six months, and twenty-five days."
Siguenga's account of the affair, which I have adopted,
is that Charles, conceiving it to be for the benefit of his
VOL. v. c
XXTl
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
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 spectators ; holding in his hand, like the
others, a waxen taper, v^hich, at a certain point of the
ceremonial, he delivered to the officiating priest, in token
of his desire to commit his soul to the keeping of his
Maker. There is Hot a word to justify the tale that he
followed the procession in his shroud, or that he simu-
lated death in his coffin, or that he was left behind, shut
up alone in the church, when the service was over.
In this story respecting an infirm old man, the devout
son of a Church where services for the dead are of daily oc-
currence, I can see nothing incredible, or very surprising.
It is surely as reasonable for a man on the brink of the
grave to perform funeral rites for himself, as to perform
such rites for persons who had been buried many years
before. Superstition and dyspepsia have driven men into
far greater extravagances. Nor is there any reason to
doubt Siguenca'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 overstat-
ing 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 accuracy of his account of the imperial
obsequies. That account was written while he was prior
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
XXVII
of the Escorial, and as such almost in the personal service
of Philip II., a prince who was peculiarly jealous of what
was written about his father.^ And it was published with
the authority of his name, while men were still alive who
could have contradicted a misstatement.
The strongest objection urged by Gonzalez to the story,
rests ou the absence of all confirmation of it in the letters
written from Yuste. We know, he says, that, on the
26th 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 held a long conference with Garcilasso
de la Vega on the affairs of Flanders. Can we therefore
believe what is alleged by Siguenga, that the afternoon
of the 27th and the morning of the 28th were given by
Charles to the performance 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 Siguen9a. He says - that the
obsequies were celebrated, not on the 27th and 28th, but
on the 30th August ; and it so happens, that on that day
and the next, no letters were written at Yuste, or at least,
that none bearing either of those dates fell into the hands
of Gonzalez. The Emperor's attack of illness, on the
' See chap. xi. p. 431.
'■' Siguen^a, Mist, de la Orden de S. Gerdn., torn. iii. p. 201.
xxviii AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
30th, was ascribed by the physician to his having sat too
long in the sun in his western alcove ; and his being able
to sit there tallies with Siguenga'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 the warmth of his piety,
but of the robustness of his health. Of the services per-
formed in the church for the souls of his deceased parents
and wife, which both Siguenca and Sandoval have re-
corded, 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 April 1558, that " Juan Gaytan had come to put in
order the wax and other things needful for the honours
of the Empress, which His Majesty was in the habit
of celebrating on each May-day." The truth seems to
be that the most hearty enmity prevailed between the
Jeronymites and the imperial household ; and that the
chamberlain and his people abstained from all communi-
cations with the monks not absolutely necessary, and left
the religious recreations, as well as the spiritual interests
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
of their master, entirely in the hands of the confessor and
the prior. Keeping no record of the functions performed
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 Siguenga, there really seems nothing
that a Spaniard of 1558, living next door to a convent,
might not have deemed unworthy of special notice.
It is remarkable that Gonzalez, while so strenuously
denying the credibility of the story, should have furnished,
under his own hand, a piece of evidence of some weight
in its favour. In an inventory of State papers of Castile,
drawn up by him in 1818, and existing at Simancas, and
in duplicate in the Foreign OflBce at Madrid, M. Gachard
found the following entry : —
No. 119, ann. 1557. Original letters of Cliarles V., written from
Xarandilla and Yuste to the Infanta Juana, and Juan Vasquez de
Molina. * * * TTiey treat of the public affairs of the time: item, of tub
MOVRNISa STUFFS ORDERED FOR TUB PVRPOSB OF PERFORMISQ HIS FUNERAL
HONOURS DURING HIS IIFEA
M. Gachard supposes that this entry may have been
transcribed by Gonzalez from the wrapper of a bundle of •
papers which he had found thus entitled, and the con-
tents of which he had neglected to verify. If his sub-
sequent researches did not discover any such documents,
it is to be regretted that he had not at least coiTected the
error of the inventoiy.
' Item, de los lutos que cncargd para hacerse las honras en vida. Bvll. de
I' Acad. roy. xii. Premifcre Partie, p. 257
XXX AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
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 per-
formed during his life ; but it is not stated whether the
order was fulfilled. Sandoval, professing to take Angulo
for his guide, is altogether silent on the subject ; and as
he can hardly be supposed to have been ignorant of the
work of Siguenga, 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 writings of a Jeronymite, I
cannot agree to discard evidence otherwise respectable.
I have therefore followed prior Siguenga, of the Escorial,
the revival of whose version of the story will, I hope, in
time, counteract the inventions of later writers — inven-
tions which I have more than once heard gravely re-
cognised as instructive and authentic history in the pulpit
discourses of popular divines.^
It may be a source of disappointment to my readers, as
' Bull, de I'Acad. roy. xii. Premifere Partie, p. 259.
^ Don Modesto Lafuentc, Historia de l^spana, 18 toiiios, 8vo, Madrid, 1851-7,
torn. xii. p. 484, denies tlie truth of tlie funeral ceremonies performed in the
Emperor's life. He cites my adlierence to 8iguenca's naiTative as a proof of
the manner in which the idea had fixed itself in the public mind ; but lie does
not endeavour to explain how the prior of the Escorial, under Philii> II., came
to write down a fiction about the Emperor's last days, in the presence of several
of his own Escorial friars who must have been eye-witnesses to the scene if it
took place, and wuuld have contradicted liim if it had not. He rests liis in-
credulity solely on the great improbability that, if such a thing had happened,
the letter- ^^Titcrs of Ynste would not have taken some notice of it.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
XXXI
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 oflBcial correspondents. In
obtaining access, however, to the manuscript of Gonzalez,
I was subjected to conditions which rendered this im-
possible. The French Government, I was informed, had
entertained the design of publishing the entire work — a
design which the Revolution of 1 848 of course laid upon
the shelf, but which, I trust, will ere long be carried into
effect. Meanwhile, I believe that neither the memoir nor
the letters contain any interesting fact, or trait of char-
acter, which will not be found in the following pages, with
some illustrations of the Emperor 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
aichitectural and emblematical ornament. This seems to
have been the portrait which Charles, according to Lodo-
vico Dolce, examined so curiously and approved so highly,
and for which he rewarded Vico with 200 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
' Dialogo della Pittura de M. Lod. Dolce, sm. 8vo, Vinegia, 1557, fol. i&
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
thirty-five, considered himself, as he told the painter
Holanda, already too old for limning purposes. The
eagle and ornaments around the present head are selected
from woodcuts in Spanish books of 1545^ and 1552.^
^ JEi. Ant. Nebrissensis, Rerum a Fernando et EUzabetha, gest., &c., fol.,
Granada, 1545.
2 J. C. Calvete, Viage del principe D. Phelippc, fol., Anvers, 1552. The
neatly executed arms on the title-page bear the mark generally attributed to
Juan D'Arphe y Villafaiie, the famous goldsmith, engraver, and artistic author
of VaUadolid.
Keie, 3is< May 1852.
POSTSCRIPT FOR A SECOND EDITION.
^c
HE favour with which this work has been
received having rendered a second edition
necessary, I have endeavoured to acknow-
ledge 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 Park Street, Grosvenor Square,
December 21st, 1852,
POSTSCRIPT FOR A THIRD EDITION.
HIS edition had already gone to press, when
I first saw a paper communicated to the
Eoyal Academy of Belgium, by M. Bak-
huizen van den Brink, and entitled La
Retraite de Charles Quint, analyse d'un manuscript
Espagnol contemporain, par un Religieux de Vordre
de St. Jerdme a Yuste} The manuscript, thus analysed
with great care and ability, was formerly in the
archives of the Cour-feodale, and is now in those of
the Cour-d'appel at Bruxelles. It consists of forty-
five folio pages, written in a fine close hand of the
end of the sixteenth, or of the beginning of the seven-
teenth century. Its title is A Brief and Summary
' Comptc-rendu dcs seances de la commission royale d'histoire ou recueil dc
ses bulletins. Deuxifenio Bcrio, torn. i. i"' bulletin Svo, Bruxelles, 1850, p. 57.
A few copica were struck off as a separate tract, and to one of them my refer-
euce» are luade.
XXXVl
POSTSCRIPT FOR A THIRD EDITION.
History of how the Emperor Don Charles V., our lord,
determined to retire to the Monastery of St. Jerome
of Yuste, in the Vera of Plasencia, and to renounce his
States in favour of the Prince Don Philip his son, and of
the mode and manner in ivhich he lived for a year and
eight months, all hut eight days, in the Monastery until
his death, and of the things which happened in his life
and death} The memoir is divided into fifty chapters, of
which the first tells How the Prince Don Philip was
married in England, and the last treats Of the affliction
of the village of Quacos and all the Vera when the body
of the Emperor ivas removed from Yuste. It was written,
says M. Bakhuizen, in or about 1574, soon after the
removal of the Emperor's remains. The author informs
us that he was a monk of Yuste, and that he was one of
four of the brotherhood who were appointed to watch the
corpse of Charles at the time of his death, and one of
eight who were sent to attend it to the Escorial. But
he has concealed his name, which at this distance of
time there is little hope of discovering. M. Bakhuizen
is inclined to identify him with one of four persons —
the prior Angulo, the confessor Kegla, Fray Lorenzo de
^ Historia breve y smnaria de como el Empei'ador Don Carlos Qtiiiito, nuestro
senor, tratd de venir se d recojcr al nwnasterio de S. Hieronimo de Yuste, que es
en la Vera de Plasencia, y renunciar sus estados en el principe, Don Phelipe su
hijo, y del mode y manera que vivio un ana y ocho meses menos nueve dias, que
estuvo en este monasterio, hasia que murui, y de las cosas que acaecieron en su
vida y muerte.
POSTSCRIPT FOR A THIRD EDITION.
XXXTll
Losar, employed as purveyor of the imperial household,
and Fray Miguel de Torralva, who held the post of
ohrero or master of works. The prior and the confessor,
he says, are spoken of in such terms in the memoir, that
it is very unlikely that cither of them was the author of
it ; to which I may add that, in the case of the confessor,
this improbability is enhanced by the fact that Regla left
Yuste immediately after the Emperor's death, and appears
to have resided afterwards either at court or at Zaragoza.
Of the two remaining friars, M. Bakhuizen is inclined
to favour the claim of Losar, his name appearing along
with that of the prior as a witness to the process-verbal
which recorded the deposit of the Emperor's body at
Yuste, and that document being given at full length in
the memoir.
Not having seen the manuscript, I am unable to judge
of the soundness of M. Bakhuizen's hypothesis. In the
absence of direct evidence I should be inclined to attri-
bute such a paper to the one monk of Yuste whom we
know to have been fond. of reading and writing. Fray
Hernando de Corral.
The narrative in the main confirms those of Sandoval
and Siguen§a. It is not improbable that the author,
before he wrote his reminiscences, may have refreshed
his memory by reading Angulo's memoir, which may
account for minute coincidences with the expressions
of Sandoval, who borrowed freely from Angulo. For
xxxvm
POSTSCRIPT FOR A THIRD EDITION.
example, Sandoval says the Emperor was contented to
lead " the poor life of an honourable esquh-e," ^ la pobre
vida de un escudero honrado, while the Bakhuizen MS.
compares the imperial household to that of a poor
country gentleman, un joobre hidalgo.^ The resemblance
to Siguenga's account is still closer, so close that it seems
likely that Siguenga, who does not avow any obligation
to Angulo, may have been indebted for some, at least,
of his facts, to this other monk of Yuste. To cite a
few instances ; the monk speaks of the retired Emperor as
a pobre hidalgo ; Siguenpa calls him an honesto hidalgo ; *
the monk erroneously places the body of Queen Juana
amongst the royal corpses brought in 1574 to the
Escorial ; * Siguen9a, although prior of the Escorial, has
fallen into the same error;® the stories of the hyssop
and pyx, which I have related'' on the authority of
Siguenga,' are also told by the monk ; * and lastly,
Siguen9a's description of the obsequies performed by
Charles for himself is confirmed in every particular by
this anonymous eye-witness." Whoever its author may
have been, the manuscript is well worth printing entire,
1 Sandoval, Hist, de Carlos V., 2 torn., fol., Pamplona, 1634, ii. p. 811.
' Bakhuizen van den Brink, La Retraite, p. 20.
' Siguenca, Hist, de la ord. de S. Gerdnimo, iii. p. 291.
* Bakhuizen van den Brink, La Retraite, p. 60.
^ Siguenca, iii. p. 569. ^ Chap. viii. p. 273.
' Siguenija, iii. pp. 194, 195.
8 Bakhuizen van den Brink, La Retraite, p. 39.
» Id., p. 45-
POSTSCRIPT FOR A THIRD EDITION.
XXXIX
and I trust that the Belgian Government may ere long
be induced to give it to the world. Meanwhile, I have
to acknowledge ray obligations to M. Bakhuizen van den
Brink's paper for several fresh details of the Emperor's
life and death, and to M. Van de Weyer and M. Gachard
for their kindness in bringing that paper under my
notice.
To this edition I have also added a chapter on the
Emperor's abdication and subsequent life at Bruxellcs,
in which I have freely availed myself of information
supplied by M. Th. Juste, in his agreeable tract on that
subject.^
Soon after the appearance of my work, M, Mignet
commenced a series of elaborate papers on Charles V.,
his Abdication and Retirement, still in course of
publication in the Journal dcs Savants, at Paris.*
Composed mainly of materials afforded by the MS. of
Gonzalez, these papers explain why that MS. was
acquired by the Foreign Office of France, and why it
has been so zealously guarded by M. Mignet. They
are written in the able style with which M. Mignet's
other works have made the world familiar. The paucity
' V Abdication de Charles Quint, par Th. Juste {extraite du Progris Paeifique),
8vo, Liege, 1851, p. 31.
' Charles Quint, son abdication, sa retraite, son sfjour, et sa inert au monas-
tire hieronomite de Ytiste, par M. Mi};^et. These papers began in the numbrr
for November 1852, and were continued iii December, and in January and
March 1853.
xl POSTSCRIPT FOR A THIRD EDITION.
of extracts from the original documents is a matter of
regret, but this defect may perhaps be repaired when
the completed chapters are published in the form of
a book.
128 Park Street, Grosvenor Square,
June 2$th, 1853.
[The articles above referred to were published by M. Mignet in i voL 8vo,
Paris, 1854, as Charles-Quint, son abdication, son sijour et sa mart au Monastire
de Vuste. M. Amddde Pichot also published, almost simultaneously, his Charles-
Quint, chronique de sa vie intirieure et de sa vie politique de son abdication et
de sa retraite dans le clottre de Yuste, i vol. Svo, Paris, 1854, in which he
agrees with the views above stated as to the Emperor's part in his own obse-
quies (p. 443).
It is due to M. Gachard to say that in his Betraite et mort de Charles-Qtdnt au
Monastire de Yuste, 3 tomes Svo, Bruxelles, Gaud et Leipzig, 1854-5 (Lettres
Intdites, torn, ler p. Ixxiii.), he admits the force of these opinions, and so far
modifies the views which he had previously expressed by saying — "En resumd,
je n'oserais, pour mon compte, admettre ni rejeter, d'une manifere absolue, les
recits du religieux de Yuste, du prieur fray Martin de Angulo et du P. SigUenza.
La certitude historique ne me paralt encore acquise, b, cet egard, dans un sens
ni dans I'autre ; " while in another passage (p. Ixviii.) he says — "Pour moi, aprfes
une ^tude attentive des documents, je trouve des motifs !i peu pr&s 6gaux de
douter et de croire."
Prescott, who published his Life of Charles the Fifth after his Abdication
in 1856, fairly summarises the arguments on both sides, but inclines to admit
the fact that the obsequies took place.
lleference may also be made to a volume consisting of a summary in Dutch
of these tliree works, viz. : — Af stand, Kloosterleven en Dood van Karel V. naar
Stirling, Mignet en Pichot, door J. L. Terweu,'8vo, Utrecht, 1854. — Ed.]
CHAPTER I
THE IMPERIAL ABDICATION.— tS3&-iss6.
I
2
2
Emperor's intention to retire
Philip made Duke of Milan .
Death of his first wife .
Negotiations for his second mar-
riage 3
Mary Tudor offers the Emperor her
hand 3
He transfers it to Philip . . 3
Philip breaks off match with the
Infanta Mary of Portugal . 4
Emperor's feeble health . . 5
Exaggerated reports of it . .5
Philip made King of Naples . . 6
He is recalled from Windsor to
Bruxelles 6
Is made Grand Master of the
Golden Fleece ... 7
Emperor abdicates the sovereignty
of the Netherlands ... 8
Company and ceremonial . . 8
Emperor's speech , . . .10
Jacques Maes's speech . . .15
VOU V.
Pine
Speech of Philip ... 15
Speech of the Bishop of Arras . 15
Speech of Mary, Queen of Hun-
gafy 17
Jacques Maes's reply . . .18
Emperor signs abdication . .18
Emperor abdicates Sicilian and
Spanish crowns ... 19
Wish to make Philip Emperor op-
posed by Ferdinand, King of
Romans 20
Emperor's Wish to lay aside title . 21
He retires to a house in park of
Bruxelles 21
Is visited by Admiral de Coligny . 22
Jests of Brusquet . , . . 24
The Emperor at Sterrebeke . . 35
Arrival of Maxioiilian and Mary of
Bohemia 25
Journey to the coast . . .25
Emperor's letter to Ferdinand . 26
Embarks for Spain . . .27
d
xlii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER II.
THE BAY OF BISCAY; LAREDO; BURGOS;
V ALL ADO LID. —1 556.
AND
PAGE
PAGR
Eleanor, Queen-dowager of France
Journey to Valladolid .
48
and Portugal .
■ 29
Celeda, 16th Oct.
48
Mary, Queen-dowager of Hungary 32
Palenzuela, 1 7th Oct. .
48
They sail on the 17th .
• 37
Torquemada, i8th Oct.
49
Land on 28th Sept. at Laredc
• 37
Dueaas, 19th Oct.
49
Want of preparations to re
oeive
Cabezon, 20th Oct.
50
them . . . •
• 38
Don Carlos meets Emperor
50
Arrival of Luis Quixada
• 39
Enters Valladolid, 21st Oct.
5'
They start on 6th Oct. .
• 41
Infanta Juana ....
53
Emperor's gifts to Laredo
• 41
Festivities at Valladolid
58
Journey ....
• 41
Perico de Sant Erbas .
59
Ampuero
. 42
Don Constantino de Braganza
60
La Nestosa, 7th Oct. .
• 42
Causes of ill-will between Spain
Aguera, 8th Oct.
• 42
and Portugal ....
60
Medina de Pomar, 9th Oct
• 42
Affairs submitted to Emperor
61
"Visitors
• 45
Anthony, Duke of Vendome .
62
Journey resumed .
• 45
He proposes to sell his rights to
Pesadas, nth Oct.
• 45
Navarre
64
Gondomin, 12th Oct. .
• 45
Doubts as to Emperor's retreat
64
Entry into Burgos, 13th Oc
t. . 46
Don Carlos
65
CHAPTER III.
THE CASTLE OF XARANDILLA.—iss6.
Emperor leaves Valladolid, 4th Nov
67
Illness
68
Valdestillas, 4th Nov. .
68
Medina del Campo, 5th Nov.
68
Horcajo de las Torres, 6th Nov.
70
PeBaranda, 7th Nov.
70
Alaraz, 8th Nov. .
70
GaUegos de Solmiron, 9th Nov.
70
Barco de Avila, loth Nov.
71
Tornavacas, I ith Nov. . . .71
Pass of Puertonuevo . . .72
Xaraudilla, 12th Nov. . . .73
Vera of Plaseucia . . . -74
Reasons for Emperor's choice of his
retreat 75
Village and castle of Xarandilla . 77
Count of Oropesa . . . .78
Bad weather 79
CONTENTS.
xliii
PAOl
Emperor's interest in public aiTatrs 79
Pope Paul IV. and Henry IT. of
France combine against Philip
II 79-81
Coligny invades Flanders . .81
Duke of Guise invades Naples . 81
Flanders defended by Duke of
Savoy 82
Duke of Alba defends Naples 83-4
Infanta Mary of Portugal . . 85
Navarre 87
Barbary ....
Boildingiat Yaste.
Emperor viaita Tnato
Discontent of his boiuehold
Quixada ....
Oaztela ....
Emperor's love of eating
Partridges from Qama .
Sausages from Tordesillas
Presents for Emperor's larder
Qoizada's fears
87
87
89
90
90
9«
9a
94
9S
95
95
CHAPTER IV.
SERVANTS AND K/S/TO/JS.— 1556-1557.
Household of the Emperor . . 97
Confessor, Fr. Juan de Regla . 97
Chamberlain, Luis Quixada . . 100
Doiia Ms^dalena de UUoa, wife of
Quixada 102
Don John of Austria . . . 102
Mystery of Don John's parentage . 104
Early religious training . . .104
Secretary, Martin Gaztelu . . 105
William Van Male, Gentleman-of-
the Chamber .... 106
Translates the Emperor's Memoirt 1 08
Is made to print AcuHa's transla-
tion of Le Chevalier Dilibiri . loS
PutsEmperor's prayers into Latin no
His letters m
His books 112
Loss of his books
Marriage ....
Physicians ....
Dr. Henry Mathys
Dr. Giovanni Antonio Mole
Dr. Comelio Mathys .
Watchmaker, Juanelo Torriano
Emperor's visitors . .
"3
114
"5
«"S
"5
"5
116
116
Fr. Francisco Borja, S. J. . .117
His history 117
Visits Xarandilla, Dea 1556 . 121
Hia Apologia . , •123
Emperor's opinion of it . .124
Fr. Bustamente . . . .125
Discussion of the Jesuits . .125
Emperor's reconciliation . .127
Audiences with Borja private . 1 27
Don Luis de Avila . . . .128
His Commentaries on the War in
Germany ..... 129
Visits Xarandilla 2lst Jan. 1557 132
Archbishop of Toledo and the
Bishop of Plasencia . .132
Emperor's health . . . .133
Attack of gout . . . .133
Appetite 134
Refreshments 134
Senna wine 134
Neapolitan manna . . . .135
His Christmas present of game to
the convent . . . . 13S
Lorenzo Pires 135
News from Italy . . . .136
xliv
CONTENTS.
Emperor's disgust .
His anxiety for safety of Oran
Works at Yuste
Servants paid off and take leave
FAOE
. 136
• 137
• 137
. 138
Removal to Yuste, 3rd Feb. 1557
Reception ....
Blunder of the prior
Grief of the dismissed servants
PAOE
• 139
• 139
. 140
. 140
CHAPTER V.
THE MONASTERY OF ST. JEROME OF rC/STE.— 1557.
Order of St. Jerome
Yuste ....
Its site
Its name, foundation in 1408, and
early history .
Its progress
Its remarkable monks
Fray Pedro de Bejar
Gerdnimo de Plasencia .
Melchor de Yepes .
Fray Juan de Xeres
Fray Rodrigo de Ca^eres
Diego de San Ger(5nimo .
Fray Alonso Mudarra
Fray Hernando de Corral
Fray Antonio de Villacastin
Fray Juan de Ortega
Charities of Yuste .
The Palacio of Yuste
Emperor's rooms .
Prospect from his chambers .
The great "Nogal" of Yuste
Domestic arrangements .
. 143
Chief members of household
. 146
Emperor's health and physi-
. 146
cians
1
Furniture of the palace
. H7
Plate
. 148
Emperor's dress
• 149
Pictures .
• 149
Portraits
• 149
Books .
• «49
Music
• 149
Organ
■ ISO
Choir .
. 150
The chaplains
. 150
Fray Francisco de Villalva
• ISO
Fray Juan de Ajoloras
■ IS2
Fray Juan de Santandres
• 154
Emperor's day
• 154
Torriano and his clocks .
■ 154
Self-acting mill
• iSS
Mechanical toys
• 155
Emperor's pet birds and shooting
• >59
excursions . . . .
• 159
His last appearano
3 on horse
back.
160
162
165
166
166
168
171
172
173
174
174
175
175
176
176
177
178
179
180
180
180
CHAPTER VI.
STATE-CRAFT IN THE CLOISTER.
more reconciled to
'557-
Household
Yuste 183
Monsieur de la Chaulx . . .183
Improvement in Emperor's health 184
Quixada complains of solitude of
Yuste 185
Emperor's attention to business . 185
His stvle and title . . . .186
CONTENTS.
xlv
He accredits an ambassador to For-
tagal i86
Petitioners i86
Refutation of tale that he repented
of his retiral .... 187
His revenue punctually paid . 190-1
Financial difiiculties of Spain . 192
Princess-Regent seizes bullion be-
longing to traders of Seville . 193
They resist her officers with suc-
cess 193
Emperor's indignation against them 194
Foreign affairs
Ruy Gomez de Silva
Emperor's high opinion of him
He is lodged in the convent .
Philip desires Emperor to reside
nearer Valladolid .
He consults him as to sending Don
Carlos to Flanders .
Emperor disapproves
War in Netherlands and Navarre
Affairs in Italy
Duke of Guise invades Naples
Duke of Alba defends it
Solyman the Magnificent
Pirates of the Mediterranean
Barbarossa's ravages
Levies for army of Flanders .
Emperor appeals to the Church for
a loan ....
Archbishops of Toledo and Zara
goza ....
195
196
197
197
197
197
198
198
199
'99
199
200
200
201
202
203
TAOm
Bishop of Cordoba .... 30}
Archbishop of Seville .203
His delays 204
His excuses .... 205
His discnssion with Ocboa and
its result 206
Agrees to lend $0,000 dacats . 307
Ruy Gomez de Silva's second visit
to Yuste with agents of An-
thony, King of Nararre . . 307
Death of John III. of Portugal . 308
Jealousy of Portugal and Spain . 209
Emperor condoles with his sister,
Queen Catherine . . . 210
Princess of Brazil disappointed of
the regency of Portugal . .211
Operations in Flanders . . .311
Battle of St. Qnentin . . .211
Spanish victory, loth August .212
Joy occasioned by news at Yuste . 213
Dilatory pohcy of Philip II. . .213
Italy 213
Guise retreats from Neapolitan
frontier 314
Alba advances on Rome . .214
Shameful treaty between PhiUp II.
and the Pope .... 21$
Emperor's displeasure . . . 216
Don Carlos 318
Letters from his tutor to the Em-
peror 218
Venetian envoy's opinion of Don
Carlos 220
CHAPTER VII.
THE VISIT OF THE QUEENS.— JSS7-
Emperor's good health .
Famine and sickness In the Vera
Emperor's garden . ,
22t
222
223
His fondness for birds . . . 333
His poultry and fish-ponds . . 224
His care for domestic comforts . 224
xlvi CONTENTS.
FAOE
PACE
Quixada obtains leave of absence . 225
Presents to Emperor's larder from
The friars become unruly . . 226
churchmen . . . .
239
Quixada's return .... 226
Visits of Queens Eleanor and Mary
240
His dislike to Yuste . . .227
They arrive at Yuste, 28th Sep-
Death of Fray Juan de Ortega . 227
tember
240
Lazarillo de Tomies . . . 228
The Queens look out for permanent
Question as to its authorship . 229
abode
241
Turbulent peasants of Quacos . 230
Guadalaxara
241
Juan Gines Sepulveda visits Yuste 231
Correspondence with Duke of In-
Don Luis de Avila .... 233
fantado
241
His house at Plasencia and its
Infanta Mary of Portugal
242
frescoes ...".. 233
Jealousy between Portugal and
His opinion of the Emperor in
Spain
243
his Conitnentarles . . . 234
Queens go to Badajoz, 15th Dec. .
244
Emperor's partiality for him . 235
Hurricane at Yuste
245
Fresco of battle of Renti . . 236
Fray Fran. Borja sent by Princess-
Remark of the Emperor on It . 236
Regent to Lisbon .
245
Report of Emperor's removal to
Returns by way of Yuste
246
Navarre 237
Emperor's confidence in him .
247
Don Francisco Bolivar . . . 238
Dispute between Borja's son and
Don Martin de Avendano . . 238
the Admiral of Aragon .
247
MessE^e to Quixada from Marlquita
Borja's judgment . . . .
248
de Erase 239
Alms given to Borja on leaving
248
CHAPT]
5R VIII.
THE DEATH OF QUEEN ELEANOR.—ISSS-
Emperor's health declines . . 249
Emperor's mortification on receiv-
Burglary at Yuste .... 250
ing news
257
Dispute with corregidor of Pla-
Report of pregnancy of Queen
sencia 250
Mary of England and Spain .
258
Don John de Acuiia . . .251
Her death
258
Philip's treaty with the Pope . 25 1
Emperor's gout . . . .
258
Emperor's dissatisfaction with it . 251
Meeting between the Queens and
Duke of Alba and his share in the
the Infanta Mary of Portugal
business 252
at Badajoz . . . .
259
Affairs in Flanders . . . .255
Queens leave Badajoz .
260
Spanish losses .... 256
Queen Eleanor taken ill at Tala-
Guise takes Calais .... 256
verilla , . . . .
261
CONTENTS.
xlvii
PAOK
She dies, leavinft her fortune to the
Infanta of Portugal , . 263
Grief of Queen Mary and the Em-
peror .... 263-4
Luis de Arila visits him . . 265
Queen Mary at Yuste . . . 265
Envoys from Valladolid and Lis-
bon 265
Queen Mary removes to Xaran-
dilla 266
Goes to Valladolid attended by
Quixada 266
Emperor desires that she be con-
sulted on public affairs . . 267
Princess-Regent refuses . . . 267
Emperor's scheme of finance . . 268
Seville bullion case . . . 268
Grand-Inquisitor Valdds refuses to
attend body of Queen Juana
to Granada .... 269
Emperor's health and occupation . 271
His fondness for religious cere-
monies 271
r*oi
He gives the friani a picnlo on St.
Bias's Day .... 273
His attention to religioiu forms
and fasts 373-3
He flogs himself in the choir on
Fridays in Lent . 274
His strictness with his Flemish
aervants 274
Good Friday 275
St. Matthia.s' Day celebrations . 275
Emperor's familiarity with the
friars 276
Alonso Hudarra .... 276
Emperor dines in friars' refectory . 277
His good nature to his servants . 278
He is disturbed by women at con-
vent gate 279
The remedy 280
Renunciation of imperial crown,
3rd May 280
Emperor's joy at the intelligence,
and consequent orders . . 380
His dislilce of royal insignia . .281
CHAPTER IX.
THE INQUISITION, ITS ALLIES AND ITS VICTIMS.— t^sS-
The Church in danger . . . 283
Church abuses and reform move-
ment 284
Heretical books .... 287
Bibles 287
Spanish heretics not Protestants . 289
Causes of the repression of heresy
in Spain .... 291-4
Measures of Grand - Inquisitor
Valdds 294
Dr. Augustin Cazalla . . . 295
Letters and words of Emperor . 296
Fray Domingo de Roxas
Progress of the persecution .
Anxiety of the Emperor
His letter to the Regent
His letter to the King, and its
autograph postscript
The King's memorandum
Quixada'sinterview with the Grand
Inquisitor
The Inquisitor's measures detailed
in letter to the Emperor .
Censure of books .
»97
297
29S
299
299
300
300
301
301
xlviii CONTENTS.
PACE
PACK
Catalogue of prohibited books
302
Measures of defencfe . . . 320
Dr. Mathys bul-ns his Bible .
303
Perpignan, Andalusia, Catalonia,
Father Borja's son
304
Valencia 320
Pompeyo Leoni ....
304
Emperor's distress about Ciuda-
Fray Domingo de Guztnan .
305
della 320
Arrest of Const. Ponce de la Fuente
30s
Return of Quixada to Yuste with
Execution of Dr. Cazalla
306
his wife and Don John of
Of Fray Francisco de Roxas, and
Austria 321
Fray Domingo de Guzman
307
Illness of the Regent . . .322
Death of Const. Ponce de la
Her proposal to change the capital
Fuente
308
of Spain 323
Emperor's hatred of heresy .
308
Affair of the Adelantado of Canary 323
His regrets fot having spared life
Death of the prior of Yuste . . 324
of Luther ....
309
Emperor refuses to interfere in
Archbishopric of "Toledo
310
election of his successor . 323
Fray Bartolom^ Carranza de Mir-
Fray Martin de Angulo appointed 325
anda made Archbishop .
310
Visits of Don Luis do Avila . . 325
Account of him ....
3"
The Bishop of Avila . . .325
Jealousy of Valdfe
3»2
Count of Oropesa . . . 325
Carranza's reception at Valladolid
313
Garcilasso de la Vega . . 326
War in Flanders ....
314
Don Pedro Manrique . . .327
Duke of Guise takes Thionville
315
Don Pedro Giron . . .327
Battle of Gravelines gained by the
Fray Francisco Borja . . 327
Spaniards ....
316
The Emperor's Memoirs . . 328
Turkish fleet on coast of Spain
317
His anxiety as to his treatment by
At Negropont ....
318
historians .... 329
Eeggio sacked ....
318
Ocampo 329
Sorrento pillaged
318
Sepulveda 330
Menorca attacked
319
Courtly reply of Borja . . .331
Ciudadella sacked
319
Recollections of Borja in the Vera 332
CHAPTER X.
THE DEATH OF THE EMPEROR.— ISSS.
Emperor's health in spring and
Performs his own obsequies, 30th
summer .... 333-4
August 337
Physician becomes alarmed in
Taken ill next day .... 339
August
33S
Meditations on his wife's portrait
Emperor's attention to religious
and other pictures . . . 339
rites
336
Laid on his deathbed . . .340
CONTENTS.
xlix
Details of his illness
Sept. I. Making of his will .
Sept. 2. Dr. Cornelio sent for
Sept. 3. Slight improvement .
TkOt
■ 340
• 340
• 341
• 341
Sept. 4 341
Sept. 5. Physic .... 342
Sept. 6. Delirium. — Letters . 342-3
Sept. 7 343
Sept. 8. Dr. Cornelio arrives . 343
Garcilasso brings despatches . 343
Codicil to will .... 343
Sept. 9. News of defeat 'of Count
of Alcaudete in Africa, not
broken to Emperor . . 344-S
Emperor signs codicil of will . 346
Its recommendation to the King
to put down heresy . . 346
Regla's suggestions regarding
Don John of Austria . . 346
Sept. 10. Queen of Hungary con-
sents to go to Flanders . . 347
Sept. 11. Crisis in the fever . . 347
347
348
349
349
349
350
Sept. 12 .
Sept. 13. Patient worse
Sept. IS .
Sept. 16 .
Sept. 17. Little hope
Sept. 18 .
Sept. 19. Emperor receives ex
treme unction .
Sept. 20. His last private c
ference with Quizada
He insists on receiving the
Eucharist
His devoutness .
The Archbishop of Toledo
arrives ....
Closing scene
Sept. 21. Death
Grief of Quixada .
VOL. V.
351
3S2
353
353
354
356
357
359
TAO*
■ 359
. 360
. 360
.360
.361
Curiosity of watching frisri
Preparations for interment
Body embalmed .
Funeral services and rite*
Funeral sermon by Villalva
Sermons by Fray Luis do S. Ore-
gorio and Fray Francisco de
Angulo ....
Remarks on character of Cbarlen
His abdication and its causes
Emperor's device and motto .
His love of monks and con
vents
It descends to his children
Ferdinand
Maximilian
Philip II.
Don John of Austria
Philip III. .
Philip IV.
Charles n. .
Queen Juana .
Archduchess Margaret .
Infanta Isabella
Queen Margaret
Louis XIV. .
Empress Maria Theresa .
Charles's love of Yuste .
His disappointments there
His prudence .
Dulness of his writings .
His popular manners
His religious moderation in
world
His bigotry in the cloister
The Carolea of Sempere .
The Carlo Famoio of ^apata
Extracts from the Carlo Famoto
Mention of Don John of Austria
in the poem .... 384
the
363
364
366
370
371
37a
37*
37»
372
372
372
373
373
373
373
373
374
374
374
375
375
376
377
37S
379
380
381
382
382
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI.
FINAL NOTICES OF THE COURT OF yC/STE.— 1558.
Portents at the death of the Em-
peror 387
Contents of the codicil to his will 389
Paper relating to Don John of
Austria 393
The Princess-Regent's orders re-
specting the Emperor's per-
sonal property . " . 393-4
Quixada and his wife and Don John 394
Traditional origin of name of
Quacos, note . . ■ . 395
Funeral honours of Emperor at
Valladolid . . . .395
At Bruxelles, &c. ... 397
At Lisbon 398
At Rome and London . . 399
Emperor's body removed to the
Escorial in 1574 . . . 401
Placed in the Pantheon by Philip
IV. in 1654 .... 404
Remark of Philip II. . . . 404
The Emperor's sarcophagus said to
have been opened by Charles
III. for Mr. Beckford . . 406
Again opened in 1867 by Queen
Isabella 407
Queen Mary of Hungary . . 409
Death of Queen Mary of England . 411
Third marriage of Philip II. . .411
His return to Spain . . . 413
The Princess-Regent Juana . . 413
Luis Quixada 416
Don John of Austria received by
Philip II 418
Don John's command against the
Moriscos 421
PAGE
Quixada's death .... 422
Doaa Magdalena de Ulloa . . 422
Extracts from letters of Don John 423
Don John's affection for Do&a Mag-
dalena 424
Her Jesuits' church and college at
Villagarcia .... 426
Insolence of the visitor of the com-
pany to her and her friends . 426
Her other foundations and alms
deeds 427
Her death . ' . . . . 427
Quixada's disposition of his estate 428
His portrait now at Madrid . . 428
William Van Male . . . .431
Correspondence between Phihp II,
and the Bishop of Arras, re
specting his papers
Death of Van Male
Martin de Gaztelu .
Guyou de Moron .
Dr. Henry Mathys .
Dr. Cornello Mathys
Fray Juan de Regla
Fray Francisco de ViUalva .
Fray Juan de Ayoloras .
Fray Juan de Santandres
Fray Antonio de Villacastin .
Giovanni Torriano .
Fray Francisco Borja .
Borja's death ....
His beatification .
Archbishop Carranza of Toledo
Hernando de ValdiSs, Archbishop
of Seville .
Don Luis de Avila
431
431
434
434
43S
43S
435
439
440
440
440
442
445
450
451
451
458
458
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XII.
YUSTE AND ITS RUINS.— i^g.
The Duke of Alba returns to Spain 461
The monastery of Yuste . . 462
Visited by Philip II. . . . 462
Inscriptions on its walls . 462-3
Characteristics of its occupants 464
Visitors to Yuste .... 466
Don Antonio Ponz
466
M. Alexandre Laborde . 466
Lord John Rassell . . 468
Destruction of the monastery . 469
Partial restoration .... 469
Visit of Mr. Ford . . . .469
Final suppression .... 470
Visit of the author in 1849 . . 470
APPENDIX.
A Selection fbom the Extracts made by Don Tohas Oonzaln
FROM THE INVKNTORT OF THE JEWELS, WARDROBE, AND FUBNITURK
OP THE Emperor Charles V., drawn up after his death . 477
Notices op the Emperor Charles V. in 1555 and 1556, selected
PROM THE Despatches op Fbderigo Badoer 487
INDEX S19
25-8
5S..
■so
3o .
•4J
rcs
■*«
ss..
^
1^1
S
e
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6
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-I
8
8
"-:? =?
323
II
3 a .
g^ O •-
oSas
_r* o .
" 00
41-05 S
i3^
II
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B .. .*
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s ."m a
Is ° •
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-g" -B
S O (oy
*p go-i-
ce P*r-. o
<5
1
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^ Cl Cr3 S O :3 ■* ,
U i-H r-l OQQ»i^i-lO
P&.-2 "^^ t
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2^.-, ca cu c; fc "ts -B
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o
m
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- WS o
s' if o 4> a"
^^ r-l . e.
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<» R S 2 . -
-fe-3B£g?H
_n g o 3
3"
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t- t- (d
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.K a
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■g-awm
5 C
: " C
bo J
s —
_ I— '-c ^ tr
M'^S'I
'3(a-=5
'<=;
§
© g
w 3 a M
E 3 <•
THE CLOISTER LIFE
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
CHAPTER I.
THE IMPERIAL ABDICATION.
fT is not possible to deter-
mine the precise time
at which the Emperor
Charles V. formed his
celebrated resolution to
exchange the cares and
honours of a throne for
the religious seclusion
of a cloister. It is cer-
tain, however, that this resolution was foi-med many
years before it was carried into effect. With his
VOL. V. A
CHAP. I.
Emperor's
intention
to retire.
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. r.
'538-51-
Philip
inadeDuko
of Milan.
Death of
bis first
wife.
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
convent 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
mentioned by Bernardo Navagiero, the sharp-eared
envoy of Venice, in a report to the Doge.' Lorenzo
Pires, the Portuguese envoy to Spain after the
Emperor's retirement, asserts that Charles himself
told him at that time that he had resolved to
retire from the cares of power as early as 1535,
after his triumphant return from the conquest of
Tunis.''
In 1548, Philip, heir-apparent of the Spanish
monarchy, was sent for by his father to receive the
oath of allegiance from the States of the Nether-
lands ; and in 1551, he was invested 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 III. of Portugal. On
his return to Spain, he entered into negotiations for
the hand of a second Portuguese bride, his cousin.
' Relatione, Luglio, 1546; printed in Correspondence of the Emperor
Charles V., edited by Rev. W. Bradford, 8vo, London, 1850, p. 475.
' Mignet, Charles Quint, son abdication, son sijour et sa mort au
monastire de Yustc, Svo, Paris, 1854, p. 6.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
the Infanta Mary,* daughter of his father's sister
Eleanor, by the late King, Don Emanuel. After
delays unusual even in Peninsulai- diplomacy, these
negotiations had almost reached a successful issue,
when the Emperor, on the 30th July 1553, from
Bruxelles, addressed Philip in a letter which pro-
duced 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 tempting opportunity
must be foregone. " Were the dominions 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 consideration, and
to weigh well the merits of the English princess
before he resolved to conclude any other match.
In her childhood, the Lady Mary had been betrothed
to the Emperor, and she was now eleven years older
than his son. But Philip, who was preparing to
many an infanta of thirty-three, was quite willing
CHAP. I.
•553.
NeKotia*
tiou for
hiaMOODd
marriag*.
Mu7
Tudor
offen tha
Emperor
her huuL
Ha tnuu.
fers it to
PhUip.
» Her life has been written by Fr. Miguel racheco, Vida de la
seretiissima Infanta Dona Maria hija del Rey D. Manuel, fundadera
de la insigne capilla mayor del convento de A'™- Seiiora de la Luz ; fol.,
Lisboa, 1675.
' " Pero bien os puedo asegurar que otros muclios cstados mas priiici-
pales no me doblaran ni moveran del proposito en que cstoi, que es bien
diferente." Emp. to Philip II., 30th July 1553.
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. I.
■553-
Breaks off
match with
the Infanta
Mary of
Portugal.
to transfer his affections to a queen of thirty-seven.
Usually slow to decide, he showed in this matter a
promptitude of decision which proves 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
his readiness to take that 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, they opened the diplomatic campaign ^ 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 suggested to his son the propriety of break-
' In the Statesman, Dec. 19, 1858, it is stated that Sir W. Davenant,
in his Peace, War, and Alliances, asserts that Charles V. sent over
6,200,000 crowns to bribe members of the House of Commons to vote for
Queen Mary Tudor's marriage with Philip II.
' And so tersely celebrated in the epigram of Matthias Corvinus —
" Bella gerant alii ; tu felix Austria nube !
Nam quse Mars aliis dat tibi regna Veuus."
" Fight those who will ; let well-starr'd Austria wed,
And conquer kingdoms in the marriage bed."
In the Reader, 29th July 1865, it is said : " Dr. Buchman of Berlin asks
the question, Upon what authority does William Stirling, in TJie Cloister
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
ing faith with his favourite sister's only child, he
signed the first order for money to be spent in build-
ing his retreat at Yuste, a Jeronymite 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.
Rest and quiet were indeed urgently demanded by
the state of his health. His constitution, naturally
feeble, had long been undermined by violent attacks
of gout. In 1550, that disease, flying to his head,
had threatened him with sudden death. In 1552,
when his army of sixty thousand men lay before
Metz, gpd all his thoughts were bent on that cele-
brated siege, it was with difficulty, when he visited
the lines, that he could sit his Turkish charger for
a quarter of an hour at a time ; his face was pale
and thin, his eyes sunken, and his hair and beard
were observed to have whitened with remarkable
rapidity.^ Early in 1554, his health and spirits were
so much shaken, that there was some colour for
Life of Charles V., attribute to Matthias Corviniis the well-known distich,
' Bella gerant alii,' &c., seeing that Katuna makes no mention of it under
Corvinus?"
I fear I had no better authority than the Biograp/iie Universclle. I
do not see the distich noticed in Vehse's Memoirs of the Court of
Austria.
' This is not borne out by Gachard, Bdraile et mart de Charles Quint,
2 tomes 8vo, Bruxellcs, 1854, torn, i., introduction, p. 26. "SesgcniSrnux
lui trouvbreut une nieilleure u)ino qu'il n'avait eu depuis dix ar.s."
Lettres de Charles de Tisiuwq, du Comte d'Arenberg et du Comtc d'Eg-
iitont A la lieine de Hoiigric, 20, 24, and 25 Nov. 1531.
CHAP. I.
•554.
Emperor'*
feeble
health.
Exag-
gerated
reports
of it.
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. I.
1554-5-
Philip
made King
of Naples.
Is recalled
from
Windsor to
Bruxelles.
the deplorable report of them which the French
ambassador was instructed to make to the Sultan
at Constantinople. Solyman the Magnificent was
to be told that his great Christian rival had lost
the use of an arm and a leg ; that he was utterly
unfit for business, and spent his time in taking
watches to pieces and putting them together again ;
that he was gradually going out of his mind ; and
that his sister, the Queen of Hungary, permitted
him to be seen only at the far end of a long gallery,
where he showed himself sitting in his chair, and
looking more like a statue than a man.^ In spite,
however, of gout, dyspepsia, and horological pursuits,
he succeeded, greatly to the chagrin of France, in
adding the crown matrimonial of England to the
many diadems which were to be worn by his son
Philip. But had he much longer continued to bear
the burden of supreme power, there is little doubt
that the hand of death would soon have made Mary
Tudor Queen of Castile.
That Philip might meet his English bride on equal
terms, the Emperor ceded to him, in 1554, the title
of King of Naples. In the autumn of 1555, he
recalled him from Windsor to receive yet higher
and more substantial honours, and to assist at the
' Ribier, Lettres et Memoires d'etat sous les Regncs de Francois I.,
Henri II., et Francois II., 2 vols, fol., Paris, 1677, ii. p. 485.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
most remarkable solemnities of a century prolific of
great pageants as well as of great events. The
theatre of these solemnities was the hall of the
castle of Caudenberg/ the ancient palace of the
Dukes of Brabant, a mass of buildings enclosing
spacious courts and tilt-yards," and belonging to
various dates and styles, from the towering donjon
keep of Duke John II.,' to the airy portal, pierced
and pinnacled in the richest Gothic of the days
of Charles the Bold. Here,* on the 23rd October,
Charles held a chapter of the Golden Fleece,
and invested Philip with the grand mastership of
that illustrious order. Two days later, on the
CHAP. I.
•5SS-
bmade
Qrtind
Muter of
the Qoldcn
Fleece.
' Tlie palace and park of Bruxellcs are thus described by Roger
Aschain : —
" The Emperor's palace is overmatched with many of the King's houses
in England ; it is built fair of freestone by Duke Charles of Burgoyne that
married Margaret, King Edward the IV.'s sister. The arms of Burgoyne
and England be joined together in very solemn work. This palace hath a
park joined to it, with high walls of stone, standing within the walls of
the city, full of white bulls, full of trees ami yet no other the rest but
fair walnut trees and apple trees." Letter to Edw. Raven, dated Augsburg,
January 20, 1561 ; Whole Wof/cs of Roger Ascham, ed. by Dr. Giles,
3 vols. 8vo, London, 1864-5, '^ol. i. part ii. p. 245. Ascham .was at
Bruxelles 4th and 5th October 1550.
' lielazioiie di G. Contarini ; Eelazioni degli Ambasciatori Vetteti al
Seiiato, serie i. vol. ii., Firenze, 1840, p. 22.
* The building was destroyed by a fire, which broke out on the night
of the 3rd or 4th February 1731. It occupied the site of the present
church of Caudenberg, and of the Place-royale. Th. Juste, L' Abdication
de Charles Quint, 8vo, Li{;ge, 1851, p. 12, note ; an agreeable work, re-
printed in a separate form from the Progr^s Pacijique.
* The best and most minute account of the arrangement of the hall is
in Stiiiiario de lafomta de <iue cesd el Empcrador cuando hizo cesivn de*
Estades (los Paints Bajos) Docuiiientos inedilos, torn. vii. pp. 524-9.
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. I.
ISSS-
Emperor
abdicates
the sove-
reignty
of the
Nether-
lands.
Company
and cere-
monial.
25tli October, at three o'clock in the afternoon,
the States-General of the Netherlands appeared in
the same hall by their deputies, to witness the
Emperor's abdication of the dominions of the house
of Burgundy. They took their seats on benches
placed in the form of a half circle, in front of a
decorated dais, on which stood three chairs beneath
a canopy of state. On each side of this dais were
rows of seats, those on the right being reserved for
the knights of the Golden Fleece, and those on the
left for royal and noble guests. Ai'chers of the
guard and halberdiers stood sentry at the doors and
kept order in the body of the hall, which was densely
crowded with spectators. The walls were covered
with magnificent tapestries, on which the rich looms
of Flanders had wrought the story of the Fleece of
Gold, and the institution of the order by Philip the
Good. When the deputies had taken their places
according to their rank, the doors which communi-
cated with the palace chapel were thrown open, and
the Emperor appeared. The whole assembly rose
and uncovered as he approached. Supporting him-
self on the right with a staff, and leaning with his
left hand on the shoulder of William, Prince of
Orange, he slowly made his way across the dais,
and seated himself in the central chair. He was
closely followed by his son Philip, by his sisters,
Mary, Queen of Hungary, and Eleanor, Queen of
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
France, and by his nephew, Ferdinand, Archduke of
Austria. After these came his beautiful niece, Chris-
tina, Duchess of Lorraine, his nephew the gallant
Emanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, and the Pope's
nuncio, heading a splendid throng of cardinals, ambas-
sadors, nobles, and knights of the Fleece. Sir John
Mason was ambassador from the Queen of England
to the court at Bruxelles, and another Englishman
of higher historical fame was also there ; Sir Thomas
Gresham, then the Queen's Factor at Antwerp.* The
King of England and Naples seated himself in the
chair on the Emperor's right hand, while the Queen
of Hungary took that on his left. When all were
placed, the usher of the council called over the
names of the deputies of the provinces, and asked
if they were furnished with the necessary powers.
Their answers made, the Emperor ordered the Coun-
cillor Philibert de Bruxelles to state to the assembly
the reasons which had induced him to abdicate the
throne. In a pompous oration, that functionary set
forth that ill-health had rendered the burden of
power intolerable to their master, and compelled him
to seek the milder climate of Spain ; and he ex-
patiated on the good fortune of the Netherlands in
being thus called upon to transfer their allegiance
CHAP. I.
•SS5-
1 Life and Times of Sir Thomas Grcshani, by J. W. Burgon, 2 vols.
8vo, London, 1839, vol. i. p. 173.
lO
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. I.
I5SS-
Emperor's
speech.
to a prince in all respects so admirable as the heir-
apparent of Castile. The Emperor then rose, slowly
and painfully, leaning heavily on the arm of the
Prince of Orange. Holding in his hand a paper of
notes, to which he occasionally referred, he delivered
in French, in the midst of the profoundest silence,
a speech, of which the substance, if not the exact
words, has been preserved.^
" Some of you," he said, " will remember that on
the 5th January last, forty years had elapsed since
the day when, in this very hall, I received, at the age
of fifteen, from my paternal grandfather the Empe-
ror Maximilian, the sovereignty of the Belgian pro-
vinces. My maternal grandfather, King Ferdinand
the Catholic, dying soon after, there devolved on me
the care of a heritage which the state of my mother's
health did not permit her to govern. At the age
of seventeen, therefore, I crossed the sea to take
possession of the kingdom of Spain. At nineteen,
on the death of the Emperor, I ventured to aspire to
the imperial crown, from a desire, not of extending
my dominions, but of the more eflfectually providing
' Tlie official account of the abdication, and various documents con-
nected with it, ten in all, preserved in the royal archives of Belgium,
have been published by M. Gachard, in his Analectes Belgiques, 8vo,
Bruxelles, 1830, vol. i. pp. 70-106. The Emperor's speech is unfortunately
not officially reported, nor do the original notes exist, but there is an
account of it drawn up "par quelquc bo?i pcrsonnaige estaiit a la dicte
assemblie," which must have been esteemed a correct one, or it would
hardly have been placed in the archives.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
ti
for the safety of Germany, and of my other kingdoms,
and especially of the Belgian provinces, and in the
hope of maintaining peace amongst Christian nations,
and of uniting their forces in defending the Catholic
faith against the Turk.
" These designs I have not been able completely
to execute, owing, in part, to the outbreak of the
German heresy, and in part to the jealousy of rival
powers. But with God's help I have never ceased
to resist my enemies, and to endeavour to fulfil the
task imposed on me. In the course of my expedi-
tions, sometimes to make war, sometimes to make
peace, I have travelled nine times into High
Germany, six times into Spain, seven times into
Italy, four times into France, twice into England,
and twice into Africa, accomplishing in all forty long
journeys, without counting visits of less importance
to my various states. I have crossed the Medi-
terranean eight times, and the Spanish sea twice.
I will not now allude to my journey from Spain to
the Netherlands, undertaken, as you know, for
reasons sufficiently grave.^ My frequent absence
from these provinces obliged me to intrust their
government to my sister Mary, who is here present.
I know, and the States-General know also, how well
she has discharged her duties. Although I have
CHAP. I.
' To suppress the insurrection at Ghent in iS4a
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. I.
iSSS-
been engaged in many wars, into none of them have
I gone willingly ; and in bidding you farewell,
nothing is so painful to me as not to have been able
to leave you a firm and assured peace. Before my
last expedition into Germany, considering the deplor-
able state of my health, I had already contemplated
relieving myself of the burden of public business ;
but the troubles which agitated Christendom induced
me to put off my design, in the hope of restoring
peace, and because, not being so enfeebled as I now
am, I felt it incumbent on me to sacrifice to the
welfare of my people what remained to me of
strength and life. I had almost attained the end
of my endeavours, when the sudden attack made
upon me by the King of France and some of the
German princes forced me again to take up arms.
I have done what I can to defeat the league against
me ; but the issue of war is in the hand of God,
who gives victory or takes it away at His pleasure.
Let us be thankful to Providence that we have not
to deplore any of those great reverses which leave
deep traces behind them, but, on the contrary, have
obtained some victories of which our children may
cherish the remembrance. In entering on my retire-
ment I entreat you to be faithful to your prince, and
to maintain a good understanding amongst your-
selves. Above all, resist those new sects which infest
the adjoining countries ; and if heresy should pene-
EMPEROR CHARLES V. 13
trate within your frontier, hasten to extii-pate it, or chap. i.
evil will overtake you. For myself, I must confess 'sss-
that I have been led into many errors, whether by
youthful inexperience, or by the pride of riper age,
or by some other weakness inherent in human nature.
But I declare that never, knowingly and willingly,
have I done wrong or violence, nor authorised such
deeds in others. If, notwithstanding, such offences
may be justly chargeable upon me, I solemnly assure
you that I have committed them unknown to myself
and against my own desire ; and I entreat those
whom I may thus have wronged, both those who are
present to-day and those who are absent, to grant
me their forgiveness."
" And here," says the English envoy,* in a
despatch narrating the scene, " he broke into
weeping, whereunto, besides the dolefulness of the
matter, I think he was much provoked by seeing the
whole company to do the like before ; there being,
in my opinion, not one man in the whole assembly,
stranger or other, that during the time of a good
piece of his oration poured not out abundantly tears,
some more, some less." Compelled by his emotions
to pause in his address, the Emperor sat down to
rest. Queen Eleanor took the opportunity of hand-
• Sir John Mason, despatch quoted by J. W. Burgon ; Life and Timet
of Sir Thomas Oresham, 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1839, vol. i. pp. 175-6.
14
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. I.
1555-
ing him a small cup of cordial. Having touched it
with his lips, he again rose, and turning to his son,
who stood uncovered by his side, addressed him to
this effect.
"Were you put in possession of these provinces
by my death, so fair a heritage might well give me
a claim on your gratitude. But now that I give them
up to you of my own will, dying as it were before the
time for your advantage, I expect that your care and
love of your people will repay me in the way such
a boon deserves. Other kings reckon themselves
fortunate to be able, at the hour of death, to place
their crowns on their children's heads ; I wish to
enjoy this happiness in my life, and to see you reign.
My conduct will have few imitators, as it has few
examples ; but it will be praised if you justify my
confidence, if you do not decline in the wisdom
you have hitherto displayed, and if you continue
to be the strenuous defender of the Catholic faith,
and of law and justice, which are the strength
and the bulwarks of empire. May you also have
a son to whom you may, in turn, transmit your
power ! "
With these words the Emperor tenderly em-
braced his son, who was now kneeling before him,
and kissing his hand. Placing his hand on the
head of his successor, Charles V., with tears in his
eyes, bestowed on him his paternal blessing, and
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
•5
committed him to the protection of God. Philip's
cold heart was melted at this solemn moment, and
he also shed tears, which likewise flowed plentifully
both in the ranks of the noble and knightly spec-
tators, and amongst the populace in the centre of
the hall.
The Emperor and his son having resumed their
seats, Jacques Maes, an eminent lawyer and syndic
of Antwerp, stood up to answer the abdicating
monarch in the name of the States-General. His
speech was remarkable for long-winded magnilo-
quence and gross adulation. Charles was described
as the greatest of monarchs, his Flemish people as
the most devoted and peaceable of subjects. As
for Philip, that worthy image of a great sire was
declared to be so marvellously endowed by nature,
that had the States-General been free to choose their
lord, they must have preferred him to any other
prince in Christendom. Eising from his chair, the
new sovereign bowed to the assembly, replied in a
few words expressive of his regret for his imperfect
French, which compelled him to speak through the
mouth of the Bishop of Arras, to whom, however,
he had imparted his wishes and his feelings.
Anthony Perrenot, Bishop of Arras, was the able
statesman afterwards so powerful and so famous as
Cardinal Granvelle. His address was well suited to
the occasion, being brief, clear, and dignified. In
CHAP. I.
"555.
JaoquM
■pMoh.
Sp«ech of
Philip.
Speech of
the Bishop
of Ami.
i6
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. I.
iSSS-
the King's name he assured the States-General that
His Majesty had accepted the sovereignty only out of
respect to the express command of his father. He
solemnly promised to employ all his power in
governing them and defending them well, and he
hoped that he should find himself the ruler of a loyal
people. He would remain among them as long, and
he would return to them as often, as affairs required
his presence. He would specially watch over the
maintenance of the Catholic religion, justice, their
pMiLir ■■
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
'7
old laws, privileges and immunities, and in all
things would show himself a good prince, as he
hoped that they would show themselves good
subjects.
When the Bishop ended his harangue, the third
personage in the royal group beneath the canopy
rose to address the assembly. Mary, Queen of
Hungary, for twenty-four years the able and inde-
fatigable ruler of the Netherlands, announced that
she also was about to resign the delegated authority
which she had so long wielded. The Emperor and
the King, said she, had at last permitted her to pass
into Spain, there to serve God in the tranquillity
which her age and her fatigues demanded. Had
her knowledge and capacity been equal to the zeal
and fidelity with which she had devoted herself to
her duties, never would sovereign have been better
served, nor country better governed. While she
begged for indulgence and forgiveness for the errors
which she had committed, she acknowledged that
these would have been far more numerous, but for
the assistance she had received from the counsellors
now around her, and from those who had gone
before them. Entreating the Emperor, the King,
and the deputies to accept her services in the spirit
in which they had been rendered, she desired to
carry with her the goodwill of the Belgian people,
and to assure them of her aflFection, and of her earnest
CHAP. I.
>S5S-
hot
HIIMcl
M«7,
QaMnof
Hungary.
VOL. V.
i8
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. I.
Jacques
Maes's,
reply.
Emperor
signs
abdication.
desire for their welfare, to which any power she
might possess would ever be directed/
The eloquence and flattery of Jacques Maes were
again put in motion. In his own diffuse style, and
in the name of the States-General, he assui-ed the
Queen of Hungary that her government had given
universal satisfaction, and he thanked her for the
affection towards her late subjects which she had
just expressed.'
The Emperor then signed and sealed the formal
deed of abdication ; and declaring Philip invested
with the sovereignty of the Netherlands, he slowly
retired from the hall, followed by his family and
court, and leaving the audience deeply moved with
a scene, which, more than any other event of an
eventful reign, is calculated to affect the imagination
and dwell in the remembrance of distant posterity.^
1 Queen Mary's speech is printed by M. Gacliaril, from a minute in
her own handwriting, in the royal archives of Belgium.
^ Of the Emperor's abdication there are the following representations
wliich I luive seen : —
The two old and interesting prints found in the Belgian collection, which
usually begins with the expedition to Tunis (Kurze Erzcichniss, &c.), and
consists chiefly of battles and sieges in the Low Countries and France,
from 1574 to 1600. The _fi)-st represents Philip II. kneeling before his
father ; the second the Emperor walking away.
Picture in the Museum at Amsterdam by Hieronymus Franck (le
Vieux). Notice des Tableaux da Musie [1876, No. 113], where it is
described. The cartouche, which gives the subject of the picture, says
also "eic inven. D. Petri de Haviticort H. Franc." It is a very brilliant
and agreeable picture in the style of Floris, whose pupil Franck was.
Tapestry in the Hotel de Ville at Bruxelles, which is probably not
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
»9
Emporor
ikMicata*
Sicilian sod
Sponiih
orowni.
In the year following, on the i6th January 1556,
in the same place, and with a similar ceremonial,
he signed and sealed the act of abdication of his
Sicilian and Spanish kingdoms, and their depen-
dencies in Africa and the New World ; and on
the 1 6th August he placed in the hands of the
Prince of Orange, who received it with tears, a
deed of renunciation of the imperial crown to be
laid before the Diet of the empire. It was already
understood that the Electors were to confer the
older tlian the end of the seventeenth centnry, mid wliich represent*
Cliailes V. in absurdly gaudy costume.
The fine picture by Louis Gallnit, wIiIlIi attracted much attention in
London during the Great Exhibition of 1862.
There is al.so 11 print in the edition of Sandoval's Historia del Emp.
Carlos v., 2 vol.i. fol., Antwerp, i68i.
An oval medal also commemorates the ab<lication of Charles V. It
bears the head of Philip II., and ou the reverse the figure of Atlas sup-
porting tlie world, with the motto " ut . quiescat . atlas." It is en-
graved in Sylloge numismatum degantiorum qua; divirsi Imperalores,
lieges, Principcs, Co mites, Respuhlicm diversas ob causas ab anno 1550 <i</
anmim 1600 cudi feccrunt ; opera et studio Joan. Jacob. Luckli, foL
Argentor, 1620, p. 177.
In Gallait's picture there are several points in which historical truth
has either escaped the painter's researches or been sacrificed by him to
what he con.sidered pictorial effect. The Emperor is dreaseil in robes of
clolh-of gold clasi)ed with a jewelled brooch. It ia not likely that he wore
anything of the kind, and it does not appear to have been noticed by
either the English or Venetian envoys. The introduction of tlie imiieriul
crown, held ou a cushion by a red-robed ecclesiastic, is also of very
questionable propriety. He mas not resigning that crown, but the crown
of Burgundy ; and even had ho been more fond of pageantry than he was,
he would hardly have paraded it at that time, when it could but remind
many of tlio spectators of his unsiiccessful attempts to obtain it for
Philip II. Five persons in red dresses like those of Cardinals, one with the
hat, appear amongst the spectators. Who were they, and was any Car-
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. I.
1556.
Wish to
make
Philip
Emperor.
Opposed
by Ferdi-
nand, King
of Romans,
vacant dignity on Charles's brother Ferdinand, King
of the Komans, and actual sovereign of the arch-
duchies of Austria. To obtain the diadem of the
Caesars for his son Philip had long been one of the
dreams of Charles's ambition. Ferdinand, however,
would neither waive his claims, nor even consent to
the proposal that Philip should succeed him, to be
succeeded in his turn by Ferdinand's son, Maximilian,
King of Bohemia. The discussion of the question
had for some time caused a coolness between the
dinal at all present ? One of them (the tall man with papers) is obviously
meant for Granvelle, who was not Cardinal till some years after. Possibly
his dress may be a little more violet than the rest, and that might suit his
church robes as Bishop of Arras. I should also lilve to know the authority
for dressing the two Queens in wliite, and for giving galleries to the hall.
The little print of the scene is much more likely to be right in this point
than any later source of evidence. The small finished sketch of the
picture is at Frankfort »/M, in the Stadel collection (No. 350, Louis
Gallait) [Catalogue 1879, No. 460], and from it this note has been made.
Sept. 2, 1864.
In the Cancionero General, 1557, there is a romance entitled "Descrip-
cion del modo como hizo renuncia de sus reinos en Espafia y tierras en
Flandes e Italia el emperador Carlos V., y modo como recibe Felipe II.
las coronas que le deja su padre. Conducta de la emperatriz de los
estados y de los giandes en aquel acto." Tlie " emperatriz" is an error
in the title, as she does not appear in the romance ; and is mentioned
probably in mistake for the Queen of Hungary. It has no poetic merit
or pretension, being a mere rhymed account of the transaction, which it
narrates faithfully enough. It begins —
Carlos quinto de este nombre
En la villa de Bruzelas
Emperador residia
Que pocas veces salia.
It will be found in Depping's Romancero Castellano, con notas de Ant.
AlcaU Galiano, 2 vols. 8vo, Leipsique, 1844, vol. i. p. 413, No. 295. I
have translated it in 2'he Chief Victories of the Emperor Charles the Fifth,
fol. London, 1870, p. 66.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
31
Emperor and the King of the llomans ; and Charles
was especially offended with Ferdinand for seeking
to strengthen his position by the support of the
Protestant Electors. But the design being abandoned
as hopeless, it was now the earnest wish of the
abdicating monarch that the subsequent formalities
should be accomplished with all practicable speed.
" Should the Electors," he wrote to Ferdinand,'
" refuse their consent to the transfer of the title,
which God forbid, my ambassadors are instructed
to demand that I be at least permitted to resign to
you the entire administration of aflFairs. My con-
science being thus discharged of its burden, I will
keep the title, although, if any way can be found
of laying even that aside, it is the thing which I
most desire, and in which your good offices will give
me most contentment."
When Charles laid down the sceptre, he also
quitted the palace, of his Burgundian ancestors.
He chose for his retreat a small house, M'here part
of his childhood had been spent, in the park of
Bruxelles, not then the trim urban pleasance which
Maria Theresa and modern taste have made it, but
a skirt of the wild forest of Soigne, well peopled
with deer. This pavilion, of one storey and a few
CHAP. I.
Emmror'i
rub to Uy
Emp
wUh to Ujr
a(id« tiUa.
Retirmto
a houM iu
nirk of
BruzellM.
' On the 8th Angnst 1556. The letter occurs in the CorrttpoHelen*
dcs Kaisers Karl V., von Dr. Karl Lauz, 3 vols. 8vo, Leipzig, 1844, iii.
pp. 708-9.
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. I.
1556.
Visited by
Admiral de
Coligny.
rooms, for a century afterwards was known as the
house of Charles V. ; its site, near the Louvain gate,
is now covered by the national or legislative palace
of Belgium. Here the retired monarch lived for
many months, much tormented with gout, but giving
close attention to the winding-up of his affairs with
the world. In the previous autumn the King of
the Romans had negotiated at Augsburg a peace
with the Protestants of Germany. In the spring of
1556, under the arbitration of the English Queen,
the terms of a long truce between the house of
Valois and the house of Austria were agreed upon
at the abbey of Vaucelles. In this truce the
Emperor took the deepest interest and an active
part ; hoping that it might be the foundation of
that solid and lasting peace in which, as he told
the States-General, it had been his wish to retire
from the world. While thus engaged, he seemed
to be rehearsing the existence which he had so long
planned for himself in the distant convent in Spain.
His sole counsellor and confidant was the Bishop
of Arras. He was waited on by a few gentlemen
of grave and venerable aspect and clad in black ;
and he inhabited only a couple of rooms sombrely
tapestried with black cloth.
Here, on Palm Sunday, 1556, he received the
Admiral de Coligny, ambassador of Henry II. of
France, sent to Bruxelles to witness the ratification
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
«3
by the King of Spain of the truce between the
crowns. The Frenchman and his brilliant following
nearly filled the small room in which they found
the Emperor, dressed in a citizen's black gown of
Florence serge and a Mantua bonnet, sitting beside
his black writing-table. When the Most Christian
King's letter was put into his hand, it was with
some difficulty that his gouty fingers broke the broad
official seal. " What will you say of me, my Lord
Admiral," said he ; " am I not a brave cavalier to
break a lance with, I — who can hardly open a
letter ? " After hearing the letter read by the Bishop
of Arras, and discussing its contents, he asked the
ambassador about his master's health, and whether
he was getting grey. On learning that a few white
hairs were already visible on the handsome head
of Henry II., he said that he well remembered
the time when he had first observed upon his own
those unpleasant symptoms of decay. It was at
Naples, after his return from Tunis, when he was
being dressed and perfumed to pay his court to the
ladies. At first he ordered his barber to pluck out
the intruders. But for every white hair thus re-
moved, he soon found that three more made their
appearance ; and he doubted not that, if he had
persevered in the depilatory process, he would soon
have been as white as a swan.
Brusquet, the famous jester of four kings of
CHAP. I.
1556.
24
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. I.
1556.
Jests of
Brusquet.
France/ had come in the train of the Admiral.
Recognising him, the Emperor asked him how he
did ; to which Brusquet replied that His Majesty was
too gracious to notice one of the worms of the earth.
" Have you forgotten," said Charles, " what passed
between you and the Marshal de Strozzi on the
day of spurs ? " ^ alluding to a battle in which that
famous general had found his spurs of more use
than his sword. " I remember it well," retorted
Brusquet ; "it was at the very time when your
Majesty bought those fine rubies and carbuncles
which you wear on your fingers," pointing to the
Emperor's hands, knotted and disfigured with gout.
At this rough personal thrust Charles laughed
heartily — a laugh in which all the company joined
— and said, "I would not for a good deal have lost
the lesson you have taught me, not to meddle with
a man who looks like a harmless idiot, as you look.
' Francis I., Henry II., Francis II., and Charles IX. Brantome gives
an account of Brusquet and his witticisms, in his Discours sur le Mare-
sclial Strozzi; (Euvres, 8 torn. 8vo, Paris, 1787, iv. p. 435. He kept
what lie called a book of fools, and he inscribed in it the name of his
master, Francis I., after Charles V. had been permitted to pass through
France on his way to Ghent. " But what," said Francis, " if I allow him
to return as securely as he came?" "Nay," said Brusquet, "if he
ventures himself again in your power, I will erase your name, and put
his in its place."
' Alluding probably to the battle, near Sienna, between Strozzi and
Marignano, before the long siege of Sienna, in which the French
defended themselves for two years against the Emjieror and Spaniards.
See Capelloni, Vita di Andrea Doria, 4to, Viuegia, 1565, p. 168.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
»5
and assuredly are not." He then courteously dis-
missed the Admiral and his companions ; and, going
to an open window, stood there, watching the caval-
cade as it went glittering through the park, a well-
timed appearance which dispelled a rumour that
had been circulated of his being at the point of
death.^
Sometime afterwards, a contagious malady break-
ing out at Bruxelles, the Emperor, on the 29th
June, removed for awhile from his home in the
park to the castle of SteiTebeke, a few miles off,
where he remained until the 15th July.^ He con-
tinued to linger in Flanders, partly on account
of the difficulties which lay in the way of his re-
nunciation of the imperial crown, but mainly from
a desire to see his daughter, Mary, wife of his
nephew, Maximilian, King of Bohemia. These
royal personages being detained in Germany until
July, his departure for Spain, which had been fixed
for the month of June, was postponed until August.
When Maximilian and Mary arrived, Bruxelles be-
came for a few days the scene of tourneys, ban-
quets, and other sumptuous festivities. These ended,
the Emperor began his journey, and arrived on
CHAP. I.
1556.
The Em-
iwror »t
storrebeko.
Arriral of
Maximilian
and Mary
uf Bohe-
mia,
Journey to
the oout.
' Ilibier, Lettrea et Memoirts d'etat: Voyage dt M. VAmirvX, iL
P- 633-
» [Gachard, Retraite ct Mart d« Charle* Quint, 3 vols. 8vo, Bmxellei,
'854-5, introduction, pp. 129-31].
26
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. I.
1556.
Emperor's
letter to
Ferdinand.
the I3tli August at his favourite city of Ghent.
There he was lodged, for ten or twelve days, in the
hotel of Kavenstein, the mansion of an old historic
race, standing opposite the ancient palace of the
Counts of Flanders, in which he had first seen the
light.
On the 26th August, he gave a farewell audi-
ence to the foreign ambassadors who had followed
him from Bruxelles. He then took the road to
Flushing, where the fleet had assembled to convey
him to Spain. Besides the Queens of France and
Hungary, who were to be the companions of his
voyage, he was attended to the coast by Philip II.,
Mary, Queen of Bohemia, and many of the nobles
of the Netherlands. A good many days were spent
at Flushing, or at Zuitburg, in waiting for favour-
able weather. Amongst the last things done on
shore by the Emperor was to write to his brother
Ferdinand a long letter of advice as to the manner
of dealing with the Electoral Diet in order to
procure its unconditional acceptance of the act of
abdication. He concluded it in these words: "I
am all ready, waiting with the Queens my sisters,
until it shall please God to send us a fair wind
to set sail, being determined to let no oppor-
tunity slip, but to take the earliest occasion of
proceeding on our voyage, which I pray God
to prosper. — From Zuitburg, the 12 th September
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
»7
1556."> The royal party embarked on the follow-
ing day.
' Lanz, Corrcfpondem, iii. p. 712. The place is supposed to be the
village now called Wcster-Souburg, near Flessingue, or Flushing. Th.
Juste, L' Abdication de Charlcs-QuiiU, 8vo, Li6ge, 1851, p. 30, note.
CHAP. I.
Kmhnrlcii
fur H|xun.
CHAPTER II.
THE BAY OF BISCAY ; LAREDO ; BURGOS ;
AND VALLADOLID.
F the royal ladies who
were now about to ac-
company their imperial
brother in his voyage,
and, like him, to seek
retirement in Spain, the
elder was the gentle and
once beautiful Eleanor,
Queen-dowager of Por-
tugal and of France. She was now in her fifty-
eighth year, and much broken in health. In youth
the favourite sister of the Emperor, she had accom-
panied him in September 15 17, in his voyage from
Middleburg to Santander, when he went to take
possession of his Spanish crowns.* In later days.
CHAP. II.
ISS6-
Eleanor,
Queen-
dowager of
France anil
PortagaL
' E. Vchse, Memoirs of the Court of Austria, translated by F. Demmler,
2 vols. fcap. 8vo, LonJon, 1856, vol. i. p. 44.
3°
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II. she was always addressed by him as Madanie ma
1556- meilleure sceur^ — 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 after-
wards, her hand 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 alhance of his captive, the Constable's liege
lord. The French marriage was probably the more
unhappy of the two. Francis I. 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 her-
self 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
' See his letters to her amongst the Papiers cVitat du Cardinal de
Granvelle d'apris les manuscrits de la Biblioth. de Besan^on, 4to, Paris,
1840-50, torn, i.-viii.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
3<
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 influence extended, an unwearied peace-maker
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.^
' Ilor device, a phconix amongst tlie fliinios, with tlie motto " UNICA
SEMPER AVIS," occurs ill Si/iiibola Hcruica M. Claudii Paradini, izmo,
Atitwerpiie, 1567, p. 92.
° Queen Eleanor is thus described by Roger Ascham, who saw her at
Bruxelles 5th October 1550. " Being Sunday I went to the mass, more to
see than for devotion, will some of you think. The Regent was with the
Emperor at Augusta ; but the French Queen, the Emperor's sijiter, was
there. She came to mass clad very solemnly all in white cameric, a robe
gathered in plaits wrought very fair as might be with needle white work,
as white as a dove. A train of ladies followed her, as black and evil as
she was white. . . . The Queen sat in a closet above ; her ladies kneeled
all abroad in the chapel among us. . . . The Queen went from mass to
dinner ; I followed her, and because we were gentlemen of England, I
and another were admitted to come into her chamber where she wit at
dinner. She is served with no women, as great states l)e in England, but
altogether with men, bearing their caps on their beads whilst they come
into the chamber where she sits, and there one takes ofTall their caps.
The say given they depart. I stood verj' nigh the table and saw all.
Men, as I said, served ; only two women stood by the fireside, not far
from the table, for the chamber was little, and talked very loud and
broadly with whom they would, as methought. This Queen's service,
compared with my lady Elizabeth's my mistress' service, is not so prince-
like nor honourably handled. Her first course was apples, pears, plumlis,
grapes, nuts, and roots ; and with this meat she begun. Then she had
bacon and chickens, almost covered with sot! onions that all the chamber
smelled of it. She had a roa.st caponct and a pasty of wild boar ; and I
thus marking all the behaviour, was content to lose the second coarse,
32
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II.
1556.
Mary,
Queen-
dowager of
Hungary.
The other sister, Mary, Queen-dowager of Hun-
gary, was five years younger than Eleanor, and a
woman of a very different stamp. Her husband,
Louis II., had been slain in 1526, shot through the
head by an arrow as he
fought
against Sultan
Solyman on the fatal field of Mohacz. His young
widow had barely time to escape from Ofen before
the Turks entered the gates. 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 manly women, remarkable for her intrepid
spirit and her 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 horse-
manship must have delighted the knightly heart
of her grandsire Maximilian, since it attracted the
wonder of so perfect a cavalier as Francis I. of
France.^ Not only could she bring down her deer
with unerring aim, but tucking up her sleeves, and
lest I should have lost my own dinner at home." — Roger Ascliam to Ed.
Raven, letter dated 20th Jan. 1551, Augusta ; Whole Works, vol. L, part
ii. pp. 245-6.
' Amedte Pichot, Charles-Quint chronique de sa vie inUrieure et de
sa vie politique de son abdication et de sa retraite dans le cloUre de Yiiste,
8vo, Paris, 1854, pp. 171-2.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
33
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 was 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 forthwith gratified by the arrival
in London of the lieutenant of the royal venery
of Flanders, with a prime six-year-old boar, as a
gift from the Queen of Hungary." Roger Ascham,
meeting the sporting dowager as she galloped into
Tongres, 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. For twenty-four
stormy years she administered it with much vigour
and tolerable success ; now foihng the ambitious
schemes of Denmark and of France ; now repressing
Anabaptist or Lutheran risings ; and always gather-
CHAP. II.
ISS6-
' Librode laMonteria del Key D. Alsonso; foL, SeviUo, 1582. See the
Discurso dc G. Argote de Molina, fol. 19.
' Papiera de Granvdle, iv. 121-135.
' P. Fraser-Ty tier's Orig. Letters of the Reigns of K. Edward VI. and
Q. Mary, 2 vole. Svo, London, 1839, ii. p. 127.
VOL. V. C
34
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II.
1556.
ing as she could the sinews of war for the imperial
armies abroad. While she conducted in her cabinet
a vast correspondence, she was also at all times
ready for a gallop to any corner of her states, where
there was need of her quick eye and bold hand.
Guarding the northern outpost of the dominion of
Austria, her experience in watching the designs of
France on the one side, and England on the other,
had sharpened to the finest acutcness her political
sagacity. She it was who first penetrated the secret
counsels of Maurice of Saxony, and obtained proof
of his treason to the imperial cause. Charles, who
soon discovered the value of her advice and assist-
ance, was wont to call her his other self In spite
of the troubled times in which she reigned, her vice-
regal court was not wanting in the splendour which
had long distinguished the old court of Burgundy.
The palace which she built at Binche in Hainault,
and her beautiful adjacent gardens of Mariemont,
with their marbles and fountains, were the pride of
the Netherlands ; and the festivities with which she
had there entertained the Emperor and Prince Philip
in the summer of 1549,^ were long remembered for
their surpassing magnificence by the old courtiers of
Vienna and Madrid. Binche was soon afterwards
1 A full and entertaining account of the "Fiestas de Bins," for so the
Spaniards called the place, will be found in J. C. Calvete, Viajc del
pi'incipc D. Philijype, fol. 182-205.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
35
burned to the ground by the French, an injury for
which Mary vowed to make all France do penance,
and to leave no stone standing at Fontainebleau.*
Although she did not live to accomplish the latter
threat, her latest exploit in arms was a foray, during
the siege of Metz, which she led with so much
spirit into Picardy, that Henry II. found it neces-
sary to come to the rescue of his province. She
had, indeed, no reason to love the French, who not
only carried fire and sword into her favourite bowers,
but even assailed her reputation with the poisoned
arrows of their satire. The epigrammatists of Paris
loved to rhyme of her as the huntress Dian, and to
insinuate that, in spite of her professed fidelity to
her husband's memory, a love of the chase formed
her sole title to the name of the chaste goddess.
She was now in her fifty-second year — bronzed
rather than broken by her toils, and though seeking
retirement and repose, still fit for the council or the
saddle. The reason for which she had demanded
her release from power was a palpitation of the
heart, to which she had been subject for many
years. It was much against his will that the Em-
peror accepted her resignation ; and more than
once before their departure both he and Philip II.
hinted their wish that she should resume the helm
1 BrantAme, Oiuvrtt, 8 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1787, ii. p. 547.
CHAP. II.
1556-
36
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II. in the Netherlands, which had been meanwhile
iss6. entrusted to the Duke of Savoy. To these hints
she not only turned a deaf ear, but she even refused
to take any part in obtaining the supplies from the
States-General, who had already displayed a dispo-
sition to economy, extremely inconvenient to the
paragon prince who now claimed their allegiance
and their bounty. It is probable, therefore, that an
unfavourable opinion of her nephew had as much
weight in determining her retirement, as the state
of her health and her advancing age.^
The fleet which had assembled at Flushing
numbered flfty-six Spanish and Flemish sail, and
was commanded by Don Luis de Carvajal. 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
curtains of the same colour, and eight glass win-
dows. His personal suite consisted of one hundred
and fifty persons. The Queens were accommodated
on board a Flemish vessel. Although the royal
party embarked at Zuitburg on the 13th September,
the state of the weather did not allow them to put
' An excellent notice of Queen Mary of Hungary, from the pen, I
believe, of M. Th. Juste, will he found in the Bevue Nationale de Belgique,
8vo, 1847, torn. xvii. p. 13.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
37
to sea until the 1 7th. The next day, as they passed
between the white cliffs of Kent and Artois, 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, con-
trary winds drove them to take shelter under the
Isle of Portland for a night and a day. The weather
continuing unfavourable, on the 22nd the Em-
peror 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 gained the coast of Biscay
without further adventure. On the afternoon of
Monday, the 28th September, the good ship Berten-
dona 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
north-western blast by the craggy and castled head-
land of Santona. Laredo, with its fortress, stands
at the mouth of the gulf on the south-eastern shore.
Once a commercial station of the Eomans, it became
an important arsenal of St. Ferdinand of Castile.
From Laredo, Ramon Bonifaz sailed to the Guadal-
quivir and the conquest 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 Golden Tower with the suburb
of Triana, an exploit commemorated by St. Ferdinand
CHAP. II.
TboTisU
on the
17th,
and land
on 38th
Sept at
Laredo.
38
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II.
1556.
Want of
prepara-
tions to
receive
them.
in the augmentation, of a ship, to the municipal
bearings of Laredo. After some centuries of pros-
perity, the town was cruelly sacked, in 1639, by
the Archbishop of Bordeaux, the apostolic admiral
of Louis XIIL Santander 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 martial fame, it sent
a gallant band of seamen to die at Trafalgar.
This ancient seaport was now the scene of a
debarkation more remarkable than any which Spain
had known since Columbus stepped ashore at Palos,
with his red men from the New World. Land-
ing on the evening of the 28th September 1556,^
the Emperor was received by Pedro Manrique,
Bishop of Salamanca, and Durango, an alcalde of
the court, who were in waiting there by order of the
Infanta Juana, Kegent 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 surprise, for few preparations had
as yet been made for its reception. The Admiral
' De Thou {Hist, sui Temp., lib. xvii.) says that Charles on landing
knelt down and kissed the earth, ejaculating, " I salute thee, O common
mother ! Naked came I forth from the womb to receive the treasures of
the earth, and naked am I about to return to the bosom of the universal
mother." Ludovico Dolce, Vitadi Carlo F., tells the same story. Had
the Emperor really done or spoken so, it is most imlikely that his
secretary would have failed to mention it in his letters — none of which
contain any hint that can justify the tale.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
39
Carvajal instantly despatched his brother Alonso to
court ^vith the intelligence, which he delivered at
Valladolid on the ist October.
The Princess-Regent, the Infanta Juana, had
already issued instructions to the primate, prelates,
and chapters of Spain to cause prayers to be said in
their respective cathedrals for the prosperity of her
father's voyage. She had also given orders to Colonel
Luis Quixada, the Emperor's chamberlain, who had
preceded him to Spain, to prepare a residence for
the Emperor at Valladolid. These arrangements
completed, Quixada had returned to his country
house at Villagarcia, six leagues to the north-west of
Valladolid, whither a courier was now sent with a
command for him to repair with all speed to the
coast. The active chamberlain was in the saddle
by two in the morning of the 2nd 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 210
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;
Monsieur de la Chaulx and Monsieur d'Aubremont
had tertian and quartan fevers; seven or eight of
the meaner attendants were dead; yet there were
no doctors to give any assistance. There was even
CHAP. IL
1556.
ArriTkl
of Luii
Quixada.
40
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II.
iSS6.
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 complain of these things, there was no
courier at hand to carry the letter. The weather
was wet and tempestuous, 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 bottom.^ 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 was at his wit's end,
though hardly beyond the beginning of his work.
The Emperor himself was ill, and out of humour
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
1 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 October. This storm
seems to be the sole foundation for Sandoval's story {Hist, de Carlos V.,
2 vols. Pamplona, 1634, lib. xxxii. c. 39, iL p. 820, and repeated by
Strada, De Bello Belgico, 2 torn. sm. 8vo, Aiitv. 1640, i. 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.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
41
the command, matters began to wear a more hopeful
aspect. The day after his arrival was spent in vigo-
rous preparation ; and in the morning of the 6th
October, a messenger came from Valladolid with a
seasonable supply of provisions. That morning, while
Gaztelu penned a somewhat desponding account of
the backwardness of things in general, Quixada 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
sojourn at Laredo, is said to have left to the town
some marks of his favour. The parish church of the
Assumption of the Virgin — a fine temple of the thir-
teenth century, grievously marred by the embellish-
ments of the eighteenth — was happy in the possession
of a holy image, " Our Lady of the Magian Kings,"
full of miraculous power, and of benevolence to sailors.
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 V. 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
* Madoz, Diccionario geogrdfico estadistico histdrieo de EtpaHa, 17
vols. roy. 8vo, Madiul, 1850, art. Laredo, a work of the greatest ralne
and importance.
CHAP, a
1556.
They atari
on 6th Oct.
Emparor'i
aiftcto
Loreda
Joaroay.
42
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II.
1556.
Ampuero.
LaNeetosa,
7th Oct.
Aguera,
8th Oct.
Medina
de Pomar,
9th Oct.
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
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, M'as on the ridge
of Tornos, to Aguera, a village buried among the
Avildest mountains of the great sierra which divides the
woods and pastures of Biscay from the brown plains
of Old Castile. 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 windswept
plain. Here the Emperor paused a day to repose.
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 earned by men.
Two of these chairs, and three litters, in case of
accident in the wild highland march, formed his
travelling equipment. By the side of the litter rode
Luis Quixada ; or, in case the chamberlain, who was
also mai'shal and quartermaster, was needed else-
where, his place was taken by La Chaulx, an old
and faithful servant, who, thirty years before, had
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
43
had the honour of appearing as the Emperor's
marriage-proxy at the court of Portugal.' 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 alguazils, and the gene-
ral 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
court, charged with a large stock of provisions and
ample supply of conserves. These latter dainties
the Emperor immediately desired to taste, and find-
ing their quality good, he gave orders that they
were to be kept sacred for his peculiar eating.
Guzman was accompanied by Don Pedro Pimentel,
' His long and interesting account of his proceedings there is in the
Corrcspondenz dcs Kaisers Karl V., von Dr. Karl Lunz, L p. 169. The
name is usually spelt by Sandoval and other S|)aniards Laxao.
[In a subsequently written note the autlior says :] This, I fear, is a mis-
take. It was probably a younger La Chaulx. Vandenesse, under date
August 9, 1529, says M. de la Chaux — no doubt the marriage-proxy — was
sent to the King of France on the subject of the ratification of Combray,
and that he returned afterwards to his homo in Burgundy, where he
soon afterwards died. Vandenesse, Iliitcrary of Charles V. in Bradford's
Correspondence of the Emperor Clwxrles V., 8vo, London, 1850, p. 494.
CHAP. 11.
1556.
44
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II.
iSS6.
gentleman of the chamber to the young prince,
Don Carlos, bearing letters of compliment from his
master, who desired that the Emperor would indicate
to his ambassador, as he called Pimentel, the place
on the road where he was to meet him.^ Without
settling this point, Quixada wrote, by the Emperor's
orders, to court, commanding a regular supply of
melons to be sent for the imperial table, and some
portable glass windows to be got ready for use on
the journey beyond Valladolid, as the nights were
already becoming chilly. He asked also for the
dimensions of the apartments prepared at Valladolid
for the Queens, that he might send forward fitting
tapestry for their decoration ; and he begged that
' Documentos Ineditos, torn. xxvi. and xxvii., contain some interesting
papers "relating to Don Carlos." Amongst these (Documentos relatives
al P. D. Carlos) there is a letter from Don Garcia de Toledo, Ayo of the
Prince, to the Emperor, Valladolid, 3rd October 1556, who writes :— " El
principe so ho alegrado tanto con la nueva de la buena guida de V.M.
que d dejarle hacer lo que quesiera, ninguno creo yo que llegdra primero
que S.A. &, besar los manos de V.M. y para detenello no habido otro
remedio sino decillo que tan gran deacato seria determinar nada sino
saber la voluntad de V.M. y para eso escrivo & D. Pedro Pimentel con
la carta que S.A. ha notada y escrito de su mano sin ayudarse de nadie."
Tom. xxvii. p. 182.
The letter of the Prince is dated 2nd October, and it is as follows, tom.
xxvii. p. 183 :—
Ya i sab(5do \ V.M^ esta en salvamento y 6 holgado dello infinita-
mente tanto c[ no lo puedo mas en carecer suplico il V. M? q me haga
saber si d de salir d recebir ii V.M'? y adoude ay va Don Pedro Pimentel
gentilhombre di mi cdmera y mi embaxador al qual suplico & V.M?
mande lo q en esto se ha de hazer para q el malo escrivo. Beso los
manos de V. M. en Vallid. ij de Otobre, muy humilde hijo de V.M?
El Principe (facsimile).
Sohre. — Al Emperador mi Seiior.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
45
the measurements might be taken with great exact-
ness, as their Majesties, especially 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 followers. The management
of their journey, and the selection of their quarters,
rested with the all-provident Quixada, who had found
time to make general aiTangements 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 the town from all points of the com-
pass. Addresses came from the corporations of
Burgos, Salamanca, Palencia, Pamplona, and other
cities ; from the Archbishop of Toledo, and other
prelates. On the 1 1 th October, Charles again
mounted his litter, and travelled five leagues to
Pesadas, a poor town, on a bleak tableland swept
by the merciless north wind, where he was met by
the Constable of Navarre. After 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 October was passed, after a five
CHAP. II.
1556.
Visiton.
Journey
raiamed.
PesAdai,
nth Oct.
Gondomin,
lathOct.
46
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II.
1556.
Entry into
Burgos,
13th Oct.
leagues' march, at Gondomin ; ^ and the next day, a
journey of about the same length, still over vast un-
dulating 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 Castile, Don Pedro ^^'emandez
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 honour to the
noble palace of the Velascos, popularly known as
the Casa del Cordon, from the massive stone-carved
cord of St. Francis, which enfolds and protects the
great portal. He offered 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, a peal of welcome rang from the
belfries of the cathedral, a church so rich in filigree
decoration that Charles had said, on his first visit
to the city, that it ought to be kept in a case, and
shown only on special occasions ; ^ and at night, the
chapter made a still finer display of loyalty, in a
grand illumination of its steeples. For once, sombre
^ Hontamin is the present name.
' Juan Canton Salazar, Vida de S'"- Casilda, quoted by Jose Cairdo
in Ensayo sobre los diversos generos de la Arquitectura empleados en
Espaiia, 4to, Madrid, 1848, p. 376. He is said to have made the same
remark of the tower of the cathedral of Antwerp.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
47
Burgos, which was said to wear mourning for all
Castile,' 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 seiTants 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 Em-
peror really been exposed to this mortification,
perhaps his pride would have led him to suffer
in silence. But then his hundred and fifty fol-
lowers, newly come from the fleshpots 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 Castile, the Dukes
of Medina-Celi, Medina-Sidonia, Maqueda, Najera,
Infantado, and many other grandees. The royal
councils of state, the royal chancery of A'alladolid,
and other public bodies, sent deputations with
loyal addresses. Amongst the lesser nobles who
came in crowds to the Casa del Cordon, not the
CHAP. II.
1556.
1 And. Naviigiercs II Viaggio/cUto in Spagna, sni. 8vo, Vinegia, 1563,
foL 3S.
48
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II.
1556.
Journey to
VaUadolid.
Celeda,
i6th Oct.
Palenzuela,
17th Oct.
least noticeable was Don Gutierre de Padilla, brother
of the gallant Juan de Padilla, with whom, thirty-
five years before, the constitutional liberties of
Castile had perished in the disastrous wars of the
Commons. For fighting on the winning side in that
heroic struggle, Gutierre had been rewarded with a
commandery, and at this time he held the honorary
post of gentleman of the imperial chamber.
From Burgos the Emperor set out for VaUadolid
on the 1 6th 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 Beau-
mont 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 fui-ther, at
Palenzuela, where the Emperor was pleased to find
a supply of flounders, newly arrived from court.
Fish was his favourite food, yet it never agreed
with him ; so these flounders were probably the
cause of the indisposition of which he complained at
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
49
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
neighbouring city of Palencia. This prelate, Pedro
de la Gasca, was a man of some distinction ; his
skilful diplomacy, in repressing a formidable rebel-
lion, had saved Peru to Castile ; and he had very
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 further on, at Dueuas, 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 over-
looking 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
> F. Fernandez de Pulgar, Historia de Palencia, 4 vola. fol., Madrid,
1679, iii. p. 201.
VOL. v. D
CHAP. II.
1556-
Torque-
mada,
iSthOot.
Duebax,
i9U>0ut.
50
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II.
1556.
Cabezon,
20th Oct.
Don Carlos
meets
Emperor.
let my people see me." ^ 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 honours. He
embraced hitn with much appearance of aifection,
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 it as soon
as he was dead, and had no further use for it.
Early next day, the 2 1 st October, Juan Vasquez
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
yeai's. Charles would not,^ however, accept the
^ "Ruindad no dejai-se ver por los suyos," are the words given by
Gonzalez.
2 This seems doubtful. Francisco Osorio, writing to the King, 26th
October 1556, from Valladolid, says :— "Entr6 S.M. en esta villa midrcoles
en la tarda, que fueron viente y uno deste mes (Oct''"'), y sal^ con los
graudes que aqui esiierabau d S.M. al camino al besar los pies d S.M. que
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
5«
honours of a public reception, which it had been
proposed to give him at Valladolid, but desired that
the pomps prepared for the occasion might be reserved
until the ai'rival of the Queens, who were also on
the road. Accordingly, he made his entry that same
afternoon, by the gate of San Pedro, or of the Chan-
cery, without parade of any kind, and was received
CHAP. IL
1556.
Enton
Valladolid,
aiit Got.
son el condestablc, y Coiido do Benavcnte, y Marques do Astor^, y
Almirantc, y duqne de Najera, y duque do Scsa y otros, y lus parladus
que aqui so hallaron y cl corregidor cun toda la villa, y file S.M. recebido
con niuy grande allegria ; y otra dia d la iniiiina bora entraron las Sei**-
Ileinas y fuoron rocebidas con el misnio aiiior y goleninidad, y con
troiiipetos y atinibales y menestriles, y salieron los congcjotn, y igletiia, y
estudio y los dotorcs con sus insinias y el colcgio con sos bccos colorados,
y Ucgaron SS. MM. d palitcio con hachos, y la Princesa mi se&ora baja
al patio con el principe, n"- sefior, y con todas las sehonis principnlea que
aqui estdn, y alii besaron los nianos d bS. MM. con niuy grun amor, y
ccnaron aquella noche con S.A. y b.tbo una muy solcne ceiia y con inuclia
alegria de que S.M. (the Emperor) y las S'"- Ueinas tuvierou nuiy
grande alcgria y contentamicnto, y la Serenisima Keina Dona Maria tan
grand e que dicen quo en grande nianera dice S.M. le ha parecido bien
todo lo que ha vistu, y cada dia ternilmos contentamicnto de sc ver
eu estos reiuos conio de todo mas particularmentc se hord relacion d
V.M. Los dias en que SS. MM. entr.iron hizo sol y muy bueiios y claros,
y las calles per dondo entraron las Ser^ Ueinas estdn muy bien enta-
piz.idas ; y al punto que csta cscribo S.M. queda con cntera salud y lag
H'^ Keinas y la niisnia tienen la Princesa mi Sen'*- y el Princijie N*
Seiior," &c. Documentos relatives al Principe D. Carlos, Documeiito*
Ineditos, xxvii. pp. 1S4-5. From this it would seem that although there
was more show and festivity at tlie entry of the Queens, the Knijicror
\v;i8 also received by the grandees nud other principal personages in a
manner befitting the occasion. [Mignet, Charles-Quint, son nbdicatioH,
son sfjour ct sa morl ait monastire de Yuste, 8vo, Paris, 1854, p. 157, saya,
" U fut re9u tr^s-simplcmeiit dans le paluis par sa lille, ... lea pnSlats
qui se trouvuient h, la cour les nicmbrcs des divers conseils, le con^gidor
de la ville, avec les menibrcs de Vaifiintamicnto, vinrent tour d tour lui
baiscr les mains," quoting as his authority the lietiro, estancia y muertt
del emperador Carlos qiiinto en el monaslcrio de Yuste, |ior Don T<)uia8
Uoiiznlcz, (ol. 4"'"]
5*
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II. in the court of the palace by his grandson, Don
iss6. Carlos,^ and by his daughter, the Princess-Regent.'^
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 Isabella ;
' Of the relations of Charles V. with his grandson Don Carlos during
this residence at Valladolid, Francisco Osorio (described in the heading
of another letter as el limosnero) writes (in the letter above quoted, 26th
Oct.): — "En gran nianera se huelga (the Emperor), con el Principe N°-
Senor, y me dicen que tiene muy gran contentamiento de S.A. y creoque
es tanto que cuando se ofriciere algo que importe le ha S.M. de tenerle
en consejo de Estado. El dia que sali6 &, recebir A S.M. liacia un poco
de fresco y llev6 una ropa afforada que le parecia muy bien, y parecia
S.A. estranjero, y fuerou hastas los bendiciones que echaron & V.M. y
k este bien venturado fruto que Dios N"- Senor di6 d V.M." — Documentos
Ineditos, xxvii. p. 186.
In the same letter, Fi-"- Osorio chronicles with great satisfaction his own
recognition by the Emperor : — " Y cuando bes^ los pies li S.RL pens^ que
no me conocierd, y me dijo Francisco Osorio, j Como estais ? que quarenta
alios ha que os conozco y bes^ los pies k S.M. por la memoria que de me
tenia, y [indecipherable in MS.], tuvo fuerza ser yo criad6 de S.M." — Doc.
Ined., xxvii. p. 186. He adds :— " Tres dias despues que entr6 S.M. aqui
besaron los del consejos todos pintos los manos d S.M., y S.M. los recibi6
con grande amor sinificando les por cuan servido se ternia dello y ddndoles
las gracias por sus servicios y por el cuidado que tenian de complir de su
obligacion, y S.M. les dia cuenta de todo lo que habia hecho, y las causas
que se movieron d lo hacer, y la principal diciendoles la verdad y bondad
y prudencia de que Dios N"- Senor habia dotado d V.M. para scrvirle y
para gubernar y regir estos reinos, y de la mucho que V.M. habia trabajado
en la gubernacion durante su ausencia, y en razon desto y de otras cosas
hablo S.M. tales y tan solemnes cosas que no se yo encarecerlas ; y
habiendoles S.M. hablado y dado cuenta particular de todo, se sali^ron
dando gracias a Dios N"- Sciior, y tan favorescidos y con tantos que no
cesaban de dar gracias a Dios por ello." — Doc. Ined., xxvii. pp. 186-7.
' The Emperor's itinerary from Laredo to Valladolid was as follows —
the distances being computed as far as possible by the fine maps of
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
S3
and some religious houses, such as San Benito and
San Pablo, unexcelled as examples of the rich and
fantastic transition stylo of architecture. Other
churches and convents, and many mansions of the
nobility 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
Brazil, heir-apparent of the Portuguese crown. Her
married 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
CHAP. II.
Col. Don Francisco Coello, now
Madrid :—
Oct. 6, Monday, Laredo to
7, Tuesday,
8, Wednesday,
9, Thursday,
11, Saturday,
12, Sunday,
13, Monday,
16, Tlmrsday,
17, Friday, .
18, Saturday,
19, Sunday,
20, Monday,
21, Tuesday,
[1S53L i» course of publication at
Ampuero
La Nestosa .
Agucra .
Medina de Pomar
Pesadas .
Gondomin
Burgos .
Celada .
Palenzucla .
Torquemada .
Ducfias .
Cabezon .
Valladolid .
Leagusa.
3
4
4
S
S
S
S
4
7
4
3
3
2
1556.
Infanta
Juano.
In all about 54 leagues.
54
CLOISTER LIFE OF EMPEROR CHARLES V.
CHAP. n. of nineteen were centred all the hopes of the Por-
iss6. tuguese nation. In spite, however, of the prayers
which rose in every church, and the processions
which glittered through every town between the
Minho and Cape St. Vincent, alarming portents pre-
ceded 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 pre-
diction of the futility of the national hope ; and
phantom Moors, with torches in their hands, rushed
at night by the palace windows, in full view of the
Princess and her ladies, riding on the wintry
blast, and uttering doleful cries as they descended
into the sea. But in the night of the 15th January
1554, a shout of joy rang through the broad square
between the palace and the Tagus, when it was
announced to the expectant crowd 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 of her fine auburn hair,
she would have retired with her grief to a nunnery.*
' M. de Meneses, Chrtinica de D. SebastiaS, fol. Lisboa, 1730, jip.
27-30-
CLOISTER LIFE OF EMPEROR CHARLES V.
57
Having repaid to the house of Avis the debt in-
curred by the house of Austria at the birth of Don
Carlos, she was soon "recalled to Spain, to govern
that country, as Regent, first for her father, the
Emperor, and now 'for her brother, Philip 11. 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 personal 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 her deference was ever
most readily and afiectionately paid. Devotion was
the ruling passion of her widowed life ; her recrea-
tion 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 encouraged her ladies
' It was founded in 141 5 by S*"- Pedro Kcgalado. The name Abroja or
Abroxa means a bramble, and the place was called originally "la kuertii
He el Abroxo, porque la tierra criaba niuchos." It is on the banks of the
Ducro, and is surrounded by "moiUes,"so that no inhabited country c&u
CHAP. II.
1556.
58
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II.
1556.
Festivities
at Valla-
dolid.
to become nuns, but dissuaded them fi'om becoming
wives ; and she would never give audience to foreign
ambassadors without being covered from head to
foot with a veil, drawing it aside for a moment only
when some envoy, more curious than his fellows,
desired permission to identify her pale and melan-
choly face.
While at Valladolid, the Emperor and his suite
were lodged in the house of Don Gomez Perez
de las Marinas.^ Another residence was assigned
to the Queens, who arrived on the 22nd October,
the day after their brother. The grandees, the
dignitaries of the Church and the law, the council
of state in their robes of ceremony, and the college
doctors in their scarlet hoods, met them in grand
procession, and conducted them into the city in
triumph. They were charmed with their reception ;
Quixada and his people had made no mistake
about the tapestries ; and Queen Maiy, at the
banquet in the evening, remarked that every day she
found new cause to rejoice that she had come to
be seen from it. Tall pines shut it in, so high and thick that you can
hardly see the ground, and although the Duero almost surrounds it
" casi con la vista no se goza, solo se vee dcsde el abroxo sin emborazos
elcielo." Fr. Manuel de Monza.\a,\, Historia de la vida muerte y cullo
de S. Pedro Rcgalado, 4to, Valladolid, 1684, p. 5S.
' lu 1628 Monconys says, "Behind the palace there is a large square
where the bull-fights take place ; and they still show the house of Charles
V. au bord de I'eaii." Monconys, Voyages, 3 vols. 4to, Lyon, 1665-66, torn,
iii. p. 5.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
59
Spain. The banquet was followed by a ball, at
which the Emperor also was present. The Admiral
of Castile, the Duke of Scsa, heir of the great captain,
the Count of Benevente, and the Marquess 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 Castile.
It was probably 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 Erbas, a famous jester of the court.
CHAP. n.
ISS6-
Perico de
SantErbfis.
6o
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II.
1556.
Don Con-
stantino do
Braganzo.
Causes of
ill-will
between
Spain and
Portugal.
passing by at the moment, the Emperor good-
humouredly saluted him by lifting his hat. This
buffoon had formerly been wont to make the
Emperor laugh by calling his son Senor de Todo,
Lord of All/ and now that Philip 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." ^
On the 27th October, Don Constantino de Bra-
ganza arrived from Lisbon to congratulate the Em-
peror, in the name of his cousin, John III., 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 Val-
ladolid, though friendly in appearance, were really
upon terms far from cordial. Not only had Philip II.
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
1 Bclatione di Navagiero, Bradford's Correspondence of Charles V., 8vo,
London, 1850, p. 439.
^ J. A. de Vera, Vida del Emp. Carlos V., 4to, Bruxelles, 1656, p. 246.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
6i
of Portugal had been one of the earliest candidates.
Knowing that the Prince] of Spain was already be-
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 con-
fidence graciously, and affected to favour his preten-
sions, 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
Portugal. But the affronts which the house of Avis
had received in the persons of Don Luis and the
Infanta were still too recent to be forgotten, and may
have been partly the cause why the Princess Juana so
soon forsook 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
suspected that the moidores of Brazil were not un-
known to the troops which soon began to plant the
lilied banner 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
CHAP. II.
1556.
Affairs sub-
mitted to
Emperor.
62
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II.
1556.
Anthony,
Duke of
Vend6me,
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 intended to abstain from further
interference with business of state is plain, from
a letter which he wrote to Philip II. on the 30th
October.
This letter relates chiefly to certain overtures
which had been made to the Emperor by Anthony
de Bourbon, whom he called Duke of Vend6me, but
who was known in France by the title of King
of Navarre. Since Ferdinand the Catholic had
driven John III. 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 Castile 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, husband of the story-loving
peaii of Margarets, had willed himself a provisional
tomb, until fortune should permit him to be laid in
the cathedral of Pamplona. His son-in-law, the
chief of the Bourbons, was, however, neither very
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
63
solicitous nor very hopeful of disturbing Henry's
repose at Lescar. To the courage, courtesy, and
good-humour ■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 IV. ;
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
Flanders ; but he had now joined his strong-minded
wife, Jane D'^Vlbret, in her principality of Beame.
Menaced even in that modest domain by the all-
powerful Guises, who recommended its annexation
to the realm of France, they were desirous of secur-
ing the protection of their other great neighbour
' He is descrilicd by a contemporary aa " uno suggctto deWissimo,"
he being then (1561) tlie chief adviser of Catherine de Medicis in the
regency of France. In hopes of raising a party for Iiimself, he favoured
sometimes the Catholics, to please the Pope ; sometimes the Huguenots, to
enlist them in his cause ; sometimes the Lutherans, to conciliate the aid
of the German Protestants. " H seder sopra tanti scanni non giova mai."
Ho Wiis so vain that after his beard was white he loved to liedizcn him-
self with jewellery, wearing a profusion of rings, and even earrings like
a woman. ligations dcs Ambassadeurs Vinitiens stir les affaires de
France, recueillies et traduites par M. M.N. Tonimoseo, 2 tomes 4to,
Paris, 1838.
CHAP. H.
1356-
64
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CHAP. II.
1556.
propo-'es to
sell his
rights to
Navarre.
Doubts
as to
Emperor's
retreat.
beyond the Pyrenees. Anthony had therefore pro-
posed 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 11.,^ the Emperor informed
him that this matter had been brought under his
notice at Burgos, by the Duke of Alburquerque,
Viceroy of Navarre, and that he had given audience
to Monsieur- 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 Eomans, as to the last formalities of
his renunciation of the empire ; and he entreated
Philip to hasten the settlement 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
distant cloister of Yuste. From Burgos, Gaztelu
wrote, that in spite of his constant opportunities, he
was unable to penetrate the Emperor's intentions
[Gachard, Retraite et mart de Charles Quint, torn. ii. p. 105.]
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
65
— the expressions which he let fall being always,
as it seemed, purposely equivocal. At Valladolid,
however, he had commanded the attendance of the
Prior of Yustc, and the General of the Order of
Jerome, Fray Francisco de Tofiuo ; 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
darkened the long life of Queen Juana, his great-
grandmother 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
perpetual 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, stiU mysterious both in its cause
and its circumstances, has made him the darling of
romance ; and in that fairy realm, he goes crowned
with immortal garlands, such as certainly have never
been won in the battlefields of life by any son or
descendant of his sire. He might possibly have
VOU V. E
CHAP. II.
Don Carles.
66
CLOISTER LIFE OF EMPEROR CHARLES V.
CHAP. II.
1556.
become the champion of the people's rights, and of
liberty of conscience ; but it was scarcely probable
that a hero 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.^ 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. Eecommending,
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 II., who had requested
his aunt to note carefully the impression made by
his son ; and it is said to have laid the founda-
tion for the aversion which the King entertained
towards Carlos.
' Of these, one of the latest and most plausible in his view is Don
Adolfo de Castro. See his agreeable work, Eistoria de los Protestantes
Espailoles, 8vo, Cadiz, 1851, pp. 243-319, or The Spanish Protestants,
translated by T. Parker, fcap. Svo, London, 1851, pp. 278-339, in which,
however, I cannot admit that he makes out his case.
CHAPTER III.
THE CASTLE OF XARANDILLA.
INGE the Emperor had
turned fifty, and had
begun to lose his teeth,
he had ceased to eat in
public, or at least per-
formed that royal func-
tion in private as often as
good policy permitted.'
On the 4th 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. Im-
mediately afterwards he bade farewell to the Princess-
Regent and her nephew, and set forwaid on his
journey to Estremadura, dismissing, at the Campo
' Joan Gin. Sepulveda, De Rebus gestis Caroli V. , lib. xxx. c. 25 ;
Opera, 4 torn. 4to, Madriti, 1780, ii. p. 528.
ca III.
1556-
Emperor
leaves
Valladolid,
4th Nor.
68
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. in.
Illness.
Valdes-
tillas,
4th Nov.
Medina del
Campo,
5th Nov.
gate, a crowd of grandees who had wished to ride
for some miles beside his litter.
The followers whom 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 vine-
yards, when the Emperor complained of illness, and
halted his litter. His servants retired with him into
a wayside garden, and by the application of hot
cushions to his stomach, he was soon sufficiently re-
stored to proceed. At the ferry of the broad Duero
he looked towards the fortress of Simancas, which
rose on its round hill-top out of the plain a few
miles higher up 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 Valdestillas, a village seated amongst low
woods of melancholy pine.
The next day's journey, which was somewhat
shorter, 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
religious buildings, and a noble hospital, well sup-
plied with patients by the miasma which rose from
the stagnating Zapardiel that crept beneath the
walls. Here was an ancient residence of the crown
EMPEROR CHARLES V. 69
of Castile, called La Mota, a stately pile hallowed ch. hi.
by the deathbed of Isabella the Catholic. The Em- »ss6.
peror, 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 uncon-
sciously, the splendid Fuggers of Augsburg, had
provided, amongst other luxuries 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 uncour-
teously 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 chaplains
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 re-
marked 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 receive, or receptions to undergo.
' This story is told by Gonzalez, bnt whether on the authority of a
letter does not appear.
70
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. III.
1556.
Horcajo de
las Torres,
6th Nov.
Peiiar-
anda,
7th Not.
Alaraz,
8th Not.
Gallogosde
Solmiron,
9th Not.
Six or seven leagues, still over vast bare undulating
plains, where the plough feebly contended with the
waste, brought them to Horcajo de las Torres, a
lone village, built on a windswept tableland. 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 favourite fish for
the Emperor. He was also presented with an
offering of eels, trouts, and barbel, by the towns-
people of Penaranda, where he rested for the night
in the mansion of the Bracamontes. The road now
approached the southern hills, and entered the strag-
gling woods of evergreen oak which clothe the
base and become 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 Moncayo 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 mes-
senger 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 morn-
ing of the 9th November ; and sleeping that night
at Gallegos de Solmiron, he arrived on the loth at
loth Not,
EMPEROR CHARLES V. 71
Barco de Avila, a small walled town, finely placed in ch. hi.
a rich vale, overhung by the lofty sierras of Bejar 'ss6.
and Gredos, and watered by the fresh stream of the ^° ''"
Tormes, dear to the angler and to the lyric muse
of Castile. A second courier from court here over-
took 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 dressing-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 ascending the
rocky and wood-clad steeps, was extremely bad ;
and, although the country people, whom they met,
aided in overcoming the difficulties of the way, the
cavalcade did not reach the halting-place at Torna- Toma-
vacas until after dark. The Emperor, however, bore "'•» Nov.
the fatigue with all the spirit and somewhat of the
strength of his younger days ; he was even able, on
his arrival, to go out to see the villagers fish the
pools of the Xerte by torchlight ; and he afterwards
supped heartily on the fine trout taken in the course
of that picturesque sport.
He was now within six or seven leagues of Xaran-
dilla, the village in the neighbourhood 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
72
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. III.
ISS6-
Pass of
Puerto-
nuevo.
the Vera, or valley, in which the village stood.
But from Tornavacas there led to Xarandilla a track
across the mountains, 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 Emperor determined to face.
He set out on his last march in good time on the
morning of the 1 2th November, his cavalcade 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 some-
times skirted, sometimes crossed, torrents swollen
with the late rains, wound beneath toppling crags,
climbed the edges of frightful precipices, and reached
the culminating horror in the pass of Puertonuevo,
a chasm, rugged and steep as a broken staircase,
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 con-
vent belfries, slopes gently to the west, where
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
73
beautiful Plasencia, crowned with cathedral towers
and throned on a terrace 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,
" 'tis the last pass 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, pike in hand.
They reached Xarandilla 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 over-
come with fatigue and with disgust at the obstacles
which every step had put between themselves and
home. But all agreed that the Emperor bore the
journey remarkably well, and did not appear greatly
weaiied at its close. He chose a bedroom different
from that allotted to him by his host ; and requested
CH. III.
ISS6.
Xaran-
dilla,
12th Nov.
1 Puerto has in Spaniiih the double sjgniiication of "gate "and "moon-
tain JrtlSS."
74
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. Ill,
1556-
Vera of
Plasencia.
that a fireplace might be immediately added to the
chamber which he was afterwards to occupy.^
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 north by lofty sierras, and watered by abundant
streams, its mild climate, rich soil, and perpetual
verdure, 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 Homeric paradise and the tor-
rents of rain which sometimes deluged the Iberian
dale. With greater plausibility the Vera was con-
jectured 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
1 In this itinerary, from Valladolid to Xarandilla, I am without means
of computing the distances with any certainty —
Nov. 4, Tuesday, Valladolid to Valdestillas .
5, Wednesday, . . Medina del Campo
6, Thursday,
7, Friday,
8, Saturday,
9, Sunday,
10, Monday,
11, Tuesday,
12, Wednesday,
Horcajo de las Torres
Penaranda .
Alaraz .
Gallegos de Solmiroii
Barco de Avila
Tornavacas .
Xarandilla
Leagues.
4
34
3
4
4
3
3
6 or 7
6 or 7
In all
Strada, De Bella Belgico, lib. i.
364 to 38J leagues.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
75
the last labours 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 valley was unquestionably famous
throughout Spain for its wine, oil, chestnuts, and
citrons, for its magnificent timber, for the deer, bears,
wolves, and all other animals of the chase, which
abounded in its woods, and for the delicate trout
which peopled its mountain waters.^
The reasons which guided Charles V. in his
choice of a retreat have never been satisfactorily
explained. There is no direct evidence that he had
even visited the Vera before he came there to die.^
' He was a prior of a convent at Garganta la 011a. J. de Tamayo
Salazar, San^ Kpitacio de Tui, 4to, Madrid, 1646, p. 42; and Sancti
Hispani, 6 vols, fol., Lugd. 1657, v. p. 68. The fact, however, is dis-
puted, and the liononr claimed for the Alps, and a place called Fuesscn,
supposed to be derived from Fauces, of which Garganta is also a transla-
tion. Theodore of St. Gall, who wrote the life of St. Magnus (printed
hy J. Messinghani, Florilegium Sanct. Ilibcmiie, 4to, Paris, 1624, p. 296),
is entirely silent as to the claims of the Vem.
^ " La Xariella de J uste es buen monte de puerco en verano, e en tienipo
de los panes : e non ha bozeria. * E es el armada en las navas." — Libra de
la monteria que mondo cscrivir el . . Bey D. Alonso. Acrccentado per
G. Argote de Molina, fol. Sevilla, 1582, lib. iii. cap. xviii. fol. 70.
' Eobertson (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 bad passed through this place a great many years before ;
and having been struck at that time with the delightful situation of tlie
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
CH. III.
1556.
Roasonsfor
Emperor's
choice of
his retreat.
* I cannot find in the Diecionaria de la Academia, or any other, "voceria'
in this sense.
76
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. in. It is possible that the patriotism of some Estrema-
1556- duran companion in arms, and his talk on the march
or by the camp fire, may have obtained for his
native province the honour 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,^ or during the few days which he
spent at Oropesa on his way to Seville, in February
1526,^ it is not improbable that love of the chase
may have tempted Charles to penetrate the sur-
rounding forests, and that the sylvan valley may
have remained pictured in his memory as the very
solitude for some future Diocletian. In 1534 he
was at Salamanca, visiting his old tutor. Bishop Luis
Cabeza de Vaca, and undergoing the pompous and
pedantic homage of the university ; ° and it is also
attendants 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." M. Juste, L' Abdica-
tion, repeats the story, and assigns the incident to the date 1542, but,
like Robertson, gives no authority either for the story or the date. From
the Itinerary of the Emperor, by Vandenesse, from 1519 to i55i> printed
in Bradford's Correspondence, we learn (pp. 531-5) that in 1542 Charles
was never nearer to Yuste than Valladolid. [Prescott, The Life of
Charles the Fifth after his Abdication — Cliarlcs V., 2 vols. 8vo, London,
vol. ii. p. 531, says, " There is no evidence that he had ever seen it."]
' Fr. Gabriel de Talavera, Ilistoria de Nucstra Scnora de Guadcdupe,
4to, Toledo, 1597. The letter of brotherhood, carta de hermandad,
given to the Emperor, printed at fol. 210, is dated 21st April 1525.
^ Itinerary of the Emperor, by Vandenesse, in Bradford's Correspond-
ence, p. 490. He remained at Oropesa (erroneously written Aropesa)
from the 25th to the end of February.
' Gil Gonjalez de Avila, Historia de Salamanca, 4to, Salamanca,
l6o6, p. 475.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
77
possible that in that journey he may have had a
glimpse of his final resting-place. 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 ; but 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
Penanegra. 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 defence than devotion. The mansion of
' Mariana [De Rch. Hisp., lib. xi. cap. 14, fol. Tolcti, 1582, p. 533)
gives the city of Plasencia an opposite character. The site was called
Ambroz, but Alonso VIII. changed the name — " quod nomen Placentiaj
appellatione rautari placuit, ominis causas quasi divis et honiinibus pla-
citurse et ex regionis amajnitate, quanivis cceli sahibritato non eadem."
This passage is cited by Fr. Alonso Fernandez, in his Historia y A nales de
Plasencia, fol. Madrid, 1627, p. 6, with the suppression, ratlier patriotic
than honest, of the latter damaging clause.
CH. III.
Village and
costlo of
Xaran-
•lilla.
78
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. III.
1556.
Count of
Oropesa.
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.
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 overlooking 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 pro-
longed, he afterwards commenced housekeeping on
his own account. On the i8th November, there-
fore, Oropesa and his brother, Francisco Alvarez de
Toledo, who had been Viceroy of Peru,^ and am-
bassador 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.
' p. de Rojas, Discursos Genealdgicos, 4to, Toledo, 1636, p. iii.
EMPEROR CHARLES V. 79
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 in-
visible at the distance of twelve paces. Yuste, on
its wooded hillside, was wrapped in a mantle of
perpetual and impenetrable mist. For whole days
it was scarcely possible for an invalid to leave the
house, the streets of Xarandilla being 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.
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 de-
spatches which arrived almost daily from Valladolid,
and wrote replies from his dictation. The course
of events in Flanders was watched by Charles with
especial interest; he was always eager for intelli-
gence, 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
newly-elected Pope plunging, at the age of eighty,
into the vortex of political strife, with all the reck-
CH. III.
Rod
weather.
Emperor's
interest
in public
affairs.
Pop© Paul
IvTand
8o
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. in. less ardour of a boy. The two men seemed to have
iss6. changed characters as well as places. Charles, the
most ambitious 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 arro-
gance and audacity than Paul IV. 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 prudence to the winds. Hating
Spain with the hatred of an hereditary bondsman,
the old volcanic Neapolitan poured forth against her
torrents of the foulest abuse, and, sitting in the
pastoral chair of St. Peter, he denounced the Spanish
portion of his Christian flock as "heretics, schis-
matics, accursed of God, the spawn of Jews and
Moors, the off'scouring of the earth." ^ He had.
• "Heretici, scismatici, et maladetti de Dio, seme de' Giudei et de'
Marrani, feccia del mondo." Cited by Fcderigo Badovaro in his Relatione,
1557, made to his government as ambassador from Venice to the King of
Sjjain, of which an account is given in an interesting paper by M. Marchal
in the Bulletins de I'Academie royale des sciences et belles leltres de
Bruxelles, torn. xii. i" partie, 1845, P- ^3-
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
8i
besides, an ancient feud with the house of Austria,
on account of the punishments inflicted on the
Caraffas who had joined the French during the
foray of Lautrec, and also a personal grudge, for
opposition made to his own elevation to the arch-
bishopric of Naples.^ War seemed to offer a pros-
pect, not only of gratifying his hatred with sharper
weapons than words, but of paying off old scores
and of providing his needy nephews with desirable
duchies. The antiquated claims of the Papacy on
Naples as a Church fief furnished a ready cause of
quarrel ; and Paul at once invited the Grand Turk
to land in Sicily, and lured France across the Alps,
by holding out such hopes of an Italian crown as
no French king has ever been able to realise or
resist. Henry II., 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 hereditary device happened to bear the
canting motto, Cara Fe, he was ready to commit
any profitable perfidy and undertake any promising
war. The Admiral Coligny was therefore sent to
cariy fire and sword into Flanders ; and the gallant
Francis of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, the ablest
' Doni. Ant. Parriiio, Teatro de' govemi de' Vicere di Napoli, 2 vols.
4to, Napoli, 1770, i. pp. 142-3 ; Bat. Platina, Historia dei sommi Pon-
tifici, 4to, Venetia, 1592, fol. 356.
VOL. V. V
CH. IlL
1556.
Henry II.
of France
combine
against
Philip XL
Coligny
invades
Flanders.
Duke
of Uuisa
82
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. III.
1556.
invades
Naples.
Flanders
defended
by Duke
of Savoy.
general in France, led twenty thousand of her best
troops into Italy.
Philip II., too faithless himself to be surprised
at the bad faith of his royal brother, took vigorous
measures to frustrate his endeavours. He gave the
military command, as well as the civil government,
of the Netherlands to Duke Emanuel Philibert of
Savoy ; he entrusted the Duke of Alba with the
defence of Naples ; and he himself passed into
England, and secured the co-operation 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
rendered honesty almost impossible.^ His father,
Duke Charles, in the long wars between Francis I.
and Charles V., 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, his son Emanuel Philibert found the port of
Nice and a few remote valleys of highland Piedmont
' " La Geographic les emp6che d'etre honngtes gens." Prince de Ligtie,
Mdanges, 5 torn. 8vo, Paris, 1829, v. p. 29.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
83
the sole dominion of the house which claimed the
crowns of Cyprus and Jerusalem. Happily the
young Ironhead, as he was called, had eai'ly fore-
seen that the career of a soldier of fortune was the
one path by which he could hope to regain his posi-
tion among the princes of Europe. He therefore
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
already, though still under thirty, reckoned one of
the best captains in the service of Spain.^
Ferdinand, Duke of Alba, became, in his old age,
the last of the great soldiers of Castile. His grand-
father, the first Duke, under the Catholic King, had
led the Christian chivalry to the leaguer of Granada ;
his father had left his bones among the Moors in the
African isle of Zerbi ; and he himself had fought
by the side of the Emperor on the banks of the
Danube, beneath the walls of Tunis, in Provence
and Dauphiny, and in the Protestant Electorates.
He had held independent commands of importance
in Catalonia and Navarre ; he had defended Per-
pignan for two months against Francis I. with a
greatly superior force, and so had foiled the French
king's projected invasion of Spain ;^ and he had
OH. III.
1556.
Duke of
Alba
' Histoire cfEmamtel Philibert, iimo, Amsterdam, 1693, p. 5.
^ In 1542. J. A. Froude, History of England, vol. iv. pp. 174-5.
84
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. III. commanded in chief in the campaign which closed
1556. 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 disciplinarian was still
defends
Naples.
hardly past the prime of life, and in full favour with
his sovereign; and he joined the army of Naples,
resolved to win back on the Eoman Campagna the
laurels which he had lost on the plains of the Po.^
' J. V. Rustant, Historia del Duque de Alva, 2 torn. 4to, Madrid,
175 1 ; a book which seems to be little more than a translation of the rare
Latin life by Osorio. 'i'his famous leader is held verj' cheap by Badovaro
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
85
Besides the momentous aflfairs of Italy and the
Netherlands, several minor matters claimed and ob-
tained the Emperor's attention. Foremost amongst
them stood the negotiations with the court of Por-
tugal, 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 Castile by the Emperor, and had
left her baby under the care of her half-brother,
John III. She parted with her sadly against her
will, and only because the usages of Portugal and
the clamours of the city of Lisbon did not permit
an Infanta to leave the kingdom. It had since
been the main object of the fond mother's heart to
negotiate for her daughter such a mamage 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 endeavoured to match her
CH. HI.
1556.
Infanta
Mary of
Portugal.
in his Relatione, already quoted at p. So. He accuses liim not only of
ignonince of military afiairs, but even of cowardice, and asserts tliat his
appointment to the chief command in Germany astonished the whole
army, and was a mere job to please the Spaniards, which the Emperor
cousented 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 II. entrusted him, though in
disgrace at the time, with the conquest of Portugal.
86
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. III. with Maximilian, King of Bohemia, and Philip of
1556. Castile.^ In following her brother and sister to
Spain, Eleanor was much influenced by the hope
of inducing her daughter to come and reside with
her in that country. Philip II. also seemed desi-
rous of making some amends for his ungenerous
treatment of the Infanta, by marrying her to their
mutual cousin, the Archduke Charles of Austria.
John III. of Portugal, her guardian, was likewise
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.^ Dispirited
by these mortifications, Mary herself turned her
thoughts to the natural refuge of a love-lorn damsel
of thirty-six — the cloister ; and the falseness of
Philip had filled her heart with bitterness towards
Spain and her Spanish kindred, 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 nunneiy. The Emperor had already
' Damiam de Goes, Chronica do Rei Dam Emanuel, 4 torn. fol. Lisbon,
1566-67, iv. p. 84.
' Meneses, Chronica de D. Sebastiao, p. 69.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
87
declined his son's invitation to interfere, but he
now found it impossible to resist the entreaties of
his sisters and the Princess-Regent. lie therefore
allowed the Portuguese ambassador, Don Sancho
de Cordova, to come to Xarandilla on the 29th
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 Vend6me,
as he was styled in Spain, had also contrived to gain
the Emperor's attention to his proposals/ His
emissary, M. Ezcurra, therefore presented himself
at Xarandilla, on the 3rd December, and was dis-
missed with a letter, written in cipher, to the secre-
taiy Vazquez.
On the 8th December there anived a Jew of
Barbary, 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 ravages 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 secre-
tary of state.
The progress of the works at Yuste, and the
preparations for removal thither, were subjects of
OH. ni.
NttTarro.
Barbary.
Buildings
at Yuste.
' Supra, chap. ii. p. 64.
88
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. III. everyday discussion. The new buildings had been
1556. commenced more than three years before, the first
money being paid for the purpose on the 30th
July 1553. Gaspar 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 May
1554, by Philip, at the desire of his father, as he
was on his' road to England. He assisted at the
procession of Corpus Christi, inspected the works
with great minuteness, and slept a night in the con-
vent. The control of the cash and the general
superintendence of the building was entrusted to
Fray Juan de Ortega, general of the Jeronymites,
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 stories in
which modem 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 suc-
cessor, Tofifio, thought fit to remove him and his
assistant. Concha, from their functions at Yuste.
The Emperor, however, was highly indignant at this
interference, and immediately replaced them in their
duties, which they continued to discharge at the
time of his arrival at Xarandilla.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
89
The greatest secrecy had been enjoined as to the
purpose of these architectural operations, and Charles
had evinced much displeasure on learning that his
intention of retiring to the monastery had been
spoken of in the country, owing to the indiscreet
tattling of the friars. Ortega, as well as the general
Tofino, had been summoned to meet him at Valla-
dolid, and now at Xarandilla they and the prior of
Yuste had long and frequent andiences. On the
22nd November, in spite of the rain and fog, the
Emperor got into his litter, and went over to the
convent, to inspect the state of the works for him-
self. It being the feast of St. Catherine, it was
his first care to perform his devotions 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 servants, — as
speedily as possible. Precautions had been taken
to light fires in all the four fireplaces ; and in his
progress through the apaitments he was glad to rest
and warm himself at each of them.^ 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
CH. III.
Emperor
visits
Yuste.
■ M. Bakliujzen van den Brink, La Retraite de Charles-Quint, analyse
iVun Manuscrit Espagnol contemporain, par un rclujieux de Vordre de
Saint-Jerdme d Yuste, 8vo, Bruxelles, 1850, p. 21.
90
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. III.
1556.
Discon-
tent of his
household.
Quizada.
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
paradise of the master was regarded by the servants
as a sort of hell upon earth. To all that they could
urge against the salubrity of Yuste, Charles either
was wholly deaf, or replied with the proverb, " The
lion is not so fierce " — or, as we say, the devil is not
so black — " as he is painted ! " No es tan bravo el
leon como le pintan. The mayordomo and the sec-
retary therefore 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 Xarandilla by the damp, and Yuste was well
known to be far damper than Xai'andilla. 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 dis-
comfort. The rooms were too small, the windows
too large ; the window which opened from the
Emperor's bedroom into the church would not com-
mand 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.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
9»
he feared that the Emperor would be disturbed
during the night when the hours were chanted. The
apartments on the ground floor were in utter dark-
ness, 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 dis-
paraging 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 favour,
fierce dissensions had arisen on this point, and had
even reached the Emperor's ears. It seemed as if
His Majesty must adjust these quarrels himself, or
seek another retreat, which would be much against
his inclination ; but, indeed, what good could be
expected to come of wishing to live among friars ?
The quartermaster, 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 lodg-
ing twenty-one of the people at Yuste, and the rest at
Quacos, "a place," added Gaztelu piteously, "worse
than Xarandilla." Still more was the Emperor
CH. III.
1556.
Oaxtulu.
92
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. III.
"556.
Emperor's
love of
eating.
exasperated at a letter which he received from the
Queen of Hungary, entreating him to think twice
before he settled in a spot " so unhealthy as Yuste ; "
and he expressed great wrath against those who
had given her such infonnation, and whom he sus-
pected to be Monsieur de la Chaulx and the doctor
Cornelio, who had lately come from court. Poor La
Chaulx might well be excused if he had given an
unfavourable- report of the climate ; he was not the
man he had been when he led the ball at the
Emperor's wedding, in the Alcazar at Seville ; and
he continued to burn and shiver with violent ague
fits. The doctor found a good many patients in the
lower ranks of the household. In spite, however,
of these various distresses, the Flemings, according
to the testimony of the Castilians, looked fair and
fat, and fed voraciously on the "hams and other
bucolic meats " of Estremadura, a province still un-
rivalled in swine and savoury 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
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
93
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 llhenish wine." ' In his Commentaries,
Charles has himself confessed that it was only in
his eleventh attack of gout, which tormented him
from December 1543 till Easter 1544, that he would
submit to the severe regimen and dietary imposed
by his physician.^ Even in his worst days of gout
and dyspepsia, before setting out from Flanders, the
fulness and 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 reported, was, like his stomach, quite
worn out ; he was ever complaining of the sameness
and insipidity of the meats served at his table ; and
the chamberlain, Monfalconet, protested, in despair,
that he knew not how the cook was to please his
master, unless he were to gratify his taste for culinary
novelty and chronometrical mechanism, by sending
him up a pasty of watches.
' Works of Roger Ascham, 4to, London, 1761, p. 375.
' Commentaires de Charles-Quint, publics pour la prenii&re fois, par
Le Baron Kervyn de Lettenliove, 8vo, Bruxelles, 1862, pp. 94-5. [The
Atitobiography of the Emperor Charles V., the Englisli translation by
Leonard Francis Simpson, sm. 8vo, London, 1862, p. 72.]
' Badovaro. Supra, p. 80.
CH. in.
•556.
94
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. III.
1556.
Partridges
from
Gama.
Eating was now the only physical gratification
which he could still enjoy, or was unable to resist.
Like Frederick the Great, who died of his polenta,
he continued, therefore, to dine to the last upon the
rich dishes, against which his ancient and trusty
confessor, Cardinal Loaysa, had protested a quarter
of a century before.^ The supply of his table was
a main subject of the correspondence between the
mayordomo and the secretary of state. The weekly
courier from Valladolid to Lisbon was ordered to
change his route that he might bring every Thurs-
day a provision of eels and other rich fish (pescado
gmeso) for Friday's fast. There Avas a constant
demand for anchovies, tunny, and other potted fish,
and sometimes a complaint that the trouts of the
country were too small ; the olives, on the other
hand, were too large, and the Emperor wished, in-
stead, for olives of Perejon. One day, the secretary
of state was asked for some partridges from Gama,
a place from whence the Emperor remembered
that the Count of Osorno once sent him, into Flan-
ders, " some of the best partridges in the world." ^
' Cartas al Emp. Carlos V. escritas en los anos de 1530-32. Copiadas
de las autografas en el archivo de Simancas. Par G. Heine. 8vo,
Berlin, 1848, p. 69.
■■' The Count managed that they should reach Flanders in perfect con-
dition by putting rust in their mouths, " echandoles orin en la boca." The
Emperor considered that this singular preservative would not he neces-
sary in the present journey.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
95
Another day, sausages were wanted " of the kind
which the Queen Juana, now in glory, used to
pride herself in naaking, in the Flemish fashion, at
Tordesillas," and for the recipe for which the sec-
retaiy is referred to the Marquis of Denia. Both
orders were punctually executed. The sausages,
although sent to a land supreme in that manufac-
ture, 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
Duchess 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
trains of mules laden, as it were, with gout and bile.
CH. IIL
1556.
Saaiia(;e«
from Tor-
desilloa.
PreunU
for Em-
peror'*
larder.
Quixada's
fear*.
96
CLOISTER LIFE OF EMPEROR CHARLES V.
CH. III. He never acknowledged the receipt of the good
1556. things from Valladolid without adding some dismal
forebodings 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 exultation ; and he remarked with complacency
His Majesty's fondness for plovers, which he con-
sidered harmless. 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.
CHAPTER IV.
SERVANTS AND VISITORS.
T was during'theJEmperor's
stay at Xarandilla, that
his household was joined
by the friar of the Order
of St. Jerome, whom he
had chosen as his con-
fessor. To this impor-
tant post Juan de Regla
was perhaps fairly en-
titled, by his professional distinction ; and he was
certainly one of those monks who knew how to
make ladders, to place and favour, of the ropes
which girt their ascetic loins. An Aragonese by
birth, he first saw the light in a peasant's hut,' on
the mountains of Jaca, in 1500, the same year in
which the future Caesar, who was destined to be his
OH. IV.
1556-
IlotiseholJ
of tlio
Emporor.
Confessor,
Fr. Juan
de liegla.
' Latassa, Bib. Arag. Niteva, torn. i. p. 314, saya he was of a "casa
solariega," and bom at Hecho.
VOL. V. O
98
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV. spiritual son, was bom, in the halls of the house of
iss6. 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 literature. Obtaining as he could the
rudiments of what was then held to be learning,
he lived on alms — the charity soup and bread dis-
pensed by the Jeronymites of Santa Engracia, and
the Benedictines of the cathedral. During the vaca-
tions, 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 favour
obtained for him the post of domestic 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 pedagogue,
and free to pursue his private reading of theology,
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
within its walls, young and old flocking to his chair
in such crowds, that it seemed as if perpetual holy-
EMPEROR CHARLES V,
99
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 155 1
by Charles V. to represent the doctors of Ai-agon
at the Council of Trent.^ At his return from this
honourable, but fruitless 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 sum-
moned him to Xarandilla to commence a higher
career of ambition, and to enter political life at the
precise age at which Charles himself was retiring
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."
CH. IV.
1556.
' A sum of one thousand ducats a year was allowed him as salary,
and for his travelling expenses, but he spent the gre.iter part of it in
offerings of sacramental plate and .iltar embroidery for the cliurch of
S'a- Engracia. Latassa, torn. i. p. 315.
lOO
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
1556.
Chamber-
lain, Luis
Quixada.
It may be as well now to sketch the portraits of
the other members of the imperial household, who
afterwards formed the principal personages of the
tiny court of Yuste. Foremost in interest as in rank
stands the active mayordomo, who has already figured
so frequently in this narrative, Luis Quixada, or, to
give him his full Castilian appellation, Luis Mendez
Quixada Manuel de Figueredo y Mendoza. He was
the last of a knightly race of Old Castile, whose
martial achievements, says one of its admirers,
" deserve to be written with a pen plucked from
the wing of the eagle that soared, in battle, over
the head of Alexander." ^ The first recorded warrior
of the line was Ruy Arias Quixada, who fought
in 1085 under the king Don Alonso VI., at the
taking of Toledo. From that siege to Isabella's
crowning conquest of Granada, there was hardly a
field fought in Spain where the pennon, chequered
azure and argent, of a Quixada, was not displayed
among the foremost banners of the Christian host.
Gutierre Gon9alez Quixada, Lord of Villagarcia,
was distinguished by his prowess in the tourneys,
and his favour at the court of Philip I., or the
Handsome. He served with distinction in the con-
quest of NavaiTe, and in the wars of the Commons
' Juan de Villafaile, Vvda de Doiia Magdaleim de Ulloa, 4to, Sala-
manca, 1728, p. 16.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
lOI
of Castile ; aud as a leader of the famous infantry of
Spain, he became so renowned, that it was sufficient
praise for soldiers in that service to be called as
well trained and as well appointed as the soldiers
of Gutierre Quixada. By his wife, Maria Manuel,
Lady of Villamayor, he had four sons and a daughter.
Of these children, three embraced the profession of
arms ; Alvaro entered the Church, and died in 1554,
a dignitary of Santiago ; and Anna was for many
years Abbess of Las Huelgas, at Valladolid. Pedro,
the eldest son, being slain before Tunis, in 1535,
the family estates passed shortly afterwards, on the
death of his father, to the second son Luis. Com-
mencing his career as a page in the imperial house-
hold, Luis had likewise served with distinction in
the same campaign, as a captain of foot. His sagacity
allayed the discord which had arisen between the
Spanish and Italians about the post of honour before
Goleta ; ^ and he was wounded while leading his
company to the assault of its bastions." At Terouanne,
in the Netherlands, 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 arquebus.*
His services soon raised him to the grade of colonel,
and he was also promoted, in the imperial household,
CH. IV.
1556.
> Sandoval, Hist, de Carlos V., lib. xxii. c. 17. ' Ibid., c 27.
» J. G. Sepulveda, De Rebus gestis Caroli V., lib. xxviiL c.37.
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
Do5a
Magdalena
de Ulloa,
wife of
Quixada.
Don John
of Austria.
to the post of deputy mayordomo, under the Duke
of Alba, and in that capacity constantly attended
the person and obtained the entire confidence of the
Emperor. In 1549, he married Dona Magdalena
de Ulloa, a lady of birth equal to his own, and of
a nature as gentle and lovely as any which ever
graced the court or the story of Castile.^ 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 awhile to his patrimonial
mansion at Villagarcia, a small town lying six leagues
from Valladolid, beyond the heath of San Pedro de
la E spina, 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 third year, under the name of Gerdnimo,
in the charge of one Francisquin Massi,'' a favourite
musician of the Emperor, who was told that he was
the son of Adrian de Bues,* one of the gentlemen of
the imperial chamber.* At this man's death, he
' Villafafie, Vida de Dona Mag. de Vlloa, p. 43.
^ [Don John of Austria, or Passages from the History of the Sixteenth
Century, by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, Bart., 2 vols, royal 8vo, London,
1883, vol. i. p. II, et seq."] ' [Ibid., p. 6.]
* [Or Dubois.]
' With the Emperor's will was deposited in the royal archives a packet
of four papers, which appears to have been at first iu the custody of
Philip II., being inscribed in his handwriting, " If I die before His
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
'03
remained for some time with his widow at Leganes,
near Madrid, learning his letters from the curate
and sacristan, running wild among the village chil-
dren, or with his cross-bow 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 stranger to
her care as " the son of a great man, the writer's
deal- friend." Magdalena, who had no children of
her own, took the pretty sunburnt 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.
CH. IV.
Majesty, 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
whicli will be noticed more particularly in another place, the Emperor
acknowledged Ger6nimo 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 lodging, calculated from the ist August 1550, and binding them-
selves to accept fifty ducats for his annual keep in future, and to preserve
the strictest secrecy as to his parentaga This curious receipt is dated
Bruxclles, 13th 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 by M. W. Weiss at full length in the
Papicrs cCitat du Cardinal de Granvdle, 9 tomes, Paris, 1841-52, iv. pp.
496, 499, 500. [A translation of the receipt is given in Don John, of
Anstria, vol. i. p. 7.]
104
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
1556-
Mystery of
Don John's
parentage.
Early
religious
training.
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 after-
wards to suspect the truth.^ But as long as the
Emperor lived, the mayordomo never suffered her
to penetrate the mystery. Amongst the neighbours
Don John passed for a favourite page. The parental
care of his guardians, whom he called, according to
a usual mod6 of Castilian endearment, his uncle and
aunt, he returned with the affection of a son. Dona
Magdalena used to make him the dispenser of the
alms of bread and money, which were given at her
gate on stated days to the poor ; and her efforts to
imbue him with devotion towards the Blessed 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 education,
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,
flying his hawks and carrying on a tedious plea with
his tenants about manorial rights, in which he was
ultimately defeated. Strongly attached to his paternal
' [Don John of Austria, vol. i, p. 13.] ViUafaile, VidadeM. de Ulloa,
p. 43-
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
"S
fields on the naked plains of Old Castile, although
ho may have been content 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 banish-
ment to the wilds of Estremadura. Unconsciously
pourtrayed in his own graphic letters, the best of
the Yuste correspondence, he stands forth the type
of the cavalier, and " old rusty Christian," ^ of Castile
— spare and sinewy of frame, and somewhat formal
and severe in the cut of his beard and the fashion
of his manners ; in character reserved and puncti-
lious, 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 gi"ave decorous way,
to exaggerate their importance; a true son of the
Church, with an instinctive distrust of its ministers ;
a hater of Jews, Turks, heretics, friars, and Flemings ;
somewhat testy, somewhat obstinate, full of strong
sense and strong prejudice ; a warm-hearted, ener-
getic, and honest man.
Martin Gaztelu, the secretary, comes next to the
mayordomo in order of precedence, and in the
OH. IV.
1556.
Secretory,
Martin
Caztolu.
' "Cristiano viejo rancioso," iDoji Quixote, p. i. cap. zxvii., so trans-
lated by Shelton.
io6
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
1556.
William
Van Male,
Gentle-
man-of-the-
Chamber.
importance of his functions. His place was one of
great trust. The whole correspondence of the Em-
peror passed through his hands. Even the most
private and confidential communications addressed
to the Princess-Eegent by her father, were generally
written, at his dictation, by Gaztelu ; for the imperial
fingers were seldom 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 epistolary style was
clear, simple, and business-like, but inferior to that
of Quixada in humour, 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 byways 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 towards the Church,
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
107
but not obtaining any preferment, he did not receive
the tonsure. About 1548, Don Luis de Avila, Grand
Commander of Alcdntara, and a soldier, historian,
and court favourite 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, how-
ever, 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 dis-
position, and simple nature, made him a great
favourite 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 im-
perfect early education debarred him from many
literary pursuits and pleasures. In Van Male he
had found a humble instrument, ever ready, able,
CH. IV.
1556-
' Ludov. de Avila, Commentariorun de Bella Germanieo a Caroli Casare
gesto, lib. ii., 8vo, Antverjiia^ 1550. It was printed by Steels, wlio re-
printed it the same year ; and another edition was published in 121D0,
at Strasburg, in 1620.
io8
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
1556.
Translates
the Em-
peror's
Memoirs.
Is made
to print
Acuna's
transla-
tion of Le
Chevalier
Dilibiri.
and willing to supply his deficiencies. Sailing up
the Rhine in 1550, he beguiled 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 Emperor's French, which he
likewise pronounced to be terse, elegant, and elo-
quent, into Latin, in which he put forth his whole
strength, and combined, as he supposed, the styles
of Livy, Caesar, Suetonius, and Tacitus.
Another of the Emperor's literary recreations was
to make a version, in Castilian prose, of the old and
popular French poem, called Le Chevalier Delibere,
an allegory, composed some seventy years before, by
Oliver de la Marche, in honour of the ducal house
of Burgundy. Fernando de Acuiia, a soldier-poet,
and, at that time, keeper of the captive Elector,
George Frederick of Saxony, was then commanded
to turn it into rhyme, a task which he performed
very happily, working up the Emperor's prose into
spirited and richly-idiomatic verse, retouching and
refreshing the antiquated flattery of the last century,
and stealing, here and there, a chaplet from the old
Burgundian monument to hang upon the shrine of
Aragon and Castile. The manuscript was finally
given to Van Male, in order to be passed through
[See p. 93, and note.]
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
109
the press, the Emperor telling him that he might
have the profits of the publication for his pains, but
forbidding that the book should contain any allu-
sion to his own share in its production. 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 alleg-
ing that such a condition was an injustice both to
the honourable vocation of letters and to the world
at large. The Emperor, however, was inflexible,
and the Spanish courtiers wickedly affected the
greatest envy at the good fortune of the Fleming.
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
anything but chaff; he timidly hinted at the risk
of the undertaking, 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 ordered 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
OH. IV.
«S56.
no
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
1556.
Puts Em-
peror's
prayers
mto Latin,
the publisher to the pastrycook.^ The pecuniary
results have not been recorded, but there is little
doubt that the Fleming's fears were justified rather
than the hopes of the malicious companions, 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 ad-
joining room, to be ever within call. Many a sleep-
less night Charles beguiled by hearing the poor
scholar read the Vulgate, and illustrate it by cita-
tions from Josephus or other writers ; and sometimes
they sang psalms together, a devotional exercise of
which the Emperor was very fond. He had com-
posed 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 courtiers, 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 produced the usual envy
among the servants ; the chaplains, especially, were
indignant that a layman should have thus poached
upon their peculiar ground and be praised for it.
1 [In a later note, the author has added :] This is hardly fair. The
poem is fine, aud the translation better than the original.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
Ill
and they assailed him with all kinds of coarse jests,
and saluted him by a Greek name signifying pray-
ing-master. They did not, however, undermine his
credit ; the Emperor treated him with undiminished
confidence ; he alone was present when the doctors
Vesalius and Baersdorp were wrangling over the
symptoms and 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 attained
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
tremble at the recollection of the things which he
told me."
The small collection of letters to De Praet* con-
tain 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 Em-
peror's bedside, and often long after midnight, when
his tossings had subsided into slumber. Lively
and agreeable as letters, they are invaluable for the
CH. IV.
1556-
His letters.
' Lettres sur la vie inUrieure' de VEinpcreur Charles Quint, ccrites
par Guillaume Van Male, publides par le Baron de Beiffenbcrg, 8vo,
Uruxelles, 1843. M. Ueilfcnberg has fallen into an error in supposing
(p. xxiii.) that Van Male retired from the Emimror's service at the time
of the abdication.
112
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
1556-
His books.
glimpses they afford of the everyday 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 damnosa), yet never able
to restrain it ; rebelling against the prudent rules of
Baersdorp and the great Vesalius, and appealing to
one CsihdX\.o [Cahallus, by Van Male called onagrus
magnus), a Spanish quack, whose dietary was what-
ever 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 dysenteiy;
now listening to the book of Esdras, or criticising
the wars of the Maccabees, and now laughing heartily
at a filthy saying of the Turkish envoy ; groaning
in his bed, in a complication of pains and disorders ;
or mounting his favourite 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
notices of borrowings and lendings, buyings and ex-
changings, of favourite authors, generally the classics.
At the memorable flight from Innspruck, when the
Emperor in his litter was smuggled by torchlight
through the passes into Carinthia, the library of
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
»I3
Van Male fell, with the rest of the imperial booty,
into the hands of the pikemen of Uuke Maurice.
" Ah," says he, " with how many tears and lamenta-
tions have I wailed the funeral wail of my library ! "
When the Emperor's great army lay before Metz,
sanguine of 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 " Pltis 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 Giovio's account of his expedition to
Tunis, was desirous that certain errors should be
corrected. Van Male was therefore desired to under-
take 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.
CU. IV.
LOM of
biabooki.
VOU V.
114
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV, having served in the war, was judged more eligible
iss6. 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 valetudi-
narian than the great man to whom he administered
Marriage. Maccabees, physic, or iced beer. He had seized the
opportunity of a short absence on sick-leave to
crown a long attachment 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 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 approval 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 domestic
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
mountain roads of Spain.
The Emperor, indeed, could not do without him.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
"S
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 resig-
nation, which was accepted. But, ere a week had
elapsed, both parties had cooled down ; and the
Spanish secretary remarked that William had not
only been forgiven, but was as much in favour as
before. His temper must have been excellent, for he
contrived to be a favourite with his master without
being the detestation of his Castilian fellow-servants.
The doctor of the court was a young Fleming,
named Henry Mathys, or, in the Spanish form,
Mathisio. 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. Another
Mathys, Cornelius Henry, or, as he was generally
called, Doctor Cornelio, who had long been phy-
sician to the Queen of Hungary, was also sent for
to Valladolid. They remained, however, only a few
weeks in attendance, and Heniy Mathys was again
left in sole charge of the health of the Emperor and
his people. He appears to have discharged 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
endeavoured to neutralise the slow poisons daily
CH. IV.
1556-
Physicians.
Dr. Henry
Mathys,
Dr. Gio-
vanni An-
tonio Mole,
Dr. Cor-
nelio
Mathys.
ii6
CLOISTER LIFE'"OF
CH. IV.
ISS6-
Juanelo
Torriano,
watch-
maker.
Emperor's
visitors.
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
capacity had been introduced into the Emperor's
service many years before, by the celebrated Alonso
de Avalos, Marquess del Vasto. A curious old clock,
made in 1402, by Zelandin, for Giovanni Galeazzo
Visconti, was brought from Paris as a present to
Charles at his coronation, in 1530, at Bologna.
Being much out of repair, it was put into the hands
of Torriano, who so skilfully restored it, or rather
made a new clock with the help of its materials,
that the Emperor took him with him to Spain.^
He had now brought him to Estremadura 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
1 Falconnet, Memoir es de I'Acadcmie, 4to, Paris, 1753, vol. xx. p. 440.
He quotes as his authority Bernard. Saccus, De Italicarum rerum
varietate, 4to, Papise, 1565, Lib. vii. c. 17 ; and he calls Torriano, Joannes
Jauellus.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
"7
deserves especial notice for the place he holds in
the history, not only of Spain, but of the religious
struggles of the sixteenth century — Francisco Borja,
who, a fcAV years before, had exchanged his dukedom
of Gandia for the robe of the Order of Jesus. In his
brilliant 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 Aragon — which had already given two
pontiffs to Kome, 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 aie Borjas famous by sea,
Borjas great by land, Borjas enthroned in heaven ; "
and he might have added, with equal truth, that in
the lower regions also, the house of Borja was fairly
represented. Francisco was distinguished no less by
the favour of the Emperor than by the splendour
of his birth, the graces of his person, and the endow-
ments of his mind. Bom to be a courtier and a
soldier, he was also an accomplished scholar and
no inconsiderable statesman. He broke horses and
trained hawks as well as the most expert master
of the manege and the mews ; he composed masses
' Epitome de la Eloqucncia Espaflola, par D. Francisco Josef Artiga,
i2nio, Huesca, 1692. See dedication to the Duke of Gandia, by Fr.
Man. Artiga, the author's sou.
CH. TV.
•556.
Fr.
Francisco
Borja, S.J.
Hia
history.
it8
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV. which long kept their place in the choirs of Spain ;.
iss6. he was well versed in polite learning, and deeply
read in the mathematics ; he wrote Latin and
Castilian, as his works still testify, with ease and
grace ; he served in Africa and Italy with distinc-
tion ; and as Viceroy of Catalonia, he displayed
abilities for administration which in a few years
might have placed him high amongst the Mendozas
and De Lannoys. The pleasures and honours 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
triumphs, his thoughts perpetually turned upon
death and its mysteries. Ever punctilious in the
performance of his religious duties, he early began to
delight in spiritual contemplation and to discipline
his mind by self-imposed penance. Even in his
favourite sport of falconry he found occasion for self-
punishment, 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 cofiin was opened and the
cerements drawn aside, the progress of decay was
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
119
found to have been so rapid that the mild and lovely
face of Isabella could no longer be recognised by
the most trusted and the most faithful of her servants.
His conscience would not allow him to swear that
the mass of corruption 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 snapping 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 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
ecclesiastical 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.
CH. rv.
1556.
I20
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV. Plenary indulgence having been conceded by the
1556. Pope to all who should hear his first mass, he per-
formed 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 laboured as a preacher and teacher in
many of the cities of Spain ; he had procured and
superintended the foundation of colleges at Alcald
and Seville ; and he was now engaged in instituting
and organising another at Plasencia.
In the world, Borja had been the favourite and
trusted 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
entertained 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-
Eegent to administer the last consolations of religion,
and who began to acquire a reputation for mii-a-
culous powers, because the crazy old woman gave
some feeble sign of returning reason, as she came
face to face Avith 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 that he watched the
career of the man whom alone he had chosen to
make the confidant of his intended abdication, and
who had unexpectedly forestalled him in the execu-
^
W.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
131
tion of the scheme. They were now in circum-
stances similar, yet different. Both had voluntarily
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 vigour of his age, had entered the humblest
of religious orders, to begin a new life of the 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 Bar-
celona.^ 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
December. He was attended by two brothers of the
order, Father Marcos, and Father Bartolomd Busta-
mente. The latter, an aged priest, who had been
secretary to Cardinal Tavera, was known to fame as
a scholar and as architect of the noble hospital of
' Curita, Anales de Aragon, an. 1358, lib. ix. c. 18.
CH. IV.
'S56.
Borja visits
Xarandilla
17th Dec.
123
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV. St. John Baptist, at Toledo, a structure on which
1556. the Cardinal-Archbishop had so lavished his wealth,
that his enemies said it would certainly procure him
and Bustamente warm places in purgatory.^ The
Emperor received Borja with a cordiality which was
more foreign to his nature than his habits, but which,
on this occasion, was probably sincere. 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
estate 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 insisted
on remaining upon his knees during the interview.
Charles, who addressed him as duke, finally com-
pelled 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.^
' Salazar de Mendo^a, Chrdnica del Card. Juan de Tavera, 4to,
Toledo, 1603, p. 310.
" In this portion of my narrative, I have followed Ribadeneira and
Nieremherg (Vida 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
Alcald de Henares ; whereas he came from Plasencia, and paid his visit
at Xarandilla. Gonzalez disbelieves their acconnt 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 conversation, as
reported by Ribadeneira, appears very probable, and his report is so
circumstantial, that we may well suppose it to have been drawn up
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
123
Borja had been warned, by the Princess-Kegent, 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
religious profession, and of the reasons which had
decided 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 un-
accountable 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 company of Jesus, the
Lord had filled his soul with peace and joy : how it
frequently happened, in the great orders, that monks
cither from Borja's own recital, or from notes found amongst his papers.
In the letters of Quixada, in the Gonzalez MS., we are told that Boija
was admitted to long audiences of the Emperor on the 17th, 21st, and
22nd December, and we may conjecture that he likewise saw him on
the iStli, 19th, and 2oth, days ou which the mayordomo did not happen
to be writing to the secretary of state. Quixnda tlirows no light what-
ever on the subject of their conversations, and therefore no discredit on
Ribadeneira's statement.
CH. IV.
•556.
Borja's
Apologia.
124
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
1556.
Emperor's
opinion.
arrived at higher honour 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 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
attention, 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 Augs-
burg 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 entered 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
S
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
"S
zeal were to be looked for near the source ; that had
he known of any evil in the company, he would
never have joined, or would already have left it ;
and that in respect of white hairs, though it was
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
begun his novitiate at the ripe age of sixty, was
accordingly called into the presence. The Emperor
at once recognised 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 Tavera, 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 for forty years a losing battle with
the terrible monk of Saxony, he looked with sus-
picion even upon the great orthodox movement led
by the soldier of Guipuzcoa. The infant company,
although, or perhaps because, in favour at the
Vatican, had gained no footing at the imperial
court ; and as its fame grew, the prelates around the
throne, sons or friends of the ancient orders, were
more likely to remind their master how its general
CH. IV.
1556-
Fr. Busta-
mente.
Discossion
of the
Jesuits.
126
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
1556-
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 unfor-
tunate 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 com-
pany ; and he afterwards rewarded with a colonial
mitre the blustering Dominican Cano, who an-
nounced from the pulpits of Castile the strange
tidings that the Jesuits were the precursors of
Antichrist foretold in the Apocalypse. His new
confessor, Fray Juan de Eegla, with monkish sub-
serviency and rancour, espoused the same cause,
and openly spoke of the company as an apt instru-
ment of Satan or the Great Turk.^ Latterly, how-
ever, the vehement old Pope, having frowned on the
^ Nieremberg, Fidas de Iff. Loyola y otros hijos de la Compania, fol.
Madrid, 1645, pp. 649-50.
" Nierembjrg, Vida de F. Borja, p. 173.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
127
order as a thing of Spain and perdition, may perhaps
have prepai'ed his imperial rival to view it with a
more favourable 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 Mongon,
during the holding of the Cortes of Aragon, of my
intention 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 honoured. " 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 have given him audience alone,
for no part of their conversations was reported either
by the secretary or by the mayordomo. Nor is any
notice taken of Borja in their coiTespondence,
beyond the bare mention of his arrival and depar-
ture, and of the Emperor's remark, that " the Duke
was much changed since he first knew him as
Marquess of Lombay."
Of the Emperor's few intimate friends, it happened
CH. rv.
IS56-
Emperor's
reconcilia-
tion.
Audience*
with Borja
private.
128
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
Don Luis
de Avila.
that one other, Don Luis de Avila y Zuniga, was
now his neighbour in Estremadura. This shrewd
politician, lively writer, and crafty courtier, a very
different personage from Father Francis the Sinner,
was no less welcome at Xarandilla. He was one
of the most distinguished of that remarkable band
of soldier-statesmen who shed a lustre round the
throne of the Spanish Emperor and maintained
the honour of the Spanish name for the greater
part of the sixteenth century. At the Holy See,
under Pius IV. and Paul IV., he had twice repre-
sented 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 chamber-
lain, and the Emperor's full confidence ; and he was
also made Grand Commander, or chief member after
the sovereign, of the Order of Alcd.ntara. With these
honours, and six skulls of the virgins of Cologne,
presented to him by the grateful Elector, he returned
to Plasencia, to share the honours with the wealthy
heiress of Fadrique de Zuniga, Marquess of Mirabel,
and to place the skulls in the rich Zuniga chapel
in the church of San Vicente.^ It is as a man of
' A. F. Fernandez, Historia de Plasencia, fol., Madrid, 1627, p. 113.
JUANELO TORRIANO.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
139
letters that the Grand Commander of Alcdntara, pros-
perous soldier and courtier though he was, holds a
place amongst the historical personages of his age.
He had been correspondent of Bernardo Tasso, and
was one of the friends who, at Ghent, urged him to
write a poem on the story of Amadis of Gaul, and
persuaded him to employ for the purpose the ottava
rima of Ariosto instead of the versi sciolti which he
himself proposed to use.^ He was now living in
laurelled and lettered ease in the fine palace of the
Mirabels, which is still one of the chief architectural
ornaments of King Alonso's pleasant city.
Avila's literary tastes and acquirements had been
acknowledged fifteen years before by the learned
Florian de Ocampo, who had selected him from the
herd of Castilian nobles, to honour him with the
dedication of the first four parts of his edition of the
Chronicle of Spain.^ This compliment was after-
wards justified by the publication of Avila's own
commentaries on the war of the Emperor with the
Protestants of Germany, a work by which he earned
en. IV.
1556.
His Com-
mtTUariet
on the
War in
Oermany.
* Le Lettere di M. Bernardo Tasso . . . eon la vita dell'Autore, scritta
del Sig. Anton. Federigo Seghazzi, 2 vols. 8vo, Padova, 1733, i. xvii., and
168 and 198. Letter 99 of vol. i., pp. 199-202, is addressed to D. Luis,
in which B. Tasso defends his own view of the superiority of the heroic
measure over the eight-lined stanza. L'Amadigi was printed at Venice
in 1560, 4to, hy G. Gioleto, and in 1583, 4to, hy Fabio and Ag. Zoppieri.
' Los quatro partes enteras de la ertinica de Espana, que mando com-
poncr el Ser. liey Don Alonso llamado cl Sabio, fol., Zaniora, 1541. See
Southey's Chronicle of the Cid, 4to, London, 1808, p. v.
VOL. V. 1
I30
CLOISTER LIFE OF
OH. rv. a high rank amongst the historians of his time. His
1556- Castilian was pure and idiomatic ; and his style, for
clearness and rapidity, was compared by his admirers
to that of Csesar. The " Deeds of the Emperor,
composed by Don Luis de Avila," figure amongst
the books burnt by the priest and barber in Don
Quixote's back-yard ; " but perhaps," adds Cervantes,
" had the priest seen them they might not have
received so horrible a sentence ; " and one commen-
tator at least considers that some other book must
have been in the author's mind, when he consigned
them to the flames.* Besides these literary merits,
the book, from the intimate relation existing between
the author and the chief actor in the story, was in-
vested 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 Em-
peror wished to be believed. At this time, therefore, it
had already passed through several editions,^ and had
been translated into Latin,^ Flemish,* and English,*
' Don Quixote, Part I., chap. vii. Pellicer thinks the book meant was
the Carlo Famoso of Don Luis (^apata, and gives plausible reasons in a
long note. See also infra, p. 382, and note.
' It appeared, says Nic. Antonio, first in Spain (without mentioning
any town) in 1546, and again in 1547.
' By Van Male. See supra, p. 107.
* In 8vo (Steels), Antwerp, 1550.
' The Commentaries of Don Letves de Avila and Suniga, great Master
of Acanter, which treateth of the great tears in Germanie, made by
Charles the Fifth, maxinie Emperoure of Rome, &c. Sm. 8vo, London,
1555 (black letter). The translator was John Wilkinsoa
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
i3»
into Italian ^ by the author himself, and twice
into French, at Antwerp " and at Paris.* In Ger-
many it had created 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 Spanish master ; the Diet
of Passau presented a formal remonstrance to the
Emperor against the libels of his chamberlain ; and
Albert, Margrave of Brandenburg, who, by chang-
ing 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.* The Emperor, however, who approved
CH. IV.
' In i2rao, Venice, 1549.
' By Mat. Vaulchier, 8vo, 1550.
' ComiiieHtaire du Seigneur D. Loys d'AvUa et de Quniga, contcnant
la guerre (T Allemagiie, faicte par V Empereur Charles V. . . . annies
1547 et 1548, mis d'Espaignol en fraucois par G. Boilleau de Bullion,
Commissaiie et contreroUeur de Canibray, Paris, 1550. Catalogue Potter,
Paris, 1864, iii. partie ; Histoire, No. 4741, pp. 179-80.
* R. Ascham, Discourse of Germany and the Emperor Charles his
Court. 4to, London (black letter), M. D. fol. 14. In a letter to the
Emperor, which was printed, Albert of Brandenburg complained that " he
himself and other princes which in the former war against tlie Pro-
testants, for his (the Emperor's) preservation and dignity, put in great
hazard their lives and goods, have received a goodly recompense in that
book which Luisde Avila set forth of nnitters done in the same war, a
naughty and lying fellow, whilst he speaketh of all Germany so coldly,
po disdainfully and strangely, as though it were some barbarous or vile
nation whose original were scarcely known." Chronicle of Our Time,
railed Sleidan's Commentaries, translated out of Latin into English by
Jhon Daus, fo., London, 1560, fo. cccxciii. [Les Oevres de Jean Sleidan,
2 tomes 8vo, MDXCVII. (Imp. de Jacob Sta;r) XXVI Livrcs de I'Estat de
la Keligion et Rrpublique tant en Alemagne qu'en phisiers autres jtays
sous VEmpereuT Charles V., livre 24"", torn. i. p. 420.]
132
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
Visits
Xarandilla
2ist Jan.
>557.
Arch-
bishop of
Toledo and
the
Bishop of
Plasencia.
the history and loved the historian, interposed to
soothe the Electors, cajole the Diet, and forbid the
duel ; and a Duke of Brunswick, some years after,
did the obnoxious volume the honour of translating
it into German. Pleased with his success, the
author was probably employing his leisure at Pla-
sencia in composing those commentaries on the war
in Africa which, though perased and praised by
Sepulveda, have not yet been given to the press.
His first visit to the Emperor was paid on the
2 1st January 1557. He spent the night at Xaran-
dilla, and returned home next day. Some weeks
before, on the 6th December, his father-in-law, the
Marquess of Mirabel, had likewise been graciously
received. Early in Januaiy, the Archbishop of
Toledo and the Bishop of Plasencia sent excuses
for not paying their respects, both prelates plead-
ing 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
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
»33
bend sable, commemorated on wall or portal his
various architectural embellishments in all parts of
his diocese.^ Charles received the excuses of both
prelates with perfect good-humour, entreating them
not to put themselves to any inconvenience on 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 fingers, 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
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
' p. de Siilazar, Clirdnica de el Card. D. Juan de Tavera, 4to, Toledo^
1603, p. 355. A. Feruaudez, Historia de Plasencia, p. 191.
CH. IV.
1556-
Emperor's
hoaltb.
Attack
of gout.
134
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
1556-
Appetite.
Bofresh-
ments.
Senna
wine.
his eider-down robes, beneath a thick quilted cover-
ing. For some days he was entirely 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 committing 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 swallow, an in-
convenience which the mayordomo did not much
deplore, saying sententiously, "Shut your mouth,
and the gout will get well." ^
Barley-water, with yolks of eggs, formed his fre-
quent 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 concoction 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 a proportion 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 standing for a year it was fit
for use. The white wine of Yepes was mentioned
' " La gota se cura tapando la boca."
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
'35
as the best for the purpose ; but the selection was
left to the general of the Jeronymites, an order
famous for its choice cellars. The Emperor asked
likewise for manna, and there being none amongst
the doctor's stores, he ordered some to be procured
from Naples, observing, at the same time, that no
supply had been sent since his abdication — the
single trivial incident and remark which lend sup-
port to the common story that the change in his
position had made a change in the attention with
which he was treated.
Loving good cheer himself, Charles knew that to
provide good cheer was to take a straight and easy
way to the good-will of other men, and especially of
churchmen. At Christmas, therefore, he selected
from his well-stored larder an ample and various
supply of game as a present to the Jeronymites of
Yuste. That festival happening to fall upon a
Friday, he took the precaution of first asking the
prior whether it was to be observed as a feast or a
fast. Learning that the rule respecting meagre-days
admitted of no relaxation, he considerately withheld
until Saturday the dainties for Sunday's feast.^
On the 6th January, though still in bed, the
Emperor was able to see Lorenzo Pires, the Portu-
^ M. Bakhuizen van den Brink, La Retraite de Charles Quint ;
Analyse d'un manuserit Espagnol contemporain, par un religieux de
I'ordre do Saint- JMme d Yuste, 8vo, Bruxellcs, 1850, p. 24.
CH. IV.
1557-
Neapolitan
manna.
His
Christmas
preaont of
game to the
convent.
Lorenzo
Pires.
136
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
1557-
News from
Italy.
Emperor's
disgust.
guese 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 his omelettes of
sardines, and the beer which no medical 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 greatest displeasure at the conduct
of Alba, who, he feared, had suffered himself to be
bribed by the concession of certain patronage en-
joyed by the Pope in the Duke's marquessate 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.
' Menezes, Chrdnica, p. 68.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
137
Some days later, on the 31st January, thejEm-
peror addressed a very earnest and anxious letter
to the Princess-Regent on the alai'ming 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 2nd February, he again entreated the
Princess to keep a watchful eye on the frontiers of
Navarre, and remarked that it was a pity the King
should have ordered the Duke of Alburquerque to
England at a time 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 resump-
tion of the kingdom by the court of Pau.
Meanwhile, the long-delayed buildings at Yuste
had almost arrived at a conclusion. Their slow
progress had caused the Emperor repeated dis-
appointments. So far back as the i6th December
he was so confident of being able to quit Xaran-
dilla that the post was detained beyond the usual
time, that the removal to the convent might be
CH. IV.
'SS7.
His anxiety
for safety
of Oran.
Works at
Yuste.
'38
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
ISS7.
Servants
paid off
and take
leave.
announced at Valladolid. His 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 2 1 st January, a remittance of money
arriving from court, Quixada began to pay the ser-
vants their wages ; and on the 23rd, 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 25 th,' Monsieur d'Aubremont, 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 reduced
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-
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
Valladolid ; and eight mules, a one-eyed pony, two
litters, and a hand-chair, were reserved for the
reduced stable establishment of the Emperor.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
139
All was ready at Xarandilla for departure on
the 1st 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, there-
fore, devolved on Quixada, and the removal was
postponed for two days more. After dinner on the
3rd, the Emperor received all the servants who were
going away, saying a kind word to each as he was
presented by the mayordomo. " His Majesty," wrote
Quixada, "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 com-
pany 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 of Oropesa and
the attendants mounted their horses ; the lieutenant
put his pikemen in motion ; and, crossing the leaf-
less forest, in two hours the cavalcade halted at the
gates of Yuste.
There the bells were ringing a peal of welcome,
and 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, Oropesa walking
CH. IV.
ISS7-
Removal
to Yuste
3rd Fob.
Reception.
140
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IV.
IS57-
Blander
of the
prior.
Grief of the
dismissed
serrants.
at his right hand, and Quixada at his left. At the
threshold he was met by the whole brotherhood in
procession, 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 returned thanks to God for the happy
termination of his journey, and joined in the ves-
per service of the feast of St. Bias. This ended,
the prior stepped forward 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 Jerony-
mites to their new brother, each kissing his hand
and receiving his fraternal embrace. Some of the
friars bestowed on his gouty fingers so cordial a
squeeze, that the pain compelled him to withdraw
his hand, and say, "Pray don't, father; it hurts
me." ^ During this ceremony the retiring retainers,
who had aU of them attended their master to his
journey's close, stood round, expressing their sorrow
by tears and lamentations. As their master entered
the church, one of the Flemish women in the crowd
1 Bakhuizen van den Brink, RetraUe de Charles V., p. 25.
^
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
141
shrieked and swooned away. The forty halberdiers,
who had marched beside his litter from Valladolid,
flung their pikes on the ground, as if to denote that
their occupation was gone. Sounds of mourning
were heard, until late in the evening, round the
gate. Meanwhile the Emperor, attended by Oropesa
and conducted by the prior, 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.
OH. IV.
1557.
^^c
CHAPTEE V.
THE MONASTERY OF ST. JEROME OF YUSTE.
^^HE 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 cen-
turies, had taken up her
abode at Rome, foretold that there would soon arise
in Spain a society of recluses to tread in the foot-
steps of the great doctor of Bethlehem. The very
next year, in 1374, two hermits who had been living
a Franciscan life in the mountains of Toledo, pre-
sented themselves at Avignon, and kneeling at the
feet of Gregory XI., obtained the institution of the
Order of St. Jerome. The first monastery, San
Bartolomti of Lupiana, was built by the hands of the
CH. V.
»SS7.
Order of
St. Jorome.
144
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. V.
1557-
first prior and his monks, on the north side of a
bleak hill near Guadalaxara, in Old Castile. From
this highland 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 Guadalupe — 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 woollen tunic, girt with
leather, and a brown woollen scapulary 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 favoured 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 Jeronymite monastery
was one of the first works undertaken at Granada by
the Catholic conquerors, and a Jeronymite friar was
enthroned as the first archbishop in the purified
mosque. The completion of the superb cloister of S**-
Engracia, begun by Ferdinand for the Jeronymites
f^'^^i^^
'igSWUiC^"
o
c
n
:S.-
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
MS
of Zaragoza, was the first architectural work of
Charles V. on taking possession of his Spanish
kingdoms. On the Tagus, the Jcronymite convent
of Belcm, the burial-place of the royal line of Avis,
and a miracle of jewellery 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 magnifico of Venice '
into a tribute of hearty admiration. In Spain its
wealth and importance has passed into a proverb,
which thus pointed out the path of preferment,
" He who is a count, and to be a duke a«pires,
Let him straight to Guadalupe, and sing among the friars." "
The order reached the climax of its greatness when
its monks were installed by Philip II. in the palace-
convent of San Lorenzo of the Escorial.
The Escorial and Guadalupe, his houses, lands,
and flocks, were the best endowments of the Jerony-
mite. He could rarely boast of such eloquence and
learning as sometimes lay beneath the white robe of
the Dominican preacher, or the inky cloak of the
bookish Benedictine. In his schools, he was taught
CH. V.
"557.
' Navngiero, Yiaggio fatto in Spagna, sm. 8vo, Vinegia, 1563, pp.
11-12.
^ " Quien ce conde, y dessca ser duque,
Metase fraile en Guadalupe."
—Hern, Nunei: Jie/ranes, fol. Salamanca, 15SS, fol. 106.
VOL. V. K
146
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. V.
IS57-
Yuste :
its site,
no philosophy but that of Thomas Aquinas ; and
even if he did not wholly lack Latin, he was alto-
gether guiltless of that Cicero-worship for which St.
Jerome, in his memorable dream, was flogged by
seraphim before the judgment-seat of heaven. But
to none of his rivals, white, black, or grey, did he
yield in the rigour of his religious observance, in
the splendour of his services, in the munificence 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
ordinary 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,
sometimes as often as seven times a day, for the
guests of all ranks who came in crowds to dine with
St. Jerome.
The order early planted its standard in the Vera
of Plasencia ; choosing for its camp one of the
sweetest 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 Plasencia. The site is a piece of somewhat
level ground, on the lower slope of the mountain,
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
M7
which is clothed, as fax 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 mulberiy 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 a chapel dedicated to St.
Christopher, and planted an orchard ; and obtained,
in 1408, by the favour of the Infant Don Fernando,
a bull, authorising them to found a religious house
of the Order of St. Jerome. In spite, however, of
this authority, while their works were still in prog-
ress, the friars of a neighbouring convent, anned
with an order from the Bishop of Plasencia, set upon
them, and dispossessed them of their land and
unfinished walls, an act of violence against which
the Jeronymites appealed to the Archbishop of
Santiago. The judgment of the Primate being given
in their favour, they next applied for aid to their
neighbour, Garci Alvarez de Toledo, lord of Oropesa,
' Siguensn, Hist, de S. Gcrdnimo, jiarte 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 culled after one of the three
saints of that name, of Alcald, Lyons, or Cautcrbury.
CH. v.
'557.
its name,
foundation
in 1408,
and early
history.
148
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. V.
ISS7-
Progress
of Yuste.
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 com-
munity; for at the chapter of St. Jerome, held at
Guadalupe in 141 5, their house would not have been
received into the order, but for his generosity in
guaranteeing a revenue sufficient for the maintenance
of a prior and twelve brethren, under a nile in which
mendicancy was forbidden. The buildings were also
erected mainly at his cost, and his subsequent bene-
factions were munificent and many. He was there-
fore constituted, by the grateful monks, protector of
the convent, and the distinction became hereditary
in his descendants, the counts of Oropesa. For the
first few years of its existence, the convent of Yuste
was a dependency of the older house of Guisando,
and was governed by its prior. By authority of the
chapter of the order, held at Guadalupe in 141 5, it
was constituted a separate establishment, under the
name of St. Jerome of Yuste, and became the seven-
teenth religious house of the fraternity in Spain. ^
These early struggles past, the Jeronymites of
Yuste grew and prospered. Gifts and bequests were
the chief events in their peaceful annals. They
' Fr. G. do Talavera, Historia dc N™- ScHora dc Guadalupe, 4to, Toledo,
1597, which contains a catalogue of the Sjianlsh houses, p. 387.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
149
became patrons of chapelries and hermitages ; they
made them orchards and olive groves ; and their
corn and wine increased. The hostel, dispensary,
and other oifices 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 quad-
rangle of stately proportions, and of the elegant
classical architecture which Berruguete had recently
introduced into Castile.
Although more remarkable for the natural beauty
which smiled ai'ound its walls, than for any growth
of spiritual gi'ace 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 general of the order, and was remarkable
for the vigour of his administration and the boldness
and efficacy of his reforms. The prior, Geronimo
de Plasencia, a scion of the great house of Zuiiiga,
was cited as a model of austere and active holiness.
The lay -brother, Melchor de Yepes, after twice
deserting the convent to become a soldier, being
crippled in felling a huge chestnut 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 captain, was distinguished
CH. V.
IS57-
Its re-
markablo
monks.
Fray
Podro do
Bejar.
OoriS-
nimo do
Plasencia.
Melchor
de Yepos.
Fray Juan
de Xeres.
ISO
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. V.
1557-
Fray Rod-
rigo de
Cajeres.
THejfo
de San
Ger6nimo.
Fray
Alonso
Mudarra.
Fray
Hernando
de Corral.
by the gift of second-sight, and was nursed upon
his deathbed by the eleven thousand virgins. Still
more favoured was Fray Rodrigo de Cageres ; for
the blessed Mary herself, in answer 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
Castilian line of Tovar, was long remembered in
the Vera, in the names of a road leading to Gar-
ganta la OUa, and of a bridge near Xaraiz, con-
structed, when he grew old and infirm, by the
people of these places, to smooth the path of their
favourite preacher to their village pulpits.^
The fraternity now numbered amongst its mem-
bers a certain Fray Alonso Mudarra, who had been
in the world a man of rank, and employed in the
civil service 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 consi-
dered 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 do it. Amongst his other
' A. Fernandez, Hist, de Plasencia, p. 196.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
'SI
eccentricities, were noted his not returning to bed
after early matins, but roaming 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 compel-
ling 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 re-
turned 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 consulted by the whole convent as an oracle
of knowledge ; 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.'
CH. v.
ISS7.
' In the fine and cnrious Spanish library of Mr. Ford, there was a copy
of tlie Chronica del Rey D. Alonzo el Onteno, fol., Yalladolid, 1551,
which has the following entry on the back of the last leaf : En veinte y
IS2
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. V.
ISS7-
Fray
Antonio
do Villa-
castin.
Such were the friars of Yuste whose names have
survived in the records of the order ; but there was
one among them who likewise belongs to the nobler
history of art. Fray Antonio de Villacastin was
bom, about 15 12, of humble parents, in the small
town of Castile, whence, according to Jeronymite
usage, he borrowed his name. Early left an orphan,
he was brought up, or rather suffered to grow up,
in the house df an uncle, without prospect of future
provision, and without 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, where he slept for the
first night under the market tables in the square of
Zocodover. He was found there next morning by a
master tiler, Avho, pitying his forlorn condition, took
him home, and taught him his trade of making
wainscots and pavements of coloured tiles, at which
dos cle Mayo del ano de m.d.lii. (?) eompre yo frai Hernando de Corral
este libra en trugillo costome xx reales. He then goes on to state tlie
dates of the Emperor's arrival at the convent and death, and of the deaths
of Queen Eleanor of France and Queen Maiy of Hungary.
EMPEROR CHARLES V. 153
he wrought for ten years for his food and clothing. oh- v -
At the end of this long apprenticeship, becoming 'SS7-
enamoured of the monastic state, he begged a real
— the only one he ever possessed — from his master's
son, and entered the Jeronymite 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 when the house stood in need
of repair. Being a master of the practical part of
building, he was also frequently employed in other
monasteries of the order. In the Toledan nunnery
of San Pablo, the operations were so extensive that
he was 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 satisfaction 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 ;
* Signen^a, Hist de la orden de S. Gerdn, parte iii. p. 893.
154
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. V.
ISS7-
Fray Juan
de Ortega.
Charities
of Yuste.
The Pal-
acio of
Yuste.
unconscious that lie was training 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,^
continued to reside with the fraternity of Yuste,
although he still remained a member of his own
convent at Alba de Tormes. In intelligence and
manners 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 ordi-
nary years, and in years of scarcity sometimes as
much as 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, Christmas, and other festivals ; and the sick
poor in the village of Quacos were freely supplied
with food, medicine, 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
1 Supra, chap. iiL pp. 8S-9.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
'55
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 storeys
to the garden and the noontide sun. Each storey
contained four chambers, two on either side of the
conidor, which traversed the structure from east to
west, and led at either end into a broad porch, or
covered gallery, supported by pillars and open to the
air. Each room was furnished with an ample fire-
place, in accordance with the Flemish wants and
ways of the chilly invalid. 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 open-
ing on the corridor, or on the external and deeply
shadowed porches. Charles inhabited the upper
rooms, and slept in that at the north-east comer,
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 altered after
the strictures passed on it by Quixada, for it now
affords a good view of the space where the high
altar once stood. 'J'he 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
CH. V.
ISS7-
Emperor's
Prospect
from his
chambers.
iS6
CLOISTER LIFE OF EMPEROR CHARLES V.
CH. V. knoUs, clad in walnut and chestnut, in which the
ISS7- mountain died 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 per-
fume 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 monarch the
pain and fatigue of going up and down stairs. This
porch, which was much more spacious than the
eastern, was his favourite seat when filled with the
warmth of the declining day. Commanding the
same view as the cabinet, it looked also upon a small
parterre, surrounding a fountain, of which the basin
was formed of a single block of fine stone, brought,
with infinite labour, along the rugged woodland
tracks, from a quarry five leagues ofi", in the sierra.^
' Bakhuizen van den Brink, Betraite de Charles V., p. zi.
1 I.A.N UK THS HOMASTBBT OF TU8TE, I554.
CLOISTER LIFE OF EMPEROR CHARLES V.
159
A short alley of cypress led from the parterre 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
Spanish order of Jerome, and the Austrian dynasty
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 Emperor'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 farther 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 Jeronymites removed
their pot-herbs to a piece of ground to the east-
ward, behind some tall elms and the wall of the
CH. V.
The groat
"Nogal"
of Yusto.
Domestic
arrange-
ments.
i6o
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. V.
ISS7.
Chief
members of
household.
imperial domain. The entrances to the palace and
its dependencies were quite distinct from those which
led to the monastery ; and all internal communi-
cations 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 attached to their names.
Luia Quixada . .
Henrique Mathys
Giiyon de Moron
Martin de Gaztelu
William Van Male
Charles Prevost ' .
Ogier Bodart^
Martin Donjart .
{
Chamberlain (mayor- }
domo) >
„, . . < iSo.ooo maravedi.*,
Physician . . . . < ^' '
Keeper of the ward- 1^^ j,^^.^^_ ^^ ^^^
robe (guardaropa) i
„ . < I t;o,ooo maravedis,
Secretary . . . . -^ •" ' '
< or ^^43.
„ ., c 11 ^ 300 florins, or /30.
Gentlemen of the j ;^ i ;^j
chamber {ayudasl •' " .6j •
de cdmara) ... I " 't' '
V300 „ or ^30.
' The spelling of these Flemish names, both in the printed pages of
Sandoval and the MS. of Gonzalez, is most inaccurate and perplexing.
" Prevost" is, in many cases, turned into Pubcst, Dirk is Chirique, and
others are disguised beyond the powers of detection of any one but
a, Fleming. Even the Italian Toiriano, whose name, in its Spanish
familiar form, was Juanelo Torriano, sometimes figures as Juan el
Lotoriano. In turning the maravedis and florins into English money, I
have been guided chiefly by Josef Garcia Cavallero, Breve Cotcjo y
Valance de las pesas y medidas de varias naciones, 4to, Madrid, 1731.
2 No doubt the person alluded to in chap, iv., p. 103, note, as Bodoarte.
->^~ ..->» ■■'-.,. ^••.^'^ .■t.m^jMr.^f^^ . J, ^ ■^INSH,.^-) JR.
....'-.f.
GATE AND PALACE OF VUSTF,,
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
i6i
Giovanni Toiriano . .
Nicholas Bcringuen . .
WiUiaiu Wjkerslootli .
Dirk
Gabriel De Suet . . .
Peter Van Oberstraaten
Peter Guillen ....
Watchmaker
' Gentlemen of the ^
. I 75.'
ooo maravedis,
or/21, lOS.
cliamber of the se- I each 250 florins, or
cond class {bar- f £2$.
beros) /
Apothecary ...
Assistant-apothecary
280 florins, or £28.
80 „ or ^8.
The salary of Quixada, on rcturuiiig to his post
in 1556, was to be raised, and he himself had been
asked to name the amount of increase, which, how-
ever, 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 correspond-
ence with the King and the secretary of state on the
subject ; and in one of his subsequent letters,' it
appears that he considered the mayordomo's rank
entitled him to the same salary as that which had
been enjoyed by the chamberlain of Queen Juana,
or that which was still paid to the tutor of Don
Carlos. Nevertheless, the question remained un-
settled, and it was one of the points to be arranged
by Archbishop Carranza, who, however, did not
ai'rive 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-
> Gnztclu to Vazquez, 24th August 1557. [Gachard, Retmite et Mart
de Charlcs-QitiHt, toni. ii. p. 233.]
VOL. V. L
CH. V.
«SS7.
l62
CLOISTER LIFE OF EMPEROR CHARLES V.
CH. V.
ISS7.
Emperor's
health and
physicians.
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
convenience of those who wished to confess.
On the 4th February, the Emperor awoke in his
new home, in excellent health and spirits. He
spent the morning in inspecting the rooms, and the
arrangement 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 botanise
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 Valladolid. 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 attendance of the consulting
doctors, dismissing them with all courtesy, and letters
to the Princess-Regent.
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 loth, by
pulpit declamation, has delighted to discover such
a model ascetic in the Emperor at Yuste. "His
THK KMrKROR CHARLES V.
CLOISTER LIFE OF EMPEROR CHARLES V.
165
apartments, when prepared for his reception," says
Sandoval, "seemed rather to have been newly pillaged
by the enemy, than furnished for a great prince ; the
vpalls were bare, except in his bed-chamber, which
was hung with black cloth ; the only valuables in
the house were a few pieces of plate of the plainest
kind ; his dress, always 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
suiToundcd at Yuste with the splendours of his host
of Augsburg; but neither did the fashions of the
sumptuous Fuggcr prevail at Ghent or Innsbruck,
Valsain or Segovia. For the hangings of his bed-
room he preferred sombre black cloth to gayer
arras ; but he had brought from Flanders suits of rich
CH. v.
IS57-
Furniture
of tho
palace.
• Sandoval, torn. ii. p. 825. Wilhelm Snouckaert, who had been the
Emperor's librarian at Ilnissels, and wlio, under the more euphonious
name of Zenocarus, wrote De republica vita, etc., C(es. Aug. QuintiCaroli
max monarchw, fol., Bruges, 1559, .says (p. 289) that Charles had only
twelve servants at Yuste. Yet he asserts (p. 28S) that his dull, nieajp-e,
and pompous book had been seen and approved by Don Luis de Avila.
Cesare Campana, in his Vita de Catlidlico Don Filippo de Austria, 3 vols.
4to, Viceuza, 1605, part iL fol. 151, reduces this slender retinue to
four.
' Di-awn up after liis decea.se, by Quixada, Gaztelu, and Rcgla. An
abstract of the document will be found in the Appendix.
1 66
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. V.
I5S7-
Plate.
Emperor's
dress.
tapestry, wrought with figures, landscapes, or flowers,
more than sufficient 'to hang the rest of the apart-
ments ; 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 footstool belonged.
Of gold and silver plate, he had upwards 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 was 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 the fine portrait wherein the
Emperor still sits before us, pale, thoughtful, and
dignified, in the Belvedere 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 Ascham saw him in, "sitting
' [Beschreibendes Vcrzeichniss, I. Band, 8vo, Wicn, 1S84, No. 510, p.
362.]
EMPEROR CHARLES V. 167
sick in his chamber " at Augsburg, and looking so ch- v -
like Roger's friend, "the parson of Epurstone." ' iss7-
In his soldier-days he would knot and patch a
broken sword-belt, until it would have disgraced a
private trooper ; ^ and he even carried his love of
petty economy so far, that being caught neai- Naum-
burg 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
' E7ig. Works, p. 375.
' Salazar de Mcndoza, Oriffen de las dignidades de CastUla, fol.
Toledo, 1618, p. 161.
1 68
CLOISTER LIFE OF EMPEROR CHARLES V.
CH. V.
IS57.
Pictures.
brought him from the town.^ His jewel-case was,
as might be supposed, rather miscellaneous than
A'aluable in its contents, amongst which may be
mentioned a few rings and bracelets, some medals
and buttons to be worn in the cap, several collars
and badges, of various sizes, of the Golden Fleece,^
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 gew-gaws 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 thi'ee pictures of Our Lady, by that
great master, filled the apartments with poetry and
' Ranke, Ottoman and Spanish Empires, Kelly's tninslation, 8vo,
London, 1843, ]). 30.
2 The collar of this order, given by Ferdinand VII. to the late Duke
of Wellington, was Itelieved in S|iain to have belonged to Charles V. ;
and the same story was told of the Fleece sent, in 185 1 or 1852, to the
President, now "/irer la gri'ice de Dieu ct la volontt nationale," Emperor
Napoleon III., of France. It is a compliment which the Spanish crown
very likely has in its power to pay ; as the Emperor, in the course of his
lite, must have possessed many badges of the order. In our Duke's case,
the collar and badge may have been authentic ; but the connecting orna-
ment, as figured in Lord Downes's Orders and Batons of the Dulce of
Wellington, obi. fol., London, 1852, is plainly modern and spurious.
No such ornament is found on the medals or contemporary prints of
Charles V.
CLOISTER LIFE OF EMPEROR CHARLES V.
171
beauty ; and as specimens of his skill in another
style, there were portraits of the recluse himself and
of his Empress. Our Lord bearing His cross, and
several other sacred pictures, 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-llegent, the
Queen of Bohemia, and the Duchess of Parma, and
the King of France, portrayed on canvas, or in relief
on gold or silver medallions, likewise helped by their
effigies to enliven the apartments of the Emperor, 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
' Fr. Fran, de Los Santos, Dcscripcioii del Escorial, fol., Madrid,
1657, fol. 71.
OH. V.
«5.S7.
Portnuta.
172
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. V.
ISS7-
Books.
the " Glory of Titian," a picture of the last judg-
ment, in which Charles, his wife, and their royal
children were represented in the master's grandest
style, as conducted by angels into life eternal. And
another masterpiece of the great Venetian — St.
Jerome praying in his cavern, with a sweet land-
scape in the distance — 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. Constantino
de la Fuente,^ who died soon after, a prisoner for
heresy in the dungeons of Seville, and by Fray Pedro
de Soto,° a luminaiy of Trent, and long the Emperor's
confessor, and now employed by Philip to preach
the Roman superstition in the not unwilling halls
of Oxford.
Divine philosophy was represented by the writ-
ings of Ptolemy and Appian, and by Italian, French,
and Castilian ' versions of Boethius' De Consolatione,
a work which had the honour of being translated
into our English tongue by Alfred and by Chaucer;
' Doctrina Christiana, 8vo, Antwerp, s. a.
* Institutiomcm C'hristianaricm, libri iii. i6mo, August 1548.
' Probably that by Fr. Alberto de Aguayo, 4to, Sevilla, 1521.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
»73
and which for a thousand years was pre-eminently
the book which "no gentleman's library should be
without." For historical reading, there were Csesar's
Commentaries, in Italian, the German Wars, by the
Grand Commander of Alcdntara,^ and some sheets
in manuscript 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 Delihere of Ollivier de la Marche,
and the Castilian translation, versified from the
Emperor's prose by Acuiia,'' the latter being in
manuscript, and both adorned with coloured plates
and drawings. "A large volume, filled with illu-
minated drawings on vellum," seems to imply
that Charles brought with him to the woods some
memorials of Clovio and Holanda, as well as of the
bolder pencil of Titian ; and there were also several
illuminated missals and hours, and a quantity of
maps of Italy, Flanders, Germany, and the Indies.
Most of the books were bound in crimson velvet,
with clasps and corners of silver, the sumptuous
dress in which the early bibliomaniacs loved to array
their treasures, but which the ever-teeming press
Avas fast turning into a more sober garb of goatskin
or hogskin.
Music, ever one of the favourite pleasures of
en. V.
•557.
Music.
Supia, chap. iv. pp. 128-9.
2 Ibid. p. loS.
174
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. V.
ISS7-
Organ,
Choir.
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 solace 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 management 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 frequently
mention the name of the offender, with the addition
of hideputa bermejo, or some other epithet savouring
more of the camp than the cloister. A singing-
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.
' Beckford's Italy, Spain, and Portugal [2 vols. 8vo, London, 1S34
(Spain, Letter X.), vol. ii. p. 320], fcap. 8vo, London, 1840, p. 323.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
«75
Guerrero/ a chapel-master of Seville, having com-
posed and presented to the Emperor a book of masses
and motets, one of the former veas soon selected
for performance at Yuste. When it was ended, the
imperial critic remarked to his confessor that Guer-
rero, the hideputa ! 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 Emperor
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
Siguenga, whence he came forth an expert dialec-
CH. V.
1557.
The
chaplains.
Fray Fran-
cisco de
Villalva.
' Francisco Guerreio, born in the first half of the sixteenth century at
Seville. In his youth he went to Rome and composed a Miserere for four
voices, for the Papul cliapel. In 1565, he printed at Paris, in the press of
Nicdlas du Cheniin, a collection of six masses for four voices, which he
dedicated to Sebastian, King of Portugal. He became chapcl-niaster of
the Cathedral of Seville. The library of the King of Portugal contained,
as appears by the Catalogue, three books of motets by him, for three,
four, and five voices, and two books of motets for five, six, and eight
voices, but it is uncertain whether they are printed or in MS. Tilman
Sasato printed in 1565, at Louvain, some Magnificats for four voices, by
Guerrero. F. J. Fetis, Biographie Universdle des Mitsiciens, 8 tomes, 8vo,
Bruxclles, 1S36, torn. iv. p. 439.
'^ Sandoval, ii. p. 828.
176
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. V.
1557-
Fray
Juan de
Afoloraa.
Fray Juan
de San-
tandres.
tician, and soon rose to be the most popular teacher
in Castile. His theological professor being appointed
Archbishop of Granada, 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 was afterwards preacher to
the great hospital at Zaragoza, whence he was sum-
moned to Yuste. There his eloquence charmed the
Emperor, as it had charmed the peasants of Zamora ;
and he so eclipsed his colleagues, 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 awhile to his
old admirers.
Fray Juan de Ajoloras, 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
Santandres, from the convent of Santa Catalina, at
Talavera, was less eloquent than his compeers, but
hio'hly esteemed for purity of doctrine and life.
Besides these regular and retained ministers, any
Jeronymiie 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
,'»»&j-;*-«-<»-'r--""
H * "P .V.'W-S?!.!4^ ""-^
'....■■('iV/^w .y'
j . «;
t::^ _iS(&s^':u:.- '•■■■'■■':&■■'■
WALNUl-TKKK A.\t> CO-Wt-NT UArt„
X.
V
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
177
well with the monotony of monastic life. Every
morning, Father Regla appeared at his bedside to
inquire how he had passed the night, and to assist
him in his private devotions. Mathys, the doctor,
was next admitted ; and Torriano the mechanician
was also an early visitor.' The Emperor 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 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 Avith 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
OH. v.
'557-
Emperor's
day.
' M. Bakhuizen van den Brink, Eetraite de Charles V., p. 33, says that
Torriano was the first person who entered tlie imperial bedchamber ;
but I prefer the more probable account of Sigucn^a.
VOL, V. M
178
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. V.
I5S7.
Torriano
and his
clocks.
Emperor's favourite divines, Augustine, Jerome, or
Bernard, an exercise which was followed by conver-
sation, 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 Bernardino 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 sickness
or business compelled him to be absent, he never
failed to send a formal excuse to the prior, and to
require from his confessor an account of what had
been preached or read. The rest of the afternoon
was devoted to seeing the official people from court,
or to the transaction of business with his secretary.
Sometimes the workshop of Torriano was the
resource 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
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 labour 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
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
179
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 greatly pleased with the ingenious toy ; he in-
quired what inscription the maker intended to put
upon it ; and being told that nothing had been con-
templated beyond the words, iannellvs . tvreianvs .
CEEMONENSIS . HOROLOGIORVM . AKCHITECTOE . added
FACILE . PRINCEPS . which accordingly made part of
the epigraph. On the back of the clock Juanelo
caused his own portrait to be graven, encircling it
with a legend, less in accordance with his original
modest intentions than with the Emperor's laudatoiy
amendment, QVi . siM . sciES . si . par . opvs . fagere .
CONABERIS.
He likewise made for the Emperor a smaller clock,
less multiform and ambitious in its functions, and
enclosed in a case of crystal, which allowed the work-
ing of the machinery to be seen, and suggested the
motto — VT . me . FVGIBNTEM . 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
CH. v.
'557.
Self-acting
mill.
i8o
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. V.
1557-
Mechanical
toys.
Emperor's
pet birds
and
shooting
excursions.
His last
appearance
on horse-
back.
figure of a lady who danced on the table to the
sounds 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 awhile gained the artificer
the dangerous fame of a wizard.^
Sometimes the Emperor fed his pet birds, which
appear to have succeeded in his affections the stately
wolf-hounds that followed at his heel 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 outdoor 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 accom-
• Ainbrosio de Morales, Antiguedadcs dc Espafia, fol., Alcald de
Henares, IS75. 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.
''' Strada, De Bella Bclg., lib. i.
^ Sandoval, Hist, de Carlos V., ii. p. 825, and Sigucn5a, iii. p. 192,
whence many of these details are taken.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
i8i
plished 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 bay charger presented to
him by our bluff King Hal,^ won, at Calais gate, the
applause of the English knights fresh from those
tourneys,
" Where England vied with France in pride on the famous Held of gold."
Next came vespers ; and after vespers supper, a
meal very much like the dinner, consisting fre-
quently of pickled salmon and other unwholesome
dishes, which made Quixada's loyal heart quake
within him.
CH. V.
»S57.
' J. A. Vera y Figueroa, Vida del Emp. Carlos V., 4to, Brussels,
1656, p. 263.
- Stow's Annals, fol., London, 1 631, p. 511.
CHAPTER VI.
STATE-CRAFT IN THE CLOISTEK.
IMLY seen over the
wintry woodlands, and
through a November
mist, Yuste had ap-
peared to the house-
hold at Xarandilla a
place of penance ; but
their dismal forebodings
were by no means real-
ised in their new quarters on the fresh hillside,
bright with the sunshine of the budding spring.
Writing on the day of the Emperor's arrival there,
Monsieur de la Chaulx complained of nothing but
the Jeronymite neighbours. " 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,
CH. VI.
1557-
Household
more re-
coDcilod
to Yusto.
Monsieur
de la
Chaulx.
1 84
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
1557-
Improve-
ment in
Emperor's
health.
for they are ever apt to be importunate, especially
those who are such blockheads as some of the
fraternity here seem to be." La Chaulx 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 retreat was all he could wish it, he
would not, in taking 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, now had his hands full."
Instructions had come from Valladolid to the
local authorities of Plasencia and the Vera, re-
quiring 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 reconciled to Yuste, and that as a
residence it was far better than Xarandilla. Quixada
admitted that the place seemed to agree with his
master, and that his general health was excellent.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
i8s
While acknowledging the receipt 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 assistance to the
high altar to make his offering. " You cannot
think," writes he to Vazquez, " how well and plump
he looks ; and his fresh colour 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 II. assured the Venetian envoy at Bruxelles
that his father's health seemed as completely re-
stored by the air of Yuste as if he had been there
for ten years.' From the time of his anival 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 3rd May 1558, his public despatches
' Relatione of Badovaro. See supra, chap. iii. p. 80.
CH. VI.
'557-
Quixada
complains
of solitudo
of Yuste.
Enii«sror's
attuntion
to business.
1 86
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
1557-
His style
and title.
He ac-
credits an
ambassa-
dor to
Portugal.
Peti-
tioners.
were always headed " the Emperor," and addressed
to " Juan Vazquez de Molina, my secretary." He
wrote not only with the authority, but in the
formal style of a sovereign, and until his abdica-
tion of the imperial throne had been accepted by
the Diet, he considered himself, as in fact he was,
Emperor of the Komans. A dispute about preced-
ence, the great question of diplomacy 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 preten-
sions of the Frenchman. It soon became known
that the recluse at Yuste had as much power as the
Eegent at Valladolid, and the gate was therefore
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 vene-
rable countryman from Criptana, came to com-
plain of the maladministration of the villages and
lands of the Order of Santiago ; he seemed respect-
able as well as venerable, and was kindly received
and dismissed with letters of recommendation to the
council of the orders. A fiery English courier, who
had been kept waiting a whole month at court for
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
187
the answer to his despatches, losing all patience,
made his way across the mountains to lodge his
complaint at Yuste. The Emperor received him
with perfect courtesy, and transmitted orders to
Valladolid that his business should be concluded,
and he sent home forthwith.
It has been frequently asserted that the Emperor's
life at Yuste was a long repentance for his resig-
nation 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 investigate. An opinion certainly
prevailed, even among those who had access to good
political information," that Charles would resume
power when his health was sufficiently re-estab-
lished, an opinion founded, perhaps, on the fact
that the cession of the imperial crown was still in-
complete, and on the difficulty which the world
found in believing that the first prince in Christen-
dom had, of his own free will, descended for ever
from the first throne in the world. But, however
it may have arisen, the notion was justified by no
word or deed of the Emperor. So far from re-
1 G. Leti, Vita del' Imp. Carlo V., 4 vols. lamo, Amsterd. , 1 700, iv. 362-3.
Amelot de la Hoiissaye, Memoiren, 2 vols. 121110, Anist., 1700, i. 294.
- Relatione of Badovaio.
CH. VI.
»SS7-
Refutation
of tale
that ho
repented
of hia
rotiral.
1 88
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
1557-
gretting his retirement, Charles refused to entertain
several proposals that he should quit it. Although
he had abdicated the Spanish crowns, Philip had
not yet formally taken possession of them, and the
Princess-Kegent, fearing that the turbulent and
still free people of Aragon might make that a pre-
text for refusing the supplies, was desirous that
her father should summon and attend a Cortes at
Moncon, 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 necessary to assemble
in Navarre, and at one mournful moment he had
actually taken it into consideration whether he
should leave his choir, his sermons, 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 covertly 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 interference
in the internal affairs of the empire, and Spanish
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
189
influence would be woefully weakened, in the
ducliy of Milan especially, and generally through-
out Europe. But on this point Charles would
listen neither 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 fulfilment of the exact conditions to
which he had subscribed at Bruxelles. Philip, on
his side, seems to have been as free from jealousy
as his father was free from repentance. Although
frequently implored by his sister to return to Spain
and relieve her of the burden of power, he con-
tinued 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 diffi-
culty in conducting the internal aflfairs of Castile.
In truth, Philip's filial affection and reverence
shines like a grain of fine gold in the base metal
of his character : his father was the one wise and
strong man who crossed his path whom he never
suspected, undervalued, or used ill. The jealousy
of which he is popularly accused, however, seems
at first sight probable, 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
CH. VI.
»S57-
190
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
ISS7.
His
revenue
it at Yuste as firmly as he had wielded it at Augs-
burg 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 proiits
of the silver mines of Guadalcanal. The sum thus
raised must have fluctuated from year to year; nor
has the amount been ascertained with any approach
to exactness. Some writers^ have estimated it as
high as one hundred thousand crowns ; others ^ have
fixed it as low as 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. The
truth probably lies between the two statements. A
sum of thirty thousand ducats was at the Emperor's
disposal in the fortress of Simancas. Soon after he
had settled himself at Yuste, he sent Gaztelu to
Valladolid to arrange with Vazquez about the time
' The teckiiical words of Gaztelu arc, "derechos de once y seis al
miliar," — " 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 " onija y miliar," meaning
one sixteenth of a thousand, or about 6^ per cent, of the crown rents,
the word "onca," or ounce, the iV of a pound, being frequently used to
denote that fraction.
^ Th. Juste, L' Abdication, p. 29.
' Sandoval, Hist, de Carlos V., lib. xxxii., c. 39, p. 82a]
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
191
and mode of paying the instalments of his revenue.
He was likewise instructed to provide for the regular
payment of certain alms to the convents in which
daily prayers were to be said for the Emperor's soul,
the list being headed by the name of the great
Dominican house of Our Lady of Atocha, the mira-
culous image which is still the favourite idol of
Madrid. The envoy returned from Valladolid on
8th March, bringing the good news that the mines
of Guadalcanal were producing in great and unusual
abundance, and that the King of Portugal had con-
sented that the Infanta Maiy should visit her mother
in Spain. The despatches from Yuste make no com-
plaints of that unpunctuality of the treasury re-
mittances on which historians have frequently had
to moralise. Gaztelu, indeed, once cautioned the
secretary of state against delays in making his pay-
ments, the Emperor, he wrote, being most particular
in requiring the exact performance of each part of
the service of his household.' The advice appears
to have been followed ; for the only other remark on
the subject is one made by Charles himself — " The
money for the expenses of my house always comes to
hand in very good time." ^
CH. VI.
1557.
punclually
paid.
' Gazteluto Vazquez, June [16], 1557. [Gachard, Eetraite et Mori, Utm.
i. p. 156.]
' " La provision dc dinero para mi casa Uega siempre a muy bien
tiempo." Emperor to Vazquez, Sept 22, 1557.
192
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
1557-
Financial
difRoulties
of Spain,
In spite of the untold wealth which Spain pos-
sessed 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 Sien-a 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 manufac-
turing 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 heartsick with
deferred 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
1 "No sc logra mas quo hazienda de las Indias." Mimoircs curieux
envoyez de Madrid, sm. 8vo, Paris, 1670.
O
b:
cj
-j;
•J
<
P.
Q
7.
<
S
u
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
«93
the Mediterrancau, 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 Shylock, 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 adventurers, 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 expected, the robbers who proposed to buy,
and the victims who were required to sell, differed
vridely about the price. The places were refused,
the bonds 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,
YOU V.
CH. VI.
IS37.
PrinoM*.
Regent
seizes
bullion
bolonging
to traders
of Sevitlo,
who resist
her officers
with
success.
194
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
ISS7-
Emperor's
indigna-
tion
against
them.
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, appeared 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 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 durance,
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
consequences, 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
EMPEROR CHARLES V. 195
and tell their story at Yuste. The Emperor ch. vi .
refused this request with scorn, and assured the '557-
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 inquiries
transmitted from Yuste. It was not till September
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
commercial 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, and take such a course as would keep them in
good humour. One of the arrested culprits, Francisco
Tello, however, died, after having been twice sub-
mitted to the torture, in the dungeons of Simancas,
merely for refusing his gold to that exigency of state
against which the neighbouring strong box of the
Emperor was inexorably shut.
In the spring of 1557, the foreign affairs of Spain ^™'«?
' "Soy bueno por ello aunque tengo la muerte entre los dientes,
holgar^ de hacerlo." Emp. to Princess-Regeut, ist April 1557,
196
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
1557.
Ruy Gomez
de Silva,
had assumed so grave an aspect, that the King
determined to lay them before his father for his
consideration and advice. For this important
mission he selected Kuy Gomez de Silva, Count
of Melito, afterwards so well known as Prince of
Eboli. This celebrated favourite, now in his fortieth
year, was head of a considerable Portuguese branch
of the great l^ouse 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
Portuguese Infanta's train as one of her pages ;
attached to the person of Philip from the cradle, 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 tourney 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
heiress 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 magniiicent Bishop of
Arras, and already, as one of the most important per-
sonages who stood near the Spanish throne,^ he was
' Luis de Salazar, Historia de la Casa de Silva, 2 vols., fol., Madrid,
1685, ii. 456.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
'97
commencing that long career of favour and success,
which obtained for him, in after days, from his ablest
disciple, the name of the " Aristotle of the philo-
sophy of courts." ' Charles had a high opinion of
the favourite's prudence and abilities ; he had for
some days looked with anxiety 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
favoured envoy aiTived there early on the 23rd
March, and was closeted for five hours with the
Emperor. Part of his message was an entreaty on
behalf of the King, that the Emperor, if his health
permitted, and state afiFairs 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 Flanders to receive the oath
of allegiance as heir-apparent to the dominions of
the house of Burgundy ; and if the Emperor ap-
proved the design, the Count was instructed to bring
' Obras y Relaciones de Antonio Perez, 8vo, Geneva, 1744, Cartas d un
Senor Amiga, p. 636, quoted by Mignet in Antonio Perez et Philippe IF.
[Englisli translation by C. Cocks, sm. 8vo, London, 1846, p. 306.]
' Philip's original letter of the 2nd February 1557 to Ruy Gomez do
Silva, is given in the MS. of Gonzalez.
CH. VL
ISS7-
Emperor's
higfi
opinion of
him.
He is
lodged in
the con-
vent.
PhiUp
desires
Emperor
to reside
nearer
ValladoUd.
Consults
him as to
sending
Don Carlos
to Flan-
dors.
198
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
ISS7-
Emperor
disap-
proves, i
War in
Nether-
lands and
Navarre.
the Prince with him when he returned.^ The
journey, however, was never made by Don Carlos,
his grandfather considering that his fitful and pas-
sionate temperament rendered it as yet unsafe to
produce him to the world.^ Next day, the Count
had a second audience as long as the first ; and the
day following, the 25th March, after hearing mass
at daybreak, .he mounted his horse and took the
road to Toledo.
The external afi"airs of the kingdom certainly re-
quired at this time counsel of the greatest sagacity,
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.
Coligny, at the head of a considerable army, was
laying waste Flemish Artois ; and Henry II. was pre-
paring 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
secretly 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
Navarre ; and in Flanders, where the more important
battles were to be fought, Philip II. had wisely com-
' Salazar, Hist, de la Casa de SUva, ii. 473.
' Luis Cabrera de Cordova, Filipe Segundo, fol., Madrid, 1619, p. 144.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
199
mitted 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 IV., the house of Austria would long ago have
found its neck beneath the heel of that fierce old
pontiflf. The Duke of Guise, with a gallant army,
was now in the States of the Church, and advanc-
ing upon the confines of Naples. The insolent in-
capacity of the Carafias, and the inefiiciency of
their warlike preparations, had not as yet cooled
the ardour of their French allies, nor become fully
evident to their antagonist, 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 Castilians 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, Carafi"a as 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
CH. VI.
IS57.
Affairs in
lUly.
Duke of
Guise
invades
Naples.
Duke of
Alba de-
fends it.
' Alex. Andrea, De la giierra de Roma y de Napoles, Afio de md. LVI.
y LVIl, 4to, Madrid, 1589, pp. 146, 151.
200
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
1557-
Soljrman
the Magni-
ficent.
Pirates of
the Medi-
terranean.
Naples against the brocade surcoat of the Duke of
Guise." >
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 scandalised 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 V. became Emperor of the West. His reign
was no less active and eventful, and far more uni-
form in its prosperity. By the capture of Khodes,
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 acknow-
ledged far up the Adriatic ; and by his judicious
protection of the pirates of Africa and the JEgean
isles, his influence was paramount in the Mediter-
ranean.
The growth which this piracy was permitted to
attain is a striking proof of the mutual jealousy
and distrust which rendered the Christian powers
incapable of any combined and sustained effort for
1 J. A. Vera y Figneroa, Besultas de la vida de Don Fern. Alvarez de
Toledo, Diique de Alba, 4to, Milan, 1643, p. 66.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
201
the common 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 galliots and
brigantines were ready at all seasons, put out in
all weathers, and stooping on their prey with the
swiftness and precision of the cormorant, overbore
resistance or baffled pursuit. Sailing in great
fleets, they laid waste entire districts and carried off
whole populations. A few years before, Barbarossa
had sold at one time, at his beautiful home on
the Bosphorus, where his white tomb still gleams
amongst its cypresses, no less than 16,000 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 nunnery 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 been seen
CH. VI.
ISS7-
Bar-
barossa's
ravages.
202
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
ISS7-
Levies for
army of
Flanders.
Emperor
appeals to
the Church
for a loan.
within the mouth of the Tiber ; it had actually
floated on the walls of Gaeta ; Leo X. had nearly
fallen into captivity beneath it ; and when it appeared
off the Ligurian shore, the persecuted Duke of
Savoy wisely fled inland from his castle of Nice.
Yet Europe 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 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 dis-
posal as that of Tunis, and Tripoli, and Algiers, and
such commanders as Barbarossa, 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. Kuy Gomez
de Silva had been instructed to raise 8,000 Castilians
for the army of the Duke of Savoy. But the
treasuiy 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
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
203
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 oflF for Toledo.
The good old prelate bled freely, and without a
murmur, pouring into the royal coflers, in the shape
of a benevolence, or loan which had but slender
chance of being paid, no less a sum than 400,000
ducats. Hernando de Aragon, Archbishop of Zara-
goza, who was next applied to, was also tolerably
generous, contributing, from revenues of no great
magnificence, and already exhausted by pious archi-
tectural works,^ 20,000 ducats. The Bishop of Cor-
doba 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 con-
sented to advance 100,000 ducats. Fernando de
Valdes, Archbishop of Seville, was, however, the
prelate 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 refine-
' Martin Carillo, Historia de San Valero de ^aragofa, in the Catdlogo
de los Prelados de Aragon, 4to, Zaragoza, 1615, p. 270. He was son of
Alonso de Aragon, Archbishop of Zaragoza, a natural son of Ferdinand
the Catholic.
CH. VI.
ISS7-
Arch-
bishops of
Toledo
and Zara-
goza. 1
Bishop of
Cordoba.
Arch-
bishop of
ScTille.
204
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
ISS7.
His delays.
ment of taste, and much dignity of manner, he was
a fair specimen of the great ecclesiastic of the six-
teenth century. In spite of his seventy-four years,
his abilities and energies were unimpaired, 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 see of
Helna ^ in Eousillon, he had intrigued his way not
only to the throne of Seville, but also 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, 2,400 death-warrants in the archives
of the Holy Office of Spain.
When this astute prelate received from Kuy
Gomez de Silva the unwelcome notice that the King
expected his aid in the shape of mundane coin
as well as of spiritual fire, he adopted the truly
Castilian tactics of delay, and allowed two months
to elapse without returning any definite reply. At
length the Emperor himself addressed him in a
letter similar in style to that which had opened the
purse-strings of the Bishop of Cordoba. It was with
^ It was sometimes spelt Elna.
° D. Ortiz de Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, fol., Madrid, 1677, pp. 503,
632.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
205
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 oflfering
when the emergency was so gi"ave and the security
so good. The Archbishop, seeing the aflfair grow-
ing 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 profoundest
reverence for his Catholic Caesarean Majesty, and
gratitude for his past favours, he assured him that
he never had had the good fortune to possess
400,000 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 portion 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-
Eegent, therefore, directed Hernando de Ochoa, one
CH. VI.
ISS7.
His
exGUAes,
206
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
ISS7.
His dis-
cussion
with
Ochoa
and its
result.
of the royal accountants, to proceed to St. Martin
de la Fuente, and reason the Archbishop into com-
pliance. 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
to Yuste. How could he find so much money?
Where was it, to come from 1 He had never had
100,000 ducats in his possession at one time in his
life, nor 80,000, nor 60,000 ; no, nor even 30,000.
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 accountant
assured his lordship that he laboured under a
mistake; taking his archbishopric at the admitted
annual value of 60,000 ducats, he proceeded to
anatomise the prelate's annual expenditure, and
compare 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 150,000 ducats.
But he also recommended him to return to court,
and attend to the business at once, or else the Em-
peror would infallibly find some means of helping
himself to the larger sum which he might fairly
demand.
May 20th [28tli. Gachaid, Betraite et Mart, tome ii. pp. 191-4]
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
207
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 coflFers had lately been re-
plenished with as much silver as six mules could
carry, and that he 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 50,000 ducats, of
which only one-half was to be paid down in ready
money.
Euy Gomez de Silva was again at Yuste on the
14th May, and on the 15th July. On each occasion
he had a long interview with the Emperor to report
his progress in the King's aiiairs. In his last visit
he was accompanied by Monsieur Ezcun-a and
Monsieur Burdeo, agents of the Duke of Vend6me ;
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
CH. VI.
JSS7.
Agrees to
lend 50,000
ducats.
Ruy Gomez
de Silra'S;
second
visit to
Yuste;
with
agents of
Anthony,
King of
Navarro.
2o8
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
1557-
Death of
John III.
of Portu-
gal.
the dominions of his house for fifty years.^ But it
was of great importance to keep alive the hopes of
the pretender, who, like a true Bourbon, was in-
triguing both with France and Spain, and capable
of any treachery to either for the slightest gain to
himself. In August, he was reported to have gone
down to Rochelle to inspect the squadron which
Henry II. was fitting out to attack the annual plate
fleet, now on its homeward voyage to the Guadal-
quivir. It was thought necessary, therefore, to
strengthen the forces of Alburquerque, and to use
double vigilance in guarding the passes into Navarre ;
and it was now that the rumour 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,
lluy Gomez de Silva followed, probably about the
end of July, taking with him a second 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 1 1 th
June, and on the 15th the tidings reached Yuste.
' In one of the papers mentioned in chap. iv. p. 103, 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.
Papiers de Granvelle, iv. 500.
H
«j
:3
><
u,
O
Id
■J
<:
a,
a
<
u
>
o
EMPEROR CHARLES V,
309
John III. was a prince of but slender capacity, but
the mantle of his father's good fortune remained
with him for awhile ; 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 decrepi-
tude of both 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 offered 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 ordered the boy out of the room
for thus desiring to be treated like a king before
his time.^
First cousin to Charles V., 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
CH. VI.
«5S7.
Jealousy of
Portugal
and Spain.
Menezes, CKrtfntbo, p. 43.
VOU V.
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
ISS7-
Emperor
condoles
with his
sister,
Queen
Catherine.
were studiously kept secret from the other. When
secretary Gaztelu, therefore, wrote to the secretary
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 meet-
ing where it was understood the late King had ex-
pressed a wish to abdicate, and to appoint the
Princess of Brazil as guardian of her son and Regent
of his kingdom. 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 Emperor's condolences to his sister, the
widowed Queen Catherine. He arrived, with the
mourning for the household, on the 3rd 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 spe-
cially charged to make no mention of the Princess of
Brazil in his conversations with the Queen or the
ministers. But while the Emperor wished to avoid
all apparent interference, he was nevertheless very
desirous that his daughter 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
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
ZII
a view to Portugal that she so frequently implored
her brother to relieve her from her duties in Spain.
But weeks passed away without any certain intelli-
gence, 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
Cardinal 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 8,000 troops, en-
trusted to him by his fond Queen and her re-
luctant 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 vigour. 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 move-
ment to be effected with but little opposition, the Duke
CII. VI.
IS57-
Princess of
Brazil <Iis-
appointod
of tho
regency of
I'ortugal.
Operations
in Flan-
ders.
Battle of
St. Quon-
tin.
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
1557-
Spanish
victory.
loth
August.
Joy occa-
sioned by
news at
Yuste.
seized that opportunity of passing the river with his
whole force. By a succession of skilful manoeuvres,
he succeeded in surprising Montmorency, and com-
pelling him to give battle, when Count Egmont, at
the head of 7,000 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 100 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 Spaniard.
This great battle was fought on the loth August.
The first news was conveyed to the Emperor in a
brief despatch from Vazquez, dated the 20th, and
probably reached Yuste about the 23rd. A more
detailed account, which was afterwards printed at
Valladolid, soon arrived, brought or closely followed
by a courier sent by the King from Flanders. The
Emperor listened to the intelligence with the greatest
interest, and ordered the messenger to be rewarded
with a gold chain and a handsome sum of money. '^
' Gonzalez says 150,000 dttcats, which is probably a slip of the pen
for niaravedis. The Emperor is reported to have greatly disappointed
the soldier who brouslit him the sword and gauntlets of Francis I. from
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
ai3
On the 7th September a solemn mass was celebrated
in the conventual church in token of thanksgiving,
and considerable alms were distributed from the
imperial purse to the neighbouring poor. The Em-
peror was much disappointed to leam that his son
had not been present in the field, and bestowed
his malediction 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 capital, 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 ful-
filment ; for Philip, ever timid and procrastinating,
wasted the golden moments and the enthusiasm of
his troops on the capture of a few insignificant
fortresses in Picardy.
The triumph of the Duke of Savoy in the Nether-
lands had a signal efiect upon the war in Italy. No
sooner had Guise commenced ofiensive operations
against the kingdom of Naples, than he discovered
that no aid was to be expected from the Pope or his
CU. VI.
'S57-
Dilatory
policy of
Philip II.
Italy.
the field of Pavia, by giving liim only one hundred gold crowns for his
trouble. Relatione of Badovaro.
214
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
1557-
Guise re-
treats^from
Neapolitan
frontier.
Alba
advances
on Ivome.
nephews, and no reliance to be placed on their
promises. They had already exasperated him by
refusing him Ostia or Ancona, which he had 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- eiTant 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 advanced far into the enemy's
territory before the insolence of the Roman leader,
the Marquess of Montebello, compelled him to turn
that Caraffa ignominiously out of his camp. With
zeal thus cooled, and with forces quite inadequate
to ejffect any permanent conquest for France, Guise
therefore confined his operations to the capture of
some paltry places in the Abruzzi, and to an un-
successful siege of Civitella, from which he M'as
driven with considerable loss both of men and time.
Retreating towards Rome, he threatened to evacuate
the ecclesiastical states, and join the Duke of Fcrrara
in an attack upon Parma and the Milanese. Alba
in his turn now crossed the Tronto, marched into
' Don Quixote, part L cap. 22.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
2IS
the Campagna, and took up a position within sight
of Rome. The Pope and the Caraffas, no less
cowardly than rash, humbled themselves before
Guise, and sought to bribe him with 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 recalled :
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 him-
self made haste to sacrifice his friend, and conclude
a close bargain with his foe. The terms obtained
were no less disgraceful to Paul and to Philip than
advantageous to the Roman see. The Pope was
bound not to take part against Spain during the
present war, and not to assist the Duke of Guise with
provisions or protection. The King, on his side,
engaged 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 pontifi" to except
CH. VI.
«5S7.
Shamoful
treaty
botwoon
Philip II.
and the
Pope.
' J. V. Rustant, Eistoria del Dugue de Alba, 2 torn. 4to, Madrid, 1751,
ilS9-
2l6
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH.1VI.
ISS7-
Emperor's '
displea-
from it Mai'c Antonio Colonna and the chief Eoman
magnates 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
excommunication, which were frantically fulminated
against his son, were forbidden to be published in
the churches, and were declared contraband in the
seaports of Spain. Had the King been a heretic,
said Charles, he could not have been treated with
greater rigour ; the quaiTel was none of his seeking ;
and in his endeavours to avoid it he had done all
that was required of him before God and the world.
Had the matter been left in the hands of the Em-
peror, Paul would have been dealt with in the stem
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 Primate 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.
It is not very clear why Philip II. dealt thus gently
J. V. Kustant, Hut del D. de Alba, iL 6i.
EMPEROR CHARLES V. 217
with the foolish and wicked old man who was now ch. vi.
at his mercy. Certain it is that no sentiment of 1557.
generosity towards a fallen foe ever found place in
that cold and selfish heart. His moderation may
have heen dictated by mere superstition, or it may
have arisen from his 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 lloman treaty was almost the sole affair of
importance 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 pre-
cise conditions 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 generally observed that a treaty was
sure to prove unfavourable when it was reported to
be completed and yet the specification of the par-
ticular clauses withheld. The next instalment of
news, that the French ai'my had efiected their retreat,
only increased the misgivings of the Emperor. At
length there came a detailed account of the negotia-
2l8
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VI.
ISS7-
Don
Carlos.
Letters
from his
tutortotho
Emporor.
tions, and a copy of the treaty, which the secretary
of state said had given satisfaction both at Kome
and ValladoHd. At each paragraph that was read,
the Emperor's anger grew fiercer ; and before the
paper had been gone through he would hear no
more. He was laid up next day with an attack of
gout, which the people about him ascribed to the
vexation which he had suffered ; and so deep an
impression did the affair make upon his mind, that
for weeks after he was frequently overheard mutter-
ing to himself, through his shattered teeth, broken
sentences of displeasure.
One of the subjects which lay nearest the Em-
peror'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, unfavourable. The Prince's
governor, Don Garcia de Toledo, was ordered to
transmit to Yuste regular accounts 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 Emperor took
a lively interest in his grandson. Carlos is painted
by his tutor as a sickly, sulky, and backward boy,
certainly very unlikely to grow up the patriot hero
into which the poet's license and the historian's
paradox have turned him at a later period of his
/
DON CARLOS-
EMPEROR CHARLES V. Ji9
unhappy life. On the 30th July, Don Garcia com- ch. vi .
plained to the Emperor that his pupil was lazy at his >S57.
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 Valla-
dolid at all, the Prince would be nowhere so well as
at Yuste, under the eye of his grandfather.
A month later, on the 27th August, he wrote
that Don Carlos was better in health, but so choleric
in temper, that they were thinking of putting him
under a course of physic for that disorder ; but
that they would wait until the Emperor's pleasure
were 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 trucos (a game somewhat like
bowls) or quoits ; at half-past three he partook of a
light meal (merienda), which was followed by read-
ing, and an hour of outdoor 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
CLOISTER LIFE OF EMPEROR CHARLES V.
CH. VI.
ISS7-
Venetian
onToy's
opinion
of Don
Carlos.
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 horseback,
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 ardour 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 woe-
fully 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
Venetian ambassador at the court of Bruxelles trans-
mitted to his republic. He reported that Don Carlos
was a youth of a haughty and turbulent temper,
which his tutors vainly endeavoured 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 stepmother, 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.^
' Belaiione of Badovaro.
CHAPTER \^I.
THE VISIT OP THE QUEENS.
?URING 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, attri-
buted 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 gene-
rally eating too much, Charles slept well, and his
gout made itself felt only in occasional twinges ; so
effectually did the senna wine counteract the syrup
CH. VII.
ISS7-
Emperor's
?oo<i
liealth.
Signen^a, iii. 200.
222
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VII.
ISS7.
Famine
and sick-
ness in tho
Vera.
of quinces which he drank at breakfast, the Ehine
wine which washed down his midday meal, and the
beer which, though denounced by the doctor, was
the habitual 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 re-
covered by a little vinegar sprinkled on his face, and
suffered no subsequent ill effect. About the middle
of December, he complained of feebleness, and of
phlegm in his throat ; and, for awhile, forewent
wine and beer, and drank hippocras, a kind of spiced
wine, mixed with hot water. With these exceptions,
he was 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 Beth-
lehem — 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, Avhich ex-
tended 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
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
333
convent, were pillaged by the hungry peasants ;
and, in the Campo de Aranuelo, almost the whole
population of several villages perished of starvation.
In the autumn, severe colds and fevers prevailed at
Yuste and Quacos ; and WiUiam 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
unemployed 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 of his laui'els, 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 paradise for these
simple tastes and harmless pleasures. The Emperor
' Vieyra, Sermoens, vol. xv. p. 195. Quoted in Southcy's Common-
place Book, i. p. 408.
* lienb llapin, in his Hortorum libri qitatuor, 4to, Paris, 1665, lib. i. v.
952-4, thus celebrates the event :—
" Ilunc primus, pocno quondam de litore llorem,
Dum prcmeret victor dura obsidiouc Tunetum ;
Carolus Austriades terno transmisit Ibera'."
CH. VII.
'557.
Emperor's
garden.
Fondness
for birds.
224
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VII.
1557-
His poultry
and fish-
ponds.
His care
for domes-
tic com-
forts.
spent part of the summer in embellishing the ground
immediately below his windows ; he raised a terrace,
on which he placed a fountain and laid out a par-
terre ; and beneath it he formed a second parterre,
planted like the first, with flowers and orange-trees.
Under his supervision, Torriano constructed a sun-
dial, which became an appropriate ornament of the
garden.^ 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 game-
keeper 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 campaigns at Tunis, which still exist in the
Queen of Spain's palace at Madrid. He also con-
templated 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 accom-
modation of the King, his son, who was to visit him
as soon as public aflFairs permitted him to return to
' Bakhuizen van den Brink, Betraite de Charles V., p. 23.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
225
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 favour accorded
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 coming
back any more, to eat asparagus and truffles in
Estremadura.^ He set out on the 3rd April, and the
impatient English courier who had come the day
before with his complaints of Castilian dilatoriness,''
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
' " Bien me alegrdra, no volver d Estrcmadnra d comer esparragos y
turmos lie tierra." To Ju;iu Vazquez, March 28, 1557.
* Supra, chap. vi. p. 186.
VOU V. P
OH. VII.
ISS7-
Qoixada
obtains
leave of
absence.
226
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VII.
ISS7.
Friars
become
unruly.
Quixada's
return.
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 Portugal.
At court or at his house at Villagarcia, Quixada
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 favour of the Jeronymite
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 whatever." 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 2 1 st August, having ridden
post to Medina del Campo, and thence on what he
called beasts of the country. The Emperor was
veiy 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. Eumours had reached
Valladolid, probably in consequence 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 ,"
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
227
he wrote, "is the most contented man in the world,
and the quietest, and the least desirous of moving
in any direction whatsoever, as he tells us him-
self." * 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 offi-
cial duties, and settle at home. But the Emperor
having so urged him to remain that it was impos-
sible 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 be to him who built it here ;
30th August 1557-"'
During the summer, in Fray Juan de Ortega*
the convent lost one of its best inmates, and the
Emperor and his household their favourite 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
OH. VII.
1557-
Quizada's
dislike to
Yuste.
Death of
Fray Juaa
de Ortega.
' " Esta el horabre el mas contcnto del mundo, y con mas rcposo y con
meuor gaiia para saliv para ninguna parte y ansi lo dice."
' " En Yuste : mal liaya quien aqui lo edilic(S ; d los 30 de Augusto,
I557-"
" Supra, chap. iii. p. 8S ; c'.iap. v. p. 154.
228
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VH.
ISS7-
Lazarillo
de Ttrrmea.
August, the whole community of Yuste were sad-
dened 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 associates
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
considered him unjustly treated, for he almost im-
mediately afterwards offered him a mitre in the
Indies. But Ortega declined the honour, 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 considered 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 Castilian, 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
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
339
a little dirty urchin of Salamanca, and sent him
forth to delight Europe with his exquisite humour,
keen satire, and vivid pictures 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 Hui'tado 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 conjectured
that it must have been written in his college-days
at Salamanca.' Whether the glory belong to the
layman or the churchman, the monk who was
capable of so chivalrously refusing a mitre, and
who was supposed to be capable of writing the
first and one of the best of modern fictions, must
have been a man of noble character, and of remark-
able powers.
CH. VII.
1557-
Question
as to its
author-
sbip.
' The story is told by Siguen^a, IL p. 184. N. Antonio includes Lasa-
rUlo among tlie works of Mendoza, but lie says that some people still
ascribed it to Ortega. Mr. Ticknor, in his excellent and discerning
criticism on Mendoza (Histortf of Spanish Literature, 3 vols. Svo, New
York, 1849, i. 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 tliird at Antwerp, in the same year ; yet the lirst
mentioned by Antonio is that of Tarragona, 1586; so ignorant was tlie
laborious bibliographer of Spain — being al.io a churchman — of one of the
most curious and valuable portions of her literature, the novels.
230
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VII.
ISS7.
Turbulent
peasants of
Quacos.
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 cheiTy
tree to the Emperor's purveyor at double its value,
and for ready money, when he found that it was
left ungathered, resold it to a fresh purchaser, who
of course left nothing but bare boughs behind
him. Weary of this persecution, Charles at last
sent for Don Juan de Vega, President of Castile,
who arrived on the 25th August at Luis Quisada's
house, in the guilty village. Next morning he had
an interview of an hour and a half with the Em-
peror; 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 culprits
were apprehended. But whilst Castilian justice
was taking its usual deliberate course, some of them
who had relatives amongst the Jeronymites of Yuste,
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
231
by the influence of their friends at court wrought
upon the Emperor's good-nature so far, that he him-
self 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
certainly the most remarkable was Juan Gines
Sepulveda, the historian, whose flowing style and
pure Latinity gained him the title of the Livy of
Spain. This able writer had formerly held the posts
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
arch-priesthood of Ledesma, to which he had been
recently presented. The fine weather early in March
had tempted him to set out for this new benefice ;
but being overtaken in the mountains of Guadalupe
by storms, which even the tempest-stilling bells of
Our Lady's Holy Church ^ 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,
' Siguen9a, iii. 198.
' Talavera, Hut. de Na. SeHa. de Ouadalvpe, foL 16.
Ca VII.
1557.
Juan Gines
Sepulvoda
visits
Yuate.
232
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VII.
1557-
received 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 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
surprising that it nearly killed the sedentary doctor
of sixty-seven. The ascent, he said, was like the
path of virtue, 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
yet more frightful descent.^ 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 alternate
rain and snow. He arrived at Alba more dead than
alive ; and in spite of good nursing in the house of a
• See Mignet, Charles Quint, son abdication, son sijour et sa mort an
Monastdre de Ytiste, 8vo, Paris, 1854, p. 2S4, for some curious references
to Sepulveda as to Charles's regard for truth in things to be written
about himself.
' The Works and the Days, v, 288.^
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
233
warm canon of Salamanca, the month of June found
him in his parsonage at Ledesma, still complain-
ing of the cold which he had caught in that wild
mountain march. ^
Don Luis de Avila was a frequent visitor at Yuste.
Charles had always been fond of the society of his
lively Quintus Curtius ; and the historian regarded
the Emperor with that enthusiastic admiration with
which a great man seldom fails to inspire his fol-
lowers. The lords of Mirabel religiously preserve
an heirloom brought into the Zuniga family by Avila
— a marble bust of his favourite hero, chiselled by
the masterly hand of the elder Leoni, and inscribed
with this loyal doggerel —
" Carolo quinto et h assai questo,
Perche si sa per tutto il mondo il resto."
Avila likewise caused some of the battles of the
imperial captain to be painted in fresco on various
ceilings 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 Marquess of Mirabel had shortly
OH. VII.
I5S7-
Don Iiuii
de Avila.
Hia house
at Pla-
senuia and
its frescoes.
' He calls it " iter totius Hispanire difficilliraum ; " describing it in the
letter to Van Jlale, in his Epistolce, sm. 8vo, Salamant. 1557, ep. cii.
fol. 274, or Ojtera, 4to, Madrid, 1780, iii. p. 351. Opera, 4(0, Colon Agr.
1602, Epist. 99, pp. 278-81. The letter is dated Ledesma Cal. Junii,
1557-
234
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VII.
ISS7-
His opinion
of the Em-
peror in his
commen-
taries.
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 extravagance. The bold dragoon concludes his
German commentaries with this blast of the true
Castilian trumpet: "When Csesar had subdued
Gaul, after a ten years' war, he made the whole
world ring with his story ; and only to have crossed
the Khine and passed eighteen days in Germany
seemed enough to vindicate the power and dignity
of the nation which ruled the world. In less than
a year our Emperor conquered this province, whose
matchless valour has been confessed both by ancient
and modern times. In thirty years Charlemagne
subjugated Saxony ; our Emperor was master of it
all in less than three months. The greatness of this
war demands a nobler pen than mine, 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 valour and in virtue." ^
The adulation of Bishop Giovio was as distasteful
to Charles as the Protestant abuse of Sleidan ; and
' A. Ponz, Viage en Esparia, i8 vols. sm. 8vo, Madrid, 1784, vii.
pp. 117, 118, 122.
^ Avila, Comentario de la Guerra de Alemaiia, sm. 8vo, Anvers,
1549, p. 180.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
235
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 favour that the
Emperor one day ordered a capon to be reserved for
the Grand Commander of Alcdntara from his own
well-supplied board.^ 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 monarch to eat alone, and which,
when on the throne, he had broken through once,
though once only, in favour of the Duke of Alba.''
But 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 Eichelieu
himself, when most wanting in ships, preferred that
the Spanish fleet should retire from the blockade of
Rochelle, rather than that its admiral should wear
his grandee hat in the Most Christian presence.
The Emperor was fond of talking over his
campaigns with the veteran who had shared and
recorded them. One day, in the course of such
conversation, Don Luis spoke of the frescoes which
' Vera, Vidade Carlos V., p. 251.
' Rustaiit, Vida del D. de Alba, i. p. 182.
OH. VIL
236
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VII.
ISS7-
Fresco of
battle of
Kenti.
Eemark of
the Em-
peror on it.
were in progress in his house at Plasencia, and said
that on one of the ceiHngs was to be painted the
battle of Renti, and the Frenchmen flying before the
soldiers of Castile. " 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 because French historians
claimed the victory for France, and recounted with
pride the captured colours and cannon, amongst
which were the two huge pieces known as the
Emperor's pistols.^ Considering that the action had
been fought only three or four years before it is re-
ported to have been thus grossly misrepresented, it
is possible that Eenti may have been substituted by
mistake for the name of some less doubtful field.
But Avila was of easy faith when the honour of
Castile and the Emperor were concerned ; and he
may well be supposed capable of some such loyal
and patriotic 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 valley of Ajalon, had been repeated on behalf
of Charles and his Spaniards on the banks of the
Elbe.^ Some years after, the Duke of Alba, who
had also been at Muhlberg, was asked by the King
' Vera, Vida de Carlos V., p. 252.
' L. Favyn, Hist, de Navarre, fol., Paris, 1612, p. 814.
' Avila, Comentario, fol. 70,
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
*37
of France whether he too had observed the sun
standing 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."
A visit which Avila paid to the convent in
August, seems to have been prompted by an official
letter addressed by the Princess-Regent to the
authorities of Plasencia, and containing, or sup-
posed to contain, a hint that the Emperor proposed
soon to set out for Navarre. The city being greatly
excited by the rumours thus raised, the Grand
Commander mounted his horse and rode up 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 secretary
of state, Avila said, " I have left Fray Carlos in a
very calm 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 may have
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
CH. VII.
ISS7.
Report of
Emperor's
removal to
Navarre.
238
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VII.
1557-
Don Fran-
cisco Boli-
var.
Don
Martin do
Avendano.
that there is a man among us who would stay
behind if the Emperor took the field. But if this
hravata, as they say in Italy, is really to be exe-
cuted, 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 Fran-
cisco Bolivar, paymaster of the navy, who came on
the 1 6th September and had a long audience next
day, to 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 October,
Don Martin de Avendano, who had commanded a
squadron newly arrived from Peru, was received
with a welcome so hearty, that Quixada noted it
in writing to the secretary Eraso. In taking
leave, the admiral was also furnished with a strong
letter of recommendation to the King. 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
1 Luis de Avila to Vazquez ; Plasencia, 24th August 1557. Gonzalez
MS. [13th August. Gachard, Retraite et Mart, torn. ii. pp. 225-7].
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
239
same letter, that he was unusually well, " very plump
and fresh-coloured, and ate and slept better than he
did himself." He added that His Majesty had been
pleased to rally him on a message, conveyed to him
by Eraso from his little daughter Mariquita, that
she would like to marry his son, had there been an
heir in the family of Quixada.^
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 neighbouring prelates and grandees continued
to send their contributions to the imperial larder.
By Oropesa it was supplied with game from the
forest and the hill ; the Jeronymites of Guadalupe,
rich in lands and beeves, presented calves, lambs
fattened on bread, and delicate fruits; and the
Bishops of Segovia, Mondonedo, and Salamanca were
careful to put in similar evidence that they had not
forgotten the giver of their mitres. The prior of
Guadalupe also sent one of his monks, who was a
tailor by trade, to make the Emperor a robe and
gloves of fur, forbidding him to accept of any reward
for his service.^ These civilities were not, however,
always done without an eye to the loaves and fishes
of court patronage and favour, A few leagues north
CH. vn.
»557.
Message to
Quixoda
from Mari-
quitii (le
Eraao.
Presents to
Emperor's
larder from
church-
men.
' Qiiixada to Francisco de Eraso, 6th Oct. 1557 [7th October.
lietraite et Mort, torn. i. p. 184].
" Bulchuizen van den Brink, La Bctraite, p. 42.
Gachard,
240
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIL
ISS7.
Visits of
Queens
Eleanor
and Mary.
They arrive
at Yuste,
28th Sep-
tember.
of the convent, 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 im-
mortalised by the dedication of Don Quixote. The
mules sent to Yuste by the Duchess were in due
time followed by the lady's chaplain, 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 pre-
pared for their reception under the superintendence
of Quixada and Van Male. The Queens set out
from Valladolid on the i8th September, accom-
panied by their niece, the Eegent, who was going
to her pious retreat at Abrojo. Travelling by easy
stages, they reached Xarandilla in ten days. On
the 28th they came to Yuste, attended by the
Bishop of Palencia, and saw the Emperor for about
an hour. During their stay of ten or eleven weeks
in the Vera, Queen Eleanor, being in very feeble
HBSHESI
JUAN CIMES DE SEPULVEOA
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
241
health, and unable to bear the motion of her litter,
visited Yuste only three times. On one of these
occasions, she and her sister came over in the morn-
ing to Quacos, and having dined there, spent some
hours at the convent, and returned to the village
to sleep. Quixada was somewhat scandalised at
this arrangement, and proposed an attempt to lodge
the royal ladies for one night at Yuste ; but Charles
would not hear of it, nor would he even oflfer them
a dinner. Still robust enough for the saddle, the
Queen of Hungary delighted in the exercise of her
limbs and tongue. She therefore was frequently on
horseback, riding through the fading forest to her
brother's inhospitable gate.
The Queens had not yet determined where to
establish 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
decided negative. They next cast their eyes upon
Guadalaxara, in Castile ; the crown having a great
extent of land in and around that town, the rights
and privileges of which the King was willing to
make over to them for their lives. The town boast-
ing of no mansion suitable to their rank but the
palace of the Duke of lufantado, 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
VOL. V. Q
CH. VII.
1557.
The Queens
look out for
permanent
abode.
Guada-
laxara,
Correspon-
dence with
Duke of
lufantado.
242
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VII.
IS57.
Infanta
Mary of
Portugal.
ill-health ; and in spite of the Eegent's representa-
tions that what had been given to the grand cardinal
Mendoza by Isabella the Catholic, ought to be lent
for a time to her grand-daughters, he continued to
urge this plea .in a nunaber of letters, equally courtly,
copious, and tiresome. At the close of the year,
Quixada, writing to his friend the secretary Eraso,
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 neighbourhood, where
they might amuse themselves in fishing or in the
chase. Both of the royal 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 Cardinal Henry. Father Francis
Borja used his influence in vain. The Spanish
ambassador at Lisbon, Don Sancho de Cordova,
who met the Queens at Xarandilla and Yuste, gave
so unfavourable an account of her intentions, that
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
243
Eleanor began to despair altogether of realising her
long-cherished hope. The Emperor, at her request,
himself wrote to his niece, urging 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 honour,
and sixteen nobles and prelates were chosen to wait
upon her at the frontier. Among them were the
Duke of Escalona, the Count of Oropesa, the Grand
Commander of Alcdntara, and the Bishops of Coria
and Salamanca.
Many of the difl&culties 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
negotiations were pending, a Portuguese cornier was
arrested on suspicion of being a French spy, and on
his person was found an autograph letter from the
King of France, in which the Queen-Kegent was
informed of the state of the wai' in the Netherlands,
and entreated to lend her assistance against Spain.
This letter was forwai-ded to Yuste by secretary
Vazquez, with a remark that it was better to trust
even Frenchmen than some Portuguese. The Em-
peror, on the other hand, told Quixada that he
thought the letter might have been written for the
purpose of being intercepted, and of exciting sus-
CH. VII.
JSS7-
Jealousy
between
Portugal
nnd Spain,
244
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VII.
1557.
Queens
go to
Badajoz,
15th Dec.
picion and discord, and that the boasting of a
Frenchman ought never to be taken seriously. But
he clearly indicated his own belief in the ill-Avill
entertained at Lisbon towards his son's government,
when he conveyed to Vazquez the official informa-
tion which he had received from thence of a revolt
in Peru, and the death of the Viceroy, the Marquess
of Caiiete. "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 ascer-
tain the gi'ound whereon such a rumour rests." ^
The Queens took leave of the Emperor on the 14th
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 2^d., a pound. The licen-
tiate Murga, of Quacos, was entrusted with the
arrangements on the road, and the queens were
everywhere received with public attention and
respect. At Truxillo the authorities wished to give
a public festival in their honour, which, however,
1 Emperor to Vazquez, 22nd Sept. 1557. Gonzalez MS.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
245
the royal ladies gi-aciously 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 Koman city. But, on the day after
they left Xarandilla, a terrible humcane visited that
part of the Vera. At Yuste, two of the Emperor's
chimneys 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 Xarandilla, 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 fi.om the distractions of
the court, to unstinted penance and prayer. The
sun of September was scorching the naked plains of
1 Fr. Miguel Pacheco, Vida de D„. Maria, p. 80, says that the Queens
were kept waiting at Badajoz for two months, and that Queen Mary was
so weary of waiting that she wanted her sister to give up the meeting
and return to Costilla. This can hardly be true, if the Gonzalez MS. and
its letters are to be relied on, which state that the Infanta reached Elvas
early in January. The Queens were received at Badajoz by two ladies,
Manuel, who had been ladies of honour to Queen Isabella, and whose
husbands were wealthy nobles of the province.
CII. VII.
ISS7.
Hurricano
at Yuste.
Fr. Fmn.
Borja
sent by
Princess-
Rcgont to
Lisbon.
248
CLOISTER LIFE OF EMPEROR CHARLES V.
CH. VII.
ISS7-
Borja's
judgment.
Alms given
to Borja
oQ leaving.
Ai'agon. 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 reverend
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 favour compatible with equity." When
the Emperor expressed some not unnatural surprise,
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
the upholstery of his chamber, but he also sent him
each day the most approved dish from his well-
supplied board. When duty once more required
the father to take his staff in his hand, he carried
with him 200 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
revenues, it is perhaps the largest bounty he ever
bestowed at one time." ^
1 Nieremberg, Vida de Borja, p. 155.
- Kibaiieneira, Vida de Borja, y. 99.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DEATH OF QUEEN ELEANOR.
HE year 1558 did not open
auspiciously at Yuste.
The Emperor continued
to be troubled with fly-
ing gout ; he complained
of itching and tingling
in his legs, from the
knees downwards ; and
he was sometimes seized
with fits of vomiting. On the 7th 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 Montesa, and
who was therefore dismissed to spend a few days in
the pilgrimage to Guadalupe. The season itself was
unhealthy, and so many members of the household
were ill that Gaztelu proposed to reinforce the
medical staff with another doctor, one Juan Muiioz,
CH. vni.
1558.
Emperor's
health de-
clines.
2SO
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII.
1558.
Burglary
at Yuste.
Dispute
with corro-
gidor of
Plasencia.
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 January the palace
was broken into, and a sum of 800 ducats, set
apart for charitable uses, stolen from a box in the
Emperor's wardrobe. The licentiate Mm-ga was
immediately set to discover the robbers, but his
perquisitions attained no satisfactory end. It was
evident that the household was not free from blame,
but the Emperor would not permit the persons
suspected to be subjected to the torture, the usual
mode of compelling evidence in those days, "fear-
ing," said Gaztelu, mysteriously, "that certain
things might come out which had better remain
concealed." ^ The culprits were never detected, nor
was the cash recovered. It is somewhat remarkable
that a few weeks afterwards the Emperor divided
2,000 ducats, as a largesse, among his attendants,
each receiving a sum proportioned 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
1 " Pues no se permite ^ Miirga que ponga ii question de tovmento h
los que se sospecha que podrian tener culpa, en lo que hau pasado cosas
que es mejor callarlas." Gaztelu to Vazquez, 17th January 1558.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
251
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
suspended from his functions, and the jurisdiction
of Quacos enlarged by a fresh official act. The
offender, however, was forgiven, and reinstated in a
few weeks.
On the loth January the Emperor, though still
in bed, gave audience to Don Juan de Acuiia, who
had recently come from Flanders ; and the same day
a rumour 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
rumour 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 at last he permitted them to be read, and
heard the secret articles of the treaty with the Pope,
he only remarked 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
knowledge or consent. Philip's love of temporising
CH. viir.
1558.
Don John
do Acufia.
Philip's
treaty with
the Pope.
Emperor's
dissatisfac-
tion with
it.
252
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII.
1558.
Duke of
Alba and
bis share
in the busi-
ness.
was notorious ; " Time and I against two," ^ was his
favourite adage ; and he often bought time at the
price of golden opportunity. When the victoiy of
St. Quentin 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 armistice of a few weeks would have given
sufficient time for communication between Bruxelles
and Yuste. It is therefore most probable that
Philip, making, for reasons which he did not wish to
explain, a peace which he felt the Emperor must
disapprove, purposely withheld from him any know-
ledge of the treaty until it was actually signed and
sealed. It is certain that great and unaccountable
delay took place in laying before him some of the
subsequent transactions in Italy. Thus, although a
rumour of Alba's departure had reached Yuste on
the loth January, it was not until the 27th that a
letter, addressed to the Emperor by Alba himself,
and dated so far back as the 23rd 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 Rome ; and
further said that as the King's affairs were now in
a prosperous condition, the Duke intended soon to
' Tiempo y yo para otros doa."
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
253
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 fatigues 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 afiairs, 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 IV. entrusted 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
negotiation which the greedy churchman prolonged
until far into the spring. Philip received the Duke
with all demonstrations of favour 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 Pre-
sident of the Council of War.
The Emperor, on the other hand, remained unre-
conciled to the shameful peace with the Cai'afi'as,
nor did he ever forgive Alba his share in the trans-
' A. Andrea, Gucira de lioma, &c., p. 315.
CH. VIII.
1558.
254
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII. action. The Duke was anxious to ascertain his
1558. opinion of his conduct in remaining at court, and
to obtain permission to visit him at Yuste ; and
Gaztelu was therefore privately desired by Vazquez
to note whateyer fell from him on these topics. But
Charles would neither express his opinion, nor
accord the permission required, showing a disposi-
tion, 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 150,000 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 dishonour ; and he said, even in the
pontiff's 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
A. de Castro, Los Proiestantes Espanoles, i. p. 131.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
255
honours and caresses ; he invited him to dinner ;
and he offered to make over to him all the Church
patronage of the Holy See on his estates in Spain.
But this offer Alba declined, saying that the conces-
sion and the acceptance of such a boon would be
liable to suspicion, which it was better to avoid.^
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
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 honour 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 pro-
crastinating policy of Philip II. had already let slip
the opportunities afforded by that battle, as his
blind bigotry afterwards doomed to death the gallant
Egmont, whose prowess had canied the day. The
French king had been allowed not only to rally
OH. vm.
1558.
Affairs in
l<1andor8.
' J. A. de Vera, Vida del Duque de Alva, p. 73. Sec also supra, chap,
iii. p. 83.
2S6
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII.
1558.
Spanish
Guise takes
Calais.
his forces, but once more to cross the frontiers of
Flanders. The Duke of Nevers retook Ham : Genlis
put 1,200 Spaniards to the sword at Chaulny. Guise,
burning to wipe away his disgraces in the Abruzzi
and the Koman plains, suddenly appeared before
Calais on the first night of the new year. Trust-
ing 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, with-
drawn great part of the garrison at that season.
The only approaches by land were guarded by the
forts of Kisbank and Newnham Bridge. These Guise
attacked at night, and was master of in the morning.
The roar of his artilleiy was heard at Dover ; but
a storm dispersed the squadron which put out with
relief. After some days of desultoiy and desperate
fighting. Lord Wentworth struck his flag ; the English
troops filed off under a guaid of Scottish archers ;
and the key of France, which two centuries before
had resisted, for eleven months, Edward III. fresh
from Cressy, was restored in one week to the house
of Valois. The honour of having first conceived
and planned the enterprise belonged to the admiral
Coligny, 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
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
257
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 forgotten ; and loud and long were the pseans
of the Parisian wits, "replenished with scoflfs and
unmeasured terms against the English," who, in
falling victims to a daring 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 2nd
February. In both places they were received with
little less sorrow and alarm than they had caused
in London. 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 accession to the strength of the most
formidable neighbour 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, recui'ring 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 con-
fessed that he had never in his life received so
CH. viir.
1558.
Emperor's
mortificft-
tion on
receiving
news.
' Hollinshed, Chronicles, 6 vols. 4to, London, 1808, iv. p. 93,
you V. R
258
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII.
1558.
Eeport of
pregnancy
of Queen
Mary of
England
and Spain.
Her death.
Emperor's
gout.
painful a blow ; and he wrote in the most urgent
terms to the Princess-Kegent, 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 criti-
cised the Castilian leaders for their remissness, and
prophesied that Gravelines, Nieuport, and Dun-
kirk 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
pregnancy 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
in the noble 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
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
259
diminished in quantity, were still of a quality to
perplex the doctor, consisting principally of the
rich fish which he could neither dine without nor
digest. His favourite beverage at this time was vino
bastardo, a sweet wine made from raisins, and
brought from Seville, and long popular in England.^
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 sec-
retary of state, " Surely kings imagine that their
stomachs are not made like other men's."
Meanwhile the Queens of France and Hungary
effected 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
adjusted, she crossed the plains of the Guadiana,
and having been received in due form by a party of
Spanish nobles at the border rivulet of Caya, she
finally reached the longing arms of her mother.
Don Antonio Puertocarrero was sent down from
Valladolid to offer her the congratulations of the
Princess-Eegent, to which were added those of the
Emperor, the envoy having likewise received, as he
CH. VIII.
1558.
Meeting
between
the Queens
and the
Infanta
Mary of
Portug^al
at Badajoz.
' Prince Hal (Henry IV., Act ii. sc. 4, 1. 82), remarks, " Why, then,
your_brown bastard is your only drink."
26o
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII.
1558.
Queens
leave
Badajoz.
passed, credentials at Yuste. At Badajoz the Infanta
remained for twenty days, during which time her
mother and aunt exhausted all their arguments and
caresses in the attempt to induce her to settle in
Spain.^ Queen Eleanor gave her jewels to the value
of 50,000 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 Spanish blood. She therefore
remained inflexible in her determination to return
to Portugal, and bade an eternal farewell to her
weeping mother with no visible marks of concern.
During her stay at Badajoz, however, she was care-
ful to fulfil the laws of etiquette 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 cavalcade of fifty horse-
men excited great stir in Quacos and at Yuste.
On the nth February the Queens set out from
Badajoz, and the Emperor sent Gaztelu down to
Truxillo to meet them on the road. But they had
accomplished only three leagues of their journey.
' A pretty full account of the visit will be found in Fr. Miguel Paclieco,
Vida cle Doua Maria, ioa. 80-81. The beauty and wit of the little court
waa Dona Felipa de Mendoga, who was the lady in whose honour the
greatest feats of prowess and skill were performed in the Canas and
Sortija.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
261
when Eleanor, who had been suflFering 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 attendance, had the worst opinion of
her case. Intelligence of her danger was imme-
diately sent oflF to the Infanta, who was still on
the frontier of Portugal, but who, nevertheless, re-
fused to set foot again in Spain. A courier was
likewise despatched to Yuste, whence Quixada
was ordered instantly to ride post to Talaverilla.
Gaztelu, who had probably met the courier on the
road, as he was going to Truxillo, amved first, on
the morning of the i8th 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 standing at her side in his robes, ready
to administer the last solemn rite of the Church.
On hearing the secretary announced, she roused her-
self 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
CH. VIII.
1558.
Queen
Eleanor
taken ill
at Tala-
Terillo.
26z
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII.
1SS8.
Dies,
leaving her
fortune to
the Infanta
of Portu-
gal.
her life, she sank again into unconsciousness ; and
within an hour, her loving heart had ceased to
beat ; and the long account of her gentle 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, communi-
cated the event to his master at Yuste.
The remains of the Queen were deposited at
Merida, and afterwards gathered to those of her
kindred at the Escorial. Her desire was that the
interment should be simple and private, and that 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 Castile and Languedoc ; a heritage which, with
her patrimonial portion and her towns of Viseu and
Torres Vedras, made her one of the greatest matches
in Europe.^ On the death of his English queen.
' Dam. de Goes, Chronica do Bei D, Emanuel, iv. fol. 84.
EMPEROR CHARLES V. 263
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 daughter of
Valois. Fate had marked Mary of Avis for single-
blessedness ; and in spite of all the attempts made
on her behalf, she died unmarried, a fact which
Portuguese historians patriotically ascribe to her
unwillingness to deprive Portugal of her splendid
dowry. Her grand-nephew, Don Sebastian, became
heir to the residue of her fortune that remained
after the completion of her splendid mausoleum, in
the chapel of Our Lady of Light, and of the nun-
neries and other religious edifices, which her lavish
piety had founded in all parts of the kingdom.^
Queen Mary mourned for her sister with the
mourning of true sorrow and aflfection. Tenderly
attached to each other, they had been for ten
years inseparable companions. Notwithstanding her
desire to see her daughter, Eleanor had refused to
leave the Netherlands until Mary was also free to
seek repose in Spain ; ^ and Mary had made the care
of Eleanor's declining health the chief occupation of
1 Pedro de Mariz, Didlogos de Varia Sistoria, sm. 8vo, Lisbon, 1594,
fol. 205.
' Papiers de GranveUe, iv. p. 477.
CH. VIU.
1558.
Grief of
Queen
Mary,
264
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII.
1558.
and the
Emperor.
her retirement. After the funeral rites were over,
when Gaztelu and Quixada were setting out to
Yuste, the Queen of Hungary, in giving them a
parting audience, was so overcome with grief, that
her messages • to her brother were drowned in sobs
and tears. The Emperor, on receiving the news,
likewise wept bitterly, and displayed an emotion
which he rarely felt, or, at least, rarely permitted to
be seen. For Eleanor, although her happiness never
stood in the way of his policy, had ever been his
favourite sister. " There were but iifteen months,"
he said, " between us in ?.ge, and in less than that
time I shall be with her once more," — a prophecy
which was exactly fulfilled. The shock increased
the violence of his disorders, and his strength Avas
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. Never-
theless the invalid gave his orders about mourning
for the household, 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 amend-
ment, 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
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
a6s
inqiiirers who presented himself; and the Emperor
was much the better for seeing him. From the
deathbed scene at Talaverilla, their conversation
passed to war and politics, when the Emperor, re-
curring to the loss of Calais, said that he regretted
it like death itself.
The Queen of Hungary arrived on the 3rd March,
and on this occasion was lodged for some nights in
the convent. When she visited her brother next
morning, he was much affected on seeing Maiy 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 eflfect she had pro-
duced, Queen Mary avoided it in future by going
attended 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 semblance of woe in the shape of Don Her-
nando de Roxas, sent from Valladolid to condole
with the court of Lisbon, and of Don Bernardino
de Tavora, on a similar 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 possessions of the
house of Avis, and of the accession to power of a
CH. VIII.
1558.
Luis de
AviU visita
him.
Queen
Mary at
Yuste.
Enyoys
fromValla-
dolid and
Lisbon.
266
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII.
1558.
Queen
Mary re-
moves to
Xaran-
dilla.
Goes to
Valladolid
attended
by Quix-
ada.
new sultan of Fez, who was likely to be troublesome
to both Spain and Portugal.^
Queen Mary moved in a few days from Yuste to
her old abode at Xarandilla. On the 15th March
she came to take leave of the Emperor, and found
him again in bed, and suffering much pain from
an ulcerated 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 of 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
displays 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 advantageous light.^
Quixada attended the Queen not solely for her
^ Menezes, Chronica, p. 75.
^ Papiers d'etat de Granvelle, iv. p. 150.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
267
convenience, but partly to communicate to the
Princess-Regent some confidential instructions from
the Emperor, and partly that he might now super-
intend 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 government, 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 whatever deference Juana may
have received her father's financial advice, she
showed no deference whatever to his second proposal.
She Avas 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
CH. VIII.
1558.
Emperor
desire*
that Bhe
be con-
sulted on
public
affairs.
Princess-
Regent
refuses.
368
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII.
' 1558.
Emperor's
scheme of
finance.
Seville
bullion
case.
whole state. Besides, when she herself was ap-
pointed 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 Queen Mary fixed her residence at Cigales,
a hamlet near which there was a small royal seat,
about two leagues from the capital, crowning a
vine-clad height on the Avestern side of the vale of
the Pisuerga.
The Emperor's scheme of finance seems to have
been submitted by the Princess to the Council, for
a memorial on the subject was immediately prepared
by that body, 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
certain lands belonging to the military orders, the
sale of certain honorary offices and of patents of
nobility (Jiidalguias), and the sale of acts or patents
conferring legitimacy on the children of the clergy.
The inquiry into the Seville bullion case con-
tinued 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
' Quixada to Emp., 19th March [Gachard, Eetraite et Mart, torn. ii.
p. 330] ; and Princess to Emp., 22nd March 1558 [ibid. p. 347]. Gon-
zalez MS.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
369
each other, he advised that free pardon should be
oflfered to all shipmasters and sailors who should
give evidence leading to further discoveries. Nothing
vrorthy 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,
Vald^s, and 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 beside her husband,
Philip the Handsome, in the magnificent tomb of
white marble, wrought by the delicate chisel of
Vigamy, in the chapel - royal of the cathedral.
Towards the end of March, the weather being
favourable, and the royal corpse being pronounced
ripe for removal, the Marquess of Comares and the
Grand-Inquisitor were ordered to hold themselves
in readiness to escort it on the journey. But the
prelate excused himself, on the plea that he must
CH. vin.
1558.
Grand-
Inquisitor
Valdes
refuses to
attend
body of
Queen
Juana to
Granada.
270
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII. attend to the business of the Holy Office, and to the
1558. 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 journey, 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 honour them with his
presence. The Infanta, finding him thus stubborn,
referred the matter to the Council, which at once
decided 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 hint-
ing that, if he were left to choose his own time,
he would go down to Granada, and find means
of levying on the Moriscos there a fine of 100,000
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.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
271
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 his family
of pets the Queen of Portugal added in April a pair
of very small Indian cats, and a parrot, gifted with
wonderful faculties of speech, which soon became
the favourite 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
functions there, won him golden opinions among
the friars. On each ist of May, during his stay at
the convent, he caused funeral honours to be cele-
brated for his Empress with great pomp, and a
liberal allowance of tapers. When he himself had
completed a year of residence, some good-humoured
bantering passed between him and the master of the
novices, about its being now time for him to make
CH. vra.
1538.
ope
altt
health and
ocoupa-
tion.
His fond-
ness for
religious
core-
monies.
272
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII.
1558.
Gives the
friars a pic-
nic on St.
Bias's Day.
His atten-
tion to
religious
forms
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, who was unfor-
tunately confined to bed, and unable to appear,^
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 inscribed his
name, an autograph which was the pride of the
archives until they were destroyed by the dragoons
of Buonaparte.
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
' Bakhuizen van den Brink, La Retraitc, p. 39.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
273
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 instrument, " 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 similarly
diffident manner, he took it into his hands, and not
only kissed it fervently, but applied it to his forehead
and eyes with true Oriental reverence.
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 house-
hold, except the sick whose lives were in danger.^
Although 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 solemn rite.
He 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
OH. VIIL
1558.
and fasts.
' Itelalione of Bailovaro.
VOL. V.
Sec sujira, ciiap. iii. p. So, note,
s
274
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. vin.
1558.
He flogs
himself in
the choir
on Fridays
in Lent.
His strict-
ness with
his Flemish
servants.
regularly appeared on Fridays in his place in the
choir, and, at the end of the appointed prayers, ex-
tinguishing 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
ensanguined scourges, found in his chamber after his
death, became precious heirlooms in the house of
Austria, and honoured relics at the Escorial.^ Ever
strict in requiring his Flemish servants to assemble
for confession on the stated days when their country-
man, the Flemish chaplain, came over from Xaran-
dilla,^ he was especially strict in causing them all,
down to the meanest scullion, to communicate on
Ash Wednesday ; and on that occasion, he would
stand on the highest step of the altar, to observe
if the muster was complete. On Holy Thursday, his
infirmities did not permit him to perform the royal
rite of washing the feet of thirteen poor men ; but
it was performed in his presence by his chaplain,
and was followed by the usual distribution of food
and alms.^
' They were seeu and handled there in the next century by Caspar
Scioppius, as he relates in his caustic book against Strada, Infamia
Famiani, i2mo, Arasterd., 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.
- Supra, chap. v. p. 162.
2 Bakhuizen van den Brink, La Betraite, p. 39.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
275
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
himself 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, a saint whose name he
bore, he always celebrated with peculiar devotion as
a day of great things in his life, being the day of
his birth, his coronation, 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 an oblation of as many crowns as
his life numbered years. The church was thronged
with strangers, and the crowd from distant villages
was so great, that a second office and sermon took
place outside, beneath the shadow of the great
walnut tree of Yuste. The concourse was attracted
by a plenary indulgence granted on that day by
special Papal decree, and enjoyed by the convent
until the privilege was transfen-ed with the Em-
peror's bones to the Escorial.'
The Emperor lived with the friars on terms of
» Bakhuizeu van den Brink, La Betraite, p. 39.
CH. viir.
1558.
Good
Friday.
St. Mat-
thias' Day
colobra-
tions.
276
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII.
1558-
His fami-
liarity with
the friars.
Alonso
Mudarra.
friendly familiarity, of which they were veiy 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 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 received their presents of
fruit with a courtesy as punctilious as the gifts of
a prelate or a duchess. When the visitors of the
order paid their triennial visit of inspection to Yuste,
they represented to him, with all respect, that His
Majesty 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 Avhich it was against their rule for Jeronymites to
receive. One of his favourites 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
[See supra, cliap. v. p. 150.]
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
277
an only daughter, who did not shave 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, behold my gala apparel ;
obedience is now my pleasure and my pride ; for
you, with your silks and vanities, I entertain a pro-
found pity ! " So saying, he returned to his cook-
ing, and would never see her again, an effort of
holiness to which he appears to owe his place in the
chronicles of the order.
Once the Emperor honoured the friars with his
company at dinner in their refectory. It was on the
6th June 1557, being St. Vincent's Day; and the
illustrious guest was observed to be in particularly
good spirits. A table was laid for him apart, near
a sideboard, on which Van Male, his sole attendant,
carved the meats as they came. The cookery of the
austere Fray Alonso did not seem to be to the taste
of his imperial friend, who ate little, and left several
of the dishes untouched. The prior expressing
his regret that the fare did not please, Charles
assured him that everything was excellent, and that
he expected that the untasted meats would be put
aside for him for another meal.'
While the Emperor's servants were surprised by his
CH. VIII.
Emperor
dines in
friars'
refectory.
' Bakhuizcn van den Brink, La lietraitc, p. 37.
278
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII.
1558.
His good
nature to
his ser-
vants.
familiarity with the stupid friars, the friars marvelled
at his forbearance with his careless servants. They
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 hcj admonished
Pelayo the baker, who, getting drunk and neglect-
ing his oven, sent up burnt bread, which must have
sorely tried the toothless gums of the Emperor.
Nevertheless, the old military habits of the recluse
had not altogether forsaken him; and there were
occasions in which he showed himself something of
a martinet in enforcing the discipline of his house-
hold and the convent. 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 Flemings were in the habit of bartering
egg-plants with the friars for double rations of onions.
The confessor Regla had gone one day, without
asking leave, to borrow some books of a friend at
Plasencia. The Emperor happening to call for him,
and learning his absence, immediately despatched a
mounted messenger in pursuit, to order him back.
The order reached the poor monk just as he alighted
at his friend's door, after a ride of twenty-five miles ;
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
279
but he thought it prudent to obey it forthwith, and
retrace his steps to Yuste. "I would have you
know, Fray Juan," said his imperial charge, "that
it is my pleasure that you do not stir from the con-
vent without my consent." ^ He had also been dis-
turbed 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 stem than it had formerly been
at Mejorada, where the prior once assured Queen
Mary of Castile 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^ of following the ways of pious times
" before polygamy was made a sin," and praised by
another 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 servants, nor his Jerony-
mite hosts should be led into temptation. His com-
plaint to the superior not sufficiently suppressing the
evil, it was repeated to the visitors when they came
CH. VIII.
1558.
He ia dis-
turbed by
women at
convent
gate.
' M. Bakhuizen van den Brink, Retraite de Charles V., p. 31.
' Fr. Pedro de la Vega, Crtinica de losfraylcs de Sunt Uieronymo, fol.,
Alcalft, 1539 ; black letter, fol. xli.
' Badovaro. See chap. iii. p. 80, note.
* Zeuocaras, Vita Caroli V., p. 268.
28o
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. VIII.
1558.
The
remedy.
Renuncia-
tion of
imperial
crown,
3rd May.
Emperor's
joy at the
intelli-
gence.
and con-
sequent
orders.
their rounds. An order 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 distribution on the spot.
And although it M'as well known that St. Jerome
had sometimes miraculously let loose the lion, which
always figures 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 3rd 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
delight at this intelligence, and sending for his
chaplain, gave orders that his name should hence-
forth be omitted from the mass and other prayers,
and the name of his brother Ferdinand used in its
place. In notifying the fact to his attendants, he
p. de la Vega, Crimea, fol. xli.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
281
said, " The name of Charles is now enough for me,
who henceforward am nothing." ' In his next com-
munication with Valladolid, he instructed Gaztehi
to intimate 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 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 secretrary,"
but " secretary of the council 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 continued to address him
by his ancient style and title of " sacred Csesarean
Catholic Majesty," which indeed it would have been
no less difiicult than absurd to change. Once he
made a practical protest against being any longer
considered as a royal personage. The women of
Quacos having sent him a nosegay of fine pinks, the
offering was conveyed in a basket which the maker
had adorned with an imperial crown of wicker-work
and flowers. This decoration he ordered to be taken
away, before he would receive the pinks.
CH. VIII.
1558.
His dislike
of royal
insignia.
' Bakhuizen van den Brink, La Betraile, p. 43.
CHAPTER IX.
THE INQUISITION, ITS ALLIES AND ITS VICTIMS.
J.W^uT'Hjf iHE year 1558 is memor-
able in the history of
Spain. In that year
was decided the ques-
tion 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 were to come the Thirty Years' Wai", the
English Commonwealth, French revolutions, and
modem republics. The eflfect was visible and pal-
pable, yet transient as the effect produced by the
CH. IX.
1558.
The
Church in
dftngor.
284
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IX.
1558.
Church
abuses and
reform
movement.
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 pen'aded 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, Castile her-
self might go astray into the howling wilderness
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 the
Pyrenees. Nor were reapers, strong, active, and
earnest, wanting to the field. From the beginning
of the sixteenth 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 dis-
solute 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 pre-
ferment upon their bastards ; and even against
Rome itself, where all these iniquities were prac-
tised on an imperial scale, and whence Europe was
irrigated with ecclesiastical pollution. In the reign
of Ferdinand and Isabella, and during the infamous
1
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
28s
papacy of Alexander VI., the disorders of the Fran-
ciscan 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 ob-
servants, were suppressed by law, and actually ex-
pelled from their monasteries. But although this
just and necessary measure was enforced by the
strong hand of Ximcnes, 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 cele-
brates the exodus of the people of God from the
bondage of Egypt.^ Abundant proof of the de-
moralised state of the Spanish clergy, regular and
secular, may be found in those collections of ob-
scene songs and poems, still preserved as curiosities
in libraries, and composed chiefly in the cloister,
in an age when none but churchmen wrote, and
few but churchmen read." Similar evidence, per-
CH. IX.
1558-
' Psalm cxiii. (in our version cxiv.), "/« exilu Israel dc Egypto," &c.
See Eugenio de Uobles, Vida del Cardcnnl D. Fran. Xitnenes de Cisneros,
4to, Toledo, 1604, p. 68 ; and Alvar. Gomez, De rebus gestis a F. Ximenio
Cisnerio, 4to, Conipluti, 1569, fol. 7.
- See the curious essay on this subject, by Don Luis <Ie Usoz y llio,
prefixed to the Cancionero dc obras de hnrlas, 4to, V'uleucio, 1519;
reprinted sm. 8vo, Loudon, 1841.
286
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IX.
1558.
haps 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."^
These evils were so monstrous and so crying,
that those who denounced them enjoyed for awhile
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 beheve that they were shaken in their
faith in the infallible Church. They abhorred the
hireling shepherd, not only because he was hateful in
himself, but also because they loved the true fold, of
which he was the danger and the disgrace. Even
the Inquisition was no enemy to reform, and al-
though its chief business was to keep the Jew and
the Moor under the yoke of enforced Christianity,
it occasionally took cognisance of the grosser cases
of clerical profligacy. Under the rule of Adrian of
Utrecht, afterwards Pope, and of Cardinal Manrique,
the Holy Office issued some decrees against the
' ' ' Clciigo, f rayle, 6 Judio, no lo tengas por amigo." A. de Castro, Los
Piotcstantes Espanoles, p. 39.
f!
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
287
heresy of Luther and against the importation of
heretical books into Spain. But the offenders con-
demned under these laws were few, and principally
foreigners ; and the fires were usually kindled for
victims who were supposed to pray with their faces
turned to the east, to deal in astrology and witch-
craft, to keep the Sabbath, to circumcise their chil-
dren, to hate the Christian sound of bells, or to use
the heathen luxury of the bath.
It was not until near the middle of the century
that the seed cast by the wayside took root in the
stony ground of Castile. 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 infeiTed from the fact that the
first work of the kind, the Castilian New Testa-
ment of Enzinas, printed at Antwerp in 1543, was
dedicated to the Emperor Charles V. In spite,
however, of this judicious choice of a patron, the
poor translator very shortly found himself in prison
at BruxeUes, as a 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 ortho-
doxy, followed in rapid succession. Their circulation
in Spain became so extensive that the Inquisition
OH. IX.
1558.
Heretical
books.
Bibles.
288
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IX. interfered with fresh laws and increased severities.
1558. The stoppage of the regular traffic only stimulated
public curiosity, and the forbidden tracts were
soon smuggled in bales by the muleteers over the
mountains frbm Huguenot Bearne, or run in casks
by English 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 Alcald 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 Seville and Valladolid. No
longer contented with pointing out the weather-
stains and rents in the huge ecclesiastical fabric,
reformers began to pry with inconvenient 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 danger.
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
private 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
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
389
of their own aims and plans, were not supported
by any of those political chances and necessities
which aided the triumph of religious reform in
other lands. The battle was therefore short, the
carnage terrible, and the victoiy 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 trumpet.
The Protestant must confess that the new religion
has never succeeded in eradicating the old, even
amongst the freest and boldest of the Teutonic
people. The Catholic, on the other hand, may fairly
boast, that in the Iberian peninsula the seeds of
reform 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 un-
happy persons who were burned for holding them.
Protestant divines have assumed that these tenets
were Protestant, on account of the savage vengeance
with which they were pursued by the Church. In
one feature these dead and forgotten dogmas have
some interest 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 coiTected, or kept at bay, by civil
punishment. Yet none of the so-called Spanish
VOL. V. T
CH. IX.
JSS8.
Spanish
heretics
not Protes-
tants.
290
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IX. Protestants have enunciated these sentiments so
1558. clearly as the Benedictine Virues in his treatise
against the opinions of Luther and Melancthon.^
Had time been given for the new spirit of inquiry
to shape itself into some definite form, it would
doubtless have greatly modified the character of
Spanish 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
speculation, 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. Fines, confiscation, the dungeon,
the galleys, the rack, and the fire, admonished men
to believe without questioning ; and engendered
the popular feeling that learning was indeed a
dangerous thing, a feeling which early embodied
itself in the form of a proverb, often cast by serene
ignorance in the teeth of the toiling student, " He
is so learned that he runs the risk of turning
Lutheran." ^
It would be curious to investigate the causes to
' Quoted by A. de Castro, Los Protcstantes Espaiioles, p. 62.
^ "Es tan dooto queestdeu peligro deser Lutherano." Cyprian Valera,
Exhortacion prefixed to his Castilian Bible, Amsterdam, 1602 ; and
quoted by A. de Castro, Los Protestantes Espaiioles, p. 84.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
291
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 circumstance of
a people ; and it lies beyond the scope of a bio-
graphical fragment, to analyse the mixed blood of
the Spaniard, the moral atmosphere of his beautiful
land, and the texture of his national history. Sufiice
it, therefore, to notice two points wherein the victo-
rious Church possessed advantages in Spain, which
were wanting to her in the countries where she was
vanquished. The first of these was the existence
of a spiritual police claiming unlimited jurisdiction
over thought, long established, well organised, well
trained, untrammelled by the forms of ordinary
justice, and so habitually merciless, as to have ac-
customed the nation to see blood shed like water
on account of religious error. Before this temble
machinery the recruits of reform, raw, wavering,
doubting, without any clear common principle or
habits of combination, were swept away like the
Indians of Mexico, before the cavalry and culverins
of Cortes. The second advantage of the Spanish
Church was her intimate connection with the
CH. IX.
1558.
Causes of
the repres-
sion of
heresy in
Spain.
292
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IX.
1558.
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 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 Castile 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 conquerors of Granada, when the
crescents were flung down from the red towers of the
mountain palace of the Moors.^ Since that proud
day, the Church, once more militant under Cardinal
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 infidel
was sweet incense to the Lord." In Spain itself
' Pedro de Salazar, Crdiiica de el gran Cardenal D. Pedro Gonzalez de
Mendoza, fol., Toledo, 1625, p. 256.
^ Gonz. Fernandez de Oviedo, Quincuagenns, quoted by Prescott,
Sist. of Ferdinand and Isabella.
EMPEROR CHARLES V. 293
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,
although Christian in name, was well known to be
Moslem in heart and secret practice, and to be
anxiously 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 holy water, and ate the paschal
lamb. Against these domestic dangers the Church
kept watch and ward, doing, with the full approval
of the Christian 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
who sent forth those peaceful crusaders, the white-
robed friars of the Order of Mercy, to redeem the
captives from African bondage. In Spain, there-
fore, 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 cir-
cumstances of the present, and in the prospects of
the future. In northern Europe, the Church had no
martial achievements to boast of, and few oppor-
tunities of appearing in the beneficent character of
a protector or redeemer. She was known merely in
CH. IX.
1558.
294
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IX.
1558.
Measures
of Grand-
Inquisitor
VaJd&.
her spiritual 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 Eome. 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 himself 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 excitement had passed away, a mark
of the torrent remained in the proverbial phrase, in
which the aspect of poverty was described as being
" ugly as the face of a heretic." ^
The Inquisitor-General, Archbishop Valdds, 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 powers. In February he received a brief,
in which were renewed and consolidated all the
1 A. de Castro, Hist, de los Protesiantes Espanoles, pp. 218, 311.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
395
decrees ever issued by Popes or Councils against
heresy — a document in which Paul, unable to resist
the temptation of insulting Philip II., even while he
was treating with him, conferred upon the Inqui-
sition the power of deposing from their dignities
heretics of whatever degree, were they bishops, arch-
bishops, or cardinals, dukes, kings, or emperors.^
The first heretic of note who was arrested at
Valladolid, was Dr. Augustin Cazalla, an eminent
divine who had for ten years attended Charles V. 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 the new opinions,
he was arrested on the 23rd 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 several other noble ladies, were likewise taken
at the same time ; and orders were given to search
for an important member of the paity, Fray Domingo
de Roxas, son of the Marquess of Poza, a Dominican
of high reputation for sanctity.
Notice of these events was immediately sent to
CH. IX.
1558.
Dr. Atigns-
tin Cazalla.
* Llorente, Hist, de la Inquisicion, 8 vols. sm. 8vo, Barcelona, 1835,
iii. 264.
296
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IX.
JSS8.
Letters and
words of
Emperor.
Yuste. The Emperor heard of them with much
emotion — 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 th.e Princess-Kegent, one a private and
tender epistle, the other a public despatch to be laid
before the Council. 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 anything could drag me
from this retreat, it would be to aid in chastising
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
promptitude he desired. But the alguazils of the
Holy Office knew no repose from their labour of
^ Sandoval, ii. 829.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
a97
capturing the culprits. In a few days Fray Domingo
de Roxas was taken, with several other members of
the Roxas family, and several noble ladies of the
family of the Marquess of Alcaniges, 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. The
extravagant alarm of the orthodox party was roused
to fuiy by the extravagant boasts of some of the
arrested preachers. " Let us alone," cried Cazalla,
"but for four months, and we shall equal you in
numbers."^ Rumours were rife of a rising among
the Jews of Murcia, and of a general emigration
of the Moriscos of Aragon towards the fi-ontiers of
France. The Regent and her minister were at their
wits' ends at the dangers which were thus thicken-
ing 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
' A. de Castro, Loa Protestantes EspaAoles, p. 312.
CH. IX.
1558.
Fray
Domingo
de Roxas.
Progress of
the per-
secution.
398
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IX.
1558.
Anxiety
of the
Emperor.
ark of safety — the Church. He therefore took his
measures rather to direct than to lull the storm.
Visiting Salamanca, he made there a large seizure
of Bibles and other heretical books, and convened
a council of doctors, 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 suspected Lutherans, under
pretence of being inquirers or converts, and thus
to make themselves acquainted with their numbers,
principles, hopes, and designs. Lured to destruc-
tion by these wretches, many persons of all ranks
were arrested at Toro and Zamora, Palencia and
Logrono. Seville was the great southern seat of
heresy, and in the neighbouring convent of St.
Isidro del Campo, the Jeronymite friars almost to a
man were tainted with the new opinions. Valla-
dolid, however, was the stronghold of the sect, and
in spite of the odour of sanctity which surrounded
the pious Kegent, the brimstone-savour 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 awhile all other affairs
of state. He urged the Princess to remember that
the welfare of the kingdom and of the Church of
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
999
God was bound up in the suppression of heresy, and
that therefore it demanded greater diligence and zeal
than any temporal 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 1 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 vigour and
severity. And as if the letter, penned by the secre-
tary, were not sufficiently forcible and distinct, he
added this postscript in his own hand : —
" Son ; the black business which has risen here
has shocked me as much as you can think or sup-
pose. You will see what I have written about it to
your sister. 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 rigour and
CH. IX
1558.
Hu letter
to the
Regent.
His letter
to the
King,
and its
autograph
postscript.
300
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IX.
1558.
The King's
memoran-
dum.
Quixada's
interview
with the
Grand-
Inquisitor.
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." ^
At the end of May, Quixada, by the Emperor's
order, 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 everything else, Archbishop Valdds would take
his own way and no other. With his usual plausi-
' "Hijo; este negro negocio que ac^i se ha levantado, me tiene tan
escandalizado cuanto lo podeis pensar y juzgar. Vos verbis lo que escribe
sobre ello .'i vuestra hermana. Es menester que escribais y que lo pro-
cureis cortar [proveais niuy] de raiz y con mucho rigor y recio castigo.
Y porque s6 [que] teneis mas voluntad y asistereis [usar^is] de mas
hervor que yo lo sabria ni podria, decir ni desear no me alargard mas en
esto. De vuestrobuen padre, Carlos." — Emperor to Philip II., 25th May
1558. Gonzalez MS.
' " Besalle las manos per lo que en esto ha mandado y suplicarle lo
lleve adelante, que de ac& se har& lo mismo y avisarle de lo que se ha
hecho hasta agora." [Gachard, Retraite et Mart, tom. i. pp. 302-3. The
bracketted words in these two notes are variations in Gachaid's text.]
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
301
bility he assured the chamberlain that the roots of
the disease could not be laid bare more thoroughly
than by the ordinary operations of inquisitorial sur-
gery. Besides, so many people 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
Tarazona and the Inquisitor of Cuen§a to assist
him in hearing cases, and would use eveiy prudent
method of shortening the proceedings.
A few days later, on the 2nd June, the Arch-
bishop 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, pro-
vinces which had not as yet benefitted 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 habitu-
ally absented themselves from those sacraments. A
third suggestion was, that no schoolmaster should
be allowed to exercise 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 without the author's and printer's
names, and without the permission of the Holy Ofiice,
CH. IX.
•558.
Tho In-
quisitor's
measures
detailed in
letter to
the Em-
peror.
Censure of
booka.
302
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IX.
I5S8.
Catalogue
of pro-
hibited
books.
a permission which was also to be obtained before
any book could be imported into the kingdom.
Foreigners were to be forbidden to sell 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 were to be
rewarded with the third or fourth part of the pro-
perty of such persons as might be convicted through
their means of breaches of any of these laws.
Unwise, unjust, and impracticable as these mea-
sures 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 cata-
logue 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 IV., in which
the Vatican continues to record its protest against
the advancement of knowledge.^ Thus it came to
^ Catluilogus librorum qui prohibentur mandato illustriss. et revercndiss.
D. D. Fernandi de Valdis Hispalen. archiepis. inquisitoris generalis
HispanicB neciion et supremi sanctce ac getieralis inquisitionis senatus.
Hie anno mdlix. editus Pincice, 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 Don Pascual de Gayangos, at Madrid.
There were two earlier Itidices Exp. published iu Spain in 1546 and 1550.
Ticknor, Hist, of Span. Literature, 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1849, vol. i. p. 462.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
333
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 grati-
tude 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.
For a time, at least, the vigilance exercised over
bookshop and library was very strict. At Yuste, Dr.
Matliys 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 Jeronymite friars Avere attacked with the plague
of heresy, and canicd off to the hospitals of the
Inquisition, who could feel certain of escaping the
CH. IX.
iSS8.
Dr. Matbys
burns bU
Bible.
304
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IX.
1558.
Father
Borja's
Pompeya
Leoni.
epidemic, or the cure ? The most Catholic horror of
the new doctrines 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 dis-
tressed by a rumour that a son of Father Borja had
been arrested at Seville. 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 har-
bouring 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
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 rumour, 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
BARTOLOME CARRANZA DE. MIRANDA
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
30s
the fleet in which I myself came hither." The
secretaiy answered that the sculptor was in prison
for maintaining certain Lutheran propositions ; and
that he was sentenced to appear at an auto-de-fe,
and afterwards 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 great one." Like Cazalla, the canon,
after thundering against refoim in the land of
reform, had returned to Spain a reformer. For
awhile his errors had escaped detection, and he was
CII. IX.
'558.
Fray Do-
niinKo ilo
triiznian.
Arrest of
Const.
Ponce de
la Kuonte.
' Sandoval, ii. p. 829.
VOL. V.
' Supra, chap. v. p. 172.
V
3o6
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IX.
1558.
Execution
of Dr.
Cazalla,
nearly being appointed confessor to Philip 11.^ 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 people 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
her court.^ Unhappily for his party and for his own
fair fame, the poor chaplain behaved with a pusil-
lanimity very rare amongst Spaniards when brought
face to face with inevitable death, or amongst men
' Cabrera. See Amelot de la Houssaye, i. p. 284 ; L. de Salazar, Hist,
de la casa de Silva, i. p. 466.
^ " Eelejado," released. Perhaps the word used by the Duke of Alba to
the Countess of Egmont the day before Egmont'a execution, when lie told
her that "her husband should be released." See Motley, vol. ii. p. 173.
3 In the church of Valladolid, in April 1788, Mr. Eden, the British
Minister, saw the lists of persons formerly burnt as heretics by the
Inquisition still hung up. Journal and Correspondence of William, Lord
Auckland, 2 vols. 8vo, London, :86i, vol. ii. p. 16.
EMPEROR CHARLES V.
307
who suffer for conscience' sake. Denying the crime
of "dogmatising," as the Inquisition 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 companions,
amongst whom his brother and sister had also come
calmly to die. At the price of this humiliation he
obtained the grace of being strangled before he was
cast into the flames. A report had spread amongst
the populace that he had declared that, if his peni-
tence and sufferings should obtain him salvation, he
would appear the day after his death riding through
the city on a white horse. The inquisitors, availing
themselves of a rumour 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, although
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 associated
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 II. Fray
Domingo de Guzman suffered at Seville in 1 560, in
CH. IX.
1558.
of Fray
Francisco
de Eioxas,
nnd Fray
Domingo
do Guz-
man.
A. de Castro, Spanish Protestants, p. 98.
3o8
CLOISTER LIFE OF
CH. IX.
1558.
Death of
Const.
Ponce de la
Fuente.
Emperor's
hatred of
heresy.
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
doctrines, but refusing to name his disciples, had
been thrown into a dungeon, dark and noisome as
Jeremiah's pit, far below the level of the Guadal-
quivir, where a dysentery soon delivered him from
chains and the hands of his tormentors. " Yet did
not his body," says a churchman, writing some ages
after, in the true spirit of orthodoxy, and with all
the bitterness of contemporary gall,^ " for this escape
the avenging flames." At this same auto-de-fe of
1560, they burned the exhumed bones of Constan-
tino, together with his 
