History of The Reign of Philip The Second King of Spain History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain Part 59

Ford, in his admirable Handbook, which may serve as a manual for the student of Spanish in his closet, quite as well as for the traveller in Spain, has devoted a few columns to a visit which he paid to this sequestered spot, where, as he says, the spirit of the mighty dead seemed to rule again in his last home. A few lines from the pages of the English tourist will bring the scene more vividly before the reader than the colder description in the text. "As the windows were thrown wide open to admit the cool thyme-scented breeze, the eye in the clear evening swept over the boundless valley; and the nightingales sang sweetly, in the neglected orange-garden, to the bright stars reflected like diamonds in the black tank below us. How often had Charles looked out, on a stilly eve, on this selfsame and unchanged scene, where he alone was now wanting!" Handbook of Spain, p. 553.

[288] Carta de Martin de Gaztelu al Secretario Vazquez, 5 de Febrero, 1557, MS.

[289] Their names and vocations are specified in the codicil executed by Charles a few days before his death. See the doc.u.ment entire, ap.

Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 662.

A more satisfactory list has been made out by the indefatigable Gachard from various doc.u.ments which he collected, and which have furnished him with the means of correcting the orthography of Sandoval, miserably deficient in respect to Flemish names. See Retraite et Mort de Charles-Quint, tom. I. p. 1.

[290] "Las vistas de las piecas de su magestad no son muy largas, sino cortas, y las que se veen, o es una montana de piedras grandes, o unos montes de robles no muy altos. Campo llano no le ay, ni como podesse pasear, que sea por un camino estrecho y lleno de piedra. Rio yo no vi ninguno, sino un golpe de agua que baza de la montana: huerta en casa ay una pequena y de pocos naranjos....... El aposento baxo no es nada alegre, sino muy triste, y como es tan baxo, creo sera humido.......

Esto es lo que me parece del aposento y sitio de la casa y grandissima soledad." Carta de Luis Quixada a Juan Vazquez, 30 de Noviembre, 1556, MS.

The major-domo concludes by requesting Vazquez not to show it to his mistress, Joanna, the regent, as he would not be thought to run counter to the wishes of the emperor in anything.

[291] "Plegue a Dios que los pueda sufrir, que no sera poco, segun suelen ser todos muy importunos, y mas los que saben menos." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu, MS.

[292] "Llamando al Emperador _paternidad_, de que luego fue advertido de otro frayle que estava a su lado, y acudio con _magestad_." Ibid.

[293] "Emperador semper augusto de Alemania."

[294] His teeth seem to have been in hardly better condition than his fingers.--"Era amigo de corta.r.s.e el mismo lo que comia, aunque ni tenia buenas ni desembueltas las manos, ni los dientes." Siguenca, Orden de San Geronimo, parte III. p. 192.

[295] De Thou, Hist. Universelle, tom. III. p. 293.

[296] "Quando comia, leya el confesor una leccion de San Augustin." El Perfecto Desengano, MS.

[297] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 15.--Vera y Figueroa, Vida y Hechos de Carlos V., p. 123.--Siguenca, Orden de San Geronimo, parte III. p. 195.

The last writer is minute in his notice of the imperial habits and occupations at Yuste. Siguenca was prior of the Escorial; and in that palace-monastery of the Jeronymites he must have had the means of continually conversing with several of his brethren who had been with Charles in his retirement. His work, which appeared at the beginning of the following century, has become rare,--so rare that M. Gachard was obliged to content himself with a few ma.n.u.script extracts, from the difficulty of procuring the printed original. I was fortunate enough to obtain a copy, and a very fine one, through my booksellers, Messrs.

Rich, Brothers, London,--worthy sons of a sire who for thirty years or more stood preeminent for sagacity and diligence among the collectors of rare and valuable books.

[298] "Mand pregonar en los lugares comarcanos que so pena de cien acotes muger alguna no pa.s.sa.s.se de un humilladero que estasa como dos tiros de ballesta del Monasterio." Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom.

II. p. 612; and Sandoval's _double_, Valparayso, El Perfecto Desengano, MS.

[299] "Si alguno se errava dezia consigo mismo: O _hideputa bermejo_, que aquel erro, otro nombre semejante." Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 613.

I will not offend ears polite by rendering it in English into corresponding Billingsgate. It is but fair to state that the author of the Perfecto Desengano puts no such irreverent expression into Charles's mouth. Both, however, profess to follow the MS. of the Prior Angulo.

[300] "Non aspernatur exercitationes campestres, in quem usum paratam habet tormentariam rhedam, ad essedi speciem, praecellenti arte, et miro studio proximis hisce mensibus a se constructam." Lettres sur la Vie Interieure de l'Empereur Charles-Quint, ecrites par Guillaume van Male, gentilhomme de sa chambre, et publiees, pour la premiere fois, par le Baron de Reiffenberg, (Bruxelles, 1843, 4to,) ep. 8.

[301] "Interdum ligneos pa.s.serculos emisit cubiculo volantes revolantesque." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 15.

[302] Ford, Handbook of Spain, p. 552.

[303] "A nemine, ne a proceribus quidem quac.u.mque ex causa se adiri, aut conveniri, nisi aegre admodum patiebatur." Sepulveda, Opera, tom. II. p.

541.

[304] "Le hizo mas preguntas que se pudieran hazer a la donzella Theodor, de que todo dio buena razon y de lo que vio yoy o en Francia, provisiones de obispados, cargos de Italia, y de la infanteria y caballeria, artilleria, gastadores, armas de mano y de otras cosas."

Carta de Martin de Gaztelu a Juan Vazquez, 18 de Mayo, 1558, MS.

[305] "Retirose tanto de los negocios del Reyno y cosas de govierno, como si jamas uviera tenido parte en ellos." Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 614.--See also Valparayso, (El Perfecto Desengano, MS.,) who uses the same words, probably copying Angulo, unless, indeed, we suppose him to have stolen from Sandoval.

[306] "Ut neque aurum, quod ingenti copia per id tempus Hispana cla.s.sis illi advexit ab India, neque strepitus bellorum, ... quidquam potuerint animum ilium flectere, tot retro annis a.s.suetum armorum sono."--Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 14.

[307] It is singular that Sepulveda, who visited Charles in his retreat, should have been the only historian, as far as I am aware, who recognized the truth of this fact, so perfectly established by the letters from Yuste.--"Summis enim rebus, ut de bello et pace se consuli, deque fratris, liberorum et sororum salute, et statu rerum certiorem fieri non recusabat." Opera, tom. II. p. 541.

[308] "Supplicando con toda humildad e instancia a su Magestad tenga por bien de esforza.r.s.e en esta coyuntura, socorreindome y ayudandome, no solo con su parecer y consejo que es el mayor caudal que puedo tener, pero con la presencia de su persona y autoridad, saliendo del monasterio, a la parte y lugar que mas comodo sea a su salud." Retiro, Estancia, etc., ap. Mignet, Charles-Quint, p. 256, note.

[309] "Siempre, en estas cosas, pregunta si no hay mas." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu a Juan Vazquez, 8 de Noviembre, 1556, MS.

[310] "Pues no se puede hazer otra cosa, y el Rey se ha justificado en tantas maneras c.u.mpliendo con Dios y el mundo, por escusar los danos que dello se seguiran, forzado sera usar del ultimo remedio." Carta del Emperador a Vazquez, 8 de Agosto, 1557, MS.

[311] "Del Papa y de Caraffa se siente aqui que no haya llegado la nueva de que se han muerto." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu a Juan Vazquez, 8 de Noviembre, 1556, MS.

[312] "Sobre que su magestad dizo algunas cosas con mas colera de la que para su salud conviene." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu a Juan Vazquez, 10 de Enero, 1558, MS.

[313] See, in particular, Carta del Emperador a Su Alteza, 4 de Febrero, 1558. MS.

[314] "Su Magestad esta con mucho cuidado por saber que camino ara tomado el Rey despues de acabada aquella empresa." Carta de Luis de Quixada a Juan Vazquez, 27 de Setiembre, 1557, MS.

[315] Brantome, uvres, tom. I. p. 11.

Whether Charles actually made the remark or not, it is clear from a letter in the Gonzalez collection that this was uppermost in his thoughts.--"Su Magestad tenia gran deseo de saber que partido tomaba el rey su hijo despues de la victoria, y que estaba impacientissimo formando cuentas de que ya deberia estar sobre Paris." Carta de Quixada, 10 de Setiembre, 1557, ap. Mignet, Charles-Quint, p. 279.

It is singular that this interesting letter is neither in M. Gachard's collection nor in that made for me from the same sources.

[316] Cartas del Emperador a Juan Vazquez, de Setiembre 27 y Octubre 31, 1557, MS.

[317] The Emperor intimates his wishes in regard to his grandson's succession in a letter addressed, at a later period, to Philip. (Carta del Emperador al Rey, 31 de Marzo, 1558, MS.) But a full account of the Portuguese mission is given by Cienfuegos, Vida de S. Francisco de Borja, (Barcelona, 1754,) p. 269. The person employed by Charles in this delicate business was no other than his friend Francis...o...b..rja, the ex-duke of Gandia, who, like himself, had sought a retreat from the world in the shades of the cloister. The biographers who record the miracles and miraculous virtues of the sainted Jesuit, bestow several chapters on his visits to Yuste. His conversations with the emperor are reported with a minuteness that Boswell might have envied, and which may well provoke our scepticism, unless we suppose them to have been reported by Borja himself. One topic much discussed in them was the merits of the order which the emperor's friend had entered. It had not then risen to that eminence which, under its singular discipline, it subsequently reached; and Charles would fain have persuaded his visitor to abandon it for the Jeronymite society with which he was established.

But Borja seems to have silenced, if not satisfied, his royal master, by arguments which prove that his acute mind already discerned the germ of future greatness in the inst.i.tutions of the new order.--Ibid., pp.

273-279.--Ribadeneira, Vita Francisci Borgiae, (Lat. trans., Antverpiae, 1598,) p. 110 et seq.

[318] Carta del Emperador al Rey, 25 de Mayo, 1558, MS.

On the margin of this letter we find the following memoranda of Philip himself, showing how much importance he attached to his father's interposition in this matter. "Volverselo a suplicar con gran instancia, pues quedamos in tales terminos que, si me ayudan con dinero, los podriamos atraer a lo que conviniesse." "Besalle las manos por lo que en esto ha mandado y suplicalle lo lleve adelante y que de aca se hara lo mismo, y avisarle de lo que se han hecho hasta agora."

[319] Carta del Emperador a Juan Vazquez, 31 de Marzo, 1557, MS.

[320] Carta del Emperador a la Princesa, 31 de Marzo, 1557, MS.--The whole letter is singularly characteristic of Charles. Its authoritative tone shows that, though he had parted with the crown, he had not parted with the temper of a sovereign, and of an absolute sovereign too.

[321] "Es tal su indignacion y tan sangrientas las palabras y vehemencia con que manda escribir a v.m. que me disculpara sino lo hago con mas templanca y modo." Carta de Martin de Gaztelu a Juan Vazquez, 12 de Mayo, 1557, MS.

[322] "His majesty was so well," writes Gaztelu, early in the summer of 1557, "that he could rise from his seat, and support his arquebuse, without aid." He could even do some mischief with his fowling-piece to the wood-pigeons. Carta de Gaztelu, a Vazquez, 5 de Junio, 1557, MS.

[323] "Porque desde tantos de noviembre hasta pocos dias hame ha dado [la gota] tres vezes y muy rezio, y me ha tenido muchos dias en la cama, y hestado hasta de poco aca tan trabajado y flaco que en toda esta quaresma no he podido oyr un sermon, y esto es la causa porque no os escribo esta de mi mano." Carta del Emperador al Rey, 7 de Abril, 1558, MS.

[324] "Sintiolo cierto mucho, y se le arrasaron los ojos, y me dijo lo mucho que el y la de Francia se habian siempre querido, y por cuan buena cristiana la tenia, y que le llevaba quince meses de tiempo, y que, segun el se iba sintiendo, de poco aca podria ser que dentro de ellos le hiciese compania." Carta de Gaztelu a Vazquez, 21 de Febrero, 1558, ap.

Gachard, Retraite et Mort, tom. I, p. 270.--See also Mignet, Charles-Quint, p. 339.