History of The Reign of Philip The Second King of Spain History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain Part 60

[325] "Y que para ello les deis y mandeis dar todo el favor y calor que fuere necenario y para que los que fueren culpados sean punidos y castigados con la demostracion y rigor que la cualidad de sus culpas mereceran y esto sin exception de persona alguna." Carta del Emperador a la Princesa, 3 de Mayo, 1558, MS.

[326] "No se si toviera sufrimiento para no salir de aqui arremediallo."

Carta del Emperador a la Princesa, 25 de Mayo, 1568, MS.

[327] The history of this affair furnishes a good example of the _crescit eundo_. The author of the MS. discovered by M. Bakhuizen, noticed more fully in the next note, though present at the ceremony, contents himself with a general outline of it. Siguenca, who follows next in time and in authority, tells us of the lighted candle which Charles delivered to the priest. Strada, who wrote a generation later, concludes the scene by leaving the emperor in a swoon upon the floor.

Lastly, Robertson, after making the emperor perform in his shroud, lays him in his coffin, where, after joining in the prayers for the rest of his own soul, not yet departed, he is left by the monks to his meditations!--Where Robertson got all these particulars it would not be easy to tell; certainly not from the authorities cited at the bottom of his page.

[328] "Et j'a.s.sure que le cur nous fendait de voir qu'un homme voulut en quelque sorte s'enterrer vivant, et faire ses obseques avant de mourir." Gachard, Retraite et Mort, tom. I. p lvi.

M. Gachard has given a translation of the chapter relating to the funeral, from a curious MS. account of Charles's convent life, discovered by M. Bakhuizen in the archives at Brussels. As the author was one of the brotherhood who occupied the convent at the time of the emperor's residence there, the MS. is stamped with the highest authority; and M. Gachard will doubtless do a good service to letters by incorporating it in the second volume of his "Retraite et Mort."

[329] Siguenca, Hist. de la Orden de San Geronimo, parte III. pp. 200, 201.

Siguenca's work, which combines much curious learning with a simple elegance of style, was the fruit of many years of labor. The third volume, containing the part relating to the emperor, appeared in 1605, the year before the death of its author, who, as already noticed, must have had daily communication with several of the monks, when, after Charles's death, they had been transferred from Yuste to the gloomy shades of the Escorial.

[330] Such, for example, were Vera y Figueroa, Conde de la Roca, whose little volume appeared in 1613; Strada, who wrote some twenty years later; and the marquis of Valparayso, whose MS. is dated 1638. I say nothing of Sandoval, often quoted as authority for the funeral, for, as he tells us that the money which the emperor proposed to devote to a mock funeral was after all appropriated to his real one, it would seem to imply that the former never took place.

It were greatly to be wished that the MS. of Fray Martin de Angulo could be detected and brought to light. As prior of Yuste while Charles was there, his testimony would be invaluable. Both Sandoval and the marquis of Valparayso profess to have relied mainly on Angulo's authority. Yet in this very affair of the funeral they disagree.

[331] Siguenca's composition may be characterized as _simplex munditiis_. The MS. of the monk of Yuste, found in Brussels, is stamped, says M. Gachard, with the character of simplicity and truth. Retraite et Mort, tom. I. p. xx.

[332] Mignet, Charles-Quint, p. 1.

[333] "Estuvo un poco contemplandole, devia de pedirle, que le previniesse lugar en el Alcazar glorioso que habitava." Vera y Figueroa, Carlos Quinto, p. 127.

[334] This famous picture, painted in the artist's best style, forms now one of the n.o.blest ornaments of the Museo of Madrid. See Ford, Handbook of Spain, p. 758.

[335] For the above account of the beginning of Charles's illness, see Siguenca, Orden de San Geronimo, parte III. p. 201; Vera y Figueroa, Carlos Quinto, p. 127; Valparayso, el Perfecto Desengano, MS.

[336] Vera y Figueroa, Carlos Quinto, p. 127.--Siguenca, Orden de San Geronimo, parte III. p. 201.--Carta de Luis Quixada al Rey, 17 de Setiembre, 1558, MS.

[337] The Regent Joanna, it seems, suspected, for some reason or other, that the boy in Quixada's care was in fact the emperor's son. A few weeks after her father's death she caused a letter to be addressed to the major-domo, asking him directly if this were the case, and intimating a desire to make a suitable provision for the youth. The wary functionary, who tells this in his private correspondence with Philip, endeavored to put the regent off the scent by stating that the lad was the son of a friend, and that, as no allusion had been made to him in the emperor's will, there could be no foundation for the rumor. "Ser ansy que yo tenya un muchacho de hun caballero amygo myo que me abia encomendado anos a, y que pues S. M. en su testamento ni codecilyo, no azia memorya del, que hera razon tenello por burla." Carta de Luis Quixada al Rey, 28 de Noviembre, 1558, MS.

[338] Codicilo del Emperador, ap. Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II.

p. 657.

[339] "Si bien no sea necessario no os parece, que es buena compania para jornada tan larga." Ibid., p. 617.

[340] Carta sobre los ultimos momentos del Emperador Carlos V., escrita en Yuste, el 27 de Setiembre, 1558, ap. Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom. VI. p.

668.

[341] Carta de Luis Quixada a Juan Vazquez, 25 de Setiembre, 1558, MS.--Carta del mismo al Rey, 30 de Setiembre, 1558, MS.--Carta del Arzobispo de Toledo a la Princesa, 21 de Setiembre, 1558, MS.

[342] "Tomo la candela en la mano derecha la qual yo tenya y con la yzquyerda tomo el crucifixo deziendo, ya es tiempo, y con dezir Jesus acabo." Carta de Luis Quixada a Juan Vazquez, 25 de Setiembre, 1558, MS.

For the accounts of this death-bed scene, see Carta del mismo al mismo, 21 de Setiembre, MS.--Carta del mismo al Rey, 21 de Setiembre, MS.--Carta del mismo al mismo, 30 de Setiembre, MS.--Carta del Arzobispo de Toledo a la Princesa, 21 de Setiembre, MS.--Carta del Medico del Emperador (Henrico Matisio) a Juan Vazquez, 21 de Setiembre, MS.--Carta sobre los ultimos momentos del Emperador, 27 de Setiembre, ap.

Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, vol. VI. p. 667.--Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 618.

The MSS. referred to may now be all found in the printed collection of Gachard.

[343] "Temiendo siempre no lo poder tener en aquel tiempo." Carta de Luis Quixada al Rey, 30 de Setiembre, MS.

[344] Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom. VI. p. 669.

[345] Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. p. 620.

[346] At least, such were the images suggested to my mind, as I wandered through the aisles of this fine old cathedral, on a visit which I made to Brussels a few years since,--in the summer of 1850. Perhaps the reader will excuse, as germaine to this matter, a short sketch relating to it, from one of my letters written on the spot to a distant friend:--

"Then the n.o.ble cathedral of Brussels, dedicated to one Saint Gudule,--the superb organ filling its long aisles with the most heart-thrilling tones, as the voices of the priests, dressed in their rich robes of purple and gold, rose in a chant that died away in the immense vaulted distance of the cathedral. It was the service of the dead, and the coffin of some wealthy burgher probably, to judge from its decorations, was in the choir. A number of persons were kneeling and saying their prayers in rapt attention, little heeding the Protestant strangers who were curiously gazing at the pictures and statues with which the edifice was filled. I was most struck with one poor woman, who was kneeling before the shrine of the saint, whose marble corpse, covered by a decent white gauze veil, lay just before her, separated only by a light railing. The setting sun was streaming in through the rich colored panes of the magnificent windows, that rose from the floor to the ceiling of the cathedral, some hundred feet in height. The gla.s.s was of the time of Charles the Fifth, and I soon recognized his familiar face,--the protruding jaw of the Austrian line. As I heard the glorious anthem rise up to heaven in this time-honored cathedral, which had witnessed generation after generation melt away, and which now displayed, in undying colors, the effigies of those who had once wors.h.i.+pped within its walls, I was swept back to a distant period, and felt I was a contemporary of the grand old times when Charles the Fifth held the chapters of the Golden Fleece in this very building."

[347] "De Rege vero Caesare ajunt, qui ab eo veniunt, barbatum jam esse."

Petri Martyris Opus Epistolarum, (Amstelodami, 1670, fol.,) ep. 734.

[348] In this outline of the character of Charles the Fifth, I have not hesitated to avail myself of the masterly touches which Ranke has given to the portrait of this monarch, in the introduction to that portion of his great work on the nations of Southern Europe which he has devoted to Spain.

[349] "Qualche fiate io son fermo in le cattive." Contarini, cited by Ranke, Ottoman and Spanish Empires, p. 29.

[350] See Bradford, Correspondence of the Emperor Charles the Fifth and his Amba.s.sadors at the Courts of England and France, with a connecting Narrative and Biographical Notices of the Emperor, (London, 1850,) p.

367,--a work which contains some interesting particulars, little known, respecting Charles the Fifth.

[351] "Nel mangiare ha S. Maesta sempre eccesso...... La mattina svegliata ella pigliava una scodella di pesto cappone con latte, zucchero et spezierie, popoi il quale tornava a riposare. A mezzo giorno desinava molte varieta di vivande, et poco da poi vespro merendava, et all'hora di notte se n'andava alla cena mangiando cose tutte da generare humori grossi et viscosi." Badovaro, Notizie delli Stati et Corti di Carlo Quinto Imperatore et del Re Cattolico, MS.

[352] "Disse una volta al Maggior-domo Monfalconetto con sdegno, ch'aveva corrotto il giudicio a dare ordine a'cuochi, perche tutti i cibi erano insipidi, dal quale le fu risposto: Non so come dovere trovare pin modi da compiacere alla maesta V. se io non fo prova di farle una nuova vivanda di pottaggio di rogoli, il che la mosse a quel maggiore et piu lungo riso che sia mai stato veduto in lei." Ibid.

[353] Briefe an Kaiser Karl V., geschrieben von seinem Beichtvater, (Berlin, 1848,) p. 159 et al.

These letters of Charles's confessor, which afford some curious particulars for the ill.u.s.tration of the early period of his history, are preserved in the archives of Simancas. The edition above referred to contains the original Castilian, accompanied by a German translation.

[354] "Si hallais," said the royal author with a degree of humility rarely found in brethren of the craft, "que alguna vanidad secreta puede mover la pluma (que siempre es prodigioso Panegerista en causa propria), la arrojare de la mano al punto, para dar al viento lo que es del viento." Cienfuegos, Vida de Borja, p. 269.

[355] "Factus est anagnostes insatiabilis, audit legentem me singulis noctibus facta cnula sua, mox librum repeti jubet, si forte ipsum torquet insomnia." Lettres sur la Vie Interieure de Charles-Quint, ecrites par G. Van Male, ep. 7.

[356] "Scripsi ... liberalissimas ejus occupationes in navigatione fluminis Rheni, dum ocii occasione invitatus, scriberet in navi peregrinationes et expeditiones quas ab anno XV. in praesentem usque diem, suscep.i.s.set." Ibid., ep. 5.

[357] "Statui novum quoddam scribendi temperatum effingere, mixtum ex Livio, Caesare, Suetonio, et Tacito." Ibid.

[358] At the emperor's death, these Memoirs were in possession of Van Male, who afterwards used to complain, with tears in his eyes, that Quixada had taken them away from him. But he remembered enough of their contents, he said, to make out another life of his master, which he intended to do. (Papiers d'Etat de Granvelle, tom. VI. p. 29.) Philip, thinking that Van Male might have carried his intention into execution, ordered Granvelle to hunt among his papers, after the poor gentleman's death, and if he found any such MS. to send it to him, that he might throw it into the fire! (Ibid., p. 273.) Philip, in his tenderness for his father's memory, may have thought that no man could be a hero to his own valet-de-chambre. On searching, however, no memoirs were found.

[359] "Bono jure, ait, fructus ille ad Gulielmum redeat, ut qui plurimum in opere illo sudarit." Ibid., ep. 6.

[360] "Ne in proemio quidem pa.s.sus est ullam solertiae suae laudem adscribi." Ibid.

Van Male's Latin correspondence, from which this amusing incident is taken, was first published by the Baron Reiffenberg for the society of _Bibliophiles Belgiques_, at Brussels, in 1843. It contains some interesting notices of Charles the Fifth's personal habits during the five years preceding his abdication. Van Male accompanied his master into his retirement; and his name appears in the codicil, among those of the household who received pensions from the emperor. This doubtless stood him in more stead than his majesty's translation, which, although it pa.s.sed through several editions in the course of the century, probably put little money into the pocket of the chamberlain, who died in less than two years after his master.

A limited edition only of Van Male's correspondence was printed, for the benefit of the members of the a.s.sociation. For the copy used by me, I am indebted to Mr. Van de Weyer, the accomplished Belgian minister at the English court, whose love of letters is shown not more by the library he has formed--one of the n.o.blest private collections in Europe--than by the liberality with which he accords the use of it to the student.

[361] Paulo Giovio got so little in return for his honeyed words, that his eyes were opened to a new trait in the character of Charles, whom he afterwards stigmatized as parsimonious. See Sepulveda, De Rebus Gestis Caroli V., lib. x.x.x. p. 534.

[362] "Haud mihi gratum est legere vel audire quae de me scribuntur; legent alii c.u.m ipse a vita discessero; tu siquid ex me scire cupis, percunctare, nec enim respondere gravabor." Ibid., p. 533.