History of The Reign of Philip The Second King of Spain History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain Part 75

[941] A poem in _ottava rima_, commemorating Alva's expedition, appeared at Antwerp the year following, from the pen of one Balthazar de Vargas.

It has more value in a historical point of view than in a poetical one.

A single stanza, which the bard devotes to the victualling of the army, will probably satisfy the appet.i.te of the reader:--

"Y por que la Savoya es montanosa, Y an de pa.s.sar por ella las legiones, Seria la pa.s.sada trabajosa Si a la gente falta.s.sen provisiones, El real comissario no reposa. Haze llevar de Italia municiones Tantas que proveyo todo el camino Que jamas falto el pan, y carno, y vino."

[942] Ossorio, Albae Vita, tom. II. p. 237.--Trillo, Rebelion y Guerras de Flandes, (Madrid, 1592,) fol. 17.--Leti, Vita di Filippo II., tom. I.

p. 490.

[943] So say Schiller, (Abfall der Niederlande, s. 363,). Cabrera, (Filipe Segundo, lib. VII. cap. 15,) _et auct. al._ But every schoolboy knows that nothing is more unsettled than the route taken by Hannibal across the Alps. The two oldest authorities, Livy and Polybius, differ on the point, and it has remained a vexed question ever since,--the criticism of later years, indeed, leaning to still another route, that across the Little St. Bernard. The pa.s.sage of Hannibal forms the subject of a curious discussion introduced into Gibbon's journal, when the young historian was in training for the mighty task of riper years. His reluctance, even at the close of his argument, to strike the balance, is singularly characteristic of his sceptical mind.

[944] "A suidar da quel nido di Demoni, le sceleraggini di tanti Appostati." Leti, Vita di Filippo II., tom. I. p. 487.

[945] The Huguenots even went so far as to attempt to engage the reformed in the Low Countries to join them in a.s.saulting the duke in his march through Savoy. Their views were expressed in a work which circulated widely in the provinces, though it failed to rouse the people to throw off the Spanish yoke. Sec Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 194.

[946] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. pp. 350-354.--Ossorio, Albae Vita, tom. II. p. 232 et seq.--Hechos de Sancho Davila, p. 26.--Trillo, Rebelion y Guerras de Flandes, fol. 16, 17.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VII. cap. 15.--Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 52.--Lanario, Guerras de Flandes, fol. 15.--Renom de Francia, Alborotos de Flandes, MS.

Chronological accuracy was a thing altogether beneath the attention of a chronicler of the sixteenth century. In the confusion of dates in regard to Alva's movements, I have been guided as far as possible by his own despatches. See Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom. IV. p. 349 et seq.

[947] Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 354.--Ossorio, Albae Vita, tom. I. p. 241.

[948] Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 52.--Old Brantome warms as he contemplates these Amazons, as beautiful and making as brave a show as princesses! "Plus il y avoit quatre cents courtisanes a cheval, belles et braves comme princesses, et huict cents a pied, bien en point aussi."

uvres, tom. I. p. 62.

[949] "Ninguna Historia nos ensena haya pa.s.sado un Exercito por Pais tan dilatado y marchas tan continuas, sin cometer excesso: La del Duque es la unica que nos la hace ver. Encant a todo el mundo." Rustant, Historia del Duque de Alva, tom. II. p. 124.--So also Herrera, Historia General, tom. I. p. 650.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VII. cap.

15.--Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 354.

[950] "Comme le Duc le vid de long, il dit tout haut; Voicy le grand hereticque, dequoq le Comte s'espouvanta: neantmoins, pource qu'on le pouvoit entendre en deux facons, il l'interpreta de bonne part."

Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, fol. 53.

[951] "Vimos los que alli estabamos que el Duque de Alba uso de grandisimos respetos y buenas crianzas, y que Madama estuvo muy severa y mas que cuando suelen negociar con ella Egmont y estos otros Senores de aca, cosa que fue muy notada de los que lo miraban."

A minute account of this interview, as given in the text, was sent to Philip by Mendivil, an officer of the artillery, and is inserted in the Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom. IV. p. 397 et seq.

[952] This doc.u.ment, dated December 1, 1566, is not to be found in the Archives of Simancas, as we may infer from its having no place in the Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, which contains the succeeding commission. A copy of it is in the Belgian Archives, and has been incorporated in Gachard's Correspondance de Philippe II. (tom. II., Appendix, No. 88.) It is possible that a copy of this commission was sent to Margaret, as it agrees so well with what the king had written to her on the subject.

[953] To this second commission, dated January 31, 1567, was appended a doc.u.ment, signed also by Philip, the purport of which seems to have been to explain more precisely the nature of the powers intrusted to the duke,--which it does in so liberal a fas.h.i.+on, that it may be said to double those powers. Both papers, the originals of which are preserved in Simancas, have been inserted in the Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom. IV. pp.

388-396.

[954] "Par quoy requerrons a ladicte dame d.u.c.h.esse, nostre seur, et commandons a tous nos va.s.saulx et subjectz, de obeyr audict duc d'Alve en ce qu'il leur commandera, et de par nous, come aant telle charge, et comme a nostre propre personne."--This instrument, taken from the Belgian archives, is given entire by Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. II., Appendix, No. 102.

[955] "Despues que los han visto han quedado todos muy lastimados, y a todos cuantos Madama habla les dice que se quierre ir a su casa por los agravios que V. M. le ha hecho." Carta de Mendivil, ap. Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom. IV p. 399.

[956] Ibid., p. 403.

[957] Ibid., p. 400.

[958] "En todo el sermon no trato cuasi de otra cosa sino de que los espanoles eran traidores y ladrones, y forzadores de mugeres, y que totalmente el pais que los sufria era destruido, con tanto escandolo y maldad que merescia ser quemado." Ibid., p. 401.

[959] Yet there was danger in it, if, as Armenteros warned the duke, to leave his house would be at the risk of his life. "Tambien me ha dicho Tomas de Armenteros que diga al Duque de Alba que en ninguna manera como fuera de su casa porque si lo hace sera con notable peligro de la vida."

Ibid., ubi supra.

[960] "Despues de haberse sentado le dijo el contentamiento que tenia de su venida y que ningun otro pudiera venir con quien ella mas se holgara." Ibid., p. 404.

[961] "Que lo que princ.i.p.almente traia era estar aqui con esta gente para que la justicia fuese obedecida y respetada, y los mandamientos de S. E. ejecutadas, y que S. M. a su venida hallase esto en la paz, tranquilidad y sosiego que era razon." Ibid., p. 406.

[962] "Podrase escusar con estos diciendoles que yo soy cabezudo y que he estado muy opinatre en sacar de aqui esta gente, que yo huelgo de que a mi se me eche la culpa y de llevar el odio sobre mi a trueque de que V. E. quede descargada." Ibid., p. 408.

[963] Supplement a Strada, tom. II. p. 524.

[964] "Tenendo per certo che V. M. non vorra desautorizarmi, per autorizare altri, poi che questo non e giusto, ne manco saria servitio suo, se non gran danno et inconveniente per tutti li negotii."

Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 505.

[965] "Il y est si odieux qu'il suffirait a y faire har toute la nation espagnole." Ibid., p. 556.

[966] Ibid., ubi supra.

[967] "Elle est affectee, jusqu'au fond de l'ame, de la conduite du Roi a son egard." Ibid., p. 567.

[968] Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pay-Bas, tom. II. p. 207.

[969] "Seu vera seu ficta, facile Gandavensibus credita, ab iisque in reliquum Belgium c.u.m Albani odio propagata." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 368.

[970] See his remarkable letter to the king, of October 21, 1563: "A los que destos merecen, quitenles las cavecas, hasta poderlo hacer dissimular con ellos." Papiers d'Etat de Granvelle, tom. VII. p. 233.

[971] "Les Espaignols font les plus grandes foulles qu'on ne scauroit escryre; ils confisquent tout, a tort, a droit, disant que touts sont heretiques, qui ont du bien, et ont a perdre."

The indignant writer does not omit to mention the "two thousand"

strumpets who came in the duke's train; "so," he adds, "with what we have already, there will be no lack of this sort of wares in the country." Lettre de Jean de Hornes, Aug. 25, 1567, Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 565.

[972] Clough, Sir Thomas Gresham's agent, who was in the Low Countries at this time, mentions the licence of the Spaniards. It is but just to add, that he says the government took prompt measures to repress it, by ordering some of the princ.i.p.al offenders to the gibbet. Burgon, Life of Gresham, vol. II. pp. 229, 230.

[973] The d.u.c.h.ess, in a letter to Philip, September 8, 1567, says that a hundred thousand people fled the country on the coming of Alva! (Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 357.) If this be thought a round exaggeration, dictated by policy or by fear, still there are positive proofs that the emigration at this period was excessive. Thus, by a return made of the population of London and its suburbs, this very year of 1567, it appears that the number of Flemings was as large as that of all other foreigners put together. See Bulletins de l'Academie Royale de Bruxelles, tom. XIV. p. 127.

[974] Thus Jean de Hornes, Baron de Boxtel, writes to the prince of Orange: "J'ay prins une resolution pour mon faict et est que je fay tout effort de scavoir si l'on poulrast estre seurement en sa maison: si ainsy est, me retireray en une des miennes le plus abstractement que possible sera; sinon, regarderay de chercher quelque residence en desoubs ung aultre Prince." Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Na.s.sau, tom.

III. p. 125.

[975] Gothe, in his n.o.ble tragedy of "Egmont," seems to have borrowed a hint from Shakespeare's "blanket of the dark," to depict the gloom of Brussels,--where he speaks of the heavens as wrapt in a dark pall from the fatal hour when the duke entered the city. Act IV. Scene I.

[976] Vera y Figueroa, Vida de Alva, p. 89.

[977] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 578.

[978] Ibid., p. 563.

[979] "Qu'il lui avait peine infiniment que le Roi n'eut tenu compte de monseigneur et de ses services, comme il le meritait." Ibid., ubi supra.

[980] "Que s'il voyait M. de Hornes, il lui dirait des choses qui le satisferaient, et par lesquelles celui-ci connaitrait qu'il n'avait pas ete oublie de ses amis." Ibid., p. 564.