History of The Reign of Philip The Second King of Spain History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain Part 86

[1393] It was common for the Maltese cities, after the Spanish and Italian fas.h.i.+on, to have characteristic epithets attached to their names. La Valette gave the new capital the t.i.tle of "_Umillima_,"--"most humble,"--intimating that humility was a virtue of highest price with the fraternity of St. John. See Boisgelin, Ancient and Modern Malta, vol. I. p. 29.

[1394] "Plus de huit mille ouvriers y furent employes; et afin d'avancer plus ais.e.m.e.nt les travaux, le Pape Pie V. commanda qu'on y travaillat sans discontinuer, meme les jours de Fetes." Helyot, Hist. des Ordres Religieux.

[1395] The style of the architecture of the new capital seems to have been, to some extent, formed on that of Rhodes, though, according to Lord Carlisle, of a more ornate and luxuriant character than its model.

"I traced much of the military architecture of Rhodes, which, grave and severe there, has here both swelled into great amplitude and blossomed into copious efflorescence; it is much the same relation as Henry VII.'s Chapel bears to a bit of Durham Cathedral." Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters, p. 200.

The account of Malta is not the least attractive portion of this charming work, to which Felton's notes have given additional value.

[1396] Vertot, Knights of Malta, vol. III. p. 42.

[1397] Ibid., pp. 42-48.--Boisgelin, Ancient and Modern Malta, vol. I.

pp. 127-142.

[1398] An interesting description of this cathedral, well styled the Westminster Abbey of Malta, may be found in Bigelow's Travels in Sicily and Malta (p. 190),--a work full of instruction, in which the writer, allowing himself a wider range than that of the fas.h.i.+onable tourist, takes a comprehensive survey of the resources of the countries he has visited, while he criticizes their present condition by an enlightened comparison with the past.

[1399] "Lorsqu'on commence l'Evangile, le Grand-Maitre la prend des mains du Page et la tient tonte droite pendant le tems de l'Evangile.

C'est la seule occasion ou l'on tient l'epee nue a l'Eglise." Helyot, Hist. des Ordres Religieux, tom. III. p. 93.

[1400] Boisgelin, Ancient and Modern Malta, vol. I. p. 35.

The good knight dwells with complacency on the particulars of a ceremony in which he had often borne a part himself. It recalled to his mind the glorious days of an order, which he fondly hoped might one day be restored to its primitive l.u.s.tre.

[1401] Alfieri, Schiller, and, in our day, Lord John Russell, have, each according to his own conceptions, exhibited the poetic aspect of the story to the eyes of their countrymen. The Castilian dramatist, Montalvan, in his "Principe Don Carlos," written before the middle of the seventeenth century, shows more deference to historic accuracy, as well as to the reputation of Isabella, by not mixing her up in any way with the fortunes of the prince of Asturias.

[1402] This correspondence is printed in a curious volume, of the greatest rarity, ent.i.tled, Elogios de Don Honorato Juan, (Valencia, 1659,) p. 60 et seq.

[1403] "Egli in collera reiter con maraviglia et riso di S. M. et de'circ.u.mstanti, che mai egli non saria fuggito." Relatione di Badoaro, MS.

[1404] "Reprehendio al Principe su nieto su poca mesura i mucha desenboltura con que vivia i trataba con su tia, i encomendla su correcion, diziendo era en lo [~q] mas podia obligar a todos." Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. II. cap. 11.

[1405] "Ne attende ad altro che a leggirli gli officii di M. Tullio per acquetare quei troppo ardenti desiderii." Relatione di Badoaro, MS.

[1406] "En lo del estudio esta poco aprovechado, porque lo haze de mala gana y ausy mesmo los otros exercicios de jugar y esgremyr, que para todo es menester premya." Carta de Garcia de Toledo al Emperador, 27 de Agosto, 1557, MS.

[1407] "Hasta agora no se que los medicos ayan tratado de dar ninguna cosa al principe para la colera, ny yo lo consintiera hazer, sin dar primero quenta dello a vuestra magestad." Ibid.

[1408] "Deseo mucho que V. M. fuese servido que el principe diese una buelta por alla para velle por que entendidos los impedimentos que en su edad tiene manda.s.se V. M. lo que fuera de la horden con que yo le sirvo se deba mudar." Del mismo al mismo, 13 de Abril, 1558, MS.

[1409] So cruel, according to the court gossip picked up by Badoaro, that, when hares and other game were brought to him, he would occasionally amuse himself by roasting them alive!---"Dimostra havere un animo fiero, et tra gli effetti che si raccontana uno e, che alle volte, che dalla caccia gli viene portato o lepre o simile animale, si diletta di vedirli arrostire vivi." Relatione de Badoaro, MS.

[1410] "Da segno di dovere essere superbissimo, perche non poteva sofferire di stare lungamente ne innanzi al padre ne avo con la berretta in mano, et chiama il padre fratello, et l'avo padre." Ibid.

[1411] "Dice a tutti i propositi tante cose argute che 'l suo ministro ne raccolse un libretto." Ibid.

Another contemporary also notices the precocious talents of the boy, as shown in his smart sayings.--"Dexo de contar las gracias que tiene en dichos maravillosos que andan por boca de todos desparzidos, dexo de contar lo que haze para provar lo que dize." Cordero, Promptuario de Medallas, ap. Castro, Historia de los Protestantes Espanoles, p. 328.

[1412] "Le pauvre prince est si bas et extenue, il va d'heure a heure tant affoiblissant, que les plus sages de ceste court en ont bien pet.i.te esperance." L'Eveque de Limoges au Roi, 1^er Mars, 1559, ap.

Negociations relatives an Regne de Francois II., p. 291.

[1413] "Delante de la Princesa venia don Carlos a su juramento con mal calor de quartanaria en un cavallo blanco con rico guarnimiento i gualdrapa de oro i plata bordado sobre tela de oro parda, como el vestido galan con muchos botones de perlas i diamantes." Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. V. cap. 7.

[1414] Ibid., ubi supra.

[1415] Strada, in a parallel which he has drawn of the royal youths, gives the palm to Don John of Austria. His portrait of Carlos is as little flattering in regard to his person as to his character.--"Carolus, praeter colorem et capillum, ceterum corpore mendosus; quippe humero clatior, et tibia altera longior erat; nee minus dehonestamentum ab indole feroci et contumaci." De Bello Belgico, tom.

I. p. 609.

[1416] "Este dia despues de haber comido queriendo Su Alteza bajar por una escalera escura y de ruines pasos echo el pie derecho en vacio, y dio una vuelta sobre todo el cuerpo, y asi cayo de cuatro o cinco escalones. Dio con la cabeza un gran golpe en una puerta cerrada, y quedo la cabeza abajo y los pies arriba." Relacion de la enfermedad del Principe por el Doctor Olivares, Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom. XV. p. 554.

[1417] According to Guibert, the French amba.s.sador, Carlos was engaged in a love adventure when he met with his fall,--having descended this dark stairway in search of the young daughter of the porter of the garden. See Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 119.

[1418] Ferreras, Hist. de l'Espagne, tom. IX. p. 429.

[1419] Dr. Olivares bears emphatic testimony to this virtue, little to have been expected in his patient.--"Lo que a su salud c.u.mplia hizo de la misma suerte, siendo tan obediente a los remedios que a todos espantaba que por fuertes y recios que fuesen nunca los reuso, antes todo el tiempo que estuvo en su acuerdo el mismo los pedia, lo cual fue grande ayuda para la salud que Dios le dio." Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom.

XV. p. 571.

[1420] Another rival appeared, to contest the credit of the cure with the bones of Fray Diego. This was Our Lady of Atocha, the patroness of Madrid, whose image, held in the greatest veneration by Philip the Second, was brought to the chamber of Carlos, soon after the skeleton of the holy friar. As it was after the patient had decidedly begun to mend, there seems to be the less reason for the chroniclers of Our Lady of Atocha maintaining, as they st.u.r.dily do, her share in the cure. (Perada, La Madona de Madrid, (Valladolid, 1604,) p. 151.) The veneration for the patroness of Madrid has continued to the present day. A late journal of that capital states that the queen, accompanied by her august consort and the princess of Asturias, went, on the twenty-fourth of March, 1854, in solemn procession to the church, to decorate the image with the collar of the Golden Fleece.

[1421] "Con todo eso tomando propriamente el nombre de milagro, a mi juicio no lo fue, porque el Principe se curo con los remedios naturales y ordinarios, con los cuales se suelen curar otros de la misma enfermedad estando tanto y mas peligrosos." Doc.u.mentos Ineditos, tom.

XV. p. 570.

[1422] Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 132.

[1423] "Il aymoit fort a ribler le pave, et faire a coups d'espee, fust de jour, fust de nuit, car il avoit avec luy dix ou douze enfans d'honneur des plus grandes maisons d'Espagne.... Quand il alloit par les rues quelque belle dame, et fust elle des plus grandes du pays, il la prenoit et la baisoit par force devant tout le monde; il l'appelloit putain, baga.s.se, chienne, et force autres injures leur disoit-il."

Brantome, uvres, tom. I. p. 323.

[1424] "Dio un bofeton a Don Pedro Manuel, i guisadas i picadas en menudas piecas hizo comer las votas al menestral." Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VII. cap. 22.

De Foix, a French architect employed on the Escorial at this time, informed the historian De Thou of the prince's habit of wearing extremely large leggings, or boots, for the purpose mentioned in the text. "Nam et scloppetulos binos summa arte fabricatos caligis, quae amplissimae de more gentis in usu sunt, eum gestare solitum resciverat."

(Historiae sui Temporis, lib. XLI.) I cite the original Latin, as the word _caligae_ has been wrongly rendered by the French translator into _culottes_.

[1425] Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VII. cap. 22.

[1426] "Curilla vos os atreveis a mi, no dexando venir a servirme Cisneros? por vida de mi padre que os tengo de matar" Ibid., ubi supra.

[1427] "Il qual Niccolo lo fece subito et co'parole di Complimento rende gratie a sua Altezza, offerendoli sempre tutto quel che per lui si poteva." Lettera di n.o.bili, Ambasciatore del Granduca di Toscagna al Re Philippo, 24 di Luglio, 1567, MS.

[1428] "Ci si messe di mezzo Ruigomes et molti altri ne si e mai possuto quietar'fin tanto che Niccolo no'li ha prestato sessantamila scudi co'sua polizza senza altro a.s.segniamento." Ibid.

[1429] "Mostra di esser molto religioso solicitando come fa le prediche et divini officii, anzi in questo si pu dir che eccede l'honesto, et suol dire, Chi debbe far Elemosine, se non la danno i Prencipi?"

Relatione di Tiepolo, MS.

[1430] "e splendetissimo in tutte le cose et ma.s.sime nel beneficiar chi lo serve. Il che fa cos largamente che necessita ad amarlo anco i servitori del Padre." Ibid.

[1431] "e curioso nel intendere i negozii del stato, ne i quali s'intrometterebbe volontieri, et procura di saper quello che tratta il Padre, et che egli asconde gli fa grande offesa." Ibid.

Granvelle, in one of his letters, notices with approbation this trait in the character of Carlos. "Many are pleased with the prince, others not.

I think him modest, and inclined to employ himself, which, for the heir of such large dominions, is in the highest degree necessary." Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 128.

[1432] "Mi mayor amigo que tengo en esta vida, que hare lo que vos me pidieredes." Elogios de Honorato Juan, p. 66.