History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain Part 89 (1/2)

[1515] Letter of Antonio Perez to the counsellor Du Vair, ap. Rauner, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 153.

[1516] ”Mais afin de sauver l'honneur du sang royal, l'arret fut execute en secret et on lui fit avaler un bouillon empoisone, dont il mourut quelques heures apres, au commencement de sa vingt-troisieme annee.” De Thou, Histoire Universelle, tom. V. p. 436.

[1517] ”Mas es peligroso manejar vidrios, i dar ocasion da tragedias famosas, acaecimientos notables, violentas muertes por los secretos executores Reales no sabidas, i por inesperadas terribles, i por la estraneza i rigor de justicia, despues de largas advertencias a los que no cuidando dellas incurrieron en crimen de lesa Magestad.” Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VII. cap. 22.

The admirable obscurity of the pa.s.sage, in which the historian has perfectly succeeded in mystifying his critics, has naturally led them to suppose that more was meant by him than meets the eye.

[1518] ”Ex morbo ob alimenta partim obstinate recusata, partira intemperanter adgesta, nimiamque nivium refrigerationem, super animi aigritudinem (_si mod vis abfuit_), in Divi Jacobi pervigilio extinctus est.” Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 378.

[1519] Apologie, ap. Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, tom. V. par. i. p. 389.

[1520] ”Parquoy le roi conclud sur ses raisons que le meilleur estoit de le faire mourir; dont un matin on le trouva en prison estouffe d'un linge.” Brantome, uvres, tom. I. p. 320.

A taste for jesting on this subject seems to have been still in fas.h.i.+on at the French court as late as Louis the Fourteenth's time. At least, we find that monarch telling some one that ”he had sent Bussy Rabutin to the Bastile for his own benefit, as Philip the Second said when he ordered his son to be strangled.” Lettres de Madame de Sevigne, (Paris, 1822.) tom. VIII. p. 368.

[1521] A French contemporary chronicler dismisses his account of the death of Carlos with the remark, that, of all the pa.s.sages in the history of this reign, the fate of the young prince is the one involved in the most impenetrable mystery. Matthieu, Breve Compendio de la Vida Privada de Felipe Segundo, (Span, trans.,) MS.

[1522] The Abbe San Real finds himself unable to decide whether Carlos took poison, or, like Seneca, had his veins opened in a warm bath, or, finally, whether he was strangled with a silk cord by four slaves sent by his father to do the deed, in Oriental fas.h.i.+on. (Verdadera Historia de la Vida y Muerte del Principe Don. Carlos, Span, trans., MS.) The doubts of San Real are echoed with formal solemnity by Leti, Vita di Flippo II., tom. I. p. 559.

[1523] Von Raumer, who has given an a.n.a.lysis of this letter of Antonio Perez, treats it lightly, as coming from ”a double-dealing, bitter enemy of Philip,” whose word on such a subject was of little value. (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. I. p. 155.) It was certainly a singular proof of confidence in one who was so habitually close in his concerns as the prince of Eboli, that he should have made such a communication to Perez. Yet it must be admitted that the narrative derives some confirmation from the fact, that the preceding portions of the letter containing it, in which the writer describes the arrest of Carlos, conform with the authentic account of that event as given in the text.

It is worthy of notice, that both De Thou and Llorente concur with Perez in alleging poison as the cause of the prince's death. Though even here there is an important discrepancy; Perez a.s.serting it was a slow poison, taking four months to work its effect, while the other authorities say that its operation was immediate. Their general agreement, moreover, in regard to the employment of poison, is of the less weight, as such an agency would be the one naturally surmised under circ.u.mstances where it would be desirable to leave no trace of violence on the body of the victim.

[1524] If we may take Brantome's word, there was some ground for such apprehension at all times. ”En fin il estoit un terrible masle; et s'il eust vescu, a.s.surez-vous qu'il s'en fust faict aeroire, et qu'il eust mis le pere en curatelle.” uvres, tom. I. p. 323.

[1525] ”Li piu favoriti del Re erono odiati da lui a morte, et adesso tanto piu, et quando questo venisse a regnare si teneriano rovinati loro.” Lettera del Nunzio, Febraio 14, 1568, MS.

[1526] Ante. p. 177.

It is in this view that Dr. Salazar de Mendoza does not shrink from a.s.serting, that, if Philip did make a sacrifice of his son, it rivalled in sublimity that of Isaac by Abraham, and even that of Jesus Christ by the Almighty! ”Han dicho de el lo que del Padre Eterno, que no perdono a su propio Hijo. Lo que del Patriarca Abraham en el sacrificio de Isaac su unigenito. A todo caso humano excede la gloria que de esto le resulta, y no hay con quien comparalla.” (Dignidades de Castilla y Leon, p. 417.) He closes this rare piece of courtly blasphemy by a.s.suring us that in point of fact Carlos died a natural death. The doctor wrote in the early part of Philip the Third's reign, when the manner of the prince's death was delicate ground for the historian.

[1527] Philip the Second is not the only Spanish monarch who has been charged with the murder of his son. Leovogild, a Visigothic king of the sixth century, having taken prisoner his rebel son, threw him into a dungeon, where he was secretly put to death. The king was an Arian, while the young prince was a Catholic, and might have saved his life if he had been content to abjure his religion. By the Church of Rome, therefore, he was regarded as a martyr; and it is a curious circ.u.mstance that it was Philip the Second who procured the canonization of the slaughtered Hermenegild from Pope Sixtus the Fifth.

For the story, taken from that voluminous compilation of Florez, ”_La Espana Sagrada_,” I am indebted to Milman's History of Latin Christianity (London, 1854, vol. I. p. 446), one of the remarkable works of the present age, in which the author reviews, with curious erudition, and in a profoundly philosophical spirit, the various changes that have taken place in the Roman hierarchy: and while he fully exposes the manifold errors and corruptions of the system, he shows throughout that enlightened charity which is the most precious of Christian graces, as unhappily it is the rarest.

[1528] Lettera di n.o.bili, Luglio 30, 1568, MS.

[1529] I have before me another will made by Don Carlos in 1564, in Alcala de Henares, the original of which is still extant in the Archives of Simancas. In one item of this doc.u.ment, he bequeathes five thousand ducats to Don Martin de Cordova, for his gallant defence of Mazarquivir.

[1530] Lettera del Nunzio, Luglio 28, 1568, MS.--Quintana, Historia de Madrid, fol. 369.

[1531] ”Partieron con el cuerpo, aviendo el Rey con la entereza de animo que mantuvo sienpre, conpuesto desde una ventana las diferencias de los Consejos disposiendo la precedencia, cesando a.s.si la competencia.”

Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VIII. cap. 5.

[1532] The particulars of the ceremony are given by the Nunzio, Lettera di 28 di Luglio, MS.--See also Quintana, Historia de Madrid, fol. 369.

[1533] Pinelo, a.n.a.les de Madrid, MS.--Quintana, Historia de Madrid, fol.

369.--Lettera del Nunzio, Luglio 28, 1568, MS.--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. VIII. cap. 5.

[1534] Carta del Rey a Zuniga, Agosto 27, 1568, MS.