The Archduke Albert married the infanta Isabella, daughter of Philip II.
king of Spain, with whom he had the Low Countries in dowry. In the year
1602, he laid siege to Ostend, then in possession of the heretics; and his
pious princess, who attended him on the expedition, made a vow, that, till
the city was taken, she would not change her clothes. Contrary to
expectation, it was three years before the place was reduced; in which
time her highness' linen had acquired a hue, which, from the superstition
of the princess and the times, was much admired, and adopted by the court
fashionables under the name of "Isabella colour." It is a yellow or soiled
buff, better imagined than described.