PHILIP'S THIRD MARRIAGE.
Reception of Isabella.--Marriage Festivities.--The Queen's Mode of
Life.--The Court removed to Madrid.
1560.
So soon as Philip should be settled in Spain, it had been arranged that
his young bride, Elizabeth of France, should cross the Pyrenees. Early
in January, 1560, Elizabeth,--or Isabella, to use the corresponding name
by which she was known to the Spaniards,--under the protection of the
Cardinal de Bourbon and some of the French nobility, reached the borders
of Navarre, where she was met by the duke of Infantado, who was to take
charge of the princess, and escort her to Castile.
Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, fourth duke of Infantado, was the head of the
most illustrious house in Castile. He was at this time near seventy
years of age, having passed most of his life in attendance at court,
where he had always occupied the position suited to his high birth and
his extensive property, which, as his title intimated, lay chiefly in
the north. He was a fine specimen of the old Castilian hidalgo, and
displayed a magnificence in his way of living that became his station.
He was well educated, for the time; and his fondness for books did not
prevent his excelling in all knightly exercises. He was said to have the
best library and the best stud of any gentleman in Castile.[459]
He appeared on this occasion in great state, accompanied by his
household and his kinsmen, the heads of the noblest families in Spain.
The duke was attended by some fifty pages, who, in their rich dresses of
satin and brocade, displayed the gay colors of the house of Mendoza. The
nobles in his train, all suitably mounted, were followed by twenty-five
hundred gentlemen, well equipped, like themselves. So lavish were the
Castilians of that day in the caparisons of their horses, that some of
these are estimated, without taking into account the jewels with which
they were garnished, to have cost no less than two thousand ducats![460]
The same taste is visible at this day in their descendants, especially
in South America and Mexico, where the love of barbaric ornament in the
housings and caparisons of their steeds is conspicuous among all classes
of the people.
Several days were spent in settling the etiquette to be observed before
the presentation of the duke and his followers to the princess,--a
perilous matter with the Spanish hidalgo. When at length the interview
took place, the cardinal of Burgos, the duke's brother, opened it by a
formal and rather long address to Isabella, who replied in a tone of
easy gaiety, which, though not undignified, savored much more of the
manners of her own country than those of Spain.[461] The place of
meeting was at Roncesvalles,--a name which to the reader of romance may
call up scenes very different from those presented by the two nations
now met together in kindly courtesy.[462]
From Roncesvalles the princess proceeded, under the strong escort of the
duke, to his town of Guadalajara in New Castile, where her marriage with
King Philip was to be solemnized. Great preparations were made by the
loyal citizens for celebrating the event in a manner honorable to their
own master and their future queen. A huge mound, or what might be called
a hill, was raised at the entrance of the town, where a grove of natural
oaks had been transplanted, amongst which was to be seen abundance of
game. Isabella was received by the magistrates of the place, and
escorted through the principal streets by a brilliant cavalcade,
composed of the great nobility of the court. She was dressed in ermine,
and rode a milk-white palfrey, which she managed with an easy grace that
delighted the multitude. On one side of her rode the duke of Infantado,
and on the other the cardinal of Burgos. After performing her devotions
at the church, where _Te Deum_ was chanted, she proceeded to the ducal
palace, in which the marriage ceremony was to be performed. On her
entering the court, the princess Joanna came down to receive her
sister-in-law, and, after an affectionate salutation, conducted her to
the saloon, where Philip, attended by his son, was awaiting his
bride.[463]
[Sidenote: RECEPTION OF ISABELLA.]
It was the first time that Isabella had seen her destined lord. She now
gazed on him so intently, that he good-humoredly asked her "if she were
looking to see if he had any gray hairs in his head?" The bluntness of
the question somewhat disconcerted her.[464] Philip's age was not much
less than that at which the first gray hairs made their appearance on
his father's temples. Yet the discrepancy between the ages of the
parties in the present instance was not greater than often happens in a
royal union. Isabella was in her fifteenth year,[465] and Philip in his
thirty-fourth.
From all accounts, the lady's youth was her least recommendation.
"Elizabeth de Valois," says Brantôme, who know her well, "was a true
daughter of France,--discreet, witty, beautiful, and good, if ever woman
was so."[466] She was well made, and tall of stature, and on this
account the more admired in Spain, where the women are rarely above the
middle height. Her eyes were dark, and her luxuriant tresses, of the
same dark color, shaded features that were delicately fair.[467] There
was sweetness mingled with dignity in her deportment, in which Castilian
stateliness seemed to be happily tempered by the vivacity of her own
nation. "So attractive was she," continues the gallant old courtier,
"that no cavalier durst look on her long, for fear of losing his heart,
which in that jealous court might have proved the loss of his
life."[468]
Some of the chroniclers notice a shade of melancholy as visible on
Isabella's features, which they refer to the comparison the young bride
was naturally led to make between her own lord and his son, the prince
of Asturias, for whom her hand had been originally intended.[469] But
the daughter of Catherine de Medicis, they are careful to add, had been
too well trained, from her cradle, not to know how to disguise her
feelings. Don Carlos had one advantage over his father, in his youth;
though, in this respect, since he was but a boy of fourteen, he might be
thought to fall as much too short of the suitable age as the king
exceeded it. It is also intimated by the same gossiping writers, that
from this hour of their meeting, touched by the charms of his
step-mother, the prince nourished a secret feeling of resentment against
his father, who had thus come between him and his beautiful
betrothed.[470] It is this light gossip of the chroniclers that has
furnished the romancers of later ages with the flimsy materials for that
web of fiction, which displays in such glowing colors the loves of
Carlos and Isabella. I shall have occasion to return to this subject
when treating of the fate of this unhappy prince.
When the nuptials were concluded, the good people of Guadalajara
testified their loyalty by all kinds of festivities in honor of the
event,--by fireworks, music, and dancing. The fountains flowed with
generous liquor. Tables were spread in the public squares, laden with
good cheer, and freely open to all. In the evening, the _regidores_ of
the town, to the number of fifty or more, presented themselves before
the king and queen. They were dressed in their gaudy liveries of crimson
and yellow velvet, and each one of these functionaries bore a napkin on
his arm, while he carried a plate of sweetmeats, which he presented to
the royal pair and the ladies of the court. The following morning Philip
and his consort left the hospitable walls of Guadalajara, and set out
with their whole suite for Toledo. At parting, the duke of Infantado
made the queen and her ladies presents of jewels, lace, and other rich
articles of dress; and the sovereigns took leave of their noble host,
well pleased with the princely entertainment he had given them.[471]
At Toledo preparations were made for the reception of Philip and
Isabella in a style worthy of the renown of that ancient capital of the
Visigoths. In the broad _vega_ before the city, three thousand of the
old Spanish infantry engaged in a mock encounter with a body of Moorish
cavalry, having their uniforms and caparisons fancifully trimmed and
ornamented in the Arabesque fashion. Then followed various national
dances by beautiful maidens of Toledo, dances of the Gypsies, and the
old Spanish "war-dance of the swords."[472]
[Sidenote: MARRIAGE FESTIVITIES.]
On entering the gates, the royal pair were welcomed by the municipality
of the city, who supported a canopy of cloth of gold over the heads of
the king and queen, emblazoned with their ciphers. A procession was
formed, consisting of the principal magistrates, the members of the
military orders, the officers of the Inquisition,--for Toledo was one of
the principal stations of the secret tribunal,--and, lastly, the chief
nobles of the court. In the cavalcade might be discerned the iron form
of the duke of Alva, and his more courtly rival, Ruy Gomez de Silva,
count of Melito,--the two nobles highest in the royal confidence.
Triumphal arches, ornamented with quaint devices and emblematical
figures from ancient mythology, were thrown across the streets, which
were filled with shouting multitudes. Gay wreaths of flowers and
flaunting streamers adorned the verandas and balconies, which were
crowded with spectators of both sexes in their holiday attire, making a
display of gaudy colors that reminds an old chronicler of the richly
tinted tapestries and carpetings of Flanders.[473] In this royal state,
the new-married pair moved along the streets towards the great
cathedral; and after paying their devotions at its venerable shrine,
they repaired to the _alcazar_,--the palace-fortress of Toledo.
For some weeks, during which the sovereigns remained in the capital,
there was a general jubilee.[474] All the national games of Spain were
exhibited to the young queen; the bull-fight, the Moorish sport of the
_cañas_, or tilt of reeds, and tournaments on horseback and on foot, in
both of which Philip often showed himself armed _cap-à-pie_ in the
lists, and did his _devoir_ in the presence of his fair bride, as became
a loyal knight. Another show, which might have been better reserved for
a less joyous occasion, was exhibited to Isabella. As the court and the
cortes were drawn together in Toledo, the Holy Office took the occasion
to celebrate an _auto da fé_, which, from the number of the victims and
quality of the spectators, was the most imposing spectacle of the kind
ever witnessed in that capital.
No country in Europe has so distinct an individuality as Spain; shown
not merely in the character of the inhabitants, but in the smallest
details of life,--in their national games, their dress, their social
usages. The tenacity with which the people have clung to these amidst
all the changes of dynasties and laws is truly admirable. Separated by
their mountain barrier from the central and eastern parts of Europe, and
during the greater part of their existence brought into contact with
Oriental forms of civilization, the Spaniards have been but little
exposed to those influences which have given a homogeneous complexion to
the other nations of Christendom. The system under which they have been
trained is too peculiar to be much affected by these influences, and the
ideas transmitted from their ancestors are too deeply settled in their
minds to be easily disturbed. The present in Spain is but the mirror of
the past, in other countries fashions become antiquated, old errors
exploded, early tastes reformed. Not so in the Peninsula. The traveller
has only to cross the Pyrenees to find himself a contemporary of the
sixteenth century.
The festivities of the court were suddenly terminated by the illness of
Isabella, who was attacked by the small-pox. Her life was in no danger;
but great fears were entertained lest the envious disease should prove
fatal to her beauty. Her mother, Catherine de Medicis, had great
apprehensions on this point; and couriers crossed the Pyrenees
frequently, during the queen's illness, bringing prescriptions--some of
them rather extraordinary--from the French doctors for preventing the
ravages of the disorder.[475] Whether it was by reason of these
nostrums, or her own excellent constitution, the queen was fortunate
enough to escape from the sick-room without a scar.
Philip seems to have had much reason to be contented not only with the
person, but the disposition, of his wife. As her marriage had formed one
of the articles in the treaty with France, she was called by the
Spaniards _Isabel de la Paz_,--"Isabella of the Peace." Her own
countrymen no less fondly styled her "the Olive-Branch of
Peace,"--intimating the sweetness of her disposition.[476] In this
respect she may be thought to have formed a contrast to Philip's former
wife, Mary of England; at least after sickness and misfortune had done
their work upon that queen's temper, in the latter part of her life.
If Isabella was not a scholar, like Mary, she at least was well
instructed for the time, and was fond of reading, especially poetry. She
had a ready apprehension, and learned in a short time to speak the
Castilian with tolerable fluency, while there was something pleasing in
her foreign accent, that made her pronunciation the more interesting.
She accommodated herself so well to the usages of her adopted nation,
that she soon won the hearts of the Spaniards. "No queen of Castile,"
says the loyal Brantôme, "with due deference to Isabella the Catholic,
was ever so popular in the country." When she went abroad, it was
usually with her face uncovered, after the manner of her countrywomen.
The press was always great around her whenever she appeared in public,
and happy was the man who could approach so near as to get a glimpse of
her beautiful countenance.[477]
Yet Isabella never forgot the land of her birth; and such of her
countrymen as visited the Castilian court were received by her with
distinguished courtesy. She brought along with her in her train to
Castile several French ladies of rank, as her maids of honor. But a
rivalry soon grew up between them and the Spanish ladies in the palace,
which compelled the queen, after she had in vain attempted to reconcile
the parties, to send back most of her own countrywomen. In doing so, she
was careful to provide them with generous marriage portions.[478]
[Sidenote: THE QUEEN'S MODE OF LIFE.]
The queen maintained great state in her household, as was Philip's wish,
who seems to have lavished on his lovely consort those attentions for
which the unfortunate Mary Tudor had pined in vain. Besides a rare
display of jewels, Isabella's wardrobe was exceedingly rich. Few of her
robes cost less than three or four hundred crowns each,--a great sum for
the time. Like her namesake and contemporary, Elizabeth of England, she
rarely wore the same dress twice. But she gave away the discarded suit
to her attendants,[479] unlike in this to the English queen, who hoarded
up her wardrobe so carefully, that at her death it must have displayed
every fashion of her reign. Brantôme, who, both as a Frenchman and as
one who had seen the queen often in the court of Castile, may be
considered a judge in the matter, dwells with rapture on the elegance of
her costume, the matchless taste in its arrangement, and the perfection
of her _coiffure_.
A manuscript of the time, by an eye-witness, gives a few particulars
respecting her manner of living, in which some readers may take an
interest. Among the persons connected with the queen's establishment,
the writer mentions her confessor, her almoner, and four physicians. The
medical art seems to have been always held in high repute in Spain,
though in no country, considering the empirical character of its
professors, with so little reason. At dinner the queen was usually
attended by some thirty of her ladies. Two of them, singularly enough as
it may seem to us, performed the office of carvers. Another served as
cupbearer, and stood by her majesty's chair. The rest of her attendants
stood round the apartment, conversing with their gallants, who, in a
style to which she had not been used in the French courts, kept their
heads covered during the repast. "They were there," they said, "not to
wait on the queen, but her ladies." After her solitary meal was over,
Isabella retired with her attendants to her chamber, where, with the aid
of music, and such mirth as the buffoons and jesters of the palace could
afford, she made shift to pass the evening.[480]
Such is the portrait which her contemporaries have left us of Elizabeth
of France; and such the accounts of her popularity with the nation, and
the state maintained in her establishment. Well might Brantôme sadly
exclaim, "Alas! what did it all avail?" A few brief years only were to
pass away before this spoiled child of fortune, the delight of the
monarch, the ornament and pride of the court, was to exchange the pomps
and glories of her royal state for the dark chambers of the Escorial.
From Toledo the court proceeded to Valladolid, long the favourite
residence of the Castilian princes, though not the acknowledged capital
of the country. Indeed there was no city, since the time of the
Visigoths, that could positively claim that preëminence. This honor was
reserved for Madrid, which became the established residence of the court
under Philip, who in this but carried out the ideas of his father,
Charles the Fifth.
The emperor had passed much time in this place, where, strange to say,
the chief recommendation to him seems to have been the climate. Situated
on a broad expanse of table-land, at an elevation of twenty-four hundred
feet above the level of the sea, the brisk and rarefied atmosphere of
Madrid proved favorable to Charles's health. It preserved him, in
particular, from attacks of the fever and ague, which racked his
constitution almost as much as the gout. In the ancient _alcazar_ of the
Moors he found a stately residence, which he made commodious by various
alterations. Philip extended these improvements. He added new
apartments, and spent much money in enlarging and embellishing the old
ones. The ceilings were gilded and richly carved. The walls were hung
with tapestries, and the saloons and galleries decorated with sculpture
and with paintings,--many of them the productions of native artists, the
first disciples of a school which was one day to rival the great masters
of Italy. Extensive grounds were also laid out around the palace, and a
park was formed, which in time came to be covered with a growth of noble
trees, and well stocked with game. The _alcazar_, thus improved, became
a fitting residence for the sovereign of Spain. Indeed, if we may trust
the magnificent vaunt of a contemporary, it was "allowed by foreigners
to be the rarest thing of the kind possessed by any monarch in
Christendom."[481] It continued to be the abode of the Spanish princes
until, in 1734, in the reign of Philip the Fifth, the building was
destroyed by a fire, which lasted nearly a week. But it rose like a
phoenix from its ashes; and a new palace was raised on the site of the
old one, of still larger dimensions, presenting in the beauty of its
materials as well as of its execution one of the noblest monuments of
the architecture of the eighteenth century.[482]
Having completed his arrangements, Philip established his residence at
Madrid in 1563. The town then contained about twelve thousand
inhabitants. Under the forcing atmosphere of a court, the population
rose by the end of his long reign to three hundred thousand,[483]--a
number which it has probably not since exceeded. The accommodations in
the capital kept pace with the increase of population. Everything was
built for duration. Instead of flimsy houses that might serve for a
temporary residence, the streets were lined with strong and substantial
edifices. Under the royal patronage public works on a liberal scale were
executed. Madrid was ornamented with bridges, aqueducts, hospitals, the
Museum, the Armory,--stately structures which even now challenge our
admiration, not less by the excellence of their designs than by the
richness of their collections and the enlightened taste which they infer
at this early period.
[Sidenote: THE COURT REMOVED TO MADRID.]
In the opinion of its inhabitants, indeed we may say of the nation,
Madrid surpassed, not only every other city in the country, but in
Christendom. "There is but one Madrid," says the Spanish proverb.[484]
"When Madrid is the theme, the world listens in silence!"[485] In a
similar key, the old Castilian writers celebrate the glories of their
capital,--the nursery of wit, genius, and gallantry,--and expatiate on
the temperature of a climate propitious alike to the beauty of the women
and the bravery of the men.[486]
Yet, with all this lofty panegyric, the foreigner is apt to see things
through a very different medium from that through which they are seen by
the patriotic eye of the native. The traveller to Madrid finds little to
praise in a situation where the keen winds from the mountains come laden
with disease, and where the subtle atmosphere, to use one of the
national proverbs, that can hardly put out a candle, will extinguish the
life of a man;[487] where the capital, insulated in the midst of a
dreary expanse of desert, seems to be cut off from sympathy, if not from
intercourse, with the provinces;[488] and where, instead of a great
river that might open to it a commerce with distant quarters of the
globe, it is washed only by a stream,--"the far-famed Manzanares,"--the
bed of which in summer is a barren watercourse. The traveller may well
doubt whether the fanciful advantage, so much vaunted, of being the
centre of Spain, is sufficient to compensate the manifold evils of such
a position, and even whether those are far from truth who find in this
position one of the many causes of the decline of the national
prosperity.[489]
A full experience of the inconveniences of the site of the capital led
Charles the Third to contemplate its removal to Seville. But it was too
late. Madrid had been too long, in the Castilian boast, "the only court
in the world,"[490]--the focus to which converged talent, fashion, and
wealth from all quarters of the country. Too many patriotic associations
had gathered round it to warrant its desertion; and, in spite of its
local disadvantages, the capital planted by Philip the Second continued
to remain, as it will probably ever remain, the capital of the Spanish
monarchy.