I send your Lordship herewith enclosed, two transcripts, the one of a
project, at making of which I was never good; but this is of a peace,
and therefore I wish I were; a peace between Castile and Portugal,
hardly practicable upon any terms, as I do humbly conceive, much less
upon these, proposed by an unknown author, with regard to either side;
yet I have thought them not unworthy your Lordship's notice, as
possibly more practicable elsewhere, as to form, and in a great
measure as to matter likewise, than in the altitude for which they
were designed.
The other transcript is of a fresh libel, in and upon this Court and
palace; a commodity I have in my nature no inclination at all to vent,
either by wholesale or retail; yet is this fit also, in my humble
judgment, for persons of great nearness to his Majesty not to be
unacquainted with, representing sores which are in foreign kingdoms,
whereby to praise God the more for the modesty of ours at home, as
ours for the great goodness of his Majesty that stops our mouths, or
rather fills them with prayers to God and him; not censuring other
princes, neither for the liberties of their subjects in their
disparagement, much less these of Spain, than whom, from all times,
none talk more against, or (our own nation only excepted) act more
for, their kings. This damnable libel doth not spare one Councillor of
State here present, but the Inquisidor General; and to crown the
damnation of it, the King himself bears the burden, besides the
smaller game it picks up by the way. So more than ordinary black is
the Spanish ink at this day, and the mouths of two too many, loud ones
too, much of the same dye.
This King, by what I can collect, as crazy as he is, may rub out many
years: his Majesty eats and drinks ordinarily with a very good
stomach, I am told, three comfortable meals a day; and full of merry
discourse, when and where his lined robe of Spanish royal gravity is
laid aside.
Some discourse begins to be of swearing the Prince. The sending the
Infanta this spring to her Imperial Crown is absolutely concluded, say
the most, and some say no. Certain it is, (the ceremony of this
kingdom requiring it,) that a Cardinal in the spiritual, and some very
great lay-person in the temporal, should be joint conductors of her
Imperial Majesty; for the first, Cardinal Colonna, a vassal born of
this Crown, chosen by the Pope, is now actually entered in this Court
to the same end; and for the second, the Duke of Cardona, invited
thereunto by his Catholic Majesty, after many great ones, namely, the
Duke of Alva and Montaldo, had refused or excused it, hath publicly
accepted the charge.
By this latter hangs a story. Your Lordship well knows, that in these
more civilised countries, no man will go upon his master's errand
without a reward beforehand, (so the Marquis of Sande, the Conde de
Molina, and others innumerable,) therefore his Catholic Majesty, even
after acceptance as a thing of course, was graciously pleased to bid
the said Duke of Cardona propose for himself, referring him for that
purpose to the Duke's friend, the Conde de Castrillo, President of
Castile. The Duke tells the Conde he must have three things granted
him in hand, else would he not budge a foot. 'What are those?' said
the Conde, in some disorder. 'First,' said the Duke, 'I will be made a
grandee of Spain,' and his Excellency is so, I take it three or four
times over: 'Secondly, I will have the Toison' he has it long since:
'Thirdly, the Conde de Chincon shall treat me with EXCELLENCY.' The
riddle of this is, that the said Conde de Chincon, being no Grandee,
and nominated for Ambassador Ordinary to the Emperor, though since
excused of going for want of health, or other allegations, doth, upon
that account alone, during life, according to the style of this Court,
remain with the title of Excellency. This action of the Duke of
Cardona is here very much celebrated, and the saying little less.
--Ibid. p. 420.
To THE KING.
[See MEMOIRS, p. 195.]
Madrid, Monday, 6th of February, 1664-5, O.S.
"MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,
"The bearer hereof, Mr. Charles Bertie, son to the Earl of Lindsey,
having done me the honour, together with other gentlemen of rank and
personal worth, to afford me his company out of England hitherto, and
now with them homewards bound by the way of France; I find myself
encouraged by the opportunity of so noble a hand for conveyance, to
give your Majesty this first immediate trouble of any lines of mine,
since I had last the happiness to kiss that of your Majesty, as well
to throw myself, in all humility, at your royal feet, as to render
very briefly a faithful character of this young gentleman, in a more
particular manner, whose virtues and extraordinary qualities, the
former not lost, the latter acquired with much travels at few years,
do no whit degenerate from the nobility of his blood, and active
loyalty of his progenitors; my duty to your Majesty, as well as my
affection to his person, obliging me ex officio to this short
testimony of his merits unrequested, to the end so hopeful a branch of
that house may not want even this means among others, of being early
known to his Sovereign, I could humbly wish I could add, his master
too, and that in some near degree of service to your sacred person,
for the present, in order to public employment for the future; towards
which, as years shall increase, and occasions be ministered, he is
already furnished, in a very good measure, with two principal and
proper gifts, that of tongues, and that of observation. But I forget
to whom I speak, for which most humbly begging your royal pardon, I
crave leave to subscribe myself," &c.--Ibid, p. 437.
To MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
Madrid, Tuesday, 18/28 April, 1665.
This King, with the Queen and Empress, have now been almost a
fortnight at Aranjuez, to their great content, and also of this Court,
to hear his Majesty is so vigorous there, as at one time to have set
on horseback a matter of three hours, and in that posture to have
killed a wolf from his own hands; whereas, before his going hence, it
was doubted by many whether he had sufficient health and strength to
perform the journey, though but seven leagues, in a coach or litter,
and that in two days. The little Prince remains here in the palace, as
far as I can learn, nothing so lively as his father; pray God he prove
so lasting!
In this interim, Don John de Austria hath had leave to reside at a
house within two leagues of Aranjuez, and from thence stepping over to
get a sight of his Majesty, which he did. The ceremony between them
was very short, and yet all that passed was ceremony; Como venis? Como
estays? Dios os guarde, &c., with which his Highness departed to the
Queen and Empress, and from thence to whence he came, after the same
brief ceremony; only the Queen and Empress sent him each of them a
jewel for a present.--Harleian MSS. 7010, f. 239.