Amid the struggles and anxieties which caused D. John to know contempt
and humiliations for the first time, he had one pleasure, which, in
spite of there being much to embitter it, must still have been a great
one, that of making the acquaintance of his mother, and of embracing her
for the first and last time. No sooner had he arrived in Luxemburg than
he wrote to her at Ghent, where she then was, inviting her to come and
see him, as he could not, as he ought to do, visit her at that moment;
and as the cold, shallow Barbara Blombergh neither came nor answered the
letter, he sent a second message, this time accompanied by everything
necessary for her to perform the journey in a suitable and comfortable
way. She came, and the mother and the son met. We do not know what she
felt on finding herself in the presence of this brilliant and renowned
son, who up to now had inspired her with nothing but indifference. As to
D. John, apart from the natural love and respect due to her name of
mother, she made a disagreeable impression on him, perhaps because his
ideals of mothers and widows were formed on the austere and refined
model of that great lady Doña Magdalena de Ulloa.
Barbara Blombergh was then over fifty, and she preserved traces of her
great beauty, which she tried to enhance with cosmetics and fine
clothes, unsuited to her age or situation. She, however, lacked that
inborn distinction and dignity which then, even more than now,
characterised ladies of noble lineage; because education, which to-day
refines, polishes and levels manners to a certain extent, belonged then
exclusively to dames of high degree. Barbara Blombergh certainly did not
belong to this privileged class, although several historians have
asserted it, in order to exalt D. John's maternal descent. She was
simply a girl of the middle class, daughter of a citizen of Ratisbon of
moderate fortune. Three years after the birth of D. John she married
Jerome Kegel, who was not a noble gentleman either, but a poor "hére,"
as Gachard calls him, who for a humble position at the Court of Queen
Mary, the Regent of Flanders, compromised himself by giving her his name
and sheltering her dishonour.
Madam Blombergh, as from this time she began to call herself, was left a
widow in June, 1569, and then it was that her cold, shallow, hard,
extravagant and ungenerous character began to show itself freely. "As
vapid as obstinate," said the Duque de Alba. But what is really
surprising about her is the indifference that she always showed for her
son D. John, who by the greatness of his name would have seemed called
to be her glory and pride, and by his love, respect and solicitude for
her, her delight and good fortune. In the Alba archives there is a
letter from D. John to his mother, the only one known, which begins in
this way: "Lady, it is many days since I had news of you, which worries
me, having written and begged, last from Messina, that you should always
remember to advise me about your health and of what is your pleasure, as
besides the obligation I am under to procure it for you as your son, I
also much wish to give it to you, being certain that I owe it to the
good mother and lady you are to me." Compare this letter with another
from D. John to Doña Magdalena de Ulloa, and it will be plainly seen
that if Barbara Blombergh was in fact his mother, the one who responded
to his filial affections was the illustrious widow of Luis Quijada:
"Lady, I kiss your hands for the trouble you take in always answering my
letters, but principally because what I wish is to hear continually of
your health and welfare."
When Kegel died D. John begged Philip II to come to his mother's
assistance, and the King sent the Duque de Alba, then Governor of the
Low Countries, to visit Madam Blombergh, and to suggest to her that,
having such a son as hers in Spain, she should make her residence there.
Madam Blombergh replied that although, doubtless, she would much like to
see her son, it was of no use talking to her about going to Spain, for
she well knew the way women were shut up there, and wild horses would
not make her go to such a country. Philip II then gave her an income of
4944 florins, with which she installed herself with a luxury and parade
it was impossible to support on these means. Her household consisted of
a duenna and six waiting-maids, a steward, two pages, a chaplain, a
butler, four servants, and a coach with all its paraphernalia of grooms
and horses. She then began the gay, but not very decorous, life of
festivities and banquets which caused the warnings and complaints of the
Duque de Alba, and first the admonitions and later the violent measures
of Philip II, which, however, on account of the political disturbances,
could not be carried out until the arrival of D. John in Flanders. This
made Barbara Blombergh's departure more than ever necessary, so as not
to compromise the authority of D. John at this difficult moment by her
frivolities and imprudences. But as neither by prayers nor by wise
persuasion could he overcome his mother's invincible obstinacy about
going to Spain, he resolved to use the stratagem he had devised long ago
with his brother Philip II.
He told her that his sister Donna Margarita of Austria much wished to
know her, and had invited her to spend a few months at the palace of
Aquila in the Abruzzi. This invitation from such a personage as the
Duchess of Parma gratified Madam Blombergh immensely, and she accepted
at once, only bargaining to settle afterwards to live where she wished.
D. John agreed, and Madam Blombergh set out for Italy with all her
household the middle of March, 1577. As extra steward D. John sent a
confidential person called Pero Sánchez, who was used to travelling, and
who carried secret instructions. On arriving at Genoa they found a
luxurious galley which Pero Sánchez said was ready to carry them to
Naples, and thence they could journey overland to the Abruzzi. Without
any mistrust the embarkation was made, and after a disagreeable voyage
of some days' duration they sighted the grey mountains of Vizcaya, so
different from the blue Neapolitan coast, where they thought to arrive.
The galley had gone to Spain and was at Laredo.
[Illustration:
AUTOGRAPH OF BARBARA BLOMBERGH
_From a photograph by Lacoste_
]
Barbara Blombergh was met at this port by Doña Magdalena de Ulloa, who
had been warned of her advent by D. John, and at San Cebrian de Mazote
she was awaited by Doña Magdalena's brother and sister-in-law, the
Marqueses de la Mota, who wished to help the illustrious widow of Luis
Quijada over this difficult meeting. In truth it needed all Doña
Magdalena's tact, patience, and love for D. John to tame the furious
wild beast who was disembarked at Laredo on the 3rd of May in the form
of Barbara Blombergh. Doña Magdalena took her at once to the castle of
San Cebrian de Mazote, where the Marqués de la Mota and his wife
received her very kindly, and entertained her splendidly, and such pains
did the good and discreet Doña Magdalena take, that in the three and a
half months Madam Blombergh was with her, the angry, wild animal was
changed into a gentle lamb, and when the hour of farewell came she
herself asked to retire to the Dominican convent of Santa Maria la Real,
in the village of San Cebrian, where Doña Magdalena had prepared for her
a comfortable, separate apartment, so that she could go in and out.
From the 3rd of May, 1577, when she disembarked at Laredo, until the end
of July, 1579, when, after D. John's death, Philip II gave her an income
of 3000 ducats, all the expenses of Barbara Blombergh were borne by Doña
Magdalena de Ulloa. This is shown, without any shadow of doubt, by the
paper presented by this lady in the testamentary accounts of D. John of
Austria, which exists in the Alba archives, signed and with this label:
"That which I, Doña Magdalena de Ulloa, have paid in virtue of two
letters from the Very Serene D. John of Austria, God rest his soul, one
dated from Louvain the 23rd of April, 1577, the other from Brussels the
4th of July of the same year, about the expenses of Madam Blombergh his
mother, also arranging her apartment and her ordinary expenses, and her
extraordinary personal ones, servants and wages and clothes and other
things, some furniture indispensable and necessary for her use, the
which I gave over to her servants, and that which I gave for this is the
following."
A detailed account of the money made over to Madam Blombergh and
her stewards follows, divided into thirty-six items; then comes
the reimbursement by the same Doña Magdalena in three items by
the hand of Melchor de Camago, Juan de Escovedo, and Antonio
Pérez, and this curious document concludes by making the
following balance and protest: "So what I have paid by order of
His Highness, according to the said letters relating to the
building of the house and other things belonging to it, and
providing for the said house and servants of the said Madam his
mother, comes to one million three hundred and forty thousand
one hundred and ninety-two maravedis, which as I have said in
the items by God and my conscience I gave over to Madam and her
servants, and what I have received on account of this amounts to
nine hundred and seventeen thousand and eighty-eight maravedis:
so that it is more than the goods of the said Lord D. John by
four hundred and twenty-two thousand and five hundred and four
maravedis; and I certify that the account and items, of the
receipt as of the fact, by my conscience are certain and true,
and that the said amount is due to me, and I have not received
it, nor has anything been given to me on account, and this being
true, I sign this with my hand and with my name, this date at
Valladolid, fourteenth of July, one thousand five hundred and
eighty-two."
"DOÑA MAGDALENA DE ULLOA."
Thus it is proved that D. John, helped by Doña Magdalena, provided
everything necessary for his mother until his last hour; and when he was
dying he commended her to his brother D. Philip through his confessor P.
Dorante, for which reason Philip II granted her an income of 3000 ducats
for her life. No sooner was D. John dead, however, than Madam Blombergh
presented a memorial to the King, claiming D. John's estate as sole and
lawful heiress. This was granted to her without hesitation, as D. John
had no private property, and his debts amounted to much more than the
value of the jewels and furniture he possessed.
Barbara Blombergh lived peaceably at the convent of Santa Maria la Real
for several years; but as regularity and quietness were not her strong
point, she became bored, and begged Philip II to move her to some other
place. As the house of the unfortunate Escovedo at Colindres was at
Philip's disposal at that time, she retired there, and there died the
same year as Philip (1598), leaving directions that she was to be buried
at the Franciscan convent in the town of Escalante.
By her marriage with Jerome Kegel Barbara Blombergh had two sons. The
younger drowned himself in a cistern in his own house, eight days after
his father's death; the elder, who was named Conrad, took the name of
Pyramus, which his father bore, joined to that of Kegel. He began to
study for the Church, well supplied with funds by D. John, at whose
death he abandoned these studies, owing to his love of arms. He joined
the army, being helped by Alexander Farnese, and became a colonel. He
married the Baroness de St. Martin, and died before his mother, during
whose lifetime his widow came to Spain, and died there; but where or
when we do not know.