Memoirs of Louis XIV, vol 3 | Page 9

Spain arrived in Madrid on the 19th February. From his
first entrance into the country he had everywhere been most warmly
welcomed. Acclamations were uttered when he appeared; fetes and
bull-fights were given in his honour; the nobles and ladies pressed
around him. He had been proclaimed in Madrid some time before, in
the midst of demonstrations of joy. Now that he had arrived among his
subjects there, that joy burst out anew. There was such a crowd in the
streets that sixty people were stifled! All along the line of route were an
infinity of coaches filled with ladies richly decked. The streets through
which he passed were hung in the Spanish fashion; stands were placed,
adorned with fine pictures and a vast number of silver vessels;
triumphal arches were built from side to side. It is impossible to
conceive a greater or more general demonstration of joy. The
Buen-Retiro, where the new King took up his quarters, was filled with
the Court and the nobility. The junta and a number of great men
received him at the door, and the Cardinal Portocarrero, who was there,
threw himself on his knees, and wished to kiss the King's hand. But the
King would not permit this; raised the Cardinal, embraced him, and
treated him as his father. The Cardinal wept with joy, and could not
take his eyes off the King. He was just then in the flower of his first
youth--fair like the late King Charles, and the Queen his grandmother;
grave, silent, measured, self- contained, formed exactly to live among
Spaniards. With all this, very attentive in his demeanour, and paying
everybody the attention due to him, having taken lessons from
d'Harcourt on the way. Indeed he took off his hat or raised it to nearly
everybody, so that the Spaniards spoke on the subject to the Duc
d'Harcourt, who replied to them that the King in all essential things

would conform himself to usage, but that in others he must be allowed
to act according to French politeness. It cannot be imagined how much
these trifling external attentions attached all hearts to this Prince.
He was, indeed, completely triumphant in Spain, and the Austrian party
as completely routed. The Queen of Spain was sent away from Madrid,
and banished to Toledo, where she remained with but a small suite, and
still less consideration. Each day the nobles, the citizens, and the people
had given fresh proof of their hatred against the Germans and against
the Queen. She had been almost entirely abandoned, and was refused
the most ordinary necessaries of her state.
CHAPTER XIX
Shortly after his arrival in Madrid, the new King of Spain began to look
about him for a wife, and his marriage with the second daughter of M.
de Savoie (younger sister of Madame de Bourgogne) was decided upon
as an alliance of much honour and importance to M. de Savoie, and, by
binding him to her interest, of much utility to France. An extraordinary
ambassador (Homodei, brother of the Cardinal of that name) was sent
to Turin to sign the contract of marriage, and bring back the new Queen
into Spain. He was also appointed her Ecuyer, and the Princesse des
Ursins was selected as her 'Camarera Mayor', a very important office.
The Princesse des Ursins seemed just adapted for it. A Spanish lady
could not have been relied upon: a lady of our court would not have
been fit for the post. The Princesse des Ursins was, as it were, both
French and Spanish--French by birth, Spanish by marriage. She had
passed the greater part of her life in Rome and Italy, and was a widow
without children. I shall have more hereafter to say of this celebrated
woman, who so long and so publicly governed the Court and Crown of
Spain, and who has made so much stir in the world by her reign and by
her fall; at present let me finish with the new Queen of Spain.
She was married, then, at Turin, on the 11th of September, with but
little display, the King being represented by procuration, and set out on
the 13th for Nice, where she was to embark on board the Spanish
galleys for Barcelona. The King of Spain, meanwhile, after hearing

news that he had been proclaimed with much unanimity and rejoicing
in Peru and Mexico, left Madrid on the 5th of September, to journey
through Aragon and Catalonia to Barcelona to meet his wife. He was
much welcomed on his route, above all by Saragossa, which received
him magnificently.
The new Queen of Spain, brought by the French galleys to Nice, was so
fatigued with the sea when she arrived there, that she determined to
finish the rest of the journey by land, through Provence