The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-59 | Page 2

age of sixteen he had been united to his cousin, Maria of
Portugal, daughter of John III. and of the Emperor's sister, Donna
Catalina. In the following year (1544) he became father of the
celebrated and ill-starred Don Carlos, and a widower. The princess
owed her death, it was said, to her own imprudence and to the
negligence or bigotry of her attendants. The Duchess of Alva, and other
ladies who had charge of her during her confinement, deserted her
chamber in order to obtain absolution by witnessing an auto-da-fe of
heretics. During their absence, the princess partook voraciously of a
melon, and forfeited her life in consequence.
In 1548, Don Philip had made his first appearance in the Netherlands.
He came thither to receive homage in the various provinces as their
future sovereign, and to exchange oaths of mutual fidelity with them all.
Andrew Doria, with a fleet of fifty ships, had brought him to Genoa,
whence he had passed to Milan, where he was received with great
rejoicing. At Trent he was met by Duke Maurice of Saxony, who
warmly begged his intercession with the Emperor in behalf of the
imprisoned Landgrave of Hesse. This boon Philip was graciously
pleased to promise, --and to keep the pledge as sacredly as most of the
vows plighted by him during this memorable year. The Duke of
Aerschot met him in Germany with a regiment of cavalry and escorted
him to Brussels. A summer was spent in great festivities, the cities of
the Nether lands vieing with each other in magnificent celebrations of
the ceremonies, by which Philip successively swore allegiance to the
various constitutions and charters of the provinces, and received their
oaths of future fealty in return. His oath to support all the constitutions
and privileges was without reservation, while his father and grandfather
had only sworn to maintain the charters granted or confirmed by Philip
and Charles of Burgundy. Suspicion was disarmed by these
indiscriminate concessions, which had been resolved upon by the
unscrupulous Charles to conciliate the good will of the people. In view
of the pretensions which might be preferred by the Brederode family in
Holland, and by other descendants of ancient sovereign races in other
provinces, the Emperor, wishing to ensure the succession to his sisters
in case of the deaths of himself, Philip, and Don Carlos without issue,

was unsparing in those promises which he knew to be binding only
upon the weak. Although the house of Burgundy had usurped many of
the provinces on the express pretext that females could not inherit, the
rule had been already violated, and he determined to spare no pains to
conciliate the estates, in order that they might be content with a new
violation, should the contingency occur. Philip's oaths were therefore
without reserve, and the light-hearted Flemings, Brabantines, and
Walloons received him with open arms. In Valenciennes the festivities
which attended his entrance were on a most gorgeous scale, but the
"joyous entrance" arranged for him at Antwerp was of unparalleled
magnificence. A cavalcade of the magistrates and notable burghers, "all
attired in cramoisy velvet," attended by lackies in splendid liveries and
followed by four thousand citizen soldiers in full uniform, went forth
from the gates to receive him. Twenty-eight triumphal arches, which
alone, according to the thrifty chronicler, had cost 26,800 Carolus
guldens, were erected in the different streets and squares, and every
possible demonstration of affectionate welcome was lavished upon the
Prince and the Emperor. The rich and prosperous city, unconscious of
the doom which awaited it in the future, seemed to have covered itself
with garlands to honor the approach of its master. Yet icy was the
deportment with which Philip received these demonstrations of
affection, and haughty the glance with which he looked down upon
these exhibitions of civic hilarity, as from the height of a grim and
inaccessible tower. The impression made upon the Netherlanders was
any thing but favorable, and when he had fully experienced the futility
of the projects on the Empire which it was so difficult both for his
father and himself to resign, he returned to the more congenial soil of
Spain. In 1554 he had again issued from the peninsula to marry the
Queen of England, a privilege which his father had graciously resigned
to him. He was united to Mary Tudor at Winchester, on the 25th July of
that year, and if congeniality of tastes could have made a marriage
happy, that union should have been thrice blessed. To maintain the
supremacy of the Church seemed to both the main object of existence,
to execute unbelievers the most sacred duty imposed by the Deity upon
anointed princes, to convert their kingdoms into a hell the surest means
of winning Heaven for themselves. It was not strange