The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-59 | Page 4

was an infirm
valetudinarian, and was considered as sluggish in character, as deficient
in martial enterprise, as timid of temperament as he was fragile and

sickly of frame. It is true, that on account of the disappointment which
he occasioned by his contrast to his warlike father, he mingled in some
tournaments in Brussels, where he was matched against Count
Mansfeld, one of the most distinguished chieftains of the age, and
where, says his professed panegyrist, "he broke his lances very mach to
the satisfaction of his father and aunts."
That learned and eloquent author, Estelle Calvete, even filled the
greater part of a volume, in which he described the journey of the
Prince, with a minute description of these feasts and jousts, but we may
reasonably conclude that to the loyal imagination of his eulogist Philip
is indebted for most of these knightly trophies. It was the universal
opinion of unprejudiced cotemporaries, that he was without a spark of
enterprise. He was even censured for a culpable want of ambition, and
for being inferior to his father in this respect, as if the love of
encroaching on his neighbor's dominions, and a disposition to foreign.
commotions and war would have constituted additional virtues, had he
happened to possess them. Those who were most disposed to think
favorably of him, remembered that there was a time when even Charles
the Fifth was thought weak and indolent, and were willing to ascribe
Philip's pacific disposition to his habitual cholic and side-ache, and to
his father's inordinate care for him in youth. They even looked forward
to the time when he should blaze forth to the world as a conqueror and
a hero. These, however, were views entertained by but few; the general
and the correct opinion, as it proved, being, that Philip hated war,
would never certainly acquire any personal distinction in the field, and
when engaged in hostilities would be apt to gather his laurels at the
hands of his generals, rather than with his own sword. He was believed
to be the reverse of the Emperor. Charles sought great enterprises,
Philip would avoid them. The Emperor never recoiled before threats;
the son was reserved, cautious, suspicious of all men, and capable of
sacrificing a realm from hesitation and timidity. The father had a genius
for action, the son a predilection for repose. Charles took "all men's
opinions, but reserved his judgment," and acted on it, when matured,
with irresistible energy; Philip was led by others, was vacillating in
forming decisions, and irresolute in executing them when formed.
Philip, then, was not considered, in that warlike age, as likely to shine
as a warrior. His mental capacity, in general, was likewise not very

highly esteemed. His talents were, in truth, very much below
mediocrity. His mind was incredibly small. A petty passion for
contemptible details characterized him from his youth, and, as long as
he lived, he could neither learn to generalize, nor understand that one
man, however diligent, could not be minutely acquainted with all the
public and private affairs of fifty millions of other men. He was a
glutton of work. He was born to write despatches, and to scrawl
comments upon those which he received.
[The character of these apostilles, always confused, wordy and
awkward, was sometimes very ludicrous; nor did it improve after his
thirty or forty years' daily practice in making them. Thus, when he
received a letter from France in 1589, narrating the assassination of
Henry III., and stating that "the manner in which he had been killed
was that a Jacobin monk had given him a pistol-shot in the head" (la
facon qua l'on dit qu'il a ette tue, sa ette par un Jacobin qui luy a donna
d'un cou de pistolle dans la tayte), he scrawled the following luminous
comment upon the margin. Underlining the word "pistolle," he
observed, "this is perhaps some kind of knife; and as for 'tayte,' it can
be nothing else but head, which is not tayte, but tete, or teyte, as you
very well know" (quiza de alguna manera de cuchillo, etc.,
etc.)--Gachard. Rapport a M. le Minist. de l'Interieur, prefixed to
corresp. Philippe II. Vol. I. xlix. note 1. It is obvious that a person who
made such wonderful commentaries as this, and was hard at work eight
or nine hours a day for forty years, would leave a prodigious quantity
of unpublished matter at his death.]
He often remained at the council-board four or five hours at a time, and
he lived in his cabinet. He gave audiences to ambassadors and deputies
very willingly, listening attentively to all that was said to him, and
answering in monosyllables. He spoke no tongue but Spanish; and was
sufficiently sparing of that, but he was indefatigable with his pen. He