The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-59 | Page 8

she hated him- -although, both at the epoch of
the abdication and subsequently, he was desirous that she should
administer the government.
The new Regent was to be the Duke of Savoy. This wandering and
adventurous potentate had attached himself to Philip's fortunes, and had
been received by the King with as much favor as he had ever enjoyed at
the hands of the Emperor. Emanuel Philibert of Savoy, then about
twenty- six or seven years of age, was the son of the late unfortunate
duke, by Donna Beatrice of Portugal, sister of the Empress. He was the
nephew of Charles, and first cousin to Philip. The partiality of the
Emperor for his mother was well known, but the fidelity with which the
family had followed the imperial cause had been productive of nothing
but disaster to the duke. He had been ruined in fortune, stripped of all
his dignities and possessions. His son's only inheritance was his sword.
The young Prince of Piedmont, as he was commonly called in his youth;
sought the camp of the Emperor, and was received with distinguished
favor. He rose rapidly in the military service. Acting always upon his
favorite motto, "Spoliatis arma supersunt," he had determined, if
possible, to carve his way to glory, to wealth, and even to his hereditary
estates, by his sword alone. War was not only his passion, but his trade.

Every one of his campaigns was a speculation, and he had long derived
a satisfactory income by purchasing distinguished prisoners of war at a
low price from the soldiers who had captured them, and were ignorant
of their rank, and by ransoming them afterwards at an immense
advance. This sort of traffic in men was frequent in that age, and was
considered perfectly honorable. Marshal Strozzi, Count Mansfeld, and
other professional soldiers, derived their main income from the system.
They were naturally inclined, therefore, to look impatiently upon a state
of peace as an unnatural condition of affairs which cut off all the profits
of their particular branch of industry, and condemned them both to
idleness and poverty. The Duke of Savoy had become one of the most
experienced and successful commanders of the age, and an especial
favorite with the Emperor. He had served with Alva in the campaigns
against the Protestants of Germany, and in other important fields. War
being his element, he considered peace as undesirable, although he
could recognize its existence. A truce he held, however, to be a
senseless parodox, unworthy of the slightest regard. An armistice, such
as was concluded on the February following the abdication, was, in his
opinion, only to be turned to account by dealing insidious and
unsuspected blows at the enemy, some portion of whose population
might repose confidence in the plighted faith of monarchs and
plenipotentiaries. He had a show of reason for his political and military
morality, for he only chose to execute the evil which had been practised
upon himself. His father had been beggared, his mother had died of
spite and despair, he had himself been reduced from the rank of a
sovereign to that of a mercenary soldier, by spoliations made in time of
truce. He was reputed a man of very decided abilities, and was
distinguished for headlong bravery. His rashness and personal daring
were thought the only drawbacks to his high character as a commander.
He had many accomplishments. He spoke Latin, French, Spanish, and
Italian with equal fluency, was celebrated for his attachment to the fine
arts, and wrote much and with great elegance. Such had been Philibert
of Savoy, the pauper nephew of the powerful Emperor, the adventurous
and vagrant cousin of the lofty Philip, a prince without a people, a duke
without a dukedom; with no hope but in warfare, with no revenue but
rapine; the image, in person, of a bold and manly soldier, small, but
graceful and athletic, martial in bearing, "wearing his sword under his

arm like a corporal," because an internal malady made a belt
inconvenient, and ready to turn to swift account every chance which a
new series of campaigns might open to him. With his new salary as
governor, his pensions, and the remains of his possessions in Nice and
Piedmont, he had now the splendid annual income of one hundred
thousand crowns, and was sure to spend it all.
It had been the desire of Charles to smooth the commencement of
Philip's path. He had for this purpose made a vigorous effort to undo, as
it were, the whole work of his reign, to suspend the operation of his
whole political system. The Emperor and conqueror, who had been
warring all his lifetime, had attempted, as the last act of his reign, to
improvise a peace. But it was not so easy to