.IX 1556. the effects of Paul's violence and injustice. Philip never- BOOK theless continued to deliberate and delay, considering it as a most cruel misfortune, that his administration should open with an attack on a person whose sacred function and character he so highly respected. takes the pope. At last the duke of Alva, who, in compliance with his The duke master's scruples, had continued to negociate long after of Alva he should have begun to act, finding Paul inexorable, and ficid a-" that every overture of peace, and every appearance of he-gainst the sitation on his part, increased the pontiff's natural arrogance, took the field, and entered the ecclesiastical terri-Sept. 5. tories. His army did not exceed twelve thousand men, but it was composed of veteran soldiers, and commanded chiefly by those Roman barons whom Paul's violence had driven into exile. The valour of the troops, together with the animosity of their leaders, who fought in their own quarrel, and to recover their own estates, supplied the want of numbers. As none of the French forces were yet arrived, Alva soon became master of the Campagna Romana; some cities being surrendered through the cowardice of the garrisons, which consisted of raw soldiers, ill disciplined, and worse commanded; the gates of others being opened by the inhabitants, who were eager to receive back their ancient masters. Alva, that he might not be taxed with impiety in seizing the patrimony of the church, took possession of the towns which capitulated in the name of the college of cardinals, to which, or to the pope that should be chosen to succeed Paul, he declared that he would immediately restore them. pope and The rapid progress of the Spaniards, whose light A truce be troops made excursions even to the gates of Rome, filled tween the that city with consternation. Paul, though inflexible and Philip. undaunted himself, was obliged to give way so far to the fears and solicitations of the cardinals, as to send deputies to Alva in order to propose a cessation of arms. The pope yielded the more readily, as he was sensible of a double advantage which might be derived from obtaining that Ferrer. Hist. d' Espagne, ix, 373, Herrera, i, 308. BOOK point. It would deliver the inhabitants of Rome from XI. their present terror, and would afford time for the arrival 1556. Nov. 19. of the succours which he expected from France. Nor was Alva unwilling to close with the overture, both as he knew how desirous his master was to terminate a war which he had undertaken with reluctance, and as his army was so much weakened by garrisoning the great number of towns which he had reduced, that it was hardly in a condition to keep the field without fresh recruits. A truce was accordingly concluded, first for ten, and afterwards for forty days, during which, various schemes of peace were proposed, and perpetual negociations were carried on, but with no sincerity on the part of the pope. The return of his nephew the cardinal to Rome, the receipt of a considerable sum remitted by the king of France, the arrival of one body of French troops, together with the expectation of others which had begun their march, rendered him more arrogant than ever, and banished all thoughts from his mind but those of war and revenge 4. d Pallav. lib. xiii, 177. Thuan, lib. xvii, 588. Mem. de Ribier, i 664. BOOK XII. BOOK XII. 1556. Charles's new at alter the pire. WHILE these operations or intrigues kept the pope and Philip busy and attentive, the emperor disentangled himself finally from all the affairs of this world, and set out for the place of his retreat. He had hitherto retained the imperial dignity, not from any unwillingness to relinquish tempt to it, for, after having resigned the real and extensive au-succession thority that he enjoyed in his hereditary dominions, to of the em part with the limited and often ideal jurisdiction which belongs to an elective crown, was no great sacrifice. His sole motive for delay was to gain a few months, for making one trial more in order to accomplish his favourite scheme in behalf of his son. At the very time Charles seemed to be most sensible of the vanity of worldly grandeur, and when he appeared to be quitting it not only with indifference, but with contempt, the vast schemes of ambition which had so long occupied and engrossed his mind still kept possession of it. He could not think of leaving his son in a rank inferior to that which he himself had held among the princes of Europe. As he had, some years before, made a fruitless attempt to secure the imperial crown to Philip, that, by uniting it to the kingdoms of Spain and the dominions of the house of Burgundy, he might put it in his power to prosecute, with a better prospect of success, those great plans which his own infirmities. had obliged him to abandon, he was still unwilling to BOOK XII. 1556. Which successful. relinquish this flattering project, as chimerical or unat tainable. Notwithstanding the repulse which he had formerly proves un met with from his brother Ferdinand, he renewed his solicitations with fresh importunity; and, during the summer, had tried every art, and employed every argument, which he thought could induce him to quit the imperial throne to Philip, and to accept of the investiture of some province, either in Italy, or in the Low Countries, as an equivalent. But Ferdinand, who was so firm and inflexible with regard to this point, that he had paid no regard to the solicitations of the emperor, even when they were enforced with all the weight of authority which accompanies supreme power, received the overture, that now came from him in the situation to which he had descended, with great indifference, and would hardly deign to listen to it. Charles, ashamed of his own credulity in having imagined that he might accomplish that now which he had attempted formerly without success, desisted finally from his scheme. He then resigned the government of the empire, and having transferred all his claims of obedience and allegiance from the Germanic body to his brother the king of the Romans, he executed a deed to that effect, with all the formalities requisite in such an important transaction. The instrument of resignation he committed to William prince of Orange, and empowered him to lay it before the college of electors. Aug. 27. Charles Nothing now remained to detain Charles from that retreat for which he languished. The preparations for his voyage having been made for some time, he set out for Zuitburg in Zealand, where the fleet which was to convoy him had orders to assemble. In his way thither he passed through Ghent, and after stopping there a few days, toindulge that tender and pleasing melancholy which arises in the mind of every man in the decline of life on visiting the place of his nativity, and viewing the scenes and ob • Ambassades des Noailles, tom. v. 356. XII. 1556. jects familiar to him in his early youth, he pursued his BOOK journey, accompanied by his son Philip, his daughter. the archduchess, his sisters the dowager-queens of France and Hungary, Maximilian his son-in-law, and a numerous retinue of the Flemish nobility. Before he went on board, he dismissed them, with marks of his attention or regard, and taking leave of Philip, with all the tenderness of a father who embraced his son for the last time, he set sail on the seventeenth of September, under the convoy of a large fleet of Spanish, Flemish, and English ships. He declined a pressing invitation from the queen of England to land in some part of her dominions, in order to refresh himself, and that she might have the comfort of seeing him once more. It cannot, surely,' said he, be agreeable to a queen to receive a visit from a father in law, who is now nothing more than a private gentleman.' and reception there. His voyage was prosperous, and he arrived at Laredo, His arrival in Biscay, on the eleventh day after he left Zealand. As soon as he landed, he fell prostrate on the ground; and considering himself now as dead to the world, he kissed the earth, and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked I now return to thee, thou common mother of mankind.' From Laredo he pursued his journey to Burgos, carried sometimes in a chair, and sometimes in a horse-litter, suffering exquisite pain at every step, and advancing with the greatest difficulty. Some of the Spanish nobility repaired to Burgos, in order to pay court to him, but they were so few in number, and their attendance was so negligent, that Charles observed it, and felt, for the first time, that he was no longer a monarch. Accustomed from his early youth to the dutiful and officious respect with which those who possess sovereign power are attended, he had received it with the credulity common to princes, and was sensibly mortified when he now discovered, that he had been indebted to his rank and power for much of that obsequious regard which he had fondly thought was paid to his personal qualities. But though he might have soon learned to view with un |