III.
Charles V.'s intention to abdicate his throne had long been declared. For many years he had looked forward to the time when he should lay down the burden of public affairs and retire from the world, to end his days in some peaceful cloister. The increasing infirmities under which he groaned, his inability to attend either camp or council, and finally the death of his mother, Queen Joanna, in April, 1555, all helped to hasten the execution of his resolve. Only the continuation of the war and the absence of his son still made him hesitate.
Sept., 1555] PHILIP LEAVES ENGLAND
The same indecisive warfare as before was carried on through the year. The Prince of Orange, who now held the chief command, succeeded in keeping the foe at bay, and built the citadels of Charlemont and Philippeville for the defence of the frontier. But everyone was heartily tired of the campaign, and both parties gladly availed themselves of the opportunity afforded by an exchange of prisoners, to renew negotiations in the autumn. Christina once more exerted herself in this direction, and Vaudemont, who came to Brussels in October to take leave of the Emperor, was employed to make fresh overtures to the French King. But many months passed before any conclusion was reached.[503]
Charles had always hoped that his sister would remain at her post when he left the Netherlands, feeling how invaluable her help would prove to Philip. But Mary was inflexible on this point. In a noble letter which she wrote at the end of August, she reminded him that fifteen years before she had begged to be released from her arduous post in order to devote herself to the care of her unhappy mother, and that, now this privilege could no longer be hers, she wished to spend the rest of her life in Spain with her sister, Queen Eleanor.
"And however great," she adds significantly, "my affection for the King my nephew may be," in Badoer's graphic phrase, "he hates and is hated by her"—"Your Majesty will understand that at my age it would be very hard to begin learning my ABC over again. A woman of fifty, who has held office twenty-four years, ought, it seems to me, to be content to serve one God and one Master for the rest of her life."[504]
There was nothing more to be said, and Charles agreed to Philip's wish that for the present the Duke of Savoy should be appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Low Countries. At length Philip succeeded in tearing himself from the arms of his sorrowful Queen, promising to be back in a fortnight or three weeks. From her palace windows at Greenwich, Mary waved her last farewells to the King, as he sailed down the Thames. He for his part was nothing loth to leave his fretful and melancholy wife, and was satisfied that she would never bear him a child.
On the 8th of September he reached Brussels, and went straight to see his father in the Casino, near the Louvain gate of the park, where he was spending the hot weather. Charles embraced his son tenderly, and after an hour's conversation Philip went on to sup with Queen Mary and Christina on their return from hunting. On the 17th and 18th he attended the Requiem Masses held in S. Gudule for the late Queen Joanna, and afterwards joined in a grand hunting-party given by the Regent in his honour.
Oct., 1555] THE EMPEROR'S ABDICATION
The nobles now flocked to Brussels to be present at the Emperor's abdication. The Prince of Orange arrived from the camp near Liége, and his young wife, Anne of Egmont, was hospitably entertained by the Duchess of Aerschot. Friday, the 25th of October, was the day fixed for the great ceremony. On this afternoon, at three o'clock, the Emperor left the Casino with Philip and the Duke of Savoy, and rode to the palace on his mule. An hour later he entered the great hall, hung with the tapestries of Gideon's Fleece, wearing his mourning robes and the collar of the Order, and leaning on the Prince of Orange's arm. He was followed by Mary of Hungary, Philip, and the Duke of Savoy, who took their places on the daïs at the Emperor's side, while the Knights of the Fleece, the great nobles and Ambassadors, occupied seats below. The deputies, over a thousand in number, who thronged the hall, rose to their feet to receive the Emperor, and then sat down to hear the chief Councillor, Philibert of Brussels, deliver a speech, explaining the reasons for His Majesty's abdication. Then Charles himself addressed the vast assembly. In moving words he recalled the day, forty years before, when, a boy of fifteen, he had been declared of age by his grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian, and glanced briefly at the long record of wars and journeys, and the other chief events of his reign. Finally he commended his successor to them, asking them to serve his son as well as they had served him, and begging his loyal subjects to pardon him for any injustice which he might unwittingly have done them. Tears rolled down the great Emperor's cheeks as he spoke these last words, and Sir Thomas Gresham, who was present, says that there was not a dry eye in the whole assembly.
Christina was present on this memorable occasion. In contemporary prints she is represented standing by the side of the Regent's chair, listening with breathless attention to every word that fell from her uncle's lips. She saw the pathetic scene between the father and son, when Charles, raising Philip from his knees and clasping him in his arms, gave him the investiture of the Provinces, and, turning to the deputies, in a broken voice asked them to excuse his tears, which flowed for love of them. And she listened with still greater emotion to the touching words in which Mary begged the Emperor and the States to forgive whatever mistakes she had made out of ignorance or incapacity, and thanked them from the depth of her heart for their unfailing love and loyalty. Her speech produced a fresh burst of tears, after which Charles thanked his sister for her long and faithful services, and Maes, the Pensionary of Antwerp, bore eloquent testimony to the undying love and gratitude which the States felt for the Queen who had governed them so well.
There were still many formalities to be gone through, many farewells to be said, before Charles could lay down the sovereign power. On the day after his abdication, the Archduke Ferdinand, his favourite nephew, arrived with affectionate messages from his father, who found it impossible to leave Vienna as long as the war with the Turks lasted. The next day he went hunting with the King, Mary, and Christina, and dined with them and Eleanor. On the 3rd of November he left Brussels again after all too short a visit, as Charles wrote to his brother.
Another guest who took leave of the Emperor in the same week was Edward Courtenay, Lord Devonshire. This young nobleman of the blood royal had been exiled from England lest he should marry Elizabeth, and had been so often seen in the palace during the last few months that rumour said he was going to wed Madame of Lorraine. Now he came to thank her for the "gentle entertainment" which she had shown him, and bid her a reluctant farewell before he left for Italy. In the following spring another old friend, Adolf of Holstein, came to Brussels and took leave of the Emperor. The Danish Prince, hearing that all idea of the Savoy marriage was abandoned, took this opportunity to make a last attempt to win Christina's hand. But not even the Duke's constancy could induce her to change her mind, and he went away disconsolate.[505]
Feb., 1556] DEATH OF THE PALATINE
A fresh sorrow awaited her in the death of her brother-in-law, the Elector Palatine, who breathed his last at Alzei, in the Lower Palatinate, on the 26th of February, 1556. The fine old man was in his seventy-third year, and had been tenderly nursed all through a long illness by his wife. Three weeks before his death Dorothea sent for his nephew and successor, Otto Heinrich, who remained with him to the end, and brought his body to Heidelberg. Here he lay in state for three days in the Court chapel, after which his remains were borne down the castle slopes by eight noblemen, and laid with his forefathers in the church of the Holy Ghost. By order of the new Elector, he was buried with Lutheran rites. Dorothea and Countess Helene followed on foot with a long train of nobles and students of the University, bearing lighted tapers, and German hymns were sung by the Canons and school-children.[506]
Christina's first impulse was to hasten to her widowed sister, but neither the Emperor nor his sisters would allow her to leave the Netherlands before their departure, saying that she was as dear and indispensable to them as a daughter.[507] She was present at the Casino in the park on the 16th of January, when Charles resigned the kingdoms of Spain and Sicily and his dominions in the New World to Philip, and she accompanied Mary to Antwerp when Philip held his first Chapter of the Fleece. Among the new Knights elected at this meeting were William of Orange, Philip, Duke of Aerschot, and Christina's old friend Jean De Montmorency, Sieur de Courrières, whose whole life had been spent in the Emperor's service, and who had deserved well of Philip by helping to arrange his marriage with Mary Tudor.[508]
On the 5th of February, 1556, the long-protracted peace negotiations were brought to a happy conclusion, and a five years' truce was signed at the Abbey of Vaucelles, near Cambray, by Lalaing on Philip's part and by Coligny on that of Henry. Both parties were to retain their conquests, and the chief prisoners on both sides were to be released. On Lady Day the French Admiral brought the treaty to be confirmed by the King at Brussels, and was received by Philip in the palace. By an unlucky chance, the great hall in which the reception took place was hung with tapestries representing the defeat of Pavia and surrender of Francis I. This wounded the vanity of the French lords, and the King's jester, Brusquet, who had accompanied Coligny, determined to have his revenge on the haughty Spanish Prince. So the next morning at Mass in the Court church, when Philip was in the act of taking his oath on the Gospels to keep the truce, Brusquet suddenly raised a cry of "Largesse!" and, taking a handful of French crowns from a sack which his valet carried, flung them to the crowds who had collected in the great hall adjoining the chapel. The King looked round in surprise at Coligny, who stood dumbfounded, while men, women, and children, rushed to pick up the coins on the floor, and had to be warned off by the archers' pikes. The King was about to ask angrily by what right the French did largesse in his palace, when both Queen Mary and Madame de Lorraine burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter, in which Philip joined so heartily that he had to cling to the altar to save himself from falling.
May, 1556] LAST FESTIVITIES
This absurd incident was related to Charles when, on the following Sunday of Pâques-fleuries, Coligny went to visit him in the Casino. "Well, Brusquet," he said to the jester, "how are you? I hear you have been doing me fine largesse with your crowns." "Sire," replied Brusquet, dropping on one knee, "you take the words out of my mouth in condescending to notice a worm like myself." And the poor fool went home to boast of his interview with the great Emperor to the end of his life.[509]
A grand tournament was held in the park at Brussels to celebrate the conclusion of the truce, and Egmont distinguished himself above all competitors by his prowess. But a quarrel arose between Philip and his aunt, Mary of Hungary, who complained of the disrespect with which her nephew and his Spanish courtiers treated her, saying that, although she had laid down the Regency, she expected to be treated with the honour due to a Queen. She retired to her own domain at Turnhout, but had her revenge a few weeks later, for the States proved so unwilling to grant the aids demanded by the King that Philip was forced to send Arras to beg for his aunt's help. Mary consented to return as soon as she had despatched her most urgent private affairs, and so invaluable was her influence with the Council, that Philip joined his father in entreating her to remain at Brussels during his absence in England. This, however, Mary quite refused to do, saying that the Duke of Savoy would no doubt prove an excellent substitute.[510]
The King and Queen of Bohemia, whom Charles was very anxious to see before his departure, and whose journey had been repeatedly delayed, at length reached Brussels on the 18th of July. Their presence was the signal for a last series of festivities. There were jousts on the Grande Place, banquets in the hôtel-de-ville, hunting-parties at Groenendal in the forest of Soignies, and suppers at the Villa Laura, where Mary entertained her nephews and nieces at an open-air concert. King Max was in high spirits. He made great friends with the Venetian Badoer, and frankly avowed his dislike of the Spaniards, saying, with a ringing laugh, that he was glad to hear the English had taught them a lesson or two. The visit was not without its political intention, and Maximilian succeeded in persuading his uncle to consent to Ferdinand's entreaty, and retain the imperial title for the present, in order to avoid any dispute on the question of the succession.[511]
When his daughter and her husband left Brussels, on the 8th of August, Charles felt himself a free man. At half-past four in the afternoon he set out for Ghent, after receiving the farewells of the chief nobles and Bishops. Many were in tears, but the Emperor remained calm and serene until he rode out of the gates, escorted for the last time by his faithful archers. Then, turning round, he took a last long look at the city towers and wept bitterly. "Everyone about him was in tears," says Badoer, "and many wept when he was gone."[512] Christina accompanied her aunts to Ghent a few days later, and went on at the end of the month with the Queens and Emperor to Zeeland, to wait for a fair wind. On the 15th of October Charles embarked at Flushing, and his sisters followed on another ship. Two days later an easterly breeze sprang up and the fleet set sail. Christina stood on the shore till the ship which bore the great Emperor from his native land dropped below the horizon. Then she retraced her steps sorrowfully to join her children at Ghent.
Oct., 1556] FRUSTRATED WISHES