Fêtes and tournaments followed, and the people flocked from far and near to see their king; but beneath the rejoicings there were murmurs and discontent, for the chief posts were given to Flemings, to the exclusion of Spaniards, who naturally felt themselves slighted, and the clergy, to show their annoyance, rudely refused to quarter the royal suite. Jean le Sauvage, Grand Chancellor of Burgundy, was made Chancellor of Castile, and to De Chièvres' young nephew, a mere boy, was given the archbishopric of Toledo, the wealthiest see in Spain.
Amidst general discontent the Cortes opened on February 2nd, 1518. The town deputies began by objecting to the new Chancellor presiding over their first meeting. After some stormy debates, the oath of allegiance was taken to Charles and his mother conjointly, but it was appointed that Joanna's name should be placed before that of her son in all public acts. A generous subsidy of six hundred thousand ducats was voted for three years. Charles was petitioned to marry at once, and to keep his brother in Spain until there was a direct heir to the throne. To these requests he gave evasive answers, but when implored to learn Spanish, he replied that he had already begun to study the language. As a matter of fact he only knew a few words, and his answers were extremely abrupt and hesitating. An Italian envoy who was present remarked: 'He says little, is not of much ability, and is entirely ruled by his Flemish governors'; whilst the Marquis of Pescara, who became one of his greatest generals, reported that in three audiences he had not said three words. But the young monarch was only biding his time, and was soon to prove that he was not such a cipher as he allowed himself to appear.[56]
When Charles became king, his Ministers were anxious to bring about a reaction against Maximilian and Margaret's hostile attitude towards France, and for this end Charles hastened to inform Francis I. of his accession. The French king replied by sending the Sire de la Roche with his affectionate congratulations, and expressed the hope that their friendship would become still closer. In an enthusiastic letter to Francis, Charles said: 'Monseigneur, in order to continue the fervent love I bear you, I wished as a good son to a good father, to inform you of my prosperous accession here, which is such, that in giving thanks to our Creator, who directs all things, yesterday, after mass was solemnly celebrated in the temple of our said Creator, accompanied by many ambassadors, yours amongst them, I was splendidly well received, and unanimously acknowledged lord and king of these my realms of Castile, Leon, Granada, and their dependencies, by the prelates, nobles, and representatives of the said kingdoms, with such great reverence and goodwill that ... nothing could be better....'[57] But Charles had a long progress in front of him, and soon after left Castile and set out for Saragossa, the capital of Aragon, in order to attend the Cortes of that kingdom. On his way there he took leave of his brother Ferdinand, whom he sent to Germany on the pretext of visiting Maximilian. This prudent but unpopular manœuvre probably saved Charles his Spanish dominions, for in the struggle that followed with the Cortes of Aragon the Spaniards would willingly have offered the crown to the younger brother, who had been brought up amongst them, and who was a favourite with all the people.
All this time Margaret was anxiously following every movement of her beloved nephew, and was kept well informed of his reception and progress. In one of her letters to Maximilian she says: 'Yesterday I received letters from the king, my lord and nephew, who is very well, and behaves himself so wisely and discreetly, that it is to his great honour and profit. He is, I understand, thinking of sending his brother over here about the month of April, which I much desire.'
On July the 24th, 1518, Charles issued an edict from Saragossa authorising his aunt to sign all documents in his name, giving her full power as though she was ruler, and causing the following announcement to be published in the Netherlands:—'By our letters-patent given in our town of Saragossa, on the 24th day of July last, and for the things contained therein, we have ordained that our very dear Lady and Aunt, the Lady Margaret, Archduchess of Austria, Dowager of Savoy, etc., shall sign from henceforth all letters, acts, and documents with her own hand, which are issued for us, and for our business over there, which ought to be sealed with our seal. Signing with these words: 'Par le Roy. Marguerite'; that she shall have the care of the seal of our finances, and that she alone shall provide and dispose of the appointments of this our country, for we have given and left the disposal of them to her, assisted by the chief and other members of our privy council....'[58]
Maximilian was delighted when he heard of Charles's renewed confidence in his aunt, and wrote to Margaret expressing his pleasure in the following letter, which was one of the last he was destined to write to her:—'Very dear and much-beloved daughter, we have received your letters of the 25th of October, and hear through them of the honour and authority that our good son, the Catholic king, has lately bestowed upon you, which gives us great pleasure, and we have good hope that you will so acquit yourself to the wellbeing, guidance, and direction of his affairs, that he may not only have cause to be pleased, but as your good nephew he will increase your said authority more and more. In doing which he could do nothing more pleasing to us. This God knows, and may He, very dear and much-beloved daughter, have you in His keeping. Written from our town of Wels, the 12th day of December, in the year 1518. Your good father, Maxi.'[59]
This same year Margaret's eldest niece, Eleanor, was married to Emmanuel, King of Portugal, who had previously married first Isabel and then Maria, both daughters of Ferdinand and Isabella. Her elderly husband did not long survive his third marriage, but died in 1523, and was succeeded by John III., who, in the following year, married Eleanor's youngest sister, Katharine.
Since the summer Maximilian's health had gradually been declining. In July he presided for the last time at the Diet of Augsburg, and earnestly pressed for the fulfilment of his two dearest wishes—the fitting out of a crusade against the Turks, and the elector's promise to secure the succession to the imperial crown for his grandson, Charles. To this latter request there existed the obstacle, that as he himself had never been crowned by the Pope, he was only regarded by the Roman See as King of the Romans, and therefore Charles could not be invested with that dignity. Maximilian, however, spared no means to gain his ends, and bribed heavily wherever he thought it advisable. Charles appears to have objected to the exorbitant price that was put upon the imperial crown, knowing well that he would one day have to raise the promised sums from his resources in Spain, but his grandfather and Margaret, with their councillors, overruled his objections, and strongly advised him not to bargain for fear of the French king profiting by his stinginess. In an enigmatical letter Margaret thus expresses herself:—'The Lord King, my nephew, has written to us that the horse on which he wishes to come and see us is very dear. We know well that it is dear; but as matters stand, if he does not wish to have it, there is a buyer ready to take it, and, since he has broken it in, it seems a pity that he should give it up, whatever it costs him.'[60] Whilst Maximilian was engaged in taking measures to obtain his desires, the elector's attention was fully occupied by formidable religious troubles. The monk, Martin Luther, had arisen and vehemently declaimed against certain practices of the Church of Rome, and a spirit of revolt and restlessness was in the air. Maximilian does not appear to have been greatly interested in the commencement of the Reformation. Although in his letters to Margaret he often satirically complained of 'les beaux pratikes de la sainte mère de l'Église,' still he was far from upholding any schism in the Church, and urged on by the solicitations of the monks, he wrote to Leo X. asking him to determine the religious disputes by his decision, and summoned Luther to appear with a safe conduct before the Diet of Augsburg to answer for his attack on the system of Indulgences. Luther arrived too late for the Assembly, and the emperor never saw him, but at the subsequent interview that took place before the Cardinal Legate the monk was told he must either recant his heresies or depart. He refused to recant, and departed to Wittenberg, there to write and publish an account of his interview, which was read far and wide, and helped to further the spirit of schism and revolt.
After a summer spent at Innsbrück, where he was attacked by an intermittent fever, the emperor travelled to Wels, in Upper Austria, hoping that the pure country air would restore his health. But the fever continued, aggravated, it is said, by too violent exercise, and an imprudent indulgence in melons. Soon dysentery supervened, and on the 12th of January 1519 he passed away in the sixtieth year of his age.
As long as he had been able to do so, Maximilian bravely attended to public business, but racked with fever at night, and unable to sleep, he tried to soothe his weariness by having the history of the House of Austria and legends of the saints related to his house read aloud to him. Feeling that his end was near, he asked for a Carthusian monk from Brisgau. When the monk entered his room the emperor sat up and received him with every sign of joy, and turning to the officers standing round his bed he said: 'This is the man who will show me the way to heaven.' With an untroubled mind, and every semblance of piety, he received the last sacraments, and gave minute directions as to his burial, which he wished to be as simple as possible. To show the emptiness of human greatness he ordered that after death his teeth should be drawn, his body polled and shaved (rasé et épilé), and exposed for a whole day, then enclosed in a sack of quicklime and placed in a coffin which he had carried about with him since 1515, and buried in the church of the castle of Nieustad under the altar dedicated to Saint George, in such a position that his head should be under the feet of the celebrant. His heart he wished to be buried at Bruges, near his first wife, Mary of Burgundy, 'sa réelle épouse.' Having thus made all arrangements, he took leave of those present, raising his hand and giving them his blessing. 'Why do you weep,' he asked, 'because you see in me a mortal? Such tears suit women better than men.' And thus calmly and fearlessly Maximilian faced death, reverently responding to the monk's prayers until his voice failed; but when he could no longer utter, still showed by signs that he followed the holy office, until sinking into unconsciousness, with a smile upon his face, he passed away before the dawn.