From the collection of the Conde de Valencia de D. Juan.
Photographed specially for this book.
Princesa de Évoli
Born 1540.
Daughter of the Count de Melito. Married in 1553 Ruy Gomez de Silva, afterwards Prince of Évoli, who died 1573.
She was a great heiress, and her family accused Antonio Pérez of squandering her fortune. There now seems little doubt that anger at the discovery of her intrigue with him was the chief reason of the assassination of the Secretary Escovedo.
Philip II caused her to be arrested suddenly in 1579, and imprisoned first in the tower of Pinto, and then exiled to her own house at Pastrana for the rest of her life.
The picture from which the print used is taken is by Sanchez Coello, in the possession of her descendant, the Duque de Pastrana.
Philip II as an Old Man