[[13]] Although not immediately touching our subject, a very curious set of letters included in the above in the Record Office may be mentioned. They relate to Secretary Windebank's young son Christopher, or Kit Windebank, as he was called. He had been sent under Aston's care to Spain to see the world; and had been quite carried away by the genius loci of Madrid, and got out of hand altogether. The scapegrace makes the best of his proceedings in his letters to his father and mother, but Aston's reports tell a different tale, and Kit is very angry when his money is stopped. The worst of it was that he fell in love with a Spanish girl, and, running away from embassy, married her. At Aston's instance Olivares threw into prison the priest who married them; but a thousand legal difficulties existed, he said, to obtaining a divorce, especially as Kit swore that he would not give up the girl, who was enceinte. At the end, however, he submits sulkily, the girl is sent to a convent, and young Kit returns home; doubtless to commit bigamy in due time in England, and continue the knightly family of Windebank.
[[14]] It is curious to note that when the census of private coaches was made in Madrid for this purpose, it was found that there were 900 in use.
[[15]] March 1637, Rodriguez Villa's Newsletters.
[[16]] Ibid.
[[17]] The Portuguese in question was splendidly repaid for his generosity. and when he left Madrid at the end of the year he had received the following grants,—"Marquis of Viseu, Count of Linhares for his eldest son and successors, the post of Marshal of Portugal for his second son, that of Governor of Ceuta for his third son, an extension for three years longer of the revenues of the governorship of Sofala (i.e. Mozambique), a grant of 24,000 for his own expenses, 5000 ducats per annum for ever, 2500 ducats perpetual pension for his daughter-in-law, General on land and sea during his stay in Brazil with the title of Viceroy, and the title of Lieutenant-Generalin Portugal so long as the Duchess of Mantua rules there, grants for a second life of all the pensioned knighthoods he holds, and four pensioned knighthoods to be disposed of as he likes, and a renewal for three lives of the pension he holds from the crown." It was said that these grants were worth 700,000 ducats. This is a fair specimen of the lavishness to quite a second-rate personage at a time when the nation was in the deepest distress. Rodriguez Villa's Newsletters, 1637.
[[18]] Rodriguez Villa's Newsletter, 1637.
[[19]] The following words occur in the famous Memorial on the subject referred to on page 142, etc.: "Let your Majesty hold as the most important affair of your State to make yourself King of Spain. I mean, Sire, that you should not content yourself with being King of Portugal, of Aragon, of Valencia, Count of Barcelona, but that you should strive and consider with mature and secret counsel to reduce these realms of which Spain consists to the laws and form of Castile, without any distinction. If your Majesty succeeds in this, you will be the most powerful Prince in the world. Nevertheless this is not a business which can be carried through in a limited time nor do I suggest that it should be disclosed to anybody, however confidential he may be; because the desirability of the object is indisputable, and what is to be done in preparation and anticipation can be done by your Majesty yourself."
[[20]] Rodriguez Villa's Newsletters.
[[21]] Aston's letters, MSS., Record Office S.P., Spain.
[[22]] How completely the old crusading spirit had decayed is seen in the derision with which the courtiers in Madrid greeted the saying of Antonio Mascarenhas, the dignified old-fashioned hidalgo governor of Tangier. When he visited Madrid he went to present his respects to the little Prince Baltasar Carlos. "Who are you?" asked the boy. "I am the gentleman," replied the Portuguese, "who by and by will help your Highness to conquer the Holy Sepulchre." It was the answer of a knight-errant, sneered the courtiers, and so it was, but it was this fervent knight-errantry which had given to Spain the strength it had possessed, and which under the scoffers and mockers it never could possess again.