[266] Here we part from the gallant Spaniard. For his future career see note p. [317]. He was finally Governor of Oran, ‘où il a finy ses jours fort vieux et cassé.’—Brantôme, i. 219.
[267] The then Duke, or rather Elector, of Saxony, was Augustus the Pious, who succeeded his brother, the famous Maurice, in 1553, and died in 1586. The Duke of Bavaria was Albert III., surnamed the Magnanimous, who reigned from 1550 to 1579. His wife was a daughter of Ferdinand. William the Rich was then Duke of Juliers, Cleves and Berg, &c. He reigned from 1539 to 1592, and he also had married a daughter of Ferdinand. He was younger brother of Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII.’s fourth wife.
[268] Ferdinand might have defended himself by the example of his predecessor Sigismund. See the story in Carlyle’s Frederick the Great, i. 187, of his speech at the Council of Constance. “‘Right Reverend Fathers, date operam ut illa nefanda schisma eradicetur,’ exclaimed Sigismund, intent on having the Bohemian schism well dealt with,—which he reckons to be of the feminine gender. To which a Cardinal mildly remarking, ‘Domine, schisma est generis neutrius (Schisma is neuter, your Majesty),’ Sigismund loftily replies, ‘Ego sum Rex Romanus et super grammaticam (I am King of the Romans, and above Grammar)!’”
[269] An allusion to Horace, Odes, iii. 3, 1-10.
[270] In the battle of Nicopolis, A.D. 1396, Bajazet defeated Sigismund, King of Hungary (afterwards Emperor), and a confederate army of 100,000 Christians, who had proudly boasted that if the sky should fall, they would uphold it on their lances. Among them was John, Count of Nevers, son of Philippe-le-Hardi, Duke of Burgundy, afterwards the Duke known as Jean Sans-Peur, who led a contingent of French knights. In the battle of Varna, A.D. 1444, Ladislaus, King of Hungary and Poland, was defeated, and killed by Sultan Amurath II. For Mohacz, see Sketch of Hungarian History.
[271] Compare Camoens: ‘Eu nunca louvarei o general que diz “Eu não cuidei.”—I will never praise the general who excuses himself by saying, “I thought not.”’
[272] See Sketch of Hungarian History.
[273] The Suleimanyeh, or mosque of Solyman, is the most glorious masterpiece of Ottoman architecture. It is built after the pattern of St. Sophia, and was intended to surpass it. As regards the regularity of the plan, the perfection of the individual parts, and the harmony of the whole, that intention appears to have been fully attained. It was begun in 1550 and finished in 1555.
[274] Johann Trautson von Matray, Freiherr von Sprechenstein, &c., descended from an ancient Tyrolese family, was Governor of the Tyrol, and Privy Councillor and Lord High Chamberlain to Ferdinand, who created him a Baron. Leonard von Harrach, a member of an ancient Bohemian family, Privy Councillor and Court Chancellor of Ferdinand, is probably the person meant.