A singular history is attached to the papers of Granvelle. That minister resembled his master, Philip the Second, in the fertility of his epistolary vein. That the king had a passion for writing, notwithstanding he could throw the burden of the correspondence, when it suited him, on the other party, is proved by the quantity of letters he left behind him. The example of the monarch seems to have had its influence on his courtiers; and no reign of that time is illustrated by a greater amount of written materials from the hands of the principal actors in it. Far from a poverty of materials, therefore, the historian has much more reason to complain of an embarras de richesses.
THE GRANVELLE PAPERS.
Granvelle filled the highest posts in different parts of the Spanish empire; and in each of these—in the Netherlands, where he was minister, in Naples, where he was viceroy, in Spain, where he took the lead in the cabinet, and in Besançon, whither he retired from public life—he left ample memorials under his own hand of his residence there. This was particularly the case with Besançon, his native town, and the favorite residence to which he turned, as he tells us, from the turmoil of office to enjoy the sweets of privacy,—yet not, in truth, so sweet to him as the stormy career of the statesman, to judge from the tenacity with which he clung to office.[{225}]
The cardinal made his library at Besançon the depository, not merely of his own letters, but of such as were addressed to him. He preserved them all, however humble the sources whence they came, and, like Philip, he was in the habit of jotting down his own reflections in the margin. As Granvelle's personal and political relations connected him with the most important men of his time, we may well believe that the mass of correspondence which he gathered together was immense. Unfortunately, at his death, instead of bequeathing his manuscripts to some public body, who might have been responsible for the care of them, he left them to heirs who were altogether ignorant of their value. In the course of time the manuscripts found their way to the garret, where they soon came to be regarded as little better than waste paper. They were pilfered by the children and domestics, and a considerable quantity was sent off to a neighboring grocer, who soon converted the correspondence of the great statesman into wrapping-paper for his spices.
From this ignominious fate the residue of the collection was happily rescued by the generous exertions of the Abbé Boissot. This excellent and learned man was the head of the Benedictines of St. Vincent in Besançon, of which town he was himself a native. He was acquainted with the condition of the Granvelle papers, and comprehended their importance. In the course of eighty years, which had elapsed since the cardinal's death, his manuscripts had come to be distributed among several heirs, some of whom consented to transfer their property gratuitously to the Abbé Boissot, while he purchased that of others. In this way he at length succeeded in gathering together all that survived of the large collection; and he made it the great business of his subsequent life to study its contents and arrange the chaotic mass of papers with reference to their subjects. To complete his labors, he caused the manuscripts thus arranged to be bound, in eighty-two volumes, folio, thus placing them in that permanent form which might best secure them against future accident.
The abbé did not live to publish to the world an account of his collection, which at his death passed by his will to his brethren of the abbey of St. Vincent, on condition that it should be for ever open for the use of the town of Besançon. It may seem strange that, notwithstanding the existence of this valuable body of original documents was known to scholars, they should so rarely have resorted to it for instruction. Its secluded situation, in the heart of a remote province, was doubtless regarded as a serious obstacle by the historical inquirer, in an age when the public took things too readily on trust to be very solicitous about authentic sources of information. It is more strange that Boissot's Benedictine brethren should have shown themselves so insensible to the treasures under their own roof. One of their body, Dom Prosper l'Evesque, did indeed profit by the Boissot collection to give to the world his Mémoires de Granvelle, a work in two volumes, duodecimo, which, notwithstanding the materials at the writer's command, contain little of any worth, unless it be an occasional extract from Granvelle's own correspondence.
At length, in 1834, the subject drew the attention of M. Guizot, then Minister of Public Instruction in France. By his direction a commission of five scholars was instituted, with the learned Weiss at its head, for the purpose of examining the Granvelle papers, with a view to their immediate publication. The work was performed in a prompt and accurate manner, that must have satisfied its enlightened projector. In 1839 the whole series of papers had been subjected to a careful analysis, and the portion selected that was deemed proper for publication. The first volume appeared in 1841; and the president of the commission, M. Weiss, expressed in his preface the confident hope that in the course of 1843 the remaining papers would all be given to the press. But these anticipations have not been realized. In 1854 only nine volumes had appeared. How far the publication has since advanced I am ignorant.
The Papiers d'Etat, besides Granvelle's own letters, contain a large amount of historical materials, such as official documents, state papers, and diplomatic correspondence[{226}] of foreign ministers,—that of Renard, for example, so often quoted in these pages. There are, besides, numerous letters both of Philip and of Charles the Fifth, for the earlier volumes embrace the times of the emperor.—The minister's own correspondence is not the least valuable part of the collection. Granvelle stood so high in the confidence of his sovereign, that, when not intrusted himself with the conduct of affairs, ha was constantly consulted by the king as to the best mode of conducting them. With a different fate from that of most ministers, he retained his influence when he had lost his place. Thus there were few transactions of any moment in which he was not called on directly or indirectly to take part. And his letters furnish a clew for conducting the historical student through more than one intricate negotiation, by revealing the true motives of the parties who were engaged in it.
Granvelle was in such intimate relations with the most eminent persons of the time, that his correspondence becomes in some sort the mirror of the age, reflecting the state of opinion on the leading topics of the day. For the same reason it is replete with matters of personal as well as political interest; while the range of its application, far from being confined to Spain, embraces most of the states of Europe with which Spain held intercourse. The French government has done good service by the publication of a work which contains so much for the illustration of the history of the sixteenth century. M. Weiss, the editor, has conducted his labors on the true principles by which an editor should be guided; and, far from magnifying his office, and unseasonably obtruding himself on the reader's attention, he has sought only to explain what is obscure in the text, and to give such occasional notices of the writers as may enable the reader to understand their correspondence.