[2] "Post annum ætatis quinquagesimum, prementitras morbis, tantopere negotiorum odium cepit, ut diutius interdum nec se adiri aut conveniri præterquam ab intimis pateretur, nec libellis subscribere animum induceret, non sine suspicione mentis imminutæ; itaque constat novem mensibus nulli nec libello nec diplomati subscripsisse, quod cum magno incommodo reipublicæ populariumque dispendio fiebat, cum a tot nationibus, et quibusdam longissime jus inde poteretur, et certe summa negotia ad ipsum fere rejicerentur." (Sepulvedæ Opera, (Matriti, 1780,) vol. II. p. 539.) The author, who was in the court at the time, had frequent access to the royal presence, and speaks, therefore, from personal observation.
[3] A minute account of this imposing ceremony is to be found in a MS. in the Archives of Simancas, now published in the Coleccion de Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de España, (Madrid, 1845,) tom. VII. p. 534 et seq.
An official report of these proceedings, prepared by order of the government, and preserved at Brussels, in the Archives du Royaume, has been published by M. Gachard in his valuable collection, Analectes Belgiques, (Paris, 1830,) pp. 75-81.
[4] A copy of the original deed of abdication was preserved among the papers of Cardinal Granvelle, at Besançon, and is incorporated in the valuable collection of documents published by order of the French government under the direction of the learned Weiss, Papiers d'Etat du Cardinal de Granvelle, d'après les Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque de Besançon, (Paris, 1843,) tom. IV. p. 486.
[5] It is strange that the precise date of an event of such notoriety as the abdication of Charles the Fifth should be a matter of discrepancy among historians. Most writers of the time assign the date mentioned in the text, confirmed moreover by the Simancas MS. above cited, the author of which enters into the details of the ceremony with the minuteness of an eye-witness.
[6] "Erat Carolus statura mediocri, sed brachiis et cruribus crassis compactisque, et roboris singularis, ceteris membris proportione magnoque commensu respondentibus, colore albus, crine barbaque ad flavum inclinante; facie liberali, nisi quod mentum prominens et parum cohærentia labra nonnihil eam deturpabant." Sepulvedæ Opera, vol. II. p. 527.
[7] The speech is given, with sufficient conformity, by two of the persons who heard it;—a Flemish writer, whose MS., preserved in the Archives du Royaume, has lately been published by Gachard, in the Analectes Belgiques (p. 87); and Sir John Mason, the British minister at the court of Charles, who describes the whole ceremony in a communication to his government, (The Order of the Cession of the Low Countries to the King's Majesty, MS.) The historian Sandoval also gives a full report of the speech, on the authority of one who heard it. Historia de la Vida y Hechos del Emperador Carlos V., (Amberes, 1681,) tom. II. p. 599.
[8] Sandoval, Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. pp. 597-599.—Leti, Vita del Catolico Rè Filippo II., (Coligni, 1679,) tom. I. pp. 240-242.—Vera y Figueroa, Epitome de la Vida y Hechos del invicto Emperador Carlos Quinto, (Madrid, 1649,) pp. 119, 120.
Sir John Mason thus describes the affecting scene:—"And here he broke into a weeping, whereunto, besides the dolefulness of the matter, I think he was much provoked by seeing the whole company to do the like before, being, in mine opinion, not one man in the whole assembly, stranger or other, that during the time of a good piece of his oration poured not out abundantly tears, some more, some less. And yet he prayed them to bear with his imperfection, proceeding of sickly age, and of the mentioning of so tender a matter as the departing from such a sort of dear and most loving subjects."—The Order of the Cession of the Low Countries to the King's Majesty, MS.
[9] The date of this renunciation is also a subject of disagreement among contemporary historians, although it would seem to be settled by the date of the instrument itself, which is published by Sandoval, in his Hist. de Carlos V., tom. II. pp. 603-606.