[105] The sideboard of the duke of Albuquerque, who died about the middle of the seventeenth century, was mounted by forty silver ladders! And, when he died, six weeks were occupied in making out the inventory of the gold and silver vessels. See Dunlop's Memoirs of Spain during the reigns of Philip IV. and Charles II. (Edinburgh, 1834,) vol. I. p. 384.
[106] Strype, Memorials, vol. III. p. 130.
[107] Some interesting particulars respecting the ancient national dances of the Peninsula are given by Ticknor, in his History of Spanish Literature, (New York, 1849,) vol. II. pp. 445-448; a writer who, under the title of a History of Literature, has thrown a flood of light on the social and political institutions of the nation, whose character he has evidently studied under all its aspects.
[108] "Relation of what passed at the Celebration of the Marriage of our Prince with the Most Serene Queen of England,"—from the original at Louvain, ap. Tytler, Edward VI. and Mary, vol. II. p. 430.—Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquia de España, tom. II. p. 117.—Sandoval, Historia de Carlos V., tom. II. pp. 560-563.—Leti, Vita di Filippo II., tom. I. pp. 231-233.—Sepulvedæ Opera, vol. II, p. 500.—Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. I. cap. 5.—Memorial de Voyages, MS.—Miss Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England, vol. V. pp 389-396.
To the last writer I am especially indebted for several particulars in the account of processions and pageants which occupies the preceding pages. Her information is chiefly derived from two works, neither of which is in my possession;—the Book of Precedents of Ralph Brook, York herald, and the narrative of an Italian, Baoardo, an eye-witness of the scenes he describes. Miss Strickland's interesting volumes are particularly valuable to the historian for the copious extracts they contain from curious unpublished documents, which had escaped the notice of writers too exclusively occupied with political events to give much heed to details of a domestic and personal nature.
[109] Holinshed, vol. IV. p. 62.
[110] Ibid., p. 63.
[111] The Spaniards must have been quite as much astonished as the English at the sight of such an amount of gold and silver in the coffers of their king,—a sight that rarely rejoiced the eyes of either Charles or Philip, though lords of the Indies. A hundred horses might well have drawn as many tons of gold and silver,—an amount, considering the value of money in that day, that taxes our faith somewhat heavily, and not the less that only two wagons were employed to carry it.
[112] Holinshed, ubi supra.
[113] Relatione di Gio. Micheli, MS.